Granted!

Would love to, but how?!
I know sometimes that may be the thought that runs through our minds when we learn about cool technologies or integration ideas...Will my students be able to do it? Do I have the necessary time to carry this out? Does my school even have the technology (and enough of it!) that I need to do this? Well, I know I've struggled with these issues before and have even witnessed resistance among colleagues' willingness to integrate technology for these reasons. I would love to be able to find more time in my schedule. Fifth grade is pretty bogged down with SOLs to adhere to, among other county objectives to meet, and so my best bet is overlapping to find the time.

Need technology!
I have not found any other solutions for adding time into the day, and would love to hear how you get around the time issue. However, I am ecstatic that with the help of an administrative intern at my school, written a grant to get Tom Snyder's Decisions, Decisions software (which I wanted since I learned about it in grad school last year) and just found out yesterday that we got it! I love choose-your-own adventures and simulations/games really peaked my interest--especially after the Spring '08 semester. Kids seem to learn so much from them, so what better way to beef up my Social Studies curriculum than with Decisions, Decisions?! After a little research I realized it was out of my budget to purchase it myself, so grant money through Fairfax County was the solution and my school will be getting $500 very soon for this!

What Can I do?!
If you're like me, you may be lost at where to start. Here's a site I came across if you're looking for grants you can apply to or just simply information about how to write a grant:
http://www.technologygrantnews.com/grant-money-index-type.html
With this first experience writing a grant and actually getting it, I am motivated to see what other money is out there for these great technologies I've learned about.

Podcast Opportunities Abound

I had never explored Audacity until being introduced to podcasts in class. I absolutely love how easy it is to use and after using the internal mic on my computer to interview a student (for my group's advocacy project), I'm hooked! I think there are endless opportunities. I'd love to have students use them to share the highlights of their week (which I could post to our blackboard site), practice reading with expression (perhaps even acting out a readers' theatre script), explain a process in Science or Math. I can even create a podcast when teaching an important topic so that my students could listen to it later (or for absent students who may have missed that day's lesson). The opportunities abound! Here are two sites I found that gives some ideas for teachers looking to use podcasts in their instruction:
http://weblogs.ccsd.k12.co.us/sarc/jsluiter/jane/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/classroom-ideas-for-podcasting.doc
http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/book_talks.html


I found this New York Times article that falls right in line with all the benefits we've been learning about the use of podcasts with our students: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/technology/techspecial2/25podcast.html
Like the teacher in the article notes, podcasts motivate students because they provide a worldwide audience, rather than a grade for the teacher to slap on a project and they can be used in any subject area.

A Wiki Update..."Enough Social Networking!"

Just thought I'd update everyone to let them know how our class wiki is going. The students had their "exploring" of it last week and you may recall they discovered the commenting feature. I wasn't too upset as I realized they are social creatures and enjoy conversing with others, so they needed to have this exploratory time. However, after explaining that I receive emails informing me of every update that is made to the site and that all comments should be related to the content/purpose of this wiki, I still had one student decide to post an unrelated comment. Oh I let him have it! I was so disappointed after all the time/energy I've put into this. I told him to save his shout outs for AIM, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, and printed out the page he was to be responsible for this week. I sent it home with him to complete a section of it over the weekend as homework. Harsh? Maybe. I was definitely out to prove a point. I don't think the class has ever seen me so fired up. They looked on in horror. I guess it shows how passionate I am about this and how crushed I was to not have everyone using this appropriately. Not to put a damper on it, though...Most students are adding lots of content to our Global Awareness Wiki and it is really turning out great!

Digital Videoing...Fun...With Kids?...hmmm

Digital Video...hmmm...well, I have to say that MovieMaker makes this video thing a lot more fun! Once you learn the ins/outs of editing on it, playing around with the transitions and other effects, it can lead to endless hours of mindless procrastination. After doing our videos with the flip cams in the Spring last year I asked for a Sony Flip Camera for Christmas. I have been having fun taking short video clips for my own personal use. My dog is the big superstar, really.

My school has three of these available for classroom use and I am about to venture into a scary unknown with my students in my second unit. I say "scary" because on the outside it seems pretty easy, but I am wondering how difficult it will be to teach my students all of the little things--taking the footage, downloading it, editing it, etc. Of course with a few students, no problem. With a classroom of 22+?! I'm thinking I will start by teaching them all how to use the camera and read a short poem--like the way I first learned. Then, I will work with small groups at a time to take their footage (of a science activity) while the others work on something independently. I want to control this environment as much as possible until I feel confident that they will understand how to do this, treat the equipment properly, and not be off task. I foresee some "look at me, I'm on camera" silliness. I'm sure that's only to be expected.

