group project & mindtools

Thanks to Kellie, Kim and Itewari the group project we had been throwing around was in Wiki form and was well in motion when I jumped in . In reading their posts unit ideas I've been able to zero in on some mind tools that I might focus on in developing a broad Needs vs wants topic. I am trying to direct my mind tools paper to focus on a rebuilding a community that's been destroyed by a natural disaster. In sharing some ideas I had for lesson plans through the wiki, I started to really think about what mind tools would help students share their understanding of community needs vs wants. Concept maps, podcasts and even a webQuests to do research on community rebuilding could all prove useful in helping students and learn about their topics and ultimately present their findings. Even the groups setting up Wikis to divide tasks and share their findings as we are would add another tool for them to work collaboratively.

Chapter7 Jonassen

This chapter is full terrific resources to draw from to use with students in classrooms or in a professional development arena. Some I have tried with my students like Moodle Forums, podcasts, and concept maps. I created in account through Epals last summer to try to develop an electronic link for students when we begin our writing unit that focuses on letter writing. I also thought it had real potential to give the kids a global perspective to the world they live in. This is all still percolating for next term. I did note that ePals also offers a Blogging feature that allows them to write to other kids about things they are interested in finding out about all within a "protected envir0nment" (p.146 - Jonassen). This might jump start my project because I see the benefits this feature may have to motivate my reluctant writers (the ones who hate writing becasue the fine motor is not there yet or are hesitant to mis-spell) and the fact that kids could see others kids perspectives from around the world.

adobe connect #2

The connect meeting was a little glitchy last night, so it was hard to see myself using this as a tool to collaborate with classmates on a group miniproject unless is was a little more reliable. I guess it works best also when working with a small group and you are targeting a specific task or discussing the goals for a projects you all have pretty well mapped out before going live on Connect.

sample 2nd gr. webQuest

Just wanted to post a 2nd grade WebQuest that one of my colleagues designed a few years ago. Just presented to my students yesterday and left it on our class Moodle page for them to explore further. The kids worked in pairs...one navigates the Webquest the other records facts using a Kidspiration Venn Diagram. They both then revise and edit their diagram together.

http://ps.montclairkimberley.org/~egaringer/Towns/Site/Welcome.html

Connections

Today a colleague at work shared a webQuest she created for second graders to use during our Town unit of study. She showed me the possibilities of young students using more than one Mindtool to deepen their understanding of towns today compared to colonial towns. The webquest asked the kids to work in partnerships. One student would navigate the webquest sites...the other student would use Kidspiration and create a Venn Diagram. The one student records info. into the diagram and they both work together to arrange the info into their Venn Diagram. I was excited to have my students try the WebQuest/Kidspiration project. They had just completed concept maps using kidspiration on the componenets of towns, co this will take them a step further as we explore early towns and towns now. H

google Docs

Well, I finally posted my suggestions to the google docs doc we were all adding too. I was able to read other viewpoints and suggestions and could see the content of our mini-projects forming. I see its usefulness as a tool in curriculum development with colleagues too. There's a lot we can learn from each others postings, I just note that everyone needs to be on at once making comments to make it a true real-time interactive experience.

The only drawback I see to using with younger students is they would need to have a gmail acct. We'd have to create bogus email accts or have parents create accts for the kids.

Flickr

Yay! Just figured out how to post some poverty/homeless images on group pool for our course on Flickr. I think I have the kids experiment with feature to work on team projects. First the tech administrator will have to set up bogus email accounts for the kids to sign on to Flickr, I think.

constructivist assumptions...

I'm commenting on some of the readings I've done since enrolling in this course in particular the Uden and Beaumont readings. On page11 their were a few things I will remember as I work with young students. 4. "Meaning arises out of interpretation and , thus, multiple perspectives are recognized and 5. Meaning construction is prompted by problems, questions, issues, and authentic tasks." The mentioning of authentic tasks is something a found really relevant to most classroom experiences. During our last in-service day I chose to focus on making classroom experiences more authentic for my students part of my professional development plan over the next several years. Also in making tasks more authentic for students the fact that kids make meaning only after interpreting information presented. If they are working collaboratively they have the opportunity to interpret more information and get more out of an authentic learning task. This can happen if they are partaking in a traditional group discussions or using a tools like webspiration or forums.

bright side

On the bright side...I did figure out how to create a 4052 group of network users on Delicious and discovered another Poverty source I can access for the mini-project. Now I am off to the discussion board to talk about some of the reading I've done. I'll play with Flickr tomorrow.

spinning wheels

Okay...I'm on day 2 of trying to find the Google docs file we are all supposed to be adding to.
I've read all the supporting materials in the course info. section of the bulletin board, yet find myself spinning into a vortex of passwords, discussion boards and going off on website tangents every time a try to locate this file or email invite. I'm going to have to bring in the heavy hitters Howie or Debra.

adobe connect

Last Wednesday was my first attempt at using Adobe Connect to log into our discussion on unit 2 readings and some logging on tips. When I finally figured out how to get my camera working and mic off the hands-free option it was pretty cool to see other classmates and instructors exchanging ideas. The part that was most amazing is that a lot of stuff was going on at once...I was listening to comments, scanning the screen for personal reactions to shared comments, fiddling with buttons to figure out how to navigate the software and watching any live "chat" postings being shared on the lower half of the screen. The Live Chat option was the one that flung me into "hyper multi-task mode". I found that when I was responding or reading a post on the live chat...I had missed part of what a peer or instructor was sharing, and while I was watching the web cam action it was hard to focus on the chat content. It was nice having the option to hop in on either area but I did lose some of the content in the process. I think the next time I use Adobe connect I'll be better prepared to navigate on it and I think I'll focus on the screen action for some time and scan the live chat area for the another part.

google docs

Trying to figure out how to find the google doc file we are all collaborating on. eeekk!

delicious /google docs

I have been experimenting with Delicious and found it useful in accessing bookmarks from other computers and wonder why I haven;t used it sooner. I've actually had it on my browser bar for 2 years and just overlooked it. I am still working on getting other student in the course signed up to access my poverty bookmarks. One step at a time :)

webspiration

So I checked in on the map we've all been contributing to over the last week and I'm impressed with how much information is organized on that concept map. This is the first time I'm actually using Webspiration collaboratively and it seems like a great way to get people to generate ideas in a clear and concise way. Looking forward to using it with colleagues at work.

After reading the unit 1 assigned chapter from the Jonassen text, I was struck by a passage noted early in the chapter. When Jonassen breaks down the attributes that promote meaningful learning and goes into detail about Cooperative/Collaborative work, he writes, "In the everyday world, humans naturally seek out others to help them to solve problems and perform tasks. Then why do educators insist that learners work independently so much of the time?"
I thought about this for a long time and then thought about all the times I've asked students in my class to work "independently" on a project or assigned task. I thought I needed to this as often as I have been to get a clear picture of what they understand and how, or if, they are progressing, but as I reviewed the chapter again it mentions, "Humans naturally work together in learning and knowledge-building communities, exploiting each others' skills and appropriating each other's knowledge." (Jonassen pg.5 ) Today, I came in and gave my kids time to work together to complete assigned work throughout the day and I found that their collaborating could create be a whole new level of learning. They instinctively do seek each other out to help in areas where they need support. They also learned new things and questioned each other or interacted to bring up interesting talking points to expand on as a class.

1st reflection

So, after the first week's orientation period I am trying to keep all my new user names and passwords straight so I can navigate back to all the cool sites and tech tools I am learning about :)