Miscellaimeeous Blogging

Add some zing and bling to your wiki

aimeemartin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:14:29 +0000

If you haven’t seen Glogster yet, take a look! The example below is from Centerville Elementary in Frederick County.

There are over 3000 school related Glogs already. You can embed the ones others have made or create your very own! You can make it as detailed or basic as you want. You can add your own pictures or use the ones they have. It is actually easier than you think to make. The hardest part is deciding what cool stuff to add to it!

Here are two reading examples:

http://nnorris.glogster.com/ReadingPractice

http://bookleads.wikispaces.com/

Here is a math example:

http://nnorris.glogster.com/Math-SitesI/

Another place to add some special effects to your wiki:

http://gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com/

On “Getting Tricky with Wikis” you can learn how to create a scrolling banner, a hit map, change background and sidebar layouts and more! Wikis don’t have to be boring in appearance!

For fearful bloggers

aimeemartin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:06:53 +0000

If you are a pro at email but scared to jump into the world of blogging try Posterous. You send them an email and they post it to your blog. You can include pictures and documents.

I would suggest clicking on the link in their reply email to set up an account to customize it. This way you can stop comments from entering your blog as well as change the name of the blog and the web address.

Other cool features: Posterous can post to other places like Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type, Typepad, Livejournal, and Xanga. You can also add multiple email addresses to send out emails to Posterous. You can even send stuff from your cell phone.

The following happened when I attached photos and documents to my emails to Posterous.

Attachments that did work: Photos, Word documents with clip art and text

Attachments that didn’t work: Excel files

This site still needs some further investigation. Any Posterous users out there? I’d love to hear more!

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 7

aimeemartin — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:44:33 +0000

The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) was a TechLearning article this month. This is an excellent example of distance learning. I believe the program is an great way to bring students from all around the world together. The skills involved in this program are geared towards the 21st Century learner.

In the program, primary and secondary students complete hands-on, inquiry-based investigations of the environment around them. Then, the results and measurements of the investigations are added to the collective database. GLOBE has been around for 13 years and now has over 18 million measurements in areas such as “atmosphere and climate, hydrology, land cover biology, and soil.” Over 21,000 schools have been involved in this collaborative global science project! GLOBE takes the scientific method and inquiry-based learning to a more authentic level by having these budding scientists work together around the world. Here are some questions and answers about the GLOBE program:

Who pays for this? NASA, NSF, and the U.S. Department of the State

What are some states that are currently involved? New York, Texas, and Alabama

How does it work? classroom teachers get trained with GLOBE and identify a research project and then get connected with other schools in other countries working on the same scientific questions

Want to get involved? Go to www.globe.gov

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 6

aimeemartin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:01:33 +0000

I was recently reading the article Distance Learning: Universal Design, Universal Access by Sheryl Burgstahler. She raises some very important issues of equity when it comes to students with disabilities and distance learning. While governmental websites must comply with Section 508 of the ADA, distance learning programs are not often strictly monitored to follow these guidelines. However, it is important to not create another type of “digital divide” between students with disabilities and others in distance learning classrooms. One must remember students with disabilities when creating and implementing a distance learning course. It is better to be proactive than reactive by designing distance learning courses to be accessible to all students. Often, changes that are made to accomodate these learners also benefit other students. This is often referred to as the Universal Design for Learning. Appropriate sizing, spacing, coloring, captions, and a variety of platforms are necessary to help learners. (One can even induce seizures if not careful with flashing on a webpage between 2-55 hertz). By being aware of these situations and looking at appropriate guidelines and other sites that are in compliance with Section 508, it can be of benefit to not only students with disabilities but all students.

As Burgstahler states, “Designed correctly, distance education options create learning opportunities for everyone. Designed poorly, they erect barriers to equal participation in academics and careers for potential students and instructors with disabilities.”

Other helpful sites related to the topics of distance learning and assistive and adaptive technology can be found on:

Designing web pages for people with disabilities

The Center for Applied Special Technology

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 5

aimeemartin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:26:12 +0000

When researching different Web 2.0 tools for distance learning, I came across a site I had never heard before. Innertoob is a tool that allows your podcasts to be marked at certain points. This allows listeners to be more engaged. I would recommend watching the Toobcasting video tutorial to learn more about this if you currently employ podcasts in your classroom.

This has great implications for distance learning. Interactivity between instructor and student would be more readily possible with Innertoob. Podcasts are a great tool for distance learning instructors to use for auditory learners. What would be even better though is to ask questions at certain points of the podcast easily without disrupting the flow of the podcast or having to tell a specific time during the podcast in which to pay closer attention. With Innertoob, this would be simple because it creates a timeline or tracking device at the bottom of the page. Certain sections could be marked with probing questions for students and they would be able to refer back to a section in the podcast more easily. I think the ability to ask more critical and higher level thinking questions would be possible with this tool.

In addition, I believe that this would be easier to talk about sections of the podcast in discussion. A teacher could say, “refer back to the _____ section of the podcast” and with Innertoob that would be possible with its easy marking system and less confusing than specifying a time. This tool should be further investigated for use in distance learning programs.

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 4

aimeemartin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:01:57 +0000

I read an article on Cultivating Social Presence in the Online Learning Classroom: A Literature Review with Recommendations for Practice by Brandi Scollins-Mantha. It had some practical ways to help make an online environment more like a face-to-face classroom with respect to social qualities.

