Web 2.0 Tools and Lesson Plans

Sample glog on U.S. History

Glogster is a web 2.0 tool that allows users to create online multi-media posters on any topic. A teacher can create an account with 125 sub-accounts within the account for student use in the education version. I used an email account to register as a user, however I used my google account as you can log in directly using google. Once the teacher creates the student sub-accounts the software emails the username and passwords to the teacher account which is a nice feature. At this point students do not have to use their own email accounts, but log in with individual usernames and passwords assigned within their teacher's account. The software is easy to use, allowing users to use drag and drop, upload images, change the background to the wall (poster), add video, add text, record your own audio, and link to sources of information via the Internet. On the home page each user has a dashboard where you can see all glogs you've created. You can create as many glogs as you'd like. The default option for saving is a private glog when you choose Save. You can make your glog public by choosing Public. Glogster comes with many images, graphics, and some youtube videos within its own library, but you can also upload your own images. The glogopedia library showcases some exemplar examples of glogs by subject for teacher and student review. The teacher training videos web site contains several, short tutorial videos on how to use the different features of glogster. I found glogster easy to use. Within minutes I was able to add text, change my wall background and upload an image. Viewing the tutorial vidoes on the teacher training web sites was helpful.

I could use glogster with all middle school students, grades 5 through 8 at my school. The software is flexible enough to allow basic online posters, or more robust, detailed posters. High school students might find this software fun to use as well. The tool lends itself to almost any type of curriculum. Some thoughts I have for glogster use would be a science poster explaining the water cycle. A history poster on the major facts of the Civil War. A language arts glogster showcasing characters from a book students read. World language classes could create posters on countries students might be studying. A technology class could create a glogster on the topics of cyberbullying, online safety, or digital citizenship. The options for glogsters use is endless.

Heroes Among Us is a middle school language arts lesson plan I found online at Read Write Think, that lends itself nicely to glogster.  I would adapt the lesson to work with characters from books the seventh grade students are reading in language arts classes; ultimately this could be adapted for many curricula. Our seventh grade students are currently reading: The Outsider, The Giver, and The Little Prince (to name a few). Students would be free to choose a character to depict in an online glogster poster, and then share the posters with classmates. Not only would students learn the glogster technology piece, they would also be presenting in-depth information about their character, and character traits to their classmates. I found this lesson on how to dicuss characters and character traits with students. This lesson would be helpful to use along with the glogster assignment.

The NETS standards met by this lesson are:
1. Creativity and Innovation:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, productes, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
2. Communication and Collaboration:
a. interact, collaborates, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making:
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
5. Digital Citizenship:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.
6. Technology Operations and Concepts:
a. understand and use technology systems.
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and applications.
d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

Creativity and innovation are met by introducing the use of a new web 2.0 tool to students. They will be creating their own personal works when they create their glog. Students will communicate and collaborate as they share their glogs with their classmates upon completion of the project.  Critical thinking and problem solving occurs when students are working on a lesson, as they are given the process, requirements, and assessment, and they must manage their time and resources to complete the problem ontime. Digital citizenship is a requirement for all students as they must adhere to our district Acceptable use Policy, and be safe, legal, and responsible while they are working online. The glogs created by the students will not be published to the Internet as we will not share them, but view them inside of my teacher account. Technology operations and concepts is achieved as students will learn to understand the glogster functionality, they will troubleshoot any problems that occur with teacher assistance, and by using help and glogster tutorials. A transfer of current knowledge occurs as students will provide the information they have learned about their characters into the glog they create.

 Source for image

Animoto is a web application that allows the user to create videos from photographs, images, video, audio clips, and apply music. I created a free teacher account using my gmail account. I received a 6 month free subscription. Animoto is integrated with Youtube so users can export their videos from Animoto and import them into Youtube. The web site Animoto for Education helped me to get started with the web site. Click here to see examples of how schools are using Animoto. This Teach with Web 2.0 web site also has great examples and links to lesson plans using Animoto. Click here to view a brief Youtube video tutorial on how to create videos using Animoto. I found the free version very easy to use, although somewhat limiting. In a matter of minutes I was able to upload a few pictures, write some text captions, and produce a 30 second video with background music of professional looking quality. I wasn't able to select my own music however. Upon saving the video it is compiled (or produced) and runs automatically.

