Glogster

First glogster I put together!
 
        The 21st Century Classroom: New Digital Age
Since it was my first time using it, I thought I'd do something related to something that has made an impact on me since the start of this course. The astonishment of the direction that education in the classrooms is taking has blown me away. I have begun to immerse my self in as many tools as I can. 

• I'm very big on "Going Green", so what a great way to be able to use tools such as Diigo to save articles, resources, worksheets and keep them filed online.
• A great way to have students collaborate and share ideas-through Wiki's and Digital Storytelling projects
• Making global connections to other classrooms around the world through the use of Skype!
• No longer spending additional money on chalk, chalkboard erasers, dry erase markers and dry erasers or overhead projectors and the markers that are usedd for those. Now,  teachers can use and are using SMART Boards! Not as messy, fun activites to engage students in lessons and great way to incorporate taking care of classroom property.
• Blogs are a great way to allow students to share their thoughts, opinoins based on a specific topic or theme. They are also great when you have quiet students in your classroom. It is possible that they may have a lot to say but could be very quiet and shy in the classroom. Blogging or responding to forums could give them the opportunity to share their thoughts and give them a voice.
• Finally, the iPad has become a tool in the classroom. Many of the applications are learning games that range from reading to science. There are apps that help with phonological awareness, sight words, comprehension, etc. There are apps that allow students to add, subtract, multiply, divide in fun ways! There are social skills and communication apps for students with special needs.

The new digital age is a new age I grew up in; however, I only knew so much. Now is when I'm beginning to catch up on things I've missed in previous years. This is the digital age I want to implement in my classroom! There are so many benefits to this kind of learning and what a great way to teach students to become good citizens-not just digital citizens, but good, kind citizens outside of the digital world.

Digital Storytelling

What another great way to have students collaborate with each other and work as a team to create a digital story!



Students are able to let their imaginations run by being given the opportunity to create their own short story. They can use various means of technology to create their story. This would be a great project for students to work on together-encouraging and pushing collaboration. An awesome way to teach children how to work together but at the same time, a great way of incorporating technology.



Little Bird Tales

Creating digital stories can be easy and fun! This website lets you either upload pictures or draw them on a template the website provides (Art Pad)! As you add your images, you hit the record button to tell the story! Finally, you're able to watch your digital story and share it for others to see.

A digital story can be anything students want to put together to tell a story. Whether it is of themselves, a field trip, vacation, or an adventure-this is a great tool children can use to work with together and brainstorm creative ideas and then put it together to share with others.

First Animoto!

I think this would be a great way for students to work together as a whole group project or in small groups. For example, the teacher and students could put a video together based on a field trip they went on, post it on their class blog and be able to show parents how exciting their field trip was. Or, I think it's a great way to demonstrate student work in a fun and creative way.
Students can have fun with this by choosing a topic related to the theme of a particular subject and the rest is up to their imaginations. This is a great way to bring out creativity among the students.
For teachers, it gives us an opportunity and opens a door to teach them how to use these tools  appropriately and still have fun with them.

Another great tool I was looking around in was Glogster. This is also another great way to bring out students creative ideas-digitally!

           Glogster
Glogster coming soon!

Diigo and Animoto!

Diigo

Wow, Diigo is great! This is an awesome way to organize information that you are researching. This is also a great tool to collaborate and send specific articles or information to someone. I love the highlighting and sticky note feature because it gives you the opportunity to let important information stand out to you. The sticky notes will serve as a reminder about specific information you want to remember.

Animoto

I signed up for Animoto and love how fun and easy it is to use! This is an easy and interactive way for students to work together on a specific project and put a presentation together. You can add pictures, music and text related to the topic or theme of your video. This beats having to use Windows Media to help you create a video. I think everyone should know about this.

The many ways to blog

After viewing some of the links in Blogs in Education, it's interesting to see how blogging and expressing yourself through the use of technology is happening more and more. Through The Diary Project, teenagers are able to choose from various topics that may be occurring in their day to day life. What a great way to express emotions, opinions and thoughts. This could be a way for a teacher to reach out to a student who is going through a difficult time in the home and possibly help out in anyway possible. However, the project alone, is an excellent way to give kids an outlet where they can share how they feel.
     This is a website I would encourage students to use. Not only do students have to be going through a difficult time in their personal lives, but there are links where students can share their opinions on a given topic, poetry. It is a website that will allow them to realize that there are many kids out there who may be struggling with the same problems and know that they're not alone.

On another end, Albert the Bear's Blog is a very cute and creative way to incorporate blogging in the classroom. Students are given the chance to take Albert the Bear home and share their experience by blogging.
This was a creative way to incorporate blogging in the classroom. This could be done with younger K-2. Students can take home the "class toy" or "class mascot", and have something to blog about the next day at school. If the student's cannot type yet, they can tell the teacher their experience and see it posted on the blog!