Reflection on Web 2.0 Tools

If this class has taught me anything it is the type of affordances I will look for before integrating new technologies into my instruction. 

Accessibility, Usability, Creativity, Transformation, Pedagogical Relevance

If it isn’t accessible to all then I must keep looking. Some circumstances that may cause this are cost and device availability. Another is how easy it is to use. It is always great when Web 2.0 tools integrate well together and they have the safety of the users in mind. Also, it is good to remember that free doesn’t always mean you won’t pay in some way. For example, a lot of free technologies gather data on its users and sell it. Students should be empowered to create and transform tasks into a visual of their learning. Finally, does it support educators in designing experiences for students? Content and objectives should be engineered in such a way that it adds to the love of learning and meets student’s needs promptly. 

Web 2.0 Tools 

Because your students deserve to create, think and analyze!

Vanity Search - New and Improved

Furniture of America Rainey 2 Piece Sofa Set for sale at Walmart and Rainey Street in Austin TX are a couple of domains and pages that popped up this time around. I feel like I could have fun with this with my 5th graders. There could be a lesson in here somewhere. Like, don’t believe everything that’s on the internet. 

After 5 weeks of adding accounts on the web, I could definitely tell. What I noticed was that the accounts I was most active in were at the top. My school website, Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. My new YouTube account showed all my teacher channels and I finally saw my Army service. I had spent some time connecting with my past military bases and adding information. It was my pleasure to serve my country and I want anybody who looks me up to know that I served proudly, especially my children and students. 

As educators, we want to help and encourage others. This shouldn’t just occur within the four walls of our classrooms. We are in a world where we can reach out to so many. It is our job to make sure that comes out in a positive way. Our digital footprint should not only be an extension of our love for learning and helping others but should be a goal to strive for every day. A goal to share resources and ideas and be a source of joy to all that encounter us on the web. 

Social Bookmarking - Diigo or Wakelet?

Airplane's Wake

It turns out I’ve been social bookmarking for quite some time without knowing it. My adventures took me down memory lane. The first time I engaged in this type of Web 2.0 activity was when I used del.icio.us in 2005. The most recent collection of bookmarks I’ve curated has been inside of Wakelet. I love how the founders of Wakelet explain what the name means. You see if you have ever looked up in the sky and looked at a trail an airplane leaves that is called the wake. Similarly, as an individual interacts within the World Wide Web we travel picking up blogs, images, websites, tweets, and documents that are of interest to us. Wakelet provides cloud space where we can save these items for future reference and sharing. It is a space that can be easily accessed by any device anywhere. Other popular social bookmarking sites include Diigo, Pearltrees, FlipBoard, Reddit, and Flickr. The advantage of these sites is that you can add “tags” so that they may be easily found by you or anyone in the future. For example, as my daughter neared her 15th birthday I started collecting “Quinceanera” ideas on Pinterest. I saved collections from favorites such as Hairstyles and make-up to venue decorating. 

Why is social bookmarking an emerging technology in education you ask?  Could it be that it provides knowledge sharing solutions and an interactive space for interactions and discussions? Wakelet enables users to collaboratively contribute collections on a particular theme. They can underline, highlight, and annotate an electronic text or image.  Instructors are afforded the capability to follow students' progress in real-time. Students are afforded another way to collaborate with each other and make collective discoveries. For my coursework I created an account for Diigo, I searched for “Math” and was immediately rewarded with several great lesson ideas and websites. My only issue with Diigo is that my findings were collections from years past and many of those tags were no longer valid. In contrast to Diigo, Wakelet is gaining popularity. I’m teaching summer school in July and I have started a space to curate lesson ideas for 4th-grade math. The founders of Wakelet are actively involved in updating the platform and it easily integrates with other apps. Here is My Wakelet Collection. I am excited to keep adding to this space and use it in my classroom to design learning experiences for my students.

