Final Reflection

Introduction

            When I embarked upon the learning journey that was to be this course, I had several goals.  I wanted to increase my own comfort level with Web 2.0 tools, so that I could more effectively integrate their use into my classroom practice.  I wanted my use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom to lead to rich, meaningful, and curricularly-linked learning for my students.  I also wanted to explore ways to teach my students to be active participants in the Web 2.0 world, while still being safe, responsible, and resourceful.  While I had used some Web 2.0 tools in my classroom in the past, I had had mixed results, and wanted to increase my knowledge and competence, so that my future technological efforts would be more successful.  I chose several tools that I intended to explore, but I was fully aware that it was a fluid list, and kept an open mind.  The blogs and discussions of my classmates, the readings I did, the needs of my class, and the conversations I had with my colleagues, all led me to make changes in my list as my inquiry progressed.  In the end, my inquiry led me to explore some fascinating new (to me) Web 2.0 tools, challenged me to find ways to integrate technology into my classroom practice in a meaningful way, and helped me to gain confidence in learning and using new Web 2.0 tools.

Synthesis of Learning

            When this course began, I was an intermediate tech user.  I was comfortable using a range of technological tools in my classroom, but had concerns about online security and digital citizenship.  I also found that technology would often be used in schools just for the sake of using technology, rather than to create a learning opportunity that would not have existed in a lower-tech environment.  I wanted to find ways to use technology to augment my teaching and my students’ learning.  My inquiry project allowed me to begin to do this.

            Over the course of my inquiry, I explored a range of Web 2.0 tools.  Some were useful in my classroom, some allowed me to present materials to my students in interesting ways, and some engaged me in professional learning.  While my blog contains details on my efforts, successes, and struggles with each Web 2.0 tool that I tried, I can summarize my experiences by saying that however I used technology with my students, it engaged them.  Technology is the heart of the world in which my students are growing up, and they are excited when presented with an opportunity to incorporate pieces of this world into their school experience. 

            Brian Kenney, in School Library Journal, said the following:

                     For librarian-teachers, this challenge is even more critical. The new Web is increasingly the pen and paper for young people. It's one of the places they experience and create narrative. It's where reading and learning takes place, where recreational needs are met, communities are formed, and knowledge is constructed.  (Kenney, 2007)  

Bearing this in mind, I was not surprised to find my students highly engaged by technology.  I was looking for more than just engagement, however.  I was looking for meaningful learning. 

            While my students were engaged by the Web 2.0 tools that we explored as part of my inquiry, I found that they needed direct instruction and purposeful feedback if they were to use the tools responsibly and effectively.  Just like when students are learning a new low-tech skill, students need to be guided in reflection on their work, and goal-setting for improvement, based on feedback.  They need a chance to become familiar with a Web 2.0 tool, but also with how to interact responsibly and respectfully in an online environment.  My students were at first sometimes silly, off-task, and even disrespectful to each other when interacting in an online environment, but with direct instruction, their digital citizenship improved.  I believe that this learning will transfer to other online areas of their lives.  Will Richardson (2010) states that students are interacting with others on the Web at an earlier and earlier age, and so they need to be taught the fundamentals of digital citizenship.  Students are going to have a digital footprint, regardless of whether we help them to develop one or not.  We can help this to be a positive experience by modelling respectful, responsible use of Web 2.0 tools, and the development of a positive online profile.  I talked to my students about my inquiry project, and showed them some of the tools that I was using and resources that I was creating.  They were intrigued, and I was able to be a positive Web 2.0 role-model.

            Perhaps the most important result of my inquiry is that I became a much more fluent and competent user of Web 2.0 tools, both for my own personal and professional uses, and in my classroom.  I challenged myself to explore new tools, even when I was sceptical, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I began to understand the richness of the possibilities of the Web 2.0 world.  While there is a lot out there that holds no interest for me, there is also a lot that is relevant, intriguing, and useful to me.  Although I barely scraped the surface of the Web, I am a lot further along than I was before this inquiry started.  While I would still consider myself an intermediate tech user, I now have a much clearer idea of the possibilities of the Web 2.0 world, and a much more positive attitude towards them.

