GoogleDocs

Well, this week has been illuminating.  I have revisited Google Docs for the first time in 2 years, finding, to my delight, that the program is much easier to use, with many format/style options.  I created a presentation (a sample slide show on the metric system, with text and photos imported from the internet).  I like the fact that you can click and drag the slides to rearrange them, rather like keynote.

Then I made a document, and my daughter and I worked on a silly "Fortunately, Unfortunately" story, while chatting online.  Lots of fun.  One thing I didn't like, and I haven't figured out whether I can change this, is that I couldn't tell what changes she made without comparing the new version to the old version.  For some reason I thought each contributor's comments/changes would be in a different color, but we couldn't make that work.

I imported a Word document as well, and that worked fine, I just tweaked the format a bit.

Then I created a short form/questionnaire, and discovered that the spreadsheet responses are a GREAT resource for teachers, committee chairs, etc.  Incredibly handy and tidy way to collect and assess information.

The one thing I didn't remember was that all participants need a gmail account, and I don't know the gmail addresses of the other participants in the class, so that's a drag.  But I can see that there is a lot of potential here!  I can't wait to use these applications in my classroom.

Delicious and PortaPortal

I am trying to give Delicious a fair shake, although I had started my PortaPortal page (user name MaggieMcNeice) and was having such a good time adding links for my students (as well as myself) that I found myself resisting a change to Delicious.  But, I watched the videos, etc., and set up a Delicious page, and started collecting bookmarks.  I like the fact that if you have the icon on the toolbar you get an automatic prompt to save a bookmarked site to Delicious. And I guess it's helpful to see how many people have bookmarked a site, although I tend to make my own decisions about a site instead on relying on others.

But I find the layout of the Delicious pages rather messy and uninteresting.  I think it is complicated to navigate compared to Portaportal, at least for kids who have difficulty with say, more than 20 math problems on a page, or worksheets without lines to write on.  Portaportal has those tidy little boxes, and the ability to put a happy little "wow" or smiley face next to your link.  And it's pretty.

Sigh.  Sometimes I am such a girl.  (Years ago, we went to buy our first car -- I chose the color and my husband chose the engine type and all the boring stuff.)

I will continue to collect links on Delicious and see where it takes me, because I am learning that sometimes it takes a few weeks to truly understand the value of one of these sites.  I'll keep you posted!  (pun intended)

And now, for something delicious:

An amazing Hot Fudge Sundae Cake from AllSweets.com (I may have to try this recipe!)

Maggie

Watch this video! It may change the way you think about Technology and Education!

Children in New Delhi learning at a computer in the Hole in the Wall project.

Hi, everyone,
On my RSS feed today, I came across this video.  Take a few minutes and watch it, and I think you will be quite interested!  Sugata Mitra explains how his experimental "Hole in the Wall" process demonstrates that children are quite capable of learning on their own, even in empoverished and illiterate areas.  His experiments show that by working in groups, with positive encouragement (he calls this the "Grandmother Cloud"), students learn even complex things, remarkably quickly and deeply.

I was watching my students last week as they struggled to learn the 50 states online.  Two of the boys enjoyed the game, worked hard at it independently, and made some definite progress.  One boy got very frustrated, put his head down several times, and needed my encouragement to continue.  The other kept trying to interact with his neighbor, either to help him get an answer or solicit help himself.  Since my goal was just to have them learn, not assess them, I encouraged them to give each other hints and support.

I wonder what would happen if I put them all on one computer?  It would be interesting to see if they would all learn equally or whether some of them would "check out" and let a leader do the work?  I may have to do an experiment and see!

One of the reasons I mention this is that we are discussing student group learning and Delicious.  In a way, by having students share their bookmarks, we are encouraging them to share learning.  But after watching this video, I wonder whether that is enough.  I loved seeing the intensity and excitement on the students in the videos, and I want to see that on my students as well.