I'd love to hear any tips/suggestions from all you pros that have done this sort of thing with elementary students before.

Student Wiki Update

Scavenger Hunter Pros!
Went over the answers to the students' scavenger hunt this week. They did amazing!!! It provided great talking points for me to go over some of the things that I otherwise could/would have in a boring lecture (blah!).

Wiki is Ready to Roll...
So using one of the suggestions I got from a comment (shout-out to Mr. Frank White!), I decided to go with pbwiki. Wow--super easy! I set my fifth grade global awareness wiki up in a snap and even used the students first names to get them all an account that...drum roll please...does not require an email login! The most difficult part was meticulously thinking about how I wanted this to be organized. I realized that I wanted the students working in pairs for this project and that no two student pairs could be in one page at a time to edit, so I would need to have a separate page for each group each week. I developed a total of something like 16 pages (i.e., Ancient Rome Geography, Ancient Rome Leaders, Ancient Rome Government, Ancient Rome Art and Architecture) rather than putting all of these topics in a single page. There are separate folders for each ancient culture to keep it organized that way, though. Then, I had to come up with the headings/subheadings which took quite some time. It's done, though, and that's the best part!

Students are Ready, too!
I gave the students the opportunity to pick the partner they wanted to work with. I didn't think it'd be fair to put them with someone they may not want to work with. For this to be the success I want it to be, I want them to choose someone who (as I told them) will share the workload and be a easy to work with. Then, it's on them if they don't mesh well--please don't blame, me, kiddos!

I showed them the site, too, to sort of plant the seed for next week. They were pumped up last week when learning that they'd be the authors of a wiki site, yet I didn't tell them the topic of it. So, I was a little worried that when they heard it was information about ancient civilizations for social studies that they'd be less interested. Nope--they appear to be excited and ready to go! I'll keep you posted on their enthusiasm. Wish us luck in this upcoming first week of adding content!

Students Meet Wikis!

So I tested out my scavenger hunt on my fifth grade guinea pigs (I mean, students) yesterday. Success! They seemed to have a lot of fun doing it. The one small problem I noticed is their reliance on me and others for help. They don't take the time to read. I had to repeatedly tell them that the information is all right there and that they must search for it! This was not only an activity of how well do they read for comprehension, but also their search skills.

I hope to get the wiki they are going to be the authors of up and running this week. If all goes well, they will be adding to it on Friday. Now, I'm just worried about them saying, "I don't know what else to write" or "I'm done" (when really there's more that can be added). I'll be meeting with the SBTS at my school on Monday to create the wiki and I hope to plan ahead for that by writing detailed prompts in there. Our ITSopedia wiki is my guide in terms of how I plan to get them started. If they write in bulleted form I think it'll be easier and then these bullets can be formed into sentences and eventually paragraphs.

Working Out the Wiki Kinks...Help, Anyone?

THANKS!
Thanks for your posts, Jenna, Ian, and Brad! I agree that this is pretty ambitious. I guess my goal is to just get one up and running and give my students experience with it. If it isn't completely compiled as a resource for them to do research, I'm fine with that. By next year, it may be. At least this could be a starting point for getting them into the whole "read-write web." It's good to get your feedback on an idea and even suggestions, so thanks again! Okay, that's what I need now...suggestions...

Wikiis without Email?
Does anyone know of a free (or cheap) wiki site that does not require an email address for the authors of the page? I'm working out the kinks to try and get my wiki up and running with my kids. Problem is, they don't all have email addresses. My SBTS is going to be helping me, too, and we may just do it in blackboard. I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but I'm sure will figure it out with a little exploring. Just thought I'd see if anyone had an alternative.

Wiki Introduction Activity for Students
If anyone is interested, I made an age-appropriate (fifth grade) Wiki Scavenger Hunt. I will use that first to introduce wikis to my students. It has 25 steps and/or questions that the students will follow and fill in, going from www.wikiforkids.com to www.wikipedia.com to http://metawikimedia.org/wiki/WikiKids I'm hoping it will get them familiar with what a wiki is, what it looks like, and the searching/sorting involved. I tried to gear my questions around those goals, at least. Shoot me an email if you're interested and I will send you the attachment since I don't think I can include the attachment in a blog post--or can I?

Is My Wiki Idea Too Ambitious?

