Thing # 11.5

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I think tools Wordle & Wordsift are excellent for use in the classroom and have lots of ideas. I did not spend near enough time with Glogster. I found an example online (if I can find the link later, I'll add it later) from a guy in Canada. It is terrific. I need to explore Glogster some more.

Skype is a fantastic tool that I think has great uses in the classroom! I am so excited about the possibilities. I have made several contacts with teachers in the US, Canada and India so far and am planning classroom Skyping activities with teachers. And, I love the Flip camera. Creating video was way easier than it has ever been before.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? Keeps me exploring and learning.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? No, I already knew I was going to learn a lot.

Hi!

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I think now that some of us need to spend more time with some of these tools and go a bit more indepth. I would like to to an 11.5 things for Google Apps... I think Google uses are near endless...

Thing #11

I have a big concern about teaching digital citizenship to our students. Students can learn and create easily using Web 2.0 tools for a real-world and varied audience. With that "power" comes a responsibility, one for the student and the teacher as well. We need to make sure that our students know how to find and verify accurate resources, how to be a responsible author and collaborator by responding fairly and interacting with all people respectfully, and how to stay safe by not divulging too much information about self and peers.

All of this takes time and knowledge that teachers are just learning themselves. Most of us haven't participated in a global community and yet we need to help our students do so. Do we have the tools ourselves?

I think teaching digital citizenship will take more than a lesson or two. I plan to take the district AUP and tie some mini-lessons to the bullet statements. Then, I think I will use a variety of resources to illustrate the different points and encourage discussion among the students so we will have a common language and vision for what each looks like.

There are a number of resources available, but we need to help find the time and organize the resources for our teachers.

Thing #10

OK. I finally bit the bullet and entered Second Life. I have spent the majority of my time this morning on Help Island learning how to get around and exploring a bit. I finally figured out how to go to ISTE Island. That is where I am now. I found a part of TCEA and am now in some space that has some information about NCCE's Convention in March.

I keep getting logged out for some reason. I must either click some that that overloads the system or I keep losing my connection on my wireless.

One person came up to me. we were in a "chat" or conversation one of the times I lost connectivity and then when I can back, the person was gone. Some of the people are pretty scary looking. However, I am still alive! I have played a bit with changing my appearance. that is not as easy as it looks. My skirt is a different color, but I couldn't get my hair color to change.

I will try some more later tonight.