YouTube and Twitter Adventures

I have teenagers so at this point in my life I am familiar with famous YouTubers like Jenna Marbles, Daniel Howell, and the Try Guys.  It is a rare incident that my kids share their screen with me as they say “Mom, look at this”. I say rare because too many times the video requires more questions from me than they want to deal with. Most of the time its “Why?” They absolutely always share the cute cat and dog videos. So it is not surprising that up until my adventure this week, I only used youtube as an entertainment platform for myself. I listened to music or watched endless videos of cute or grumpy cats. 

This week I learned about setting up playlists! So the way I would describe this is like a file folder on steroids. So many videos in one place about a specific topic. I see value in this as an educator because I could send my students to these playlists if they want to watch different ways of having a topic modeled. For example, how to add or subtract fractions. If “Math Antics”  or “Khan Academy” doesn’t explain it so great they can watch a homemade video by a teacher in Vermont. Storing them on YouTube is a great way to easily access them as needed. I can add to my educator resource bag and share my playlists with colleagues if they are in need of the same topic. 

Currently, I have playlists set up on Web 2.0 tools for learning, math, and science topics. This is a time saver. At any point in designing a lesson, I can access my curated playlist and have an instant mini-lesson or hook available. I can use my time to curate playlists anytime I have a free moment. Also, YouTube is an excellent way to learn how to implement Web 2.0 tools into your lessons and classroom. Many teachers and Web 2.0 developers offer instructional videos. I found an example of how PearDeck might look like in a 3rd-grade classroom uploaded by a teacher in New Jersey. Instructure offers many videos on how to set up Canvas as an LMS. This would come in handy when I set up my own Canvas LMS this school year. 

Educators looking to save time and professional development opportunities would find YouTube an excellent Web 2.0 resource. 

The Twitter adventure continued…#hashtags.

To my surprise, #hashtags are the perfect way to specifically search for what you need on Twitter. If I want to find out about Canvas a simple search for that hashtag including that word will lead you to many tweets with powerful information. My twitter adventure this week has led me to teachers who excel using technology in their classrooms and professors that have researched educational technology for their doctorates. I have placed them in lists and am eager to find some downtime to read more about their work. 

Twitter Adventures

"Great job on your first tweet!", I replied to JMedina@JMedina06822527. Jessica's first tweet reminded me of setting up my account and tweeting my first tweet at the direction of my new employing district five years ago. As part of the new teacher orientation, we were asked to join our district’s students in being 21st-century learners. Boy, my district and twitter have not disappointed.  I have spent countless hours in Professional development during my lunch breaks, conference times, walking down hallways, and at home while cooking dinner. How you may ask? Well, today our cell phones are at an arm’s length away, that beautiful fluttering bird has come to mean I can read and instantly learn something new as I am heating up my lean cuisine spinach pizza in the teacher’s lounge. 

Any topic can be searched, for example, after my reading of “A Conceptual Framework for Using and Evaluating Web-Based Learning Resources in School Education” of interest to me was the subject about cultural responsiveness in using technology.  This is something that I wanted to expand on and learn more about. I opened up my twitter account and at the top right I conducted a search for “cultural responsiveness”. I found this blog post How Digital Content Can Make Classrooms Culturally Responsive and I found according to Geneva Gay, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice, CRT rests on six main dimensions: I tweeted the 6th dimension - Liberating from Oppressive Educational Policies. One thing I saw I could implement in my classroom this fall is to create a “student spotlight.” Focus on one student at a time, and ask them to share their family stories with the rest of the class. Encourage them to take pride in their culture. That was the first time I tweeted a blog post. I was finally engaging in a way that would contribute to someone else’s learning. This was different than a retweet or a like.  I had sought this topic out and it had spoken to me and I wanted to share it. I wondered what kind of response I would get. On my Twitter adventure this week I made my first list! I placed all my Etec 527 classmates on it. I found that I could see their tweets here all together and I could respond to them, like their tweet or click on articles they had shared. I also bookmarked my first tweets.  No more wondering what happened to articles or Professional Development opportunities. I could just bookmark and return when I could spend more time reading. I recently volunteered to help advertise a local math Edcamp. I will be using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to spread the word about this conference. I just discovered that Hootsuite allows me to schedule posts in the future and often. What a time saver!

