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Mission for this Week: 2/14-2/21

By Jason Bedell, on February 14th, 2010

Sunday night has become my time to reflect on my current Big Project (my hope-to-be book, Techniques for Effective Technology Integration). I consider last week’s mission to be a success. I was able to write the whole first chapter (all 38 pages), with help from Debra Gottsleben (@gottsled), Bryan Jackson (@bryanjack), and Bryan’s student Katie. I also finished the video tutorials to help out those readers who like more thorough guidance in the technical details of how to use the tools. The feedback that I got on the first chapter was great. It was mostly positive, with some good guidance from Bernadette Roche (@Oh_the_Places) and Michael Josefowicz (@ToughLoveForX). I will definitely take their feedback to heart when I go back to do the final revision before compiling all the chapters for a full release.

This week, I am shifting the focus of the book from the teacher (Building a Personal Learning Network) to the student. Chapter 2 is an introduction to Web 2.0 tools. I expect this to probably be the shortest chapter in the book. All of the subsequent chapters, in the current state of planning, deal with a specific topic or technique, such as collaboration or digital storytelling, and brings in several tools to help accomplish the related educational objectives.

I plan on introducing the teachers to Glogster, Wordle, and Wallwisher as exemplary examples of Web 2.0 tools. I chose these because of their versatility, ease of use, and possibilities of cross-curricular use. In addition, they do not fit into any of my planned chapters further in the book.

I am planning for my remaining chapters to be about:

  1. Harness the power of social networking (Ning, Twitter, Edmodo, Facebook, etc…)
  2. Tools to increase collaboration (Etherpad, Google Docs, Google Wave)
  3. Tools to increase communication (Google Calendar, Google Forms, Poll Everywhere, etc…)
  4. Digital Storytelling (Voicethread, Animoto, Kerpoof, etc…)
  5. Blogs and Wikis
  6. Podcasting
  7. Use a course management system to extend the classroom

I need help with 2 areas primarily at the moment. First, if there are any tools that you feel should be included in this introductory chapter (that are not included in a later chapter), please leave a comment. Also, I really stories of teachers using Glogster, Wordle, and/or Wallwisher successfully with their classes for my From the Teachers section. If you leave a story, please specify whether it is alright to include it in the book. Full credit will be given. I am also not expecting or trying to make money off the book; it is simply an ambitious endeavor that will hopefully help teachers. Please leave a comment if you can help in any way.

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  • http://noeltigers.com wmchamberlain

    I introduced Glogster to my digital media class, but didn’t give them an assignment with it. I like to have them play with tools to see what they can come up with. Many of the students didn’t like it very much. I do plan to have them use it for an assignment next month that should tell me and them how well we can use it. Wish I could help you out more. Keep me in mind with the rest of your chapters, I think I can contribute to most of them.

    Bill

  • http://learningfromeachother.blogspot.com Matt Guthrie

    Hi Jason,

    I set up student accounts on Glogster for all of my kids. Their first project was to create a visual study guide on plate tectonics using some very specific guidelines re: content. I haven’t given any specific assignments to use Glogster since then, but several of my kids have made it their platform of choice. These are all my artsy, creative type kids. They love what can be done with it and always turn in topnotch products. It’s just one more example of how important it is to introduce the kids to as many tools as possible and then give them choice.

    I’ve used Wordle on a few occasions with other teachers, especially on #edchat, to graphically illustrate what’s “important” in many of the written documents we guide our activities by like standard course of study listings, pacing guides, etc.

    Wallwisher is one I’m hoping to integrate this semester. My first planned activity will probably be a KWL chart with the students. We’ll see how it goes.

  • http://jasontbedell.com Jason Bedell

    Bill,
    I like that idea. It feels rare with the strict scope and sequence that I can ever just let the students play, especially since I am always coteaching another teacher’s students. I used it once last year and some of the students didn’t like the interface at interface. Some asked if they could just draw. Once they realized they could bring in music and videos, they started to enjoy it more and really made it their own. There’ll definitely be many more times where I’ll be asking for help, so no worries there.

    Thanks,
    Jason.

  • http://jasontbedell.com Jason Bedell

    Hi Matt,

    Thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of setting up a KWL with Wallwisher. I hadn’t thought of using it with/as a graphic organizer. The visual study guide sounds very interesting. It sounds similar to a Glogster project I am working on with a calculus teacher at my school. It is good to here that some of the kids have taken to it so well. Do you have any examples of the study guides?

    Thanks,
    Jason.

  • http://thespian70.blogspot.com Scott Snyder

    Jason,

    I use Wordle from time to time for two activities. For the one, I paste the text of something we are about to read in my American Literature class in to Wordle and work with the students to identify what the main ideas or areas of emphasis in the text might be. We often dig a little deeper, taking away the most often repeated words and see what then rises to the surface as another layer of ideas. It gets the kids thinking about the message of a text before reading commences.

    After a unit, I have used Wordle to have the students visualize the class’s thinking. For example, I ask the students what are the main qualities of the Americans we just read about. The students submit their responses via a Google Form. I paste the results from the survey in to Wordle and then ask the kids to take a look at the results. Did we focus on the correct big ideas as a class? What did the class not emphasize enough that perhaps we should have? And why?

  • http://jasontbedell.com Jason Bedell

    Scott,
    Thanks for the input. So many of the works we cover are available online. That is a great idea to see what ideas are emphasized in the texts. Also, I really like the visualization activity. I think that it could really put a unit in perspective.
    Jason

  • http://wilkes.discoveryeducation.com/alrmccall/ Amy

    I have been using Glogster to post to our class website. I teach primary. It is an easy program to help us compile our video/sound projects. Glogster was just unblocked a couple of months ago. I hope the kids will get on it more. :)
    .-= Amy´s last blog ..Watercolors in Art Class! =-.

  • http://jasontbedell.com Jason Bedell

    Teaching high school, I don’t always get a good perspective on elementary. It’s good to know that the elementary kids are able to use it easily. Why was it blocked?

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