An Ethical IslandMia MacMeekin shares her ideas through infographics that she creates in Pictochart. An Ethical Island Blog Sample | Educational Technology |
There are so many great educational blogs out there, I hope you aren't just relying on this one. As educators, we get stuck in our own little world sometimes and we might just need a bit of a push into the outside world. Below, I would like to share two of my favorites, along with a visual from each to help you see how quickly you can determine if a post might be meaningful for you, or not, and move on or dig deeper into the post.
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How many different ways do you try to get reminders and homework assignments to students? I’ve tried all sorts of things like writing the week’s assignments on the whiteboard, an assignment sheet for the whole chapter, Remind101, and my teacher page, but nothing works better for me than Twitter. I didn’t know much about Twitter before I started using it. When I saw a presentation about how you could create a “widget” and embed it in a website, it got me thinking about using Twitter in the classroom. A widget is just an interactive window that can display tweets from one person, a group, or a certain hashtag. Here’s a widget that displays recent Tweets from a popular Twitter group called EdChat. There’s a downside to services like Remind101. You have to get people to actually do the work to signup in the first place! With students, you can get them to signup in class, but with parents, it’s much more difficult. I wanted something that could reach both parents and students easily. The great thing about Twitter is that if kids are using it, all they’ll need to see is whatever hashtag you choose to use for your course. They already know how to do the rest. With an embedded widget on your website, parents and students who don’t use Twitter will be able to see what is going on without creating any extra accounts!
Creating your own Flipboard is simple. Once you have the App, you can create a new account or sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account. Once you are through the sign up process, you can start building your boards. You can even link your social media accounts to Flipboard to streamline ALL of your news sources. Imagine that! You can keep up-to-date with world news AND which one of your friends is doing the laundry. Just kidding. There are actually excellent education resources you can follow on Twitter or Facebook, but those suggestions will come later.
Once your subscriptions are set, you can begin flipping through the latest posts and news. You can send articles to friends or colleagues or “favorite” useful articles easily at the bottom of each page. It is the fastest way to save and share anything you find useful. Currently, I subscribe to The Huffington Post, NPR, Lifehacker, Teaching English with the iPad, Teaching English, TED Talks, ESPN, and Popular Science. I find these subscriptions particularly useful when choosing a wide variety of nonfiction texts for students. (I also subscribe to Young House Love, the coolest DIY blog ever!) Note: Flipboard can be accessed on the web to read your news, but I have not found a way to manage your subscriptions outside the App. "Have you taken any MOOCs yet?" asked my friend who is perpetually on the front end of professional trends. “I haven’t found the right one yet,” I replied quickly. My first MOOC, Big Data in Education, was indeed massive, with over 30,000 students, and definitely open; even open to someone like me who does not possess any background in statistics, data mining, mathematical modeling, or algorithms. For eight weeks, my fellow classmates and I wrestled with data mining packages and huge data sets after watching brief and surprisingly entertaining video lectures online by the course’s instructor, Dr. Ryan Baker. In my second MOOCtacular experience, K12 Blended and Online Learning, I am feeling more at home. This course has helped me better understand what blended and online learning is, and what it isn’t. I have included a worthwhile take away from last week’s content about learning objects (aka digital resources for blended and online learning). Learning objects are the backbone of blended and online learning. It is the content of the lesson or the focus of the learning that is happening online. Last week in K12 Blended and Online Learning, the course’s co-instructor, Dr. Lokey-Vega overviewed a list of where to find learning objects to implement in blended and online learning. The list below contains hyperlinks to vetted digital resources for classroom teachers.
A great place that I have discovered for digital resources is on Edmodo. When you are logged into Edmodo, at the top of the screen, you will see a row of four icons on the upper left-hand side of the screen. If you click on the compass-shaped one (Discover section) you will be directed to a page where you can search, by topic, through subject-based activities that other educators have loaded onto Edmodo. This is a great resource to check into because it is easy and the materials can be quickly obtained. Also, if you want to narrow your search, you can directly search for any activities that you might specifically be looking for. Check out the sample images below. When I was asked to share a resource, I wasn’t sure where to start. There are so many, it can be overwhelming for even the most tech savvy. So, as I began the process of narrowing down my choices, I thought about the resources I use the most or allow me to gain a lot with a minimal amount effort or time investment. Knowing that I’m not the only teacher with time constraints, I chose the latter of the two – resources where I can quickly see what may or may not work for my purposes (perhaps through a short video demo), what other educators have to say about it (good AND bad), how much it costs (really looking for FREE), and on which platforms it works. Once I thought about this, my choice was easy – Edshelf! As described on their website, Edshelf is a “discovery engine of websites, mobile apps, desktop programs, and electronic products for teaching and learning.” Its directory is created by teachers and parents, for teachers and parents. So, each app/program/website contains the information that matters most to us. Can I tell you how much I LOVE Edshelf, and for a variety of reasons. At the top of my list are their newsletters. Believe me, I am not a fan of receiving a lot of unnecessary and useless email. But, Edshelf’s newsletter, which arrives almost every Monday, is very informative, short and to the point. Quickly, I can scan it for the tools that might be of interest to me or a colleague. Since the tools are hyperlinked, I can click a tool of interest and arrive directly on its page on Edshelf. Once I’m on the selected tool’s page, I can view a short video demo of the tool, read a brief description, view pricing, reviews by other teachers, related tools, as well as a link to “Get this tool.”
And, if you would really like to share your finds and opinions with the rest of the community, you can also add tools and reviews to the directory. In the end, Edshelf is my “go to” resource when I’m looking for just the right technological tool for my course. It is a quick, reliable source for apps, programs, and websites that can help me improve my instruction and my students’ learning.
I thought long and hard about this first blog post and have decided to go with something that I use every day in my professional life as well as my personal life. Just about everyone uses some sort of social network: Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, to name a few of the most popular. Of course, in the world of education, you can also add Edmodo and My Big Campus, among others. Honestly, if you are not connected to any sort of social network you should consider it. You may have heard nightmare stories but it really isn’t such a scary place. Admittedly, I am TERRIBLE at keeping up with RSS feeds, following blogs, websites, etc. However, since I am already on Facebook to keep in contact with family and friends I have found that by adding professional connections to something that I ALREADY DO it is much easier to learn what is working for others in education. Below you will find a list of fabulous organizations and people to follow on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter. Later we will have posts on making use of the communities in Edmodo and My Big Campus as well.
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