Web Based Collaboration Tools

Web based collaboration tools can create great opportunities for people to work together. In schools, these tools can facilitate student-student projects, teacher-teacher projects, student-teachers projects, and parent-student-teacher projects. With so many ways that people might want to work together, which sites offer the best applications? For this project, I looked at Knotebooks, Twiducate, and GroupTable. 

Knotebooks

     The idea behind Knotebooks is that you can create a personalized web page on a topic for yourself by selecting the just-right level of information under each heading within the page.  The site also allows you to switch out text within a heading for video or other media.  You can then save your customized web page for reference later.  It is kind of like an adjustable text book.  Like Wikipedia, you can also upload your own articles to the website that others may use in their pages. Although I find the idea behind this site fascinating and the site itself to be easy to navigate and use, I was disappointed by the amount of information currently available. In particular, there is little content appropriate for elementary school use at this time.
     This site could also be a great way for teachers to share and find lesson plans like this one.  Again, though, there are not many lesson plans on the site and none that would be appropriate for elementary school teachers. If this site continues to grow and gain in popularity, I would not be surprised if it became a great resource for elementary school teachers even though it is not quite there yet.

Twiducate

Twiducate gives teachers the ability to turn their class into a mini social networking site similar to twitter.  Teachers create the network; then their students each get their own account.  Teachers also have the ability to open their network up to other classes.  The benefit to this site is that it is private; the teacher and students are the only ones seeing content which could keep the site safer.  However, there are two drawbacks that I see to using a site that is private.  First of all, parents may not be able to access the site which would be a loss, and second, when students publish they are not getting to publish to any larger of an audience than if they had just had their work displayed in the classroom.  I can see why some teachers might want to keep their classroom information private, and Twiducate could be a great way to accomplish that.  However, I would not want to use this as my class's only online presence.

 GroupTable

GroupTable is a website that allows members of a group to work together on a project by sharing a calendar, creating a task list, chatting, posting discussions, and uploading documents.  I think that this site offers tools that students could use to work together on group projects or teachers could use to work together on committee projects.  I like that the site allows users to assign tasks to specific individuals and has a calendar for making sure that tasks are completed on time.  I could see myself using this site to work with students doing an expert study or passion project.  However, the uploads section of the site seems a little confusing and would probably require some direct guidance before students could effectively use it on their own.

It was interesting to look at all three of these sites.  Each site put its own spin on online collaboration, and I could see myself using any of them in the future if the situation was correct.

References

Filippazzo, J., & Clark, T. (n.d.). Knotebooks -Anyone can contribute. Everyone can learn.. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://knotebooks.com/

GroupTable. Retrieved October 16,2011, from https://www.grouptable.com/

Twiducate-Social Networking for Schools. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://twiducate.com/about.php

I am an Educator Voice Thread

Technology Use in the Elementary Classroom

Although most teachers would agree that integrating technology into the classroom is beneficial to student learning, most teachers have not actually achieved this in their teaching.  In fact, for most teachers, technology's greatest impact on teaching comes in the form of preparation and communication tools while instructional tools are left out.  There are many reasons why this occurs; however, it is obvious that teachers must make an effort to shift technology out of their hands and into the hands of their students on a regular basis if they want to make the most use of their resources.

According to a study by Russell (2003) most teachers use technology for preparing materials and for communicating while few have mastered actualy integration into their curriculum.  What was most interesting about this study was that the youngest, most technology savvy teachers were the ones who actually used technology the least in their actual teaching.  Even though this is at first suprising, it actually kind of makes sense. Finding ways to use technology in your own life is easy, but creating great lessons that use technology in a meaningful way means that you have to plan a whole different aspect into your teaching.  While young teachers may be the most comfortable with teaching, they are probably the least experienced teachers, gennerally speaking.  In order for teachers to be the most successful at integrating technology into their classrooms, I think that they must be comfortable with technology and with experimenting with new types of lessons.

 When technology is being used in the classroom, there are many areas where it can be integrated into the curriculum.  According to our class text, the six categories of technology that most applications fall into are word processing, spreadsheet software, organizing and brainstorming software, multimedia, data collection tools, web resources, and communication software (Pilter, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski 2007).  By utilizing all six different types of applications and coming up with daily ways to integrate technology into curriculum, it is possible to extend student learning by capturing their attention, presenting the information, and allowing them to take control of their own learning.

References:
Russell M (2003). Examining Teacher Technology Use : Implications for Preservice and Inservice Teacher Preparation. Journal of Teacher Education. 54 (4), 297-310.

Pitler, H., Hubbel, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.

In the hood...

Interview with a Tech Guru

On Wednesday, October 6, 2011, Afton, Liz and I had the pleasure of interviewing Ted Wilson, the principal of G.V. about the technology in the school.  As someone who grew up interested in technology, he has used his knowledge to integrate it into teaching since he started teaching at the school in 1997 and continued to do so as the principal.  Having been both a teacher and a principal, he has some great insight into the value of technology in education.

