After 11 Tools

My toolbox has certainly expanded over the past several weeks. Just as in any toolbox, some tools will be invaluable, some will be neglected, and a couple are just not overly useful. That's OK, and I truly believe that the critical thinking involved in deciding which tools are valuable to each of us personally is one of the largest benefits of this course.

My favorite tools, by far, are PhotoStory, Google Docs, and blogging. For our students, I am so excited about having them present information through digital storytelling. I see geometry and measurement as great opportunities for this. I do have a plan in the works to create a math instruction blog for our campus to facilitate the sharing of information and critical thinking that are so critical to remaining on the cutting edge of good first instruction. I do also plan to share documents with my teachers and administrators with Google Docs instead of constantly printing hard copies or leaving interminable trails of attachments through e-mail.

The real eye-opener for me is how many things I did not know how to do, and I am pretty proficient with technology. Our students are growing and learning in a world where information and digital technology are coming at them at breakneck speed. As educators, we must be responsible for leading them through that maze as best we can and be open to learning ourselves. Never has the tern "lifelong learner" taken on such meaning as it does now in the digital age.

Tool #11: Citizens Unite!

Digital citizenship is a vital part of the digital literacy we and our students are all gaining. For our students, there are several things that I believe must be explicitly taught and continuously modeled.

Etiquette: Just as we teach and model social skills for all students, we must do the same with digital etiquette. The relative anonymity of the Internet makes it much easier for folks to say things they would not in person. I've seen enough shameful behavior from the parenting board I belong to to realize this. Students must realize that although they are not face-to-face with someone, they must still act honorably and be kind. Jokes and sarcasm come across differently on the web as well. The online audience is yet another that we must model how to write to.

Evaluating Credibility: The power of the Internet is that everyone who chooses to use it has a voice. That can also be its weakness. "I read it on the Internet so it must be true" is not a valid reason for accepting a reliable source. This is really such a powerful opportunity for critical reading and thinking, and could be specifically modeled for kids.

Safety, Safety, Safety: Above all, we must teach our students to be safe. Never divulging location and never using full name or age, among many other things, are absolute necessities in a world where the door is always open to "talk to strangers." This also is probably the most valuable thing we can teach them for their computer use outside of school.

All of these things we can teach, whether in the classroom or in conjunction with the Library. We have many tools that are vehicles for this, like Brain Pop, CyberSmart, and NetSmartz. Above all, we must practice being good digital citizens ourselves and be very honest about the citizenship choices we make. Talk the talk and walk the walk...always.

Tool #10: Power in Your Pocket

I, for one, am not quite certain how I lived without my iPhone. It's a world of information that is completely portable, and so easy to use. My 3-year-old son uses it with ease.

I reviewed several free apps, and I plan on actually getting Google Earth, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence for my personal use. I also really loved the NASA 3-D Sun app, which would be great as students learn the properties of the sun. I loved the Level app. Though it may not be entirely accurate, it would be a great tool for having kids check estimates of length they make while working throughout the school building. Sudoku would be a fun extension/problem solving workstation, and Paper Toss would be a good one for exploring the physics if motion. Although they both just seem to be a game, with a strong reflection piece they could be valuable pieces of student learning with accountability.

Because iTouches are basically a pocket web browser, they can be used for anything you would use the web for without having kids tied to classroom computers. They really just open up more of the world for kids to interact with.

Tool #9: The Skype's the Limit

I had never heard of Jing before, but I really like the idea of capturing screenshots and having control over what you capture. I can really see this being used when training kids or teachers on how to use new software. I may have to play around with it a bit prior to the Forethought and Skyward trainings I am doing soon.

I love Skype! Since all of our family lives over 1,000 miles away and my husband frequently travels internationally for work, Skype is used a great deal in my home. The look on my son's face when he was able to talk to and see Daddy in China was amazing. I have also recently gotten the Skype iPhone app, and I'm interested to see how it works. It really just does an amazing job of bringing the large world we live in much closer together.

Tool #8: Two Fours

In honor of tool #8, I give you...two fours!

I begin by kickin' it old school with a little Schoolhouse Rock. I see this as a facts practice opportunity for musically-inclined kids, or as a very fun opener for a lesson on data in a table with a process column.

I then found this little dandy from Sesame Street. (How can you NOT love seeing Feist on Sesame Street??) This could be such a fun video problem-solving task by having kids watch the video then write their own question about it.

There you go. 2 videos x each about 4 = tool 8. :-)

Tool #7: PhotoStory Phun!

I have had experience with PhotoStory before; I often use it to share pictures of my son with family. It was a lot of fun using it in a new context, however. For my example, it could be an opener in an introductory lesson on parallel lines. By seeing the examples, students could then conjecture a definition of parallel lines. It really allows for kids to make connections with the world around them. I frequently had students go on geometry scavenger hunts in 4th grade and take pictures of what they found. This would be a great tool to have them present what they found with a higher level of student accountability. There are really endless possibilities, and digital storytelling could be used just about any time you want kids to share information with the class. This is definitely my favorite tool so far!

