Blogging in the Classroom

After reading the article about implementing the concept of blogging and commenting in the classroom, I find the idea exciting and a possibly very useful tool. I think that blogging, whether it be on paper, or in a digital form can be a great tool to allow students to express their thoughts and ideas, practice their organizational and writing skills, and learn to properly communicate with each other and respect the ideas of others. Whenever I think of blogging, I generally think of an online forum. The paper version introduced in this article, however, could be a really interesting activity to use in the classroom as a tool to get to know your students and allow them to get to know each other, or even as a project surrounding a certain topic or aspect of their studies. I think that this idea could absolutely work in a secondary classroom. I think that although secondary students like nothing more than getting a chance to talk about themselves in a positive way, and express themselves without repercussion. I think that setting down ground rules for the blogging activity is extremely important. This protects the students from giving out too much information, and teaches them the importance of respecting others' opinions and work. I think that this will be helpful, not only in this activity, but with the environment of the classroom in general. Students will learn from this that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, and your class and activities is a safe zone where cruelness or disrespect won't be tolerated. I don't know that I would change much about this activity. I think it can be a great getting to know you activity, and lays down important rules for courtesy in the classroom. I would just suggest that this activity be used more frequently as a recurring activity that deals with students thoughts and ideas surrounding topics being discussed in the classroom. Students could blog once a week for homework about the topic being covered and then spend time in class exchanging blogs and responding to their peers ideas.

Technology Infused Unit Planning

Creating a unit plan that integrates technology into the learning process is both interesting and challenging at the same time. I think that much of the technology that we are learning would be very useful inside the classroom, and can make lessons interesting for the students and help them understand facts with a hands on approach. I particularly enjoy the technologies that help students be creative, such as using their cell phones or cameras to take pictures as documentation, blogs to allow students to express their thoughts, and interactive forums such as Google Docs/Forms, or Wikispaces that could enable students to work together on projects and assignments.
Using technology in theory is exciting, but at the same time, what is challenging for me is finding ways to appropriately and wisely use these technologies within a lesson. I think it is challenging in the sense that you don't want to overuse technology, or throw it into the lesson just because. The technology should serve a purpose and should be teaching the students additional skills while also helping them learn information from the lesson itself. I guess it will just be a matter of being brave enough to try and fail (and then learn from your mistakes) with these technologies, and being comfortable enough with them that you can find meaningful ways to integrate them into your lesson plans.

Using Cell Phones in the Classroom

While I definitely have my concerns about cellphone usage in the classroom, I'm also an optimist so I think that they could be used to enhance lessons and create meaningful activities. I think that we need to realize that we are in the 21st century, and technology is advancing every single day. Those who refuse to be innovative and creative in the classroom, I feel will unfortunately be left behind in the educational field. By finding ways to incorporate cellphones, which is the primary means of communication for teens these days, you are making an important connection between learning and youth culture.
I think that using cellphones as a means of documentation and data collection is a very cool idea. As a social studies major, I think it is important to find different lessons and activities that allow students to become historians rather than permanent note takers. By using the photo feature of a phone they could take pictures for presentations and to back up their facts right on their phones. Students could complete journalism projects, for example, where they study social issues. Using their own phones they could record photos, collect interviews, and create their own podcasts and narration.
I also like the idea of using cellphones to create surveys and and study tools. Surveys where students can respond right on their phone through text messaging gives them an excuse to text in class, and gives the teacher an instant response to the given question. Text reminders could also be used to remind students of important assignments, study points, and history facts of the day.
Personally, I really like the idea of using this technology in and out of the classroom to create an alternative educational experience, there just needs to be a way to keep students on task and not distracted by their phones for personal use during class.

Thinkfinity & SAS Resources...

I found a few really interesting resources on these sites...

