Log-in Names and Passwords in the Classroom

I find it hard being a substitute and having to work with technology in the classroom. Almost every time we have to use the computers or iPads in the classroom, there are a handful of students that don't remember their log-in and/or password information. It does not help also that teachers do not leave a list of the log-in names and passwords for me to use with the students. Often times those children that cannot remember, whipped off the information from their desktop, or lost the notebook that had the information in it, have to sit at their desks doing busy work and watch the other students work on the computers. This is not fun for those students and having one log-in/password would make everything easier all around.

The article Single Sign-on Solutions Helping K-12 Teachers by D. Frank Smith, explains how 25 percent of class time is wasted trying to get students logged into the accounts to start using the software provided. The idea is that once the teacher or the student has logged into one site on their computer, access is given to all the sites needed without having to log-in again to the sites.  The students can move from one site to another and not have to log in again. Most of this single sign-on products work when you purchase web-based educational-software packages. There seems to be a trend with trying to make it work with multiple web-sites and log-ins through a single service online. For most of these products there is a fee but several are trying to offer them free to school districts. It is nice to see that Google for Education is also using the Instant Login through Chromebooks.

This idea really seems like it would work for keeping track of sign-in names and passwords and just having the ability to only need one. I plan on looking into how these services work once I have my own classroom!

Reference:

Smith, D. F. (2014, May 27). Single Sign-on Solutions Helping K-12 Teachers. EDTECH - Focus on K-12. [Online Article]. Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/05/single-sign-solutions-helping-k-12-teachers

Flickr - Who Knew?!?!?

I am learning a lot about tools online that I have only glimpsed at in the past. Like the Delicious account that I have recently been awoken too, Flickr has the same idea but with photos. You are able to save the photos and present them publicly or keep them private. I was unaware of the tagging ability that Flickr offered and this would be helpful for collecting photos that are needed on the go. (I like to use all my own photos when it comes to creating any materials for my classes - blogs, websites, etc.) Flickr would be a great help with collecting all my random pictures and organizing them online. Since I have way too may pictures already I think that I may get started on using Flickr to save and share my personal pictures.

When reading "7 things you should know about Flickr," I discovered that with private groups on Flickr a class could upload personal pictures that related to the subject matter at hand. This would be a useful tool with young students because I would always ask the students to look for the letters, numbers, shapes, etc at home and bring in a list of places you saw them. By taking photos and posting them on Flickr we would have a great visual of how letters, numbers, shapes, etc are all around us. I know one science lesson was on wood and students were supposed to bring in a list of the items at home made of wood. For kindergarten students it was hard to write the words and parents would write for them, but with photo sharing, the students could take pictures, post them for sharing, and comment on classmates photos. This could also lead into a presentation to the class and help to prepare students for speaking to groups of people.

Flickr is a way for students to bring their world outside of school, into to school and share with their classmates. Photo sharing our communities can be used in all subject matter. This I believe would be a great tool for the classroom, as long as boundaries are set and respect is given.

While reading Will Richardson's book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I discovered even more ways to use Flickr in the classroom. With the ability to upload pictures in real time of students work, field trips, guests in the class etc, parents are able to keep track of what is going on in their child's classroom. If parents are a part of the Flickr private community, they would be able to upload pictures for their children to see in the classroom of anything cool and exciting that they are doing with work. If some of the photos went public, students would ahve the chance to see what the world thinks about their work. The possibilities are endless!

Reference:

Educase Learning Initiative. (2008). 7 Things you Should Know About... Flickr. Retrieved May 19, 2014 from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7034.pdf

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Taking Time for Reflection Helps in the Learning Process!

Are we giving our students enough time to think about what they are learning or are we pushing them through the lessons to just get to the next? Nanetter Fondas (2014) explains that "learning is more effective if a lesson or experience is deliberately coupled with time spent thinking about what was just presented." Students need time to think about their lessons, to write a reflection or verbalize it to a peer. This process gives the students time to think about how they finished the lesson and discover if there may have been a better way. Giving students time to reflect gets them thinking about other possibilities for the idea or concept. Is there an easier way I could have done that? "In a lab portion of the study, participants completed a math brain teaser under time pressure and wrote about what strategy they used or might use in the futures to solve the problem. This group did 18 percent better in a second-round test than their control group counterparts, who were not given time to reflect" (Fondas, 2014). 

We try to remember as teachers that if you let students have time to explore, teach others, and reflect on what they are doing then they start to think about concepts in a different way. they start to come up with more creative ways of doing lessons. We give them confidence in what they are doing. The reflection lets them feel like there is some control in their education and they can change the way that they are learning. 

This is not a new concept but it is something that needs to be reiterated once and a well. Teachers get stuck in their routines and with how we are being told what to teach and when to teach it, we forget to take the time with the students to think about what we are learning. Instead of cramming everything into the students' brains, we need to have time to think about what we are learning and reflect.

Fondas, N. (2014, May 15). Study: You Really Can 'Work Smarter, Not Harder.' Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/05/study-you-really-can-work-smarter-not-harder/370819/

 

Weblogs - I had no idea!

I have never really thought about the whole idea of a blog. I always saw it as more of a journal or diary that someone kept on the internet for everyone else to read and respond to. I never really looked at it as a tool that could be useful in the classroom setting.

After reading chapters 2 & 3, in Will Richardson's Book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, my idea of blogs is totally different. Now I am ready to try my own and actually start to seek out other peoples' blogs on topics that I am interested in.

There are tons of ideas in the book about how to use blogs in the classroom and it does seem like a better idea than a plain website when trying to work with parents and other educators. Blogs feel like they are more often geared towards upper elementary into college but as I read through the chapters, I realized that kindergarteners and first graders that are just learning how to write could be making video blogs. Students have the ability to record themselves with school and home devices and post it on the web. There would probably be more privacy on these blogs due to the fact that you are posting the videos of students but it would be a great tool for parents, teachers, and other students to use to interact with each other.

Well, this is the first time ever that I have written a blog, other than class materials that had a layout of what I need to write! I hope that I am moving in the right direction.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.