Week 12-The Last Hurrah!

Welcome to the last week of Learn and Earn! Thank you for your participation throughout the course of this class. I hope you learned about some new digital tools to use not only for yourself as a teacher but with your students in your classroom.

For those of you taking this class for clock hours, soon we will be sending out the paperwork for you to fill out and return.

This week, for your last “assignment” I'm asking two things:
1. Go back to one or two previous posts and take a look at your classmates’ comments. Choose one or two of these comments to respond to by answering someone’s question, providing your perspective on someone’s idea, offering a suggestion, etc.

2. Provide your feedback about the class using the form below.

Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful school year!

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Week 11-Web 2.0

Web 2.0 refers to the idea that the web is now a place where people can interact and collaborate using tools such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites etc. and is no longer just a place to view information. E-learning Tools for School is a collection of web 2.0 tools. (Click on the plus symbol next to the type of tools you are looking for then click on the tiny icon next to the name to view the site.)

For your post this week: Take some time to explore 5-7 tools in-depth and report back telling us your top 3 tools. Explain how you could see yourself using each tool with your students.

Week 10-The Gift of Knowledge

This week's assignment is optional--you only need to complete it if you missed one of the previous weeks' posts. In the spirit of the holidays, I thought we'd give someone who isn't in our class the gift of something you've learned. Here's how it works:

1. Look over the past posts and find something you think you'd like to pass on to someone else.
2. Pick a person on your staff to receive your "gift of knowledge."
3. Visit that person and say, "Hey, do you have minute so I can show you this cool thing I learned?"
4. Show them. (Don't forget, let them "drive." Only in dire situations should you take over the keyboard or mouse of another person--we learn best by doing.)
5. Come back here and tell us what you shared and why, and a little bit about the experience.
6. Enjoy your break!

Week 9: eBooks

I love RSS feeds! I subscribe to several and I am always finding new ideas for the elementary classroom. I also find some for secondary as well. My two favorite blogs are Free Technology for Teachers and iLearn Technology. I also enjoy free e-books. Richard Byrne, author of the blog Free Technology for Teachers, recently posted a new e-book called The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. It is written by bloggers, teachers, and school administrators. Click here to read his blog post about the book and links to the authors' website/blog. Two of the authors, Kelly Tenkely (former elementary teacher, current technology integration specialist) and Lee Kolbert (elementary teacher) have blogs that I follow as well. (Click on their name to see their blog.) All three have wonderful ideas and resources for elementary classrooms.

For this weeks post, read through The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. Read about the resources in the Elementary School section and the Blogging in Elementary School Classrooms section. Tell us your Top 3 resources for classroom use. How could you use these tools with your students?

Week 8-Pixie

Pixie is a K-5 software with many capabilities. At its basic, it can be used as a drawing program. Some advanced features include audio recordings, creating slideshows and publishing videos. Pixie offers a variety of activities/templates for use with students. (While in the program select Open, Activities, and then select a subject) Teachers have the ability to create their own activities for students as well. Tech4Learning, the company that makes Pixie has an image website called Pics4Learing. These images can be accessed through Pixie.

Tech4Learning.com has some great resources for teachers using their software. You can visit the Trading Post to access activities/projects that have been created by other teachers. (You need to register to access them.) You can visit the Connect tab to read their blogs and forum. Here they also provide ideas for using Pixie as well as their other software.

While exploring the website I found some helpful pages regarding features, integration, training, and videos. They also have a website, Recipes4Learning, made up of full and partial tutorials. Read a recipe when you want to learn all about the application OR read a snack when you want to know about an individual feature. Click on Recipes or Snacks, select your level by clicking on the diamonds (1, 2, or 3) and then select Pixie 2. Finally, choose your tutorial. (I would suggest clicking on the PDF icon or Get Printable Version so you can view it full screen. Otherwise it opens in a small window that cannot be maxamized.)

For this weeks post, visit Tech4Learning and explore the resources available. Use any of the links provided above and share how you plan to use Pixie with your students connected to your grade level curriculum. (Remember Pixie is available on classroom teacher laptops and in the computer labs.)

Week 7-Google, More than Just a Search Engine

Last year you looked at Google Street Map as a possible tool for use in your classroom. Google has numerous tools for educational use such as Custom Search Engines, Groups, and Docs.

For this weeks post, review the two e-books (Google for Teachers, Google for Teachers II) and/or Google for Educators-Tools for Your Classroom and share with the group one or two ideas you have for using Google as a teaching tool and/or with your students.

Check out even more tools here! My favorite is Panoramio.

Week 6-Halfway There!

Well, we're at the halfway point. How is it going? For this week's assignment, I'm asking you to do three things:

1. Provide a little bit of information about your experience so far by answering these questions:
On average how much time do you spend on the assignments?
Do you check back after you post your comment to read other comments?

2. Revisit the previous blog posts (find access to the archived posts in the lower right corner hand of this page), and read through the comments. Find at least one thing to comment on and "reply" to that comment by clicking "reply" and leaving an insight, answer, or suggestion to that comment. One of the benefits of blogging is the conversation it allows for. Imagine if we had done this class via email. I could have sent you each week's post in an email and you could have responded to me with a reply to that email. However, notice how much richer it is to see and respond to each other's thinking using the blog instead.

3. Leave a comment to this post with your "mid-term" reflection. Anything you want to share is fine, but here a few questions you might want to consider: How is this set up working for you? How does learning this way stack up next to more traditional ways of learning? Have you learned anything about the way you learn that might impact how you teach? Any suggestions for the second half of the class? Remember--commenting on someone else's post counts.