The first that I looked into was, http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/interactive-map/?ar_a=1. This is an interactive map found through Thinkfinity.com. This is a resource that could be used in a number of ways, for various lessons in the realm of Social Studies. With this map, you are able to look at different regions of the world and identify major religions of areas, languages, density, environmental issues, and more. I think this would be a really cool tool to accompany lessons and help students understand the great diversity of many regions, for example contemporary Africa and the great diversity of the continent in all aspects.

On the SAS website, I located another interesting activity:
http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=932
This is an interactive tool that allows students to examine different videos and analyze documents that help them understand imperialism and the Scramble for Africa. The tool supplies guiding questions, and the resources that will allow students to understand what they are studying and form an opinion that they can back up with facts.

I think that these are really great and interesting tools for any social studies classroom. I enjoyed exploring them and I think that students would really enjoy them as well.

Copyright Laws...

Most people understand the concept of copyrights on things such as movies, music, and other creations, to protect the creator and control distribution of the product. I get the basic drift of copyrights and protection, like the fact that it is illegal to copy and redistribute videos, download music, and using another person's work without giving them due credit. These are the obvious things to avoid, however, there are so many different situations where unintentional copyright infringement takes place on a daily basis. 

I was completely unaware, for example, that it was technically illegal to show a video in your classroom that you purchased or rented for viewing. Teachers do this on a regular basis, and while it seems harmless, rules are rules I suppose. 

It will be important as an educator to make sure that students really understand the importance of copyright laws and how to abide by them. Extra attention will have to be applied to lessons in order to make sure that students fully understand how to cite their sources, and how to do the appropriate research to make sure the sources and materials they are using in their own works are being used in the appropriate manor. This will make  certain things more time consuming certainly, but once the students get a firm understanding of how to locate licensing terms of a source and what the different licenses allow or don't allow, it will make their work legitimate  and properly documented. 

As trivial as this lesson first seemed to me, I understand the importance and am actually glad it was addressed. I had no idea something as simple as showing a video from home in class shouldn't be done, as I have seen it done on a regular basis. Understanding licensing and copyright terms will help me teach my future students, but also educate myself and benefit my own work. 

The flipped classroom...

The concept of a flipped classroom is an interesting one. Giving students the opportunity to watch and listen to their lectures at home, while doing their homework in class is a unique idea to me. By using the flipped classroom, students can get the extra help they need when doing their homework as they would be in class with their peers and teacher. I think that it is a great idea, however, I also think that it may be an unrealistic one. In order for the flipped classroom to work well, students would have to do the prep work at home, on their own. They would have to listen to the lectures, take notes, and come to class prepared. I feel that it might be counterproductive to use the flipped classroom if students are unprepared for class and unable to do their work in class. 

As far as the technology assignment goes, I must admit I'm pretty intimidated by it. Not only am I unfamiliar with the technology that I will be teaching, but I have also never created a tutorial video of any kind. I think that the idea to have us teach a technology is a good one, as it will really push us to learn it well enough to explain it to others. I guess the only negative thing that I can think of is if we don't do a good job teaching it, or don't really have a firm concept of the technology ourselves, our fellow students may not get as much out of it as they might like. Other than that, I think that assignment should be interesting to see what each of thinks will be useful in our classrooms. 

First Class...

So, yesterday was our first session of Learning in a Digital Environment. I thought that I knew a decent amount about technology and computers, but yesterdays class showed me just how much there is out there and how far behind I am. I was actually panicking a little bit, to be perfectly honest. 


Technology evolves everyday, and so it is important to stay on top of the latest information in order to stay current and remain effective. It also plays a huge part in the educational system these days. I knew that computers were fairly common in schools today, and smartboards are being used more frequently as well, but I didn't realize that there were so many other forms of technologies that could be used too. 


I am excited to learn about pod casting and other ways of teaching digitally, as I feel that it could be very useful in and out of the classroom. I wish that my own classrooms had used a more technology based classroom. It would have been great to be able to review a lesson from home. 

We will see how much I can figure out and learn in this class. Hopefully it's a lot :-)