BP16_2009113_Media Asset of Web 2.0 Tools

BP15_2009113_Peer Review of Web 2.0 Tools

@Christine

FACE IN THE HOLE.COM
Face in Hole.com
http://www.faceinhole.com/us/

This application was so much fun! I just wish I could use a live feed to position my profile to fit the image better. I spent way too much time playing with this application. I also realized my students would have an absolute blast. They love to role-play and manipulate their pictures. With Face in the Hole, they put their photos into the proper spot and they can become a superhero, or a cartoon character. I remember my brother sent my mom a photo of Indianna Jones, just like the photo they have on this application. His face implanted where Harrison Fords was supposed to go. We did not see it at first because the image was seamless but once we did, it was hysterical! Again, to be able to position your image live would work best so you could actually get the correct facial expression for the shot. As far as educational purposes, students can take on the persona of a character in a story. There is a feature for you to download your own character and/or scene, so they could make their own. Especially for their history class, they could become George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. We could also get the art classes involved to work on some graphics that the kids can use for their Language Arts projects. Some of the teachers have the students rewrite fairytales and they could create their own scene and then super impose their face in the image or use the ones already on the website. For instance, I have always wanted to be a Jedi!


Christine,

Okay like you I (we) had way too much fun with FaceintheHole. My son walked in the room as I opened up the program and started to explore, we roared with laughter as we played with the animation tools and took turns making silly pictures of each other.

With my little ones it would be cute for creating a holiday card for parents, or as you suggested downloading your own scenarios maybe of different things we do throughout the school year.

Either way educational or just for fun my son and I had a blast.





DO YOU THINK HE'S READY FOR CHRISTMAS??????

BP14_2009113_Peer Review of Web 2.0 Tools

@Kim – Peer Review of Ekoloko

Ekoloko is a Web 2.0 tools that I found during my research. It is a virtual community where kids are able to explore and discover the world both virtual and real. We as students at Full Sail have already had the opportunity to explore Second Life through one of our classes, but I think we agree that not all areas of Second Life are acceptable for kids. Ekoloko gives students a way to explore a virtual world.

Ekoloko give kids an opportunity to acquire values, knowledge and skills to be responsible and involved individuals.

After registering for the website, you are give an opportunity to create and personalize your own character. I chose the sex of my character, hairstyle and clothing and shoes before I began my adventures.

As a member of this community kids are able to chat and hang out with their friends.

Games can be played one on one or community style. There are several different areas where members can go on adventures and explore their surroundings. Characters can be advance levels by game play, which will appeal to many kids.

Kids become part of the ekolokian community, where they can hang out, play games, explore or just have fun. Being part of the community brings with it an awareness and responsibility to the environment they reside in.

Given the environmental awareness these days, this is great site to help students become more aware of environment issues that face the world today. It can help them become more knowledgeable about how our choices affect the world around us.

Kim,

After our last class with Dr. Deason and the project my team developed I couldn't agree with you more about the need for more ways to teach environmental awareness issues to our younger students.  This morning I join, signed on and played Ekoloko, with the exception that I never scored a single basket in the basketball game, I was engaged and had a good time.

My only concern would be to question why they would approve someone of my age for an account?  When I registered I entered my birthday information, which clearly indicates I'm an adult yet I was given an account.  I guess to see how the site is monitored for safety you would have to actually break a security rule and see what happens, but I wasn't brave enough to try it.

BP13_2009113_Peer Review of Web 2.0 Tools

@ Carrie - Pikikids

Sometimes it feels as though my curriculum gets monotonous, and at those moments I need an activity or a lesson that can spice up the day. Being able to turn to a Web 2.0 tool at this moment is invaluable. Knowing that I have these days, I took time to ensure I found at least one Web 2.0 tool which would give my students and I break, but at the same time, still have educational benefits. What I found was Pikikids.

Pikikids allows the user to create comics online. It is similar to ComicLife, except its target audience is kids and it is free. After you have registered for the site (all you need is a user name, password, and email address) you can begin creating a comic. There are several layouts you can choose from for the comic. Once you choose the layout, you begin to add pictures and thought bubbles to the comic. Pikikids allows you to search for pictures from Flickr directly from its site. When you are pleased with your comic, you can save and publish.

