Bookr

Bookr allows people to use pictures to make a "virtual book".  As an extension from the map activity mentioned in the blog below I could use Bookr as the final part to the students project.  THey could create a book using pictures of the geographical features of the place/country they were exploring.  They could find pictures using creative commons or possibly share photos with the students that collaborated with via internet.  We could also use the "virtual book" to make a classroom story of all the countries explored by the class.  It could be a way to tie everyones project together and end a unit.  It would be cool to have a classroom book like this to share with other school employees.  It would be a great tool to use to show the principal what they class had been working on and learned.  

ePaLs

ePaLs is a collaborative site that allows teachers to connect their classrooms around the world. While navigating ePaLs I was most intrigued by the focus areas and project tabs.  These tabs allowed me to pick a specific area that I wanted to focus on and explore.  Instead of having to go through a bunch of resources to find what I wanted, I could click on a topic and automatically be searching only information that fit my interests.  I also like the project based tab because it offered a lot of different classroom activities.  Again, it broke projects down into categories based on interests and listed multiple projects for each one.  The project that I liked was exploring different types of maps.  I could use this activity in my classroom when discussing maps and geography.  This project allows students to connect and collaborate with other students around the world.  I also like the fact that this project is truly inquiry based.  Students are investigating and collaborating to find information instead of being given the information by the teacher.  Overall, ePaLs has a lot to offer any teacher. 

Money Magic

I am very excited that I found the Money Magic game.  I will be teaching my second graders how to count coins later in the year and this is a perfect game to incorporate into the unit.  It is fun and educational at the same time.  I know my students will enjoy all aspects of the video, such as the bright colors, the characters voice, the music, and the game.  I am very happy that I found this tool and I will be checking back in the future for more Money Magic videos. 

Big Huge Labs

Big Huge Labs is a tool that allows one to create many projects. I navigated my way around this site to see everything it had to offer, which was a lot. The most interesting thing that I found and played around with was creating a jigsaw puzzle. I inserted that same picture of the starfish that I used in my blog to talk about Flickr. As I stated before, Flickr can be used to find photos to go along with a lesson. The jigsaw application at Big Huge Labs could be used as an extension activity. It would be a fun activity that would incorporate the photos from the unit being studied. If one were teaching a lesson on the different types of frogs, they could design puzzles that incorporated the different types and have students identify the name of each frog after completing the puzzle. It is educational and fun at the same time. This is just one way to use this application in the classroom but there are many more.

Flickr

I found this image using Flickr. Flickr is a great tool that one could use in the classroom. It gives teachers and students access to more pictures that one could ever dream of. I was able to find pictures of Italy, a place I dream of going to someday. It also allows you to find fascinating pictures that one may not see everyday, such as the starfish above or the a picture of a blue frog I found while navigating Flickr. It also is an awesome way to save photos on the Internet so one can always have them. They can't get lost or damaged because they are saved on the Internet.
This would be a great tool in the classroom because it offers unlimited resources of pictures. I'm sure one could find pictures for just about any topic they are covering in class. Also as a class, teachers and students could save photos of classroom projects, field trips, guest speakers, etc. and use Flickr to store them. All students could access the pictures at home with their parents to share what they have been doing in school. It is a great way to communicate with parents!

Microblogging

   Microblogging is a very useful tool that an be used for many purposes.  Some may use it for purely social reasons, whereas others use it for job and personal development.  As an educator, I find microblogging very useful to collaborate with other professionals to share ideas, research, resources, etc.  Grosseck and Holotescu describe uses for Twitter in the classroom in the article Can We Twitter FOr Educational Activities? Some of the uses of Twitter in the classroom mentioned in the article include: building a classroom community, exploring collaborative writing, and collaborating across schools.   Twenty-Seven Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom also offers a lot of great teaching tips for utilizing Twitter in the classroom. Opportunities are endless! You and your students will enjoy the all the possibilities made available to you if you use Twitter in your classroom.  Don't hesitate, start Twittering today!

Wordmagnets

Upon my search for RSS feeds I cam across Revising Short Texts and Sytax on IWB. The name of the blog where you can find this post is Nik's Learning Technology Blog. I found this blog to be very helpful.  This blog gives me access to wordmagnets which would be a great tool in the classroom.  There are so many ways that wordmagnets could be used in the classroom to help children grow in their reading and writing skills.  I can already see how I could use this in my classroom and how it would engage my students.  It is an awesome resource!

Brain Boosters offers kids' educational activities online.

Brain Boosters offers kids' educational activities online.

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City Kidz World

Upon searching Ning I came across a group called, City Kidz World.  This social network is based on the City Kidz World magazine.  This magazine focuses multicultural education and is an international magazine.  Teachers from around the world are able to share ideas with one another.  It is an authentic way to work with people from countries other than your own.

