Google Reader

I LOVE Google Reader!

Can I say that again?

I LOVE Google Reader!

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Google reader is great because it instantly connects me with all of my classmates blogs. For example, I can easily see that Felicia has updated a blog post about Diigo, or I can read Krysta's thoughts on our class Wiki.

I check Google reader at least once a week to find new blog postings or simply as a quick link to my classmate's blogs. At this point I am pretty sure that I have subscribed to all of my classmates blogs. I have a good list of names and blogs to click on each week!

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley? What is that? http://www.flatstanley.com/ outlines this incredibly creative project for young readers and writers. The Flat Stanley project is based off Flat Stanley books by Jeff Brown.

Image credit: http://www.amazon.com/

Elementary schools across the globe have initiated the Flat Stanley project with their students. After reading the Flat Stanley books, the students then create their own paper 'Flat Stanley.' Teachers register their class on the official website, and then contact another school from a list of schools. Once a connection between schools has been made the students are ready to mail off their Flat Stanley projects. The receiving school typically takes pictures of Flat Stanley as he is on his vacation to send back to the students who made him.

The most important part of this project is that young students gain literacy skills as they engage in  pen-pal like exchange. The children also learn geography skills as they track Flat Stanley's travels.



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Digital Storytelling Samples

This week we had the opportunity to explore a variety of videos to better understand digital storytelling. The two YouTube videos we watched Digital Storytelling in the Classroom and Classroom Innovation with Digital Storytelling provided great detail of what digital storytelling is and how it can be used. In addition to the descriptive videos, we also chose from a large amount of digital storytelling samples. For example, one of the social studies videos I watched was about the Holocaust. The creater of this video combined pictures, music, and informational text to create a moving digital story.

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Digital stories are positive ways for students to share what they have learned about in a creative way. This type of technological learning can be used for all core content area subjects. Even early elementary students can write their own stories and choose music and pictures to go along!

Skyping with Aviva

Skyping during class with Aviva and two of her second grade students was a great experience. The children seemed very sweet and were not shy about sharing their affinity to using technology in the classroom.

One of the issues that was brought up in our conversation was how children are able to use the technology at home. Aviva described how all of the children in her class have access to some sort of technology. The devices the children own include, but are not limited to, computers, tablets, and smartphones. Aviva told us how many of the parents in her class are eager to be involved. Most commonly, parents read what their children have written on the classroom blog. The children also go online at home post comments on classmates postings.

The video 'Technology Provides Parents a Window on the Classroom by Linking Home to School' shows a parent whose child is doing online journaling at school. The parent can access and read the child's entries, as well as other upcoming assignments on the website. In this case, the parent is even e-mailed every time a new grade is posted.

How have you seen parent communication via the internet used?

Diigo Continued



My Diigo Page

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Diigo is an interesting tool that allows users to create online bookmarks for websites that are frequented. I personally don't enjoy using Diigo. I understand how to use Diigo, and why it is used, but I simply don't prefer to use this site. As a whole, I mostly use one computer for my work. I do go on other computers at work or at SJC, but when I am on those computers I am doing specific work, not browsing the web. Perhaps if I was using all computers equally I would find more value in using the Diigo bookmarking tool.

Skyping with Alan November

Coming into class on February 23, I was a little apprehensive knowing that we were going to be staring eye to eye (digitally!) with the author of our textbook. Even though we had a assigned roles for opening and closing the conversation, pre-prepared questions, and sufficient notice that we were going to be in the 'hot seat,' the Skype conversation at hand was still daunting.

Image Credit: http://novemberlearning.com/

November's dedication to keeping technology at the root of education was evident with every point he made. His tone was almost indignant at the thought that we might question when children are at an appropriate age to begin using social networking in the classroom: He responded: "when do you give children a pencil for the first time?"

Alan's website  is a great hub of information for educators to explore articles, podcasts, or upcoming conference information. His information base is huge and highly revered by education community.