As I reviewed articles in my aggregator, I found an interesting article about epistemic games in misterteacher.com. The use of games to teach students to think and problem solve is a plus in math class. The video shared some good ideas. Using google reader can keep teachers up to date on areas of interest. This is much easier than spending an afternoon to search through sites and blogs.
1 comment June 30th, 2008
LibraryThing is like an online book club. You can find titles, reviews, other suggestions, search by topics. You can also join groups– one group had a goal to read and review 50 books this year.
How can we use this as teachers? We have a book group in the junior high for summer reading. Students choose their books and teachers read the book as well. My group chose the book, Behind the Curtain. When school begins, we will get together in small groups to discuss the chosen book. The LibraryThing can be used for interested students to create reviews, get ideas for other books to read and get interested students enthusiastic about reading.
Add comment June 30th, 2008
Quizlet and Tadalist are two tools that are easily incorporated into my classroom. The tadalist is not only great for me to keep list of things to do; it could be used by my students in planning projects. The list could be emailed to me as a record of their plan. If I had them email the list to me periodically, I could keep track of their progress.
Quizlet is another great tool, especially for math vocabulary. I hope to have my students create a wiki of geometry concepts. Using quizlet and embedding the set into the wiki would help the others students as they learn the concepts. This could also be the vocabulary part of student notes.
1 comment June 29th, 2008
Making slideshows was a fun activity. I tried Rockyou – too much rock for me, Bubbleshare – saving took an infinite amount of time and Slide – easy and fun. I can see how this makes a fun presentation, teacher or student. Using Flickr for geometric shapes and Slide for the puzzle effect made a easily put together presentation. Using these slide shows or Photostory would make a more interesting presentation than powerpoint, although powerpoints are still valid presentations for sharing information.
Add comment June 27th, 2008
I’ve enjoyed exploring the varied uses of Flickr. Having just begun a Flickr account with pictures of my new granddaughter, I love the photo-sharing potential. With the ability to search on photos with creative commons, finding usable pictures is much simplier. Teaching math I hadn’t thought too much about my students searching Flickr for images, but found a blog from one of my favorite resources, misterteacher, that argued against using it with students. After making several searches this morning of math topics, I did find a few objectionable images. How do we decide if we want to take a chance of inappropriate pictures? Do we take the opportunity teach media literacy?
How can I use images for my math class? What geometric shapes can you identify in this picture? Students could make their own digital pictures to load into Flickr, but wouldn’t they need their own accounts so they could receive credit?
Image by uBookworm
2 comments June 27th, 2008
I have always been confused as a teacher about what can be used and what can’t be used from the internet. What is fair use? Creative commons licenses take the mystery out of what you can and cannot do. Hurrah! I’ve gone back and looked at several sites that I use as resources and found several with a creatives common license. I know that from now on I will look for this on my resources and choose sites with these licenses. This was a common license that I found used on the educational resources.
It is also good to know that my material is owned by me and I can choose how they can be shared. My publishings on the internet – webquests, blogs, etc. – will be have creative commons licenses in the future.
Add comment June 24th, 2008
I have now skimmed my 112 sites and found that some were quite interesting and wished I had more time to look at them. Maybe I can get back to them later. I know I will be improving my “skimming” skills, good thing I had speed reading years ago. I think that the RSS aggregator can be very helpful in keeping up with educational technology and new ideas as well as any topic I’m particularly interested in. I think it would be very helpful to use with students to keep up with current events or in geography to keep up with a particular city or country. Our students can become experts by choosing wisely the feeds to follow.
Add comment June 11th, 2008
While attending another group of workshops, I had already started my Google Reader and were “monitoring” some websites. Well, they were monitored; I did not often check them so they continue to pile up. I have 112 new (not actually still new) sites to peruse. Remembering to check them has been my problem. This summer may give me a chance to make it a habit.
I really liked the sites recommended, especially the Infinite Thinking Machine. It discussed Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody, which I am in the midst of reading. As I searched for a good link for his book, I found that he has started a blog about it. Then it proceeded to show how to use these Web 2.0 skills to plan a workshop. It also shared about Google Gears, an offline tools for viewing Google docs. This looks like a helpful and useful site worthy of monitoring.
1 comment June 3rd, 2008
It was interesting that two of the blogs were math related. Dan’s comments coincide with Alfie Kohn’s philosophy. The comments show what a controversial topic it is. I had read the book, The Homework Myth, by Alfie Kohn this past year and found it thought provoking — so much so that I tried an experiment with homework in my Honors Algebra 1 class. I allowed the students to choose which problems they should do for practice. Although the notes were structured with vocabulary and example problems, they could choose the number and type of problems they needed to practice. This resulted in similar test scores as well as students taking responsibility for their learning. In reflections most of my students liked the new method giving them more flexibility and independence. Some students found that they procrastinated too much, but worked on that problem during the next chapter. Many of my students recommended that I begin the year with this new method. I’m still deciding the changes for next year.
The other math blog was an example of class notes. I had been considering using a wiki and having students provide notes for the day. This example showed several ways students could provide notes. I liked it.
Wandering Ink took exception to our education system which, he feels, thwarts creativity and imagination. This was a well written indictment of education today. Anyone with an opinion can speak to a wide ranging audience. Blogging has opened up the world and everyone in it to express themselves and connect with others. Not only to “speak”, but also to “listen”.
6 comments June 2nd, 2008
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