This article delves deep into the use of RSS usage and helps explain it to the readers by using “normal” language (as opposed to computer language) and gives examples pertinent to teachers, or anyone else in the education field. One of the first things Bigenho talks about it subscriptions and how useful they can really be. He says that if you subscribe to a website and subscribe to its information with something called an aggregator, you can control what information is sent to you this way, and you can adjust your feed from the website to send you only information pertinent to the topic you are using in your classroom.
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS is a technology that has two main parts: a feed and an aggregator. RSS feeds use a special HTML known as XML and include channel tags of specific information. Aggregators read those tags, track the subscribed page and send you new information when it is posted. Some examples of how to use RSS in your classroom are to subscribe to student blogs, subscribe to social bookmarks and feeding content to HTML pages.
Q1. What is a benefit of using RSS in your classroom?
A1. Some benefits are that you can subscribe to student blogs and the RSS aggregator will notify you when new information is posted so that you don’t have to waste time checking each blog every day for new postings. Also, using the technology of feeding content to HTML pages allows you to send all sorts of related information to one spot for easy access for your students.
Q2. Can RSS be used in an elementary school setting?
A2. Probably, but not nearly as much as in middle or high school settings. Elementary teachers could use bits and pieces of each part of the RSS technology, but not all of it would be accessible for students at such a young age.
Bigenho, Chris (2009, March/April). Mining for Gold. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved 08 April 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Journal #6: "Grow Your Personal Learning Network"
Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) pull together data from many different online and technological tools and resources to provide users with information relevant to whatever topic they are looking at. PLNs help users to stay connected while they gain information necessary to what they happen to be working on. Some examples of PLNs are Twitter, Skype, Second Life, Diigo and Delicious. These networks open doors to information sources that weren’t available in recent years, and are making it easier to capture and tame the information overload that occurs.
There are three main types of PLNs: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi-synchronous connections, and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Synchronous connections are the traditional networks that include people and places you consult for answers to questions, solutions to problems and goal accomplishment. These networks can be enhanced with tools such as chat, instant messaging and Twitter. Semi-synchronous connections are connections that aren’t completely synchronous, but almost are. Synchronous is used as collaboration that does not have to happen in real time. Asynchronous connections are networks that connect us with content sources that we’ve identified as valuable. They bring us information that helps us to do our jobs.
Q1. What are some major educational benefits to using these PLNs?
A1. Some educational benefits from these PLNs are that we can talk with other classes from around the world – time is not an issue, we can obtain fresh information for reports or lessons that won’t bore us to tears, and we can visit places we could never take a field trip to through virtual tours.
Q2. What are some examples of how we can use these PLNs educationally?
A2. Some good examples of how to use PLNs educationally would by a class blog, asking students to upload photos to Flickr, using Google Docs for collaborative efforts, or to use Skype to share information and activities with classrooms from around the world.
Warlick, David (March/April 2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, Retrieved 07 April 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf
There are three main types of PLNs: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi-synchronous connections, and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Synchronous connections are the traditional networks that include people and places you consult for answers to questions, solutions to problems and goal accomplishment. These networks can be enhanced with tools such as chat, instant messaging and Twitter. Semi-synchronous connections are connections that aren’t completely synchronous, but almost are. Synchronous is used as collaboration that does not have to happen in real time. Asynchronous connections are networks that connect us with content sources that we’ve identified as valuable. They bring us information that helps us to do our jobs.
Q1. What are some major educational benefits to using these PLNs?
A1. Some educational benefits from these PLNs are that we can talk with other classes from around the world – time is not an issue, we can obtain fresh information for reports or lessons that won’t bore us to tears, and we can visit places we could never take a field trip to through virtual tours.
Q2. What are some examples of how we can use these PLNs educationally?
A2. Some good examples of how to use PLNs educationally would by a class blog, asking students to upload photos to Flickr, using Google Docs for collaborative efforts, or to use Skype to share information and activities with classrooms from around the world.
