Friday, July 6, 2007
Discussion Week 3
In Chapters 6 and 7 of Will Richardson's book, you read about some very specific uses of photo sharing (like Sophie's Flickr) and social bookmarking in education. Choose of these Web 2.0 tools and give a specific example of how you would use it in your educational situation. You can identify a particular lesson or unit, a staff development exercise, professional networking, etc.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I thought the textbook gave some terrific examples of ways to utilize these resources in education. I like the concept of using Flickr to build personalized collections. I think using photography with students is fun and motivating for them. They take ownership in their work and get very involved. My simple idea would be to keep shared photos throughout the year, constantly adding and updating. Pictures of activities, field trips, celebrations... This way parents can view what's going on too. At the end of the year, students could pick and choose the photos they want and make a photo yearbook CD. I think it would be neat for them to personalize it by picking what they want rather then each child getting the same pictures. They could also add their own music and text. This could be done using a program like Photo Story or IMovie. Students could also make their own label and CD or DVD case. Doing something like this gives students more input and responsibility in taking pictures of class events. When that job has been left up to me, it doesn't always get done. Knowing it will result in a meaningful end-of-year project will build enthusiasm. Also, being able to go and view the pictures at any time would hopefully keep the motivation and interest.
My thoughts mirror Sara, I to liked the examples of ways to utilize resources. To some degree I would be a little limited to use an application like Flickr in a classroom setting. I do have some options as a health instructor and really thought that "Sophie's Flickr"
was pretty awesome. I also think it is an great idea if nothing else to use it to keep a scrap book of the year. I have had problems in participation in the past years, this might be a great way to have them take some ownership/interest in the class. What is really great is that teaching can now transcend the usual paper, notes, and worksheet forum to really engage the students and take an active part in their education. Off the top of my head I can see my self setting up some sort of take home quiz / exam / assignment similar to "Sophie's Flickr" I am truly intrigued by the ability to make notations on pictures, with this in mind I could have them identify areas of the "Food Guide Pyramid" with hints and have them tell what they are. Well, anyways those are some broad brush stroke ideas to use these 2.0 tools in education.
I think using Furl.net would be a great way for me to share and archive the many resources that I already share with teachers. As a library Media Specialist, part of my job is to be a resource provider. Teachers often ask me to do research for them on a specific topic as part of their curriculum. By using Furl, I could build a list of sites that are organized by grade level or topic by creating topic folders and share these sites with all the teachers in our district. It will be handy for teachers because they can do a simple keyword search to find what they need, or they can read the captions I create for my sites to see if it is useful for them. Using Furl will also assist me in my research on topics. I will no longer have to research on my own. After I Furl something I will be able to see if other people have furled the same site. Then, I can click on their user name, and I will have access to their folder which will contain all the other sites they have found related to that topic. I can easily add the sites I like to my blogline account (RSS). Now, whenver that person finds a new site I will be notified. I can scan the sites and choose to add them to my archive if they are good.
I actually found more uses for bookmarking sites and photo sharing sites than I can think of for a wiki. Because I teach in Kenosha which is a "blue collar" town historically, many of my students do not have a computer at home. This will all change next school year as our school is instituting a 1:1 program whereby each incoming freshman a laptop that they will take with them throughout their four years in high school. Since I teach sophmores this gives me one year to use all the exciting creative Web 2.0 tools I'm learning about in this class.
Since I teach television production one of my lessons concerns television and movie lighting. I can envision posting a series of pictures on a photo sharing site each of which exhibits a specific lighting technique. Three point lighting, cameo lighting, silhouette lighting, low key, etc .
It is difficult to teach lighting in a high school classroom and our school doesn't have the budget to purchase actual studio lighting instruments. Lighting is a very visual thing to teach and demonstrating the techniques is the best way to teach it. A photo sharing site with visual examples all with labels would be a great teaching tool for me and study tool for my students. I also give frequent assignments requiring research (ie. give a presentation on a new multimedia device, write a report on an Academy Award category) I could then provide a gazillion web addresses with pertinent links on a social bookmarking site, to assist my students. We currently use a web based site called Blackboard that allows me to post documents and links. So I'm already thinking about how to implement these techniques.
