Thing 6 - iTouch Apps

Our library was fortunate to receive several iTouches this past year. We have found many educational apps and the students love using them. We have some for art, music, language arts, social studies, math, and science. It is fun to watch students who aren't really interested in learning their math fact become totally absorbed in a math app that teaches math facts on the iTouch. Other great apps we have used are those that deal with logic and puzzle solving. These are great for students who need a little extra enrichment.

Other things that students can do with the iTouches:
Send them on a scavenger hunt/obstacle course with the iTouch. Have them make their way through a set of assigned apps in order to obtain a goal.
Using the RockStar adapter, you can have 5 students using one iTouch as a listening center. We have used our iTouches with some of our special ed. students for audio books.

Perusing the articles listed on this post, I continue to be blown away by the number of apps available! There are some really cool ones out there! I will be downloading some for myself and some for school!

Thing 5 - Microblogging

Okay, I will admit - I am not a Facebook fan! There - I said it. To be quite honest, I just don't have time for Facebook, nor do I feel the need to tell the world every little thing that I am doing. However, I do see benefit in creating a group page for your library. I am still debating this at the moment since I found out that Facebook will now be blocked on our elementary campuses. I do realize that my opinion of Facebook is not the popular opinion and that many people are on Facebook, so I do see benefit in setting up a group page for my library. However, I am not sure if you can just set up a group page and not a personal page. Something I will look into!
Having a page for your library will be a great way to post quick updates as to what is going on in the library for students and parents.

Needless to say, I feel the same way about Twitter, but do see benefit for groups and organizations to have a page.

Now, I do see educational benefit in back-channeling. I have used Today's Meet and TinyChat at several different professional development venues and I am definitely going to try this with students! Especially 4th and 5th graders!

Thing 4 - You Tube

Uploading a video to You Tube was so much easier than I would have ever thought!! I uploaded a video I made last year to show off the entries into our Pumpkin Decorating Contest. This was fun! I have used You Tube and Teacher Tube many times during instruction. Online video sites have advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: Great way to have access to videos anywhere there is Internet access. There are many great educational videos available for use. I especially loved the Library of Congress You Tube channel! This is also a great venue for students to post their work. I think students love to see thier work posted online. In the past I have posted student work on my library web page. Students LOVE to see their work online and are eager to share with family and friends.

Disadvantages: The main disadvantage I see is helping students remain safe when online. Allowing open access to YouTube for elementary students is not, in my opinion, a responsible decision for educators. Of course TeacherTube is a much more reliable option.

Here is my video:

Thing 3 - Skype

Skype - love it!! We have been using video conferencing at my school for the last 2 years. We are fortunate to have a Video Conferencing unit that allows us to do some more formal video conferencing with places like National Parks, NASA, and zoos. We are also able to connect with multiple locations at the same time and have done activities like the Texas History Mystery.

This past year we started using Skype as well. One of our more fun and unique uses of Skype came during our morning book club time that we call Books and Breakfast. One of the teachers that was leading a group was scheduled to be out of town one week and instead of trying to find another teacher to come in at 7:00 am to cover her group, we decided to try Skyping her in to lead her group! It was a huge success. She took her laptop with her on her trip and then we set up Skype in library. The students loved it!! They were thrilled to discuss their book with their leader in another state! She even took her laptop and camera out on the balcony of her hotel to show the students the view!

The uses of Skype in the library and classroom is tremendous. You can Skype with an author, a specialist in an area, or other classrooms from around the country. Every classroom that has used Skype has loved it!! This is a great tool and one everyone should try!!

Thing 2 - Image Generators

So many cool tools! I love Wordle! Above is a Wordle I created for my library. This is a great tool and one many of my teachers have used. There are so many possibilities for Wordle...students can create one to describe themselves, a character in a book, or even a science experiment. I have seen students create them to describe a biographical subject too. I love how these are so easy to create and you can choose layout, font, and color.