Warlick, David (March/April 2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, Retrieved 07 April 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf
Journal #8: "Google Earth"
The Technology tool that I followed a discussion of was Google Earth and education. First of all, GoogleEarth is an interactive / real time GPS type system. You can download this technology, and through a satellite, you can type in a specific address or area and that satellite will zoom in and show you a real time picture of the place you typed in.
The discussion(s) I followed began with a man talking about how he integrated this technology into his classroom to interest the students more. Google Earth is a web tool used for 3D images from satellites to assist in people’s travels and explorations, and now in classrooms. Google Earth is a fun tool to use just to get to places you’ve never been, but this discussion was about the use in and out of a classroom for educational purposes. Teachers are using Google Earth to teach about latitude and longitude, about how to figure numbers with miles or other measurements, geography and even geometry.
For example, if you ask your students to do an assignment on where they would love to visit, they could take themselves to Hawaii or to the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden without ever leaving the comfort of their home. Another example would be for the mission projects in fourth grade, or the state projects in fifth grade. If the students have never visited the mission they are building and writing a report about, they can jump onto Google Earth and zoom into the surrounding area of the mission and the mission itself. If the student has never visited Alaska, but is writing a report about it, Google Earth would be a great way to find some little known places in Alaska to talk about, and they can even print off pictures to show. These are just a few examples of the millions of places Google Earth will take you for educational or personal purposes.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Journal #5: "Collaboration in a Web 2.0 Environment"
By: Glen Bull
“Collaboration…” is an article about all the different ways that people – students and teachers – can work together, on one project, from more than one location. This article not only gives written examples and explanations of syndication on the web, but it also shows visual examples of the links you may see on a webpage. Some of the possibilities for use of a Web 2.0 environment in the classroom are: following multiple student postings, such as individuals bogs; collaboration and syndication, where students can work on one document through the web and keep it all together, even if they are not; a web 2.0 desktop which updates itself with no direction from the user; and following a topic of interest where it mentions social bookmarking and the providing of links to related information. The author provides some good insights that would definitely help a teacher use technology in their classroom if they wanted to.
Q1: Which of the author’s suggestions would be most helpful in a classroom?
A1: I believe that the first suggestion – following multiple student postings, would provide the most assistance to the teacher at least. If each student is creating and posting to their own individual blog, it would be incredibly useful to have one place to tell you all the updates from each blog, as opposed to searching each one separately for any changes.
Q2: Which of the author’s suggestions would be least helpful in a classroom?
A2: I believe that the least helpful, at least in an elementary setting where I want to be, would be the Web 2.0 desktop. I don’t think that being updated on everything each student does would be something useful when the students are in 3rd grade. I think I would rather concentrate on showing them how to use the other tools before I was checking up on everything they did.
Bull, G (2006 April). “Collaboration in a Web 2.0 Environment”. Learning and Leading in Technology, Vol 33, Issue 7, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=April_No_7_&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=2642
“Collaboration…” is an article about all the different ways that people – students and teachers – can work together, on one project, from more than one location. This article not only gives written examples and explanations of syndication on the web, but it also shows visual examples of the links you may see on a webpage. Some of the possibilities for use of a Web 2.0 environment in the classroom are: following multiple student postings, such as individuals bogs; collaboration and syndication, where students can work on one document through the web and keep it all together, even if they are not; a web 2.0 desktop which updates itself with no direction from the user; and following a topic of interest where it mentions social bookmarking and the providing of links to related information. The author provides some good insights that would definitely help a teacher use technology in their classroom if they wanted to.
Q1: Which of the author’s suggestions would be most helpful in a classroom?
A1: I believe that the first suggestion – following multiple student postings, would provide the most assistance to the teacher at least. If each student is creating and posting to their own individual blog, it would be incredibly useful to have one place to tell you all the updates from each blog, as opposed to searching each one separately for any changes.
Q2: Which of the author’s suggestions would be least helpful in a classroom?