Sharing My Learning

            I work in a small school, with a small staff of open-minded people.  Our school is in the process of updating our technological hardware, and is spending a lot of money purchasing projectors, iPads, Apple TV, class sets of lap tops, and document cameras.  Because of this, it is understandable that we would be focussing our professional development and collaboration on using this technology effectively.  So I am in a good position to share my learning with a group of keen, hard-working teachers.  My colleagues and I share ideas, and learn from each other.  My class has a Grade One class for computer buddies, and my students teach them most things that they learn.  We present our tech products at assemblies and staff meetings, as well as on our school website.  We are learning day by day, and we are sharing our learning with others whenever we can.

Imagining the Future

            My exploration of the Web 2.0 world does not end with this course.  Our students live in a Web 2.0 world, so we, as teachers, must plan our students’ learning with this in mind.  I have already, since I finished my blog, set up blogs for each of my students (in the secure environment of Moodle) on which they will blog as the main character of their novel as they read for their independent novel study.  I have developed criteria for their blogs, and am working on setting criteria for them to read and comment on their classmates’ blogs.  As I continue in my career, I anticipate that I will continue to learn and grow.  Next year, our district is apparently going to begin using a programme that will assign each student a school-specific email address.  This would allow my students to access many of the excellent Web 2.0 tools that I explored in this inquiry, as well as many that I haven’t yet become familiar with.  Secure email addresses would open a lot of possibilities for my students.  As well as this development, my school is investing in some exciting technology, and I will need to learn and grow if I am to incorporate its use effectively into my classroom practice.  The future holds many exciting possibilities, and I look forward to exploring them with the open mind and the comfort level that I developed over the course of this inquiry.  Berger and Trexler (2010) say that “school librarians need to become leaders, advocates, and change agents willing to embrace the digital environment to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information” (p 17).  As this course draws to a close, I feel confident that I will be able to be a leader in my school as my learning journey into the Web 2.0 world continues.

References

Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010).Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital   World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Kenney, B. (2007). You 2.0. School Library Journal, 53 (1). Retrieved from              http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docvi    ew/211823073?accountid=14656

Kist, W. (2010). The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Wikis

Students all over the world, when faced with a research question, turn first, and often exclusively, to Wikipedia for answers.  Teachers and Teacher Librarians, while they often rely on Wikipedia in their personal lives, struggle with what to teach their kids about the site.  I came across some interesting information about Wikipedia while reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.  In it, Richardson (2010) provides some information about how Wikipedia is edited.  He says that errors are quickly found and corrected, and that the efforts of thousands of people working together to create an accurate source of information lead to a product that is reliable and constantly being updated.

That being said, Wikipedia should probably not be the only source of information that kids learn to rely on.  While It is a convenient and reasonably reliable way to start  looking for information, students should always use more than one source.  I have found the Simple English Wikipedia to be useful in my Grade 4/5 class.  I have my class use it with Google Safe Search by starting from Wikipedia for Kids for a safe search that is at a manageable reading level.  I copied examples of an entry from Wikipedia, and the same entry from Wikipedia for Kids to demonstrate this.

For the amount of information my students need to know on any given topic, Wikipedia for kids would be more than enough.  I would also love to one day have my students do some thorough research, and edit an entry, then follow their entry to see if their own work got edited.  That exercise would give my students a real sense of purpose for their research, as well as a clear idea of how Wikipedia is created.

I have not yet had my class create a wiki, but I have plans to.  Before I missed 7 days of school in a row due to illness and job action, I had set up a wiki for my class to build in Moodle.  It is a built in feature of Moodle, and Moodle provides a secure, private environment in which young students can develop their social networking skills.  After Spring Break, I plan to have my students work together  to create a wiki.  Our next Language Arts unit is poetry: perhaps they could create a wiki with different pages for different poetic forms.  They could include definitions, famous examples, and examples of their own work, as well as audio or video recordings of dramatic readings of poems.  I think that creating a wiki as a collaborative class project would be a fascinating process.  I am not sure how it would work, but I do know that my students and I would learn a lot through the creative, collaborative process. The next step would be to invite another class from another school to join in the process!

Wikis can be useful sources of information, but creating them would challenge my students to work together for an authentic, cooperative purpose.

One more note on Wikipedia:  one of my profs in an earlier course said that a study comparing the accuracy of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica was done, and Wikipedia emerged the victor.  Now I don't know if that is true...maybe I should look it up on Wikipedia...

Podcasting

In Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Teaching and Learning in a Digital World, Pam Berger and Sally Trexler (2010) say that the word "podcast" is a combination of the words "iPod" and "broadcast."  It is an audio or video file that is shared over the internet.  Podcasting is a novel way to share ideas and performances, and a fun new form of entertainment.  Podcasts have applications in my personal life, as well as in my classroom.

