Improving Teacher Training with Technology

So many times I have sat through a boring training wondering how and why I was going to incorporate whatever that great idea was. With the growing uses of technology our schools should be providing more training on how to incorporate these into our lessons. I think that the administration or librarian should offer a class once a month on technology with a specific topic, i.e. blogs, wikis, trackstar and such. Intergrating technology can be overwhelming and if shown how easy it can be then we will have more teachers on board.

Science Lesson Improved with Technology

I found this idea on the site below along with others. Science students did research on solar cookers, cookers that used the sun to cook. The students chose a design and then gathered the materials they needed. After the cooker was made they then evaluated how well they worked. I think this is an awesome way to get reluctant students involved.


Using Technology to Improve Instruction and Raise Student Achievement

Improving Instruction with Technology

My fellow teachers on my team and myself came up with a great way to incorporate technology into a literacy lesson and an author study. The children worked as a group to choose an author. They began their research online looking for certain information on the author. During the course of the research they were also reading books by that author and writing book reviews and summaries on the laptops. After the group had gathered all the research and wrote the book reviews and summaries they then took all the information and compiled it into a powerpoint. The students really enjoyed this activity and asked everyday if we would be working on it. I know that anytime you incorporate technology into the lesson the students will be engaged. Below is a link to my trackstar that has the lesson all mapped out for you.

Trackstar Author Study Lesson

Thing #23 What a journey!

I have really enjoyed this whole experience. Before I started this graduate course I was searching for things to learn about on the web. This was a great way to learn. I consider myself to be computer savy but now I feel like I know more than before but yet there is still so much more to learn. My favorite was the google discovery and the photo sites. I loved being able to take pictures and create memories with the software. This process has shown me what is on the web and how these tools can be used. I would love to experience the web in a format like this one. I know that there is so much more to learn and experience. I'm looking forward to the next learning journey.

Thing #22 Ning

I explored all three sites and I have to say that I like Ning the best. It seems to have a real use to it. Myspace and facebook are more like a way to keep up with your friends and find people who maybe you lost touch with. I really liked the Texas Teacher Ning. I already found a couple of lessons that I could use this week. It's a great free site to get information from without having to pay for joining.

#21 Podcasts

This is probably one of my favorite things. My team presented a lesson doing a podcast. We had a lot of fun creating it although somehow I got dupped into being the voice on the video. You can visit Jenny's blog and see our podcast on New York. Jenny's Blog My grade level on my campus decided to do an author study and one of the ways to relay the information learned was through a podcast. The students were able to write their scripts and upload the photos and add their voice to the podcast. Below you will see one of the finished products. I see podcasts as another great tool to relay information in a technology form.

#20 You Tube and Teacher Tube

What an awesome tool no matter who the audience is! I love the idea of whatever information you need is probably on these two sites. My sons had recieved a rubics cube for a gift and they had no idea how to solve it. They went to youtube and found a video. This is a really great tool to gather information and present information. I found the following video on YouTube on how our children interact with technology and why are we not using these devices in our school curriculum. Teachers have to start thinking out of the box and deliver the lessons using the tools that the kids are interested in.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards list

Wow! So many to chose from I didn't know where to start. I ended up first going to springwidgets.com and played with some of the widgets. I added the countdown to my blog. I love these little things you can add to your page. I could see using something like this to countdown the days to a bookfair or author study. I also liked picnik.com for photos. This is another great photo site. As the librarian you are also the school photographer. This would be a great way to use an online source for your school photos.

Thing #18 Google Docs

These sites have some advantages and disadvantages. The good thing about them is you can use them for free. So if your computer does not come with this application you can use these online. They also allow others in a group to work on a document and have it saved in one place. The bad thing is that your limited to just the basics with the applications. For instance, the presentation does not offer many themes nor could I figure out how to import a new theme.

#17 Wikis and Sandbox

I really liked being able to interact online with a discussion group. It was also neat to see how people were using the wiki and what suggestions that had on how to use it. I could see using it as a tool for class discussions and for getting feedback from faculty on idea sharing or collaborating projects. The ideas are endless.

#16 Wikis

I found David Loertscher's wiki very interesting. One, he took his conference from just a listening to a total participation session. Two, he gathered information from his participants in a form that can be accessed by many people. I see wikis as becoming the next note taking and idea sharing forum. The uses are endless. My grade level just finished an author study. We could have used a wiki in gathering our biography information, teachers collaborating, gathering books of the same author, etc. I see many ways it could be used in all subjects. For science class you could use a wiki to have a dialog of experiments and what your findings were.

Thing #15 Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the way to keep up with the technologies that are available. It is about staying current and knowing what the future might bring. As librarians we are the information people to our community. In order to keep our community up to date we have to stay up with what is new. I'm very curious to see how information technology will affect my children in college and their children as well. Some universities are already moving to podcasts as another means of supporting the lectures. Wow!! I would have been engaged.