In regards to the other tools in Thing 2:

WordSift: Didn't like it as well as Wordle. It has a different focus, but similar. I do think this would be a great tool to help students identify main idea of an article or text students were reading. I like the feature of showing the word web and pictures from websites, however, this can produce some images you may not find appropriate for younger students.

Glogster: Love this!!! This is one of my new favorite tools! I played with this quite a bit and am excited to introduce this to teachers for projects!!

Voki: Very neat tool! I attempted to make a Voki, but had some technical difficulties. I do like the option of being able to put in your own voice! Students would love to hear your voice and create their own!

Bookr:

I created the book below on Bookr. This is a really cool tool, but I did not find it easy to use. You have to get pictures through Flickr Creative Commons and I found it difficult to get the right picture on the right page. It could be more difficult using a touch pad vs. a mouse. I think students would like this as an option.

11.5 Things - One More Time: Thing 1

Time to jump into 11.5 Things again!! I watched the video of the The Networked Student again and was once more struck by the creators' idea of 21st Century Learning. The video is stressing the idea of "Connectivism" - that learning occurs as part of a social network of many different connections and ties - interesting. I agree that learning can occur in this setting, but it is not the only setting where learning occurs.

One of the key elements of success in this model is for the student to take control of his/her learning. I like the idea! I love it when I have a student that is on fire to learn something new. The challenge for the teacher/librarian is to keep students motivated. The student compiles all of his/her learning materials through web sites, online articles, blogs, podcasts, and video conferencing. The student then creates his/her own representation of the knowledge acquired - blog, wiki, podcast.

The teacher's role is tremendous! The video refers to the teacher as a "learning architect" - great description! The teacher has to guide the students in building their learning network. This will include modeling how to find good information as well as how to check on the reliability of the information found. In addition to the the teacher also needs to show students how to organize information and present ideas for them to share their knowledge.

One comment made in the video that I feel is key is - Information management is and will continue to be our biggest challenge in the 21st century. I couldn't agree more! Students are bombarded with information - much of which is incorrect. Learning to evaluate and organize information is a skill that our students will desperately need for success in the 21st Century.

The librarian will definitely play the role of the teacher. Librarians are already "learning architects" and have been for many years!

The Journey Continues...11.5 - Thing 1

I enjoy this simple style of video that is found in Common Craft videos. Love that the author of this video gives credit to Lee LeFever of Common Craft and mentions that he asked for permission to use this simple design idea.

The video is gives a great view of the “ideal” Networked Student. The idea that students become more responsible for their own learning and use 2.0 technology tools to reach their learning goals while being guided by their teacher is very exciting. How will it work in the real world? That remains to be seen…

The Student: As I mentioned earlier – this student is “ideal”! Who wouldn’t love a student like this?! The roles and responsibilities of the student in this learning model are very great indeed. The student basically is taking responsibility for their learning all the way from developing a knowledge base, to creating wikis or websites about what they have learned. The video mentioned several roles of the student:

1. The student takes control of his own learning.
2. The student creates a personal learning network.
3. The student must be self-motivated to seek out sources of learning and information.
4. The student must be critical of information in order to sift out the accurate information from the inaccurate.
5. The student must learn how to organize this information in order to create new knowledge from what he has read and discovered.

Wow! This is a lot to ask of students – especially from a society of kids who have not been taught to do this and who like instant gratification. I don’t know many adults who would be successful in this type of learning environment.

The Teacher: I love the descriptions this video gives to the teacher: learning architect, change agent, learning concierge, modeler, connected learning incubator! These are great and require teachers to think differently about their role. I think the role of teacher in “Connectivism” is tremendous! Keeping students on track for one thing, would be a great undertaking.

The Librarian: Can the librarian play this role – absolutely! I think we are already taking steps in this direction by helping students learn how to locate and analyze information and by helping teachers learn how to facilitate projects that focus on “Connectivism”.