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Educational Technology Blogs-Kidblog/Wallwisher

It was a coincidence that this week we are learning about blogging. Through an educational technology blog I subscribe to, I discovered a kid-friendly blogging web 2.0 tool, Kidblog. Kidblog is a friendly kid-blogging tool that any teacher can easily set up for their students to get the blogging started. Another great thing about this tool is that it is free! Kidblog is a great site for any student to use because as we all learned this week, blogging can get students engaged and writing at any grade-level.  Not only is this a great tool to use, but many times certain websites are blocked in districts. Blogger.com for example is a site that is blocked at my district so this would not necessarily be a great tool to use at my elementary school. This video I provided from Youtube explains how to get started using Kidblog. Enjoy!

Another tool I found from my blog subscriptions is Wallwisher. Wallwisher is simply a tool that allows students to "post" like a post-it onto an interactive wall online. Wallwisher starts off with letting the teacher pick a background for the wall and allowing you to pose a question or reflection. Once students have access to the link of the wall you have created, students can then comment on the wall. I feel that this is a good way to start off getting the students commenting and writing. Blogging at first may be difficult for students, but Wallwisher is a great beginning tool to eventually lead the students to blogging and commenting. What is neat about this tool is that it can be set up where the teacher/creator of the wall can set up the comments where they need to be approved before being posted for everyone to see. I have already used this tool in my classroom this year and I have found it really gets my students engaged. It is a quick way to have students commenting and reflecting.

Week 4: Classroom Blog

Currently I teach third grade in a self-contained classroom. I think introducing blogs or any other Web 2.0 technology in an elementary classroom can be a very overwhelming task. However, once that obstacle is faced blogging can be rewarding. Once students are in junior high or high school, students have already been more exposed to a form of “blogging”.  In middle or high school, they start experimenting with the social network websites such as Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace. Students in elementary may have heard of these sites, but have either been restricted to use them by parents or simply just never been exposed to them.  However, we are in the 21^st Century and we need to start giving our students an education that is relevant to their daily lives and future world.  Blogs are a tool that will help students be “engaged readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and to respond. They demand interaction.” (Richardson, 2010, p. 18).  I recently found a kid friendly blog through a blog I subscribe to that I want to add in my classroom this year. It is called Kidblog.  I already starting thinking how this blog could be used to help enhance all my subject areas, reading, writing, science, social studies, and even math.  After reading chapter 2, I started brainstorming ways that my students can use our classroom blog through Kidblog.  One of the first things I came across was to first provide a lesson on internet safety where students sign a pledge.  It is also important that when starting a blog with students they understand what is acceptable blogging “etiquette.”  This would include appropriate language, commenting respectfully, and maintaining school rules regardless of where the blog was accessed. Once these have been discussed then successful blogging for the rest of the year can be expected. Some ideas I plan on doing in my classroom is sharing in depth discussion about characters from the stories we are reading. Students will blog about important themes and characters they have read about from their independent reading. Students will then comment on connections they make from other students characters and themes.

Week 2

Web technologies has greatly helped educators teach a curriculum that is suited for our 21st century students. Students are being engaged in the classroom in their learning style, through technology. In our generation, the web is not only being used to search information, but to search people. We are networking socially through the web, via Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Edmodo, and so much more. We can take virtual tours to various parts of the world right from our home. Technology makes field trips more accessible to everyone without the liabilities and financial constraints. Furthermore, education is transforming the way we communicate with each other. Teachers can connect with other educators through the web to collaborate on lesson plans. Websites such as Pinterest makes it easy to share ideas used in the classroom. Students can also connect with their classmates outside of the classroom, through technologies such as Edmodo and Kidblogs. 

Personal Learning Environments allow teachers and students to self teach themselves through web technologies. Search engines such as Google helps students and teacher find quick information. Students can complete projects at home through the internet along with their traditional references, books. YouTube is another resource students can use when wanting to learn how to solve a math problem or learn life skills such as cooking a dish. No longer are students needing to pick up a book, but instead by the click of a button they are discovering the outside world. Personal Learning Environments is a technology that is suited to the learner’s individual needs. The student can get online and bookmark specific websites that are suitable for their needs. Google Reader, TED, and blogs can be a source that any learner young and old has easy access to. The learner can gather information at their own pace, own convenience, and whenever, wherever they want.

Week 1

I feel that K-12 students are similar to my generation in certain aspects. When I was in grade school, computers were beginning to become “popular” or starting to surface in education. Internet was something that students were starting to use on a daily basis. However, I see that students today are more computer literate at a very young age. Nowadays, even two-year olds are capable of using an iPad. Of course, when I was in school we did not have access to all these forms of technology. I feel that because of the new advancement in entertainment with technology, students are expecting “entertainment” in the classroom. I think that students today do not focus on their handwriting or writing skills because of the constant use of “computer language” used in texts or social media networks. When I was in school, it was a privilege to use a computer or to even use any form of technology. However, I like that students today are computer literate coming into grade school because it makes it easy to introduce Web 2.0 tools that they can easily utilize.

Our current education system is failing our students when it comes to too much pressure on testing. I do not remember being in grade-school and having the pressure that students today have on assessments. When my students come into third grade, the first thing parents and students always anticipate is the state exam third graders are required to take. I feel that because of this it makes it very difficult for teachers to focus on critical thinking/problem solving skills. The arts are pushed to the side or sometimes even removed from the curriculum. In effect students are being punished. Teachers are almost forced to “teach to the test” so that their students can pass state mandated exams. Of course, there are also things that I see our education system advancing in. The constant push in technology use for the classrooms is really benefiting our students so that they can have 21st century skills they need for future jobs. Last year, I realized that simply incorporating technology is not going to make our students critical thinkers and problem solvers. However, many Web 2.0 tools if used correctly can benefit our students greatly when it comes to problem solving skills and expressing creativity.