Wikispaces will allow teachers greater freedom in creating lessons for student that can be accessed anywhere. Teachers and students can work together to make great learning pages. Teachers can create lessons that integrate technology into the Wikispace. Students can go to the site and then create their own Wikipage to go along with the lesson and create their own project, using their strengths and learning styles. It also allows teachers to create lessons that can be started at home and finished at school, or vice versa. There are some design issues with Wikispaces though. It does not give you a lot of freedom to create a visually appealing site and some of the tools are a little complicated the first time you use them. I created a 10th grade American History lesson using Wikispaces. My Wiki lesson can be found by clicking here. The students will start on the WWII Propaganda Homepage. Here they will view a screencast I made explaining what they need to do in order to complete the lesson. I also included a few website links that the students can use in their research. My calendar is also on the homepage. The students are able to see what is coming up and due dates. I think it is extremely important to keep the students informed of everything, so I have also included my lesson plans along with the SLOs and standards we will be covering. This includes students in the learning process even more. Next the students will go to the WWII Propaganda page to start the lesson. Here they will begin their research on WWII propaganda. After they have researched what propaganda is and why it was used, I want them to begin to analyze different forms of propaganda. The students then will need to create a presentation to demonstrate what they have learned. Along with facts, I also want to students to form educated opinions and share their thoughts and feelings on WWII propaganda. Finally I want the students to think of some propaganda used today and if it is as effective as it was during WWII. Students will create their own Wiki page with their "blogs" on the information they are learning. This will act as a collective place for students to go to and learn more from each other. I also want the students to post their presentations to this page. The final part of this lesson is the Lesson closing page. I want my students' opinions on the lesson. I want them to have a say in their own learning. This information will help me create better lessons in the future. It also helps the students own their learning by allowing them to have input in the lesson. I chose this lesson because I have always been fascinated with propaganda throughout history, but especially during WWII. I also prefer to focus on the human focus on WWII. I understand the importance of learning about the war, and all of the politics behind it, but it is the human stories that actually shape history. I want my students to learn this too, so I put the emphasis on how propaganda is supposed to influence and effect people. I will share my grandfathers' stories to make this lesson even more personal. My Grandpa Shirey (my father's side) and my Grandpa Houck (my mother's side) were both in WWII. My Grandpa Shirey was a pilot in the Army Aircorp and flew bombers. My Grandpa Houck was an infantryman and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Making connections to history is also very important and I want my students to see this as well. This video discusses the benefits of flipping a class. This video gives basic instructions on creating a Wikispace for the classroom. Always use a tiger in Inquiry-Based Learning. Calvin and Hobbes was created by Bill Watterson
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By Michelle Nolte and Danielle Judy Technology is emerging at an exponential rate. Technology reaches into every facet of life: Agriculture, Biomedicine, Electronics, and Neuroscience. We cannot even begin to fathom the technological advances that will occur in our lifetime. Here are a few examples of the technological innovations that are currently being developed. In Agriculture, a robot, or an agribot, is being developed to help with the fall harvest. In biomedicine, artificial uteruses are being developed so that every woman has an opportunity to reproduce. An electronic nose is being developed in order to detect spoiled food. Scientists are learning how to harvest energy so that our phones will never need recharging. In transportation, airless tires are being developed. How wonderful it will be when we do not need to worry about having a flat tire!! Emerging technologies are also being incorporated into the classroom. Teachers are utilizing phone and tablet applications in order to engage students. There are numerous phone applications which cover several subjects. Some links to consider are: www.apple.com, www.itunes.com, www.tabletapps.com, and www.appcrawlr.com. Stack the States, for instance, is a wonderful tool to teach young children the geography of the United States as well as state capitals. Keeping with a social studies theme, Social Studies Friendzy is another way to engage students in learning. This app allows students to challenge classmates in a game of answering social studies based questions. Another phone application is Today in History. Students will receive information regarding an event that happened on that day in history. Teachers could assign small reports detailing those events. There are also applications for tablets. Sketch Book Express is a great tool for artists on the go. Quick sketches or digital painting can be done in a flash. Another tablet app is Duolingo. Duolingo uses small lessons to help students learn a new language. Languages include German, French, and Italian, among others. This is great for foreign language teachers and those students who have a more difficult time learning. Emerging technologies not only benefit students, they can also help teachers manage their lessons and classrooms. There are a number of excellent apps for tablets and phones that can track student progress, help with class management issues, and common core guides. Teachers can start dedicating more time to teaching and learning and less of the managerial chores they are required to do day to day. 50 Fab Apps for Teachers is a great site to find a variety of useful apps, but there are also quite a few that will help teachers. One app that may prove to be useful is MasteryConnect. This helps teachers deal with the Common Core more easily. They can search standards, track students mastery, and even connect with other teachers in their same grade and subject areas to collaborate all over the country. Watch the video to see how beneficial an app like this could be. TeacherKit is another app that will make the everyday tasks a teacher must perform more painless. This app allows teacher to quickly manage all of their classes all in one program. They are able to record attendance, grades, classroom behavior issues, and lesson progress with just a few finger strokes. The possibilities with this app are endless. Again, please watch the video to get a better idea of all the features this app offers and how it will help make classroom management tasks easier. There are even apps that can help teachers manage behavior issues in their classrooms. ClassDojo is a highly rated app that can assist teachers in the daunting task of maintaining proper behavior. It keeps track of students’ progress, provides instant feedback to the students, and creates reports that can be shared with parents. This app is more appropriate for younger students, but it looks like it could be tweaked, so that it can be used with higher grades as well. Overall, new technologies are making learning and teaching more accessible to teachers and students. Students can become more engaged in their learning through these apps and “smart” devices and teachers can manage their classrooms more efficiently, which will allow them to dedicate more time to teaching their students. Using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom is a great way to bring all learners to an equal playing ground. Teachers can create engaging and effective lessons by incorporating these tools into their classrooms. Students will be able to become more involved with their learning and be able to take ownership over their education. There are hundreds of sites where teachers can go to find free tools, so they do not even have to use their own money to create their lessons. Follow this link to one list of online tools available for teachers to utilize. I plan on using a variety of technology and web tools in my classroom. These will help me to differentiate my teaching in order to become a more effective teacher. Below are a few examples of some tools I tried out recently. Prezi is a cool new way to make presentations. It is more interactive than PowerPoint and will help to keep the kids in your class more engaged. Students can also use this easy tool to create their own exciting and creative presentations. I plan to have the students in my class take over the role of educator often and Prezi is a fun and easy way for them to do this. Here is a screenshot of Newsmap. This is a site that would be beneficial to any History teacher who ties in current events to their lessons. I plan to try to tie in current events to my Social Studies lessons as much as possible. It helps the kids see a connection between history and their lives today. Below are two screenshots of survey monkey. You can go here to take the survey.
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