Interactive White Boards

This week we were introduced to the interactive white board. Since I was in elementary school, this has replaced the good old chalkboard. Since the Fall of last year, I have seen these boards implemented in schools. The first time was in a kindergarten class; they were working with the calendar tool and they were having a blast taking turns and working with the technology. I have also seen it being used in every class that I have worked in this semester. The teachers use it for everything from math lessons to watching videos. In fact, in Knox County, their math textbooks are aligned with a program that was specifically designed for use with an interactive white board.

On Thursday we played our role as second graders and were walked through a lesson about the weather to learn how to use the tools of the board. This particular brand of board works with a program called AvitivInspire that provides instructors with the corresponding technology so that they have the ability to create lessons using the board. You can upload pre-made lessons or work to create your own using the various tools. Some really interesting things about the IWB are the layers that you can work with. In the lesson that we completed all of the correct terms to complete the activity were hidden behind the cloud and we had to drag the correct answer from behind the cloud using the interactive pen, and place the term in its correct spot. There is an option of setting up activities that allow you to use the tool to drag answers to the correct place, but then if the answer is not correct, you can set it so that it makes a sound and goes back to the original spot. If the answer is placed correctly, you can set it so that there is a cheering sound or a round of applause. I look forward to working with the technology and the IWB itself. In the classroom, I think that this technology has opened up many new doors to engaging students in productive learning.

Picasa, Pixlr, and Glogster

This week in class we completed a scavenger hunt. On Tuesday we ventured outside to find pictures of things on campus that started with the letters A-L. It proved to be harder than expected to find objects that matched the letters. Once we had all our pictures, we uploaded them to Dropbox. This was my first experience with Dropbox, but it uploaded instantly, and from there the pictures were shared to all three of us. From Dropbox, we uploaded our pictures to Picasa through Google. In Google we put them in the correct order and placed captions below each picture. 

As far as Web 2.0 tools go, this week we were introduced to Pixlr and Glogster. I found both of these tools to be useful in their own ways. In fact, Tuesday night I made a birthday card for my friend using Pixlr. I chose the collage option and went from there. Below is a picture of that birthday card.

Here is an image of part of my Glogster page in its unfinished form:

 

I decided to focus on subjects and predicates by first picking the Schoolhouse Rock movie "Mr. Mortin". Glogster allows you to add videos, text, and music to a page in order to enhance an idea. The layout can be moved around to make it look how you want to.

Wordle

Today in class the first group presented the Web 2.0 tool called Wordle. I understand this is the first presentation and we have many more to see, but frankly I was so impressed with this tool. I have seen creations like the ones created on Wordle and have always wondered what the exact process was to make one. We learned that Safari is the best browser to use when working in Wordle and that Java has to be enabled in order to make a creation. Once you have enabled Java you go to the site, www.wordle.net and click create. Basically what the tool does is take any text you place in the text box and randomizes it into a cluster of words. These words when clustered are colorful and almost like a piece of artwork. Words that are used frequently in the text end up being the biggest font in the cluster. Filler words are not use in the final product. For the Wordle I created below, I used the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. Love is in a large font because as I said, it appears frequently in the lyrics. You can also manually type in words like "love" over and over again to achieve a larger size. Once the Worlde is created, you can randomize it to change the placement of the words and the font. You can also change the colors. You can edit it on an advanced level and change the positioning of the words as well. The best way to access your creation for further personal use in the classroom beyond just publishing it on the site itself is to take a screen shot. The screen shot can be saved to your desktop and you can do what you want with it from there. In the classroom, Wordle can be used for vocabulary and in elementary grades for students' names. I will most certainly use this tool in the future to add color and complexity to my classroom, while simultaneously reinforcing vocabulary and sight words.

Web 2.0

This week we were placed into groups and assigned a Web 2.0 tool to research. My group was assigned Storybird, which is a web-based tool that allows its members to create storybooks online. The process itself is fairly simple. After creating your profile, you can browse artwork for your potential book either by looking through the posted pieces of work or clicking on key words like, "elephant" or "sunshine" that take you to a compilation of pieces of art by various artists and portray images similar to or relating to "elephants" and "sunshine". Once you have found an artist you prefer, you use their work to compile a story. On each page of your book, you select and image from the artist and write a caption. This process is easy, but you must be creative because you're only able to use the work of one artist to help illustrate your story. For example, if you decided that you needed a picture of a bird in a nest and the artist has illustrated no such picture, then you must find some other option that would be suitable for your story.

Teachers can create a specific story to coincide with a lesson, parents can create a story for their children, and even children can use the site to create a story on their own with enough instruction. The neat thing about creating these stories is that they do not have to remain online; you can order a hard copy of any story that you write and thus, can have that story in your personal library forever. I think that the site could use some improvements like the issue with the limited artwork and also the fact that there is only one template available from which you design the look of your book. Yet, I like this Web 2.0 tool because it is user friendly and FREE, which are two great features.

The link to the Storybird site is: www.storybird.com

This is an example of the book that I created using Storybird.