Useful Webquest Link

Every year at this time, I attend the Faith Meets Pedagogy conference in Toronto. It's a conference for Catholic school teachers. Some of the content is faith related, while other content is geared to virtually anybody in the teaching world. This year, I was not able to attend as I am on maternity leave. One of my fellow teachers did attend this year. He wrote to me yesterday, all gung ho with a URL that he wanted the teachers to check out on rich performance tasks. This was a total buzz word from teacher's college. It basically means tasks that have authentic purposes and are useful in the grand scheme of things.

I check it out and discovered it was a series of webquests catagorized by grade level and subject. I started checking out the grade eight webquests because that is the grade I will be teaching in the new year. I found some pretty neat problems and tasks for the students to discover.

I created a webquest in teacher's college at Nipissing. They were fun to create and also fun to watch the students chip away at. I cannot wait to try this link with my grade eights in the new year.

Check it out ... http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/RPT/

Anastasia Rioux

The Wishbook, Computer and a budget

Every year, before Christmas - I have the students file through the Wishbook for ideas for themselves and their families. Although, they can make wishes -- they have to also stick to a budget. Normally we look at the Wishbook, calculate prices using sales tax, etc. They must come in under budget.

But this week, I have been doing some online shopping through Sears and Amazon.ca So then I thought, why not use the school laptops or a computer lab to complete the same assignment.

It's just another way to integrate math and computers along with some added holiday buzz.

Anastasia Rioux

Digital Storytelling Paper

I have been visiting a couple more sites in order to wrap-up my paper on digital storytelling. The paper is coming along and I have been able to blend some of my own practical ideas with existing ideas from people who have posted articles on the Internet. Here are some of the sites I have visited this week:

For rubric ideas
http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/DigitalStorytelling/What%20is%20Digital%20Storytelling.htm

J.D. Lasica’s ideas for digital storytelling applications in the classroom
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/techplan/page5897.cfm

For comments on the importance of the pre-production phase
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/specials/1997/dstorytelling.shtml

Management for Digital Storytelling Article from Mechelle M. De Craene
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/printer_804.php

Ideas from other blogs and webct entries

I spent some time yesterday just viewing other people's webct responses under the assignment 3 heading. I was primarily interested in the stuff on digital storytelling because that is what my paper is about. I found it interesting that we all visited the same sites however there were a couple that I had not visited including one on managing your classroom when doing digital storytelling, and another site offered some great rubrics for evaluating the student work after it is complete.

Tonight, I took some time to go through everyone's blog entries. It was actually really enlightening to see what other people in the course are talking about with their blogs. One idea I got was to use digital storytelling in a reading buddy format. This idea came from Steven. This way an older student pairs up with a younger one to create a story together (perhaps assigning different roles to each reader). This would be a great way to get older kids working with young ones because sometimes the older kids can't be motivated to do this.

I also learned about the Tumble Book hyperlink at the Brampton Public Library courtesy of Mary Ann. I want to get my students to create e-books this year. I even just ordered a microphone off of Tiger Direct today so I can get started on this. If any of you are interested in making e-books or talking books with your students, check out this awesome pdf manual for making these books with the Powerpoint program. I learned so many tricks with Powerpoint that I never knew before!

http://www.ace-centre.org.uk/download/Powerpoint%20V3.pdf


Anastasia Rioux

Nathan's Blog

Hey there,

I have some great news! This year, I am blessed to have an autistic student in my classroom. This boy is amazing. He is as smart as a whip and each day he journals about something that has happened in his life on that particular day.

Well last week I had this bright idea. I thought about setting him up with his own personal blog so that he could journal his thoughts online and have it all archived. I went into school last Thursday to show him how a blog worked, and we set one up through http://blogger.com. The Aide who works with him said that she would try to get him to visit the site at least once a week to write something, in the event that he prefers the paper and pen method to journalling.

Today, I checked out his blog on a whim that he may have written something and sure enough there are two entries. Please feel free to check out his site at: http://nathandurocher.blogspot.com/

I think it will be a great way for me as his teacher (when I return in the new year) to keep tabs on what is new on his life and respond to him on a daily basis, especially if I am not able to meet with him personally for whatever reason. His parents have also been given the link so that they can check his blog space daily and see what he is up to during the day.

Anastasia Rioux

Digital Storytelling Classroom Management

Yesterday I spent about two hours just going through some of the links everyone had suggested for digital storytelling. A lot of the links were repeats but some of them were for sites I never visited. One particular site, (I can't remember who suggested it) had several hyperlinks within it. I sifted through them to find a great article about the classroom management aspect of digital storytelling. It is one thing to say you are going to tackle such a huge project, and it is another thing to manage it successfully so that everyone is doing something --- not just the brains of each group. I thought I'd post the link below for everyone else to check out.

