C4T Revolving Weeks 9,10,11 & 12

C4T Revolving Set 2

Comment #1 

Mrs. Sharon Davison's blog is called, KindergartenLife.

In this blog Mrs. Davison is tells us about how she uses Google Hangouts, AirServer and the SMARTboard to bring an audience into her classroom to enhance their learning to read experience.

I commented on her blog that I think is wonderful she is bringing technology into her kindergarten classroom. It is important that students of this age learn what is available to them. Even more important is being able to connect them to a global community of learners. When I was in school all we had was our teacher in the classroom. Now teachers are able to connect with other teachers and join classrooms across the globe to enhance the learning experience for their students. Children are curious explorers and I believe they learn so much more when they can share it with new groups of people. I think that she is doing a great job preparing her young students for their future as global learners.

Comment #2

This comment is on Steven Anderson’s blog post “Things That Have Me Thinking-March 12” on his blog page:Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom

I was not allowed to leave a comment on this blog. Steven Anderson has added a new section to his blog which he describes as “My goal is to write about and share a few things each week that have me pondering, or are pushing the boundaries of my thinking.” He borrowed this idea from his friend, , who was a high school principal that blogged about things that were, on his mind, weekly to his staff. This week he included comments about the methods people use when using Twitter, good or bad. He commented on a Jeff Gordan video and how students could critically analyze it to draw conclusions about viral marketing or even the physics behind the moves in the video. The comments he made about the Maker Movement were the most interesting to me. This involves 3-D technology where kids can be problem solvers and learn valuable skills while making something.”Maker Ed’s mission is to create more opportunities for all young people to develop confidence, creativity, and spark an interest in science, technology, engineering, math, the arts, and learning as a whole through making”. This technology will be great to use in any STEM program. Up until recently it has been used in afterschool and club based programs but is now being integrated into the mainstream and the General Ed classrooms. Click for more information on creating your own "Maker Space".

Comment #3 

This comment was on Steven Anderson’s blog post “ThingsThat Have Me Thinking-March 28”.

 Again, I was not able to leave a comment on this blog. This blog post is the second installment of “Things That Have Me Thinking”. As a mother of two teenagers and a future secondary science teacher, I was really excited to read his thought about the book,  It’s Complicated. This book by Danah Boyd focuses on teens and their use of social networks. The book is important to teachers because it will help them to better understand the world that they live in, how they communicate, and what is important to them in order to be able to reach out to them and teach them better. The book is available in PDF form for free on her site and I think that all teachers would benefit from reading it.  Another thought that he shared that was interesting to me was about Edcamp USDOE. Edcamp is an independently organized professional development day for teachers in which the participants that are there decide on the topics for discussion that will benefit them the most. There is no charge for this seminar but due to limited seating a teacher must get a lottery ticket and hope that they win a seat. This sounds it is going to be a very informative meeting between teachers and policy makers about the direction education is going in our country. More information and lottery tickets can be obtained here:Edcamp.

Comment #4

This week the blog I read was about printing a QR code for AudioBoo recording. The blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity written by Wesley Preyer, Ph.D. AudioBoo is a site where teachers or students can create an unlimited number of 3 minute recording for free. AudioBoo has integrated QR codes into their site so that the user can print them out to give chosen people access to view their video. All the user has to do is click on their video, click QR code at the bottom, and then “print this” at the top. The code will include the title of the video and a shortened url, for those who do not have a scanner, printed just below the code. AudioBoo is also available as an app for iOS and Android tablet. This app looks like it will be very useful in our classrooms.