This group could be very beneficial in my career because it allows me access to materials that would help me to teach multicultural education.  There are book suggestions, assignments, videos, and contests that aid in this.    Besides materials for the classroom there are also opportunities for teachers to travel internationally(this is just one example of the opportunities available to teachers).  This group not only focuses on the classroom but also ways to improve teacher knowledge and instruction.  

Schools are calling for more of a focus on multicultural education.  We need to make this type of learning authentic and not just skimming the surface.  We need to give our students a real sense of other cultures so that they gain a deep understanding.  This group will help me to properly and successfully do this.

Connectivism

   The Internet is a very valuable tool in today's society.   It offers people many opportunities to connect with others through different social networks.  More importantly, it offers people a way to always stay connected with others and continuously seek knowledge.  An analogy that I would use to describe a learner is: A learner is like a redwood tree.  Learners are constantly growing and gaining knowledge.  A redwood tree begins as a tiny little seed.  As time goes on the tree begins to grow and develops into a massive piece of work.  A redwood tree never stops growing just as a learner doesn't.  A learner may start with a small "seed" of knowledge and builds on the knowledge throughout their lifetime.  

A learner never sits still and stops learning. Learning is a continuous cycle of seeking, collaborating, and using information and technology to obtain new information/knowledge.  In the video, The Network is the Learning Siemens states, "What we know today is not as important as our ability to continue tostay current." Siemens believes that it is more important to continue to grow and learn than to sit passively when we feel we have learned enough.  If we do not continue to seek knowledge and collaborate with others using the networks available to us, we are digressing in our knowledge.  In Siemens (2005) article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age he states, "Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known."  As learners, we are never done learning.  We continue to seek and find information throughout our lives.  It is more important to want to seek more information than what is already known.  We must stay connected to others! We have to use the resources available to us to help us find all the information we can.  We need to collaborate and build off of what others have to offer us.  

Why Let Our Students Blog?

I chose to watch the video, Why Let Our Students Blog. I was happy to see that the video shared many of the same ideas as I do about blogging. This simple video conveyed ideas about why we should let students blog. It was straight forward and easy to understand. Most importantly, the video got the point across. At one point the video reads "Students write to learn, Students blog to learn." This is completely true. Some may think that blogging doesn't teach students to write but it does. It is just as effective at building writing skills if not more. While students are learning to write they are also learning how to use technology. Being as familiar and knowledgeable about technology is very important in today's society. 

Blog Safety

Blogging can be very fun is done safely.  There are a few important things to remember when blogging to keep yourself or your students safe:

• Only post your first name.  Never place your last name, address, phone number(s), or any other personal information on your blog.  
• Limit settings so only the people you would like to see certain information can see it.  Limiting the amount of information known to everyone will help keep you safe.
• Don't place pictures of yourself on your page.

As a teacher there are a few things to do to keep your students safe:

• Monitor your students use.  When they are blogging in the classroom watch over them.  You don't have to stand over their shoulder the whole time but do check on them every so often.
• Do not place pictures of your students on the internet.  If you do, set privacy settings so only certain people have access to the photos.
• Again, if you place a class calendar on your blog page set the privacy settings so only a limited group have access to it. 
• Check your students blog pages often to monitor and check for anything that doesn't seem right.
• Inform parents of the blogging tool.  Possibly set up a night to teach parents how to blog and what they can do to keep their child safe.  If blogging is taking place at home send a schedule home as to when their child needs to blog.  This way they can also monitor what their child is writing and doing while blogging.  

Blogs in the classroom

1) One way to use blogging in the classroom is to communicate with parents, students, co-workers, etc.  Blogging would allow teachers to virtually send out a "classroom letter".  I know that a lot of elementary teachers send out monthly letters so that parents are informed as to what is happening in their child's classroom. Blogging would allow this communication to take place and would also get the information to parents and students faster than a physical letter.  Changes can be made and immediately made known to parents. Sending a letter home would take twice as long because of the return time of duplicating.  Blogging is also eco- friendly!

2) Blogs can also be used in the classroom to enhance student discussion on current events and issues.  The teacher could pick a topic of discussion and have students blog about their feelings on particular issues.  This type of learning is hands-on and stimulates discussion.  It also gets the students involved in their learning instead of a teacher-centered lesson. Students who may not like speaking in front of their peers are given a chance to share their ideas or thoughts on a topic. 

3) As for myself, blogging would be very beneficial in keeping in-touch with other teachers locally and nationally.  It provides an inexpensive way to communicate and collaborate with people like myself.  I can share ideas with other educators as well as gain ideas and insight from them.  It would be a way to keep in touch with people that I meet from school, conferences, and professional organizations.