Final Review

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.

I found many wonderful tools as I went through the 11 Tools Lessons. Some of my favorite were Diigo, Dropbox, Blinx, and Voki. I think I could easily use Dropbox as an online place to both have my kids turn things in and to share things with them. I plan to use Diigo to help the kids do collaborative research. 

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?
My thinking about the transformations that need to take place in my classroom mainly focuses on the fact that it will be a growing, on-going process. My vision for my classroom is more fluid and flexible - which I think is key to a true 21st Century environment. As technology changes and updates, so must we. I am going to accommodate the 21st Century learner by keeping up to date on what is available, making it available to my students, and being ready for whatever may come around the corner next - without trying to have all the answers. 

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I did not expect to gain so many helpful resources to use in the classroom! I love that I have so much more to help my students make gains in their knowledge and use of the internet - and mine too! 

Digital Citizenship

One of the key ideas I would like my students to understand about digital citizenship is that "Digital citizenship is more than literacy, it is living safely, civilly, and effectively in our increasingly digital world." (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-should-be-done-about-digital.html) Often, my students come to me with the idea that digital citizenship involves only safe and civil internet-use, but they clearly lack digital literacy and effective research skills. I would also like them to understand that it is important to verify sources and be able to make up your own mind about what you read - most especially when those things have not been filtered for you. Lastly, I would like my kids to fully understand the impact of their actions on the internet and how permanent those actions are.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/browse?grade%5B%5D=48259&topic%5B%5D=48240&type=csm_curriculum_lesson
I liked the above resource because it gave step by step lessons to use to show kids how to grow into digital citizenship. I could easy implement these lessons once a week into my regular curriculum and help grow the kids and their knowledge of digital research.

Teaching digital citizenship is going to be an ongoing process for me and my students. I think the best way to teach them how to be good digital citizens is simply to continually reinforce the ideals. Even as teachers we are unsure of how best to utilize the mounting resources at our fingertips, so the best thing to do is act as a guide and help the students discover what works best on a daily basis for different things.

I think the best way to share digital citizenship with parents is perhaps to have them attend a small presentation about it, watch a posted video, or complete a homework assignment with their child every so often that would help the family to understand how best to put their computer to work.

Tools for Learning

It is incredibly important to tie technology into the learning objectives, especially as we go further into the school year. Our students are currently learning so they can use the information to live in a world that does not yet exist. The growth of technology is exponential. The technology available to students now will be obsolete by the time they are adults. The need to learn to critically assess and learn about technology as they use it, even if they have never been exposed to it before. The more they can utilize technology (successfully or unsuccessfully), the more they can learn to adapt to new and upcoming technologies.


It is important to hold students accountable for stations/centers, so that I can assess their learning. Students also need to be able to see that their learning is developing. With technology, often times, accountability can be built-in. We have used flip cameras and macbooks in the classroom to do video answers to questions before. I look forward to using more technology to help my students be better independent learners in the future. 

One of the links I visited was Speedy Speller at (http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games/paragraph-writing-practice.html). I liked this website because spelling is something my students struggle with on a regular basis. It is not easy to fit in time for them to practice spelling and this site makes it fun and interactive for them. I could use this at a station so that they could practice their spelling words for 15 to 20 minutes.

The other link I visited is also from the Learning Games for Kids website. It is a link to several homophone games. My students need the repetition of homophones to learn when to use them correctly. I can use these games in stations to help the students get on-going practice with when to use what word. The linked page is at http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games/homophones-games.html.

I could use the interactive whiteboard app for the iPad in my classroom for a station. I could use this to help students check their homework at a station; I could teach a grammar lesson, or I could review something we had already covered. If it was a grammar station, I could hold the kids accountable with notes that they then must turn in to be checked. I could also ask them to complete an assessment once they have completed the station.  
The second iPad app I could use is Playtime Theater. With this, the kids could create their own unique story to display knowledge they have learned, or as part of a presentation. I could hold them accountable though their final project. 
I imagine each of these stations would look like a collaborative effort among the students to learn in a station that focuses on what appeals to them, what they need, and what they enjoy.


I could also use the iPad for face times apps to let the students collaborate across classrooms. I could also use the iPad apps for project production using pages. Using the Prezi viewer, the students could walk themselves through a self-led lesson.

Taking a Look at the Tools

This Fall, my classroom will be working with the Dell 2120 Netbooks. I was interested to learn that the Dell 2120 comes with a webcam and Dell Webcam Central Software. We have worked with Dell Netbooks that we have borrowed before and they have always been useful devices in our classroom. Last month, two large carts on wheels that can be used to store the netbooks came to our classroom. Once we get the netbooks in and set up, I think it will be easy to utilize them. I also did not know that I would need to connect the Network cable once in awhile so updates could happen. Once I figure out how they best work in the classroom, I may have the students connect the network cable every time they put the computers up. We plan to use the netbooks in the classroom for research and helping our students connect, via technology, with classrooms outside of ours. We will also use the netbooks to produce projects and built computer-based note-taking skills.

Reaching Outside the Classroom

I like the idea of beginning a collaborative project within your own school before branching out to other schools (in your state, nation, or around the world). This past year we did a cross-curricular project involving economics and simple machines. The students were mixed into groups across two different classrooms. I think this project could be more efficient, could be taken farther, and could produce better results if we used some of the tools above. 


Simple Machines Toy Project

1. The students will learn the functions of simple machines, addition and subtraction of decimals, formal letter writing skills, the basics of economics, and oral presentation skills.
2. The project will occur in the six weeks after Christmas next school year (2012-2013).
3. We will utilize Google docs to help the kids share information across classrooms and Skype in the Classroom to produce a live presentation that can be shared with the other sixth grade classrooms.
4. In groups, students will collaboratively built a mock toy company (including advertising, financial records, location, and running the everyday business), produce a design for a new toy which uses simple machines to function, and then build and "sell" the toy they produced. Through this, the students will learn the functions of simple machines, addition and subtraction of decimals, formal letter writing skills, the basics of economics, and oral presentation skills.

Promoting Classroom Discussion

I loved working on this tool! We have not been able to utilize many of the above tools, though we knew about them, on a regular basis due to a lack of technology. But I am very much looking forward to using them with our new computers.

The first tool I used was Diigo Web Highlighter. (http://diigo.com/0onyq) On the page linked here, I highlighted and put a note about Communism. I can see this took being incredibly helpful when a group is doing research for a project. I don't yet know if the tool can be used collaboratively, but I do love that the highlights and notes one person makes can be shared via link, email, facebook, or twitter with someone else who could use it.

The second tool I looked at was Skype Education. I had no idea that there was a sub-section of Skype that collected groups who are looking for other groups to Skype with (http://education.skype.com/projects)! My teaching partner and I had the idea to Skype with a classroom overseas at the beginning of the year, at the start of our social culture curriculum, but it ended up not working out in the end. I would love to use Skype to help my students connect with and learn from students around the world! This is especially perfect because my students are studying world culture throughout the year.

Web 2.0 Tools

In our classroom this year, we have used Stupeflix, Animoto, Blogger, and MixBook. For this 11 Tools assignment, I used TikaTok to create a model book covering traditional Chinese culture. I loved the ease of use that the TikaTok website had. I think it would be incredibly easy for a young student to put to use, and it would help them create a product they could be proud of. I do wish there was more ability to manipulate words and pictures, but as a basic tool it will be awesome in the classroom! I think this could be used to help kids produce their own books in which they put their knowledge of culture, government, economics, or religion together with their grammar and language skills, creating an original story that asks them to use their critical thinking skills. I was unable to link to the TikaTok book because it is locked under an user name and password, but, if I wanted, I could print it out.

The other tool I used was the ABCYa! Wordle. Wordle is a great way to display words in a fun, colorful, and imaginative way. I put a "Classroom" Wordle on the right side of my blog. Ways we can use it in our classroom are:

• Vocabulary
• Related Words
• Spelling Words
• Brainstorming

I enjoyed being about to look through each of these tools and imagining new ways to use them in my classroom!