I am about to fly to Europe, and I need something to entertain me on the long plane ride.  Podcasts, downloaded onto my iPhone, are a way of bringing hours of entertainment with me in one very small package.  I started searching for podcasts on iTunes, and was immediately successful.  I was able to download, for free, archived episodes of many of my favourite CBC radio shows, from The Vinyl Cafe to The Age of Persuasion.  I also bought a season of the radio drama Afghanada. Berger and Trexler (2010) recommended a number of podcasts, and many of these were available to download through iTunes.  I downloaded various podcasts, in genres from history to comedy to travel.  I also followed their recommendations to several sites that allowed me to listen to podcasts without downloading them, and found some that my students would enjoy.

My students love listening to stories and "radio dramas," so they would love listening to podcasts.  It would be easy for me to direct them to either a specific podcast, or to a site with a number of quality podcasts from which they could choose.  Listening comprehension is an important part of our Language Arts curriculum, so listening to a podcast and completing comprehension activities would be a relevant learning activity, and one which my students would find engaging.  Finding quality podcasts can be a challenge.  As with everything on the web, anyone can publish a podcast, so there are a lot to sift through before you find quality ones.  Berger and Trexler (2010) had some good recommendations for individual sites.  Using the podcast directories they recommended, however, was a bit tricky.  The first one I tried did not load.  The second had seizure-inducing flashing ads.  The third and fourth both had podcasts on topics inappropriate for elementary school (complete with graphic logos) featured on their homepage.  Based on my explorations, I would direct my students to a specific site, rather than having them use a directory to find a podcast.

As well as listening to podcasts, my students would enjoy making them.  I have used the program Audacity (a free audio editing programme) to have my students create oral presentations.  I have had them create broadcasts presenting curricular information (i.e. "properties of light") and "Readers' Theatre." They love recording and hearing their own voices, and were extremely adept at using the editing tools to create effective, engaging audio assignments.  I have not yet had them publish their work onto the Web, so I can't realyy call them podcasts.  Although one can upload a podcast onto one of the directories I explored, based on my findings, I would not choose to do that with my students.  I think that I will stick to the safe, private confines of Moodle.  They are then publishing only for the audience of their own class, but they are still publishing online, and for young students, that is a start.

Podcasts are exciting to create, and so many are available to listen to, on so many topics, that they are a great source of information and entertainment.  Exploring podcasts has allowed me to broaden my understanding of what is available, as well as possible classroom uses.

More Prezi

I spent some more time exploring Prezi: both the creation of new material and the viewing of already extant prezis.  My understanding of what the tool can be used for, although far from complete, is certainly more thorough. 
Many people have created prezis to present ideas, probably for a specific group or purpose.  I found a number of prezis about education.  This one by Michael Gerard introducing concepts of 21st Century Education was interesting.  When I tried to find useful prezis on a range of professional development topics that might interest me, I found the selection was limited and the quality questionable.  Anybody can publish a prezi, and no source information is required, so I would say that prezis have limited use for independent exploration and learning.  I found the same thing when I tried to find a  quality prezi that I could use to introduce or review curricular content with my class: selection was limited and reliability and quality were questionable.
Prezi does, however, provide a fun, different way to create your own presentation.  I created a presentation to review the properties of light with my grade 4/5 class.  We have done reading and experimentation around each property of light, and this presentation will allow my students a quick, engaging way to review what we have been working on.  It didn't take me too long to make, and I think that my class will find it helpful and enjoyable.  I especially enjoyed how easy it is to embed youtube videos into a prezi.
While making this prezi for my class was great, I would much rather have my class create and publish their own work than just view mine.  The limitation of Prezi, as with Voicethread, is that each account needs to have its own email address.  If I could get around that speed bump, I think that Prezi would be a great tool to use in the classroom.  Will Richardson (2010), in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has some useful tips and suggestions for having students safely publish their work on the Web.  One of the most important things he recommends is involving parents in any decisions about publishing student work online.  Parents, students, and teachers all need to feel comfortable with the degree of personal information and work shared in such a permanent, public environment.
Publishing work online can help motivate students by providing them with a very real, very global, audience.  With purposeful, targeted teaching, we can help students to safely publish their work in this Web 2.0 environment.  It is then just a matter of logistics: how do we find tools that 30 young children can use at once, when they are not allowed to have email addresses, and our limited budgets make the educational versions of many products an impossibility?

