Using New Technologies u02a1

I interviewed another teacher, Sandy, who lives in a different area of Iowa. I choose this teacher because she not only has years of experience in the classroom, but is constantly integrating web 2.0 technology tools. When on the phone, she decided to discuss the website www.storybird.com with me. Coincidentally, this is a tool we both utilize in our classrooms.

Recommendations from other teachers is one starting place for Sandy when looking for a tool to use in her Gift and Talented and/or English as a Second Language students. Sandy stated that when she chooses a web 2.0 tool, the first thing she does is filter it through the Iowa Core. She determines if it aligns with the standards for the grade in which she is working with. If it does, then she bases her decision on student interest as well as ease of use for educators.

Fortunately for Sandy, she does not typically need special permission from administration to implement new tools. Using her own good judgement and checking the user agreements for age of use is how she avoids obstacles with technology tools. For example, Storybird is geared towards educators and students, the user agreements allows for children 13 and under to operate it, and she tested the website before presenting it to her class.

Sandy has a few pieces of advice for other teachers looking to incorporate Storybird into their projects. Focusing on the writing or editing process is the best use of Storybird. The explicit instruction model works extremely well when introducing this tool to upper elementary or middle school students. For example, first, Sandy shows the class how to operate the website in a whole-class setting. Then, together, the class makes a trial story together employing the information they learned from the previous step. Together, students walk through each step of the story making process on the website. Now, students have the ability and confidence to create their own story on their own. During the last phase of explicit teaching, Sandy explains how her students can self and peer edit their pieces of work. 

One last piece of advice Sandy gives is Storybird is a great tool for differentiating instruction because students have the ability to work at their own level. Each student has a differing writing ability and can be fairly graded on their individual abilities when employing this web 2.0 tool. Teachers can easily scaffold each student at their level. For example, when writing a story, some students are able to include a beginning, middle and end, while others have mastered this skill and can move on to including dialogue. Here are a few examples of Sandy's student's work.

I agree wholeheartedly in all that Sandy stated. I find it extremely important to check the user agreements before implementing any new tool. The safety and security of my students is a top priority. I also recognize testing the tool for alignment with standards is also important. It is good to have students using technology tools, but there should always be a purpose. One additional way I determine the validity of a tool is thinking about where it falls on the SAMR scale. If I am going to use a tool with my students, I want to ensure I'm using it with the goals for my students and an end in mind.

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I created a license for my blog and chose the Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) license. Per the website wiki.creativecommons.org, this license allows others to download my material, make changes, but also give me credit. In addition, users cannot use my information for commercial purposes. I chose this license because I understand the importance of allowing others to build off people's ideas. If we don't allow others to access our ideas and suggestions, it is hard to make creative growth. When I started teaching, there was very little on the internet regarding awesome lessons and project ideas. I typically had to buy a book that provided me with new ideas. Today, we have access to a tremendous amount of ideas because teachers are willing to share. Twitter is a wonderful example, I have a constant stream of new ideas and thoughts coming my way every day. If I'm struggling, I can post a question and in minutes have suggestions or answers. This license aids me in continuing this process.

However, though I believe it is important for others to take my ideas and thoughts and use them in positive ways, I do not want others making money from it in a commercial sense. There is a lot to be said about the free flow of ideas and for others to make money off what other people think, I believe, would start to cripple the great sense of sharing that our country has right now.

Licensing Portal for Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2017, from https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Licensing_Portal_for_Educators

Tech Tool Tuesday - Writing

To continue with the writing theme for October, I have found a great app for student blogging. I have always loved kidblog.org but unfortunately Kidblog has decided to make money off their website so now it is no longer free. Boo! A free and reliable replacement is SeeSaw. The site is technically for student digital portfolios, but there is also a blogging area. You can find more information at http://web.seesaw.me/blogs/

This site is teacher moderated and easy to use by students. You can share the student work with other students and families or keep it private. You can even find other classrooms to blog with! Seesaw works on a computer as well as an iPad. There is a paid version, but I would stick with the free version as this has many features. One of the great free features is students can scan a QR code to sign in, instead of remembering a username and password!

Tech Tool Tuesday - October 18th - Writing

To keep with the writing theme for October, I presented 2 resources during the October 18th Tech Tool Tuesday presentation.

