Are you feeling overwhelmed? Drowning in the vast sea of wonderful information flooding in on us from all sides? Me too. So GoogleReader is the new toy for us! Here’s a sample of the five feeds I’ve started with…
FROM TOY TO TOOL: CELL PHONES IN LEARNING
My AR project has narrowed down to using cell phones in the classroom to enhance connection to literature, and this was the most directed and academic of the sites my search turned up addressing this topic. I had seen it at the beginning of the year when I assigned my students to research using cell phones in our classroom (this was before I thought of doing it for my AR, I swear!) and been impressed by its suggestions for activities, its links to other resources, its reviews of related technology, and its advice on how to approach administrators (even though that’s something I—praise God fasting!—don’t have to worry about, as my principal is totally of the “we-can’t-beat-‘em-we-better-join-‘em” persuasion).
TEDTalks
The basic rationale here is clear: who doesn’t love a site where we can access the finest speakers and ideas, condensed and concentrated, in one place? I’ll just give the wonderful example of Fabian Hemmert’s “The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone”—focusing on the evolving nature of cell technology. Evolving, that is, from even the complex technological marvel it is today into something more intuitive, something—as Hemmert says—“More human.” While I think a device that replicates emotions, like getting excited if you’ve got a call from your sweetie (I’ll leave you to imagine) and settling down when you pet it, might be too distracting for the classroom , ya gotta love the concept. And the great thing about this site: Who said our whole intellectual life has to be “useful”?
COOL CAT TEACHER BLOG
To be honest, this is my trial site—but of course, as we know from our own experiences, when the instructor gives a model, it’s going to be something that rocks & rolls on multiple levels; it not only shows you how to do something, but teaches you a bunch of other stuff into the bargain! The blog subtitle is “Teaching students with new tools, enthusiasm, and belief that teaching is a noble calling,” and if I was picking a subtitle for my life, that’d be on the top three list. This blog covers students spearheading energy-consumption (5 rationales) and the importance of conversation for administrators of any large production plant (that’s schools, isn’t it?) just on the home page—both with explicit instructions for how to implement—and that’s gotta be the most important part of all the vast info overload we’re wading through.
FACULTY FOCUS
This site is designed for college-level faculty, but I found everything I read to be utterly applicable to my classroom, and not just because my seniors should pretty basically be operating at that level. There was a great entry on marking papers that I’m going to use… as soon as I finish enough of my week’s assignments to get back to grading my kids’ papers! And other articles covered almost as valuable topics—like plagiarism (as committed by careless instructors—mea culpa, I’m afraid) and creating online learning situations that (going back to brain-based learning!) engage emotions to enhance learning. You know, I discovered it when I went from pre-school to high school: there’s just not much difference between different levels of learners….
MY BIG CAMPUS
So I’m reading my school email last night, and our Tech Queen has sent out this message: “Great New Tech Tool!” To quote the kids, “OMG!” There’s a million resources, including a library, “rich” media, blogging, collaborative tools, groups for students, teachers, classes, etc., etc., etc. There’s a Facebook-type wall, professional communities (intra- & inter-school), and access to YouTube (which of course is otherwise blocked at school). Aaaand, it’s linked to our district filtering system. (Is that good, or bad?) My feed is just their library, where yesterday’s menu included several videos of science teacher singing such classics as “The Periodic Table Song”!! I started last week, when I assigned my kids to video an interview with a character from Beowulf, to look into getting them into Google.docs (which I am in love with and hope to marry), and then this week, especially after viewing Hunter’s “7th Grade PLE” I’m thinking, “Why AM I grading papers? Why aren’t they just blogging?” I think this site could make it happen—even with only 3 antique computers in my classroom!