Prezi Beginnings

My blogging project has slowed down a bit lately, because I have been quite sick.  But now that I am back at work (and when I say work, I mean shivering on an "information leaflet line," holding a sodden sign), I am getting back on track.  I spent some time tonight exploring Prezi.  I signed up for a free account, watched a tutorial, looked at a few examples, and then started playing.  My first attempt is very basic, but I figured out the basics.  From here, I will be gaining some proficiency, and exploring educational connections.  It was actually pretty easy and fun to make!  The trouble I see (once again) with using this tool in the classroom, is that each account needs an email address, and that work is publicly displayed, and that school accounts are prohibitively expensive.   So we will see what the educational applications may be.  Warning: my first prezi is about my very cute dog, Lacey.

More Twitter Thoughts

I've been using Twitter for several weeks now, and am growing to like it.  It is a useful source of news and interesting information, in a very convenient format.  I now get much  of my news by following CBC News Alerts and CBC Top Stories. If a story is interesting to me, I follow the link to the full story, which can include pictures, articles, and videos.  If I don't feel like learning more, I simply pass over the headline.  Very convenient.  Twitter also has interesting educational applications.  The hashtags that I mentioned in my last post often contain links to interesting articles related to education, and, because of the nature of the format and the interests of its users, they are often focused on the use of technology in the classroom.  In fact, my next current event is one that I found under the hashtag #sd33 (my school district).  So the implications for personalized professional development are fascinating.  All we have to do is find someone that consistently has interesting ideas (even in just a few weeks I can tell who from the #sd33 conversation is worth following and who I should just skim over), and check their tweets from time to time, searching for ideas and information that is relevant and interesting to me.

Twitter also has lots of potential for use in the classroom.  I am not suggesting that I am going to sign each of the 9-11 year olds in my class up for a Twitter account and set them loose on the world, but there are twitters out there that would be interesting to follow as a class, as discussion starters, lesson hooks, or writing prompts.  Pam Berger and Sally Trexler (2010), in their book Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World, recommend two very interesting twitters to follow as a class.  One is daily tweets taken from the diary of U.S. President John Quincy Adams.  While this is obviously an American text and twitter, it is an interesting concept, and I have started looking for significant Canadian historical figures who "tweet" in a similar fashion.  So far I have not found any, but I will keep looking, because that could be an interesting Social Studies resource.  Berger and Trexler also recommend a twitter taken from Charles Darwin's diary.  While the tweets provide interesting snippets of Darwin's perspective, I found the associated blog, which features full diary entries, much more interesting.  I also recently came across an interesting Twitter event that celebrates part of Canadian history.  on April 14th, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic will host a real-time Twitter event, where wireless messages, including the iceberg warnings that preceded the event, will be tweeted.  The museum compares Twitter to wireless messages, in that they are short messages sent out to the world that link people across distances, and communicate news quickly using the latest technology.  Information on this Twitter event can be found at Titanic Twitter Event.  This is an event that I might view (not at night time, as it unfolds, but the next day) with my class, encouraging them to think about the ways that technology has changed communication. 

That, I suppose, is the key to Twitter.  Technology has changed, and continues to change, communication.  Twitter is a new form of communication to me, and I am enjoying learning about it by exploring its possibilities for personal, professional, and classroom use.  I still haven't tweeted myself, yet, and I still have that one faithful follower, who I suppose is waiting with bated breath for that first tweet!

Twitter: First Thoughts

I have just started using Twitter, and so am just beginning to understand its uses and possibilities.  I follow several CBC personalities, Ted Talks, and my sister.  I receive news updates from CBC, which I find very useful.  I am also enjoying a few # hashtags: #sd33 (my school district), and #edchat (an international community of educators).  Both of these clusters of tweeters (I'm sure those are not the proper terms) contain some tweets that I just skim over, and some that I explore further.  I think that Twitter has some interesting applications for professional development, collaboration, and communication.  I find it a bit odd, though, that I have a follower: someone I've never heard of.  I've never tweeted, so I'm not sure what she gets out of following me...  More thoughts on Twitter as I explore it further.  It wasn't on my Inquiry Proposal, but I am going to add it as one of my Web 2.0 Tools.

