This year has been successful and inspiring. It was my dream last year to teach a class about web2.0 tools. I wanted to show off the abilities of the web and get students involved with tools that could help them with their classes. I was fairly successful with this endeavor. The students have created wikis in which they have embedded projects from 10 different web2.0 tools that we have sampled throughout this semester. We hit a few bumps in the road, but for the most part, the students and I learned a great deal and have enjoyed the process.
For 2010, I want to be more focused in my teaching approach. I want the students to utilize tools to help their teachers get more involved with web2.0 tools. The students and I are going to "googlize" and "web2.0" the curriculum of several teachers in our magnet program at Cleveland HS. My goal is to have the students create projects from the materials they have already covered during previous years as students in our magnet. I think the possibilities are literally endless, so staying focused and keeping the students and myself accountable to deadlines and teacher needs will be a must. To do this, I am developing a few ideas.
First, finding great ideas for using web2.0 tools is essential. However, I tend to get overwhelmed with all of the options available. This year, I tried to follow blogs, podcasts, and Twitter feeds about web2.0 tools. Needless to say, it was way too much. I became overwhelmed and I think my teaching and student experiences were less than optimal because I could not choose what tools to use and how to use them. My first step in focusing my curriculum and my own exploration of web2.0 is to look at fewer items. I have cut my blog feeds down to 3. I have cut my podcasts down to 1. I have utilized Twitter over holiday break and have found over 200 tweets that will keep me more than busy next semester. I will continue to look into other forums from time to time, but I am forcing myself to stay focused on these items for now.
Second, I found a great blog post at "Life Feast" - http://lifefeast.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-comes-first-methodology-or.html. This post blew me away with its simplicity and directness. It lists seven simple questions we should ask ourselves whenever we decide to use web2.0 in the classroom. By using these questions, we can keep the focus on educating the students and realizing the benefits of the new technology.
Third, Tami Brass offered some great ideas in this blog post (http://tech4teaching.org/wpblog/?p=721) about how web2.0 is typically used in the classroom. I am planning to uses these ideas as a springboard for getting other teachers excited about web2.0 projects for their classrooms. Here list offers six great ideas for utilizing Google Documents and wikis in the classroom. Google docs is such a great place to start because many teachers already have Google accounts, the tools are free, there are tons of great tutorials for them, and the Google engineers made them very intuitive.
With these ideas in mind, I am so excited about the Spring semester. My students and I will create fantastic lesson ideas for our teachers and build tutorials for them to study over summer break and be prepared to come to school implementing them in the Fall. I know these projects will inspire more teachers to get involved with web2.0 tools!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
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