Well this is it,
Exam is done.
I still plan
To have more fun.
Web 2.0
Was new to me,
I never knew
Such things were free.
Now here I go
With tools in hand
To face my class
With new command.
I’ll communicate;
I’ll post and share.
I have to tell them
There’s more out there.
Our kids can learn.
Yes, they will see.
I’ll implement
Technology.
I’ll use new tools,
Collaborate.
None of this
Is second rate.
So hear me now;
It must be faced.
The tools you use
Can be web-based!
I just spent about an hour playing with a new toy – KSolo (http://ksolo.myspace.com/). This site is a part of myspace, but it is so much fun.
KSolo is an online karaoke site. Not only can you sing along with the words that are displayed while the music plays, but you also can record yourself singing. That is not all; you can also save your recording or email it home to your mom or to a friend. There are about 25 music genres from which to choose including Christmas. That is where I just killed my last hour. I didn’t save any of my recordings, but the site did give joy to me whether it gave joy to the world or not.
As I approach the end of this semester, I reflect on how much I have learned. The readings from the text have opened up a whole world of discussion as to the effectiveness of Web 2.0 tools in education. Sometimes our thoughts strayed from the main purpose, but I feel that what we shared was well worth the space devoted to it. I have gained insight and meaning from all the posts my classmates and facilitator took time to share.
This blog has been a learning experience in itself. I had never thought of creating a blog, but I have enjoyed expressing my thoughts about my learning. As I said before this is a reflection, and it is important for teachers to reflect not only on their teaching but also on what they are gleaning as lifelong learners.
Working with a wiki was another tool I had never used, but it is certainly one I will use again. What a wonderful collaborative tool for bringing together knowledge students have pulled together to share with each other.
I check my Google Reader daily and have already gotten a great deal of new ideas from the feeds to which I subscribe. I also have enjoyed reading the blogs of my classmates as I added their URLs to that aggregate.
From Mindmeister to Picnik to the tools I have found on my own, this class has opened a whole new world that I will continue to explore and investigate. I am sure some of the tools will find a way into my classroom next year when I return to the main building and an internet connection, and I am sure I will discard some of them as just not meshing with my teaching and class. No matter, I know my classes will benefit from my enrolling in this Web 2.0 course. Dr. Steven Smith has done a magnificent job of facilitating and guiding our class into a whole new world of discovery.
This week I have spent a great deal of time working with http://delicious.com and http://edutagger.com. Both of these are social bookmarking sites, and I have been comparing the features associated with each.
Delicious has a great number of storage and support features. It allowed me to log in using my Yahoo account – I don’t have to remember another password. I easily entered a link and tagged it (music education). I also was able to search for similar sites and articles associated with music education and had no problem at all finding information. There were distracting ads randomly placed throughout the posted articles. The FAQ page was very extensive and answered a vast number of questions I had. The one drawback with using this site with students is that they may confront objectionable material among the posted links.
Edutagger had similar features to Delicious, but I did not feel as comfortable with the site as I did in Delicious. It does promote itself as an all educational site, but I saw nothing that told how links were checked or maintained. There were no FAQs, only a contact us tab that would direct me to an email.
I don’t think I am ready to use social bookmarking with my classes yet. I would need to spend a great deal of time becoming completely familiar and comfortable with setting up networks or groups and then being able to direct my students exactly to the areas I would like for them to go. I do not think the sites are completely safe for students as even Edutagger has pop-up ads that direct students to other websites.
This is one of those tools I’ll save for a while and reserve my opinion until I have had a chance to work with it more.
This has surely been a week of discovery and experimentation. I have been working on my presentation for the Web 2.0 class. I was determined to depend on Web 2.0 tools as much as possible.
I began with MuseScore (http://www.musescore.org). This site offers open source music notation software that is not quite on the par with Sibelius and Finale, but it is a good alternative for those educators who do not have the budget for the purchased software. I composed two short pieces of music and printed them out. I took a digital photo of one of the pieces and went to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) and through Flickr to Picnik (http://www.picnik.c0m) for editing to use in the presentation.
Then I transferred the written music to a VCL Media Player (http://www.videolan.org). Here I could save my compositions in an MP3 format. Next, I went to JamGlue (http://www.jamglue.com). At this site, I was able to combine my compositions, add in some free sound effects (http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com), and save my end result to be used with the presentation.
I created my presentation through GoogleDocs (http://docs.google.com). I found a template I really liked, that had a professional look to it. I also found some really professional looking clipart at Webweaver (http://www.webweaver.nu) to incorporate into the presentation. I was especially looking for music notes and clefs to use as bullets since my presentation was titled The Tools of the Trade – Web 2.0 in Music Education, and the three tools I highlighted were MuseScore, Flickr, and Jamglue. All three of these could really complement the music curriculum.
When I finished creating the presentation, I realized that music cannot be added to GoogleDocs. I looked through the other suggestions in our assignment and settled on SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net). In order to use this alternative, I had to convert the GoogleDocs presentation to PowerPoint so that it could be uploaded to SlideShare. Once that was done and I had saved the PowerPoint to my computer, I uploaded the presentation to SlideShare and uploaded and synchronized the music.