Management for Digital Storytelling Article from Mechelle M. De Craene
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/printer_804.php

What I really liked about this article is that she reiterates that the pre-production phase of this project is the cornerstone to the digital storytelling process. Students have to be organized in their thoughts, storyboarding, and their story itself. I also liked that she suggested giving each student their own role and perhaps assign the role based on the type of learner they happen to be such as a recorder, director, etc.

Anastasia Rioux

Finally a use for KidPix!

After reading an article on digital storytelling posted by a teacher named Flora Iacchia, I realized that one way to get young students interested in digital storytelling is by allowing them to use the program KidPix. This program would help them illustrate their stories.

In my grade four classroom, many students would ask to play on KidPix after their work was complete. They had so much fun fiddling around with this program, but I never utilized this program to its full potential. The article suggests using a Microsoft Paint Accessory tool which comes free with most Microsoft packages. I thought KidPix would be great because the students seem to generally love the program anyway.

They can come up with a story concept. Flora Iacchia suggests providing students with a theme such as a boy and a girl who appreciate and love nature. Then get them to do whatever they want with those boundaries.

The photo posted about is a slide from Flora Iacchia's digital story called "Be Good to Nature" which combines digital painting with storytelling.

Website consulted for writing this blog:

http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/articles/digital_storytelling_by_flora_iacchia.html

Should the podcast replace paper and pen homework ???

I haven't been doing nearly as much research into podcasting because I have already made up my mind on doing my paper on digital storytelling. Tonight, I dedicated some time to reading about the podcast. I started with an Apple site that gave a basic outline on how the podcast could be used in education. http://www.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting/

Then I came across this article: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0561.pdf

It gives a scenario of a student using the podcast for educational purposes and then goes onto explain how it all can be done. What I found most interesting was when the author alluded to the idea that podcasts could change the face of homework. Instead of going home to do paper and pen equations for math, or grammar questions -- the student could simply relisten to the lecture of that day and go over the key concepts with the fast forward or rewind feature.

It also talks about the importance of the voice that offers understanding and how students can learn concepts when it is explained to them by their teacher over a podcast -- in otherwords, "theatre of the mind" does wonders.

So the question is --- if you and your students could use the iPod daily to communicate and reinforce key concepts --- would you still resort to the traditional style of homework too ???

What do you think ???

Anastasia Rioux

Podcasting Research Sites

This was a great site from Apple that just gave a basic outline on how podcasting could work in an educational setting:

http://www.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting/

Another article I found interesting was http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0561.pdf

It shed some light on how the podcast could be used to change the face of homework. Instead of meaningless homework tasks, students could reinforce the days learning by listening back to a podcast of the lecture, and even fast forward and rewind to hear the key points over and over again. It also talks about the importance of the voice that offers understanding and how students can learn concepts when it is explained to them by their teacher over a podcast -- in otherwords, "theatre of the mind" does wonders.

Anastasia Rioux

The podcast word

I haven't been doing as much research on podcasting because I wanted to do my report on digital storytelling. I did however come across an article that was hyperlinked on the wikipedia site. It was about how the word podcasting was the 2005 word of the year according to New Oxford American Dictionary. In 2004, the word of the year was blog. I remember not really knowing much about podcasting and then watching Letterman one night where he was showing off his new video Ipod. He was explaining how it all works from a "baby boomer" point of view. It is interesting how in recent years, computer technology words have entered our lexicon and become such important words. Imagine those who have passed on not knowing about podcasts and blogs ... how did they get along without them?

Anastasia Rioux

Computers and Autism ?

We always argue at home as to whether the tv should be off or on while the baby is around. I believe firmly that the tv should be limited to one half hour a day --- the rest of the day it is OFF. My husband is an avid tv watcher. I can just imagine what goes on here when I am out running errands. The two of them watch snowboarding videos and stuff like that.

Anyways, I recently discovered a paper written by Michael Waldman at Cornell University. It's entitled "Does Television Cause Autism?" I was reading it for my own information and realized that the author also lumps computer viewing into his studies. He feels that computers can be used to view movies, DVDs and also to play games so it is like a television in so many ways.

The author feels that autism is on the rise in the United States due to many factors, and one of them is the number of cable tv subscribers in the country. If you are interested in reading this article, please visit:

http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Waldman/AUTISM-WALDMAN-NICHOLSON-ADILOV.pdf

Anastasia Rioux

Read Please Program

Finally checked out readplease and that is awesome. Because we are a one-school board, we share tech services with the Simcoe-Muskoka school board. They load our laptops with programs like Kurzweil and a couple others that rarely seem to work when you try and open them. This would be so much easier because you know it is going to work and well -- it's free!!!

