iTeach180 Project Day 14

Yesterday students posted reflections on their blogs about the last two weeks of learning. I challenged students with questions that prompted them to defend or challenge the technology integration we were

Today I will be beginning my two part series on Evernote.  These two lessons will help you reduce paper usage in your classroom, library, and school building, while educating your students with great web tools for research and presentation.

Like Diigo, Evernote allows you to clip sections of the web while you are browsing for information. Diigo will let you highlight and clip links, but Evernote allows you to clip a variety of web content including pictures. While the objective of both tools is to clip, organize, and filter personal web content, they remain different in their functionality.

Evernote can be downloaded on to MAC and Windows operating systems and is completely free. This can also be used on smart phones and the iPhone.

Objectives:

Students will be able to use Evernote

Students will be able to demonstrate Evernote

Students will be able to apply Evernote

Process:

This lesson is simply an overview of using Evernote. You can access the videos below to show your students or faculty how to use this great web-clipping program. You may want to have students follow your lead while you are demonstrating Evernote on the projector or you can have them simply watch and take notes on what you are doing. Again, I find it best to model it first and then allow them to organize in groups and have some time to mess around with the program.

For homework you could give them a subject individually that they have to research tonight online. Have each student find information pertaining to the topic you provide and the next day, have students present their findings.

iTeach180 Project Day 13

The past two weeks we have been setting up our classroom infrastructure. Today I want to allot some time for student reflection. I always feel my best observations and critiques come from my students. Not to say all my past Administrators have been poor on giving feedback, but I find my students understand the daily classroom dynamic better. Therefore, today's lesson will be a reflective piece for the students.

Objectives:
Students will be able to compose a blog post

Students will be able to comment on a blog post

Students will be able to access a blog post through an RSS Reader

Process:
Start the class by reflecting on all of the learning tools you have been incorporating for the past two weeks. Provide your own reflection verbally and explain briefly why we are integrating these types of tools. And then give them a few guiding questions to provoke their writing.

1. Technology simply slows down the learning process. Challenge or Defend this statement.

2. Why should we integrate technology when students have been learning without it for decades?

3. How does a networked classroom promote student learning?

You may choose to select different questions, but for this assignment, I want them to take on the negative side of technology integration. I want students to put their energy into writing a post that defends what we are doing in the class with technology and get them to provide specific examples from the work we have been doing for the past two weeks. Why are we doing it? Is it all necessary? Get your students to drive home this point, however, accept the fact that you may have students challenge this notion as well. The purpose is not to get all students nodding their heads in agreement, but to provoke their thinking in the direction of forming an opinion and defending it.

Depending on your class time you can have students write this blog post as an in class assignment and for homework have them comment on their peers' blogs. Make sure to remind them that grammar, spelling, and language structures count. Use the rubric I provided in Day 8.

iTeach180 Project Day 12

Yesterday I introduced Diigo. Today we will be exploring more features of Diigo beyond the basic setup and networking. There are many features Diigo offers for web browsing, collecting, and organizing. Today I will be covering highlighting tool, The Stickies tool, and how you can set up a group for your class or department.

Objectives:

Students will be able to create a group on Diigo

Students will be able to use the highlighting tool on Diigo

Students will be able to share links via Diigo

Process:

Today’s lesson is more of an instructor overview of what students can do with Diigo tools. As an instructor there are a variety of ways in which you can incorporate this type of tool into any content area classroom. A few examples:

English – This is great for student research and gathering secondary sources. Students have the ability to highlight chunks of text within an article and make note of it with a sticky note as well. Students can also find information on authors you are reading and save them all under one tag.

History – Like English, this is a great tool for research collections. If you are covering a specific period of history, students find news sources that connect of reflect that period. They can then add sticky notes and write their connections of the two time periods.

Science – Students can conduct research on a specific scientific principle and find an example online of how that principle is being used in everyday life. They can highlight information and refer back to it as they scan the web.

Math – Have students bookmark and highlight Dan Meyers blog. This is a must! Students can find a word problem that reflects a specific math equation and highlight an example of that in an article they find on the online. Or, students can collect data to create their own word problems by highlight information from a newspapers’ business section.

Art – Students can find artist and then set out on a web quest to find and highlight information pertaining to that artist’s work and life.

Again, most of the above examples fall under the category of web quest or research. You may want to start exploring Diigo by using one of the options above or you can invent your own.

The videos below explain how students can bookmark, share, highlight, and create groups within Diigo for easy project collaboration.

1. Installing a Diigolet in your browser

2. Using the highlighting and sticky tools.

3. Creating a Diigo Group

iTeach180 Project Day 11

The past two weeks my hypothetical technology class has been setting up their classroom infrastructure. At this point, they are connected in many ways: RSS, iGoogle, Blogs, etc. It is always a good idea to take the time to set up and make sure students understand these collaborative tools. Once they have these tools understood and in place, you can easily incorporate dynamic lessons and projects throughout the year. Plus, these “infrastructure” tools are applicable in any content area class.

This week we are going to move in the direction of web organization and content sharing. In the next few days I will be presenting lessons on Diigo and Evernote. Both tools allow anyone to set up a free or premium account and share and organize web content.

Objectives:
Students will be able to demonstrate Diigo
Students will be able to use Diigo effectively
Students will be able to bookmark with Diigo

Process:
Today we are going to setup a Diigo account. It is best to show your students how to do this on the overhead projector with their laptop screens down. Model the basic setup and navigation of Diigo and explain various ways in which they can use this tool. There is also an instructional video on the main page at Diigo.com that will give students and teachers an overview of what Diigo is and what Diigo can do for you.

I created two videos below to further illustrate the basic setup and navigation of Diigo. Tomorrow I will get into web highlighting, sticky notes, and groups. There are a number of ways in which Diigo can be incorporated into the classroom and faculty vocabulary.

iTeach180 Project Day 10

Yesterday we covered RSS feeds and had students set up their Google reader accounts. Today we are going to create RSS feeds within our classroom wikispace. This assignment will be a nightly assignment and will work in conjunction with their blog.

Objectives

Students will be able to access RSS feeds from various outlets

Students will be able to compose a blog post

Process:

Today, I want to focus on a reading strategy that I am using with my tenth grade English class. On my wikispace, I have several RSS feeds linked into a page. This page updates regularly and allows students to view the most current articles from The Philadelphia Inquirer, ESPN.com, NPR, etc. I tried to present an array of feeds rather than just one. The point of this assignment is to get students reading daily and to encourage reading independently. Also, students are acquiring knowledge about their world. Plus, reading and responding nightly is slowly building your students’ prior knowledge database that they can access on any…dare I say…standardized test. I find this to work best for high school students and especially AP students who will have to enter the English Language and Composition test with a well-rounded knowledge base.

Here is the assignment...

Every night students read one article from one of the five feeds I have selected. You may choose more than five or allow students to add to the feed. They must read the article, and then list three facts about the article, three questions they have about the article, one supported opinion and list and define any new vocabulary words they come across. They type this up in a Google Doc and then post it to their blog.

NOTE: Always remind students to compose their blog posts in a separate forum so they can save frequently in the instance their blogger or word press page goes down.

Students are always told what they have to read, this allows students the freedom of reading something they can select on their own and enjoy. Here is a video that will show you how to set up an RSS feed on your wikispace. Enjoy! 

iTeach180 Project Day 9

Yesterday we incorporated RSS of student blogs into our iGoogle page. Students learned how to add an RSS feed for posts and comments to their iGoogle page so they could easily access their peers’ blogs. Today I expand on what an RSS feed is and how it can organize all of the content you read on the web. Also, we will cover setting up Google Reader for other classes and assignments.

Objectives:

Students will be able to access an RSS feed

Students will be able to link an RSS feed to Google Reader

Example Assignment:

I have used RSS feeds in all of my English literature and AP English Language and Composition classes. I set up a RSS feed on our class wikispace that would update periodically with the latest news stories as they broke. Students would have to access this page nightly, read an article, and then either blog or journal about it. We also discussed the interesting stories of the week every Friday before class started. If a student did not have Internet access at home I would point them in the direction of the free library, a Starbucks (now offers free wi-fi along with most coffee shops, or have them simply find a newspaper.  When students would complain about having to buy a newspaper I would usually ask them how much they spend a month on their cell phone bill. This would lead to me being right and the student in awe of how many newspapers he or she could purchase with each month’s cell phone bill.

Again, this assignment had my students reading and writing each night. My AP students were constantly absorbing sources to use as references when they are writing their rhetorical analysis essays. These are skill sets that you can provoke and develop every night. In some cases, I had parents me asking about RSS feeds and thanking me for getting their son or daughter to read every night.  Click here to see an example of this.

Process:

1. You may want to start by introducing your students to a brief history of what an RSS feed is, what RSS stands for, and how we can use them every day. Or you might want to show them the Common Craft video to get them started and understanding what a RSS feed is.

2. Once they have an understanding of what an RSS feed is, show them where they can find one. As part of their independent practice, have them select a popular news source and find an RSS feed on the page. Explain to them that RSS feed has a universal symbol. If you are using Safari there is a reader option embedded in the address bar.

3. Have them select the RSS feed they want and then have them open up another tab. Tell them to enter http://www.google.com/reader You may also want to show this video on Google Reader

4. Watch the video below and have your students follow along after you have modeled.

For homework you might want your students to select 5 of their favorite news sources and add them to their Google Reader. Also, you can have them add the URLs from their class blogs.

iTeach180 Project Day 8

Today’s lesson may vary depending on what homework you assigned last night. If you assigned a blog post to your students you had the opportunity to check them over remotely. Today we will focus on the responsibility of writing and publishing online and how we can add RSS feeds to our iGoogle page.

Objectives:
Students will be able to write responsibility and effectively online
Students will be able to add an RSS feed to an iGoogle page

Process:
Today’s lesson should start be reviewing the blogging process that happened last night for homework. Have students recall any problems they encountered and how they felt when the hit the “publish post” button.

NOTE: In the past, I have used my PLN or a small group of teachers online to read and comment on my students’ posts. This task will reinforce the presence of an audience and how important and powerful writing is when you are publishing to the world.

As you present the responsibility of being an author online, you may want to incorporate a writing rubric for your blogging assignments. You can easily create your own of there are plenty of rubric online (see below). Tell students that this rubric will be used on every blog post and that students still need to proofread their work that is being published.

Blog Scoring Rubric

Another good exercise might be to find blogs that you know are ill worded or grammatical incorrect and have students rate the blogs appeal with these errors. What does it do to the bloggers credibility? Would you read this blog again?

The next phase of this lesson will be how students can access their blogs in different forums.

1. Have students return to their iGoogle page. (NOTE: You might want to do a random check in of all their iGoogle pages to see how they are using them after a week and a half of school).

2. Have them open up another tab and return to their blog home page they created yesterday. Once they have these two tabs open watch the video below. The video will show you how to add a RSS link to your iGoogle homepage.

For homework, you might want to have your students subscribe to the classroom blogs or have them select one blog that they really enjoy reading that they can add to their iGoogle page.