In the past several years, the annual MBEA conferences that I attended have shared many Web 2.0 tools. I have tried several in my planning and added several to my classes. The reading this week from Chapter 10 covered some I already knew about and introduced me to several new ones but going into the listing of tools is Chapter 11 was exciting to me. Since starting the MET program, I have been able to learn more of the sites that I had heard about in the conferences. It takes time to learn how to use these tools and decide how to use in the classroom. I think because I "have" to use the programs as a student, I can justify spending the time it takes.
I teach a class this semester called "Technology Communications". This is our second computer class and I try to incorporate some desktop publishing, presentation sites, a little of web design and I am really kind of free to try anything that involves using technology to communicate. With that basis, the course content can be adjusted as I find new tools to add - one of the reasons Chapter 11 was exciting for me. My students are adding word clouds to their desktop publishing documents and using various sites for presentations - more advanced PowerPoint skills, PhotoStory, Prezi, MovieMaker, photo collages, Voki, etc.
After looking at the sites discussed from our reading this week, I decided I wanted to try one of the tools to be used for blogging or discussions. I've experimented with Edmodo and Moodle. Our school has Edline for class management which has a discussion option. For this assignment, I decided to try the PBWorks site. I set up a site and invited a colleague to be my "student" to see if I could get it to work. I was able to set up a discussion case study and she was able to respond. I would like to be able to get some type of discussion board set up for my Entrepreneurship class next year. I am hoping to incorporate case studies into the class and I think this would be a good real world experience for my students. We are going to try to have alumni in business work some with the class and it would be a great benefit if they could be involved in the discussion. Using an online tool like this would include all students, even those who are hesitant to participate in the classroom.
While researching uses of PBWorks, I also found a sample of a teacher who used it for online classes.
http://cappello.pbworks.com/w/page/11284393/FrontPage
Next year, I know that I will be teaching Accounting 2 as an independent study and this could be the option I need to work with that student.
Another example I found for this tool was a teacher colloboration site. Lessons were shared for all the teachers in a school on the site. This is a great way for all teachers to contribute and all students to have a variety of lessons presented .
http://mrswilchersprekclass.pbworks.com/w/page/21832740/FrontPage
It sounds like you do a fantastic job! I also tried out the PBworks. I found several pages already made. I would like to continue my investigation on this...I think it would be a very useful tool. What grade levels do you teach?
ReplyDeleteThis year I have juniors and seniors only. In my Tech Comm class I have 3 juniors and 24 seniors. Next year I will be the only business teacher and will have 9-12 scattered over 7 different classes.
DeleteHow great to be able to design a technology course! I agree that it does take a lot of time to be able to explore each technology tool and figure out how/if you are going to incorporate it into your curriculum. There are just so many options out there and I am always afraid that if I decide to settle on something to use that I am possibly missing out on something great that I just haven't found yet! I have not explored PBWorks much at all, however I am now going to give it a good looking over. Thanks for the links!
ReplyDeleteYou are probably getting a ton of new ideas and tools from the MET program! It sounds like there are a lot of great tools that you have already been able to incorp into all of your classes.
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