Using Bookmarks in the Classroom
The internet is an amazing resource for classrooms and students, but it can be overwhelming. Not knowing where to go or how to consume the internet poses lots of potential problems from viewing inappropriate materials, to simply not learning anything from the experience. As a teacher I can use a social bookmarking site, such as del.icio.us, to organize the internet for myself and for my students. Having all of the useful sites I use in one place is what makes this appealing, but what could make it extrememly effective is the tagging and bundling features. I could tag things by a date I want students to visit the site, with unit names, as homework, and endless other ways to make them easily accessible to students and parents.
View my bookmarks.
Personalizing the Internet
There are many tools on the internet which allow an individual to mold the internet for their own use.
RSS feeds and aggregators allow a person to get the information they want pulled to one place. With these tools I can check new information on blogs, get updates from my favorite magazines and news sources, read event information in Detroit, etc. all in one location. I no longer have to visit each individual website or blog. Similarly, google alerts bring updates on selected search terms. iGoogle is a personal homepage which helps organize all of these things, and allows me to set up separate pages, add gadgets, a calendar, and more.
Typically, these resources are used to help an individual organize the internet in a way that helps him/her. The internet can also be personalized in this way for a class of students. Resources on studied topics could be collected in an aggregator, iGoogle pages could be created for each subject. The class could subscribe to other class blogs around the world. The possibilities, as usual with technology in schools, are endless.
Student Understanding Podcast: CEP 800
Sometimes assessment is difficult. It is hard to know what are students are understanding and where they hold on to misconceptions. I interviewed a student to try and discover what he was understanding about the topic of democracy. While he initially can answer confidently and describe democracy, further probing made him uncomfortable and demonstrated that he had some gaps in his knowledge about democracy (which a written test may not provoke).
Listen to the podcast I created of this interview. 800_understanding.mp3
Using Digital Portfolios
I am in the process of creating a digital portfolio to publish work I have done over the course of my time at Michigan State University. I am putting up lesson plans, other teaching related papers and assignments, a poetry book I created and more. This serves as a way for me to reflect on what I have done and see how my teaching philosophies and abilities have changed over time. It is also a way for my family, friends, possible employers, etc. to see the work I have done. View my portfolio here.
Part of why it is important for me to have this portfolio is because I plan on using digital portfolios in my future classes. Having my own portfolio to show students will help demonstrate the possibilities and importance. Using portfolios with elementary students would create something longterm for students to look back at, save space in the classroom, and create all kinds of opportunities for multimedia creating, among other things. I am excited about the possibilities of using digital portfolios with my classes. This article helps explain these ideas.