Obviously comics can be a fun, laid-back activity for the students, but what are the educational benefits of a comic? A comic can be used to get the students to synthesize information. After students have read a passage from any book, either a novel or a textbook, they can show they understood the material by turning it into a comic. Students could also use the comic format to create a storyboard for a paper they are writing.

Sometime you just have to step back and allow the students to breath.


Carrie - 
I have a second grade ESE student who will absolutely love this tool.  Up until a year ago getting him to put two words of any kind on a paper was near impossible.  His teacher inadvertently introduced comic strips and he took the concept and ran with it.  Getting him to not only write, but complete any and all of his assignments is now tied to the contingent that he gets to complete a comic strip at the end of his work sessions.  This fantastic tool will provide him with increased resources for artwork/ideas.  I was so excited after I checked it out I emailed his teacher and forwarded her the tool information so she could check it out and have it ready for him on Monday.  Roberto, his teacher, and I all thank you for finding and sharing this great tool.


Joanne

BP12_2009113_Web 2.0 Tools Reviewed

I like monkeys, even the survey kind! I haven’t heard of anyone reviewing and talking about creating online surveys so thought it would be a good topic to explore for this week’s Web 2.0 tool. I have heard other members of my school team mention Survey Monkey so it seemed like a good place to start. There are three categories within Survey Monkey basic, monthly pro, and annual pro, each with it’s own pricing category. My favorite the basic of course, it’s free!

So what can Survey Monkey basic do? You can design, selecting from one of the 15 pre-set designs, a survey of up to 10 questions choosing from 12 question types. There are easy to follow and use step-by-step directions to assist you in setting up your survey. Setup includes everything from typing in your questions, selecting your security settings, to printing a final survey results. Security settings include establishing cutoff dates, maximum number of responses cutoff, password protection, and the means of sending out your survey. All for free, yes these features are all part of the basic “free” use of the program.

Think you need more survey features? Well for $19.99 per month or an annual fee of $200.00 you can add unlimited questions, the ability to design your own presentation style, add your logo, support other languages, create a PSF of your survey and many more features. Personally for my uses I don’t foresee spending a dime, but I do plan on “monkeying around” and putting Survey Monkey to good use.

BP11_2009112_Reflective Media Asset

BP10.2009112.Social Bookmarking

In December 2006, Roger Riddell, online editor for eSchool News, wrote an article entitled “Social bookmarking makes its mark in education.”  Throughout the article he speaks of the advantages of social bookmarking and its practical use in education.  He even goes so far as to say, “these applications offer an exciting change for teachers, researchers and pupil” (p. 1).  The only problem is somebody forgot to tell educators.  I took a small survey in my building on Friday to see who knew and understood the concept of social bookmarking, the results of which astonished even me.  Of the 36 staff members who responded to my email question only 8 had heard of social bookmarking and only 4 had actually used the application.  It should interest you to know that of our technologically savvy staff one was our IT, one a graduate of the Full Sail EMDT program, one a current student in the EMDT, and finally one currently taking graduate classes in Educational Leadership at Nova University.  Several others currently taking graduate level classes had never heard of Delicious or the concept of social bookmarking.  The results needless to say were disappointing; the technology is there yet we fail to educator our educators in its existence and how to use it.  Perhaps the results were what they were because I work in an elementary school and would be different in a middle or high school, but somehow I have my doubts.  We spend countless hours attending weekly workshops on how to improve our role as teacher, yet something as simple as collecting, tagging, and sharing resources through social bookmarking we fail to educate teachers on.

So how can social bookmarking be successfully implemented into the school environment?  (Darby & Gilmour, 2009) provide readers with the idea of incorporating Delicious bookmarks onto websites as a means of compiling and sharing information on specific topics.  The article provides specific information on extracting data from a users account and how to display this data for others to easily access.  My school website offers a section related to Positive Behavior Support and I’m going to see if the PBS resources I’m finding for my action research project can somehow be linked to the parent article in our website.

Gordon-Murnane (2009) also talks specifically about the use of Delicious and the benefits it offers not only in the workplace, but personally as well.  The article spoke directly about the sometimes-overwhelming amount of information available through the Internet and the cumbersome task of keeping that information organized and useful.  The article spoke of the advantages of using social bookmarks to “keep things found (individual collection), sharing collaboration (folksonomy), vertical searches, and portability/mobility (multiple access points)” (p. 1).  The concept of folksonomy or sharing of bookmarked information to create specific groups offers a great advantage to both the teacher and the student.  Rather than performing a web search and sorting through endless resources, both the good and the bad, the user can search and select from the resources that others have used and found useful, saving countless hours of research time.  Not to mention that each time the group uses and saves information related to the specific topic the better the service becomes.

