Digigogy Magazine Issuu 2

Digigogy A New Digital Pedagogy

Designing A Framework For GROWTH Issuu Two Special Edition: New Teachers Share Their Favorite Things

DIGIGOGY This issue of Digigogy was largely written by preservice teachers in a Master’s Program at Niagara University. I had the pleasure of guest lecturing in their methodology class, and they created the pages for this Issuu in the moment. They described a technology tool with a frame for how they might use it in the classroom. They emailed their documents to me so that I could compile them into one document to create the file I’ve uploaded to ISSUU.com. I appreciate their willingness to share and collaborate with this 21st Century tool, and I hope you, the reader, appreciate this insight into their thoughts.

Contents

Published with:

April 2010

Teacher’s Toolbox | Brainpop.com | Google Sites | Google Swirl | Mind42.com | Wordle | Triptico.co.uk | Netop | Today’s Meet | Wallwisher |

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©Michael Fisher Mikefisher821@gmail.com Mikefisher.pbworks.com

Cover image remixed from: http://www.freewebs.com/anything-you-want-you-got-it/new-ipod-touch-2.jpg This page computer image from Flickr user “izzymunchted” at http://www.flickr.com/photos/izzymunchted/1419115048/

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VIGOR versus RIGOR: There's been a lot of discussion lately about VIGOR vs. RIGOR. I even tweeted about it the other day and some of the response tweets wanted to know what I meant, so I created the image here. RIGOR, by definition, is rigid, severe, and strict. It reminds me of Rigor Mortis...not something I want to associate with learning and professional practice. I know I may be taking it too far outside of its intended context-but I still think VIGOR is a better word.

Recently saved to •

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http://tagcloudcreators.wikispaces.com—Wiki around using Tag Cloud Creators, like WORDLE, in the classroom. http://free.ed.gov/index.cfm- More than 1600 federal teaching and learning resources organized by subject: art, history, language arts, math, science, and others -- from FREE, the website that makes federal teaching and learning resources easy to find.

Get all my Diigo bookmarks at: http:// www.diigo.com/user/mikefisher821

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Image from Flickr user: KaCey97007 at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kacey/4278551193/

The Drill and The Hole Last year on Twitter, one of the members of my network, @plind, tweeted the following quote: “Everyone who ever wanted a drill, didn’t want a drill. They wanted a hole.”

At the time, a lot of the staff development I was doing centered around instructional technology and I thought it fit in perfectly with the notion that it's not about the tool, it's about the task. I think about the quote every once in awhile, but lately, it's really been resonating in the work I'm doing. The last few weeks have been filled with instructional coaching opportunities that have largely boiled down to differentiated instruction and choices for students. Specifically, I've been talking a lot about strategies and Web 2.0 Tools, but not necessarily describing the tools so much as divining the purposes of the tools for a particular task.

At this point, it's come down to how the purpose for learning is related to the methodology. It's always going to continue to be about the content, and not the resource. The tools are meant to be a value-added feature of instruction, but not intended to replace the content. What I mean by that is yes, I need the drill to make the hole, though the drill isn't the only way to make the hole, but I still need the hole whether the drill is around or not.

I also don't necessarily need to be proficient with the drill to use it effectively. This is important. I still need to meet my objective, which is to create a hole, but I can do that without knowing everything there is to know about the drill, beyond plugging it in and making sure I have a steady hand.

There are loads of attachments and methods and strategies, I'm sure, but I don't need to know everything in order to drill the hole I need.

Likewise, there are so many web tools available for use now that it would be virtually impossible for a teacher to learn them all at a proficient level before using them with their students. They should certainly investigate them, but they shouldn't feel like they have to know every tweak and nuance.

Many of the students will figure those out themselves. This allows the teacher to offer several choices for tools to be used, without feeling like they have to master each and every one.

All this to say, it's not the tool you use, it's the evidence of learning that occurs. If the tool enables that, great. But it's still about that hole.

Also, I'd like to note that metaphorically, "the hole" comparison to learning sounds not so great to me. I don't want to give the impression that I think we should just fill kids' heads up with knowledge, like we'd bulldoze dirt into a sinkhole. I just like the quote, and it made me think.

Additionally, since I'm on the subject of drills as a tool, I think it's important to recognize that the drill goes into my toolbox. I chose it specifically for a task--drilling a hole. I didn't pick up the drill and walk around the house with it wondering what I could apply it to. My toolbox is full of tools that are appropriate for different tasks, and I have all those tools so that I can make the right choice. That toolbox is a great metaphor. The more tools we offer to the students, the more choices they have when it comes time to select the appropriate methodology for showing evidence of learning.

Jennifer Teixeira NU Grad Spring 2010

A description of the technology Brainpop.com Interactive website featuring animations, short movie clips and other relative information for various content areas (Science, history, English, etc) Very good for routine classroom use and possible classroom interactions Screen shot‌

Task specific description of how you might use this technology to engage students: For schools with Smartboards, students can take quizzes during class as a group activity.

