Symbaloo Link

Classroom must have links curtesy of Symbaloo.

https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcPPUBX

Social Media Reflection

·       Reflect on current social networking technologies and how they can be used for educational purposes.

Social networking at the Elementary school level and the Middle school level are extremely rare.  Most of this contributes to the fact that social networking sites are banned for ages under 13 years old. The exciting thing about social networking is its capacity to bond teachers and educational leaders and help them customize professional development year-round.  I’ve also seen an app called SeeSaw used to facilitate a pen pal type relationship.  I’ve also seen replicas of Facebook pages or Fakebook profiles made into character reviews or historical person info sheets.

·       

How have you seen them used for learning?

I highly recommend using social networking for teachers, and high schoolers.  I’ve seen an app called SeeSaw used to facilitate a pen pal type relationship.  I’ve also seen replicas of Facebook pages or Fakebook profiles made into character reviews or historical person info sheets.  Both of these were very exciting for the students.

·       

Outline some concerns you might have with these technologies.

My number one concern is always keeping students safe, physically, emotionally, and digitally.  Doing any online or digital assignment must first be introduced with proper behavior for computers. 

·       

How does the Church utilize social media for the Kingdom?

I’ve seen churches use social media to keep their congregation up to date with events, and even share devotional material.  Churches can use social media as a device to carry their message, just as they used to do in traditional ways.  The world is changing, and with it so should schools and churches.

RoundTable

Round Table Review of Presentation Tools

Name and URL
              Easel.ly found at www.easel.ly
Overview
              This is a web-based tool that uses text and graphics to create infographics or posters.
Personal Use
              I like this tool to use for timelines and step by step plans to make it aesthetically pleasing and easy to read and understand.
Possible Assignments
              Students can use this tool to create posters that display information related to most types of projects.  It is a quick and easy creation tool that displays information and pictures and can be adapted for many projects.

Name and URL

              Popplet found at www.popplet.com
Overview
              Popplet is a Web creation tool.  This can be used quickly and easy to create web maps.  Popplet allows for students or teachers to change text sizes, add images, draw and change box sizes.  This tool is easy to see and easy to use.
What did you find useful for your own use?
              This would be an awesome brainstorming website.  This would also be an effective site to use for mapping step by step plans or lessons.
Possible Assignments
              This would be a great place to do a character assessment.  This site would be an easy way to analyze the development of the character through the storyline.

How do churches use mobile apps and presentation tools in connecting to members and seekers?
              With Easel.ly, churches can use this web-based programs to display a plan of action for the church.  Many times, church business plans need to be accepted by the congregation, and other information needs to be marketed to the congregation.  This program can help churches display and distribute information to its members.  
              Churches can use Popplet to create a visual aide of family lineage for some of the families in the bible.

Testing Some Tech Toys

https://padlet.com/la2teach/rked36ss38nd

Horizon Report

I have found that there are two components to integrating technology in the classroom.  One component is teacher’s Digital Literacy, the other is student’s digital literacy.  In the first the teacher must be able to function in the digital world, the second is teaching the student to function in the digital world, while maintaining classroom management.  These things are based on the teacher’s comfort level with technology and their desire to explore beyond their comfort zone.  It also relates to the budget, in that professional development for teachers can be pricey, as well as having the devices available can be pricey.

My hope is that in the next 5-10 years there will be a greater reliability on technology in the classroom.  Lessons will mirror real-world situations, and students will be using technology as much at school as they do at home.  I hope there are many more distance learning classes in K-12 education, and even more degrees available through online sources.  In this way, students would attend class for core curriculum and come in the a brick and mortar school for hands on activities and trade schools.

Research Prospectus Overview

Wiki Reflection Blog

Initial Impressions 

The first time I worked in the wiki, I have never created a wiki entry before, let alone create a wiki for collaborative work.  Choosing the best place to do the wiki was a research assignment on its own.  I looked for ease of access for members of the team and a good organizing page.  I choose Wikispaces because it offered what looked to be the best place for this type of collaboration.  Unfortunately, this will not be a choice in the future due to the site ending.  However, for now the site offers ease of access and organizational features that aide in the collaboration project.  For this site, outside collaboration is not allowed.  While this is a good feature for closed team collaboration, I don’t think this would be a good option for my future needs for wikis.  In my limited knowledge of wikis, public collaboration is a feature I’d be more interested in pursuing.  The first part of the assignment is sharing files for future work and creating pages and adding files seemed to be easy in Wikispaces and I was pleased with the outcome.  My initial impression of the site is good, and I look forward to working in the site in this collaborative team method. 

Middle Impressions 

I chose to write the literature review in Microsoft Word, because I’m more comfortable with its word processing features.  This allowed me to make sure spelling and grammar were acceptable before trying to use a new word processor that is within the site.  Copying the pieces of the review into the wiki proved easy and quick.  I have to admit, at first I put the essay in the wrong place, however, it was easy to correct.  I’m happy with the results of the wiki.  I will need to go in and edit the wiki for formatting and other things.  I’m hoping doing this will prove to be as easy as my previous encounters with the site.  Although, formatting does not always offer the same ease as word processing software.  Internet sites are versatile to many different devices; therefore, it is difficult to format in a certain way.  This is because screen size and resolution change on various devices. 

I’m still disheartened that this wiki will not continue to live after a few months, because it will no longer be providing the service.  It alerts the users to this when they first go onto the site.  This means that in order to save the current work, the creators will need to save it to another place.  Long-term collaboration will not be in the future for this project. 

Final Impressions 

Reviewing the Wikispaces submissions, I noticed some definite formatting issues.  I suspected that due to the web coding this would be an issue.  I attempted to do a bit of formatting, however, as suspected the coding did not honor the formatting when publishing from the editing window to the published page.  I could have looked into a back-door way of getting formatting to take in the environment.  On some webpages there are ways to go behind the site and look at the actual coding in order to correct and make paragraphs formatting consistent and predictable.  However, since there isn’t going to be long term use of this site, there isn’t a reason to delve so deeply in this environment.  I did however, gently go through and be sure that formatting was consistent and predictable between paragraphs. 

Overall, these things were expected and known before beginning the assignment.  I am pleased with the final product even with its limitations.  I hope that this will be a project that will transfer easily into K-12 classrooms.  The ease of putting information into the site is promising.  However, just as the assignment foretells, and the personal experience of the project, the technical skills needed are not overly intense.  I am concerned that there will be academic skills that students will need in order to complete a similar assignment.