Peer comments for week 7

For this week constructive commenting, we were asked to look at two of our peers postings and then leave a comment. I enjoy looking at the different voice thread project that we made in class. I chose one but it did not have a title. It was educating viewers about the breed of dog she has. I left a comment.

I chose to check out a blog page titled "How Technology Helps". While looking at the different post, I noticed one for her voicethread. It was about a book titled "The Alchemist". It was a graduation present. I have never heard of the book so I decided to check out the voicethread. She did a great job and I left a comment for her.

Using A Wiki for Higher Levels of Learning

I watched a video by Paula White on wikis and collaborative learning. "Parallel-Play or Collaboration-Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Learning" is the title of the video. This was a very informative video for me. I learned about several uses for a wiki and how it can be incorporated into a classroom.

I thought it was interesting that a wiki can also be used with Bloom's taxonomy. Paula has even create a Bloom's rubric wiki. The video talked about how a wiki can encourage higher levels of learning. Students learn better when they are interested in the subject or it is something that they are passionate about. This is true of all learners irregardless of their age. Students are encouraged to develop deeper levels of engagement in their learning process.

I never would have thought of a wiki as a tool for global collaboration. I am aware of video conferencing and collaborative projects via the Internet. I think it is neat that a wiki could be used for collaborative presentations and project. What a great way to inspire students to learn more about their interest outside of the classroom.




I think that a wiki can be a great tool for learning and education. Students learn better when they are interested in the subjeckt and through collaboration. I see many possibilities for using wikis in the classroom. I am thinking of science and history while the subject usages are endless. Wikis can be incorporated into anything that is being taught.

Who is the Wizard of Apps?

Were off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Apps? Huh? What happened to the Wizard of OZ?




I was asked to watch this video as a homework assignment and post a reflection about it. This is one of the K12 online videos. This is about the topic of Digital Literacy and how it effects the technological world of today. It also takes a look at the safe use and practice of today's technology such as fair common use of items on the Internet. It also talks about how to use social networking sites safely and to protect private information.


I had never heard of or thought about proper behavior for technology before this class. This is a great way to educate about this topic. The information shared gives you great websites that can be used by educators. Some of the websites, help educators use technology safely for them and their students. I learned a lot from this video and bookmark Joyce's new tools workshop wiki in my Diigo account. I do not seem to be very good, when it comes to research and technology. I found the part that talked about research and the Internet very informative and helpful for me.


My wife and I both checked out a website (to check our personal digital footprints) that is a people search engine. We were surprised to see the results. Our blog sites are our first digital footprints. Since searching is my weakness, I also checked out the link for searching on the left side of this wiki. It list all kinds of search engines and provids all kinds of information to help with searching. There is even videos to help you have a better understanding of how to search information.

I think this a great tool for educators. I will use the new tools for search wiki in the future for personal and professional use of today's technology. I really thought creating museums, in a world history class, was cool. The students started in the middle ages and searched artifacts and then shared them with others in a wiki museums created for the class. There was a letter from Joan of Arc that was really neat. I think it would be fun to do something like this in my classroom.

Week 6 Blogs

I have started interacting with student blogs, who are in Mrs. Kolbert's class, to do my constructive comments assignments. I love to do all kinds of puzzles. I like a good challenge. There was a post there about unscrambling a word. Of course, I was curious and had to check it out. This was a different comment than my previous ones. There is nothing that needs to be corrected. After spending sometime trying to unscramble the word, I decided to ask for a clue. Not something that would make it to easy but that would narrow the field of possible words, such as a category. ex. a science word or a math word.

I chose my second blog because the title was completely foreign to me so I though I could learn something from it. It is called WaxWing quatrain and it is a beautiful poem about a WaxWing bird. I had never heard of this bird before. There were only 4 lines and it was so beautifully written. Mrs. Kolbert had left a comment encouraging him to include a picture of the WaxWing bird with the blog posting. I think it would be a great idea also, so I encourage him to include a picture.

Week 4 Student Comments

I posted a comment on "The Wizard of Apps" Posted by lsmith. My second comment was on "The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening" Posted by Nay.

Internet Etiquette

I watched the video Digiteens:Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers. This film is about Internet etiquette and safety created by teenagers. I thought the information that was presented was helpful and insightful. I was shocked by the Driving while texting segment. I was surprised that driving while texting was responsible for more deaths than driving under the influence. I never realized that there is actual protocol for using the Internet.

I knew that some children lied about their ages when using social media networks, such as Facebook, but I had no idea that there were so many children doing it. I liked the last segment or project the best. I knew there were risk that had to do with the Internet and identity theft but I did not realize that this could affect our children. I am aware of shopping on the Internet but it is not something that I do myself. I was blown away to hear that 9 year olds are shopping on the Internet and have had their identity or their parents identities stolen from them. I did not realize that there is a great need to educate children and adults about proper use of the Internet.





I realized that I am also very uneducated about digital citizenship and what it involves. This is an area that I definitely need to spend some time learning more about. I had never heard of the term digital citizenship before this assignment. There seems to be some concern about when, where, and who should be responsible for teaching it to our children. I feel that as teachers we should make sure that our students know how to safely use the technology that we are working with in our classroom. My eyes are being opened to all of the wonderful teaching tools of technology but at the same time I want to know that I am safe and so are my students.

What is project learning?

One of my assignment was to watch the Project Learning: An overview video for my t4t class during week 4. This video is from the Edutopia The George Lucas Education Foundation website. Their goal is to improve education in our public school systems. Project learning encourage student learning through using what they have learned in real-life situations and projects.

I think this is a great concept to use with junior high, middle school, and high school students. I feel that the students need to have the basics before they can build on them with these kinds of projects. The students choose what they want to learn about and then complete a project based on this knowledge. Everything in project learning revolves around the student. The students are responsible for their learning and completion of assignments and project. They become their own managers and directors of their learning and projects. This is great for the over achievers but what about the average student. I am a procrastinator, by nature, and I can see where I might not do so good in the project learning environment.

When I was in school, we did not have these type of activities or group projects. The closest I ever got, was doing a research project that only used the books in the library and encyclopedias. There was no computer or Internet to use at that time. Your best help was the library, parents, and teacher. Not much room for individual creativity in education during this time. As a matter of fact, it was discouraged instead of encouraging it. Not at all like it is today.

I think this would be great to incorporate into my classroom. I want to teach junior high, middle school, or high school science. I think these types of project are a great way to see what the students have learned by using them in real-life circumstances. There was one question that kept going my through my mind while watching this video. So I am going to close this with some food for thought. What if the student has no desire to learn or for that matter are only in class because they are forced to be there? How would this type of learner fair in the project learning environment?