Sunday, February 27, 2011

BP-6RILS_Finalproject





Uncovering the Dark Side Blog!!!!


1. Target Audience: Two computer courses at Msgr. Edward Pace High School, Computer Applications I and Computer applications II. The classes consist of 20 girls and 20 boys. There are 18 freshmen, 6 sophomores, 5 juniors and 11 seniors.

2. Materials: Computers, Internet connection (preferably high speed), Google Account, v

3. Objectives:
• Students will produce a written blog comment evaluating a Web2.0 tools based on predetermined criteria.
• Students will discover the usefulness of 1 or more Web 2.o tools to help them in education.

4. Procedure –
• Teacher will create a blog and each student must sign up and participate.
• Student will engage in a contest for the blog name.
• Students will create a flyer to advertise the blog to student body.
• Students will use their Google account to sign up for the blog.
• Students will write an evaluation of various Web 2.0 tools and post to the blog and respond to at least one comment.


5. Web 2.0 Tool – Blogger is the web 2.0 tool of choice for this particular
assignment.


6. Social Participation/Social Learning –Students votes will be tabulated via survey to determine if the web 2.0 tools have made students more successful in reaching assignments objectives. Students will collaborate on a project to produce a deliverable to present the tool to the school. The classes will vote and the winners Web 2.0 project will be shared with the school at large.

7. Making Connections – The lesson allows the learner to connect with previous experiences of school and determine rather the Web 2.0 tools introduced will help them be successful in school. The blog post and deliverables are designed to assist the learner in determining rather the Web 2.0 tool is relevant to their education or not. The design of the assessment causes the learner to state the relevancy for them.


8. Create/Produce - Each student will create a blog comment and respond to least one comment. Students will also have the opportunity to produce a project may be presented the Web 2.0 to the entire school.



9. Assessment –Rubistar.com The blog post and comment are assessed on the following criteria:
• Description of tools usefulness or lack of usefulness to their educational world.
• Description of why Web tool could be useful or not to other student’s educational environments.
• How much time does it take to become proficient with the tool. Explanation of recommendation or regret.
Blogging Web 2.0 tool Assessments - Writing a great Blog


• Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to explore thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences of various Web 2.0 tools.
• Discover and explore- usefulness of web 2.0 tools for themselves and classmates share.
• Clarify and extend- pose areas for further discussion on blog, engage peers in discussions on topics.

• Guiding Questions/Statements

• After Learning and experiencing a Web 2.0 tool write a blog post that demonstrates:

• Justification your opinion/point of view
• - Support with examples from personal experiences and the experiences of others.

• Shows consideration of other points of view
• - Examine the tool from an opposing point of view, what are the pros to their arguments?
• - Ask yourself, how do others' opinions affect your point of view?
• - Explore the differences in your opinions further. Where can you get more information on the issue/topic? What do you now know that you didn't before you started the process?

• Shows deeper understanding (reflection) of the issue and draws conclusions
• - After considering the usefulness of the tool and listening to others, how do you see this Web 2.0 Tool?
• - Do you see it in another way? How has listening to others and considering other sources affected your view on Web 2.0 Tool? Why did it change/not change your mind?



How will you be marked?


Web 2.0 Blog Assessment

4 3 2 1

Justifies own opinion/point of view on usefulness of Web 2.0 tool
Opinion is shared and is supported with insightful, carefully selected details linked to reasonable assumptions Opinion is shared with details, which are supported with links to examples. Opinion is given with only partial details provided. Links to supporting viewpoints are limited. Statements are given but little or no support of opinion is evident.





Shows deeper understanding of Web 2.0 tool and draws conclusions. Reflections and conclusions reached are insightful and perceptive. Reflections and conclusions reached are meaningful and thoughtful. Reflection and conclusions of personal learning is simplistic and general. Reflection contains little or no new personal insights/conclusions about the explored.

Modified from Rubricstar.com


Reflection –The last deliverable for the class is a reflection on the entire class and students may chose from: Quizlet, Prezi, Wonder Wheel, Google Docs, Google Presentation, Jing, Google Reader, I Google, Etc… I would like to post my final reflection as a video.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

BP_5 Blogger is Awesome.


Blogger has the ability to add a feature that will list all of the blogs you subscribe to. Not only can you do list of blogs but websites may be listed as well. The list appears with a snippet from the blog or website you have subscribed to. The list feature in Blogger will allow the posting of snippets that you may want you student to follow or view. The feature may be used if you have a class blog as well to list all or some of them.


Check this out, this is for anyone who likes to use podcast. Blogger has the ability to to turn your blog into a podcast. Your podcast can be posted right into your blog. If students subscribe to your blog they get your podcast as well without any additional work.

