Power Point

Power Point is a versatile way of creating informational lessons.  Power Point can be used to enhance a lesson or to demonstrate some of the more involved aspects of the lesson.  You can incorporate pictures, videos and links into your power point presentation to add content. I like using power point because it is so versatile and interesting to students

Podcasting in the Classroom

This week we looked at the world of podcasting in the classroom.  I must admit that I am not new to podcasting.  I have several friends who actually do the Mugglenet podcast which is one of the more popular Harry Potter podcasts.  I have participated in live events that were podcasts as well.  However I will admit I didn't think much of using them in the classroom. Most of my podcast experience has been focused on entertainment purposes.  Now after this week I can see many practical classroom uses.

I think it they are a very useful tool for students who have difficulty with public speaking.  It is much easier for a student to present the work when no is staring at them.  Podcasts could be made part of a project and the students would have to create the podcast as their presentation.

Podcasts would also be a great way for students to create content they are interested in. Students could be separated into groups and create weekly news reports based on the events happening in school and in the world. These reports could be shared with the school as well as parents, keeping everyone informed on the latest information.  It is just one more way to keep students actively involved in their education.

On the flip side podcasts also have a great deal of content and can be used as educational supplements to certain aspects of lessons.  For instance using podcasts about books or art would be a good way to get discussions started.  There are also informational podcasts about history and science that could be used.

Overall I think there is a place for podcasting in the classroom whether is be in the form of students learning how to use the technology to create podcasts or using podcasts to enhance knowledge base.

Web 2.0 and the Classroom

Over this last week I have looked at various ways to use web 2.0 tools in the classroom.  I must say that some of the options surprised me while others were fairly intuitive.  I use several web 2.0 tools in my everyday life but I can't say I would have thought to use things like Twitter and Facebook in the classroom.  I found several articles that discussed various uses for twitter and Facebook.  They can be found on the resources page. Some of the ideas suggested for using twitter would be to keep parents updated on what is going on in the classroom.  I have reservations about using twitter in this way,  While most parents would enjoy having this these updates, is there is always the chance that they could be taken the wrong way and parents could take issue with what is being written.  Then as a teacher the question becomes how much time can I spend tweeting to parents.  My focus is my classroom and I would hate to feel obligated to tweet and not be spending that time with my students.

Facebook is also a very interesting idea.  I could see using Facebook as way to keep parents up to date with what is going on in the classroom very similar to a website or blog.  Many people have Facebook accounts so even the least savvy person could connect to Facebook.  Also Facebook offers privacy so strangers would not be allowed to access the page.  Facebook also works when creating organization pages.  If the school has a volunteer group or after school club Facebook would be relatively safe and easy for the group to use.

Using Wikis in the Classroom

When one thinks of Wikis the first thing that comes to mind is Wikipedia which can be considered a dirty word in the world of education.  Wikipedia has its uses but it typically found to be inaccurate due to the fact that anyone can edit a wiki.  However upon further exploration I found the concept of using wikis in the classroom much different from the concept of wikipedia. 

Using wikis to organize student teams and information is an effective strategy to incorporate technology into a regular classroom assignment.  It also helps facilitate team work and organization.  I found several articles in which teachers gave examples of using wikis in the classroom.   One specific article relates to using teh wiki to teach ELA.  The teacher Tim Fredrick's created a wiki around literature and used it as a source to teach his students about characterization, plot elements, and cause and effect.  The wiki itself can be found here Tim also has a blog and why it is older and not recently updated the content is still very interesting.

I also found a useful source on EducationWorld.com it is called Sites to See: Get Wild About Wikis!  There are several resources listed within the article and it is where I found Tim Fredricks' initial work.