Saturday, April 12, 2014

Blog #7: 21st century learning and communication tools

21st Century Learning and Communication Tools

In this blog, I will talk about classroom technology tools that facilitate teaching and learning processes in the classroom.  As teachers, we need to constantly be on the lookout for new and exciting ways to engage our students to do the best work that they can possible do.  The key word here is ENGAGE.  The resources that we have within our grasp not only make lesson plans easier, they also make them more fun to create and implement in our classrooms.  

Let’s start with Schoology.  It is a social network for the classroom and has a user interface very similar to that of Facebook.  Logins are required, and the ability to link to a certain school is available in order for teachers and students to see what the entire school/department is doing.  This is more than just a social platform though.  This site aids in the day-to-day management of a classroom, be it tracking grades, online discussion, or taking quizzes and tests.  The App center provides access to tools like Evernote (this can be very useful in student collaboration) and Remind101 (this is a secure way to instant message students and parents).  




The next interesting tool that I found was Open Study.  This is a social study site where students can ask questions, get tutored by their peers and offer assistance to others.  There are also study groups available per subject area and students can enter any one of these and discuss and study in a forum manner.  This site seems to be fueled by advertisements, which shouldn’t be too much of a distraction because we see them all the time on our free phone apps, but could potentially be a deterrent for advocation by administration.  Still, this tool is very handy when it comes to students accessing each other globally for homework/project help.  The problem I found is that it automatically links to Facebook, and your personal profile picture is visible.  This can easily be changed by going to profile settings, but for teachers, it may be something that sneaks in without notice.




The last, and in my opinion, the most interesting tool that I found was GlogsterEdu (short for graphic blog).  This is an interactive, poster-like way to ‘Blog’, but really it can be a tool for project information, lesson planning, and homework assignments.  It creates a visually attractive format for organizing information.  It is currently $95 for 1 teacher and up to 125 students, or $390 for 10 teachers and up to 250 students.  Although quite pricey, it is a stimulating interface which I believe will keep students’ attention throughout the course.  It can be set to private, with the administrator deciding what content will be available for public viewing (certain projects or blogs).  Wikipedia states:  “Glogster is a part of the Creating category in Bloom’s Technology Taxonomy. Students create a digital poster with interactive elements such as video, images, and audio. This allows students to express themselves individually.”  I couldn’t agree more.  The utilization of digital media is important in education today, and will prepare students for a more competitive working environment in the future.  


1 comment:

  1. Schoology - new to me. Thanks!

    Glogster was free for a while. Now, I don't know whether it is worth it.

    Well done.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete