Aviary: My new best friend

I don’t know if you guys have interactive whiteboards in your classrooms…but I have never used one. I am actually doing my scholarly research paper on effective uses and how they can impact learning. Interestingly we have also been using Smart Notebook in another class to study and apply different principles of e-learning. It has been a lot of fun because I have wanted to learn more about them for awhile because I have heard a number of people comment on the fact that many people have interactive whiteboards and don’t use them effectively. It is really a very user friendly program that offers unlimited possibilities when you use it to combine words, pictures, video, and audio. What a powerful tool to use with students to create projects which can then be used as alternative assessments.

One tool we were introduced to during this assignment is called Aviary. It is a free web-based suite of creative applications that include an image editor, audio editor, music creator and more. So far I have only had a chance to use the audio editor. However, I found that to be extremely easy to use. The available features and ease of use far surpass other tools such as Audacity or vozME. I have used Adobe Photoshop for image editing for awhile and I can imagine just from perusing the site and watching tutorials that this free web tool could easily replace a tool like Photoshop. This offers an immediate savings of 200 dollars. And that is only considering the photo editing aspect of the site. As I find more and more of these free tools I am beginning to wonder if there is any software out there that doesn’t have a comparable free version on the internet. I highly recommend that you check out Aviary and all of the possibilities that it offers.

Blog Revelation

Ok...so I am really excited about a new "blog revelation" I have had in my life recently. Last week I conducted an interview for another class with an individual who is in charge or creating and conducting instructional technology training for the region I live in. She talked about the importance of using blogs to keep up with the latest and greatest in educational technology. Coincidentally, EdTech Magazine also published their "The Honor Roll: 50 Must-Read K–12 Education IT Blogs" story. These two things combined to inspire my "blog revelation". One of my favorite iPad apps is called Flipboard. If you haven't used it, Flipboard is a social reader that allows you to download all kinds of different magazines that specialize in anything from news to sports to the weird and wacky. You can also access your Google Reader feed through Flipboard. Soooo...one by one I went through EdTech's 50 best list and added them to my Google Reader. This allows me to easily read through blog posts and get ideas and inspiration for my own technology integration.

A couple of the recent gems I have discovered:

Edudemic - An educational technology magazine that you can download on your iPad. The app is free but you will need to pay for each issue or get a subscription. I started off just downloading the current issue "10 Incredibly Powerful Teaching Tools of the Future" for $1.99.

I really enjoyed the articles and ideas. The magazine also included a "student bio". This particular one was for a 9th grade student from Houston, Texas who had the opportunity to present a TED talk. Her views are an inspiration for teachers trying to move beyond the standard way of doing things. She states, "While working on my TED talk, I had to overcome a true fear of public speaking, a real life skill, in pursuit of passion. If schools allowed students to pursue their passions, improving weaknesses would not be such a daunting task; having the opportunity to work on a project they are passionate about allows students to excel at their strengths while improving their weaknesses in a way that doesn't seem as frustrating or discouraging as a typical classroom environment" (Edudemic, 2012, p. 19).

That sentiment fit in perfectly with another gem about gamification in the classroom:

We have talked repeatedly about the value of games in education throughout the program. However, I haven't heard any concrete ways a teaching is using it in practice. If you have a chance, check out Gamification in the Classroom: How (And Why) One Teacher Did It. The story includes a case study on a teacher in Michigan and how she turned her entire math class into a game she calls MathLand. It is an inspirational story on the possibilities that are out there with a little creativity and hard work.

I am really excited about this new use of blogs, Google Reader, and my iPad to help in my pursuit of knowledge and ideas to help transform my (future) classroom. If you have access to these technologies I highly recommend adding some (or all) of the "50 Best" blogs to your reading list.

Wikis Are(n't?) For Me

Although I have always loved technology and I think that it has the power to transform our teaching in amazing ways I have never really gotten excited about wikis. It is true that Wikipedia tends to be one of the first sources I consult for a quick dose of information when researching a new topic. However, when it comes to using wikis in the classroom (either my own or in graduate school) I have always had to force myself to participate. I don't really know why. I can see the great possibilities. I guess my hang-up just comes from turning ideas into action. In trying to overcome this adversity I enjoyed checking out some of the "best of" wikis mentioned in chapter 4 of the Richardson text. I also appreciate the quote that states, "The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort" (2010, p. 69). I also like the fact that introducing wikis to your students also gives you an excellent resource for teaching them how to evaluate resources for inclusion in research. I am definately willing to put more effort into finding best practices and concrete ways to integrate them into my class.

The benefits of blogging

After completing this week’s reading I have a whole new appreciation for how to use blogs in my classroom and the value that they hold beyond simply getting students to write more and giving them an authentic audience. Some of Richardson’s comments in Chapter 2 really hit home with me. He writes, “more than just reading, bloggers that write in this way learn to read critically, because as they read, they look for important ideas to write about” (p. 30). In the next paragraph he continues, “Many times, one post in the synthesis of the reading of many texts, so bloggers must be able to find connections and articulate the relevance of those connections. In composing the post, this genre of writing demands organization and clarity as well as a keen awareness of audience” (p. 30). These two passages are excellent examples of some of the higher level skills that we can teach our students simply by integrating a free Web 2.0 tool into our classroom. I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg and I am excited to learn more.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin