Thing 11.5

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I really liked all most all of the exercises, but if I had to choose a favorite, I'd probably go with Thing 2 - image generators. I especially liked Bookr. I can see my students using programs like that one easier than others, and I will probably start there as I begin the year with my class. Then we can move into the more complicated programs like Slideshare.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Having this program available each summer is great! It keeps me engaged in what is current in technology and let's me continue to learn at my own pace. Library2play allows me to study and learn in a comfortable environment on my time. It's the best of all possible situations for learning in the summer for me.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The virtual worlds exercise was quite mind-blowing! It didn't work for me. I tried it on my home computer first and it wouldn't run, then when I put it on my school computer, it was too hard to figure out. However, it stays in my mind and makes me wonder if that kind of simulation for learning is really possible. I see kids in these simulation games all the time. They love it! Can this really be done so that my class could go on a field trip to a museum in another state/country/around the world all from our school? I definitely need more help with this one.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
This year I enjoyed it so much more than last year. I suppose it's because I wasn't doing it all for the "first" time because I had done the 23 Things already. It took me a little while on the first exercise to get back into it, then I had no troubles at all getting involved in each exercise. I used to call people to help me out, and this year I was able to do it all on my own, with only a little support here and there. I love it! Keep on with this program! Stay current with what's new in technology so that I can try to keep up as well.

Thanks for putting together another program for this summer. It is time well spent.

Thing 11

Digital citizenship is not new. It's been a topic of discussion before. At our school, our librarian is always talking to all the students about being responsible with technology. I know she will conduct a lesson with the kids before we even get to use the labs at all. So, what I plan may fall short of her lesson, but I'll give it a try:
1. I would start with the graphic above, and encourage discussion of what it means to kids and to me. It came from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com
2. Take time to explain each piece: let students share their own experiences with technology use at home and at school and relate that to each category. Digitalcitizenship.net has a great link to the Nine Elements that explains each one.
3. I would give students a topic to research on the internet to see how they could apply all the things we talked about in becoming an appropriate digital citizen. I really liked Cool Cat's blog about how kids just take the first piece of information they find and don't bother to look further. They are just trying to get done, and bringing that to light is important.
4. I need to find good resources to support curriculum, and share with students how I found it. We do this in other content areas when we share our thinking, so it seems right to do the same with technology.
5. This would take more than one lesson. It needs to be ongoing throughout the school year. In elementary school we teach citizenship for years in social studies. The same holds true for teaching about digital citizenship.

The article titled Digital Literacy in the Classroom raises an important issue: banning of sites in schools. In our district we still do that. Last year we lifted the ban on many sites and students were allowed to access more of the internet than usual. We started the year with discussions of what it might be like when you come to something that isn't appropriate for you. We didn't let students just come across it on their own, then teach about it. We started proactively by telling kids that they would indeed come across such sites, and discussed what to do about it. As a result, when it happened it was no big deal and the kids just closed that site and went on. That is critical for students to know.

Thing 10

The whole Sim world sounds fun when you read about it, but when I was actually able to get into the simulation it was really hard to follow. I realize that it probably takes time to figure it all out, but it's way too complicated for my 3rd graders. My daughter and her teen friends love playing games like this, so I let them "play" along with me while I tried it out. Even they had a hard time working all the controls and gave up because it was just too hard to understand how to make it work. I think if I had someone with me to help me learn how to do it, I would understand it better and be able to see it's potential in the classroom. Right now, I just don't see it. There is a real draw for this kind of thing with older students though, so I'm sure a much more savvy user than I can see great uses for a program like this one.

Thing 9

Slide sharing is a neat idea. I've done lots of Powerpoint presentations with students of many different grade levels and the tricky thing is what to do after they've presented. I've had students burn copies to disk to take home. We've copied them onto flash drives. Placing slide shows on the web for a bigger viewing audience is cool. The thing about Powerpoint is that kids like to use it even at home for fun. My kids used to make lots of slide shows when they were younger. Now this creative work can be displayed. I looked at all the links and at first I thought 280 slides would be the best because you didn't have to log in and it has a good look to it. However, it wasn't easy to use and since I work with 8 year olds, I need something more user friendly. So, I went to Slideshare. I did have to create a log in, but importing the slide show was easy and fast. I went to my daughter's 6th grade file on Norway to see what she had that would be fun to play around with. She created a slide show called Zoo. It wasn't done for class. She was just experimenting in computer class one day. The show is comical, but not very factual. Go figure. It was fun to look back and wonder, "What were you thinking?"