Thursday, January 7, 2010

Purpose of the Blog

The technology committee of the SCF School District needs to determine the present level of teaching and learning practice in the district. The data will be used in the development of the next three year plan to be submitted to the DPI.
Secondly, the sharing of information will allow other staff to know who to access to learn about the use of strategies and practices. This will also provide you an opportunity to use a Web 2.0 tool and explore a strategy for 21st Century Learning.

Please post your responses to this question with some detail on your use. Complete your entry by Friday, February 12, 2010. All staff are required to post an entry. Thanks!

What effective teaching and learning practices, which infuse technology, are you using in your classroom?

7 comments:

Mr. Wondra said...

Quite frankly, despite my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 applications, I have used very few effectively in the classroom. I have used blogger blogs, Shelfari, and I am currently using Wikis.

I would love to use more, but the biggest barrier for me is access. I can't use google apps because students need email accounts to create google accounts. I only was able to use Shelfari by creating an email hack through my own gmail account.

Middle schoolers don't have email accounts that I can control. Thus 90% of Web 2.0 is a logistical nightmare to manage at best or impossible at worst.

This doesn't even address the fact that even the term "blog" was blocked by our filter much of last year. 90% of any social media is also blocked.

Sorry about the rant. I'll explain how I've used blogs, wikis, and Shelfari in my next comment.

Shawn Gudmunsen said...

Currently in the music department we use a lot of different teaching strategies that infuse technology. First- we use department specific software which includes a yearly subscription to smartmusic which a student based music reading and leanring program. Students submit online sight reading and perforamce tracks that are graded by the computer and teacher. We also use composition software to enhance student learning. Outside of music specific technology Brian and I currently use facebook and gaggle,email, web page and now moodle as a means for discussion groups and blogging, and homework assignments and communication to parents. I also use the active slate daily in class to give announcements, demonstrate choral things that align within the music and technology standards for high school and middle school. Our goal in the HS Music department this year is to be a completely technology based classroom by the end of the year with little use of any paper 'handout' type assignments and communications.

Hope this helps and thanks for the invitation!

Mr. Wondra said...

Shelfari is an application where students can track, comment on, and review books that they have read. They can read others reviews as well.

Wikispaces Wikis: I've used this to upload and share student work, teach students how to create pages, links, and comment on content (student work) that is there.

Blogger: In the past, I've used blogs as online logs or journals used during a novel unit. But like I said--managing student accounts became too much of a hassle so I gave it up.

bdunn said...

Due to time constraints, lack of access, and like Chris said, the hassle of managing accounts that require email addresses, my technology use is rather limited. Last year, I used wikispaces to have student blog about current events, but have not been able to make it work well this year. Students obviously use computers to check grades and type papers, and I have done an internet research assignment as well.

As far as Tech and Comm goes, I assign projects to help students familiarize themselves with Photoshop, Comic Life, Word, Excel, and keyboarding.

Mrs. Germain said...

Gaggle: In my ninth grade classes, the students have connected with German students via e-mail (their SCF Gaggle.net accounts). My next step is to attempt to connect with those students or another group of global students through Skype.

I had planned to also use Digital Storytelling with the ninth graders, but unfortunately, the inevitable happened: we ran out of time.

WebQuest: The internet has made WebQuests available, and with a bit of searching, I have been able to find WebQuests for my American Literature course. These are great for students to complete when they have subs because the students do all of the work: exploring, researching, analyzing, and synthesizing.

scott Petznick said...

Some of the newest things I have done is create videos as learning tools for the students. They are funny little puppet videos that encourage learning in a funny way. I am also using youtube videos and other web based media for building background knowledge on things we are learning in social studies and science. With the addition of the excellence for learning computers, I have been using them for my upper students to expand their learning. They are currently connecting to reading web sites that use games to teach different areas in reading. I am hoping in the future to have them build some promethean flip charts with some of the new things they are learning.

Mark Sirinek said...

In my high school math classroom and am using technology in a variety of ways. Using the Active Slate, document camera and projector, I can switch from math videos (available on a number of different sites) to the promethean software where I can do sample problems or add to a PDF displayed on the screen to a document being displayed under the document camera. This not only provides many useful tools, but also provides students with a change of pace every so often to refresh their interest and attention.

I am also using my webpage as a tool to distribute information to my classes.

I also used email to keep students informed as to what the assignments are and to forward video links to students while they are sick. This came in very useful last fall when the H1N1 virus was taraveling around school and many students were missing. They were able to stay caught up while at home.

Hope this is what you were looking for.