PB16_2009104_Comment 3

This is a response to the following post by Gerald Buss

BP10_2009102_Flickr

This is what I had to say:

PB17_2009104_Final Project Video

This is my Final Video Project titled:

ACCESS. WHY NOT?
Click here to watch it in Viddler for better quality.

PB15_2009103_Comment 2

Response to Brenda M. Soto's post on

BP13_2009103_ReflectiveAsset2

This is a picture of her video. To view it, please click on the picture and you will be redirected to her post and will be able to watch it.

ZOHO by Brenda M. Soto

This is her written description of this tool:

PB14_2009102_Comment 1

In response to Lina Valery's 

PB12_2009103_Masher

My mission over the last few weeks has been to continue searching for free, easy to use tools, which can assist homeschool parents and children in creating digital stories. Another one of these great Web 2.0 tools that I’ve been able to successfully incorporate onto the Action Research library of work is www.masher.com.

To begin working on the masher.com site, all that is required for a new user to begin making movies, is creating a login. There is nothing to download and users can even select from a variety of videos, already available from the masher library. Once a project is completed, the user can then take the embedded code, straight from the masher site and place the newly created video on a blog, email, social network, or their own personal website.

The library of media already available in masher is pretty extensive. The audio tracks, text, skins, videos, and effects they provide make creating a media project simple enough for a younger student to do on their own. Simple drag and drop features and one click video “mashing” make this tool a good resource for presentations. So, a student can focus the majority of time and effort on the actual project topic, research, content, and message; rather than spending a lot of time learning new software that commonly has an existing learning curve.

The video below was completed using masher.com. So, if you enjoy the following movie, just log in take your own quick tour of masher’s features, and simple begin mashing a video of your own.

If you are interested in more information, the above blog entry has an introductory video of the masher site.

Comment by: Taylor-Roman Saray

Hi Lina,

I really enjoyed watching your video and learning more about MASHER. It seems like a great educational tool. I really like the fact that there is no need to download anything. I was also drawn to its user-friendly interface that you showed in your 1 minute video of why you chose MASHER as the Best Web 2.0 tool.

I look forward to playing with it once I have a chance. Hopefully, this too will be a tool that I can apply to my Spanish courses.

PB13_2009103_Reflective Media Asset 2

My favorite Web 2.0 tool of this week was Google Calendar.
I was losing my voice around this time. I apologize if it's hard to understand.
Thanks!

PB12_2009103_YouTube

After debating whether or not I should include Youtube as one of my Web 2.0 tools I decided to go ahead. While there are several implementation issues to using Youtube. I think this a tool that has lots of potential in my Spanish 2 Honors class.

One of the main reasons is accessibility. Let me tell you how it all started. Last year, when I got married my husband and I decided to change our last names. That did not happen until January 2009 after a costly visit to the Knoxville Court House. Then, we became the Taylor-Romans. I submitted my name change to all required institutions but it was not until late August 2009 that my e-mail at school changed. With it, everything related to computers and internet access at school also changed leaving me without access to e-mail and many other things for over a month.

Of course, I cannot put a halt to student projects. So, I asked students to save their movies, word documents, and audio files to my secure drive at school. My new drive did not work. So, we tried the old one and it did. However, when it was time to view and grade them I could not access them because I had a new drive ID that was not compatible. It was quite frustrating.

So, I decided to open an account with the gmail account I created for my Spanish classes. Once I was able to access the videos, I uploaded them to this account. Which is a private account. Only people with whom I share the private link can see and access the videos.  But most importantly, I can access the videos even from my phone and so, on the way back from picking up my husband from work I can be watching the videos and assigning grades while my husband drives back home (about 30 minutes).

Another great benefit of using YouTube to store my students videos is that there is no limit to storage, which was another issue I encountered when we tried to upload the second video project and we could not fit them in my drive anymore.

This quick video shows you my youtube video library.



Finally, the greatest benefit is that YouTube is a PRICELESS tool in the same way that my google tools are! What more could I ask for?

PB11_2009103_Twitter

Me lo dijo un pajarito... (A little birdie told me...)

Here's a picture of our Twitter

Twitter is another Web 2.0 tool that I have used this academic year. It was until this week, however, that my students started using it fully. And while not all students see its advantages, these are some of the things that my students and I love about it:

1. Use of Spanish beyond the classroom setting
2. Increased teacher-student and student-student communication
3. Homework friendly reminders
4. Quick way to ask teacher or a classmate a question
5. Great way to stay in touch even when absent

PB10_2009103_Google Calendar

At the beginning of this month I was developing an overarching calendar with Microsoft Publisher that showed the major events in my Spanish 2 Honor class. It included the day's topic as well as due dates for homework assignments, tests, quizzes, and projects.

