Last night, I attended a webinar offered by Edweek, entitled “Forging the Technology-Curriculum Link”. It was described as “a webinar exploring the need for educators to be thoughtful and deliberate in aligning both technology and curriculum to develop the most successful programs for students.” The speakers were Noreen M. Walton, director of learning support services for the 33,000-student Poway Unified School District in San Diego; and Mark Hofer, associate professor of educational technology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va. In a few days time, a link will be available to the archived webinar and I will send that out to interested parties.
I found the speakers and the questions, which followed to be very helpful in my own deliberations on how to help teachers integrate information technology into their curricula. I have been offering workshops on various applications, which I have been using and which I felt would be of use to certain teachers in certain subject areas. The difficulty has always been to avoid becoming so enthused by the application or the technology that you try to find a place to use it, whether or not it is the best solution. In other words, one can end up layering the technology on top of the curriculum, rather than embedding it. One needs to learn to see each technology or application as one of a series of tools, which may or may not be appropriate to the task at hand. It is a sobering reminder of how carried away one can become when one offers a high-tech solution to a task, which only required a whiteboard and marker pen. I find myself guilty of this at times.
Noreen Walton talked of the need to have members of her IT department go into the classroom to see how technologies are being used and to meet regularly with teachers to discuss their needs and problems. Mark Hofer discussed his work with identifying the activity types in each subject area and the possible technologies, which could be used for each. You might like to have a look at: http://activitytypes.wmwikis.net/HOME)
When the archived webinar becomes available, I will post a link. I think that any librarian or teacher, involved in the integration of technology would benefit from it.
Friday 2 March 2012
Monday 20 February 2012
Oh no! Number 11! Top 10 Revisited!
Did I really think that I would be able to stick to only 10 top sites for teaching and learning? I should have known better for within moments of making the post, I had already thought of another. Today I have to add number 11: RCampus, a site where I made a rubric this morning for the Prezi presentations a group of science students are doing tomorrow. I can see that this site definitely have the potential of being one of my top 10.
Thursday 9 February 2012
I'm having a "what about" moment!
Having posted about my top ten web applications, I've just thought of another, which I really can't leave out. So, I am going to take out Twitter and replace it with
Jog The Web! When rethinking it, I decided that though I find Twitter really useful, it is probably less so for classroom teachers. So the list is now:
Top Ten
1. Netvibes
2. Diigo
3. Prezi
4. Noodletools
5. Jog the Web
6. Glogster
7. Wikispaces / PB Works
8. Blogger
9. Google Docs
10. Wallwisher / Wordle
Jog The Web! When rethinking it, I decided that though I find Twitter really useful, it is probably less so for classroom teachers. So the list is now:
Top Ten
1. Netvibes
2. Diigo
3. Prezi
4. Noodletools
5. Jog the Web
6. Glogster
7. Wikispaces / PB Works
8. Blogger
9. Google Docs
10. Wallwisher / Wordle
Diigo List for IL Workshop
One of my favorite web applications is Diigo. With it I organize my bookmarks and share them with others. Often, I will set up a Diigo list for a particular research project and the students are given the link so that they can use the sites on the list as their jumping off point. Today I discovered that I can put a list in a blog post directly from Diigo. Thus, the list below!
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Metropolitan Museum of Art curators talk about maps: voice over and images only. This would be good to show teachers in IT presentation.
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5 Fantastic Ways to Use Wallwisher in the Classroom – SimpleK12
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Class blogs: a better way to teach? | Education | guardian.co.uk
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web2 - what the Internet can do for you as a creator, a collaborator, an active participant
Finally I'm back blogging! My Top 10 Web Applications for Teaching and Learning
I know that this list will be different for everyone according to their need but here is my top ten for teaching and learning. I realize now that I have come up with the list, that they meet the criteria of the questions below.
1. Does it make my life easier?
2. Does it enrich or further enable learning?
3. Is it fast and easy to learn to use?
4. Is it sustainable?
Top Ten
1. Netvibes
2. Diigo
3. Prezi
4. Noodletools
5. Twitter
6. Glogster
7. Wikispaces / PB Works
8. Blogger
9. Google Docs
10. Wallwisher / Wordle
1. Does it make my life easier?
2. Does it enrich or further enable learning?
3. Is it fast and easy to learn to use?
4. Is it sustainable?
Top Ten
1. Netvibes
2. Diigo
3. Prezi
4. Noodletools
5. Twitter
6. Glogster
7. Wikispaces / PB Works
8. Blogger
9. Google Docs
10. Wallwisher / Wordle
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