Infographics

Infographics have become increasingly popular in the last few years. Basically they are information graphics (hence the name infographics?) where information is shown through the pictures. Infographics are a great way to find out information quickly, or to see quick facts about a topic.

Here's an example of a couple that would be useful in the classroom:

These infographics would be great to have posted in the classroom, as the one above talks about technology safety, and the one to the left talks about user activity of popular social media sites. Both are really important for students to know, and they can be helpful in teaching different things in the classroom.

I started thinking: what kind of infographic could I make that would be useful in the classroom?

Since ELA is my main teachable subject, and I am working in a student literacy intervention program this semester, here is an infographic I created on literacy:

I made this on Piktochart, and you can make one too for free! Check it out!

Podcasts

I've recently begun listening to a Podcast entitled "The Plus One Show - Educational Technology". It's put out by LevelUpTeaching.com and it is hosted by Chip Dolce who goes through some great tips for instructional technology and the latest things available for classroom teachers.

It's pretty entertaining, and Chip is great to listen to! He encourages teachers to think outside the box, and he discusses what kinds of things are available, like Google classroom and Google labs. He interviews other experts who discuss what kinds of technology they use, including Chromebooks and Google Drive.

Chip also takes questions from listeners and tries to answer them on the air. It's a great way to have your questions answered, as well as help others who might have the same questions as you. All in all, it's a great informational podcast about Ed Tech.



I think podcasts can be a great way to encourage learning in the classroom. It could easily be used as a social studies project, having students discuss current events or historical events in a podcast for their peers to hear, or to summarize learning in a presentation format in a podcast. It would be great to be able to post this publicly as well so that the students' learning could be shared with others.

Podcasts could also be used as an ELA project, and it could really be on any subject at all. I'm looking forward to finding new ways to incorporate podcasts into my teaching!

My PLN

My Personal Learning Plan - how connected am I?

I didn't think I was all that connected until I started listing all the ways I am!

I use Twitter to communicate with others, mostly in the Educational world. I use Facebook to communicate with friends and family, but also with informational pages. I use blogger to communicate my own thoughts, and Skype to communicate with others. I use Ning and Moodle to communicate with others in BU's Education department.

For photo and videos, I use YouTube and Netflix to view video content and Flickr and Instagram for photos. 

I use Itunes to listen to my own music, Songza to listen to playlists (mostly ones I've favourited), YouTube when I'm looking for new music or something specific, and Shazam to connect with music on the radio to find out the name of the song I hear.

For storage I use both Dropbox and Google Drive; Dropbox for files I want stored for later or that I am finished with for now, and Google Drive for my current files and files that I share with others.

For bookmarking, I have a few different things that I use; Symbaloo for educational sites I want saved, Feedly for educational blogs that I follow, Etsy for bookmarking things I like, and Pinterest for bookmarking all kinds of things from lesson plans to recipes.

All in all, I am way more connected than I thought! Check out the mind map I made on Mind Meister:

1:1 Computing... Oh the possibilities!

Today we had a presentation with Martin Ingenmey and Bryce Ridgen from Minnedosa Collegiate on One to One Computing, where each student has access to a device in the classroom. We also discussed the opportunities available for classes that implement 1:1.

Bryce Ridgen teaches high school Social Studies and Math and regularity has his students participate in Social Studies Twitter chats. His students each have a student Twitter account (for school purposes only) where they can routinely participate in chats with experts, ask questions, post selfies and descriptions that summarize what they learned about a specific topic, along with many other things.

Along with being a great way to assess learning (formative assessment), there are many opportunities to teach online etiquette and generally how to have an online presence. This is something that I firmly believe in - teaching students how to have an appropriate online presence. What better way than to actually have them participate online in a somewhat "controlled" environment with the teacher as a moderator?

One of the really important things about using 1:1 is giving students choice on researching topics and showing what was learned. This helps to foster creativity in the students, as well as makes it easier to differentiate to different levels or abilities of learning.

Using videos, vines, and applications like storify, popcorn maker, thinglink, and chatterpix are things students can create to show learning, and applications like padlet and schoology are ways for students to contribute to discussions, post their ideas online, and gain feedback from other students and from the teacher.