Civil War image

The Civl War Through a Child's Eye lesson plan found on the Library of Congress web site is a middle school social studies lesson plan I would integrate with an 8th grade social studies teacher. This lesson plan would adapt nicely to Animoto, as in the lesson overview statement, the developer talks about examining and using photographic images to study and understand the Civil War era. Since Animoto is a video, or slide show of images, it lends itself beautifully to this project. The lesson plan suggests reading Paul Fleischman's Bull Run. The social studies teacher and I would discuss whether to read this book, or one she typically has students read for the unit. Our 8th grade social studies curriculum does include several units on the Civil War. The second activity in the lesson directs students to an activity gallery of images compiled by the Library of Congress.  Students are to select an image, and then examine and characterize the image. I would expand this section to allow students to select several images to create a short Animoto video on a topic of the Civil War. Students would then continue on with the next step in the lesson which is to use primary source analysis tools to analyze at least one photograph and record their thoughts. By adding the Animoto technology piece to this lesson students exposure to Civil War images would be broadened, not to mention students love working with images and video.

I can see several uses for Animoto in a middle school curriculum. I have worked with our art teachers on integration assignments where students took photographs, and then edited these photographs using Photoshop Elements. We could take this lesson a step further and have students place their final images in a short Animoto video to share with their classmates. Students in just about any language arts class could depict a story they have read through the use of Animoto. One of our 8th grade language arts teachers has students create a short video on the concepts of cinematography. This assignment could be adapted to use the Animoto web 2.0 tool. Our 7th grade students present a science fair every spring where parents attend if possible (it is held during the school day). Students could create an Animoto video of their science boards and images used, and share these images with classmates, other curriculum teachers, and their parents.

Source for image

 

The Nets standards met by this lesson are:
1. Creativity and Innovation:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, productes, or processes
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2. Communication and Collaboration:
a. interact, collaborates, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
3. Research and Information Fluency:
c.evalulate and select information sources and gitial tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
d. process data and report results.
4. Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making:
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
6. Technology Operatoins and Concepts:
a. understand and use technology systems.
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and applications.
d. transfer current knowledge to learning new technologies.

Creativity and innovation are met by introducing the use of Animoto, a new web 2.0 tool to students. They will be creating their own personal works when they create their video of Civil War images. Students will communicate and collaborate as they share their vidoes with their classmates upon completion of the project. Critical thinking and problem solving occurs when students are working on a lesson, as they are given the process, requirements, and assessment, and they must manage their time and resources to complete the problem ontime. Technology operations and concepts is achieved as students will learn how to create an Animoto video, they will troubleshoot any problems that occur with teacher assistance, and by using Animoto tutorials. A transfer of current knowledge occurs as students will provide the information they have learned in the video they create and share with their classmates.

PBS Online learning

1. Compare and Contrast each documentary. What was similar or different from the first one (Growing Up Online) made in 2008 to the newer one (Digital Nation) filmed in 2010 ?
Growing Up Online (2008) focused on the following major topics: kids creating online personas, virtual worlds, social networking, and cyberbullying. Digital Nation filmed in 2010 focused on the major topics: MIT and Stanford research on multi-tasking, South Korea's addiction to gaming, how writing skills are suffering with our children today, virtual worlds, and how the U.S. Army uses virtual games to recruit young people. In general my impression was that the films were on different topics for the most part, the first one focusing on teens and adolescents, the latter focusing on technology and its affects on people in general.

Growing Up Online was produced by Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff. It highlighted many teens. One such team was Autumn Edows, whose real name is Jessica. Jessica's parents were unaware that she was hosting a web site with a new persona where she posed in provocative clothing with a goth image. She admitted she enjoyed the comments and looked forward to the traffic and attention she recieved on her web site. When Jessica's parents received complaints from other parents they forced her to delete the site. In the end however, they allowed Jessica to reinstate the web site. Another teen Sara was also featured on the film. Sara is an anorexic who used the Internet to connect with other anorexics and find information about how to be anorexic. Ryan Halligan was another teen featured on the video, who committed suicide because a summer of bullying from his peers. His father talked about how he tried to piece together why Ryan took his own life, after the fact, by getting in touch with an online friend of Ryan's who had posted online information about suicide. This film also focused on teens stating they no longer read books, that many read spark notes to prepare for tests. Teens also admitted that on their social network sites they have hundreds of friends, but they don't really know who most of their 'friends' are. Parents spoke about the issue of cyberbullying and cyberstalking. One feature I thought was telling in the film was the PTO mom (Evan) who shared information to other parents in her son's school about underage kids in their community drinking, partying, and vomitting. As a result, half of the parents appreciated the knowledge, and half told her to 'mind her own business'. Her relationship with her son Cam suffered after the incident. Many parents stated they miss the communication with their kids, and many kids spend several hours in their rooms on the computer.