Thing #14 Technorati

This one was a little confusing to me.There is so much information there that I had a hard time exploring it. I will have to come back to this one when I have more time to spend on it. I could definitly see where it would be beneficial to register your blog so that you would get more views. If I had an author blog or favorite blog site I would register it so people would visit it and respond. I felt that del.icio.us was easier to use and I liked the tools with it. Maybe this summer I'll get some time to explore it more. I did spend some time exploring the tags within my blog and found how some local peolple were using blogs. I think the tags are neat in that you can find things easier.

Thing #13 Tagging

This is a really cool tool. I love the fact that I can bookmark items and access them anywhere. I use 3 different computers and this will be very helpful. I'm conducting an author study over the next 3 weeks in my class. I set up my bookmarking to help make that task a little easier so that I can have all my sites in one place on any computer in my room. What a great idea to keep up with your favorites. Now why couldn't I have been the one to think of that.

Thing #12 Rollyo

I really like this tool because I always go look at certain sites when I shop. This is a great tool for filtering out those sites that you don't want. I could see this as a beneficial tool to use with students because it would allow them to search the sites you put on it.

Thing #11

I set up my librarything account and added five titles. I learned that I don't read any adult books. Maybe now I can search a topic I like and get some recommendations. As a classroom teacher I would use it as a tool to help my students pick books they like. I joined the children's literature group since that would be one of the groups I would really use right now while still teaching.

Thing #10

I had fun with this one. It was neat to see and explore all the different types of image generators. I could see using these on either your blog or if you have a library web page. I also learned something I could show my husband for his website. The hard part of this was trying to figure out how to link one of the images. If someone knows how please let me know.

Thing #9

I tried a few of the sites recommended. The easiest was Bloglines. The search was easy and I liked the preview tool. Technorati was easy as well but I liked Bloglines better. Syndic8.com seemed very archaic to me. I was not able to get the same information as the other sites. I found a couple a book clubs to add and even a Rachael Ray that was good. Especially for when I need a good recipe.

Thing #8 Rss Feeds

I set up my account with Google Reader. Right now I'm in the just figuring it out phase. I can see where it would be handy to get all your information in one place. I'm not sure if I like it yet. It seems like it is a one stop shop with all the stuff coming to you and your not having to go find it. I could see using it in my classroom for getting new author information or book reviews. I'll have to experience it a few days to see how it goes.

Thing #7 Google tools

When I got started with this whole 23 Things I went ahead and set up my own google account. I love the features of setting up the page as I want to view it. I really like the feature of bookmarks. You can have a hot link to all your favorite bookmarks within a click. It is a lot easier to use than your browser. I also set up my calendar with family events. I'm sharing it with my husband so that we can hopefully stay on top of our own schedules and our two sons busy lives. I could see using the iGoogle as a home page on the libraries computer with links to the calendar with all he events happening at school. The bookmark link could have all the popular links that students would use the most. Below is a link to view my picasa album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bmahlmann/UntitledAlbum?authkey=1aZlf8uKlX8

Thing #6 Mashups

I had a lot of fun with this thing. I liked the magazine maker because I thought it would be a great resource for LA. You could use it as a book report, oral history project, etc. You could use Mosaic maker for the same things. I could also see using poster maker for showing off genres or authors. This is my favorite thing so far. I learned how to take my wild thing creature and save it to my computer and crop it to fit in my blog. I'm so excited with all the neat things I've learned already.

Thing #5 Flickr

I'm so proud of myself. I learned how to upload and share photos using two sites. First I tried Flickr and then I tried Googles Picasa. I wanted to give both a try to see which one I liked the best. I think I prefer Picasa for now. I have had several family events this year with lots of digitals taken. I love the fact that I can share these pics with my loved ones and they can order their own prints if they want.

Thing #4 Registering

Well now I am registered and ready to play. I have never spent so much time thinking about what to nickname myself.

Thing #3 Blog and Avatar

Wow!! I have learned a lot already! One, you should be careful at how many accounts you have online and what you use them for. This is my 2nd blog because the first one I accidentally deleted while trying to delete an account I thought was not being used. Whew!! Now I am ready to go again. Blogs are really neat tools if you love to journal. Setting up my avatar was fun as well. I felt guilty though when I have sooo many other things I need to be doing.

Thing #2 Life Long Learner

The easiest habit for me is to play. My two sons and my dog make sure of that. They keep me very busy. The hardest habit for me is using technology to my advantage. If technology gets too hard I usually don't bother with it. I'm looking forward to learning and jumping the hard hurdles.

Thing #1

I'm really excited about learning about all the technology available on line. What a neat way to learn through this experience. Thanks!