What do you think?  Do we need more active ways to have students collaborate via skype, chat, etc. while researching?  Should they work in a group on one or two computers, and be encouraged to discuss their research aloud instead of learning in an isolated setting?  Active vs. passive learning...

It's worth thinking about!

I've been having so much fun online!

Hey, everyone,
Check out my portaportal, (guest id MaggieMcNeice) because I have found some amazing sites!  The 6th graders are studying the 50 states, and I got some good games for them.  I found a free digital music site called Jewelbeat that may help the 7th graders spiff up their SoPo history movies later this month.  I discovered BookWizard (a Scholastic site that gives readers the opportunity to find books similar to others they have read, and at their reading level.  And Edutopia just posted an article about the best technology tools for schools, which you may enjoy here.

Now, I'm off to do my homework!

Have a great week.
M.

RSS Feed

 Sumi - who insisted on sitting on me while I typed.

This past week I discovered the RSS feed technique of collecting and quickly perusing websites and blogs of interest.  I subscribed to NPR, several teaching blogs and site, and a couple of calligraphy blogs.  In the process of searching for sites to subscribe to, I found some I hadn't heard of before.  After a few days of getting the feed, I trimmed it a bit, so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by posts.  I also realized I could read them just in "list" format, which was much faster than the "expanded" mode.  I started to create folders, learned how to "star" items, tried out the "recommended" items, which are based (at least in part) on my history.  Found a few good items that way as well. 

Some of the info I get on the RSS feed duplicates posts I receive on Facebook (NPR, New York Times, Edutopia, Teacher Tom), but I can also see, if I were researching some topic in particular, that I could quickly gather information this way.  It still doesn't beat my old friend Google, though.  Whatever would we do without Google??

I have yet to attach my feed to a blog, partly because I don't know how to do it -- apparently I need code?  And partly because I still experimenting with the feed.  It might be worthwhile exploring how to do that, though.

I have also added some new categories and quite a few sites/blogs to my portaportal.  I found some great resources for my students, some good teacher sites, and some other interesting bits and pieces.
I like the clean visual layout of portaportal -- it's easy to navigate and click on links to all the different pages.  This will be very helpful when I have my students start to use it.

M.

Just Started my Portaportal

I can see that Portaportal is going to be very handy, especially if I have to turn in the laptop I am currently using, and risk losing all my bookmarks.  I have categories for school (reading, writing, math, science, social studies, teaching) and for the other side of my life, calligraphy.

One of the concerns I have heard many teachers express is how to know that a site is useful and appropriate for their students.  We want to be sure that we are giving our students the best resources available.  If a site has been vetted by other teachers and added to their own Portaportal, that is certainly a step in the right direction. I know I will be checking out other teachers' pages to see what they recommend.

When my kids were in elementary school, their favorite teacher had an incredible webpage (Yay, Mr. T!).  He encouraged kids to check out all the links he had collected for them, and in so doing, gave them the freedom to explore the web in a safe way.  As long as they were on a link from his website, parents were assured they were not in danger from the scary www.  (This was a few years ago, when not everyone was as comfortable with the internet as they are today.)

Although I am not as tech-saavy as Mr. T, I hope that my portaportal page will eventually become a similar sort of resource for my students.

PortaPortal

Isn't synchronicity wonderful?  I hadn't even heard of PortaPortal until this week, and today one of my tutoring students proudly showed me her new teacher's PortaPortal page, which led to a math game that you will ALL enjoy.  Well... if you were alive in the 80's, you will for sure!  Check it out here.

Meet "MathMan"!

 I mention this for two reasons. First, because watching my student navigate to the teacher's PortaPortal page and then to the game was enlightening (she's only been in school a few days, and very proudly and independently found her way there without a hitch).  Then, watching her play the game, explain her winning strategy, and do fairly complex math problems mentally, all while laughing and smiling, was a HUGE thrill.  This is a student who often stresses about new things, challenging tasks, etc, yet she was happily taking risks and pushing herself, under a time constraint.

Wow.

Make learning fun... and just see what happens!

Enjoy the game!