Anastasia Rioux

Digital Storytelling Paper

Hello all,

I have been actively working on my assignment on digital storytelling. I chose to tackle the digital storytelling issue for my paper because I think it is something that I would be more inclined to use in my classroom. It doesnt require an MP3 player or I-pod. Students can use whatever technologies they can get their hands on such as digital cameras, video cameras, computers with slide technology such as a Powerpoint program or Appleworks, and they can also scan, use Google images for pictures that support their work ... and so much more.

Here are some of the sites I have been visiting along the way this past week:

Place Project Idea

http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

Poetry Lesson Plan Idea http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/storytelling/index.html

Comments from Daniel Meadows
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/introduction.htm

Suggestions and Ideas
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/howto/Digital_Storytelling/index.html

Suggestions on how to celebrate a child’s work
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1418&issue=dec_05

Jennifer New’s article
http://www.edutopia.org/community/spiralnotebook/?p=33

A Book Crossing at School ?

This would be a great idea to spur kids to read and post within a school system -- you could make your own book crossing:

A friend told me about this site. It's www.bookcrossing.com. Its a really neat book club.

A book crossing is when you leave a book, that you have read, in a public place like a coffee house for someone else to read. When they finish reading it they are then suppose to do the same.

Each book is regisitered on the website and given a tracking number so that you and anyone else who finds it can track its journey. You can even "hunt" for books in your area. The people that register them put the location in which they have left the book (and the site keeps track of how long ago).

Some cities have a book crossing site like a coffee shop or a bus station or something.

Anastasia Rioux

Messengers: How young is too young?

I came across an article in Today's Parent about Messaging. The article entitled "Mini Messengers" by Randi Chapnik Myers debates how young is too young for kids to become instant-messengers. In the article, there are some startling statistics that show just how soon kids are getting onto computers these days.

Here are two that fascinated me:

-In 2000, only six percent of children aged two to five years were online. By 2002, that figure soared to a whopping 35 percent and continues to rise.

Imagine that ... in only two years - the statistic jumped 29 percent and that last figure came from 2002 so imagine how high it would be now.

-In a study of six to 19 year olds, even after training, the younger kids had a lower level of Internet safety knowledge than the older kids.

Thankfully, there is some hope out there for parents of these kids. The article goes onto to talk about safeguarding younger kids from the hazards of Messenger services. They say there are tips to make MSN messenger safer for students too. One way, is to block dirty words. There are other suggestions for teachers or parents at the following website:

Visit da.co.la.ca.us/pok
This particular site also has information on blogs and kids too.

Anastasia Rioux

Digital Storytelling as Art

I have been reading up on digital storytelling over the last week just to familiarize myself with the term and the idea around it. Being a storyteller myself, I really like the idea because it creates a more interactive writing experience for kids who need to be turned onto writing. An article I discovered by Peggy Benton, entitled "The Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom" compares storytelling to art. She says there is a sequence to unfolding a story. When we look at digital storytelling, there is the added sequence of not just unfolding the words but also the pictures that go along with it all to create a package. She says: "the process includes planning, writing, editing, illustrating and producing the components so that we communicate the heartfelt essence, not just the events." This is what would hopefully make writing so inspiring to non-writers or special needs students -- the added challenge of incorporating pictures. As many of us are already aware, sometimes when you throw something new and creative at your students that involves working a different aspect of their brain, you learn that it isn't always the regular smarty pants kids that know the answers or do a great job. I can see many special needs students creating wonderful works of art/literature when able to meld words and pictures together on the big screen.

Website consulted for writing this blog:
http://www.edutopia.org/community/spiralnotebook/?p=33

Anastasia Rioux

Gizmotrainers

Holy Smokes - now this is cool. While we are on the topic of podcasting nowadays, you need to check out gizmotrainer.com. I saw this on the news today.

It's like having your personal trainer with you everyday when you workout. You pay 19 bucks for a workout and choose a beginner, intermediate or advanced version. The trainer explains an exercise, then demonstrates it for you. You can fast forward or rewind the moves until you get them right and it is all on your little ipod.

So it got me thinking ... how can we apply this to our classroom? If we could give each student an ipod, they can create their own workout tape and then you could play each tape for the students to try. There's like a trillion gym lessons right there. The kids would absolutely love seeing themselves and creating the workout too.

Anastasia Rioux

After reading Trevor's post about computer hardware, it got me thinking ... why don't we teach our kids the hardware components to computers? It seems like a logical step for the high school setting. In the elementary panel, students learn to surf software, and the Internet. Then in high school, move onto the nitty gritty.