Online Discussion Forums: Connecting to the Text

I actually got the idea to add an online component to my literature circles when I was reading Kist (2010).  In his book, The Socially Networked Classroom, Kist brings up the idea of using blogs and wikis as a forum for discussion of lit circle books.  He even gives a specific example on page 84, describing requirements and grading criteria.  While I chose a discussion forum as the most effective medium for my groups, my requirements are similar to Kist's example.  Students are required to make a minimum of one original post and two responses each week.  I provided them with sentence starters to guide their thinking, and each response must use the word because.  Once they have met the minimum requirements for number of postings, students are graded on the quality of their posts.  I use the Reading Literature BC Performance Standard to assess their contributions.  I am finding grading the discussions very interesting so far, because students who shine in written work and face-to-face discussions are not necessarily the stars in the online discussions, and vice versa.  The online discussion forums have given my students yet another way to demonstrate their learning, and so their marks are more truly based on their understanding of their novel.

Online Discussion Forums

This is my second year experimenting with Moodle in my classroom, and I am constantly discovering more and more things that it can do.  Even so, I know that I have only scratched the surface.  My latest Moodle endeavour has been setting up and running online discussion forums as part of my literature circles.  Each week students are responsible for reading the assigned chapters of their novel, completing two paper reading responses of their choice, participating in a face-to-face discusison group, and joining in an online discussion group.  I have worked with my class on structures, expectations, and social responsibility in an online forum, and they have class time to compose their posts and responses.  Students with internet access are also able to post from home, and I have posted a link to the Moodle site on my class website.

I set the discussion forums up with help from our district tech helping teacher (to whom I will be greatly indebted by the end of this course), and we worked together to iron out the few wrinkles that have come up so far.  This is the third week of online discussions, and, knock on wood, things are going smoothly.

The first week, students were really excited to chat with their group members online.  Most posts had little to do with the novels, and consisted mostly of lol's and emoticons.  But after some reflection, goal-setting, and added structure, the second week was much more productive.  Students knew how to log in, post, and reply, and they knew that they were accountable for their posts, both in terms of social responsibility and Language Arts marks.  Discussions were much more focused and purposeful the second week, and I am excited to see how the third week goes.  I have attached a sample discussion thread from week two of the The Daring Game (by Kit Pearson) discussion.  Names are blotted out for privacy reasons.  Please ignore the spelling and punctuation.  That is an issue for another day...

I think that the online component of these lit circles adds another opportunity for students to express and develop their learning.  It is a motivating format, and allows students who are more introverted or slower processors to shine, when they might not be able to in a face-to-face discussion.  Students can take the time to think, and to carefully formulate their responses, as they are not required to respond to a post instantly.  I believe that my lit circles are richer and more widely differentiated for learning style now that they include this online discussion component.  Students are assessed on three different ways of demonstrating their understanding of a novel, and they are learning skills that will help them to be comfortable taking the online courses that are very likely in their futures.

I am posting this at school, and I don't have my text books, so I will add a post connecting this to the readings on another day.  In the meantime, I am looking forward to seeing how the online discussion forums mature throughout this session of lit circles!

Voicethread

The first time I ever made a Voicethread was when I created my Autobiography of a Tech User for this course.  I had a lot of fun using it, found it pretty easy to figure out, and was pleased with the results.  I saw plenty of possibilities for using Voicethread in my classroom, and when I searched the site, I saw many examples of student and class-created Voicethreads.  I had a few concerns, though, because in order to sign up, students would need an email address.  Even if we bought the edu license, students would still each need an email address.  Teaching ten year olds, I am not going to be responsible for managing 24 email accounts. The tech helping teacher for my district said that Voicethread could be used within Moodle, and that using google, there was a way to have one email address broken up into many, and that the students could not use these accounts for sending or receiving email.  I don't know the details, but this would eliminate some of my concerns.  Also, the Voicethreads would then only be visible to other people within the Moodle classroom, so students could create and comment in a contained environment.  There is a teacher in my district doing a pilot with Voicethread within Moodle, and when that is over, it will be opened up to other people who are interested.  I am going to wait to use it with mu students until I can do it in the secure environment provided by Moodle.

In the meantime, I am still excited about Voicethread as a tool.  I downloaded the app onto my iPhone, so I can easily create Voicthreads wherever I am!  I made one to introduce division with remainders to my students, and they were quite positive about the presentation.  They said it was fun and interesting, and they paid more attention because it was different.  I will post the link here.

