WIKI Use

Recently our district has begun to require teachers to use the in-house WIKI that has been developed. WIKIs can cut down on the amount of time groups are required to meet by making collaboration easier. WIKIs can also connect specialists across the district with one another so that the feeling of "isolation" can be decreased. Students can be shown a safe and appropriate use of a social networking site and be given an authentic audience for writing assignments. If all of these benefits exist, why or why does it seem so hard to have everyone move to using WIKIs?

Someone said...

I recently heard one of the school secretaries comment that "Someone said the tech department steals a lot of things." Do you know how hard it is to carry broken printers, power strips, extension cords, tools, etc. down the hall? If one of the carts from the office accidentally goes missing can you blame us?

Faces Feature on iPhoto

I've begun playing with the new version of iPhoto that will be installed on our teachers' computers this year. The "Faces" feature requires that users train the software to recognize faces in pictures by identifying individuals approximately four times. I think this feature will be fantastic for teachers come year-end. They can organize all the class photos by students and individualize an end-of-year gift for each student.

Web 2.0 Tools

I'm finding that there are a wide variety of web based tools available to teachers for use with students.  I will definitely share Doink with the art teachers within my district.  I think the incorporation of an animation unit might be very interesting for the students.  Also, I think Sketchup has some strong possibilities for use in the classroom. Last school year I had offered a Google Earth staff development course that teachers showed strong interest in.  I'm toying with the idea of part 2 being Sketchup.

Investigating Web 2.0 Tools

This blog was initially created as part of a Web 2.0 course that I am taking.  The next activity we're participating in is to investigate 2 - 3 web 2.o tools.  Since a good portion of my position is support for classroom teachers, I've chosen to investigate:

• Prezi
• Capzles
• Sketchup
• Doink 
• Swivel

Okay, I know that's five, but I couldn't settle on just three and will probably look into more than five!  More to follow...

Surprised But Not

Well it's official.  Jon and Kate are splitting up.  While I wasn't surprised by the announcement (it had been speculated for quite some time) I was surprised by the presence the show has on the web.  Besides a web site that now seems required for all television shows, Kate maintains her own blog. Visitors were encouraged to leave positive comments of support for poor Kate. 

It dawned on me that we need to teach children how to operate within the ever-expanding cybercommunity that they now exist within. Just because you CAN blog about the demise of your marriage, should you?  What is private and what should be opened for public viewing? At what age do we begin to discuss with our students where to draw the line between public display and privacy?  I don't have the answer, but I'm sure my level of comfort will be much different than their own.

Better Searching

I had the opportunity to attend an Apple sponsored workshop today on creating technology infused lessons. We took some time to discuss teaching students how to search effectively online. As a rule, students will use only a key word search resulting in far too many results to be effective. Advanced searching should be taught earlier during the research process.  It was suggested that third grade might be a good time for introducing advanced searching. The following website provides some good information-- http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm