Week 5, Thing 12

 I do like voice thread's communal interaction and seemingly ease of use.  Perhaps students who are reluctant or unable to give oral summaries will find this more comfortable venue.  After watching the math tutorial there was no doubt in my mind that the student knew exactly what she was doing.  Obviously students who already understood would be able to move ahead while students who didn't could review.  Background noise is something to be aware of when recording.

Elaine's comment about report cards is valid - particularly as performance base report cards engage parents as learning partners rather than just recipients of another person's opinion of their child's work.  

Week 5, Thing 11

 Vu-find was enlightening considering last year's discussion of the desired features for the District OPAC.  Features like having the cover of the book as part of the search were a given, the ability to redefine searches were all part of their new and ongoing package.  Listening to the video it underscored our text's position that work environments will have no physical restrictions.  In the introduction the developer states in an effort to develop an OPAC that would be valuable to multiple users it was not just Villa Nova that is developing this tool.   

  However I am struck by the title of this week... "Play".  I think I play in a totally different way than my students and enjoy it more.

Week 5, Thing 10

After several attempts w/comics that would not load I was successful with this.  I would like to create several templates for overdue library books as I find that students/parents are more likely to return items if I personalize the notices.  The information that we can download from the SIRSI screen is overload and results in more questions than action. I found more success with downloading the images if the notation "upload to blog" was listed.  

Week 4, Thing 8

Week 3, thing 7

The sites I have been to with Raven have been (Flickr, trading cards, etc.) the creative sites - as I look at the sites I view them with "teacher" eyes.  I appreciate flickr for my students - although I wonder if I am doing them a favor.  Drawing a picture makes them focus and think more about the subject - whatever the subject. However many teachers require an "illustration" & feel that it is a "gimme" point wise if students download.  As I stated in my last blog the trading cards seem to have several classroom applications no matter the grade level.  I do need to find more school cameras if this is a tech/dewey classification lesson.  Even though the price has come down a great deal I still hesitate to place a hundred dollar plus tool in the hands of a 4th or 5th grader.  

  I'm not the family historian much more likely to be the family purger so flickr amazes me with the number people who would post photos & the great number of photos posted.  In checking out 'mosaic" the time and # of pictures that it takes to create a mosaic.  Definitely must be a high interest "hobby".     

Week 3, thing 6

I enjoyed discovering mappr - found a teacher in Shishmaref who had interesting photos about several soc. study units that she did as a tutorial.  I'll be putting the idea in my "tech" idea box.  She had pictures of students doing a variety of projects & she posted the captions.  My concept would be to let students take pictures of the process and caption - would be a quick assestment of their understanding of a project as a tech lesson.  As Elaine points out though it would be best for students to take their own pictures requiring a school to have multiple cameras - a good idea.  But take a look at the trading card - for a library lesson for students learning the Dewey sys.  Thought I could have 4th or 5th grade using cameras to create trading cards that younger student could use for a game during the down time.  A 2 for one! By the way this is my golden, Cedar who is part of my Avatar as well.

Week 3, thing 5

Many exploration hours later...I have found features about this tool that will wow students and teachers alike.  Still find it tricky to navigate to a particular tag that I want.  

Amazing what the Hubble telescope is showing us about outer space - never realized there could be so much color in that dark outer space. I appreciate the simplicity of typing in "public" to find pictures that students can use w/o violating copyright. 

Note:  To view you'll need to click on the blue ? - I tried posting the url as well as this public domain NASA picture.  Sixth grade does a space unit & I am always on the look out for sites that allow students to upload w/o a great deal of searching time.