Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
BP9_2010011_Web 2.0 T3 - eyePloyer
EyePlorer.com is a highly visual and interactive tool that explores knowledge. It helps explore knowledge in a very simple way. The first step to exploring this web 2.0 tool is to choose a topic. When you enter your topic, EyePlorer scans the web, using Wikipedia, and distributes facts about the specific topic. Within seconds EyePloyer produces eyespots in a circle map with words relating to your topic. There are over 30 million facts to explore. If you want to know how the eyespot is related to your topic, all you have to do it click on it. To learn more about how the two are related, you can click on a “more” button. EyePlorer also offers a notepad where you can drag and drop information to remember.
When I discovered this tool, my brain went crazy. I found myself typing in all kinds of things just to see what came up. If it sparked my interest, I am positive that it will intrigue your students. EyePlorer can be used in the classroom for numerous things. It can help students improve their vocabulary skills by visually explaining the relationship between individual words. EyePlorer can also be used to assist students in research. It opens new avenues that might not have been thought about relating to a topic. Students can quickly collect a list of related keywords that help them with their research. Eyeplorer would be great to uses an interactive whiteboard that can help the students brainstorm or to use as an introduction to any new material. The possibilities are endless. I highly suggest trying this out as a resource in your classroom. It’s fun!
BP5_2010011_Web 2.0 T2- Shidonni
Shidonni is a online place for young children, ages 4-10, to nurture creativity and imagination. In the Shidonni world kids have the opportunity to create their own animal sketch Once their pet is created they can then feed them, play with them, and share with friends. It is in fact a virtual world where the child's drawings come to life. It is very simple to use for all ages. Children are not able to connect with other people so this is a completely safe network.
Within the Shidonni galaxy the child must earn creative rewards in order to unlock new games or features. This method is used to motivate children to be creative. They use the character they have created in each game or activity played on Shidonni.
Shidonni is a free play world. Users can upgrade their accounts to unlock extra elements like extra drawing tools or more worlds, but the free Shidonni still offers a lot.
I would absolutely consider using Shidonni in my classroom. The intrinsic reward that comes from creating something from nothing is a priceless reward especially for the kindergarten students I teach. It would not be hard at all to incorporate the Shidonni world into the writing curriculum; in fact it would be perfect. Also in the world of Shidonni, you are able to print pages you create. This feature will really make the students feel like authors.
I forgot to mention one really cool thing Shidonni offers. Shidonni’s One of a Kind offers a toy that can be made from your child’s own drawing. Not only can your child write books starting their own pets, they can also have a 12” plush toy to go along with it.
Monday, January 11, 2010
BP4_2010011_RSS Feed
Edutopia:Quite a bit of valuable and reliable information dealing with education can be found in the site. I am certainly going to us this RSS feed to help me stay connected and up to date with the way the educational society is changing.
Education Week: This site offers not only national news in education but also international. I find it very interesting to read about the education system in other countries and their perspective on certain issue.
Skyje: This site is an excellent resource for weblogger and keeping up to date on how to manage web design. It doesn't relate to education 100% but it is a great source to provide us teachers with some professional development in the technology field.
Assorted Stuff: This site offers tutorials and blogs about technology for teaching, learning, and communicating. The blogs offer current event topics that are occurring in the technology field as well as education field all over the world. I am going to follow this site as a resource for learning more about educational technology.
Techlearning: I will follow this RSS to stay up current with educational technology and software reviews that are being used in and out of the classrooom.
BP3_2010011_Web 2.0 T1-Game Classroom
Picture courtesy by Microsoft Office OnlineGame Classroom is a website that offers education games, as well as worksheets and homework help. This site is designed for kids, parents, and teachers. I particularly like this Web 2.0 tool because as a kindergarten teacher I am always looking for new interactive games that are reinforcing the skills that are being taught in the classroom.
One great thing about Game Classroom is that it is free. It also offers all different levels from K-6. Professional educators created this site so most of the content on the site matches state education standards, which is always a plus.
I teach kindergarten at a title 1 school and I have many different levels of instruction in my classroom each day. Because this site offers different levels within the content, my class can benefit using this website when we break out into centers.
Just looking at kindergarten the content that is offered is extremely extensive. When you click on a topic it gives you the skill, goal, and skill description. Then it offers sample problems, learning tips, online resources, and extra help. It’s amazing. This makes lesson plans a lot easier in teacher world.
Game Classroom only offers language arts and math curriculum but does try to incorporate science and social studies within a monthly newsletter that is also but grade level. Each monthly newsletter offers an article and video content on some type of current event or something interesting. The newsletter also offers activities for writing.
So as you can see this site is pretty much amazing in the eyes of an elementary school teacher. I am extremely excited to use this in my classroom to incorporate more differentiated instruction in the areas that the students are struggling. I can personally set each student up with an activity on his or her level on the content area needed. This is seriously going to be great. We need to get the word of Game Classroom out there. http://www.gameclassroom.com/
Sunday, January 10, 2010
BP2_2010011_EduUses4Blogs
Picture courtesy of Microsoft Office OnlineEducational uses for blogs
As we all know, the ways of communication that were used in the past are reforming to all these new forms of technology. Blogging is one of these new technology advances that offer many opportunities within education. Flierl (2007) describes the online communications as an “online journal” or “web log”.
Blogging can be used in many different aspects but one major aspect is using blogging when it comes to education. Personally I have not had any experience using blogs besides but now that I have started, I believe my horizons for blogging are going to expand greatly. I began researching all the uses of blogging within education and I happen to find a lot of different uses.
Blogging can offer a type of course, classroom, or school management system. Weblogs can contain course information that the teacher wants to share about their class. These blogs simply open new doors in forms of communication between the teacher, student, and parent. They also allow your class to communicate with another class somewhere else in the world.
Many blog tools are being used to create an ongoing portfolio of samples of student writing. On-line journals are allowing students to express their own opinions on topics that are being discussed in class and potentially opening new doors of discussion on the topic at hand. To facilitate discussion, blogging allows students to write comments, opinions, or questions posed.
As a kindergarten teacher, I am currently not using blogs in my classroom but if I were to teach maybe 2nd grade or up I would use blogging as a writing center in my classroom. There are endless amounts of opportunities blogging has to offer in the classroom.
References
Davies, J. & Merchant, G. (2009). Web 2.0 for schools: Learning and social participation. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Flierl, R., & Fowler, H. (2007). Educational uses of blogs and wikis. Phi Delta Kappa, 89(3), C3. Retrieved on January 4, 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/pss/20442460
Thursday, January 7, 2010
BP1_2010011_iGoogleScreenShots