Digital Nation, filmed in 2010, talked quite a bit about multi-tasking. Research occurred at MIT and Stanford. MIT found that multi-taskers did not complete any task well, and that students writing has suffered as a result. Stanford's results showed that multi-taskers are terrible at every aspect of multi-tasking. An interesting study at Stanford took MRI scans of student's brains reading a book and doing a google search. The google search showed more brain activity, which the researcher argued showed that more activity was necessary to perform the task, verses reading a book where the brain functions more efficiently. Another topic covered in this film was the topic of gaming. South Korea has a gaming addiction problem. 90% of kids play games daily in South Korea. In South Korea kids are taught about digital citizenship beginning in the second grade. World of Warcraft, a multi-player game, allows people to connect all over the Internet. It allows its gamers to play in a virtual world, using fantasy and imagination. Fans attend Warcraft conferences sponsored by the gaming companies, where they meet their online friends. Some fans are addicted to Warcraft. Second Life  is an immersive 3D virtual universe. Rosedale, the creator, states that virtual worlds are a new reality for humans. Douglas visited the IBM office, which he described as a ghost town, because most employees work from home. The last major topic of this film discussed how the U.S. military uses games to recruit young people. Some parents object to this. A school in NY uses games as a lense for all curriculum to engage students. This is a radical change from most schools. One last thought the film asked the viewer to think about was, maybe its too early to know the effects of technology on our brains and life in general. "Technology isn't good or bad, its powerful and complicated".

I enjoyed watching both films and thought the content and message were certainly relavant and important topics for discussion today.
 

2. Your thoughts on multitasking. Do you agree? Can you multitask? Do you disagree with the video on the topic of multitasking? What do you think our students think about multitasking today?

I multi-task. I can drive and talk on the phone successfully, although I do admit that sometimes I may arrive someplace in the car and think, wow I got their fast and don’t recall driving over all the roads. I can also watch a movie or TV show and text, or read email. I will admit that I can’t concentrate on anything important and multi-task. For example, when I am doing the readings for this class, I sit in a quiet room and read. I can’t have other distractions otherwise I don’t comprehend what I'm reading. I thought I was a good multi-tasker prior to the movie, but now I see it differently. If I stop and think about it, I can’t multi-task and do any of the tasks well. When you multi-task you are not concentrating on any one thing 100%. I agree with the Sherry Turkle (featured Professor on the video) when she stated that her students are distracted and that multi-tasking is working against them. I think our students today think they are great multi-taskers, but in reality they are not focusing 100% on any one task.

 I love this picture on multi-tasking

3. Is there an addiction happening in society today with technology or is it just a new way of living? Should we be concerned?
Many people are addicted to technology today, in my opinion. Just like other addictive illnesses, people who are prone to addiction can become addicted to video games, virtual worlds, and other technologies. People who are well adjusted can use technology responsibly on a limited basis and live normal, healthy lives.  Unfortunately some people do become addicted and use technology as a major force in their lives. The first thing students do when they come into my class is go straight to playing games, even though I tell them every day that they are not allowed to play games in my class. I do think technology addiction is a concern for our future. Anything done to excess should be of concern. I was astounded by the problem in South Korea. The fact that they had to set up 3 Internet Rescue Schools for students sounds the alarm. Technology is wonderful, but I do think we need to be concerned about its addictive nature.

Technology addiction ...

 
4. Do video games serve a purpose in education or are they a waste of time?
 

SimCity, which is a video game, offers free lesson plans and an online teachers network. The company is promoting their games into education to motivate students in science and math. I hadn't given this topic much thought prior to this blog, but I do see the benefits of using some video games in the classroom. After researching the topic a bit, I found some examples where games were succesfully used in elementary and middle school classrooms to engage students and improve technology skills. I am going to have do more research on this topic to form a more educated opinion. My first thought is that games can be a positive influence in education on a limited basis. Any games used in the classroom must also be tied to the Common Core Standards; this is a must. I don't agree with the concept of the middle school in NY where games are used in every curriculum to teach students. Students learn in various ways, and games may not be appropriat for all topics, and for all learning styles.

5. Do you believe that digital tools, such as google tools and technology in general, can save schools that are struggling?