Division Voicethread

After we watched it, discussing and practicing as we did so, my students worked in pairs and used the iPods that are on loan to another class in my school to create similar presentations using an app called SonicPics .  It works very much like Voicethread, but without the social networking part, since the presentations are saved on the individual iPods.  I am going to try to email them myself, and then upload them onto Moodle so that my students can easily view and comment on each others'.  The kids had a lot of fun making the presentations, and I found that they clearly demonstrated how much they understood about solving problems with division with remainders.  New ways of demonstrating learning tend to be fun and engaging, whatever they are.

I am not sure how legitimate my concerns about students publishing their work on an open social networking site are.  I think that before I did anything like that, I would have to involve students and parents in a conversation about security, safe practice, and the purpose behind it all.  Will Richardson (2010), in Blogs, Wikis. Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, says that by publishing their work to a wide audience, students are empowered, learn that their voices matter, and expect that their voices will be heard.  This seems like a lesson that students, if they are to become active, responsible members of a democratic society (which is our eventual goal for all children), desperately need to learn.  Perhaps we, as adults, need to put aside our trepidations, teach digital safety and citizenship, and help our students dive into a world where their voices count.

Getting Started

The past two weeks have been full of experimentation, learning, and remembering new passwords.  I have signed up for Google Reader (first I had to learn what RSS was) so I can follow my classmates' blogs.  My tech-savvy little sister also told me a few other blogs that I should follow.  I got a twitter account, but have yet to activate it by confirming my email address.  I have practiced making Voicethreads, both on my computer and on my iPhone, and have showed them to my principal in the hopes that she will pay for my class to have the educational version (I think she will), because a number of parents in my school have specific, valid concerns about privacy and security.  I have attended a session on using Moodle, and, after almost being able to set up groups and wikis for my class, am about to meet with the tech helping teacher to "crystallize" my Moodle knowledge.  I have revamped my lit circle unit plan and assessment to include an online discussion component.  I have listened to podcasts on CBC Radio's website.  I also updated my school's library website. So I have been busy delving into the Web 2.0 world, improving my comfort level in order to increase my use of these exciting tools in my classroom.

Inquiry Project Proposal

Over the course of this term, I will be working hard to increase my own comfort level with Web 2.0 tools, so that I can incorporate their use safely and effectively into my classroom practice.  

Web 2.0 Tools

Although this list will likely change over the course of this project, as learning is a fluid process, here is an initial list of Web 2.0 tools that I would like to explore.

• Wikis

• Online discussion forums

• Voicethread

• Podcasts (listening)

• Podcasts (creating)

• Prezi

• Museum Boxes

•  Socrative Survey Tool (on ipods) 

Rationale

I would consider myself an “intermediate” teach user.  I am always up for trying something new in my classroom, but I have concerns about online security and digital citizenship.  I have had mixed results with my use of technology in the classroom, and still have found that my most effective teaching takes place in low tech settings.  My goal for this project, then, is to find technological tools that lead to effective use of student time and rich, authentic learning experiences in a secure, engaging setting.  Students are excited and engaged by technology, but I want their use of Web 2.0 tools to be purposeful and meaningful, and not just technology for technology’s sake.  My hope is that the tools that I have chosen will engage students in meaningful, interactive, and collaborative processes of constructing, refining, and demonstrating understanding.

Goals

My goals for this project are linked to my use of technology in the classroom. 

·         I want to increase my own skill and comfort level with Web 2.0 tools, so that I can more effectively integrate their use into my classroom.

·         I want to investigate classroom applications for Web 2.0 tools that lead to rich, meaningful, and curricularly linked learning.

·         I want to explore ways to teach my students to be active participants in the Web 2.0 world, while staying safe, responsible, and respectful.  

Introduction

I am writing this blog as part of the course requirements for LIBE 477: Special Topics in Teacher Librarianism.  The course is challenging me to increase my knowledge and comfort level with Web 2.0 tools, so that I can incorporate their use into my Grade 4/5 classroom practice.  I am enthusiastic about the places this assignment will take me and my students over the next two months, and I think that I will see clear changes in the way I approach the use of technology in my classroom.

This blog will be the place where I reflect on my experiences and my learning, and where I post evidence of my learning.  The first Web 2.0 tool that I have experimented with is Voicethread, and the results, posted below, will help to elucidate my lifetime of experiences with and attitudes towards technology.

http://voicethread.com/share/2624557/

Join me on my journey!