I can’t tell you the number of times I have sat in a meeting using my laptop only to realize the bookmark I was hoping to use was located on my desktop computer, frustrating and occasionally even embarrassing when I have left a meeting to go and retrieve what I needed from the other computer.  So the thought of putting this tool to use for me personally is exciting.  My only concern, as is often a concern within the school system, is whether or not our districts IT police band the Delicious tool.

References

Darby, A., & Gilmour, R. (2009). Tutorial: Adding Delicious Data to Your Library Website. Information Technology & Libraries, 28(2), 100-103. Retrieved November 5, 2009 from http://ital-ica.blogspot.com/2009/06/adding-delicious-data-to-your-library.html

Gordon-Murnane, L. (2009). Social Bookmarking, Folksonomies, and Web 2.0 Tools. Searcher, 14(6), 26-38. Retrieved November 7, 2009 from http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/ gi_0199-5609708/Social-bookmarking-folksonomies-and-Web.html

Riddell, R. (2006). Social bookmarking makes its mark in education.  eSchool News, Technology news for today’s K-20 Educator.  Retrieved  November 5, 2009 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/

BP9_2009112_Flickr Lesson Plan

Flickr Lesson Plan

When I searched the Internet I found many lesson suggestions related to the traditions of Thanksgiving, however, in today’s intergraded society many families don’t share in the traditional American customs.   I decided to take some of the ideas I found and raised the bar to the next level.  My objective is to increase individual understanding and acceptance of each other, as well as, provide my students with the opportunity to learn to blog and photostream.

From September through January here come the holidays, full of traditions and customs from around the world, and what better time to teach respect and understanding of individual differences and cultures.  Students would be asked to share 3-5 photos showing a holiday custom celebrated within their family and post their first blog explaining the tradition.  For example at my house growing up I might share a picture of the Christmas tree, my father cooking breakfast, and our family opening gifts.  To explain the tradition I would explain that each Christmas morning we would hurry downstairs to look at the tree where we then gathered to open our gifts, finally my father would then cook us a holiday breakfast fit for a king.  A student from Puerto Rico might share a picture of the Christmas tree, a picture of their bed, and the nativity.  Their blog might include information about both Christmas and The Three Kings.  Each child provides a unique look into the customs, traditions and celebrations within their own culture and families.

           

To continue the lesson I would then have my student research the origin of their family customs.  For those of the Jewish faith they might share information on the lights of Hanukah, while I would research and share the history of the Christmas tree, and yet someone of the Muslin faith might share the custom Mehndi, a form of body art, a tradition used during their celebration of holidays.  With each custom and tradition shared the understanding of others would grow, as hopefully would our acceptance.

Sample Lesson Plan

BP8_2009112_Peer Review of Web 2.0 Tools

As I looked through the Web 2.0 tools and websites, I found myself drawn to two different websites. Both websites allowed the user to create a book. The first website, Tikatok allows the user to use illustrations created by the user (or in this case the user’s students) to illustrate a book. I found this website to have limitless possibilities. As a kindergarten teacher we spend time each day writing about our “small moments”. Moments in our lives that we have experienced. We use the small moments to teach the kids to write about what we know. It’s difficult enough to get them comfortable with writing, but to have them have to choose a topic is very frustrating for a beginning writer. Just last week, we created a class book on Halloween safety, using ideas we generated during a brainstorming session. Tikatok would be a fantastic tool to actually publish our class book. For a small fee, just $2.99 for a downloadable ebook, we could turn our writings into books to share with each other. It is possible to turn class writings into hard cover books as well. The second site I looked at, storybird.com was another site dedicated to creating books. However, this site provided illustrations. This would be a great activity to do with the class on the Promethean board (smart board). The pictures are a great starting place for a brainstorming session to create a short story to match the illustrations. During our reading lessons we always take a picture walk of the books we read together, but also as part of something else we do instead of centers, I teach my students to read the pictures of a book. For the students who can’t read yet, reading the pictures really empowers them. This would be something that every student would be able to contribute to.

