Saturday, April 11, 2009

Chp. 4: new tools in schools

I decided to read this chapter because it covered cool schools, classroom applications, using the tools for learning, teaching content, and other tools and models. This chapter stated that web 2.0 tools "offer new opportunities for students to learn, explore, and present their knowledge." Since I began this online discovery of web 2.o tools I am constantly searching for new ways to integrate the web 2.o tools with the technology tools I have in my classroom to enrich students learning experiences so that they learn to connect, collaborate, and contribute within the global community.

Some good ideas I found in this chapter that I would like to adapt and use with my first grade students:

1. Curriculum area of Social Studies: the objective is for students to conduct oral histories with family members and create a presentation of the interviews. I envision students drawing pictures of their family members uploading them to Voicethread and then having family members comment on the Voicethread to provide the oral history.

2. Curriculum area of Geography: the objective is for students to understand and appreciate other countries and cultures. I envision using Google Earth and planning a treasure hunt for my students. Some interesting treasure that would be fun to search for... the foods that Mem Fox includes in her book Possum Magic (for example, mornay from Melbourne, pavlova from Perth, and lamingtons from Hobart) that are served in different parts of Australia.

3. Curriculum area of Science: the objective is to make science more visual for students. I envision enriching my teaching of the ASD science kit The Power of Water by creating a keynote presentation to introduce the unit that visually represents the water cycle model. The keynote will be interactive so that each part of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection) will be linked to a Discovery Streaming video clip that describes that specific scientific part of the process.

As I neared the end of this chapter I read, "One thing is certain, we are at the very beginning of this evolution and many of you reading this book will be creating new ideas and projects that others will want to hear about." This statement made me feel validated in the way I chose to reflect upon this chapter and also caused me to secretly hope that other web 2.0 class members would post some lesson ideas that I could add to my collection of things to try.

1 comment:

  1. Joni

    thanks so much for your wonderful participation and thoughtful reflection on this class. I enjoyed reading your posts and wish you the best in integrating for your students
    Ann

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