Technology Integration

Here are some great reflections on students using wikis. Hearing it from the students can put our classrooms in perspective.

crozet5thgrade – wikiworld!

What do you think of having had access to wikispaces this year?
What have you learned?
What have you taught?
Why should you have access to wikispaces at school?

Ryan:
I think having wikispaces was awesome because we got to work together and we could email each other. One other cool thing was we could design web pages and we could put surveys and videos on our web pages. I have learned how to change the colors of the font from nick and I have also learned how not to overwrite somebody else’s work when editing. I have also learned that there are other options to show what we know instead of worksheets. I have not taught people that much because they were usually teaching but when I did teach someone I taught them how to change the font and color.
I think we should have access because we can show what we know without doing BORING worksheets. Plus we can stay in touch over summer. I just think wikispaces is a faster and fun way to do things.

Emily
1. It’s really cool..kids tend to love to use computers..so instead of posterboard projects or book reports wikispaces makes it fun..It’s also really easy to use..
2. I have mostly learned about other people on wikispaces..wikispaces aren’t just about making your own projects…You can see what other peoples’ ideas are like, too..Emma was just looking over my shoulder to see what my ideas are for this page..Sometimes the other kids even let you give feedback for their pages..That’s really fun to do..
3. I haven’t taught much…people have mostly taught me…Ms.White has told us a lot about wikispaces…It’s cool when your teacher tells you what you’re actually doing ..
4. Wikispaces at school…it should be a rule…I think wikispaces altogether is about learning…About other people, subjects, and even yourself…Wikispaces isn’t boring either, because it’s not about typing essays..you can put cool fonts and colors to make your page more eyepopping…Surveys are also cool ways to use your wikispace..Wikispaces isn’t about tests or packets… it’s about SPACES and learning and just having some way of entertaining while you work.

Wikispaces should be for everyone, and I highly recommend them.

Brennan:
1. I have learned a lot on wikispaces. We get to do a lot of fun projects.
2. Wikispaces is so awesome. It’s a lot of fun we get to email each other.
3. It’s like a mini learning kit for learning things on the computer.
4. Wikispaces is my favorite place on the computer.

Nicholas
1. I think having access to Wikispaces this year was great. It inspired me to go on in life and do big things because we get to design web pages learn stuff and have fun. It inspired me to do big things in my life because I did surveys that got responses from people in Flordia and my friends so it tells me that if you do something fun it can be a big success too.

2. I have learned to have fun while doing educational work. Wikispaces has really helped me this year.

3. I have taught my friends and teachers about Adolf Hitler and I have put together a Diabetes cook book. I love it how we get to decide what we wat to research and we get to conduct our own research . I think my Diabetes cook book will be a big success.

4. We should have access to Wikispaces at school because we can make a web page instead of a power point for a project. We also have fun when writing our web pages instead of just typing a project on Word. I think every kid should have the privilege of Wikispaces.

Drew
1. I think that wikispaces is educational because you can make any kind of web page you want. The cool thing is that you can ask questions on email.
2.Wikispaces is very fun for kids and teachers too.
3.On Wikispaces you can talk to people all around the world.
4.You may be able to talk to celebrities in all different countries and states.

Jared
1. I think wikispaces is the greatest way to express ideas to the world. You can also see other peoples personalities.
2.I was never really good at using computers, but now I made my own pages in wikispaces and I know all about how to do it.
3.This year I taught someone how to change their icon. It was fun to feel like a teacher for a little while.
4. We could get better grades if we discuss on wikispaces. We would talk about ideas and thoughts for projects. Two heads are better than one!!!

Devin

1. I think having wikispaces was a good way to learn how to use a computer in a good way.
2. I have learned how to make a webpage without taking anything else out.
4. I think wikispaces is an educational way to learn about any subject and share your thoughts.

Adeline
I think that having access to Wikispaces has been fun because we can share our thoughts and fun activities that people can see and edit. We can edit anybody’s page and create our own pages.I learned through Wikispaces that kids can have their own pages too and that we can have FUN! I also taught that having a daily update can be a good thing and that George Bush is a republican but not all republicans are the way he is. I think we should have access at school because we can talk about things that are going on around the school to keep kids updated about what is going on.

Seamore

1. I learned a lot of new computer techniques while having fun!
2. We got to write about cool subjects and share our thoughts.
3. Wikispaces helped us learn stuff we would do when we grow up.
4. We could communicate online with other people just like email. It taught us to type better and write better.
5. We got to go online to get information for our subjects we were writing on and had a fun time.
6. We learned to insert surveys, images, files, movies, and links to wikispaces.
7. I learned how to make a movie because of wikispaces.

Andy
1! That it is a good way for us students to communicate and share ideas
2! I have learned other people opinions on the same subjects that i’m interested in
3! I figured out how to put videos on a page and taught most people
4! Because it is educational

Emma

1. I think wikispaces was one of the best things Ms. White could have done. It really shows you that their are no limitations on what you can do. All of us are ecstatic that what shows up on that screen is what we typed.
2. We have learned a lot of things, and I can’t decide what to tell you. But we do have tons of ideas to share.
3.I have taught a lot of things,but mostly it was about politics.
4.Wikispaces helps one to learn about lots of things and it’s a lot easier because of spellcheck.=)

Yeri
Wikispaces is a great way to communicate with people from all over the world. You can send emails, make web pages, work on projects, the possibilities are endless! You can communicate with each other and do projects and write things to help people and solve problems in the world. One thing I learned is that when you work hard, as a group or alone, trying to solve something it comes out as a big success.

