VoiceThread is a great web tool if you have never seen it. It allows someone to create a discussion around media, whether that media be images, videos, audio, text, whatever... So, say for instance you want your students to discuss elements of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. You could import an image of the painting from, say, Flickr's Creative Commons into VoiceThread, start the discussion by asking questions or making comments that will lead your students' comments.
Here is an example. The discussion creator explores the crisis in Darfur through political cartoons.
Math teachers often find it difficult to incorporate the web tools explored in the Challenge. Here is a simple idea for using Voicethread to, literally, illustrate various problem solving strategies.
So, how do you create a VoiceThread? Here is a short tutorial on the process created by yours truly!
I am presenting at the Algebra Summit at SAS this afternoon. I will talk with visitors about how to use wikis in the algebra classroom. Below is my Prezi presentation.
(Creating a Facebook Page for Parent Communication)
Why would a school or teacher want to create a Facebook page? The answer is simple- that is where their parents are. It is a potentially great medium to share the latest news just because it has a great chance of being seen. Posts will appear in your parents' Facebook news feeds along with all of the other posts in their network.
However, there is a lot of fear of using Facebook professionally by teachers and other school officials. This is justifiable because Facebook has a lot of features and murky privacy settings. Also there are Federal and local laws and policies to worry about.
So, what do you do to take advantage of Facebook's unmatched communication potential while protecting yourself professionally? My best advice is to create a Facebook "page".
A Facebook "page" is different from a full Facebook "profile". A page can have unlimited followers and does not have "friends". However, when someone clicks the "Like" button on a page, he or she will be "subscribed" to the news posted on that page. Also, his or her network of friends will see that in their news feed. Thus, your community will help spread the positive news coming from your school or classroom.
However, there are a few things you should keep in mind if you choose to create a Facebook page for your school or class.
Best Practices for Creating a Facebook Pages for your School or Class
Create an entirely new Facebook profile to generate your school/class page(s). Keep your online professional and personal "worlds" separate.
If you are not the principal of your school, get explicit permission to create a page for your school. It is also not a bad practice to clear the idea of a classroom Facebook page with your administration before moving forward.
DPS Board Policy 5150 states the following: Employees may not use personal web sites or online networking profiles to post information in an attempt to communicate with students in their roles as school system employees.
Within the District firewall, Facebook and Twitter are blocked for students by the District's Web filter to adhere to CIPA regulations, but are accessible by staff.
Do not allow followers of your page to post comments, videos, etc.
Facebook has a minimum age of 13, so do not use the service to send news to students 12 or younger.
Use the "Question" post option to gather feedback in a controlled way.
Whenever I talk to people about Twitter, I usually get one of three reactions:
They love it
They think it's a waste of time
They have heard of it but really don't have a clear idea of what it is
If you fall into the third group, watch this short video for an explanation.
If you understand what Twitter is, you may still be skeptical on how it could ever be helpful to teachers and schools.
Check out the Twitter feed I have embedded in the left-side of this web site. It has very short messages. The nice thing is that I do not have to edit my site in order to update it. I can send a Tweet via my cell phone in a matter of seconds from anywhere at anytime.
Best Practices for Using Twitter for School Communication
Create an entirely new Twitter profile if you have a personal one in order to generate your school/class tweets. Keep your online professional and personal "worlds" separate.
Combine your technology. Embed your Twitter feed into your school web site.
Keep the account login information secure so updates are done by trusted personnel.
Use Twitter to communicate with parents, not students.
DPS Board Policy 5150 states the following:Employees may not use personal web sites or online networking profiles to post information in an attempt to communicate with students in their roles as school system employees.
Facebook and Twitter are blocked for students by the District's Web filter to adhere to CIPA regulations, but are accessible by staff.
Keep your tweets up to date, but don't flood your followers with too many.
So, how can you utilize Twitter to communicate with your community? Visit the Google Doc wiki below to view a few ideas and add your own ideas, benefits, and concerns.
During the DPS Principals' Retreat we conducted a Polleverywhere.com survey to collect the five most important characteristics of 21 Century Schools. Below are the results put into Wordle.net.
Google Docs is an online suite of office programs. The Docs suite contains MS Office-like document, spreadsheet, and presentation programs. It also contains survey and drawing programs.
The benefits of the suite being online is that they can all be accessed from any computer, anywhere in the world that has Internet access, AND they can be shared to enable collaboration.
Forms Forms are Google survey tool. They are quick and easy to create and allow you all types of information.
From your Google Docs homepage, click "Create New" and choose "Form"
Type your questions
Link to the form's web address from your web site, embed it into your web site, or send it in an email. The address can be found at the bottom of the "Edit Form" page.
Answers are submitted to a Google spreadsheet, which is in your Docs list.
A wiki is a web page or collection of web pages that allow anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify its content. Watch this short video for an easy to understand explanation.
Probably the most famous wiki is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is known as the world's largest encyclopedia. As of this writing, Wikipedia has over 3.5 million articles in English. It was created with the objective of "democratizing" knowledge by allowing anyone to edit its pages.
Thankfully you can create a wiki on a much smaller scale than wikipedia. You don't need any technical expertise, either. You can create your own wiki web site very quickly using free services like Wikispaces.com and PBworks.com.
How quickly and easily? Here is a video with a step-by-step in less than 60 seconds!
So, how can you utilize wikis with your school staff to improve school-wide collaboration? Visit the Google Doc wiki below to view a few ideas and add your own ideas, benefits, and concerns.
