I’m the first to admit that I haven’t stayed on track. Not only have I been guilty of doing other things, but when I have sat down to work I so quickly and easily seem to go off track. There is just so much out there! But I’m finding it stressful as we look towards the end because I’ve been spending way too much time doing those other things and not finishing what I started (or what I was supposed to have started).
Case in point: Today I was determined to get some blogs read and commented on and get through a huge amount of work that I was supposed to be catching up on. Instead I got stuck on a link posted by Jean to the edudemic site post on The 100 Best Video Sites for Educators . Wow! Now using tech in the classroom I’ve always loved getting ideas of new tools to use and this list is huge! I’ve used teachertube in the past but the last time I tried to access it the site wasn’t working for me. Now I see it’s there again and I was able to access some new videos (yaay!). What I got stuck on this afternoon was a new app advertised on the sidebar called Vine (http://www.edudemic.com/2013/03/how-to-use-vine-in-the-classroom/). As the sight says, much like Twitter is for text and Instagram is for pictures, Vine is the new solution for video casting. Hmmmm, sounds interesting. I don’t like that the videos are only 6 seconds long but after watching the demo on the site I saw how much you could ‘say’ in just 6 seconds. I decided to give it a try and that was where I got lost (why do I keep doing this!?!?). Okay, some are downright silly (seriously some people can’t sing) and some are sickening (I didn’t need to be attached to your ceiling fan), but some are quite creative and intriguing. Stop motion drawings and one very creative toast video later, I was hooked. On the long weekend in May when I was in Victoria I saw the back of the Legislature building (for some reason I’ve never gone around the back before). Watching one of the vines I was reminded of that when someone went around the entire Civic Centre in San Francisco and provided a 360 degree tour in one six second spot. Very cool.
Now, there were a lot and I mean A LOT of stupid human tricks and even stupider animal tricks. Not so interested in that, but I see the value of students being able to create stop motion skits or demos of solving a particular math equation, doing a mini report on a person or place, or even using this app to assist students in finding the main ideas of a book by getting rid of all the fluff. That being said, I’m not sure how safe it is as it is connected to Twitter and again – lots of questionable content, but definitely something to look into further.
So then, I tried to reign myself in…I really tried (I type while shaking my head…..ugh!). But then I saw the link for Teacher Training Videos. Immediately upon scrolling down in the site I saw tutorials on how to use Wallwisher (which I used in 503 –cool!) and Back Channel (something my mom told me about after attending the CUE Conference in Palm Springs earlier this year but which I hadn’t had a chance to explore further ). Anyways, long story short I am now stuck on TodaysMeet.com and imagining it’s uses in my classroom. Backchannelling is new to me and for those who haven’t heard of it (in case I’m not the only one left) it is a tool that’s used to make comments on topics or presentations as they are being made. So picture yourself at a conference and (much like you might watch a live twitter feed) there is a screen up with a conversation going about the topic the speaker is presenting on that allows the speaker to refer to comments, answer questions, etc., etc. Wow – again, wow! I am currently doing a jigsaw activity in my class and have had students in each group research an extreme environment for facts and reasons for exploring it – tomorrow we are supposed to have our class discussion and present our research and I only hope I can set up a meet for them to add their ideas and chime in together. Apprehensive about it working but excited to try!
Of course other great sites that we’ve already visited like TedED and Khan Academy were also on there, as well as a former fave – teachertube (a safer alternative to youtube – not quite as diverse a collection but education oriented and without a lot of the questionable advertising that you are forced to put up with on youtube – though I do see that they have come up with youtube EDU. I haven’t had a chance to scope it out but it appears geared just for education). In the side bar were links to Pinterest, using Minecraft in education (every students dream! And one that I’ve allowed students in my class to have in a French project this year-at least in that I was ahead of the game!) and more. I’ve put the site away for now (as I really have to get this homework done and again I feel I’ve wasted away the day) but am looking forward to my summer break where I can come back to this site and explore even more!
Now back to those blogs…..which I never got to at all today…..