The article 50 Little-Known Ways Google Docs Can Help in Education was very enlightening on the topic of google tools, as I am not very familiar with them. I'm not sure that google docs or technology alone can save struggling schools. From what I understand about google docs, it is free to use, and would certainly be beneficial in school districts with financial issues, so it would certainly be an option. However, I don't think technology is the answer to saving struggling schools. This topic would make a great research project! Having no first hand experience working in a struggling district, my gutt answer is that to improve struggling schools the district would most likely need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Could technology help in the areas of math and writing, absolutely. Programs such as Math In Focus, which offer an online piece for students homework, is a great way to reinforce math facts. Struggling schools could also benefit by using youtube videos and other shared information that they can get free, and online, verses having to buy books, if they didn't have enough money for books. Another point to remember is that typically when schools are struggling financially, technology is the first department to suffer cuts. Each year that our school budget did not pass, our technology budget was cut.
 

6. How did what you watched in the two videos support your feelings about technology or how did it change your views?
I found both videos very interesting. Generally speaking I agreed with most of what I saw in the videos. I am a technology teacher and therefore love to use technology, learn new technologies, and find ways to engage my students with the use of technology. I do think however, that today's students, and people in general, are too connected to their technology such as facebook, smart phones, blackberry's, etc. Today's children are loosing out on face to face contact, and good communication skills. Technology has, however, given us many advantages in today's society. Technological advances in medicine, military advancements, and food production have helped immensely in our country, and in developing countries around the world. As a result of watching the videos my views have not changed. I am pro-technology, but do think that people need to put it aside and take breaks; disconnect themselves sometimes. The issues raised in the video are certainly important and relevant to consider. Many people, especially younger people, are becoming too obsessed with their technology. Technology is here to stay. Its important that these important questions are raised, studied, and addressed.
 

7. Are kids and adults today ruining their digital footprints by sharing too much information online without realizing that it may be detrimental to their future? Should they care?
People today have a large amount of information on the Internet. I do agree that people, especially teens, share way too much information online without realizing the effects. Colleges and companies alike check potential digital data on students and employees online. Anyone can search and find people's names, addresses, age, relatives, and other information. I was surprised when I googled myself, how often my name came up in regards to the school where I worked. I have a facebook account with limited information, and specifically do not list my place of employment. However If someone wanted to find out where I worked it would be easy to do. I do think that sharing too much information can certainly come back to harm you in the future, especially if the information is in any way inappropriate. I think everyone should care about negative information about themselves. Unfortunately young people don't seem to think about the future. For the kids today everything is about immediate gratification.

8.“Stranger Danger” and predator fears are often overblown by the media on shows such as Datelines “To Catch a Predator”. What are the real dangers of technology in this day and age?

I think there is a real problem with predators online. The FBI web site has some interesting information on child predators. In my opinion this issue is not overblown; parents and children alike need to be aware of online predators. The more information dispersed via the media and online is helpful. People can choose to search out the information, or not. I live in a small town. Three years ago the 2 resource officers from our middle and high school met a child predator at the Manchester airport, because one of our young high school students had met him online, where he posed as a 17 year old boy. She was fooled by this individual and had put herself in a very dangerous situation.

In addition to online predators, the other dangers kids face with technology is what they bring on themselves, as stated in the Growing Up Online video. Many kids today post information willingly and without thought to what or who will see this information. Sara made the statement in the video that she sent a picture of herself without all of her clothes, just because a boy asked her to. She said she didn't think much about it because after all it was just a picture.  People today are becoming addicted, edgy, and can't focus as was stated in both videos. As this article entitled The Dangers of Technology states in What the Health

Magazine, there are health issues developing with the overuse of technology, such as eye strain, from staring at screens, and heart disease and obesity as a result of sitting at computers for excessive amounts of time.

Overall Reflection:
Please add anything else you feel would explain your views about the videos and how they relate to educational technology. What was your favorite part of either video? Why? Most interesting?

I really enjoyed the videos. I think they both covered relavant and important topics. It is always interesting when documentaries interview real teens and people, to get the true prespective. I guess I didn't realize so many kids were hiding so much from their parents. Don't get me  wrong, I'm not naive, I have a 22 year old and 19 year old, and I know they keep plenty from me, but I also know they are not hosting web sites with inappropriate pictures of themselves, and they don't spend hours upon hours in their rooms shutting themselves away from their family. I thought it was a shame that some of the kids shut their parents out of their lives, just because the parents were trying to be good parents, and keep their kids safe. The information in the videos was helpful and I can use some of the statistics and major points in my online safety and digital citizenship discussions with my students. I'm not sure I had a favorite part of any video, as I was impressed and felt both videos were informative. I liked the second video where Rachel and Douglas traveled to different parts of our country, and South Korea. I think they did a nice job of showing me the global perspective on technology and its effects. There seemed to be more of a personal touch where they both narrated the video, and Rachel talked about her own family.



