Big6 Project

Big 6 on Prezi

EduBlog comparisons

The three bloggers and their blogs that I plan on comparing are............
                           
                             Kathy Schrock - http://blog.kathyschrock.net/

                             Richard Byrne - http://www.freeteh4teachers.com/

                             Tom March - http://tommarch.com/

   

 Stay tuned for further updates about these three blogs.

Engaged Learning Indicators

I analyzed the 19th Century Immigration web quest for the engaged learning indicators.  Here is my analysis of it.  Online Investigation Investigating Engaged Learning with the Best Use of Technology

Creation of my Vision Statement

I created my vision statement for teaching, learning, and living in the 21st Century. I have refined my statement and polished off my justification of my views and uploaded it to Google docs. Here is the link.  My Vision Statement

So my reflection on these three web applications will be mainly focused on how I may apply to my classroom and students.  This being my first year teaching I have only a few classes to reflect on how the apps may be used.

Edmodo
Pros:  Of the three this site is the most likely to be used in my classes.  The site layout is very similar to Facebook making the ease of use for my students manageable.  Its biggest upside is that allows students and teachers to communicate sharing ideas, assignments, and learning from one another.        

Cons:  One of the negatives to this website is that with the new Ritenour website, teachers have the capability of doing some of the same things that increase organization and communicate the assignments.  However the Ritenour class websites do not have discussion boards yet.

Collaborize Classroom
Pros: I can add all of the work my students need to complete for a unit on to Collaborize.  Some of my students do work at different speeds or they have different work because of their skill level,  this site allows me to organize their material.  Students in the engineering program at our high school participate in a project based curriculum that I could see this working well for the program.   


Cons:  For the students in my classes the website doesn't seem to be as easy to use as Edmodo.  With time students may be able to use this site to enhance learning instead of it taking away from the content.   

COURSEsites (Blackboard)
Pros: Similar to Collaborize, Coursites is a website that I really don't see a future for in the current classes I teach.  This site offers plenty of pros for teachers that have online classes of upper level classes in high school.  I like how I can have all my materials online for students to access when they need it and I don't have to go hunting for a copy in my desk.  Also when I have students that go on homebound for medical reasons or suspensions they can still access the curriculum.

Cons:  This is great for me as a teacher to layout my class prior to a semester starting.  However, most of my students do not have computers at home or Internet.  That makes the benefits of Coursesites greatly diminished especially since my school does not have a computer for every student. 

Building My Online Presence

I had started to integrate my new found knowledge of blogging into my classroom.  It wasn't the best way to organize the information I was providing for my students but it's all I knew.  I browsed through the possibilities for this assignment and I couldn't help but get excited that there was a way to organize the information.  I will still keep up with the blog but I can create the binder that I expect students to turn in with the daily assignments.  As of right now only one of my classes have really taken to my incorporation of technology into our learning.  I have also shared my blog with some of my colleagues and they have appreciated the help with the activities an learning I have shared with them.  The link to this binder LiveBinders (the access key is "ritenour")

First Prezi

I just put on the finishing touches on my first Prezi this morning.  I might have made one before in another college class but I know I didn't get this involved with it.  I like Prezi and I think my hesitation of using it again would be purely because of a lack of confidence using it.  The organization of the program was great and had some cool looking templates.  I wanted to use one of them but didn't feel they were appropriate for my presentation.  I look forward to using the timeline template in the future.  I typically start out a new chapter/unit with a timeline to give students a frame of reference.  One thing that I didn't like was that some of the YouTube files I had downloaded and would have embedded in a PowerPoint I was unable to do so because of the size of the file.  I had a lot of video clips on my Prezi because I find that it is an effective way to reinforce the text.  As a result my Prezi had 5 different YouTube clips, not sure if this is a good or bad thing.  Either way I have found Prezi very useful and definitely will be used to mix things up from the typical PowerPoint.  Here is the link if you want to check it out:  Chapter 13/14 Prezi

Chapter 13 & 14 on Prezi

Growing using what I am Learning

Recently I have increased my use of Social Bookmarking, Diigo, with some of my PLC.  We all have different material and our meetings typically consist of data sharing and pacing.  This Friday we will be showing others how to better use Diigo and become more connected.  I hope this will further my knowledge of the content area I teach.  I have mostly read different blogs to get answers to some of the questions I have about technology.  Also I have been introduced to various technology applications that I had not heard of before.  I hope to be knowledgeable enough with some of the applications to help my colleagues in integrating some of the technology that I have learned about through blogs of what others are doing.  I have also joined a couple Ning groups which have also opened my eyes to what other expert teachers are doing in their classrooms. As a first year teacher it is almost like having various mentors.  I have been in contact with two individuals that I have been able bounce ideas off of.  I really feel as though I have grown as teacher in the past month because of making relationships with other teachers.

Getting Started

Currently I am participating on the  iPadeducators ning to learn more about switching textbooks for iPads/laptops.  I hope to learn the pros and cons of a making "The Switch", creative ways people have done it, and a blueprint on how this process may look.  I feel that this is a topic that schools will discuss in the near future and I would like to educate myself about "The Switch".  This also is information I am researching for my Multimedia class.  If anyone else has insight it is welcomed.  My profile is ipadeducators profile  or my Diigo