Tool #6: WikiSpeaks

Wikis really seem to be a fabulous tool for having an electronic conversation. I could see this being used in a math problem-solving situation with small groups. Students could create a problem solving situation, then trade their wiki problem with another group, who could show their solution on the wiki. Another trade could add in an critique piece so that another group could critique both the problem that was created and the solution. Another possibility would be to have students create their own questions to a problem-solving situation given in a wiki. The possibilities are truly endless. Any real collaborative situation among students could easily take place through a wiki.

By the same token, using a wiki among teachers could be extremely powerful, and streamline the massive strings of e-mails that often seem to occur throughout the school year.

My one question is about the security of wikis. It seems that a great deal of care would have to be taken to protect students' identities. Is there any way to limit who can edit a wiki, or would something with sensitive information be best shared through Google Docs?

Tool #5: Go, Diigo, Go!

I consider myself pretty technologically savvy, but I truly had no idea of the power of social bookmarking. In an overwhelming online environment, social bookmarking can truly bring order out of chaos. Too bad Diigo can't be used on other parts of my life...

I joined Diigo and bookmarked three sites, all having to do with my son's newfound obsession with lighthouses. I visited http://lighthousegetaway.com/, http://www.nps.gov/caha/index.htm, and http://www.obxconnection.com/outer-banks-webcams.htm, and tagged each differently based upon their content.

This can really be an amazing tool for student research and collaboration. By sharing bookmarks and tags in a group, then students could easily share resources. This would likewise work extremely well for teacher collaboration. It could also be a great way for teachers to share specific sites with kids without having to bookmark multiple devices. It's an exciting new tool for me, and I really am looking forward to playing with it more.

Tool #4: A Googol of Possibilities

I really enjoyed monkeying around with Google and its manifold applications today. I had toyed around with Google Docs before, but found it to be difficult to implement at that time, particularly with few folks using Google Docs at that time. Now, with consistent use throughout our campus, I plan on beginning the school year using Google Docs for the many documents that I must share with teachers and campus leadership. Using a template, I began creation of a campus assessment calendar, which last year was posted on a dry-erase board in our workroom. From student information to lab schedules, Google Docs is a fabulous way to share the many documents that fly back and forth among us. It also seems much more "green" and secure than having hard copies of documents all over the place. There are a few people I'll have to wean of the "need" for a hard copy all of the time, though. (This means you, Liska!)

Google Reader is really a nice tool for fostering a collaborative environment. Whether subscribing to the blogs of professional organizations, other teachers, or students, it really makes the keeping track of other blogs streamlined without having to sift through hotlinks or bookmarks.

Google is proving itself to be the Swiss Army Knife of the Internet; it seems there's very little it can't do.

Tool #3 - Long Day = Lame Mashup

I'm loving word clouds, but not at all a fan of trying to get a Wordle saved to post here, so I went to Word It Out instead. I spent the day driving through the eastern North Carolina countryside from the coast to Chapel Hill with an unruly 3-year-old. My word cloud is just a list of the towns we drove through today. My brain isn't capable of much more right now. I can envision this being used to really enrich academic language. Kids could generate a list of words having to do with a topic and then have classmates try to guess their topic. There are many, many possibilities. Academic language is such a challenge, and making vocabulary work novel for kids with higher-level thinking is a challenge for educators. Word cloud tools are a fabulous vehicle for that.

I toyed with almost all of the image generators and had a lot of fun. The possibilities are unlimited for classroom use. Kids often need a way to synthesize the vast amount of information they learn. These multiple sources provide so much choice to kids on how they do that.

Tool #2: Community...in. Cadre...out.

Despite my initial crankiness, I am now getting excited. In the six years (SIX...can you believe it??) I have been in my current role, I have always wanted to create a math committee (or cadre) for my campus. People in education are in love with the word "cadre." Personally, I hate that word. It sounds so harsh and makes me think of an armed militia.

Anyway...I digress. In those six years, I haven't pursued a math committee because of the incredible time demands on teachers. Because of that, I think we have lost many opportunities to build a community of math teachers and learners. I really feel that a campus math instruction blog could be an incredible resource for our campus. There are so many fabulous ideas out there, but our time is so limited that we often miss out on those synergies we could create with more collaboration. A blog offers so much that a committee with scheduled meetings does not. It's ongoing, open to everyone, and online commenting offers a certain degree of comfort that people often lose when speaking in person. I now really want to create a blog for that purpose and get it rolling.

I think the thing that most struck me as I read about effective commenting is to keep it conversational. Acknowledging commenters and asking questions can do a great deal to keep the conversation going.

I have now commented on Maria's Modern Life, Beth's Blog, Number Antics, Coyne's Cool Kids, and Live 2 Learn & Learn 2 Live. I have also commented on my own blog. Do I get extra credit?

Tool #1 Reflection

It's fun getting started with this, but I am a bit concerned about how the course is going to go given the lack of discrimination in this first tool between the "need to knows" and "nice to knows." The blog setup is, by all means, a need to know. The avatar, however, is at best a nice to know, and it really seemed to be a waste of time. Perhaps I'm just tired and cranky.

I can see blogging as being a very useful tool in the classroom. It can definitely foster a collaborative environment where teachers and students can all share their thought processes and solutions to problems.