Mr. Wilson first began using computers as a student himself in high school, so he knows first hand how technology can draw people into learning.  As a new teacher, he took his own experiences and made using technology a priority in his classroom; with the benefit of good timing, he was able to be influential in some of Glacier Valley's big purchases in 1997 when the state gave out a bond issue for buying technology.  Other money from the state since then has allowed Glacier Valley to remain on top of changing technologies.  The recent renovation of the school brought with it a good wireless network in addition to other things.

Ted believes that technology is important because it is a subject similar to art and science.  These subjects are the part of the curriculum that is the main motivator for many students, giving them a reason for coming to school and working hard.  With technology, teachers are able to extend their class projects into meaningful, powerful activities.  In fact, his favorite thing about technology is seeing teachers who have extended the writing process to have students make audio and video productions in their classes.

Ted has noticed that as this generation of students moves through the school that they are very comfortable with technology in addition to being motivated by it.  Even kindergarten students can use laptops.  With technology, even a simple thing (like a digital camera) can create an engaging, motivating, relevant experience.

It was very interesting talking with Ted about his experiences, and I am thankful to him for taking some time out of his schedule to sit down and talk with us.

Technology Inventory at G.V.

Here is a short list of some of the technology resources we have at our school.

Hardware:

• In Every Classroom:
•  Every teacher has a laptop
•  Desk top computers in every classroom
•  Document Cameras in every classroom
•  Flat screen television in every classroom
•  dvd/vhs player
• sound system
• wilreless microphone
• wireless internet
• cable
• digital camera
• Alapha Smarts/Neo (Intermediate grades only)

• For use within the school:
• 3 Laptop carts with ~30 laptops in each
• Flip Camera
• SmartBoard (located in library)
• USB wireless microphone
• Wired microphones
• Scientific Testing Equipment
• Probe Scope
• Water Quality Testing Device
• Weather Station
• Large drop down Screen in library and commons
• Digital Camera

Software

• For Students to use:
• Microsoft Office Suite
• iWorks
• Kidspiration
• Kidpics
• All the Right Type
• ComicLife
• Accelerated Reader
• Safari/Firefox
• DragonSpeak 
• Google Earth

• For teachers:
• Power Teacher
• CummuniGate Web Mail
• File Maker
• All programs students have

School of One and Khan Academy Response

Photo: School of One, Source

Q: What do you think of the concept of a “school-of-one” and Khan Academies? How will this approach to technology shape the classroom of the future?

A: I find the concept of a “school-of-one” as talked about in the Freakenomics podcast and Salman Khan's TED talk fascinating. Some of the ideas that they are proposing seem to be both the answer to education that we've all been waiting for and the craziest thing I have ever heard. Obviously I have mixed feelings about these ideas, but over all, I am all about revolutionizing the face of education as long as it actually works.

One of the key part of both the school-of-one and Khan Academy was something that we are already starting to see more of in our schools due to the focus on standards. The key component to both programs was constant data monitoring. By tracking every student as they pass through each step of the learning process, these programs ensure that students are not left with gaps that will only grow larger as they go on in school. As part of the standards movement, teachers are already trying to accomplish this, but using the computer tests to monitor student progress is a particularly elegant way to keep track of student learning. By simply taking a quick look at a spread sheet, teachers know instantly how each student is doing, what skills need more work, and where they are ready to move on. Teachers already do this all of the time in the form of formate and summative assessments, but having the computer program as an added aid to ensure that no student slips through the cracks would be very powerful.

Another important thing that both programs used was giving students control of their own learning. Being a self-regulated learner empowers students in their education. Giving students exposure to programs where they are in control of how they learn not only maximizes their potential by giving them the best suited instruction, it also gives them a feeling of power and responsibility to achieve. I could see many students in my class excelling in a program where they were in charge of their own schedule and classes. Of course, giving students a great deal of power also means that there will be added pressure on teachers to make sure that they are using their time at school to the best effect.

One of the things that stuck out to me in the school-of-one was the idea that no one knew what the program would look like on a large scale. would one type of program work better than the others? Would students be evenly disbursed throughout all of the different “modalities of learning?” Something I could see happening if school-of-one was played out on a large scale is that the city of New York would have to hire many more teachers as they realized that small group instruction leads to optimized student learning. Since most states don't seem to be willing to spend the money to reduce student to teacher ratio now, would this program really change their minds? 
 

Personally, I could see using Khan Academy in my future lessons. I know that I would have found it helpful to be able to play confusing lectures over again, and I suspect that many students would feel the same way. Particularly, I could see these types of programs being great in the rural parts of Alaska where there aren't always enough students to justify certain classes.

Both of these programs offered a lot of food for thought about how technology could be used to change the way our education system works. I see a lot of great potential in both of these programs, and I will be standing by watching to see if either of them can live up to the potential they seem to have.