Monday, April 27, 2009

Salon #13: Researching and Evaluating Digital Storytelling as a Deep Learning Tool (Helen C. Barrett)

Digital storytelling is a great tool to get students engaged. Instead of sitting their listening to a teacher explain a war that wasn't to interesting, a photostory can take it to a whole other level. You can add music and pictures that make it more intriguing, as we saw in the Komagata Maru photostory. In our discussion many people spoke about how they use it and the effectiveness in their classroom. I teach math so I think it would be a little more difficult for me to try and incorporate this but for other subjects it is wonderful! Stories are always better when accompanied with pictures. It makes more of a connection.

Salon #10: The Art of Building Virtual Communities

A virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online "space" where they come, communicate and connect with one another. It is what you make of it. I think when you start an online learning community you need to have specific goals of what you are trying to do. You need a community who is active and has consistent participation. Each person should be contributing something to the community. Knowing information is great but sharing makes you a community. It doesn't matter how big a community is but how much each person brings to the table. People who communicate and help out others who are in need are sometimes rewarded with brownie points which can be used towards a prize. This is to motivate everyone to help each other and keep a healthy environment. I think from a professional point of view this could be a great thing. As long as topics are approriate and people are contributing it will be beneficial. There will be people lurking, learning, and leading. I think classroom2.0 is a great online community. There are many different groups to join and interact with. There are times where I am lurking, sometimes I am learning and othertimes I am contributing and leading a conversation. As we worked on our collaboration I wanted to see if anyone had any fun songs, videos, or power points so I posted into the highschool math section of classroom 2.0 and people responded and I was able to add those into my project. I think with good intent virtuall communities are an excellent tool.

Salon #9: Minds On Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0 (John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler)

In the salon we talked about technology used in the classroom and I found it very interesting. As we discussed, it is a very useful tool but it is also very time consuming. People seemed to feel there was a disconnect between what our school tells us to do and what we can actually do with technology. As a new teacher, we are expected to do alot and now we have to also use technology. When using technology you have to learn it first or make up something that is useful and then try to implement it. There are times where the interent is down when I tried to do a lesson. There are times when the laptops are dead or not all are working so now instead of pairs they are in groups of 4. When technology is used the right way it is extremely helpful for students. Perhaps school districts can use professional development days to talk about technology rather then things that are not as useful. Math is sometimes a difficult subject to try and incorporate technology. I try and use geometry sketchpad, jeopardy and webquests but it isn't easy. Math to me is all about practice. Students need paper and pen and need to practice questions. Geometry sketchpad it definitly a good tool but when you have a regents at the end of the year and not much time it is hard to try and always use this technology.