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Digital Portfolio

I think that digital portfolios could be very useful in my classroom. I think the best way to use them is for a writing portfolio for my students. In the beginning of Kindergarten, most students just draw pictures and by the end of the year they are writing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end. I think it would be great to have the students see the progression of their writing at various points in the year. The students would be able to reflect on their growth throughout the year. I have done this with paper portfolios and my students look back and cannot even read the beginning of the year writing. They cannot believe that they are the ones who wrote it. It is a very interesting and thought provoking activity. If this activity is done with digital portfolios, parents can access this and students will be able to look back at their work as they grow.

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I am not a big fan of social networking sites. I do not like to post my personal business for people I do not talk to on a daily basis. I feel that some students may also have difficultly sharing their thoughts or work for everyone to see in situations of a blog or wiki. I like the fact that you can now decide who sees your information and I believe this to be necessary in the student educational setting.

Since starting this class I have become a bloaoholic. I love following the different Kindergarten teachers’ blogs. I have managed to learn more by following these bog than I could have from my colleagues alone. I think this holds true of students as well. By using blogging, they are able to learn so much more from so many more people.

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Blogging and micro-blogging have been absent from education due to the lack of teachers who know enough about them to use them as a tool. I also think that many teachers have a negative view of Myspace, Twitter, and many others. Also, the media and news fills our minds with stories of cyber-bullying and teachers want to avoid the facilitation of such situations. By the way this question is worded, it seems as though micro-blogging is more accepted, but I would have to disagree. I feel as though blogs have become more accepted in all areas including education. I have heard of teachers having their students blog or follow the teacher’s blog, but I have never heard of a teacher asking students to “tweet.” I’m sure it happens, but just not in my personal experiences.

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Micro- blogging in the Classroom

Advantages
Connecting students
Quick updates

Disadvantages
Teacher is not able to monitor posts as well
Does not have the functionality of blogs
Twitter allows students to follow non-educational feeds and non-regulated content which and create conflict and classroom management issues
Does not create the same higher-level thinking as other mediums

Micro-blogs seems to fit better into the small business world. For instance, many food truck “tweet” their location to followers. Some businesses also “tweet” specials they are offering. This seems to work well. Micro-blogs seem to be popular for social connections, but do not provide any more benefits than Facebook or a blog. I am having difficultly seeing the advantages of micro-blogs in the classroom. May someone can help me out.

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Connective writing as explain by Will Richardson is “the ability to publish in a variety of media with the intention of connecting and sharing it with others who have an interest (or passion) in the topic.”
He explains that there is a continuum of connective writing. “Real blogging” is the best definition of connective writing. By using hyper links within blogs one is able to transform a “real blog” to a “complex blog.” By students creating blogs they are already accessing the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. If teacher provides open-ended questions using the questions found here, they mold the students into higher level thinkers. Blogs are ever-present in our society, by having students use them as connective writing tools we are creating 21st Century Learners.

The Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Pyramid is complete with links and can be found here.
Photo created by Samantha Penney

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Visit My Blog

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GIS Learning

What is your comfort level?
I am not very comfortable using this type of software. I am particularly uncomfortable because it is not something I use in my classroom or in my everyday life. The most contact I have had before this is looking up address in street view on Google Earth to make sure the neighborhood is even worth looking at and possibly living in.

What are your next steps to continue your learning process?
I will continue to explore these resources and learn more through their video tutorials.

Why is Geospatial literacy important to your student?
Geospatial literacy is important because the world is constantly changing and the technology is becoming more and more advanced. Students are expected to learn and know more. Geospatial literacy adds the important element of spatial literacy. This is more important now simply because it is more accessible now.

What new understandings do you have about the area of GIS?
I have a whole new understanding of GIS since I did not know what it was at all. I definitely did not know the many different things you can do with the GIS programs. One thing that really surprised me was the ability to see how areas have changed overtime. I think that is really cool.

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Since I am taking this class as a guided independent study, I have no classmates and cannot review their lessons. Instead I have found a lesson created by someone else.
My Summer Vacation is a lesson I found that was created by Google earth and Discovery Education. The students use Google Earth to pinpoint and capture their summer vacations. I must say that this lesson is much better than mine, which it should be considering its creators. I feel that a lesson like mine could be a great starting point and once students get comfortable, they complete lessons like the one I have found. I also feel that once I have more practice and exposure, I will be able to create lessons of this caliber.

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I visited many of the data visualization sites and did not truly understand how I can use them to visualize my data. I am somewhat familiar with Wordle and do not know how this will help me with my data. Currently I use Excel to keep track of my data. I color code and sort students by proficiency level, race, gender,ELA status, and if they are SPED. I like the fact the I can sort my data by any of these categories. I can see how all of my boys scores compare to those of my girls. I can also sort the data to see how the achievement gap is affected in my classroom. My team also groups all of our data together to see which teacher is best a reaching the students in a certain area (letter sound correspondence) and have that teacher share her strategies. As a school we have tried many other data programs and ideas and this seems to be the one that works the best for us. If you know of any that can do more than Excel and are user friendly, please let me know.

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Incorporating Multimedia

• Interactive Whiteboards
o Motor skills such as handwriting practice
o Centers- math, literacy, social studies, etc...
o Shared writing
o Hands-on math activities
o Phonics games


• Student Response Systems
o Formative assessments
o Summative assessments
o Student interest survey
o Anonymous polling
o Check for understanding- mid-lesson

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I used the Polls Everywhere software to create a cell phone poll about the five senses, since it is what I am currently teaching. I found that it was extremely easy to create, but not as easy for the student user to follow. I even made a video to explain it to my students. (I am still trying to figure out how to upload it) The students had to type a six or seven-digit code and send it to another five-digit number. Being a person who has difficulty inverting numbers, I think that this was quite confusing. I think that if the students typed and word and texted it to a number it would reduce some of the possible confusion. This is necessary if students will be receiving a grade for their answers.

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Are there any classroom areas that lend themselves more to use of interactive boards or are not good fits, why, what is your evidence?

I think that SMART Boards can be used in any subject area. I feel that the younger the students, the more beneficial the board. The board creates more hands-on experiences for students, which younger kids need. I do feel like math and science are areas where the board is less of a benefit. I think students should use actual manipulatives in math and in science, I feel like students should do experiments. I do, however think that these lessons could be started with a SMART Board lesson and then moved into the experiment or hands on math lesson.





Create a brief lesson - 2 to 3 pages using the notebook software of one of the products you explored. Add images or clip-art and text.

See attached



Share your experience and the notebook file or screen captures of your exploration.

· What was difficult to use? What was easy to use?

I did not have difficultly with any of the lesson because I am very experienced with Notebook software. I have taken many classes specific to notebook software and have learned many of the tricks.



· How would use of the notebook software benefit student learning?

I feel that notebook software and the SMART Board engages students so much more than teaching without it. All my students pay more attention to the lesson and are eager to come have a turn manipulating something on the board.