Boom Writer

Students can use this online writing tool to develop their creative writing skills and understanding of literacy elements. When a teacher sets up a Boom Writer account, s/he then creates accounts for his/her students as well. The teacher can choose from 3 different activities - Story Writer, Word Writer, and Project writer. The activity presented on Tuesday was the Story Writer. The first step is to present a writing prompt to the class. A teacher can create his/her own or use the multitude of examples available on the website. Then, students write a response to their teacher's prompt using the Boomwriter website. Once all prompts are submitted, the class will choose which response is the best; this will be chapter one of their class story. Next, the students use the winning response as a catapult to write the next chapter of the story and submit it via the Boomwriter website. Another winner is chosen and the process continues until the story is completed. When voting, the students are not able to see the name of the author, making the decision process more authentic.

Storybird

Teachers will sign up on the Storybird website and provide their students with a class code. When I had 5th graders sign up for accounts, I had them use their district provided username and password to keep things simple. Once in your class account, students will choose a set of drawings from the website. These drawings were created by artists. There is a plethora of options available, so it may take students time to decide on the set they would like to use.

 Once a set is chosen, students are taken to a the builder area of the website where they can drag and drop the pictures onto a page. 

This is also where they add text and dialogue. The challenge for the students to write a story utilizing the pictures as guide. The text should make sense with the pictures on the page. The end result is an online book with beautiful pictures and a story crafted by the student. Teachers can also order their student's books for $2.99 each.

Tech Tool Tuesday - October 4th - Writing

Scholastic Story Starter: This month I am focusing on tools which aid students in increasing their writing abilities. The first tool is Story Starts from Scholastic. There is no login needed - just go to the link. This site can be used whole class or by individual students. I like this website because the story starters are fairly interesting and it's geared toward different level of writers. You can choose from four different themes, then your grade level of PreK-1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th-6th. Students can use the website to type their response or it can be transcribed on a piece of paper. Please see my screen-cast for further information.

Edublogs: Blogging is a wonderful way to include authentic writing. If you publish student blogs online for others to view outside the school or even make them available for peer review, you may be more likely to get students to write with enthusiasm and care. Blogs can also be a way to teach positive feedback if you allow students to comment on each other's work. I recommend Kidblog because of it's ease of use and ability to keep blogs private to just people in your classroom. The downfall is that if you don't already have an account, you will need to pay $44 per year after the free 30 day trial. If you created an account last year when it was still completely free, you don't have to worry about the price. Another place for free blogging is edublogs.org. It is less user-friendly for the students, but still manageable. If blogging is something you would like to include in your curriculum, please let me know and I can help you get set up.

Tech Tool Tuesday - Digital Book Resources - September 20th

This week's session focused on enabling students to read from online textbooks or with book audio. There are various ways your students can read or listen to books and below I have listed four different resources with accompanying screen-casts.

Epic - an app and a website that is great for all students Prek-5. My internet is slow at home, so you couldn't see how amazing the books look since it takes a while to load.

Overdrive - an app and a website provided by the public libraries. You need a library card to sign in and borrow books. Students can read or listen to the books, a lot like a Kindle.

Playaway - checked out from AEA267

MackinVia - Students log in with the same username and password they use for their email addresses. Since only 2nd-5th have accounts, teachers will need to log into their own accounts for Kindergarten and first grade students.

Discovery Education Board Builder

I created a board with Discovery Education's Board Builder, which is comparable to Glogster. I will utilize the board to present recycling information to my K-5 students. The reason I chose recycling, is due to the fact that our school just started a recycling program last year, without much introduction or reasoning. Recycling is very important, especially with all the paper our school uses, but I do not feel our students understand the significance because of their lack of knowledge in the subject. I can exhibit this board to my students at the beginning of the year to help them understand why our school should recycle; how it is part of our civic duty.

There are other ways I can employ Board Builder in my classroom this year, especially to develop respectful and ethical minds in my students. Gardner talks about a respectful mind being one that understands and positively regards the differences in others. Using Board Builder, a teacher can help students achieve this by presenting information about people from other cultures and societies. This tool can also be used to explain, give examples, and provide opportunities for one to understand what it means to be respectful to others. The same can be true for forming an ethical mind.

Ethics is a subject that can be hard to teach elementary students. In my example, I chose a topic that exemplifies the embodiment of being a good citizen of our community. Board Builder can be used as a model with other subjects such as cheating, fairness, and acceptance. Videos, images, links, and assessments aid in making Board Builder a successful way to meet various learning styles as well as offer the opportunity to understand information in various modalities. Embedding an assessment or assignment within the Board Builder aids the teacher in gaging the effectiveness of the tool and comprehension of the learner.