A2: I believe that the least helpful, at least in an elementary setting where I want to be, would be the Web 2.0 desktop. I don’t think that being updated on everything each student does would be something useful when the students are in 3rd grade. I think I would rather concentrate on showing them how to use the other tools before I was checking up on everything they did.
Bull, G (2006 April). “Collaboration in a Web 2.0 Environment”. Learning and Leading in Technology, Vol 33, Issue 7, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=April_No_7_&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=2642
Journal #4: "Create, Collaborate, Communicate..."
By: Chris Riedel
“Create, Collaborate, Communicate…” is an article that talks about trying to integrate the use of more technology into the teaching profession. The author, Chris Riedel, is a retired district CIO and is “an emerging technology evangelist.” He speaks about how low education is ranked according to its level of IT intensiveness, and says that we as educators need to change our curriculum to incorporate these students’ 21st century skills. According to Riedel “we are doing our students a disservice” by not using the technological tools they are so used to outside of school because these are the things that employers look for. The article goes on to name and explain 16 things educators need to do to prepare young learners to be the “leaders of tomorrow.” Some examples of these things are “Hug a Geek” – talk with someone who is technologically skilled and use their expertise for use in your classroom; “Start Collaborating” – use a program like GoogleDocs so that students can collaborate on one shared document; and “Discover Social Bookmarking” – students can share information and different websites by “tagging” them on one specific site to share with friends.
Q1: Should we include more technology into our lesson plans and curriculum?
A1: I think that is it definitely a good idea to use more technology in our lesson plans, but to put it in the curriculum and require that use is a bad idea. Not all teachers work well with technology and not all students necessarily learn well with technology, so we shouldn’t force something on them. Riedel mentions that we are doing students a “disservice” by not including more technology because that is what employers look for. In my opinion, we as educators are not and should not be required to assist students develop what an employer wants. We are there to educate these students and help them develop their minds, not a lot of technological skills. If they want or need those skills, they are offered as an elective course in secondary school or as college courses.
Q2: Is using a tool such as social bookmarking really a good way to keep students more engaged in what they’re learning?
A2: Yes and no. Yes, because it could be helpful for students to share websites with good information, especially when doing projects. However, once these bookmarks are taken care of, students would have the ability to move on to bookmarking other sites such as Myspace or Facebook; website that have no relation to the assignment and could quite possibly get them into trouble. These are things that we as educators are watching out for with our students, not encouraging them to do.
Riedel, C (2009, January). “Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills.” T-H-E Journal, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23872_1
“Create, Collaborate, Communicate…” is an article that talks about trying to integrate the use of more technology into the teaching profession. The author, Chris Riedel, is a retired district CIO and is “an emerging technology evangelist.” He speaks about how low education is ranked according to its level of IT intensiveness, and says that we as educators need to change our curriculum to incorporate these students’ 21st century skills. According to Riedel “we are doing our students a disservice” by not using the technological tools they are so used to outside of school because these are the things that employers look for. The article goes on to name and explain 16 things educators need to do to prepare young learners to be the “leaders of tomorrow.” Some examples of these things are “Hug a Geek” – talk with someone who is technologically skilled and use their expertise for use in your classroom; “Start Collaborating” – use a program like GoogleDocs so that students can collaborate on one shared document; and “Discover Social Bookmarking” – students can share information and different websites by “tagging” them on one specific site to share with friends.
Q1: Should we include more technology into our lesson plans and curriculum?
A1: I think that is it definitely a good idea to use more technology in our lesson plans, but to put it in the curriculum and require that use is a bad idea. Not all teachers work well with technology and not all students necessarily learn well with technology, so we shouldn’t force something on them. Riedel mentions that we are doing students a “disservice” by not including more technology because that is what employers look for. In my opinion, we as educators are not and should not be required to assist students develop what an employer wants. We are there to educate these students and help them develop their minds, not a lot of technological skills. If they want or need those skills, they are offered as an elective course in secondary school or as college courses.
Q2: Is using a tool such as social bookmarking really a good way to keep students more engaged in what they’re learning?
