CALL # 5

 

I think that from all of the three blogs that I chose to follow, edudemic is definitely the best if only because it changes constantly and always presents new ideas of how to use new technologies. This week in edudemic the blogger explains How I Use Twitter In My Classroom.

The blogger found a new way to engage his students into math. Since the students hate writing, he didn't think the Twitter solution will work, but surprisingly students do love texting!

He opened a Twitter account to the whole class where they each get a math prompt and they need to write about it and explain. In the end he lists more ways of using Twitter in math.  

 

Apparently, freetech4teachers.com is also a great site to learn from for it received the Edublog Award for Best Ed Tech Blog for the fifth time!

Byrne, the blogger, writes about the new blog that he created about Apps for school http://ipadapps4school.com/ where you can find different Apps for different purposes. I checked this site, which seems friendly and the Apps presented are pretty nice, though I don't understand how lower grade students have smartphones in this early age?

 

As for the course, I found some of the sites are good and convenient to work with while the others are not so good. For example, in the tab 'listening to sounds', the music effect libraries as GRSites and Freesound are great, have a lot of different sounds, and they all sound authentic. The sounds in http://www.flypittsburgh.com/flykids/guessSounds.htm, however, aren't open immediately on the site but you need to wait for each sound to be opened on the Media Player. It's a waste of time.

 

 

 

CALL # 4

 

Edudemic blog presents The 12 Most Popular Ways College Students Use Smartphones .

They present an infographic from Online Degrees that shows in a nice way the statistics about when and how much students use their smartphones (basic, news, and throughout the day). When the most interesting and I would even call it a scoop is the fact that 47% of college students don't have a smartphone.  

Flipped classroom blogger tries to refute the myth that flip learning is all about the videos. He claims that the video is only a tool that stands for direct instructions that takes place one-on-one via the videos. The videos don't replace the lecture/r, they only allow more quality learning that will occur when you meet your students face-to-face.

In "free technology for teachers" the blogger introduces the "graphic stories", which is a way to teach math by videos, that was created by  Dan Meyer and Buzz Math. Meyer uses videos in order to present his students a mathematical problem in a more authentic and realistic way than the regular workbooks. In the blog, you can find a link of Meyer lecturing in TED, where he explains how it works.  

 

On this week, the tools of technology that I like very much are PhotoFunia, of course, an awesome and great site that I'll probably use a lot (and I've already did...).

I like the Scribd website of images that are relevant to the 3rd - 5th grades. The Andertoons website is wonderful. I spent a lot of time on Lunapic editor, which is great. and I must say that the bookmark is very helpful and has a lot of value. 

CALL # 3

The writer of the blog "flipped classroom" has only recently wrote about what is a flipped classroom.

This method has more than one possibility of teaching when it comes to the field.

One  way is when the "teacher creates (or uses others) videos which students watch at home.  And then some of the class time is used to help students with what used to be homework". Another way is when "students work through the content at their own pace and don’t move on until the reach mastery of each unit." (http://flipped-learning.com/?p=1073#more-1073). Therefore, the blogger prefers to define it as "flipped learning" and not classroom, and to emphasize the advantages of this model of learning.  
The blogger of "free technology for teachers", attended to the the third day of the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire. An annual event that honors the legacy of Christa McAuliffe. I googled it up because I had no idea what this is. Apparently, Christa was a teacher that had been chosen as an educator to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project but unfortunately was killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. This conference has been established in her memory. Every year since 1986, the conference is devoted to the use of technology in all aspects of education. (Wikipedia). When I read about Christa, I think that it's amazing how much one can achieve as an educator.
In edudemic, Adam shared about his new experience of teaching a class set of 30 iPads up and running. He learned about the difficulties and of how is the future of education might look like. I think it's fascinating and hard at the same time.                      

 

CALL # 2

I found three blogs that interest me the most. I think that the common thing to all of the three blogs is the way they are design that captured my eye. They're organized, nice to look at, and their content is interesting.

On one blog, I read about flipped learning. http://flipped-learning.com/ In the model of flipped classroom the teacher creates (or uses others) videos which students watch at home.  And then some of the class time is used to help students with what used to be homework. I think that it's an innovative way of teaching and studying. I didn't explore all it's advantages and disadvantages yet but I'm sure it has a lot to offer.

The second blog is edudemic http://edudemic.com/. It's a blog written by teachers and students and it contains a large amount of ideas, lesson plans, aritcles, and of course how to use different tools of technology in learning. One of the suggested tools is called "pinterest", which is an online pinboard to organize and share things. If I understood correctly I think that it's something between a blog and a bookmark.  

The third blog that I entered, free technology for teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com  is in some way more simpler than the others and suggests a tool that I will probably use in the future in my class. The idea is simple and fun (I don't know about the execution). There's a page that designed in order to introduce and show how to use various free video creation resources. Personally, I like editing so I could make videos about different materials, and I hope this would be a helpful tool.
 

CALL post #1

I read the introduction of the course, which sets the course as very appealing and interesting.
It seems like it'll be great and productive on-line course for the students who'll do it later as a group.
Still, I anticipate to learn new things about the media (?) and technology. I must say that sometimes I rather not to know too much because otherwise I feel lost. Meaning, I know that the technology offers unlimited options for research and exploring but one cannot see the wood for the trees (is this used correctly?). Anyway, I'm sure I'll gain a lot out of this course and enrich my technological knowledge.