Normally in high school, we give students a sense of how to do a little bit of everything. So this should indeed become a component. With more and more products going high tech, we do need more computerized individuals in the world.

Sure, I love the computer but I haven't the faintest idea on how to program one. Good point Trevor. Who should we take this up with?

Anastasia Rioux

Tech Makes Cheating Easier Too

I was reading this month's issue of Reader's Digest and came across a rather interesting article about the downside of technology in the classroom. More and more students are using technology to cheat. It talks about some of the past cheating scandals such as the 44 business and economics students at Simon Fraser in B.C. who all handed in papers that got them suspended. Also, that case from Carleton University, where the students cheated on an essay about professional ethics.

It goes onto say that portable digital devices like the MP3 player and the Internet are making cheating that much easier for students. In the article, one nineteen year old student of Toronto talks about how he cheated his way through high school using his cell phone to store information.

"It would be hard to understate technology's role in the current wave of academic dishonesty. Students flock to online term-paper mills that sell reports on virtually any topic."

What I liked was that teachers appear to be fighting back. They are using sites like Turnitin.com to check student work for plagiarism. The site uses a huge database of books and journals and previously submitted papers by students.

The article states that the site searches "50, 000 to 60, 000 students papers a day, 30 percent of which contain a significant amount (more than 25 percent) of unoriginal material."

The other smart thing we can do is limit technology during test taking times. I know this has been done at the Parry Sound High School. Although from what some students tell me, the policy isn't as stringent as the teachers may say it is there.

Anastasia Rioux

Foxman, Stuart. But Everybody Cheats! Reader's Digest. Montreal, Quebec. October 2006.

411 on the Computer

Yesterday was a dark and dismal day. I returned from a Pampered Chef party to discover the Internet was down on my home system. So without being able to cybersurf, I resorted to reading. I was reading my Macleans mag from last week and found a timely article. It the article, “Searching for Help”, the author reveals a new type of search engine. With Google being the superpower of search engines, other companies are coming up with innovative new ways for computer users to search. One that looks pretty neat is ChaCha.com. It will be up and running in January sometime. The article says: “human searchers provide real-time, one-on-one help – for free.”

The founder of ChaCha helped create digital voice mail when he was 26 years old. And a music software called Gracenote. He says ChaCha will be the web version of 411 on the telephone.

He says a user can say something like this: “where can I stay in Vancouver, B.C., with my dog, for under $200 per night?” And you will be connected to a real live guide.

The article goes onto say that Google has its own version at ask.com and Yahoo! Answers is another popular site.

Apparently ChaCha went live on Labour day for experimentation but the site crashed so they have some work to do before the new year.

What is the world coming to eh? 411 on the computer! Too bad it wasn't around sooner because we could use it and say "make me a rubric with 5-7 criteria, that would evaluate educational software - and make sure it is original!!!"

Anastasia Rioux

A Frustrating Fur Trade Odyssey

I just thought I'd check out another OSAPAC piece of software as it pertains to grade 7 and 8 history. It's called A Fur Trade Odyssey. I found it to be a piece of junk! Really! It was hard to navigate, and not very entertaining at all. I swear I am one of those people who should have been diagnosed with ADHD as a child because I have such a short attention span. This was such a snooze.

I then did a little Internet search on the software and I read this:
"Northwest to the Pacific: A Fur Trade Odyssey" is one of the most exciting historical CD-ROMs ever produced.

"Congratulations...this is an exceptional way to teach our future generations about the fur trade and the importance of the canoe to our Canadian Heritage."

Can't believe it. Now some of you may like this program and this is entirely my own personal opinion. Let me know if you have a differing view. I just read this and thought - well, I guess someone has to sell this stuff and do whatever they can to do that.

Anastasia Rioux

21st Century Classroom Networking

After doing a bit of research on community web-based portals for schools, I realized that there is already a Canadian system out there that has been developed in Markham and it is available at some schools in Ontario.

This product, FirstClass, was developed by a company called SoftArc. It claims to create a “secure, networked environment with applications such as e-mail, instant messaging, calendars, contact management, workgroup collaboration, document sharing, file storage, web publishing, blogging, podcasting, and unified voice and fax messaging.”

It appears to be a flexible system for schools because it is set-up on the school’s existing web server. Right away, the school can have a website and messaging, among many other services. It can also run on Windows, OS or UNIX systems which makes it even more appealing to several school boards.

In one article about the product, a professor at Georgian College in Barrie is quoted. Kathryn Cook says: “One trend in academic literature is that computer conferencing is an educational technology that really works. That’s because there’s interaction in the form of a written dialogue.”

