Reflection Week 6 - Podcasts

According to the article EngagingLearners in Online Learning Environments research shows that an engaging learner is essential to the learning process (Herrington, Oliver, & Reeves, 2003).  An online learning environment must show mindfulness, cognitive effort and the attention of the learners. These online learning environments provide the learner with taking control of their learning and need to be engaged.  The instructor becomes a facilitator as the learner creates their knowledge.

Learning communities provides ways to engage learners in conversation, collaboration, assessment and evaluation, organization and dissemination of information and more.  One way to engage a learning community and add a personal element is to use podcasts.  A podcast is an audio/video presentation.  There are many tools to create podcasts.  Podcasts can be used by everyone. If there is a podcast you find helpful, you can subscribe to future shows.  Also podcasts can be downloaded to many different devices.                                                                                                                           

I made my podcast for our fifth graders to add to their understanding of the Dewey Decimal Classification System.  I plan to have a small group of five to six students on computers on one side of the library listening to the podcast, while I work with another small group of students on using the OPAC to locate books in the library.                    http://screencast.com/t/L1sAl7zp 

 I used Jing to record my podcast.  Jing is an audio/visual capture software.  I created an account.  Using Jing was a little tricky at first because I wasn’t sure what I needed for the display.  After playing around with the recording part, I realized I could use a web site or a PowerPoint.  I wasn’t sure what I was to do with my recording when it was finished.  I remembered in my Professors’ opening remarks for this week, she said I would need to create an account with Screencast and I would store the podcast there.  I do think I will use Jing again. Now that I have used Jing, I see it is very easy and quick to use.  I am planning another podcast for using sub-categories of Dewey.  I have taught one of my “library helpers” to add the podcast website to a favorites folder of several computers. Now they will be available to students that are ready to learn more about the Dewey Decimal System.  Another tool that was recommended to use in creating a podcast is Cinch.

Reflection 5 - Critical Analysis of Information

Information is coming from so many different sources today.   We must be able to critically evaluate a web page for authenticity, applicability, authorship, bias, and usability.  Gaining digital literacy skills is dependent upon the student’s ability to find information, determine its usefulness and accuracy, and make use of it effectively.  We need to teach our students to critical evaluate a webpage so that they do not learn and use misinformation.                                  

When doing the MAPping Information activity, I started by taking the quiz.  I thought I knew more then the results showed, but I was "moderately savvy" J  I selected the “All About Explorers” web site.  The first thing I noticed was it is a webquest. The explorers listed were real explorers.  The information that followed appeared to be authentic.  I then clicked on the links, they were all active and appeared to be valid with pictures and the web address looked right.  The tab for teachers gave much information to help use the site and offered more challenging lessons so a teacher could use this with students on all levels.  I have seen many web quests and used some.  This had the format of a good web quest and had all the elements needed.  The site was created for educational purposes.  I did not see that it promote a certain agenda.  Because it contains historic information, it will not change throughout the years and was not out of date. This is definitely a web quest I would use if I needed the information for the curriculum.

I first used Altavista and the webquest came up second on the list.  I used Altavista as my primary search engine back when I was in grad school several years ago.  I had forgotten about it and wished I had used it more this time around.  I found I was able to locate more educational information using Altavista then using Google.  There were no advertisements that tend to distract from the    information.  I thought Go.com had too many ads and I was detracted by them.  I do know search engines produce different results, so educated people must select the right one when searching the Internet by first thinking about what the need is.

A website I have used in the past to help me show other educators what to look for when evaluating a web source is Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Educators.  She has links to many web pages to help with this task.  She even offers handouts for students and articles to help understand analyzing information.  A large task ahead of educators is to teach our students how to be able to critically analysis the information they are finding and to determine it accuracy and authenticity. 

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/eval.html

Watching the video, Social Bookmarking in Plain English was the first time I had heard of social bookmarking.  
http://www.commoncraft.com/video/social-bookmarking    This website is a free tool that provides annotation, metagging, and topic or name searches.  Using this tool can keep a list of your bookmarks online which means you can have access to these sites from any computer with Internet access.  I have had to email me so many web site addresses from my computer at work so I can have it at home.  After understanding social bookmarking a little more, I went to the Del.icio.us website where I created my own account.                                                 

I was able to start adding bookmarks right away.  I added the video and articles from this week’s assignments first.  I was able to add graphics and tag the sites once I saw the importance that play.  I tried to network with no success.     http://delicious.com/rkhall 

One thing that intrigued me about using Del.icio.us with your class was suggested in the November Learning article Social Bookmarking with Del.icio.us.   The teacher can set up a class page to have the students save their bookmarks to one class account.  The students will need to be taught to tag so everything will be organized.    The students can network to the class’s page and add their own.  A teacher can keep track of what the students are bookmarking.     This can also be a big timesaver for students to share bookmarks.

According to the article 7 things you should know about… Social Bookmarking, tagging is an important part of the success.  Visitors to this web site can search for resources that are being shared by others.  Using tagging can help organize and find good web sites.

I had used a bookmarking website years ago with some success.  I think it was called BackFlip.  Through changing jobs and moving around, I had forgotten about it.  This feature is helpful for people that use several computers.  Delicious has taken this feature and took it to the next level.  The sharing of websites features really caught my attention.  This will really be helpful and time saver in the future.  I also really liked the idea of created a stack for your students.  This will help with the lack of time for students to find useful websites and also help with the Internet safety issues for our students.  I can see our district libraries using these tools to share webs site that will show “Best Practices” for a library, along with book trailers and book reviews.

