Edmodo... Collaboration in the 21st Century

Edmodo: a online collaboration to which allows students to engage with other students from different places.

For the past couple of weeks, my instructional technology class has had the privilege of engaging in the writing activity with a 5th grade class from a local middle school. The task was for the students to write a portion of a story, and then 3 or so people from my class would write the next part of the story. The student from  the middle school would choose the part they wished to add to their story. This continued for several more rounds of writing and choosing. At the end of last week, the students then wrote their final drafts with the portions they had chosen. 

We also designed a magazine cover of what a education magazine would look like if we were to win teacher of the month. We uploaded the covers, and the students voted on which one they liked best. 

This was all made possible by the help of Edmodo. 

Everyone, including the teachers of the classes, seemed to enjoy using Edmodo to do collaborative work. 

I think the 5th grade students' number one reason for liking Edmodo for their writing is because we could read their writings and make comments on it. It also allowed them to explore their creativity more, because the students in my class gave them "prompts" in how to expand their portions of their stories. 

Their favorite activity from using Edmodo was the collaborative writing activity. They enjoyed having older people read their writing and give them feedback. I think it was my favorite activity too, because it allowed me to help build their self-confidence and show them that if they use just an ounce of imagination, they can accomplish so much!

I learned that Edmodo and other online collaboration is something that can be very useful in the classroom, and should be explored even more. The young students do appreciate any feedback that is given to them. It makes me feel good knowing that I was able to help a student express his or her creativity. 

If I were to use some form of collaboration in the classroom, it would possibly be another writing activity  like the one I participated in with this class. Writing is something that is becoming "outdated" and I feel that if it is instilled in students that writing stories as they get older, they will become better well-rounded individuals. Also, they will be able to develope their skills in accepting comments about their work from other people because they will have that experience with using Edmodo. 

A Tale of Two Pictures

 

 These two pictures were from news articles about the Gulf Coast Oil spill. I was asked to give my interpretations of these two photos. As far as which picture made President Obama look more concerned, I would have to say the top one. The look on his face is very solemn. His eyes have a very distraut look about them. As someone who works behind the camera, I know how important it is to accurately convey the message I am trying to get across. If you cloesly look at the bottom photo of Presiden Obama on the ship or whatever, you can see that he has a cheerful smile on his face. If your country had just experienced a major

catastrophe, a smile is something that people would want to see.

As far as how much control he looks like he is in, I would have to say neither. The the top photo, it looks like the president is in an office setting, not really doing alot. And the bottom photo, it seems that he is on a ship, but we, as the audience, don't know if it is in the Gulf or a different location. If I were the photographer and wanted to show that the President was in control, I would have shown him helping the countless bodies who helped clean up the oil spill, or shown him talking to the people of BP. I know we have all heard the cliche, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Well, a pictures is also worth alot when trying to convey a message.

Digital Literacy and Traditional Literacy... One Big Family!

There has been debate after debate on the classroom topic of digital literacy. Some professionals think that digital literacy goes hand in hand with traditional literacy... however, other think not so much. I have to go with the first group. With the 21st century pressing forward, it is becoming apparent how technological our world is becoming. It is important that the students of tomorrow are digital literate along with being traditional literate. And in reality, how can you have one without the other. Students need to know how to find info while not using a computer or the internet, but they should also be taught how to de research while navigating the world wide web.

Magazine cover

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

Digital Photo Story

In my Instructional Technology class, we had to create a digital photo story for one of our favorite teaching quotes. Here is mine!

Digital Story: The New Essay

Digital stories are becoming more popular in the 21st century classroom. In the past, teachers would make their students write 10 or 15 page papers on different subjects. Due to the massive amount of page requirements, students tend to focus on the length and meeting the demand, rather than the actual material being studied. However, if teachers go down the technology route, they can have students make digital stories, and incorporate the information the students have gathered on a certain topic. The students, then, can focus on the main concepts of the topic and include the most important information into the story.

I also think that if digital stories would become the new way of making essays, the students attention span would more than likely last longer, because their focus would interested in the changing scenes of the digital story,  rather than all the words that would be written in the essay. It would also hold the interest of other people.

Another bonus to digital stories: no more printing 15 pages papers... we can finally save the trees!