Bobby D’Ambrosio Decription of the technology Google sites is a service with which you can create a free website for any purpose. The website can contain any information you would like to put on it, and can be accessible for the whole world to see, if you so choose. It’s free, it’s complete, and it’s easy as pie.

Screenshot of it

How to Engage Students With It A website can be created for a teacher’s classroom. On this website, the teacher can post homework assignments, links to relevant media, tips for completing their homework and other such things.

You can also post something fun like a “joke of the day” to keep them coming back day-to-day.

Hayley Mucha

Technology: Google Swirl A way to easily show a lot of images about a certain subject at once, ex. DNA. I would use this tool in the classroom to give students a quick visual.

It is great to have the students see more than one model of DNA. Sometimes, when students are only given one picture they don’t transfer that there is more than one way to represent DNA.

Mind42.com This is an interactive website which promotes collaborative learning. It allows students to create their own mind maps and share them with the teacher, other students, or for themselves. It is easy to use and free. They can add notes, web links and icons to their map as well.

This would be a very helpful tool for students to show organizational thought for subjects from plant anatomy to global warming. Students can help each other out with their maps by exploring each other’s maps and by placing different websites and links.

Students will have fun being on the computer, helping each other out and learning at the same time!

Description http://www.wordle.net/ One of several websites that allow you to create ‘word clouds’ Screenshots

Specific example of how you would use it to engage students Have students in a science class make a word cloud for the structure of an atom. The students would make words bigger or smaller based on how ‘important’ they feel they are. They would explain why they chose their words and why they chose the sized they did for each word.

Name/Email: Noel Roach mr.roach.teacher@gmail.com

This piece of technology is used to incorporate interactive learning within the classroom. This uses graphic organizers and vocabulary words to allow students to interactively apply and integrate their learning at a high level. This technology with a Smart Board would be ideal for maximizing students’ learning of all ages. www.triptico.co.uk Magnet words

For a chemistry teacher I would choose a graphic organizer that resembles the structure of an atom (concentric circles). My vocabulary words would be proton, neutron, electron, etc. These words can be arranged on the graphic organizer. This could be used most ideally by also having a Smart Board where students can physically arrange the vocabulary words on the graphic organizer.

Technology and Description: Netop has developed a classroom management software (vision 6) that allows the teacher to have access to all the computers in the room while the students work. The program allows the teacher to monitor all computer screens on one master screen, can black access to certain websites (ex. google during research if you would like to force students to branch out and use a different search engine), can take over the students screens for demonstrations and can black out screens if you need the attention of all your students.

Screenshot of Technology

Shows how a teacher can share one student’s work as an exemplar for the rest of the class.

Task Specific Description If students are researching independently and a specific student has found some information that may be useful to the rest of the class and/ or is interesting enough to share with their peers, the teacher can pull up their screen on everyone else’s computer in order to share the resource/information. This way each student cannot continue working or playing with the computer as their screen is now locked on the screen the teacher is sharing and all information is right in front of all students because it is on their screen.

Website www.todaysmeet.com Description ‘Today’s Meet’ allows you to create a temporary, chat-room-esque environment, where anybody (given the URL) can join and submit ideas. In grand Twitter fashion, responses are limited to 140 characters. After a period of time designated by the creator of the Meet, the page expires and the information is removed.

Screenshot

Task-specific description A teacher could use ‘Today’s Meet’ as a forum for students to contribute their ideas on any subject. With the included character limit, students would be required to keep their responses short, thus forcing them to put a considerable amount of thought into their responses. Students would enjoy using this technology, as their responses appear alongside their name, thus providing ownership and a sense of belonging to the community. cliffmurphy@gmail.com

Wallwisher.com is all about creating a place for a group of people, in my case students, to talk about a topic. You can post messages, videos, pictures, links or anything else you can think of.

Jonathan Griffiths gjgriffithsii@gmail.com

Say, for example, you are a history teacher and you want you students to answer some question about WWII, or get them thinking about WWII. In class, give the students the URL for the “wall” that you have created.

Then from any computer, the students can post their picture, video, link, text, or other form of answer to your question. A “wall” about WWII…

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L5v8k OUJgX http://files. po M r5S 5 Nx7GIg sterous. com /a Y59ajl 6L47lf udrat/ V prtbC jwS6ev muR Z C 27NE 2/

...or planets looks great and students can get involved in their own learning.

htt

01 00 82 .o rg/2 d is y id wa w w.m p: //w

14 820 1 b/2 00 8 0/li 3 8 2 56 1 41 2

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wis /wall 8380

her.p

ng

This is a great way to get your students to collaboratively work together to answer a specific question.

While they answer the question, they also get the chance to see what the rest of the students in your class think about it.

Thank you again for reading!

Look for a new ISSUU in early summer 2010!

DIGIGOGY MAGAZINE Issuu 2 April 2010 ŠMichael Fisher Mikefisher821@gmail.com Mikefisher.pbworks.com