All in all, having a classroom with a 1:1 ratio for students and computing devices opens the door for so many possibilities for the teacher and students. As long as technology is used as a tool, not an event, the students will benefit from it. I hope to be able to use technology in this regard in my classroom.

I'll leave you with a great video made by one of Bryce's students:

My Digital Footprint

Your Digital Footprint or Digital Identity is who and where you are online. Depending on whether you post online or use online curation, you may have a large or small digital footprint.

The easiest way to take a look at how you are portrayed online is to Google yourself and see what comes up. Unfortunately for me, even though I blog, use Pinterest, have an open Twitter account, and have two websites, when I Google myself, I do not even show up on the first page:

I wish I had control over what people see when they Google my name. I am careful to only post things online that I would be fine with my future employer and future children to see, however I can't control what the other Kelsey Jennings' of the world choose to post in (my?) name. I would hate to be turned down for a job because another Kelsey Jennings posted something inappropriate online, but all I have control over is what I post.

I think it's important that we encourage our students to Google themselves and see what comes up. Sometimes when we post something we think is private, it ends up being seen by far more than we would like.

I also believe that we have the choice to be the same person online as we are offline, or we can be a different person. While I think it is best to be a good person both on- and offline, and I try to do so, I can't trust that everyone is the same on both platforms. It's important that our students recognize this when they are interacting with others online. Digital Dualism exists, and we need to be careful of it.

Following an Edublogger

The wonderful thing about teaching in this day and age is that there are tons of resources, lesson plans, and ideas online, and many of it is free for teachers!

One Edublogger that I've recently started following is Free Technology for Teachers, whose title sums up exactly what I look for in an edublogger. It focus a lot on technology that I already use, such as Google Docs, Google +, and iOS tips.

The creator of Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne, is a former high school Social Studies teacher, Google Certified Teacher, and the recipient of many Edublogger awards. He posts multiple times a day and also does presentations around the world on using technology in the classroom.

I'll be honest - the reason I started following this blog was mainly because of the word "FREE". For a student like myself, free is the magic word. I once took a tour of the cafeteria just to get a free lunch, even though I'd been in that cafeteria multiple times before.

Free Technology for Teachers is a great blog, and I've learned a lot from following Richard. He recently posted about the 100 Word Challenge - a blog that posts a short writing prompt for students, and allows them to submit them and have them read by peers. The grade 5/6 students in my last placement used these writing prompts and read others' work, but did not post theirs online. It was great to hear Richard's thoughts on this platform, as I think it would be a good way to work with students' writing in class.

Along with posting technology blogs and tips on using technology, Richard also posts different resources for teaching our students. Today, Richard also posted some great resources on snow, specifically Scholastic's Interactive Weather Maker, which was actually pretty fun to play around with!

I'll leave you with a video he posted today on the chemistry of snowflakes:

 

Organizing Yourself Online

I like to think of myself as an organized person... for the most part. There are times when my organizing is pushed to the side and I let things pile up, but that doesn't usually last long. During my undergrad, I wasn't able to write a paper until my dorm was completely clean and organized, so that usually meant cleaning and organizing until midnight, and writing my paper until morning; not something I would even encourage students to do, but I got through it.

The online world is so huge that really, you have to be organized if you want to keep anything there. I don't know how many times I've come across a video or article, thought I should keep it or pass it on to someone, and then forgotten where I found it in the first place. Curation is a necessity when dealing with the internet, and it is something I'll need to teach my students.

The main way that I organize myself online is through Pinterest. I have everything from lesson plans to recipes, to tips on how to get stains out of the carpet. I have over one hundred recipes on my "Recipes I've Tried" board, and over one thousand on my other "Food" board that I have yet to try... and sadly I'll never have time to try them all.

Another way I stay organized online is by using Google Drive. I love storing my files online because I can access them from anywhere. It's also really easy to share them with someone, or allow them to edit your files if you want.

A final way I organize myself online is fairly recent; using an RSS reader. This is a great way for me to keep up on all my classmates' blogs and see when they've added a new one.

I hope that my students will use Google Drive in the classroom, provided it is allowed and not blocked. It's a great place to save and share documents with the teacher or other classmates, and I think students would really benefit from using it.

The main thing is staying organized, which reminds me... I need to get back to pinning new recipes.