Teaching With Technology

With so much technology available at the fingertips of teachers, the classroom is a magical land of learning. Here are three topics that will help any teacher interact technology in the classroom.

To Learn about:Web 2.0Slide 9

FlashcardsClick Here

To Learn about:Ways to Twitter in the classroom

Click Here

To Learn about:Ways to use Wordle

in the classroomClick Here

WordleWhat is Wordle?

Wordle is technology that is used in creating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds show the important

words that appear more frequently in the wording. There are several different things you can do to make your clouds

personal. You can make it your own with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Here is an example of the wordle I created from the text above. You will notice that the words that are used more often appear bigger in my wordle.

How to Use Wordle 1. Write some text, like an essay or an article. 2. Select all of the text and then copy it to the clipboard. 3. Go to http://wordle.net. 4. Click on Create your own. 5. Paste the text. 6. Either use a screen capture program to obtain the Wordle as a graphic Or save the Wordle in the public gallery and use the code provided in your blog or web page.

 

“I LOVE Wordle. I use it with children as young as kindergarten age. I have first graders that use it to practice their spelling words--they have to type the word as many times as there are letters in the word. It is also a "teachable moment" to explain to them that we must only use create--as inappropriate words may be in the gallery. Third graders have used to realize how often they use the same word in an essay. We also use it to analyze things such as the national anthem, pledge of allegiance, and the school's honor code.”Posted by: Gail 6/20/2009 2:10 PM

The Top 5 Reasons to use Wordle in your classroom:

•As a means of summarizing the content of an essay or other piece of work.

•As a self-reflection, so that the student does not get carried away and go off the point on their project.

•A resource for the teacher to be used as a means of assessment.

•To summarize survey results.

•To illustrate one's work with a picture of some kind.

In the Classroom

What is Twitter?Twitter is a real-time information network that is controlled by people all over the world. Twitter tells you what is happening across the globe immediately.

Why should I twitter?

•CommunicationBy only having 140 characters to communicate you can learn to discipline yourself by becoming better at what you need to say with less meaningless words.

•Stay up-to-date with fellow teachersTwitter can be like a effective staffroom meeting where teachers can interact with one another by bouncing ideas, opinions and resources off of each other while in separate locations.

•Local or Global followingTwitter allows educators to compare what’s happening in their school systems with other school systems in the same state, country and internationally.

• Benjamin - 02/07/2010 If anyone is using Twitter in school and would like to facilitate a live, online session about your experience, see the following page: http://educators.supercoolschool.com/classes/657 Benjamin Principle of Educators 2.0

• ldinsdale - 09/23/2009 I agree that Twitter is an exciting tool for schools and we have started to use it to communicate with parents via our school website: http://www.englishmartyrs.co.uk It has been well received and has really helped with mass communication within our school community. Challenges like Twitter being banned/blocked within schools are overcome if you wish to pursue the use of such sites. As for using it with the children, time will tell, but seeing the benefit of it could lead to using it to ask questions in light of research etc.

• lsimmons - 07/02/2009 Twittering sounds like a great idea. Can you control who is in the group, or is it opened up to anyone on the net.

• Bob Houghton - 06/27/2009 With children and adolescents, "Access Denied" in its numerous educational forms morphs into breakaway literacies (See http://tinyurl.com/cyvqrm ) among those children growing up in a digitally literate home. Reaching those on the other side of the digital divide is a growing problem.

Twitter keeps you informed with what matters most to you today and helps you discover what might matter to you most tomorrow.

Twitter can even be used with the weakest signals because of its simplicity. Users can access Twitter on their computers, video game console or through their mobile phones.

You can use Twitter however you choose. Follow hundreds of people., a few dozen people. You can post every hour or never.

Twitter on Your - Keep in close contact with other teachers.

Different ways to use Twitter:

Twitter in the community- Keep the parents and members of the community up to date with Twitter in the classroom!

http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/starting#

Twitter to promote your business

Watch a quick video on how to get started!

Web 2.0 FlashcardsWhat are Web flashcards?

Web Flashcards are similar to the old time flashcards that were used before technology took over the classroom. Web flashcards allow the student to study anytime, anywhere by using them with your cell phone, PDA or IPod. There are also other activities to help you study, such as, matching, crosswords, hangman and word scrambles.

Study Stackhttp://www.studystack.com/

Flashcard dbhttp://flashcarddb.com/

Flashcard Exchangehttp://www.flashcardexchange.com

Quizlethttp://quizlet.com/

Flashcard Machinehttp://www.flashcardmachine.com/

Web Flashcards WebsitesHere are some popular websites to make web flashcards:

1 + 1 = 2

Benefits of Web Flashcards:

•It can show you how much a student studies by giving you the study results statistics so you could view how many cards they completed as well as a simple pie chart indicating the number of right/wrong answers.

•If a student does not have a computer at home to study, you can print the flashcards so that no one will be left out of the web flashcards.

•Students can create their own electronic study cards or they can share with their peers while studying.

•You can project the flashcards on your interactive whiteboard; Instantly, you have an interactive review lesson!

ConclusionWith all of the technology that is available to the world, a teacher can have any lesson plan brought to life with the help of the internet. There are so many places a student can go without even leaving the classroom.

I have touched on a few technologies that I find beneficial to any classroom at any age level. Such as;

Wordle is a great tool to help students focus on the most important parts of an assignment.

Twitter can benefit teachers stay in the loop with the rest of the staff and the community.

Web 2.0 Flashcards are very beneficial to help students study for upcoming tests and assignments. Flashcards have been used for many years and continue to be used but with technology.

Work CitedWalker, Laura. "Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools." Techlearning.com <http://www.techlearning.com/aarticle/17340>.Jenn Farr. "Create Web 2.0 Flashcards in a Flash!" Techlearning.com <http://www.techlearning.com/article/16896>.Freeman, Terry. "Http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/20322." Web log post. Web.