Top Ten Lessons / Cool Facts from ACTEM Conference 10/17/08
1. Teaching in the 21st Century: Social networking was a prevalent theme in the keynote speech as well as in this session because in today’s world, so many people are connected to social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Bringing tools such as these into a classroom setting would allow students access to one another to answer questions on homework, upcoming due dates, and the day’s discussions. Teachers can post important class information, as well as link supplemental educational tools like games, podcasts, and I movies.
2. Google Docs: Google Docs is a system that helps you create online documents that can be downloaded, edited, and posted, all from one location. The system allows a teacher, for example, to post a group assignment online and track progress and revisions of the work done by each student. The Google Doc can be posted on a blog. The only downside is that students must sign up for a Google account first, and teachers must purchase a Google domain.
3. www.readwritethink.org: This website has a diverse range of resources and organizational tools that will help even the most reluctant writer to form thoughtful and meaningful essays. There are visual organizers like “wordle” and “bubbl.us” as well as gliffy.com, which allows for group collaboration. Other websites include: readthewords.com, studystack.com, pageflakes.com, and persuadestar.4teachers.org.
4. Be clickable!: I have always feared that anyone could go online and Google me to find anything and everything that has been posted about me on the Internet. I thought it was bad to have personal information or pictures available to everyone. One of the lessons I learned from the speaker and the sessions was that being “clickable” is actually very important in today’s world. For teachers, being “clickable” means being available, resourceful, and creative. It means showing the world, or at least Grandma from Texas, what you and your students are capable of!
5. Delicious!: Keeping bookmarked sites on your toolbar is not helpful to your students or colleagues. By signing up for an account on Delicious, you can keep track of all the websites you have used for different units over the years. The site provides a library of resources for you, and a starting point for students who may need help finding solid resources for projects.
6. SMARTboards (with projectors!): I fell in love with the interactive whiteboards several years ago, but I had no idea they could do so much! One of the SMARTboards on display came with an overhead projector. This eliminates the need for a separate projector and screen elsewhere in a classroom, freeing up space, and saving time with setup.
7. www.wordle.net: This sweet graphic organizer allows the user to take a block of text and transform it into a collage of key words and terms. The most commonly used words are the most large and prominent, and lesser words and terms are sized progressively smaller according to their use. It is aesthetically pleasing, and is a fun jump-start into poetry.
8. Let your voice be heard: By signing up for an account, you are able to create a place for your students to use their imaginations and improve their speaking skills. Like GarageBand, you are able to record your own voice. Even better, though, is the fact that you can create your own pictures in the same place with a Pixie like program. Students can doodle over posted pictures and comment on the work of their classmates. It is a wonderful teaching tool with so many opportunities to help students develop technological skills as well as speaking skills.
9. www.freerice.com: This amazing site incorporates learning, fun, and social service! Teachers can get their students to practice their skills in several different content areas on various levels of difficulty while helping to feed people in third world countries. It is a fun, online game that will definitely give students a reason to study hard and know the answers.
10. Flickr: Like Delicious, Flickr is an online organizational tool that allows you to store and file your digital pictures. A Flickr account may be shared between two classrooms from different parts of the world; students can keep photographic journals of their lives in one country, and learn about the lives of children their own age from a completely different continent
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2 comments:
Liz,
I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about different aspects of the conference. I can tell that you really put a lot of thought into your post and a lot of feelings about the technologies and ideas. I LOVE the SMARTboards too!! It sounds like you really got a lot out of the conference! Great Post :-)
Liz, great to know that you picked up some new tricks and tips at the conference. A suggestion for future blogs - make sure to make your links 'live' so people can click on them quickly. Also, clarification - in order to use you do not need to purchase the domain - that just gives you extras - like web pages. Accounts for all students is the necessary part. Thanks! jo
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