Science and Social Studies

Well, I had a great time exploring, and could get LOST doing this. I tried to look at the Topp 100 Tools for Learning 2008, since that seemed like the most likely site to help for classroom planning, and I got a message staing the WebSense determied it to be a “malicious website” and that the organizations filter was blocking it. I don’t knowifit wasthe ASD20 filter, or the PPLD filter, but I couldn’t get to it. Bummer. I looked at the 2.0 award winners, some of which we had used earlier, and the Goto Web 2.0.

I also played the TravelIQ game. Fun, addicting, and I need to know more – especially about nicknames – I lost it there! My main trouble with all of these sites is focusing on the task at hand. There is so much available, that I lost track of what needs to be done, and the time just disappears.

I have been planning on how the integrate some of this class into my classes. My science students will be using the digital storytelling in their National Park Project. I will use the Flickr images in Social Studies – we’re currently working on an Ancient Egypt project, and hopefully some will choose to look here for images to support their presentations. I’m also planning a unit in the spring that will ustilize one or more of these tools, and adding the mentoring piece of this class into that planning. I’m utilizing the expertise of our Library Media specialist for all of these, and she is a great help. Collaboration is the key to success.

Fun to play with, but I was disappointed when looking for my home. Not in the data base, and it’s 11 years old. My childhood home, over 100 years old, was covered in trees. Also, the layers were OK, but the GIS software we use is better for my purposes. I checked the Volcanoes information, and enjoyed it, but think that I have better resources at hand for my needs.

This was interesting. Again, easy to get sidetracked, but lots of good information. I foundseveral slide shows about erosion – our brand new topic in science – but foundthat I would prefer to use my own work. I may upload some of my slide shows here to share. Many were specific – inlcuding quiz dates, etc. that make them poor choices for re-use.
I have a big project next semester where students create a slide show. I will look into adding their presentations to this site.

I’m not sold on this for easy use. I had a hard time finding items of interest. There is SO much out there, and finding those nuggets are difficult. I can see the use of directing students to a specific podcast the you create, or luck into finding, that fits with the specific learning objective. Unfortunately, this seems like one of those mazes that you can have a lot of fun navigating through, with turns in many directions as you find links within links, that you end up spending the day,with very little to show for it at the end.

I found many that were unable to open the RSS feed – very disappointing.

Using a podcast of your class, for students who were absent, or need to review, seems like a great idea. A few teachers in our building are doing this, and I’ve heard good things. Most seem to be working with upper level grades.

Glacial Landforms – Student Work

I spent an enormous amount of time looking at (or loading …. SLOW on wireless) videos from YouTube.  I was very disappointed at the comments – many videos that I found that could be useful at school had extremely inappropriate comments attached.  Bummer!  Some made me cry, some made me laugh.   Many were B-O-R-I-N-G and dull. 

I found that you have to preview everything carefully, as even the most innocent appearing videos can take a quick turn for the worst.  I did find  a couple to possibly use in my science class with our next unit. Click on the link above to see a sample of student work that I may show. I tried to embed it, but no luck with that so far.

behind-the-scenes-movie_0001

Now we’re talking.  This could be a great tool for kids to use to put together information.  I am concerned about the copyright issues with the music, and keeping kids appropriate.  What fun to think of the possibilities!  Here’s the link to the movie “Behind the Scenes” at Challenger.

elephants

WOW!  I made 2 digital stories, but one got hung up and disappeared into the great beyond.  The elephant one, with great music, and fun transitions, is saved, and was simple to create.  I love that the program allows you to “create” music that doesn’t have copyright issues.  I’m going to look at changing my big research project in the spring from a Power Point into this.

This was cool, and I can see uses for this application.  I liked the ability to all comment on the same images, and to see others comments.  Great feedback tool.

What an amazing resource.  Once again, I can find endless ways to waste time.  I goess I should attempt to be more understanding of my kids, who can spend forever, literally, appearing to do nothing, while ignoring their homework!  There were all kinds of interesting facts, photos, and information available to add, and multiple ways to use this.  I’ll have to explore more.

While wikis appear to have a wonderful ability for many people to work simultaneously, they also open up many hazards.  I feel that middle school students, in general, are not mature enough thinkers to handle this technology responsibly.  I overestimated their ability to avoid the temptation to be ornery.  The experience that our Student Council sponsors are having with the elected officers on a wiki is enough to turn me away from using this resource with kids.  I am currently involved in wikis for teachers, and that seems to be going OK so far – although there are moments when we all devolve into 12 year olds, so .. beware the wiki!