Global Awareness...a new FCPS Initiative (Some background, first.)
There is this big Global Awareness project for fifth graders in Fairfax County that started this year. It involves them selecting one of eight questions to answer, such as "What is the impact over time of geography on a culture’s involvement in global exchange of ideas, goods, and services?" Pretty deep thinking, right? In groups of 3-4 students, they will do research to answer this question. Then, they will display their answer using a technology tool, such as PowerPoint, Inspiration, PhotoStory, etc.

My Brilliant/Ambitious(?) Idea
So, what if I was to start a Wiki with my class where they could add content about the various ancient civilizations they've learned about this year for an additional research tool that all of fifth grade could use when they start their global awareness projects? (Their research for these projects will probably start in mid-March, so we have about a month.) I could do it a couple ways...either put them in groups where they take turns each week adding content about a specific civilization (Mesopotamia, Ancient China, Ancient Rome, etc., etc.) or put them in groups to add content about all the cultures for four different topics related to the four questions the teachers selected for them to choose from: Geography, Government, Leaders, Art. The groups could rotate each week to a different topic or civilization to give them a chance to add more information and/or edit or revise what another group already put in. They have interactive notebooks that they could use to gather the info. they add to this wiki. We could set this up with the free wikispaces site and make it password protected.

My Excitement about Wikis
I couldn't help but get excited about this idea while reading Richardson's book. I especially like how he noted, "the concept that everyone together is smarter than anyone else alone" (p.57). That is so true! I think that's what makes this Wiki tool so great--everyone must be a critical reader to get it right; true collaborative work! Richardson's book has opened my eyes to the positive aspects of this tool. In going to Wikipedia for various purposes since I first found out about it years ago, I have to admit that I was skeptical about the accuracy of the information (with the understanding that anyone can add to or edit it). However, the CEO of Apple has called the most famous Wiki (Wikipedia) "one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world" (p.59), so it has great potential in adding to our wealth of knowledge. What a cool experiement that was conducted to see how fast thirteen errors would be changed on Wikipedia. Corrected in a matter of hours--truly amazing! More people really do want to get it right than those who want to corrupt this information outlet.

Calling All Snow (Day) Lovers

Thought you might enjoy this blog that I enjoy reading in the wintertime, as I hope/anticipate potential for a snowday: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/ Posts are made by weather forecasters in our area. I especially like how they have the "Snow Lover's Crystal Ball," which appears when potential for accumulating snow is coming. The "Schoolcast" is cute, too, because it shows apples as a rating system to indicate if a snow day is imminent. For example, one apple means "Do your homework. You're probably having school." Three apples is really good because it tells students "It's probably safe to blow off the homework, but your day off will be more enjoyable if you do it now." (I'll especially be tuning into this one on Monday.) Happy reading.

Blogging about Blogging...Really?!

So, how excited am I to get on and blog about blogging? I have to be very honest. It is not quite the same as my enthusiasm for the other social networking I do (ahem, facebook). When I first realized I was going to be studying wikis, blogs, and podcasts this semester I was excited. However, I was hopeful that my blogging would consist of writing on a topic of choice. I learned that would not be the case and do see the reason why we are blogging about Web 2.0 tools. It gives us an opportunity to reflect and comment on others' thoughts about these tools.

After reading more about blogs in Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms I see the implications and importance they can have for my educational practice--both as an educator learning more about good teaching and for bettering my students. With that, I am taking notice of the ways I would introduce blogging to my students if and when I do bring them into my classroom. Thinking about my motivation to blog and what would give me a real vested interested, when the time comes that I am ready to enter my students into the "blogosphere," I will remember to start small, as Richardson suggests, and ease them into it with an approved topic my students choose. I realize their choice topics could present other issues and have thought of that, too. I will also remember to ease myself into my role as "the teacher who oversees these blogs" by having my elementary students save all their work and get my permission before publishing. That will allow me to keep them safe and their posts appropriate.

What are your thoughts about topics for blogging? Do you have any ideas for it's use in your own classroom or how you would introduce it? I am anxious to learn more.

My Past Blogging Experience...

My experience with blogs consists primarily of reading them. I have never created a blog myself--until now. Facebook probably comes the closest I've gotten to creating something like it. However, I've enjoyed reading others' blogs--their updates on their children/family, opinions about various topics, information about how to do something, or adventures in a new country.

In fact, my cousin's blog has been my favorite to read. She met an Italian man and moved to Rome, where she married him, had a child, and lives. As I was preparing to go to Italy for her wedding a couple years back, I became very interested in reading about her newly-adopted culture through her blog. She posted a picture or two with each entry and provided commentary or background information on it. I learned a lot about the Italian culture and Rome and often found myself laughing about the way she described some of these things.