Zite vs. Flipboard

We were lucky enough to have John Evans stop by our classroom earlier this week. Although our class was only fifty minutes long, and I was trying to balance listening to him and watching the women's gold medal curling match from the Olympics, There were a number of useful tips and tools I was able to learn from him.

The two I would like to focus on today are Flipboard and Zite. Both apps (as my primary use is on my trusty iPad) are essentially e-magazines that can be personalized by allowing you to follow specific categories of your choosing.

I spent roughly an hour on each site, flipping through the articles, playing with the customization and downloading storage apps including Pocket and Evernote. After the couple hours of tinkering Zite was the app that was left standing. There were two main reasons I decided to keep Zite (to which I will admit I'm an addict):

1. I'm a sucker for a nice layout. The two sites were close in this race, but I found Zite easier to navigate and preferred the page layout to Flipboard.

2. Zite allows you to give feedback of the articles you read in an effort to pinpoint exactly what your interests are. Both Zite and Flipboard allow you to personalize your newsfeed by choosing categories, but only Zite allows you to ask for more articles that are similar, or ask that similar articles be removed from your newfeed.

Here are some of the articles I found on Zite for you to enjoy!

The Flipped Classroom Explained
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/02/flipped-classroom-visually-explained.html

5 Reasons Your Portfolio Should Be Online
http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/10214

How to Protect Students While Integrating Social Media in the Classroom
http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/02/how-to-protect-students-while-integrating-social-media-in-classroom-instruction-and-assignments/

The Power of Social Media

The power of social media is truly amazing. At this very moment on my Facebook feed are neknomination videos from people across the globe. Okay well maybe those videos aren't a great example of how power social media can be but it just goes to show how quickly things can spread when they go viral. With all the power that social media holds means that users must be taught how to harness this power safely and responsibly. Although it should not solely be the responisbility of teachers to educate students on how to safely and responisbly use social media, they should educate their students when given the opportunity, especially those who are incorporating social media into their classrooms.

Here are my three favorite social media uses that teachers can use as tools for social media education!

3. With all the neknomination videos surfacing throughout the world, some have chose to encourage others to get out there are and help the less fortunate. There are tons of these videos out there but this was the first I saw.



2. Bell Let's Talk - Bell's mental health awareness campaign grew again this past years raising over $5 million.

1. These Ontario teachers who posted this picture and within two weeks had over 90,000 retweets!

Classroom Blog

The more I getting the hang of blogging the more I am able to see the benefits it can have in the classroom. I am not going to lie when I first began blogging for my ICT course I was only doing it because it seemed like the option that involved the least work to gain the credit, but as familiarize myself with the concept I see that I chose an assignment that has the ablility to shape the communication platform in my classroom. I believe, especially for teachers who do not have a classroom website, that blogging is one of the most effective strategies to stay in constant communication with parents. Creating an effective classroom blog would only require 1-2 posts per week (minimum) and could be as simple as letting parents know what is going on in your classroom for the week, if there students need it bring anything for class, and any upcoming tests or assignments that are coming up.  Although I encourage the integration of a blog into your classroom, make sure that if you choose to do this you must commit and keep your blog updated or the communication you intend will turn into parent frustration!

The "Flipped Classroom"

Grade 10 Science. Seems like a simple enough topic to teach right? Wrong. During my first student teaching placement I volunteered to take over a Grade 10 Science classroom because I figured the material couldn't be too complex. Very early into my teaching I found that trying to recall material that I haven't so much as thought about in seven years proved to be rather difficult. In order to brush up on my balancing chemical equation skills I turned to the trust Khan Academy videos on YouTube. After my student teaching I never really thought about those videos again, that is until today. I began to dig deeper into the Khan Academy, its foundation and pedagogy. Founder Salman, presents the idea of the "Flipped Classroom" where the students learn at their own pace and level while the teacher acts more like a tutor than a lecturer. This style of learning is dependant on a teacher who is semi tech savvy, and having a one-to-one student to device ration would be ideal (one can dream!). It is more than likely that I will never implement Salman Khan's strategy to its fullest, although I am looking forward to playing with it in my next placement, at the very least re-teaching Grade 6 math to myself. Any who what made me think of this was the fact that every single video is licensed under Creative Commons which allows teachers to ease their minds about copyright issues in the classroom and I strongly urge all teachers and future teachers to check it out!

Classroom Websites: A must for modern teachers

Designing a website is something very new to me, and I am only in the beginning stages of developing my first classroom website as we speak, but I am very surprised how simple it can be.  Both weebly and google sites offer an attractive, free option for teachers to create their very own website. Generally speaking my high school teachers did not have websites of their own so I turned to the internet and browsed through countless classroom websites in order to see that their are a number of distinct advantages for teachers, students, and parents. Here are what I believe are the 3 most beneficial features of a classroom website, as well as 3 rules teachers need to follow when creating their website.

1. Websites can help keep the teacher, and the students organized. By having the ability to post anything from assignments to sylabi online, tracking down extra photocopies or accomodating forgetful students is no longer an issue.
2. Websites have the ability to keep all parties informed. It is simple to place a calender on your website that can show anything from test dates, PD days, to soccer practices. By utilizing this parents will be able to click their way to the class website rather than clunk their way into your classroom.
3. Having a classroom website allows another dimension of classroom interaction. Devloping a classroom website that integrates a blog, or chatroom helps the teacher retain feedback from students and parents as well as extends learning into after classroom hours. (In my undergrad a professor held an online chatroom the night before evey test, it was great for those who are studying last minute, to scared to ask questions in class, and an easy way for teachers to get students to study)

3.Remember, you are creating a website for a middle years classroom, not NASA. Keep the layout simple and easy to navigate. Having a website that parents (they aren't all as tech savy as you) and students can navigate will help get them to come back.
2. Make sure it is visually appealing and has personality. You don't need your website to be a super decorated wikipedia page about yourself, but it should show some of who you are as a teacher and a person (especially for newbies).
1. Most importantly, if you are going to go create a class website, make sure you commit. There is nothing worse than a website that only gets updated once a month. Spend twenty minutes a week, or a few minutes a day and do some upkeep, that's all it takes.

Three and a half Thoughts

Two weeks into the new semester is all it takes to get right back in the thick of things. When trying to think of one topic to blog about I just couldn't. ICT covers so many new and interesting topics making it hard for me to focus in one  so I decided to steal a page out of my favorite bloggers book, Elliotte Friedman (CBC Sports), and borrow his idea of a thirty thoughts blog (only shortened). So here we go!

1. Symbaloo - although I have only scratched the surface of this webpage I have already fell in love, if not for the social sharing, at least for the organizational aspects. Right now I am only using the webpage as a homescreen for my personal computer but can the advantages for the classroom are immense, a great form of digital curation. As compared to competing websites Diigo and Delicious I prefer Symbaloo solely based on the attractive layout and ease of use, but to each their own.

2. Dropbox/Google Drive - Yes, yes I know I am probably the last person on earth to create an account for these sites but I am so excited about the benefits of the cloud I just have to share. While working on group projects in university my classmates and I are taking advantage of the capabilities, not having to fire emails back and fourth is great. More importantly for my forgetful mind is not having to face the dreaded day I forget to bring my flash drive to class while teaching. As of right now I have utilized both sites and am leaning towards Google Drive as my preference, but that is with very limited experience.

3. E-Portfolio's - I was rather hesitant at the idea of going through all the trouble of a portfolio in the beginning (thanks Tom Skinner!), but now as the idea of E-Portfolio's is surfacing I have slowly began to shift toward the other side. I believe that E-Portfolio's outwieght their hard copy counterparts for a few reasons.
1. I like the idea of keeping the any good copy certifications in my hand. Photocopying doesn't look near as neat as a scanned copy.
2. E-Portfolios can't go lost on the way, or on their way back. If I sent out a hard copy portfolio containing valuable items and hard work that was misplaced by a Principal I wouldn't be very happy. (Probably not likely to happen but Principals are busy people)
3. E-Portfolios can easily be sent in advance, a huge advantage when applying for jobs outside of Brandon and the portfolio doesn't need to be dropped off before or left behind after an interview.
4. E-Portfolios give the ability to show off technological ability, always a plus when applying for a teaching job.
5. No paper. I don't consider myself an environmental activist but whenever I don't have to print something out, I don't.

3.5 Classroom Websites - Not something that I am really thinking about doing while student teaching but I can't wait to start playing around with these when I get a job. It makes the teacher, student, and parents lives easier when they are done and maintained properly. What's not to love?

My First Blog Post.... EEEEEKK

In a world... (imagine reading that with a great Don LaFontaine voice, it really reads better that way) where technology is everywhere, cell phones in watches - crazy!!! It is no surprise that integrating technology into education is becoming such an important issue. Students are immersed in a world with technology, cell phones are their alarm clock, computer, messeneger, and radio and oh ya, sometimes they use them to answer phone calls too. I must admit that I am guilty, I don't go anywhere without my iPhone and it is my primary computing source because there are so many benefits, so why as educators are we not taking advantages of these benefits rather than removing them from the students hands?

In my first student teaching placement I was fortunate enough to attend a school that embraced technology. They instituded a program that gave each student entering grade nine the choice of one device (options included a few tablets or netbooks) that they would keep, and be responsible for throughout their remaining time at the school (no more booking computer labs, or not having enough computers for each students!). Unfortunately for me, this program was in its first year and I had did not teach any grade nine classes. I didn't let this stop me from my technological integration mission, although I was always jealous of the teachers who had shiny new iPad's sitting on their desk for months just waiting to be opened (yes, some of the teachers hadn't even begun to explore the possibilities).

Those aforementioned teachers of the stone age don't even know what they are missing, not only does technology make teaching fun and interesting for the students, it makes digital organization sooooooo much easier for the teacher, a term known as Digital Curation (Top Ten Tools for Digital Curation). Although my teaching experience prior to my first placement was very limited, I quickly saw the way students learn best, and that is with technology where ever possible (YouTube can be a teacher's best friend if your school division allows it). The number one request I had from my students was to watch videos, not all the time, but sometimes, and I didn't take this as a knock to my teaching skills, but rather as a learning opportunity for the students, and yes I do believe the students were learning from the videos, not just seeking a break from traditional lecturing. In order for students to learn through technology, teachers need to learn about technology.

Back to Don LaFontaine (just for fun).