BP7_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Zoeybot

Zoeybot is a free search engine and educational services recommended for kids ages 7-13.  The program is SafeSurf rated which makes it an A+ option for teachers and parents alike.  It provides the user with a variety of tools such as research articles, videos, and tutorials.  Students can even take notes on the material they are reading by simply clicking on the “Launch Editor.”  To top off its appeal to kids there is even the incentive of submitting your own work to be entered onto the site for possible pay.

While all those pluses certainly make the site appealing it also has a down side to things.  For example it’s kid friendly appearance is appealing to the younger audience, but somehow I can’t imagine my 13 year old being enthusiastic about it.

The music player which offers a small selection of genre is little more than loops, again appealing to the younger audience maybe, but definitely not to the MP3 generation.  On the reverse side of things as I started to explore the search engine itself I found some serious concerns.  The readability of material is way above most students younger than 10 years of age and a search for “tropical fish” resulted in articles on “tropical storms.”   On a final note of concern some of the tutorial videos, the coins through the hand mini magic show and others failed to play. 

Overall a great concept, but truly poorly carried out in my opinion.  The site design appeals to the younger end of its target audience while the resources are most definitely geared to the older end of the spectrum. 

BP6_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Sketchfu

Ever asked a Kindergarten student to tell you about a favorite activity, a pet, or anything specific?  Answers will range from telling your every specific detail, to telling you every detail about anything and everything in their life, to the deer in the headlight stare.  How then do you begin to introduce writing skills related to a specific prompt, yes we do that in Kindergarten now too.  One of the best ways I found was to draw with my students first.  The visual helps them to focus on a specific topic and it doesn’t hurt their fine motor skills either.  The problem with this is finding the time to squeeze it all in the school day, well maybe not anymore. 

The Web 2.0 tool I discovered offers the teacher an opportunity to create custom drawing lessons that kids can follow from the computer.  Students would need to practice with the teacher at first to build their confidence, but once they understand the concept of following the simple step-by-step directions it could easily become an independent pre-writing activity for centers.  The tool is called sketchfu and you can use it to draw simple step-by-step kid friendly drawings like the dog pictured below.  The speed of drawing is adjustable which makes it great for little ones to follow or the project can be stopped completely and restarted if necessary.  Couple this simple drawing with a thinking map containing some key words and you have two centers that work together to create a skill based lesson in writing that students can complete without you having to worry about where to squeeze it in and even better it's fun.

The website for the fun tool is http://sketchfu.com  and while you’re there check out my fun puppy http://sketchfu.com/drawing/421704-dog

BP5_2009112_Web 2.0 Tools

Create a Graph

For the past three years my school has been in the process of learning to implement Response to Intervention (RtI), a systematic approach of matching classroom instruction with the instructional needs of the child.  The goal is to meet the instructional needs of most children in the general education classroom.  Teachers match a student’s instructional needs to a research intervention based program and collect weekly progress monitoring data.   While the teachers, for the most part, have been great providing the interventions and collecting the data, they are terrible at transferring the data collected into the required graph format.  This year bound and determine to not sit at my desk for hours on end transferring their data for them I set out in search of a great Web 2.0 that would be easy enough to use and satisfy even the most rigid of school psychologist.  My discovery Create a Graph, http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/  The website is actually intended to teach students about graphing, but it works well for adults lacking in the skill as well. Users simply go in and follow the tabs presented to set up a their criteria, once they have set up the basic information and saved it all they have to do is enter the date they progress monitored and the score a student earns each week.  Another click of the mouse onto the preview tab and like magic there is their graph.  Last they simply press the save and print tab and their job is done.  For those more challenged, there is even a tutorial that walks them through step by step how to set up and enter their data.  My teachers will be using the Create a Graph tool to create a line graph, but the tool is even more powerful than that because it offers the user the opportunity to create line, bar, pie, XY, and area graphs.

BP2_2009111_RSS Feeds

I have selected the following 5 RSS news feeds for my iGoogle Reader

• PBIS News Feed - Selected because it directly links to my Action Research project

• RtI Action Network - School Wide Positive Behavior Support - Selected for two reason, first it again ties directly into my Action Research project and secondly because it directly impacts my job. As a Staffing Specialist it is my responsibility to make sure that all step s and procedures are documented prior to gaining consent to evaluate students for Special Education programs. RtI has been used at my school for the past three years with regards to academics, but requirements regarding behavior are new this year. I am hoping this feed will help me to stay current with new expectations and best practices related to what is now being referred to as RtI-B.

