I am slowly moving forward. This week I was finally able to purchase my new laptop (since the mother board of the old one crashed) and so I was able to do some exploring. This summarizes the things I have finally been able to work on.
Media Analysis
This was something that everyone else looked at last week. I had fun sharing the videos with my 2 college age kids. Since they were brought up to be skeptical of what they see on TV they had a lot of fun discussing with me the kinds of comments that their classmates might have made while viewing these videos.
It was easy for my own children to be skeptical of the videos but I wonder about the students that I teach. First of all, my student's background knowledge in these areas is extremely limited. Also, they are raised NOT to question. So using a video like this would be a very valuable tool to encourage a more skeptical approach to material that is presented through the internet. I like the 4 D's approach that was described in Brunsell's article, "Teaching Kids to Think 2." It would be good to begin a school year with an activity such as this.
Delicious
I was able to set up a Delicious account. I really love this concept as I, like Linda, tend to find websites when I am working at home and then I need to email them to myself. But even better will be the opportunity for sharing websites with my students and with my colleagues. Unfortunately I do not really have any bookmarks yet as I am working on a brand new computer and have not yet collected new bookmarks.
Voicethread
What a cool way to collaborate! I have not yet worked with voicethread enough to create something to share but I love the concept for collaborative work in digital storytelling. I think that I will encourage students who already have used this tool to use this as part of a multimedia project assignment.
Twitter
I continue to struggle with Twitter.
Google Reader
I love using Google Reader it really helps me to be more efficient in reading many new blog posts. I have yet to subscribe to everyone's blog but I'm getting there.
So that's where I am - moving forward, a bit behind, but finally, I'm moving forward. This week I head to MSU for the Yellowstone Lake Ecology course. I hope I'm able to spend many quality evening hours gaining and developing my skills.
Susan- You're doing great moving forward, even though you've had computer issues! You will really enjoy your week @ MSU and Yellowstone Lake Ecology course (and the YNP visit). The weather is supposed to be great (I live 22 miles from Bozeman).
ReplyDeleteI have not yet looked into Delicious that you spoke positively about... but am now interested at looking at it! Thanks :)
Wow! It must have been stressful having computer issues in the middle of an online class. I had internet connectivity once in the middle of online classes and I know it made me way more stressed out than the class alone would have. Great job getting caught up and checking out some of the online tools. I hope you had a nice time in Yellowstone!
ReplyDeleteI was reading your post and figured out that somehow I completely missed reading the article about the Four D's. I think I am missing stuff repeatedly in this class since there is so much to absorb! I will have to look for that because I agree with you that our students do not question or doubt what they see. I always like to tease them with "well, if its on the internet it MUST be true!" I think we could spend at least a month going over digital citizenship, but I guess it just needs to be combined with all of our other content as we go along through the year.