:: Tool 11 Reflections

1. I like all of them. In all my blogs I did comment how I will apply them in the classroom. For the beginning of the year I want to plan to introduce this tools to my students as well as talk about the Digital Citizenship expected for the year.

2. I think learning is going to be totally engaging. I am sure that our students will love technology. Nowadays, this is the least that we can do for our students in order to set them ready for their everyday life. It is a must, I am glad the district is coming up with this.

3. Diing, google docs and google reader surprised me. I was not aware of the tool and I find it extremely helpful.

:: Tool 11

I would use brainpop and the lesson plans included in this website: http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Resources.html, specifically I like the idea of giving different scenarios to students so they can evaluate and create their own conclusions about the concept, importance and uses of digital citizenship.



I would like them to have clear ALL the components from this chart. In summary:


Literacy: How do you know if a source is reliable? Always keep yourself asking where the information is coming from. How do you know if this is a source that you can trust?


Safety: How can you protect from the web? What are the risks that you can face when using this tools?


Etiquette: Not cyber bullying and also how to share with and help your class.


Learning Strategies: What is what you look for and what is the best format to use?


These components would need to be taught permanently and we should integrate them to our lessons through the school year when appropriate. Students need to experience and see the connections as they get expertize in technology. The same way we build good citizenship by following canons and standards of behavior, the same way we will build digital citizenship.

:: Tool 10

1. Discuss some of the free educational apps you reviewed.

Weather Bug
It shows live, local weather conditions and forecasts . I also includes National Weather Service
alerts, radar maps with zoom feature, etc.

USA Fact book
All 50 US states facts with description. It tells USA basic facts about the country in general.

Hear Planet
It delivers location information around the world.

3D Sun
It shows images and videos from the Sun in 3D.

There are so many applications that I am sure that everyday I will find something else for our students. I would apply this tools according to the lesson given. For example, when talking about the Sun our Star, they can interact with the I-Phones and find interesting facts.

All this applications could be use in my classroom either during Math or Science time and as a workstation.

:: Tool 9

For now, I can think of using Jing when students create their projects (power point, video, photo story...) If questions come and I am with another student they can try to see if they get their answer by following a Jing video that can guide them through the steps to follow in order to complete their projects. Basically it will be a tool to make clear procedures.

I am not very sure how would I use Skype in the classroom. I was thinking as a parent link but not all the families in our community have computers/internet. Maybe we could communicate with other 4th grade classrooms in the districts and have students share...

:: Tool 8

I found this video at Hulu which was easier to use than teacher tube. It is very short but explains clearly the Greenhouse Effect. I could use it as an engagement activity before the lesson.




I also found this video about Destructive Forces. Students can have a clear idea of the meaning of Destructive Forces. I like videos as a preview or closure in my lessons as long as they are not too long.

:: Tool 7

I enjoyed creating this video. The process of researching about the topic I chose was very interesting. Students will create critical thinking when selecting information and creating their videos. These products apply definitely high level of thinking questions. My only concern is the time, how are we going to include this amazing lessons in our lesson plans? Is the district supporting planning and technology at some degree? Do the directors of each subject (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies...) are aware of our teaching expectations?

:: Tool 6

I would like to use wikis with my students to have a Friday reflection of the 3 classes, like a journal where they can share what was their favorite topic or activity of the week in Science/Social Studies.

As classroom we create a Science wiki where all students can comment and reflect on other students work. We could upload their classwork or even a journal sample as part of CCP where they can consume and critique.

As a school we could save time and resources (paper) in our faculty meetings by discussing topics on wikis instead of writing on post it notes or stickers. Our meetings would be shorter and everybody would be able listen/read our opinions which make things easier when for tutorials or another reason we cannot attend the meetings.

As a team, sometimes when we have field trips we could use a wiki to communicate with the team instead of email.

So, to finish I have a question. What is the difference between Google Docs and a Wiki? As far as I understand both are collaborative authorship documents. Please, if you can clarify this to me I would really appreciate it.