21st Century! Web 2.0 tools have absolutely changed me, my practices, my classroom, my expectations, my assessments - everything about who I am and what I do for students. When the "explosion" of these tools occurred, the task of combining tools to create lessons became easy. I look for free tools that provide embed codes to pull elements into posts and pages!
Sharing! Web 2.0 is all about sharing - collaborating, writing, authoring, commenting, liking, rating, friending, etc. Web 2.0 is all about embedding - presentations, videos, music, pictures, mind maps, word clouds, time lines, mixbooks, crosswords, etc.
Who's in Charge? My teaching has changed to more of a student-centric method, allowing students to pick topics, applications, formats, images, and sound. If my goal is for students to master and apply several applications, I'll provide the app list to select from, a broad purpose, and criteria, and the students have the freedom to pull the tools together in whatever manner makes sense.
Sharing! Web 2.0 is all about sharing - collaborating, writing, authoring, commenting, liking, rating, friending, etc. Web 2.0 is all about embedding - presentations, videos, music, pictures, mind maps, word clouds, time lines, mixbooks, crosswords, etc.
Web 2.0 is all about making connections!
Who's in Charge? My teaching has changed to more of a student-centric method, allowing students to pick topics, applications, formats, images, and sound. If my goal is for students to master and apply several applications, I'll provide the app list to select from, a broad purpose, and criteria, and the students have the freedom to pull the tools together in whatever manner makes sense.
Bonus! I've become considerably more patient and tolerant
of "work days" as I understand student differences in learning styles
and speed in using online tools. Some students understand embed codes
and HTML buttons by November, recognizing an online tool’s share
functions immediately, and some students are just now seeing the light.
Some students have a knack for mashing tools to create a dynamic blog
post and others are still just entering plain text only.
Gosh, I just started hearing about blogs in the past few years and look how far behind I am already! I checked out all 3 of your blogs and I think that they are truly amazing. I love the different formats that you have chosen for each, that is such a shame that you have to dismantle and move all of that stuff from the first one. Any helpful hints on how to avoid that happening? That would surely put me over the edge if I put all of that work into it.
ReplyDeleteI am just now ready to explore this great new blog world, so your's is a great place to start exploring. Kellie
Your ideas mentioned in the Read/Write/What? article are similar to my thoughts, you are just a lot further along in your development than I am. I am ready to be more of a facilitator, but I need to get my legwork done properly.
DeleteYour blog is amazing. It is visually appealing without being overdone. I love that you incorporated multimedia to the blog. Sometimes I wonder though, how many kids are looking at the multimedia, linking up to it, but then getting lost in "linking"? Often I will find myself feeling guilty of student work days, but your insight on how we should be more tolerant of those days to allow students with learning differences. It is essential we enrich those students who need to move ahead, and those students who need to get some extra help.
ReplyDeleteBrooke W
Oh, yes, you're absolutely right. Students will link out and get sidetracked. I'm constantly roaming the classroom, monitoring where they've gone and bringing them back in! But then, I'm guilty of the same thing - exploring related links. Often, I end up in wonderful places and am inspired for new lesson activities! A bonus?!
ReplyDeleteLouise R