In about two days I created a master schedule from October 2009 to February 2010. Once that was done, I was about to take it to the copier. When suddently, it dawn on me, what if some school days are cancelled, what if we decide to linger on a topic, what if we move faster than expected, wouldn't that printed calendar become obsolete?

So, I decided to explore Google Calendar. And I just loved it! This video shows you a quick overview on how I got started.



A final note: I love the fact that whenever I need to update it, I can send my students a notification and all changes are reflected in their calendar. No more obsolete calendars!

PB9_2009103_Flickr

I had heard of Flickr but like many other Web 2.0 tools I had not realized the potential it has for being used in Education, until I was researching some uses of Social Bookmarking for my Del.icio.us post earlier.

And I found out that Flickr can be used in many ways that I can apply to my Spanish courses:

1. Spelling - students can learn how to spell new vocabulary in Spanish by forming words with letter pictures they find in Flickr.

2. Mnemonic Memorization - instead of paper flashcards or memorization by writing, students can develop new vocabulary by seeing an array of images of a vocabulary word in Flickr.

I found the following list of Flickr uses Using Flickr in the Classroom. I hope you find some of them useful and/or applicable to your own courses.

1. Anywhere visual images are required, such as presentation, etc. 

2. Single image analysis 

3. Single image writing prompt, sometimes called Flicktion 

4. Multiple image digital storytelling projects 

5. Creating slides shows within Flickr 

6. Virtual Field Trips 

7. Creation of visual arguments, e.g. biology classroom-The Case for Genetic Engineering 

8. Illustration of Poetry with Flickr, or Flickr meets Carl Sandburg 

9. Using Flickr with Google Earth to teach Geography 

10. Visual documentation of school events 

11. Visual documentation of student artwork and other school products 

12. Creation of digital visual portfolios, using the photoset function of Flickr 

13. Social software applications:  how to tag, how to make comments 

14. Delivery of school/classroom visual information via RSS  

15. Intellectual property rights lesson using Flickr Creative Commons licensing 

16. The use of third party Flickr applications to produce classroom products: 

       a. Motivational posters 

       b. Magazine Covers 

       c. Movie Posters 

       d. Flickr slideshow 

       e. Mosaic Makers 

PB8_2009102_Reflective Media Asset 1

My favorite tool this week was Google Documents
Here's my one-minute commercial. Let me know what you think about it:

PB7_2009102_Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a Web 2.0 tool that I stumbled upon when our Tech Teacher sent us an e-mail with a link to an online survey. I took the survey and then, I decided to explore it further. Here's the video of my monkey quest.

While I have not used it yet, I have several things in mind:

1. Quick survey to parents, this will prove beneficial when trying new software or sites. See what parents think of it.
2. Pre Assessments. At the beginning of the year I give a pre assessment to see where students are and the steps I need to take to get them where I want them to be. I think that using Survey Monkey would eliminate the test anxiety that sometimes affects the outcome in pre assessments.
3. Continuous Asssessment of my practices: How are students using, enjoying, benefitting from the tools we are using in class. This will allow the experts (my students) give me feedback on which tools are more useful, etc.
4. Course Evaluation from students and parents. I have always asked for an evaluation from my students. Now, I can also add one from parents. The great thing about using Survey Monkey is the anonymity factor. Who does not like that?

PB6_2009102_Spanish Pod

This is one of tools I discovered in the Web 2.0 tools under e-learning.

Their slogan is "Learn Spanish on your own terms".

Spanish Pod uses audio files to deliver vocabulary, grammar, and cultural content related to Spanish. Their team is comprised of five individuals. Four of which are from a Spanish-speaking country.

The quality of their audio files is very high. I was also happy to hear different accents throughout which is something I cannot do in class. Overall, I was very pleased with what the site offers. However, you cannot have everything in life. And in order to access everything, we need to talk money. Which made me think of my beloved Google Docs and Google Calendar. They are PriceLESS in every way.

Now, let me show you this video, so you can see what I have been talking/writing about.This is one of tools I discovered in the Web 2.0 tools under e-learning.

PB5_2009102_Google Documents

While we were introduced to Google Documents last month, and I loved the easiness of collaboration that it allows. I wanted to further explore it and see how suitable it would be for my High School classes.