What place does Twitter have in my world as an educator and learner? Let me count some of the ways, 1. Get important educational resources 2.Subscribe to relevant hashtags.3. Sync Twitter with relevant blogs.4. Organize and get the word out about PD. 5. Have twitter chats with students. There is so much more to learn about this Web 2.0 tool and I plan on pursuing the benefits of this communication tool. 

Vanity Search

“Mrs. Rainey, Mrs. Rainey! You’re on the internet”. Half curious and half mortified I answered back calmly “I am?” This was my first experience with my digital footprint. My 5th graders finding a picture of me after winning a drawing at my school.  I had told them to search for my school website since I had attached helpful links there. Under google images there I was smiling from ear to ear with my Chick-Fil-A gift card.  I was so glad that was the image they had found and I wondered what else was out there?

For this week’s adventure, I did just what my 5th graders did last year after being prompted to find my website.  On the google browser, I typed “ America Rainey”. There at the top of the list was my linkedin.com account. At first look, I am very impressed with myself. It shows I am attending grad school and where I have worked since the beginning of my work. But then I get a little weary, everybody can see this. Could someone other than a future employer use all this information against me? I keep going down the list and I see that I am a homeowner as property taxes are public record and it shows on a map exactly where the house is. Yikes! This means my students or anybody can find me at any time. Further down the list, I see a hair salon. I left them a really nice review.  The review makes me look like a caring person with a positive attitude. My journey continues with evidence of me replying to several blogs and my enrollment in TCCA  Edcamp, a professional development I attended last October. I did also run into an unfinished portfolio I had started on as part of this coursework. I do not like it at all, I will have to take that down. It makes me look like an amateur at Webdesign. My journey continues and I find my Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.  A Pinterest post about word walls, a Facebook post about women empowerment, and my last tweet was a response to “What is your favorite multiplication times table?”  It was a math teacher father asking on behalf of his 15-year-old daughter.  I said 6 * 8 = 48 because it rhymes and he had given me a like.  I went through eleven pages of Google results. I am 49 years old and the earliest record I found as I dug through historical records and family trees was my marriage at age 27. I did not discover much about my military service.  Since watching week 1 video Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us, I learned that WE are the internet and we are the ones that make the connections. So, I suppose I need to go create those connections. Overall, the way I use the web is in an educational and public records way.  From Blogposts to the images posted I am represented with dignity and I will continue to strive to come across as a life long learner that supports others positively. 

Content Object Tools

Choices: Information Literacy vs Content Object Tools

For this tech play, I decided to review content object tools.  I believe students should know information ethics such as copyright laws and digital citizenship. Our computer lab has insightful lessons on this and I could supplement it. However, I wanted to explore some of the apps available on our school iPads.  My district has an app catalog with several apps that I am curious about and have never researched. I am taking the opportunity to do that at this time.

Math Leaper 

This is a drill and practice game. It allows students to select the skills they need to practice by grade level.  Available grades PK-8th.

Likes

5th graders can select from geometry, multiplication, decimals, division, equations, estimation and fractions. This could serve as an intervention tool for students that need extra practice. It keeps challenging you the better you are. The teacher can customize it for individual students. It also provides game results that give a percentage of questions correct, number of questions answered and time spent practicing. I think the students will enjoy this more than I will. It is a cute game. 

Dislikes

It relies on the student to take a screenshot of statistics and share it with the teacher. There are four choices and the student can guess by making a ballpark estimate. Although estimation is a skill and aids in math literacy, exact math computation would be preferable. However, I think it offers engaging practice for the student.

Fractions

This is a creativity tool for math fraction practice.