A2: Yes and no. Yes, because it could be helpful for students to share websites with good information, especially when doing projects. However, once these bookmarks are taken care of, students would have the ability to move on to bookmarking other sites such as Myspace or Facebook; website that have no relation to the assignment and could quite possibly get them into trouble. These are things that we as educators are watching out for with our students, not encouraging them to do.
Riedel, C (2009, January). “Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills.” T-H-E Journal, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23872_1
Journal #3: "Keep Them Chatting"
By: Jeanie Cole
“Keep Them Chatting” was an article that talked about how to get students to participate more in online classes. Students are often uninterested in what is going on and are tempted to just copy from the internet. This article gave several examples of different techniques used to keep kids interested and accountable. The first of these techniques was to ask a high-level, open-ended question to keep students engaged and learning. These are questions that have no right or wrong answer and can encourage students to be creative and use their imaginations as opposed to purely factual information. The example the article gave was: “if The Odyssey were written in the Wild West in the 1800s, what might have happened and why?” Other techniques offered were the inquiry method where students use research and problem-solving skills to answer a question; the discrepant event inquiry method, where students vies an unexplained occurrence through video, photo, etc and are asked to explore and explain possible reasons for what happened. The final two techniques given were to use personal examples where students could use something they were personally interested in as a research topic and the illogical comparisons technique where students would compare to completely non-related characters or situations. These techniques may sound silly, but if used properly, they could turn out to be incredibly valuable in any setting.
Q1: What is an example of illogical reasoning?
A1: An example of illogical reasoning would be to ask your students to compare and contrast Mickey Mouse and Abraham Lincoln. These are two persons/characters that are completely different and would seemingly have nothing in common. But to ask students to find something in common between them could force them to use their research skills and their creative reasoning skills at the same time.
Q2: How could you implement these techniques into a classroom that is not virtual?
A2: These techniques could be used when a class goes to the computer lab for a day, or as a creative writing assignment, or even as a group project. The article gave a great example of the personal examples technique; ask the students to describe the perfect roller coaster. An educator could use this as a group project to say describe the perfect roller coaster and then create a model example for the class using a computer program or tangible materials.
Cole, J (2009, February). "Keep Them Chatting". Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol 36, Issue 5, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200902/
“Keep Them Chatting” was an article that talked about how to get students to participate more in online classes. Students are often uninterested in what is going on and are tempted to just copy from the internet. This article gave several examples of different techniques used to keep kids interested and accountable. The first of these techniques was to ask a high-level, open-ended question to keep students engaged and learning. These are questions that have no right or wrong answer and can encourage students to be creative and use their imaginations as opposed to purely factual information. The example the article gave was: “if The Odyssey were written in the Wild West in the 1800s, what might have happened and why?” Other techniques offered were the inquiry method where students use research and problem-solving skills to answer a question; the discrepant event inquiry method, where students vies an unexplained occurrence through video, photo, etc and are asked to explore and explain possible reasons for what happened. The final two techniques given were to use personal examples where students could use something they were personally interested in as a research topic and the illogical comparisons technique where students would compare to completely non-related characters or situations. These techniques may sound silly, but if used properly, they could turn out to be incredibly valuable in any setting.
Q1: What is an example of illogical reasoning?
A1: An example of illogical reasoning would be to ask your students to compare and contrast Mickey Mouse and Abraham Lincoln. These are two persons/characters that are completely different and would seemingly have nothing in common. But to ask students to find something in common between them could force them to use their research skills and their creative reasoning skills at the same time.
Q2: How could you implement these techniques into a classroom that is not virtual?
A2: These techniques could be used when a class goes to the computer lab for a day, or as a creative writing assignment, or even as a group project. The article gave a great example of the personal examples technique; ask the students to describe the perfect roller coaster. An educator could use this as a group project to say describe the perfect roller coaster and then create a model example for the class using a computer program or tangible materials.
Cole, J (2009, February). "Keep Them Chatting". Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol 36, Issue 5, Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200902/
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