So, I decided to take the tour that Google offers and I discover several new things and I was very excited about using it with my Spanish 2 Honor students. The following video shows better my quest (this video contains a youtube video that I watched as I was getting familiarized with all the tools that google docs offers):



So, after I implemented it in my Spanish courses, here is a list of some issues that I encountered:

1. All students needed gmail accounts. We went to the Foreign Language Lab and created accounts. However, because all of the computers in school have the same IEP address, google thought we were spammers and only 20 students out of 60 were able to open their accounts that day. So, I asked students to open a gmail account at home.

2. Not all students have a computer or Internet access at home. For this students, I was able to give them library passes so that they could also take advantage of this technology.

3. Some parents were weary of their children opening a gmail account, after sharing the uses of gmail linked to google documents and their potential, parents were content.

4. Gmail and Google documents are blocked by our school system. Therefore, I took the risk to provide my students with my own login and password to override the sites. I had to change my password with every new class. They had also been instructed to only use the password for class related assignments. I have Visio installed in our lab computers, so I could monitor whether or not students were adhering to the guidelines. I was happy to see they did.

5. Most students quickly understood how to use it. They were very happy to see that I could provide them feedback sometimes at the same time they were making corrections. I was very happy to know that the dog "could not eat their paper".

PB4_2009102_Delicious

Social Bookmarking in Education 1

Running Head: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING IN EDUCATION

Social Bookmarking:

Making Meaningful Connections In Educational Settings

Silvia Saray Taylor-Román

Full Sail University

Social Bookmarking in Education 2

Social Bookmarking: Making Meaningful Connections In Education

      According to a study by Hanson and Carlson finding useful information for educational purposes has become a tedious task for both teachers and students. In their study, they explained that while the level of technological expertise was key, they also declared that there needs to be a system that allows sharing of  information in a education-friendly manner (2005). Some technological strategies have been developed to target this educational and technological need, among them are social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Diigo, CiteULike, and Flickr.

     Wikipedia editors have described social bookmarking as a "method for internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources"(2009). Bull in his article Folk Taxonomies described it as a "strategy for finding useful information" in the ever growing world wide web. He also explained that this strategy has been "based on the ability of the Web to aggregate patterns of information contributed by many individuals" (2005). Moreover, DesRoches declared an added advantage to social bookmarking which is the fact that everything is saved "on the Web - instead of inside [one's] browser - making [the resources] available from home, school, the library, or anywhere with Internet access" (2007).

      Another great advantage to using social bookmarking described by Greenhow based on her research on The Wealth of Networks by Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler is that it enables people to "become more critical, self-reflective, and collectively intelligent" (2009).  She further explained "social bookmarking sites... can provide the resources to facilitates scholarly approach to teaching where teachers concerned with developing research-based best practices can collectively assemble, annotate, recommend, and share scholarly resources, such as books, journal articles, websites, and contacts. Social scholarly practices leverage and archive our collective intelligence" (2009).

      Bull (2005), Rethlefsen (2007), DesRoches (2007) and Greenhow (2009) have provided real-life examples on how these emergent social bookmarking technologies have been used for educational purposes. The following table showcases their findings.

Table 1

Using Social Bookmarking in Education

Note: Please click on the chart to view enlarged image.

      In conclusion, social bookmarking is making possible to store, share, and find educational information on the Web without the time-consuming factor. Also, because of the richness and different levels of depth in the material found on the Web, social bookmarking can be used in any imaginable educational course as evidenced in the table above. Therefore, it is up to teachers, administrators, parents, and students to harness the power of social collaboration from these technologies to engage in more meaningful connections that go beyond the classroom setting.

Social Bookmarking in Education 3

References

Bull, G. (2005). Folk taxonomies: Connected classroom. Learning and Leading with Technology, 33 (1), 22-33. http://search.ebscohost.com

DesRoches, D. (2007). All together now: Social bookmarking offers a new way to store and share websites. School Library Journal, 53 (1), 33. http://search.ebscohost.com

Greenhow, C. (2009). Tapping the wealth of social networks for professional development. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36 (8), 10-11. http://search.ebscohost.com

Hanson, K. & Carlson B. (2005) Effective access: Teachers' use of digital resources. Educational Development Center Inc. http://www2.edc.org/GDI/

Rethlefsen, M. (2007). Tags help make libraries del.icio.us: Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation. Library Journal, 132 (15) 26-28. http://search.ebscohost.com

iGoogle Home Page

This is a screenshot of my iGoogle homepage a.k.a. WGO.

