Current Events 4

I want to share an article that I read this week called Building the Digital District. Down in Mooresville North Carolina the school district has gone digital with a one to one laptop program where according to the article student progress has increased. The article also speaks somewhat disparaging about teachers and those unwilling to get on board. What is your opinion about the amount of technology in the classroom and teachers attitudes towards it?
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/10/19/01conversion.h05.html

Tool # 3 MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.com

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

The third Web 2.0 tool that I experimented with was an online comic site called MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.com.  Last year with one of my classes I used Comic Life with my students and they had an amazing time creating their own fairytales.  The only downfall to Comic Life was that my students wanted to create their own comics at home and couldn’t unless they had their parents purchase the program for them.  This year I want my students to be able to create their own comics and stories online so I have been experimenting with MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX.com.

I played around on the website and created an Anti-Bullying comic strip that I plan on showing my class next week.  The site is easy to use with different characters, objects, different dialogue options, and panels to create a comic.  Another great thing about this site is that you can print and email the comics that are created.  There are also premade comics that can be printed off that can be used to colour and add dialogue to.  My students will now have the options of creating and completing their comics in class or at home if I need to assign the assignment for homework.

I will discuss this tool further in in my reflection at the end of the project.

 

Tool #2 Survey Monkey

http://www.surveymonkey.com

The second Web 2.0 tool that I experimented with was a survey program called Survey Monkey. This tool allows the use to create a survey and collect the results online. It provides an easy step by step process of creating and easy to use survey creator system. I was going to create my own survey to help my students study for an upcoming science test on light, but after experimenting with this program I changed my mind.  You can either make your own survey or use one of the surveys already created in their survey bank. In the bank of surveys that are there for anyone to use they have the following subjects Community (2),Customer Feedback (6), Demographics (2), Education (9), Events (3), Healthcare (4), Human Resources (10), Industry Specific (16), Just for Fun (3), Market Research (3), Non-profit (4), and  Political (3).  The nice things about the premade surveys are that you can modify them to meet your needs.

                 

I decided that since anti bullying week is next week that I would use Survey Monkey’s  Bullying Survey.  I deleted some of the questions that were tailored to high school students and ended up with seven questions for my students to answer.  I had my students complete it and we will go over the results as a class next week during anti bullying week.  My students liked taking the survey and told me that they could be honest with their responses since they didn’t have to share their responses openly with the class.  Below are the questions from the Bullying Survey.

1. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone made fun of you, called you names, or insulted you?

2. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone spread rumors about you?

3. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone pushed you, shoved you, tripped you, or spit on you?

4 During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone threatened you with harm?

5. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone tried to make you do things you did not want to do, for example, give them money or other things?

6. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone destroyed your property on purpose?

7. During the last week, how many times, if any, has someone left you out of or wouldn’t let you join in activities on purpose?

    I will be giving more feedback on this tool and my students responses during my reflection at the end of the inquiry project.

      

Here is the assigmnet I used with my glog.  Just thought that all of you might want to look at it.  Enjoy!

 

Polar Bear Wanted Poster

WANTED ALIVE

The Polar Bear and their Arctic Home

Imagine that you are a polar bear working on a campaign to create a refuge for you and other polar bears.  You are to create a Wanted Poster for a Last Ice Area and the Polar Bear.

Assignment

·        Your poster should include information that include the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, and why) and how.

·        Your poster should be creative and visually appealing.

·        Your poster should have no grammar or spelling mistakes.

Resources

·        Saving the Last Ice for Polar Bears

·        Polar Bear Printout

·        National Geographic Kids:  http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/polar-bear/

·        Canadian Geographic Kids:

 http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/polar_bear.asp

·        Kidzone:  http://www.kidzone.ws/sg/polarbear/polar_bear.htm

Tool # 1 Glogster

The first tool from my Inquiry Project was Glogster.  I am a complete novice when playing around on Web 2.0 tools and thought that this interactive poster site would be a fun way to ease myself into experimenting with these tools.  I created a polar bear poster based on a language arts assignment for my grade 4 class.  They are to use the information provided on my Glog to help them with their assignment.  On Friday my students played with my Glog.  They enjoyed the videos and will be using the webpages in computers this week.  I will comment more on this tool in my reflection at the end of the project.  Below you will find the link to my glog.

http://www.glogster.com/atterris/wanted-polar-bear/g-6lnu21vu5jgh18c8g59dha0?s=imgglog

 

Current Events 3

Ipad Vs. Textbooks

Technology Taking Over Print

Remember back to your undergrad days when you had to haul all of your textbooks to school each and every day, that day is soon to be over.  The Ipad with its Ibooks 2 is looking to make deals with big textbook makes to have their textbooks put onto the Ipad.  If I was still a fulltime students I would definitely invest in getting me one of these toys.  I have been looking into getting myself a tablet for my school work and everyday use, educational tool and entertainment at the same time seems like a good idea to me.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-2-takes-a-bite-out-of-education/

Current Events 2

Facebook

What are the benefits and consequences of Facebook going public?  Mark Zuckerberg is taking his company public on the stock exchange where he and his friends will get richer and richer.  What does this mean to us Facebook users?  It means that our information will now possibly be shared with a wider audience.    Below you will find a Youtube link and New York Times article giving basic information on the upcoming stock options.  I have also including an article from Macleans which gives information about the possible downside of Facebook user information being looked and shared with other distributers and companies.  What are your thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDIxdqhe-io

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/02/facebooks-going-public-and-so-are-you/

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/facebook-files-for-an-i-p-o/?scp=5&sq=facebook&st=cse