I didn't know that we are able to add are favorite Google gadgets/widget to our blog. I know have the ability to add a quote of the day for reflection from my students. A TO Do List may be added to remind students of exactly must be posted or I can post the rubric on the to do list. There is language translator for Foreign Language teacher. My students and I are collaborating on the building of the class blog. Check back and see the cool things we are using that you may have never thought about including in a blog. I'm searching for the allusive talking avatar for blogs. There is a site call Voki that will allow you to create talking avatars. I can't wait to see the talking avatars my students create. Stay tuned, I will review Voki in the future.

BP_4BLOGGER


Blogger is the Web 2.0 tool I have chosen. Blogging has great potential to engage students. I have NEVER used a blog to assess students knowledge or used a blog for reflection. Blogs are definitely a web 2.0 tool because of the students ability to publish to the web and others may comment directly to the publication. I thought blogs were a good idea for subjects like English and history because of writing assessments and reflections respectfully.I have learned that blogs have great potential in all subjects. I recently learned some really creative strategies and thought a blog would be a great way to deliver the material, engage my students, and assess knowledge, if this was possible.This Blog post is a guest into the world of Blogging to see how i might use a blog.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

BP7_GOOGLE WONDER WHEEL!

 
Here is a great research tool in the Google applications that I don't believe many people know about.
I found about the wonder wheel, so aptly named, at FETC in a workshop given by Dr, Howard Diblasi, Thanks so much. It's really usefull 

BP6_COMMENT TO CHRISTINE

Check out my comment to Christine about a a really sweet money management tool. I have posted suggestions on how business teachers may use this tool. Interested click here!!!!


BP5_ COMMENTS TO Pamela King/Animoto.com

Are you in search of a great tool for introducing books or a cool tool for assessing comprehension? Check out my comments to Pamela king

BP4_PREZI.COM






Here is great tool to enhance your classroom presentations and it’s free that’s right free. Prezi is an online tool that has excellent features for educators. Prezi uses motion, which if used properly enhances engagement. If the motion is overdone in Prezi it will cause distraction. The motion feature allows the presentation to flow, zoom in and out, and flip. This feature can really engage an audience. Prezi allows you type content on the workspace and rotate the text 360 degrees and present the text at any of those angles including upside down. Would you like to add a movie? You can go to YouTube or any site that will give you a URL for the movie and cut into the workspace and like magic the movie is added. Prezi also allows the addition of pictures very easily from flickr. I’ sure we all know that the pictures must be common license. If you would like to add your own pictures or movies to Prezi hers is what you could do. Join flickr and add you pictures that now can be easily downloaded by Prezi. You can sign up for YouTube; add your movies and Prezi can download them to your presentations easily. For me, the best characteristic is the ability to store pictures, movies, text, and cool motion in a single presentation. I no longer have to have three or more devices in the classroom for this type of instruction. Also the real; power of Prezi could be in introducing this tool as an alternative to Power Point. Image what are students could create with this tool. I hope you take a look at it the real power is in viewing what the tool can do. Well until next time KEEP ENGAGING STUDENTS!

Monday, February 7, 2011

BP_Quizlet

 QUIZLET.COM



Hello teacher. This is an introduction to a Web 2.0 tool that can be used with several grade levels. This tool will allow students to create flash cards online and access them anywhere. There is a mobile application that students may use to access their flash cards anywhere anytime. Not only that, but there are four distinct components of this Web tool that may appeal to diverse learning styles or preferences.  The first is the Learn Mode, which allows the students to use the flashcards like actual flashcards. The cards prompt students either by definition first or the term students must select which they would like to display first, then they guess and click to see the answer. Next the Test Mode allows the student to select the type of questions they want to include on the test: Multiple choice, short answer, matching. The test is graded and the correct and incorrect answers are displayed immediately to offer feedback to foster mastery of the material. The student with the push of a button can have the test repopulated and questions rearranged to retake test for mastery. That’s Awesome.  There are two games that can be played in order to study the vocabulary scatter and space race. In scatter the terms and the definitions appear on a board and must be matched and the time it takes to complete this is recorded. When the student matches the term and definition they both disappear. My students love to play this game and compete against each other. Space race for those more mature folks who can remember the game galactica this game is very similar. The definition races across the screen and the student must type the word to make it disappear before it disappears of the screen; the time to complete the game is also recorded. Students or teacher can create groups for collaboration. The best of all is you can embed all of the features into your class website and students can access it right from the website as well. If you have an interactive board, review games take on a great new dynamic.  If you are looking for a great tool this is definitely one I would suggest. Quizlet I just introduced it to my classes and their blog reviews are awesome they love Quizlet!
LET'S PLAY SCATTER!!!!!!

HERE IS QUIZLET EMBEDDED IN MY CLASS PAGE.