This is so true. That’s the reason I have a problem with a number of the CD Rom programs offered by OSAPAC. There is no interactivity. The user inputs the disc in their computer, and works with the system with not a lot of real feedback or discussion. The FirstClass system appears to be very interactive. Teachers and students can instant message or conference with each other in a secure environment. Students have access to Internet research, and e-mail too.

There are several schools already using this technology in the United States. The Toronto District School board also uses the FirstClass system.

Websites used to research this blog entry:

http://www.softarc.com/FC83/

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1999_March_9/ai_54051323

Talking E-Books

There's all kinds of great educational software out there but there are also tons of useful tools right on the Internet. I have been doing a bit of research on talking e-books. If you want to get an idea about these books, check out this website:

http://www.starfall.com

This is great for primary grades. There are all kinds of phonics books available. Some are letter and sound themed and others are occasion themed. I really like this idea because anyone who has had to price out a set of guided reading books, or a set of phonics books knows how expensive these books are for the school. These talking e-books are completely accessible online and no password is required. There must be about 100 different books available for students to access. I know you can actually create talking e-books using Powerpoint and I have downloaded a document that explains how. I hope to talk more about this in a future blog entry.

Anastasia Rioux

Podcasting in Education: The Benefits for Special Needs Students and Parents

Podcasting in Education

I have been doing some research on podcasting in education. One website states that in the class it is useful for: “providing supplemental explanations and expanded examples to course content”. Podcasting benefits special needs, and it also fosters more open communication between parents and the school.

I can see that this technology would be great for special needs students in so many ways. Students who have decoding issues and find it difficult to copy down notes, could use the podcast and listen to a specific lecture multiple times. This technology would also supplement regular class notes that students take in class. It would be useful for auditory and visual learners, as well as those students who have vision impairments. These podcasts could act as a reinforcement rather than traditional homework.

Parents would be able to view these podcasts too to discover what their child has missed, if they have been absent. Parents can also see first-hand what their child is learning in the classroom.

Websites used in preparing this blog entry:

http://www.softease.com/podcasting/index.htm

The 21st Century Teacher

The 21^st Century Teacher:

What a night to start reflecting on the hip 21^st century teacher. I just finished watching the United Flight 93 movie. In it, you see so much technology at work: the air traffic control radar that tracks planes, the pilot who has hundreds of little computer type gadgets and levers in front of him and beside him, the reporters reporting on CNN have their own technology to bring pictures to viewers, the cockpit recorders, the air phones, the cell phones and the list goes on. As teachers, (especially those teachers who aren’t fond of technology) we must remember what kind of a world we are living in today. Everything is computerized.

My husband does Information Technology at a hospital. It amazes me how many different areas of the hospital that his department is responsible for on a daily basis. Equipment in the laboratory is high-tech, as is the equipment that is used to perform different types of surgery on patients! A surgeon now must know anatomy, as well as computer technology to keep the operating room running smoothly. The telephone systems are computerized in most office buildings now. Security systems are highly computerized too.

If our job is to prepare students for the real world, then we must prepare them to use the computer efficiently too. There are all kinds of programs out there for teachers to use. Just look at the list on the OSAPAC website. It is unbelievable! I teach in a one school board so perhaps that is why I am not privy to OSAPAC and its availabilities.

Each school program is developed with a purpose. Each one is valuable in some way but which ones are truly important? I think first and foremost, programs like All the Right Type are essential. We need to start by teaching our students to use a keyboard efficiently. Once they have grasped typing skills, they are then able to move onto many other areas of technology.

My husband does I.T. work on the side for my school board. I asked him what one piece of software he would like to see developed for educators. He feels a community based web portal for all students in Ontario would be a great idea for a software developer who wants to make a good buck. It would be a portal that would have dictionaries, calculators, and encyclopedias so students wouldn't have to search Google anymore. It would also contain blogs for all-Ontario students, and so much more. It would all be right there at their fingertips.
Many teachers worry that too much technology could rule out the role of a teacher. A good web based portal could lead to every student requiring a laptop. Some schools are moving in this direction. My old high school in Sudbury (Marymount Academy) has started a laptop program this year in which every student gets their own laptop for school and home use. It will be interesting to see how successful this pilot project will be in the future.

When I think of our ever expanding curriculum, I realize why there are so many pieces of software out there. I cannot think of any one real piece of software that stands out so far above the rest because we almost need to expose our students to all of them so that they are well-rounded and can adapt well to any system or program. I think the more we expose our students to technology, the better off they will be when they leave our hands and get out into the real world.

Anastasia Rioux