The gadgets that I've included are the following:

1. Top Left: Facebook
2. Top Center: Twitter
3. Top Right: To Do List
4. Middle Left: Gmail
5. Middle Center: Places to See
6. Middle Right: Gmail Calendar
7. Bottom Left: Discovery News
8. Bottom Center: PBS Frontline News
9. Bottom Right: CNN.com - World

iGoogle AR Blog Page

This is a screenshot of my AR Blog page in iGoogle. I've included the following gadgets on it.

1. Left: Google Bookmarks
2. Right: Del.icio.us Bookmarks

iGoogle ETC Page

This is my ETC page on iGoogle. Just in case the image is too small. These are the gadgets I've included: 

1. Top Left: Blogger
2. Top Right: My Listy
3. Google Reader
4. Google Docs

BP3_2009101_Educational-RSS-Feeds

This is the list to my RSS feeds. I have included a brief description to each.

1. Edutopia Blog and Videos. This is a great site to get inspired and to grab ideas of what's going on in K-12 Education today throughout the U.S. I've also subscribed to their podcast in my iTunes.
2. 21st Century Skills. Another great website with resources and ideas on how to teach the skills that our students will need to succeed in today's world. They emphasize the need to teach content and life skills.
3. Catalina Bohorquez Site. A site by one of EMDT recent graduates. She is a Spanish teacher and she was also the Advanced Achiever for her graduating class. Her site showcases how down-to-earth, meaningful, customizable, and applicable everything that we are learning in this master's program is. I loved her site, it's inspired me!
4. PBS Digital Nation - Learning. I love this site. It includes blogs, comments, current threads, and even surveys that deal with how technology is reshaping America. It is very interesting.
5. Foreign Language Blog 
6. The Language Chronicle

BP2_2009101_Anti-Teaching

Assuming that our current educational system does not satisfy the needs of most of our learners, what would work?

I'm sure that a lot of us have asked that question. Here are my personal insights. Let me know what you think.

The new buzz term at our district is Differentiated Instruction. Would it not be wonderful if every student learned at their own pace, if the content was customizable to the student's needs and interests, if the resources were available 24/7, if students directed their own learning? 


While researching for my first post, I found a very interesting article by Michaela W. Colombo and Paul D. Colombo Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instruction. Among the key ideas that they discuss is that technology makes it possible cater to the needs, strengths, and interests of students across the whole learning spectrum. Moreover, collaborative technology allows students to develop some real world skills that they will need to use outside of the classroom to succeed in life, such as social and metacognitive skills.


I strongly believe that technology could help us individualize instruction and learning for each of our students. When we individualize their learning, they are able to draw from their strongest multiple intelligences, and direct their own learning. Just like in the example posted by Michael Wesch Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance, students take charge of their own learning and thus, subject content is both relevant and significant to the student.

BP1_2009101_Educational-Uses-of-Blogs

What are blogs? According to Wikipedia, a blog is "a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog." 


While there are many types of blogs over a myriad of topics, the leading question for my entry today is how are they being used for educational purposes?


Helena Echlin from Edutopia in her digital discussion: Take Your Class to the Internet claims that "blogging can be a powerful educational tool." Whether some teachers see it as "an electronic notebook -- one student can't lose (or claim the dog ate)" or "a forum where a class discussion can unfold 24/7". She also mentions that a blog can be customized for classroom management, a learning journal, an online notebook, a class discussion forum, o a place for personal expression. 


When getting started, Mimi Gilman, also from Edutopia, mentions that teachers may not know where to start and so, she posted some Starting Points for Newcomers.


The Online Education Database (OEDb) offers a list of the Top 100 Education Blogs that are listed by topic chosen by their staff. Edublogs, are currently powering over 377,000 blogs that are targeted only to teachers and students. These two links may be your initial stops to give you a thorough overview of how blogs are reshaping education today.


The following is a list of research-based articles about blogs and their impact and uses in education. I suggest you browse through them if you have a bit more time to keep reading. Some of the topics that come up is blogs' usefulness, stories of success using blogs in different subject fields, as well as concerns on implementing blogs in the K-12 classroom. 

1. Techtalk: Web 2.0, Blogs, and Developmental Education
2. Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with Youtube, Digital Stories, and Blogs.
3. Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects
4. Student Blogs Mark a New Frontier for School Discipline
5. Blogs: A Natural in Business Communication Courses
6. Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instruction
7. Exploring Educational Use of Blogs in U.S. Education
8. Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community of Practice
9. Reflections on Using Blogs to Expand In-Class Discussion
10. To Blog or Not to Blog
11. Blogs and Wikis as Instructional Tools