Podcasting within Moodle | The Moodleman Blog

Podcasting within Moodle
Oct 17th 2008

Over the last month I found myself presenting at not one, but two moots. the first was the Australian Moodle Moot in Brisbane, the second was the New Zealand Moodle Moot in Napier.

At both Moots I found myself presenting on how I use the “Podcast” Module at Riverview to deploy podcasts (and Vodcasts) to our students. The trial last term was such a success that I now struggle to keep up with the needs of staff.

I have created a video of this presentation and also attached to it a demo of how the module operates to give you all a taste of how this could possibly work for you within your own educational institution.

“Effective tech integration must happen across the curriculum in ways that research shows deepen and enhance the learning process. In particular, it must support four key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. Effective technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent and when technology supports curricular goals.”

Read complete article

When beginning the process of integrating technology there are some concerns. What about the students who do not have access to a computer or internet at home? What if I do not know how to use the technology the students are wanting to use? What about the students that do not know how to use the technology I want them to use? How am I going to find the time to prepare this type of lesson?

These are just a few of the concerns educators have to deal with. Some of the solutions are simple while others are not. If you are not sure where to begin, you should ask the person at your campus or district that is the integration specialist. They will help guide you through the process and help you get started. Most Integration Specialists will want to help and even help when you are implementing the lesson. These projects should be group projects. The groups should be no more than four to a group. If the groups are structured well, there will be a person in each group that either knows how to use the technology or has the skills to figure out how to use it. The structure of the groups is critical. As for the teacher not knowing how to use the technology, the teacher’s role is to facilitate. The students are the ones using the technology not the teacher. If there are questions about how to do something, point them to the help menu. Most answers can be found there or have them google the solution. We should be teaching them critical thinking and this is one opportunity to do that.

The difficult problem to solve is access to a computer or internet. Most integrated lessons can be done with web based products, so students need access to the internet. Students will need to stay late or come early to school. If they do not have a way to get to school early or a ride home when they stay late, hopefully they can get a ride with a friend or from someone in the group. Being able to depend on each other is a quality students need to learn. It is difficult I know. We live in a global society that depends on collaboration and communication whether it is face to face, on-line, texting, or through video.

Our students are digital learners. They spend a large amount of their time texting, gaming, and on-line (blogging, chatting, social networking, etc.). If we can use these skills to teach them the content they need to know they will be more engaged and have better retention of the information presented. Remember, an integrated lesson is not about the technology. It is simply a different way of teaching. For example, when the over head came out, the lessons were not focused around the overhead. It was used to show the students the information you were presenting. The same rule applies for the technology available to us today. The focus shoud be about the information.

Recently it has been announced there is a security threat in all versions of Internet Explorer. It is recommended that you stop using Internet Explorer to browse the internet. I actually do not use Internet Explorer. Instead I use Mozilla Firefox. There are various plug ins and themes you can download to customize Firefox to your needs and likes. If you do not already have Firefox installed on your computer you can download it here.

If you are interested in reading about the security threat in Internet Explorer click here.

Learning by Doing

On a Friday last spring, the transformation was evident. In many classrooms, groups of students worked on projects while teachers circulated to help as needed. In Rebecca Rolinson’s English classroom, sophomores planned their modern-media spoofs of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar — among them a television broadcast featuring on-scene interviews at the Festival of Lupercalia and a newspaper running an obituary of Caesar and a sports story on dog fighting. Maria Sosko’s freshman history students critiqued each other’s virtual children’s books (created with Microsoft PowerPoint) on the sinking of the Lusitania; they planned to present them to a local third-grade class.

Juniors in Steve Tinker’s sociology class wrote lyrics and created digital music for modern versions of the Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” covering major world events since the original recording came out in the late 1980s.

Read the full article.

Actively involving students in the learning process is engaging them and helping them gain the skills and knowledge they need and are required to master.

PC Pro: News: Teacher threatens to call the cops over Linux

“Teacher threatens to call the cops over Linux 3:22PM, Thursday 11th December 2008
A teach er has thrown a student into detention and threatened to call the police for using Linux in her classroom.

The teacher spotted one of her students giving a demonstration of the HeliOS distro to other students. In a somewhat over-the-top reaction, she confiscated the CDs, put the student on detention and whipped off a letter to the HeliOS Project threatening to report it to the police for distributing illegal software.”

This article from PC Pro is actually a funny article. It shows the teachers ignorance about the operating systems of today. If the teacher would have just asked the student about the software she would have learned something. We can learn a lot from our students. We should talk to our students before jumping to conclusions.

Linux is a free and powerful operating system. Just like Windows XP & Vista or Mac’s OSX there are those who prefer it over the others.

Read the full article to see how the HeliOS project members responded.

The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe – ReadWriteWeb

The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe
Written by Sarah Perez  December 11, 2008 6:27 AM

“Koobface” is the name of the Trojan worm that’s been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site’s users, it’s been simply known as “the Facebook virus.” That name will soon become a misnomer, though, because the worm is now spreading outside of Facebook’s walls to attack other social networks like Bebo, MySpace, Friendster, MyYearbook, and Blackplanet.

The article was found on Digg. This is just a small portion of the whole article. Be sure to read the full article.