Easywhois is another good tool to help us when analyzing web sites.   This site allows us to check the publisher/author of the web site.  This can help in deciding if the author is reputable and reliable with their information or if they might have an agenda.  

The Internet has become the main place we go to search for information.  We must be literate and learn how to filter all the information that comes to us.  And more important, we need to share this knowledge with our students. This week has given me so many new tools and expanded my thoughts on the importance critical analysis of information.    

Reflection Week 4 - ePortfolios and Assessment

This week we addressed the use of electronic portfolios.  According to article “Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning”, the use of a portfolio can tell the story of a student’s learning.  Using a portfolio can be significant when used as a formative assessment for instruction.  In the article it states the process of seeking and interpreting evidence from a portfolio to determine what learners are learning and where they need to go is referred to as Assessment for Learning.  The article identified ten research-based principals of Assessment for Learning (AFL).

http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/epstory.html 

The AFL I focused on was taking account of the importance of (and foster) learner motivation.  I found in the article I chose, “The Effect of ePortfolio Satisfaction on Students’ Learning Motivation and Internet Self-efficacy”,  that when keeping an ePortfolio there was a positive correlation between learning motivation, Internet self-efficacy, and ePortfolio satisfaction.  Educators need to incorporate the use of ePortfolios into the classrooms to encourage students to take control of their learning and self-evaluation processes.

http://www.sicet.org/journals/jetde/jetde11/11-9-Huang.pdf
 

As a project this week, I created my own ePortfolio where I will archive many of the projects I have done in this course.  I plan to add the other courses I have taken to organize the evidence/artifacts of the technologies/projects I have created so that I can reflect on my learning.

https://sites.google.com/site/rhondahallsportfolio/home

I can see the potential for “dynamic assessment”, enhancing the teaching and learning process by using an ePortfolio.  Also recognizing one’s abilities and skills can come from the use of ePortfolios.  Keeping an ePortfolio can enable one to self-assess and teachers to pinpoint problems will the potential for reteaching.  As an educator, I feel that developing the student learners’ ability for self-assessment so that they can reflect and self-manage their learning, can have a powerful impact on student learning.  I could make use of an ePortfolio for students in the library. I would ask for the title of the book, the author, and a short synopsis of the book.  I would also ask if they would recommend the book and why.  I students could see if they are choosing books they like or do their book choices need to change.  I could ask them to write about every book they read in a school year.   Our job is to give our students the skills to manage their information and see that they understand what they are learning.

Reflection Week 3 - Wiki Week

A wiki is a website whose users can add, modify, or delete its content by means of a web browser.     Wikis are powered by wiki software and can be used by multiply users to share and collaborate.  Wikis may perform many different purposes.  Some wikis allow control over different functions (levels of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material.  Others may allow access without enforcing access control. Additional rules may also be imposed for organizing content.  I feel I have a better understanding of wikis after watching the video “Wikis in Plain English”.   I think using the planning of a camping trip was a good analogy to use to explain the uses of a wiki and the overload of the use of email.  http://www.commoncraft.com/video/wikis     In the article, “7 things you should know about Wikis” answered many questions I had about wiki including after you hit the “Save” button your text is sent back to the wiki server and the web page is changed (interesting tidbit).  Wikis allow group collaboration and asynchronous communication by way of the Internet.  The most frequently used wikis are Wikipedia.  There are endless possibilities for faculty to use wikis.  http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf     

The wiki I created this week is for librarians to share ideas for opening a new library in a new elementary school.  I chose this topic because I opened a new library this year.  I would have liked to have had a guide to help me. I did refer to the Information Power Building Partnerships for Learning prepared by the American Association of School Librarians.  These are guidelines to foster improvement in library programs, but this did not tell me what to do day by day duties of opening the library on time. With this wiki, I hope to help other librarians when opening a library, new or not.  Please check it out and add any ideas you might have at http://librarybeginnings.pbworks.com/w/page/50429741/FrontPage .

There are many advantages for a librarian to use this wiki. It is a starting place filled with particular ideas for preparing to open a new library.  Experienced librarians have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared.  The task of opening a new library can be quite overwhelming and this wiki can help make it easier.  There is so much to do before opening day; this wiki will help prompt ideas of things that need to be done.

There are many disadvantages as well.  As stated in the article “7 things you should know about Wikis” allowing manipulation of the site’s information carries some risks and a wiki can show bias as the users opinions can become embedded in a wiki.  School districts work on very different timelines.  As the collaboration begins, contributors need to be mindful of this. I was not officially informed of my position as librarian until six weeks before opening day.  Also, many times a librarian is not consulted through the design and building process, so many things are out of a librarian’s control.  Contributors need to keep this in mind as well.          

Digital natives may be apprehensive about technology until they see how it can be used to enhance their lives. Wikis are so user friendly and helpful; many digital natives may find themselves engaged after being guided to one that interests them.  This group of users may first participate in a wiki by only reading it, but later find themselves wanted to contribute to the collaboration.

I enjoyed visiting the eLearning Tools Wiki to see other 2.0 web tools that I could use.  Because we had used a collaboration tool this week, I went to a different topic.  I have always enjoyed using virtual fieldtrips with much success, so that is where I started.   Discover America looked interesting and serves as the official travel and tourism website of the United States.  I would like to return this site as the Alamo was featured.  Also, I visited the Storytelling site. I found Our Story which is a timeline service that provides a way to import pictures.  I also saw Animoto on the list.  Many book trailers I show my students are made on Animoto.  I would like to learn more 2.0 tools that my students, teachers, and I could use.  This a great site to find those tools.  I hope to return and add my own useful web 2.0 tool for others.       http://elearningtools.wetpaint.com/