My presentation is now in two locations – GoogleDocs with no music and SlideShare with music. This experience was a super challenge and a great deal of fun!
Last night I had my first experience with posting to a wiki and then editing an existing post. I felt empowered. Here I was posting knowledge to a site that could be used as a reference for someone searching for information. I think this concept is extremely interesting.
As I was posting I thought, “Ah, another collaboration tool.” By the end of this assignment, there will be an entire page devoted to Web 2.0 tools that may be used in the educational setting. As we all work together, we will be creating a document that can grow, be edited, and change as we discover and come up with new information that can only improve our site. The ease of working with the wiki makes it possible for each of us to work, add, edit, or change the content at any time all from our own personal computers or from any computer with internet access.
The idea of using wikis in the classroom is exciting in that these tools can be useful in a variety of ways. I have already mentioned group collaboration as in the case of our assignment, but students also may use wikis in the writing process as they peer edit documents other students have written. The beauty of this is that the peer editors can do this on their own, on their own time, and at home. In addition, teachers have the advantage of being able to track the changes and various versions of the documents. Teachers and students can also enter into a collaborative setting as students can make postings, and teachers either make corrections or post additional information. Students could use wikis as reading forums. For example, a wiki is an excellent setting for a literature circle discussion. One really helpful wiki would be high school students creating such a site for college information. As students found interesting items, perhaps personal observations, they would add that information to the wiki.
For teachers, the possibilities are almost endless. They can begin lists of resources that other teachers may add to or refer to as needed. They also can add links to helpful sites as in the case of http://www.cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com. Teachers could create wikis devoted to specific topics or best practices. These would certainly be helpful to other teachers, especially those just starting in the profession. Administrators could even find this tool helpful. For example, as administrators work with budgets, scheduling, grant writing, or any administrative responsibility, they could begin wikis to pull together information from the different departments involved. The ideas could go on.
Many teachers/faculty ban Wikipedia as a source for student research. I can see their side to this as anybody and everybody has access to add information or change information to the topics, and the information could certainly be slanted in a way to prove a particular point. Since we have absolutely no idea who is posting information, we have no method of validation. Since we are supposed to teach our students how to check accuracy of content, I suggest students use Wikipedia as a source to reputable links. It is a really good starting place (and great for working crossword puzzles).
I have enjoyed my experience with wikis and have found another tool to add to my Web 2.0 toolbelt.
The idea of online safety and security is a huge responsibility for the educational system. I think it is an area that lends itself to being a great inhibitor especially to school administrators. By this I mean that administrators are so afraid that some student is going to be a victim of an online preditor they cannot risk allowing certain elements of the online world into the school setting.
It has become a responsibility of teachers to drill into their students the dangers, as well as, the joys of the online world. Students simply do not understand that once they post something, especially in a realm such as social networking, it is there for almost anyone to see, and it does not go away. However, we, as educators, must help these students understand the safest ways to use the Internet. They must understand that private things need to remain private, and they do not need to completely open themselves to anyone who is out there.
In the last two days, I have made two amazing discoveries. The first is http://www.musescore.org/ which is a free alternative to the finale program I use to work on my music for my classes. If this program turns out to be as effective as I think it might, it could save music educators a great deal of money. Finale is expensive, and that money could be spent much more effectively.
My second discovery is http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com a very comprehensive wiki that is a fantastic resource for web 2.0 tools. I have not gotten to play with the links a great deal, but the ones that I have been to look very promising. The tools included encompass presentation, collaboration, research, video, audio, mapping, music, graphing, and mapping just to name a few. Since this is a wiki, this will be an ongoing list, and I am going to add the URL to my RSS feed so that I may get updates as to new sites. YAY for Cool Tools for Schools!
This week’s readings gave me a great deal to think about. When I go into a professional development situation, how fully engaged am I? Do I sit and think I of the many things I could or need to be doing? Do I soak up the information that is thrown out there. Do I even look at the handouts I receive?
The answer is that I wish I could be anywhere else but sitting in a tiny little desk at 3:30 after school listening to someone drone on about something that usually doesn’t even apply to my teaching situation. I want to learn, I want to be engaged, I want to do.
As the old Chinese proverb says:
Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I’ll remember. Involve me, I’ll understand.
Oh what I wouldn’t give to have a Promethean Board in my room. I guess first I should just wish for a room (not a trailer) with internet connection.
Today we had a Promethean Board presentation at school. There will be 4 new boards put up at our Lower School Campus. There is no way I will get one, but I can certainly let my imagination run. Since I teach all ages, I am constantly putting things on the board, erasing, putting up new stuff, erasing, and reposting the orginal material. It is a tiresome task. However, with a Promethean Board, my teaching could be so much more alive. In a study of composers, I would have much more than a small picture to show my students. There are so many interactive music websites that I could use. If only….
