Reflection ("There I am," we said.)

1. My favorite tools are blogging and Google Earth, with which I plan to create a clue-driven scavenger hunt for different landforms during our Earth Sciences unit.

2. My thinking has been transformed in that I now see that taking the time to teach my students to utilize different digital tools will save me (and them) time throughout the year. They will have far more tools with which to approach and solve problems, complete projects, create study aids, etc...

3. I was surprised that I was introduced to so many useful resources that I had not heard of, let alone used.

Tool #11: Digital Citizen Kane ("...rosebud..!" said his final email.)

1. What goes into a school computer stays in a school computer. Don't write, click on, respond to anything that you wouldn't want your parents or director (principal) to see.

2. Just because you found info and pictures on the internet and not a book doesn't mean you don't have to cite your sources. The internet has a very casual feel to it. We browse and surf, copy and paste without realizing we are plagiarizing. Oh, and Google and Yahoo! are not sources!!

3. Bullying via Facebook, Instant Message, etc..., is just as real and damaging as bullying someone face to face. Enough said.

To teach digital citizenship I would form small groups and give each of them a few prepared roll-playing scenarios. They would then act them out and as a class we would pick what we thought were examples of good and bad citizenship. We would also come up with ways to better handle each situation.

They then sign their lives away via Faustian digital conduct contract.

Tool #10

NASA - dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources. Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos

NASA Lunar Electric Rover Simulator - experience what it might be like to ride a rover around a lunar outpost!

NASA 3D Sun - rotate the sun and see all views. Look at flares and sunspots up close. Three-dimensional version constructed from real-time photos & movies.

To me the big benefit of the ITouch and IPad is that they are easy to travel with. Students can be working anywhere in the building and move to a new site. This would greatly add to field trips and field work where students could be researching additional information in relation to what they are physically experiencing. They would also be able to record data in a dynamic way (instantly plugging data into a graph, averaging data in a spreadsheet, etc...)

Tool #9

Jing could help students save and communicate their ideas more easily when they are doing computer research, especially during a group project in which members are working from different laptops.

Skype is a tool I frequently use from home so that my parents in Ohio can see my daughter.

In the classroom I have used it to record student presentations and would like to use it to complete a lab simultaneously with another school. Maybe even a long term project in which the two schools Skype to report progress and results. Recording the student presentations was a good experience which the kids responded well to. The particularly liked recording there work in private and then screening it for the class.

Tool #8

http://www.hulu.com/watch/23352/nova-welcome-to-mars

This video does an excellent job of showing what an incredible feat it is to put a rover onto Mars. It provides a human aspect (the sadness of a failed trial; the elation of successfully putting a rover on Mars) that I haven't often seen in science-fact videos. It really helps the kids connect with the technical aspects of the material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghn4lEtdusQ

This is a Steve Spengler video from YouTube. It's a short demonstration that, as a hook at the beginning of a lesson, goes a long way toward getting kids excited about convection (believe it or not). ATTENTION: This video will get blocked if you use any web browser but Internet Explorer.

Tool #7

The photostory process itself is very user-friendly, with voice, text, and images being very easy to upload. However, I can't seem to get my photostory (which I did save as .wmv) to be viewable on my blog.

Update: Well, apparently others can see it but I can't. Don't know why, but that's technology for ya.

Tool #6

I used PB Works last summer to plan the curriculum for the 3-5th grade summer school. It was great because all teachers and administrators involved could add work, suggestions, comments, etc., and then when we met in person everyone was on the same page and up to speed on where our individual work toward the whole was at. This made our physical meetings much more focused and productive.

In the classroom PB works, or any Wiki, would allow group work to happen at different computers, but have all contributions go to a central location. This could go a long way toward teachers being able to keep track of who is pulling their weight and who is not (something I have trouble discerning, at times).