Technology in the Education Arena » Educational Blogging

21st Century Learning with Apple

jzcolby — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:45:25 +0000

Attended a session sponsored by Apple yesterday entitled “Tour of 21st-Century Learning.” It was a great day. I knew about a lot of the tools but they not only focused on the tools, but focused on project-based learning with the tools and integrating areas of the curriculum. We, as students, did research that we posted on our wiki, then created a summary podcast and posted the podcast on our blog. We moved on to another session and did scientific research using digital probes and microscopes. With the microscopes, we took digital images and created an iPhoto book where we also posted the data from the digital probe. It was a great day and I had good company — Nancy and Beth.

A New Year Begins…

jzcolby — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 02:22:32 +0000

As I sit here snuggled in on New Years Eve watching the DaVinci Code, I think back on what I have accomplished with my blog this past year. Well, looking back through my archives, I can’t say I did much with it — but that is ok. Created my blog in June but until November, I only made 8 posts. It has only been since November that I have been really focusing on posting. Considering that at this time last year, I didn’t even know how to create a blog nor what tools were out there for creating blogs, I feel good about what I have accomplished.

So, what am I going to do about it? Well, my wishes for the new year will be to post at least twice a week to start with. In addition, since I work with teachers and all kinds of technology, I will blog more about other technology tools, not just Web 2.0 applications.

I will spend more time commenting on other educator blogs.

I will work on my blogroll and update it periodically. Along the same line, I will review my feeds in Bloglines — get rid of those that are not working for me and start reviewing the blogrolls of other educators to see if I can add to my “Circle of the Wise” as Cool Cat pointed out.

Thanks to Many

jzcolby — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:33:56 +0000

This could be my last post of the year on my blog so I wanted to thank the blogging community for all the great blog posts. I have only entered the world of Web 2.0 this past summer but I can’t begin to say how much I have learned. I subscribe to about 20 blogs in Bloglines and feel like I get a new education every day. There are some days when I feel like I have to stop reading all these blogs because I am learning so much and there is not enough time in the day and I am so excited about all these new tools I have discovered.

My favorite blog is Vicki Davis’ CoolCat Teacher Blog. She is truly inspiring and sometimes I wonder if she has time to sleep. Her blog contains so much good content — education, technical, and motivational. Thank you CoolCat. Recently she posted about Microsoft Photo Story 3 (a free download). Well, that day I downloaded the software, found an ambitious teacher (Mrs. Gal) in second grade, and we just finished our movie project yesterday — Holidays Around the World. The children researched their country, wrote about their country, and we then used the audio feature in Photo Story to record each student’s writing on their country. Thank you Vicki Davis for pointing this project out and thank you Mrs. Gal for taking on this project during this busy time.

I found another ambitious teacher in third grade who was working with her students on expression in voice and fluency when speaking. We thought – let’s do a podcast. The children took this on as an extra assignment and wrote down their thought/memory of the holiday. We then used GarageBand to record their audio and turned it into a podcast. Thank you Mrs. Thonus for your hard work in creating “Holiday Memories.”

Again, thank you to all who have contributed to this great community.

Pageflakes in Education

jzcolby — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:04:29 +0000

Will Richardson’s blog points out a great tool that can be used in the classroom — Pageflakes. Working in an elementary school, I can see so much potential. A teacher can create a page for the students to use when doing biographies, at various math levels, studying the solar system, studying the regions of the United States, and the list can go on and on. Enrichment teachers can use this and have the students collaboratively create a page for a project they are working on. I have been creating “hotlists” for the students to use that are available to them at home, such as a math hotlist, social studies hotlist, and search engine hotlist. Pageflakes is a great idea. Can’t wait to start working on one. What a great way also to introduce RSS feeds and show how they work. I just cannot keep up with all these great tools.

Great Intro to Blogging for Teachers

jzcolby — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:51:02 +0000

David Warlick posted a little scenario of three science teachers discussing what blogging is and how to use it. I think it is a wonderful introduction that I will use when I give my training on blogging to the teachers. It can give teachers an idea of what a blog is, some ways to integrate it into their curriculum, and most of all — how exciting it can be!

Ethics and Blogging

jzcolby — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:33:14 +0000

In the back of my mind was the fact that I must put together a training session and handout for the students and teachers before we allow them to blog. Seeing more discussion on this subject in David Warlick’s recent post I e-mailed my friend and work associate, Beth, who is an Instructional Technology Specialist for our district, about collaborating on a document for students/parents/teachers on the rules concerning blogging. After e-mailing Beth, I found another wonderful posting by David Warlick where he continues his conversation on ethics by referring to a posting by Stephen Downes, who points us to the Code of Ethics used by the Society of Professional Journalists. In my eyes, using this Code of Ethics will help reinforce my teaching to the students that they are “publishers” when they are posting to their blog or their teacher’s blog. Of course, I will have to put it in format for an “elementary” student.

New Tools for the New Year…

jzcolby — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:40:03 +0000

Next week begins the new school year and although I haven’t been blogging recently, I have been working “behind the scenes.” I have started using Flock, the Internet browser tool that allows me to upload photos directly to my account with Flickr, an online photo management and sharing application and also submit blog entries directly from the browser to my WordPress blog with Edublogs. Created an account with Writely, the free web word processor which lets you share and collaborate your work online. These are some of the tools that I will be focusing on with teachers and students this school year. Still working on different ways to create podcasts for teacher and student blogs. Ready to start “playing” with these tools, our new wireless laptop mobile lab, and netTrekker (Internet search engine designed for students and parents). This will be a very creative year for technology.

Choosing Edublogs/WordPress

jzcolby — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:18:12 +0000

Which one to choose??? I like the ability to create multiple blogs under one account with Blogger, but I think there is more functionality for use in the classroom with Edublogs. Therefore, we will go with Edublogs for school year 2006-2007. I will be creating my own small “how to” document for the teachers. Can’t wait to see how this works out next year. We will be starting with a handful of teachers creating blogs. I have so many ideas – something different with each teacher. We will see what works and what doesn’t. This will be a wonderful tool for the students to do some online journaling.

Blogger vs. Edublogs

jzcolby — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 23:27:04 +0000

I created the same blog on both Blogger and Edublogs. Why? Glad you asked – I couldn’t decide which one would be better for use by teachers and in the classroom. This way, I can test them both out and see which one to use or maybe use both depending on the purpose of the blog. Since I will be holding training classes on blogging, I need to know how the blogging software works.

Teacher Uses for Blogs

jzcolby — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:04:54 +0000

As I continue my research on blogs and ways I can bring this into my school, I am excited about all the different uses — some that will use the full capabilities of blogs and some that will be for the main focus of just getting started. Teachers can create their own blog to journal what is going on in their classroom, to post what the homework is for the week, as a communication tool for parents explaining the math being used in the classroom and some ideas for doing the math at home; as a way to discuss a particular project they are working on in class with the students, as a way to discuss a character in a book being read in class, to publish teaching tips, or to describe projects done in the classroom for the school year. Another avenue to follow is for the teachers to use blogging software to create their own personal web page.