Ellen’s Learning 2.0 Blog

I’m finished!  This has been an incredible course and I am so glad that Shelley has brought it to us!  I got my Master’s in Technology in Education from Columbia University and I can honestly say that I have learned more during this course than in all of my classes there!  Thank you, Shelley!

My favorite tools have been: Voice Thread, wikis, blogs (especially my Clustr Map), and www.weebly.com.  I know we didn’t use Weebly during our course here, but I might suggest adding it as a “Thing!”

Taking this online course has actually been community building here at Trinity as well.  Whenever I pass someone in the course, we ask one another “What thing are you on?” or someone from our tech-savvy PE team will come at me with a high five saying “Thing 22, baby!”  It’s been a really fun way to bond with my colleagues.

I look forward to continuing my learning.  Hey Shelley, how about “The NEXT 23 Things”?

Well, I’ve explored social networking via Ning and enjoyed it. We used a Ning to meet with one another and explored “expert voices” during Powerful Learning Practices. It was a great way to get to know people who were interested in using technology in the educational world. The Ning brought educators from throughout the Southeast together to start discussions and share information.

At Trinity, we took the Ning and ran with it as a way to bring our community at 4301 Northside Parkway together. We thought that we would use the social aspects of a Ning to “hook” our teachers and get them addicted to using it. Then we would share professional development ideas on the Ning as well. My favorite group on our Ning is called “My Successes.” This is a group for teachers to share how they used Web 2.0 tools in their classroom.

I look forward to watching the Trinity 2.0 Ning grow!

Yet another tool to steal my time away!  No, seriously, this is an interesting site to share with others.  I could see this as a way of communicating with parents.  A teacher can use this as their classroom home page to share links to great websites for kids and a way to communicate with parents.  A teacher could also use this as a way to list homework assignments as well.

As for me, I’ll personally stick to iGoogle!

This is one of those tools that people might have heard about, but didn’t have chance to explore.  I’m glad it’s one of the “things.”  I use Google Docs a lot and enjoy using it.  For a busy technology department, it’s use makes it easy to track what’s happening!

3 uses for Google Docs:

1. (as I said above) A department in school that might be housed in different buildings, can still keep track of what’s being taught.  Even in a school with 4 Kindergarten classes, it would be a great way to keep up with curriculum as a spread sheet.  Teachers would be able to check off a skill when they’ve taught it, and the administrator can keep track!

2. Taking notes during a meeting.  As a group, you can listen to a speaker and takes group notes on the speech while also chatting about what is being said.

3. Using Google Docs would be a really easy way to get parents to sign up for parent-teacher conferences.

I really love using Teacher Tube. The way I’ve used it in my classroom is as a tool to get the embed code for putting my videos on websites and such. For example, I had my 3rd graders create eBooks using PhotoStory 3. When the PhotoStory was complete, I uploaded the video onto Teacher Tube to get the embed code. Once I got the embed code, I added the video to a website that I’m making to house all of the eBooks! It was easy and relatively quick. Check out an example of an eBook by one of my 3rd graders.

Download Video: Posted by ellenmc at TeacherTube.com.

Listen to my podcast!

I really wanted to sing, but Danielle told me not to…maybe next time!

Podcasting is so easy and fun.  My students have had many experiences this year recording themselves and they’ve loved it!  Now with podcasting, it’s just another opportunity for students to record.  Nothing is better than watching a student hear themselves recorded on the computer.  The smile is contagious!

I previewed StoryNory: Free Audio Stories for Kids.  I listened to the story “St. George and the Dragon.”  the woman had such a pleasant voice.  I think the students would love to listen to these stories.  It would be a great way to practice students listen comprehension.  Podcasting can easily become the next “listening center” in early childhood classrooms.

Podcasts are also a great way to record students reading or practicing their speech.  Students can build up their fluency as they learn to read.  The best way to help a student’s fluency  is for them to hear themselves reading.  It’s also a great way to record a student’s reading progress.  A teacher can record their students reading in the beginning of the year and then at the end to share with parents to show their growth.

I found this site fascinating. I almost felt like I was reading someone’s diary. I’ve always thought about goals as a private endeavor, but I think this is truly motivating for the right person. One thing I really loved about it was when you’ve typed a goal you find out how many other people share your goal. When someone else shared my goal, I could see their other goals as well. I must say, I was surprised by some of the goals and that they were shared by others. Did you know that 108 people share the goal “stop picking my lips”? Who knew?

The only thing I didn’t like about the site was that it felt a little lonely when you were the only one who had a certain goal. I can’t be the only person out there who is getting stuff ready for a garage sale, can I?

I think it would be fun to use this in a classroom. To have the site as an icon on the desktop for the class to keep track of “Class Goals” would be great! The kids would love to check off their goals once accomplished and I know they would love to cheer on their friends!

This is my favorite thing so far!  It combines my two favorite things: books and organization!  I love being able to keep track of my books and seeing what others thing of them.

I love keeping track of what I’ve read and now I’ve got a place online to keep track of it all!

I could also use this in the classroom to catalog all of my books to find them quickly to teach with!

Just to share, my favorite book of all time:

It’s funny. I’ve used del.icio.us for a few years now, but I’m still not sure how much I like it. It’s not always that important to me what other people think about links. I’m still trying to figure out why I need to share my bookmarks with others…http://del.icio.us/ellenmcconnell

One feature I’ve found helpful is to group bookmarks to make it easier to make lists of bookmarks for student studying a specific topic. But I could easily make a WebQuest as well.

The thing I do like is being able to search for a tag so easily. It truly narrows down searching for websites. I think as I get to know more people in the learning 2.0 community, I look forward to seeing what they bookmark. It’s always fascinating to see what Will Richardson bookmarks.