Final+Examination

For this class, I have examined a number of Web 2.0 resources. Many websites have been looked at for information, and blog conversations with classmates have enriched the experience. To discuss the potential uses of these resources in my employment, I think it would be best to discuss how I have already been able to use them. Some resources I have found to not be very effective for me at this point in time, and some I have found incredibly useful. I will be taking this opportunity to sort through the various resources discussed in this class. Most of what will be mentioned here is from my own personal experience while trying out these resources.

To begin, I will look at podcasts, screencasts, digital storytelling, and YouTube. While podcasts are increasing in popularity and usage, I have not found them entirely useful at this point, at least as presented for our use. I don't think using podcasts to present to students is something I can effectively use. I say this because podcasts are missing one key element: the visual piece. Podcasts do a very effective job for news and entertainment, but for education, it's tough not to have the visual component. My students, as middle schoolers, are very visual and kinesthetic learners. Which podcasts would work for some of them, they would not be as effective as screencasts or digital storytelling.

The visual component of screencasts and digital storytelling allows for students to hear the information, but also to see what's going on with it. If I am to present (or re-present) a concept to my students online, then why not be as close to I can be to the classroom experience? That would mean allowing my students to see things as well as hear them. I have used screencasts in the past to record note-taking sessions in math, as I was using a tablet PC to record the notes. This allowed the students to hear and see the notes, whether they were in class or not. Digital storytelling software, such as Windows Photo Story, was used in my classroom to help with literature circle presentations. This proved to be quite effective, and YouTube was used for both of these things.

Next, I want to discuss Flickr and Creative Commons. As the yearbook advisor, I used these in conjunction with each other to find pictures we could use for our "current events" pages. In doing this, the students have also begun to teach each other about this website, so they are continuing with our school-wide emphasis on avoiding plagiarism. This has proven to be quite a positive feature of information I have gathered from this course.

Skype is another powerful tool. I have not yet used Skype in an educational capacity, but I plan on using it later this year. My students will be reading Harper Lee's classic __ To Kill a Mockingbird __. As they do this, we will be Skyping with other classes that are reading the book concurrently. This will allow us to take our discussion larger than just our classroom, and see what other students, in different regions. have to say about the book as well. This should really broaden their horizons.

This brings me to really the biggest thing I have gained from this course: the powerful combination of Facebook, Twitter, blogging, RSS, and wikis. These have all come together for me in an amazing way. It started with the RSS feed. By adding ReadWriteWeb and a few other blogs to my Google Reader feed, I had a connection to some other educators around the country. This then gave me things to write about on my own blog. I posted this blog to my Facebook account, and found more readers among my friends. Then I discovered the power of Twitter and tags. I had always thought Twitter was sort of lame. Then I realized that live chats would happen under tags like #edchat, #engchat, and #mathchat, just to name a few. This connected me to many other educators, and soon our blogs and RSS feeds were linked, and my peer learning network (PLN) was growing at an alarming rate. I now have had people read my blog from 4 different continents and have expanded up to 40 different blogs I read and other educators who read mine.

The numbers are nice, but obviously that's not the point. The point here is that I now have a network of teachers outside of my graduate classes and my school whom I can ask for assistance, and receive it, nearly instantly. I wanted to use Goodreads with my students. I asked on Twitter who had done this. Within the hour, I knew how to make it work with my students. Pi Day is coming up. I needed some activities. Again, some Twitter and blog reading, and I now have the activities I need.

I would not have this active PLN were it not for EDU 653. Ironically, I have spent so much time using these resources to benefit my classroom currently that I have not done all the required coursework for the class that allowed me to find this success. I have found that though my grade may not reflect it, the amount of information I have gained from this course has been incredible.

However, some of the things from this course I have not found as useful as the things I have mentioned so far. Oddly, though I use Google Docs daily at work, it hasn't been able to be used much with my students. Part of this is an age thing. As 12- and 13-year olds, their access is restricted by legal terms of use, and by parents. Because of this, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do what I would like to with some of these resources (have my students use them to move our course fully integrated inside and outside of the classroom).

I have found similar results with IM. It is unlikely I'd be able to have all my students meet online at the same time outside of school, because of parent restrictions and possibly the administration not allowing me to require such an event. In school, we already meet in class face-to-face, and even though it'd be interesting to chat in school, it seems to be adding a feature that is just as easily accomplished in person. It's something I'd like to try, because students do act differently in chat settings than in person, but I'm just not personally comfortable with it at this point.

All in all, there is a lot I have learned from this course, and many things I have already used, and used frequently. While some have had an immediate impact, such as Twitter and blogs, some are still working on making an impact, such as podcasts and instant messaging. It is nice to know there are still so many things for me to learn about. Through the resources I have discovered and used in this course, I will always have places to find out about the new things out there.