Global Collaboration

I find it amazing that there are so many different opportunities to bring new ways of learning into the classroom. Being connected to the world teaches students learning is not only confined within the walls of a school. That you can learn where every you are and there are student just like you learning the same things and wanting to learn the same things. I liked the
The Global School Net and Kid Link because they both offer great information for both the students and the teacher.
It is important for teachers to be learning just as much as the students. Being open to new projects and learning ideas is important. I loved that The Global School offered projects where both teachers and students can win prizes. Sometimes having a goal can really motivate anyone especially to do very well.
Kids Link is also a get website. I loved that it really motivates the student to learn and displayed the students creativity and work. My favorite is that it has the website in so many languages.
In my classroom I would definitely use both websites because they are similar but they offer so many different projects. For global cooperation the tool I would consider using in my classroom is gabcast because it is interesting to record your projects and be creative with your personally and this is a great way for many people to connect.

Videos for Learning

More and more we see sites like YouTube and GoogleVideo evolving and it is a great benefit for learning. I came across funny videos, cartoons and speakers for teaching and learning ESL. The video I enjoyed the most is Nick Mitchelmore and he lectures on how to get kids motivated. He is a creator for ESL games. He stresses that variety is important and not to lecture students. His lectures teach how to get students speaking and knowing the different levels they come from. I recommend his videos for any teacher that works with ESL students. His videos come in parts and they are all interesting.

tweet.... tweet...

Getting your messages out by tweets is one fascinating way. Its like your own little bird that makes your messages short and sweet. I am still trying to find my way in the Twitter stream but scooping out the tweets for the past 2 weeks has been interesting. The technology buffs and educators online have really got me interested in becoming more of a tweeter but I haven't made that step yet. Being connected to a group of people that share the same common backgrounds, to share information that can be beneficial to everyone is something you can not take for granted. I do like the convenience of Twitter and I plan on incorporating it into my career as an educator.

Twitter and the Classroom

Twitter is a great tool to be familiar with, and I definitely will consider using it in my own professional development. As a educator, it is very important to be well aware of what is new in the educational field. Being able to be flexible with our teaching is important and gaining vital information from other teachers and professionals with an educational background is helpful in becoming well rounded. In the article "Educators Test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging Tool", Lucy Gray, the lead technology coach for the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago said “I’ve really grown as a teacher through all my interaction with [other educators] through Twitter,” he says. “It’s constantly showing [me] new tools and better ways of doing things. I’m constantly learning new things about using technology.” I find it very easy to use Twitter and allowing only 140 characters makes it easy to get the information needed. Trying to balance work and home, you can find it very difficult to go to workshops or surfing the Internet for new learning approaches. But with Twitter you can post short links or read other posts and you don't have to use up so much time. It's convenient and easy to use.

As for using Twitter in my classroom with my students, I might take a different approach. I do like the idea of " Exploring collaborative writing", according to the article written by Grosseck and Holotescy "Can We Use Twitter for Educational Activities". Using Twitter more for developing better writing skills as an extracurricular activity might be an easier way to introduce it. George Mayo, an 8th grade English teacher at Silver Spring International Middle School in Montgomery County, developed a Twitter account and allowed his students and students from around the world to participate in writing an ongoing story called Many Voices. This is a great idea that I would consider doing with my own students. It is a way of using a fun technology with learning that all students can enjoy.

When reading both these articles, I did consider how I would monitor using Twitter especially with younger students and the idea of using Youth Twitter was a great idea that was created by Paul R. Allison, a teacher in the East Bronx, where he wanted a use Twitter with his students but also wanted to be able to monitor what was posted. I did try to look for Youth Twitter online but was unable to find it, but hopefully in the future it can be available and I can gladly use it in my classroom.

Bloglines

Using bloglines is so convenient and reading blogs that I am subscribed to are easy to read. I want to comment on the blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity. and the article Numeracy and Reading Development with the iPhone Weather App posted by Westley Fryer. He writes about motivation and how his daughter, who is 5 and is fascinated with his iPhone. She likes to use the weather application and she announces the weather in their city and cities that they have family in.

Fryer explains how it is important to be a good teachers at home, as well as school. His daughter is in kindergarten and he uses the example for morning circle time. He thought it would be very interesting if the teacher had an iPhone and a student can give the forecast for their city and other places all over the world. I think this is such a fun activity and a great way to use technology at a young age. As educator we need to be creative, Not everyone carries an iPhone but we do have computers in school where we can have the students look up the weather or news and share it with the class. Finding creative ways to teach basic things is important. But most of all, finding ways to motivate your students to learn is the challenge.

I did enjoy this blog and the blogs that I have saved on my blogline.

Social Networking

I was trying to find a group that can help me balance being a mom and becoming a teacher. I found that many women balance parenthood and a professional career. The group I thought that was interesting to me was Hybrid Mom. I can pick up tips and join different groups with mothers that share common similarities and I won't feel like the only women on earth carrying a load.

Hybrid Mom offers many discussion boards and blogs. They have many different groups and you can create your own page. They feature a different hybrid mom every week and they have their own magazine. I find this social network worth joining.

Connectivism

A learner is like a quilt, the more pattern blocks added, and the different fabric it holds is like the mind.

The more we learn and the different ways we learn, builds a beautiful display of knowledge. No one can stop the quilt maker from adding as much patterns to the quilt and us as learners don’t need to stop adding information to our minds. As we learn, we are gaining an unlimited amount of data and we can store as much as we want. As the quilt grows, it becomes an amazing work of art and as the information needed changes, so can the pattern of our quilt.

According to George Siemens “the likelihood that a concept of learning will be linked depends on how well it is currently linked” (2005, January). The way we link our quilt together depends on how well we understand the concept of learning. Also with our quilt we can add different patterns to fit the times. As Siemens explains in his video “The Network is the Learning”, he said “what we know today is not as important as our ability to stay current”. So the information today is not as vital as what the information need to be known for tomorrow. When we add new patterns to our quilt, it is important that are patterns are current, so we can build with the trends.

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning

The Network is the Learning