Totally Connected Classroom

While I was checking out my Diigo library in bed one morning (killing time before I really have to get my day started), I found this blog post about a truly connected Kindergarten classroom. This teacher uses her smartphone, Facebook and FaceTime to keep parents apprised of their students' activities throughout the day. Wile I think that is really cool, I also wonder how she can possibly dedicate enough time to teaching her students while also managing all these updates. Check out her blog, Kindergarten Diva, and let me know what you think. How can she possibly have time for all of that??

Syllabus for 521

Syllabus

I Do Not Like to Write (Reflection via Web 2.0)

I think one of the biggest things I've taken away from this class is that literacy can easily be integrated with technology.  Not only can it easily be integrated, but it can also make learning and assessing fun!  I know it sounds too good to be true, but realistically, any time you give kids the opportunity to do their work in a way that they consider out-of-the-ordinary, they are more interested and engaged, both of which lead to increased motivation.

I started to integrate my EDU 584 reflection with Go Animate, a program that gives voice to text and allows for freedom of creativity.  The only problem was, there's a limit to how many speech exchanges you can have, and I quickly ran out of room!  The point is, I learned A LOT.  I plan on using most of what I learned frequently, and I plan on keeping up with my RSS feed because every day new technology is added and gives me new ideas on what I could do with my class.


I Do Not Like to Write by Elena Thibodeau on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Google Tries to Get Game (Reflection 2.0)

I have to give Google credit for trying something new, but even after using this product, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

What product am I talking about?  Google Story Builder. At first, it seemed like it was being advertised as a digital storytelling product but when I opened it to see what it was like, it was actually nothing like PhotoStory or Animoto and any other product like that.  There are no graphics.  You don't get to import your own music.  It's just text set to preloaded, Google-provided music.  

They (Google) call it collaboration.  I'm not sure I see the collaborative part.  They call it a story builder.  I'm not sure I see that.  Maybe I'm just not understanding their intention.  Even Educational Technology and Mobile Learning seems to talk about the product as more than what I've found (that's where I found the link to this particular program).  They claim that the product "allows you to create mini-movies or video stories with the feel of Google Docs. You can also personalize the videos you create using the characters, story, and even music of your choosing and when you  finish you can share your final product with others".  Mini-movies?  Video stories?  If you figure out what they mean by that, can you please let me know?  Because quite frankly, I'm confused.  

Here's a video of Google's idea of what their program can be used for:

Here's a version of my class reflection using Google Story Builder (to the best of my understanding):  Class Reflection

iMovie Makes iMagic

I don't have any experience using iMovie but I found a link that might be useful to people who do.  Educational Technology and Mobile Learning posted about "6 Ways to Enhance Students' Learning Using iMovie".

Among the uses we are most familiar with was digital storytelling.  The post also mentions using iMovie to create visual reports, book reports/trailers, and use it to provide students with out-of-class trips (like an in-class field trip).

While I mentioned previously that I didn't use iMovie, I'm sure I could use PhotoStory to do any of the above-mentioned activities too.

Just some food for thought.

Below is a video narrated by a student explaining how to use iMovie.

Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery

So I've done it.  I've gone and created a digital story that I will use to introduce Lewis and Clark's exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and beyond to my students.  Because I have students who are English Language Learners and students who struggle with comprehension, I will use this video to give my students a preview of Lewis and Clark's journey.  This will give them an idea of the basic timeline of the journey so that when we start reading and researching the Corps of Discovery, students will have a beginning understanding.

Hope you enjoy!

There's An App for That!

As many of you know, I've been using KidBlog in my classroom for a little while now.  My kids are enthusiastic about writing and they love going to the lab to write about the most mundane things that they wouldn't even dream about writing about in the classroom.  While I know that eventually I'm going to have to make them write more interesting things in their blogs, I can't help but relish in the simple fact that as of right now, many of my more reluctant writers are having a great time writing!

As we lined up to go to the lab today, one my kids share with me the fact that there's an app for KidBlog.  As far as I can tell, it's only available on Apple devices, but I hope they'll make it available for Android devices soon since so many of my students have e-readers/tablets like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet. Many of my students were really excited to hear about the app for KidBlog and I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to be moderating even more comments and posts than I already am.

And guess what?  I'm really excited about that.  My students are becoming digital citizens right before my very eyes!

Check out this video a teacher made to introduce his kids to the KidBlog app.  If I could figure out how to embed videos into KidBlog, I'd put this video up on my KidBlog.  (If you have any suggestions on how to do that, please feel free to share.  Until then, I guess I'll just put a link.)