One of the
reasons I was most looking forward to this class was to actually take the time
to explore some of the wonderful Web 2.0 tools that are available to
educators. Sure, I have briefly
experienced various tech resources, but it was never to the extent that I would have liked. However, with a grade now
assigned to my evaluation, I knew for certain I would finally delve wholeheartedly into my exploration.
This was exactly
the case with Twitter. I signed up
for an account about two years ago when our school’s student affairs coach and
our principal had a contest to see who could get more followers. But, except for following media
organizations and a few celebrities, I never tweeted to an audience or really
paid much attention to the whole twitter craze. This past school year, however, we noticed a rise in
students and parents who have Twitter accounts, and I often thought how nice it
would be if I could just tweet a reminder about an upcoming event or test. Enter this assignment. I started by visiting a number of
websites that featured ways to integrate Twitter into the classroom. Two sites in particular that were most
helpful included: www.teachhub.com and www.teachthought.com.
They both listed simple ways to harness the power of this social network
into your lessons. Yes, test
reminders were suggested, but they also demonstrated how you could give a whole
test through Twitter. Other uses
included: scavenger hunts, school trip tracking, parent updates, teaching
bite-sized info and even creating stories amongst all your followers. Yesterday, an outside organization came
in to talk to my students about an upcoming video festival, and they said they
use twitter to add bonus time and points to those students who participate if
they tweet pictures during their productions.
I was sold! I am proud to report that today I established
an account for my Film Students and sent my first tweet. The kids showed me how to use the different
functions, and I now have twelve followers. Stay tuned for more on my Twitter experience. If you’d like to follow our class,
check us out @PathwaysFilm.
The second site
of interest to me was Prezi. This
year was the first time I had even heard the term. One of our administrators started to use it during our staff
meetings and at the time I likened it to a really glorified PowerPoint. After researching more about it, I
realized I was wrong – mostly.
During the interview in my last post, David Volpe, a special education
teacher with the West Hartford Schools, told me that he uses Prezi in class,
but for the most part will adapt other presentations rather than create one
from scratch. After exploring the
site for myself, as well as downloading the Prezi app, I see exactly what he
means. In fact, in several of the
reports I read regarding Prezi, it was stated that adaptation vs. creation is
the ideal way to go, especially if you are pressed for time. If you want to try your hand at
creating one, however, sites like “read-write-think” offer tutorials to get
started. At
“tech-teach-kz.wikispaces,” you could find a helpful, “cheat sheet for dummies”
(a link I have since bookmarked).
I also found an interesting online presentation from Seattle Pacific
University describing the differences between Prezi and PowerPoint (PP). According to one slide, Prezi is
web-based, PP is computer-based. A Prezi is created in a non-linear manner,
whereas PP is linear in nature.
The first doesn’t translate well into audience notes, while the latter
is great for making hand-outs for your guests. The presentation also included the different Prezi
“accounts” you could sign up for, and it’s interesting to note that there is a
free “Edu Enjoy” vs. public login, which gives you more storage space, privacy
and offline access. I have to
admit, I played around with the iPad app for a while, but didn’t come away with
a full-fledged presentation. I may
use the advice found in a later Unit of this class that suggests we let
students take ownership of learning new Web 2.0 tools and then they can show me
how to create one!
According to
mashable.com, “Pinterest is a social bookmarking site where users collect and
share their favorite events, interests and hobbies.” I did not realize how fast this resource was growing; in
fact it falls just shy of subscribers behind FaceBook and Twitter. One of my colleagues had told me about
Pinterest a while back, and showed me how she finds great recipes and how-to’s
every day. I thought it looked
useful, but never gave it another look -- until this assignment, that is. I figured I had better start with how
Pinterest can help in the classroom before I got lost in finding how it could
improve my personal life. In my
research, I found that the most useful resource to learn more about Pinterest
was exploring its own site. You
can search as specific a topic as you want, and it will give you all kinds of
great information. I typed in
“ideas for a high school classroom” and got in return: quotes, lesson plans,
ways to organize your room, dates in history and a myriad of other tips I could
immediately incorporate. And, I
will, but…it’s been a long week and I think I’d like to search and pin “great chocolate
cookie recipes” as my orientation onto Pinterest.
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