Emma's Blog

I am looking forward to practicing some of my new web 2.0 tools as we return to the classroom. I had moments of getting lost in the web this summer and now need to refocus my energy.

I would like a way to review and remind myself of the different formats. I was hoping that we could get a list of the topics with links.

I looked through several forums in Classroom 2.0, and while I understand the great potential of using each other for information, I don’t think that best practice is always at work. One forum that looked promising about PBLs (project based learning) ended up being a corporate download opportunity. Another forum began with a serious question about using backward design in curriculum development. Most of the comments were suppositions and the one definitive response stated that it meant that you begin with deciding which assessments to use and then figure out the activities. This still didn’t quite register with my understanding of backward design; (CUE)begin with content and what you want students to know, figure out how you will know they got it (understandings) and then decide which activities to use to engage students with the material.  Perhaps we need some forum etiquette on when to respond to avoid contributing misinformation and make the process more efficient.

On the other hand, the Global Education Collaborative looks very exciting. I will use this site to search for experts and perhaps I can find a scientist to skype with my students.

Through Instructify, I found a new site called Learn About Robots. I plan to use this site when I ask students to “invent” a robot of the future. This site shows the wide variety of robots that already exist and will help students explore the possibilities.

I’m also tracking the monarch migration from monarch watch. It’s more helpful to see it through the reader and can get a quick update with little effort.

I use youtube often to find quick video clips to inspire students to think outside the box during our robotics and Rube Goldberg units. Every once in a while an inappropriate thumbnail shows up in the related videos list. I am looking forward to using quietube in the future – and it’s so easy to use! Teacher tube had some interesting clips but the quality was inconsistent in what I viewed, mostly due to poor voice pickup.

This Rube Goldberg Machine produced as a music video has gone viral for good reason. NASA scientists worked on this machine for fun.

I ran into a few glitches while trying to create a podcast. I suppose the answers are simple and with a little bit of help, I’m sure that I will be successful in the near future.

I can envision using podcasts in the classroom to encourage students to become experts on a topic to publish their own podcasts. Perhaps a podcast update of our salamander research embedded in our salamander wiki? I am sure that if a podcast is included as an option for an assignment, students would love to hear their own voices.

I found a fun podcast for my class that fits into my Great Questions list, a way to encourage deeper thinking about topics we discuss. When students stump the teacher with a question we put it on the list. Now, with the Podcast “Why? The Science Show” by Dr. Dave Brodbeck, I can have the students look up the question to find the answer or to ask him which may be answered at a later date.

I also found some good video resources for science documentaries and learned that I can browse Snag for films on a wide number of topics.

Library Thing is an interesting way to find out about books – a little faster than checking through Amazon’s reviews. I think I could use this to keep track of my book group reads and to catalog what we have already read for newer members. I found it particularly interesting that the reviews of the book I am slogging through echoed my sentiments.

Exploring delicious and creating my own account was simple enough. I found that searching within delicious for some science subjects was limited in its offerings but it is easy to use other search engines and tag them. For use in the classroom, to ask students to add websites under a particular topic, I think it may be easier to use Diigo. Here is a link for Learn it in 5-Diigo.

From Instructify: The Answer Garden is a digital feedback tool that I think will work for quick questions to get students into the mindset when they get to the science lab. I typically do this on small whiteboards, allowing students a moment to write, reflect, or draw a response to a question that begins the class time. It is also a good brainstorming tool and everyone can add their ideas to the post in real-time. So let’s give it a try here:

Do you think AnswerGarden could be a useful tool in your class?… at AnswerGarden.ch.

I explored several of the tools but I was particularly interested in creating comics because I sometimes use this as an format option when students are presenting their ideas or something they have learned or . Pixton – click and drag comics, has good “How to Videos” and some cool features. I think it could be an enormous time-sink for my fourth and fifth grade students but I might try it with sixth grade students. They could create super heroes with electromagnetic powers or robots of the future that solve hi-tech problems.