• Positive Behavior Support - Positive Behavior Support Schools - Hoping to gain insight into the practices of our PBS schools to help in implementing those ideas within my school and to make my Action Research project stronger.

• YouTube Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support - Systematic Supervision - Again directly related to my action research, but more importantly a means to bring supporting research and best practices back to my teachers.

• Orlando Sentinel - I have selected this last one for more of a personal reason than educational. Since starting Full Sail I have not watched TV in the past 3 months and feel a bit out of contact with current events at times as a result. I have selected this feed to assist me with keeping abreast of current events and of course will closely monitor any happening related to local schools.

A general comment regarding the RSS feeds - until now I had never really understood how RSS feed work nor had I used them. I am excited with the potential of this technology and the time it will hopefully save me as I work through my Action Research project and professional goals.

BP3_2009111_Educational Blogging

Blogging as an educational tool?  As an elementary teacher, I have to admit when I first read the assignment I had difficulties thinking of ways that I might help teachers to incorporate blogging into a useful learning tool for students.  After a brief pause and a few clicks of the mouse I had my "aahh" moments and realized that blogging works for all ages like everything else you just need to open your eyes and be willing to look at something in a new way.

Ideas that I looked at that would benefit my elementary age students/parents is to use blogging as a communication tool.  For the older students using a blogger as a means of developing writing and communication skills makes it a useful tool.

It is usually difficult to get parents to come into school and experience all of the wonderful things their child is doing and learning so maybe another idea for younger students is to post their work allowing parents to see and learn what their child is doing from the comfort of their own homes.

Another use for blogging might include posting homework assignments, providing students and parents a place to ask for homework assistance or clarification.  This would work well for the students who are absent or for those parents who need to follow up on the "I don't have any homework" child.  My only concern for this type of communication would be the parent who uses the blogging site to share too much personal information about their student or to vent about another student/classroom situation.

Beyond the basics, I thought of the ESOL and ESE students within my school who might benefit from a blog designed to introduce/pre-teach upcoming lessons.  If the lesson or a overview were made available for students they could look up terms or information related to the topic to prepare themselves for an upcoming lesson.

Another use might be for students to present information on the blog site, making them the teacher.  It is often stated that we learn by teaching.

Last year at my school our busy schedules did not afford us the time to meet weekly and discuss the great resource books we were using in a book study, so we turned to blogging.  The group was required to post a minimum of 1 blog each week in response to a prompt left by the group leader.  Members were welcome to post more frequently and to respond to each others blog responses.  Then the teams met once every four weeks to review blogging comments, what they were learning, how they had implemented ideas into their classroom and most importantly to celebrate learning.  It was my first experience leading a book study and using blogging and I have to say it worked well for the most part.

References

Support Blogging (2009).  Educational Blogging.  Retrieved November 3, 2009, from

     http://supportblogging.com/Educational + Blogging

BP4_2009111_Web 2.0 Tools

Animoto (www.animoto.com)


This Web 2.0 tool provides users with the opportunity to create their own personalized videos with a few simple clicks of the mouse. Download personal photos or add short video clips (up to 5.o seconds), add text, and select music from your computer or from those offered by Animoto. The final result is a 30 second video clip completed and sent to your email all in under 5 minutes. If the user chooses to make a longer full length video he/she can simply pay a $3.00 charge per video or purchase a $20.00 unlimited one year package. The educational uses for this type of tool seem endless. Teacher could create a series of video clips as quick study references and play one each day prior to testing. Students could use this tool to create commercial or as a cumulative end to a project. To test out the project I will be asking our 5th grade students to create a short video commercial related to Red Ribbon week with an anti-drug or anti-smoking theme. Students will be allowed time to use the Internet and download photographs to be used and then create their final project using the Animoto tool. The best of those prepared by student will be shown on morning announcements for the whole school to view. If my 5th graders can use the tool effectively then the possibilities are endless for older students. To try this Web 2.0 tool simply click on the link above. There is no cost involved with the 30-second clips only if you choose to create a full-length video, so what do you have to loose?

http://animoto.com/play/vUeBFDVhQgAMCsuqEoOK3Q?utm_source=project_complete_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=project_complete_email&utm_content=challenger

BP1_2009111_iGoogle Shots