One interesting thing I read in the article is the use of emoticons. Sometimes showing these can reflect facial expressions and cues that are necessary when not in a face-to-face situation. However, as always, there is a time and a place appropriate for different forms of communication. Formal writing should not include these.

Feedback in a timely manner by the instructor is a necessity. Without non-verbal cues, students may feel alone and unsure of their place in the virtual classroom. Adding humor and personal information can help forge a connection. Having emails sent to check in on how students are doing and audio clips create a social presence. All of this must be modeled by the instructor. I never realized there was a method behind my online instructors setting things up like this in Blackboard since I’ve only taken a few hybrid courses. But now, in a fully online distance learning course I see the benefit.

Mostly, I’m learning that in order for distance learning to work you must take into consideration the environment. Just as teachers spend hours doing seating charts, moving furniture for optimal learning, and other environmental changes to a brick and mortar classroom, there must be certain things set in place in a virtual classroom to foster social presence. Having a social presence is essential in collaborative learning online.

Our Students, Our Worlds Presentation

aimeemartin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:23:32 +0000

David Warlick gave the keynote speech at the FCPS symposium today. These are some of the points that made a lasting impression on me:

1. Not just life-long learning, but a learning lifestyle is needed

2. Teach children how to teach themselves–learning-literacy

I think both of these points helps me to better understand the new role of a teacher in the 21st Century. As Mr. Warlick so concisely stated in his presentation we are faced with an unpredictable future, networked students, and a new information landscape that all affect education. As he also pointed out 5 exabytes (or about equivalent to 37,000 Library of Congresses) of information were added in 2002 but only 0.01% of that information was printed on paper. We need to be able to help students to ask questions of all content they read (whether print or online) and be able to have the skills to properly produce content (as most of them already are publishers on the World Wide Web!).

Also, just as a side note, I had previously bookmarked www.lulu.com but wasn’t aware of just how cool it really is until now. Check out this online book publisher!

Just in case you missed it, his link to the handouts can be found at www.handouts.davidwarlick.com as well as many other resources.

And Mr. Warlick, if you read this, thank you for a motivating speech!

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 3

aimeemartin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:35:19 +0000

I’ve done some research on Blackboard’s homepage to see how they believe Bb should be used in K-12 education. Bb School Central has some interesting tools like their “Safe Assign” which is supposed to help students learn proper citation skills in order to not plagarize. These skills are important all throughout their education.

I am a firm believer in assessment that helps teachers make data-driven decisions. The automatic scoring that Bb provides is beneficial to make changes in instruction more quickly than paper and pencil. I also like the self and peer assessment that helps students to think about their own learning. Reflection is an important part of the learning process. Students need to learn that they are responsible for their own learning and should reflect on their own work and not just focus on “the grades.”

However, the grade tools are available for parental access. This is important as parents are an integral part in each of their children’s education. Often, parents can feel “in the dark” on what is going on at school, especially if their child is not the most revealing. There is always a parent somewhere where a child springs a project on them at the last minute or a failing grade. This problem could be alleviated before it happened with a course management system. The benefit is that everything is in one place–grades and upcoming assignments.

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 2

aimeemartin — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:19:36 +0000

This is my second week using Blackboard as an online instructor. I have for many years been on the student side of Blackboard. I have recently been introduced to Moodle. It is a free, open source, Course Management System. Honestly, I didn’t even know there were other CMS options out there for free. This also means that individual persons who teach can use Moodle for their classroom without a whole school or school system buying into a single Course Management System. This would allow for some flexibility. I also have no idea what Universities and Colleges pay for the service. This would be something good to investigate.

These are some of the claims of why Moodle is better:

it is easier to navigate (Blackboard has confusing tabs and windows)
RSS feeds to different modules
avatars
automatic email function of chat, IM, and forums
when adding a quiz date, it is automatically added to the calendar, upcoming events, and recent activity
back-ups can be made and saved as a zip file and uploaded to a new course instead of going through an intermediary of Bb support staff

These are some reasons against Moodle:

the wiki has limited function
there are navigation issues with the forums
the design layout may appeared disorganized to some users

Here are some sources if you are looking to compare Blackboard and Moodle:

University of Victoria offers many tools at the bottom of their website including a helpful comparison chart, PowerPoint, and pdf detailing differences between the two CMS.

Susan Sedro’s blog

University of Louisiana lists 5 differences between Moodle and Bb

Distance Learning Adventures, Part 1

aimeemartin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:20:47 +0000

This is part one of an eight part series journaling my adventures into online learning. Today I became a virtual instructor in my new web platform on Blackboard Academic Suite (Bb). I am already noting differences between this environment and my normal brick and mortar classroom that I have been accustomed to thus far in my career as an educator.

One of the first things I noticed is the shift from a more teacher-centered environment to a student-centered environment. Instead of the teacher lecturing in front of a classroom or giving PowerPoint presentations (which by the way is not good teaching practice for the most part anyway), the online format puts more emphasis on students being responsible for their own learning. Sometimes, the presence of an instructor can inhibit students from constructing their own learning. Students often wait for the teacher to “fill them up” with the learning. The online structure does not really allow for passive learning. You must be an active participant and you are held accountable for your activity which can be more easily monitored. I will be looking forward to discovering ways in which this platform and other distance learning modalities can be used for the elementary and middle school learners.