 

Prezi: Digital Citizenship

Included in this blog is:
(1)  My reflection on the topic of digital citizenship
(2) A link to my prezi on the topic of digital citizenship

Digital Citizenship reflection:

Digital citizenship is an important topic. I feel that I know a fair amount about the topic, since I teach it, along with the resource officer at my school, however there is always much to learn and discuss within the topic. I have created an educator account at Common Sense Media and will spend some time getting to know my way around the web site. It is an impressive web site with a wealth of information on the topic of digital citizenship and online safety.

I found some of the statistics regarding computer and technology usage enlightening. The article entitled Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics, lists some interesting statistics. "Within days of being born many children have digital images online. More young children can play a computer game than ride a bike. 58% of children aged 2-5 can play a computer game, verses 43% of the same age that can ride a bike".

What’s important to remember is that students live in a digital world, and have since the day they were born. The image in the video Digital Dossier, where the baby’s sonogram was digitally saved, brought the issue to light. Today’s teens are surrounded by technology, as the article Staying On top of Your Teens Technology states. They use their phones to communicate, search the web, play games, use apps, use social networking sites, find directions, watch TV and movies, and much more. Many sleep with their phones charged by their pillow (I know my kids do). They use technology in school. They are on their computers, i-pods, smart phones, and e-readers outside of school. It is important for these children to understand the responsibility that comes along with technology. They must understand that anything typed or posted on the web is never really deleted.

   A typical day for a teen ..

Source for image:

It is important for all teachers, technology as well as academic teachers, to understand and teach digital citizenship. Everyone must be responsible while using technology. Teachers should be good role models for proper technology use, so that it becomes obvious and a standard for their students. Click here to read about how parents can learn about digital citizenship. Even though it is very important for parents to play a major role in their children's education, especially to be on board in regards to digital citizenship, typically the main source for education on this topic falls on the teachers in the schools, especially because many parents are not technology savvy. Everyone should be teaching and promoting digital citizenship from the administrators, to the parents, to the teachers, and students. Click here to see NetSmartz web site on Internet safety.

I teach middle school students and feel that I currently cover most of the nine of the digital citizenship elements. I show a video entitled Technology issues in Science and Technology via Safari which addresses technology in the developed and developing countries. The students are always amazed at what they take for granted, and how other countries do not have the same technological advances in important areas such as food production and medicine.  I also talk about digital literacy and etiquette often in all four of the grades I teach (5-8).  Kristin Hokanson wrote an excellent blog on the topic of digital literacy.

In the 5^th grade the resource officer and I team teach a class on netiquette and Internet safety. As a result of the presentation the students create a safety poster from what they’ve learned. In the 8^th grade the resource officer does a presentation on computer ethics and digital citizenship. He covers topics such as cyberbullying, computer crime, texting, sexting, child pornography, illegal downloads, RIAA, social networking, and plagiarism. As a result of this presentation I work with the students to create a brochure on the topics of digital citizenship. We have an interesting classroom discussion on the research the students find. Their final artifact, a brochure, then becomes one of the technology artifacts they upload to their e-portfolios.

I wasn't too surprised when I wrote down the information on my digital footprint, but I assume most of my middle school students would be surprised. I am always looking for activities to give the students once they finish up the lesson for the day, as some finish sooner than others. I plan on giving the students the digital footprint paper to fill out. After the students have completed the lesson we can discuss what they've found.

Digital citizenship is an important topic that should be addressed in all areas of the student’s academic classes. With the constant teaching and reinforcing of good digital habits we will create good digital citizens. One of the items I will be pursuing in my own middle school is the issue of BYOD (Bring your own device). This article by Edudemic discusses some of the major concerns around students using their own devices, such as security issues, and network issues with filters and firewalls. Currently at my school we do not allow our students to use their smart phones or i-pods in class. However, if we educators teach our students how to use their technology devices for educational purposes, it can only benefit the students in the long run. There will be much discussion around this topic in the future.

My Voki: Digital Citizenship

Source for image

This Voki will be shared with middle school 5th and 6th grade students.

Cyberbullying
Internet Safety