For me, I felt that using the photo sharing sites within my classroom would be more beneficial than using the social bookmarking sites. Between this class and the other class I am taking this summer, I have been thinking about all the ways I can expand or improve projects that I already do with my students by incorporating the tons of resources I have been introduced to. One project I thought I could change using these photo sharing sites would be the Newbery Book Project my reading students do every year. Because Newbery books have such great character development, I thought my students could create a digital story of their character's life (from the beginning to the end of the book) by searching the numerous photo sharing sites available (like Flickr). They would be responsible for finding images (using those sites) to represent the major events in the character's life or the major attributes the character possesses. This project would focus on character development (an important part of our reading curriculum), it would incorporate technology into my classrom, and it would allow me to address some of those "appropriate use of the Web" ideas we have been talking about in class. My one concern is finding enough photo sharing sites for my students to use that won't be filtered in our district. My question is this. To help my students get access to these sites in the easiest way possible, could I use a social bookmarking site (like Furl) to archive the best clip art, video, or photo sharing sites (or at least the ones that are able to be accessed at school)? Could my students go to that one web address and find all resources for the project they would need? Is this a good use of social bookmarking tool in the classroom?
It's definitely interesting to read everyone's responses and to see how different they all are. My ideas lean the most towards Shelly's ideas; I can see Furl being a great tool for organizing web resources for teachers. I often am emailed good sites from a variety of listservs (like MiddleWeb), and instead of just shooting off an email to a colleague who might be interested (an email that probably would get lost in the ton of other school business that must get taken care of by all teachers), I could furl the site and label it according to grade level and subject. I think this would be a great organizational tool for myself ( I would be able to delete all of the email messages I have saved over the years with good websites in them), and I also think -- once I demonstrate how Furl works -- it would be great resource for teachers. I know when I was in the classroom it was easy to forget about the great web resources out there because of all the other "stuff" that needed to get done.
Flickr scares me a little because of the potential inappropriate nature of the photos that might be there. I need to change my mindset about that, because like Amanda said, this is a perfect opportunity to teach students about using the internet appropriately and responsibly. I like Sara's idea of storing pictures for a digitalized yearbook, and already this has got me thinking. Every year the district puts together a digital story presentation along the lines of "The Year in Review", and I have always felt the middle school was under-represented. I have been thinking, that as the middle school library media specialist, I could be responsible for collecting and storing pictures for next year's show...and Flickr could be a great way to do this.
I can see Flickr being very effective in a type of digital mapping for high school geography students. I will soon be in charge of our school's website and foresee a lot of unique ways we can forward information to the user in effective and fun ways when they visit our site. Many people are very hesitant to come to an open house and I think a good way to get people in the door is to have either a video or photo tour of our building with the annotation tool Flickr provides.
I do agree as educators, we need to be cautious when allowing students more freedom with online content (such as is available in Flickr). I would use this as a staff development tool as well to help our faculty recognize that there is online content that can be very destructive as well as content that is very constructive - and our students are on the web whether we like to pretend they are or not. My staff development would focus on presenting the students with wisdom that the world is full of sin, and they have been placed here for a reason from the Lord. Their ability to discern and confront the things they may see or hear online is an ability parents and teachers alike need to develop in them.
I am a special education teacher and my students are mainly visual as well as audio learners. Between the two courses that I am taking this summer 531 and 534 I could teach the students now to create digital story by implementing istory or flickr to upgrade the research projects that are assigned.Every year I teach music history during black history month. The students are asked to compare and contrast their favorite hip hop artist/musical group to a living or dead music legend.The textbook gave many examples of ways to access/use online resources. Students being able to use photographs is not only fun for the students but also adds more to their assigned reports.Social booking could also benefit my students because they could should share information or receive peer feedback. I will provide several web address with subject matter links on social bookmarking sites to help my students with their reports. I am looking forward to introducing this technology to my students this fall. I believe that it will excite my students and create a fun learning environment.
Post a Comment