Likes

It can be used in a small group setting. I can prompt them to show be the desired fraction amounts. It has built-in symbols so the student can make comparisons or equations with <,>,=. It is very visual and hands-on for the student because they control what portions of a bar or circle they want to shade in. I like that students are creating and since its on the iPad there are no actual fraction bars to acquire and pass out and no clean up afterward. I like this as a teacher a lot.

Dislikes

It relies on the student to take a screenshot and share it with the teacher if they are working alone at a station.

Seesaw

This is a formative assessment tool. It is also easy to use eportfolio for students to keep their work on any content!

Likes

Oh my gosh! This tool is amazing. I like that they can keep a portfolio here with all their student work. It is shareable with classmates and parents. There are sample lessons that I can pick from for the students to do in any subject area. This can work as a whole class assignment if I have 1:1 Chromebooks for the day. It also allows me to see who needs clarification because I can see their thinking. On the spot intervention. I like this as an assessment for me but I love it as an option for a portfolio for the students. It can show their progress and they can reflect on their learning.

Dislikes

None at this time. I would have to have my students try it. Hopefully, my wi-fi can handle it. It seems amazing.

Rocketbook

This is a productivity tool. It allows the user to write out notes or math problems on a special notebook and then snap a picture of it and share it with anyone. It can be sent to shared google drive, google classroom, email or shared dropbox folder. Then they wipe it clean and the same pages can be reused again.

Likes

Another oh my gosh! Students can work through math problems on this special notebook and use the app to share it with me in google classroom for grading. It is great for station work and no papers to lose or hand back. It is all graded google classroom and returned to the student via the same medium. It can work with any subject. In science, they can write a reflection after a lab or create a Frayer model of an academic word. I, the teacher, don't have to carry papers around. I just need a device to sign in to my google drive or google classroom to check their work for understanding. Students throw their papers away anyway, now I'll have a virtual way to keep them for them. We can revisit them, without having to empty lockers, backpacks or desks. I like this a lot for my sanity, but I like how it may organize some of my disorganized students.

Dislikes

I have a set of 12 rocketbooks in my classroom and the app is on my iPads. I worry about the handwriting with the special pen.

TPACK MODEL

Using Seesaw a specific content objective in Math I would address is: 5.2B compare and order two decimals to thousandths and represent comparisons using the symbols >, <, or =, the pedagogical approach I would use is collaborative in partner pairs. This constructivist philosophy keeps the students active and social in their learning so that they may learn from each other and retain the information. As a new school year begins this content objective is a review of previous learning. In Seesaw I can search in the activity library for this specific TEK and an activity is already available. This affords the teacher a time savings in creating something.  The lesson is already in the files and can be shared with all students. The partner groups can work through the lesson and submit their work. I can instantly see who will need some intervention and more practice. In addition, the students will have an artifact to include in their portfolio for the beginning of the year. While I work with those who need extra help, accomplished students may write a brief reflection on how they worked out the problem. They can additionally state the level of difficulty and if they desire more practice on the objective. This was a very specific content objective but I love that Seesaw can accommodate any content. The student is in control of their learning and the technology affords reflection.

OTHER TOOLS

Math Leaper, Fractions and Rocketbook could not accomplish the same objective. At least, not with all the affordances Seesaw has to offer. Rockebook might come close but it is missing the on the spot intervention.  The paper would have to be graded by me later to see who needed help. I could use the affordance of rocketbook for those who needed or requested more practice and a workstation though.  Math Leaper could also be used as a practice for those needing additional practice. I could tie in the fractions app since decimals can be represented as fractions. Oh wow, I can see all the apps I explored being used at the conclusion of the whole group Seesaw activity. Fantastic! I am definitely using this lesson at the beginning of the school year. It supports student learning and integrates technology seamlessly. It keeps it very student-centered and collaborative. All I need to add is an exit ticket at the end to provide evidence of learning from all.