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Produsage with Web 2.0

So this week we were tasked with creating an assignment for perspective students to produce something using Web2.0 tools. I thought this was a challenging assignment. I thought so because I do not really know the students that I am teaching. This can be a big indication if such an assignment is going to work. However, I trudged ahead and began to let my mind wonder. I created an assignment where students had to take information from classroom study and put that information on to a wiki page. This page could then be used as a study guide for the whole class. The students would be divided into different groups so we could collaborate to create the whole. After this portion of the assignment students would then create a voicethread that contained the information as well. This might seem repetitive but this forces the students to synthesize the information into their own words and thoughts. It also helps students who are not typical read and learn kids. Overall, I though this assignment c
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Planboard

So this week as we are all working on our various assignments I found something that I plan on using and sharing in the future. This site is called Planboard. Planboard is an online planner. Now just for the record, I am the worst planner ever. Trust me you can ask my wife! However this site I found was so easy to use. I used it this week for our produsage assignment. The plan I had was going to take about a week for students to complete. So, instead of turning in 5 different lesson plans I did the, whole thing on Planboard. I was able to put them into an easy to use calander just like the ones my wife uses except, these are free and online. I could put the subject I wanted to teach, set up classes, and even schedule out the semester. I found it super easy to use. It also was helpful because you could look up standards. This is always time consuming for me, when I want to do something out of the textbook. So for this assignment it was perfect. If you have any interest in this helpful t
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How can we learn on-line

After reading this week I really started questioning how we learn on-line. Most of the time I have struggled with trying to get my students to get things out of using social media tools. I have used the, for extra credit but I still do not get enough participation to see growth using the tools. After reading "Networked Knowledge Activities" by V. Dennen, I can see several examples of activities and how they can engage students. She also says that to engage is to emerse themselves in an on-line tool.  I really think that taking this information and applying it to the classroom will help engage my students. I honestly want to avoid some of the activities because I can implement them in the class with regular activities. For example, collecting, I can accomplish this by ordinary classroom assignments and can ignore on-line tools. Some of the others are better and I think they are going to be fully helpful in engaging students. Activities like curating, negotiating, and constru
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Trust in online communities

Since the beginning of time I have always been told that the most important thing in the world is trust. I still believe this is true whether it be personal or professional relationships. When you enter into a personal relationship the other person is trusting you to be a partner. When you enter a professional relationship the employer is trusting you to do your job. In online communities it is vital to instill trust in participants so that people are willing to participate. If you are comfortable in your network you will be able to fully engage in the community. This is why social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are wildly successful. You build your networks yourself so you are more likely to be comfortable with those you interact with. This is trust 101. The friend model or follow model of the sites allows you to be more comfortable with people in these communities. If you are thinking about building your own network you should make sure that people have a sense of trust to pa
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Edmodo

Edmodo is a platform that enables teachers, students, and parents to communicate and collaborate online is a safe controlled environment. I have used Edmodo in the past. I have not used it in a little while so getting back on there was a little different this time. When I first heard of Edmodo I was a young teacher just starting out and thought it would be a good way to connect with students outside of the classroom to make sure they were staying on top of assignments. I did not get a lot of feedback from students or parents so I stopped using it. I am here to say that I want to use it again this year after having a better understanding of how to use online platforms for students. Edmodo is very teacher centric so the teacher controls the members and conversations on the site. Next week when I get my student rosters I will begin to build a class. During orientation I will have the information posted so parents and students can sign up on the spot and will also have the information dis
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Going offline

So this week has been pretty hectic. A lot of things had to be done for my new job, this class, and things around the house. So on Tuesday I decided to take a little time off of social media and took a step back from the computer. I do this often in the summer because I need to recharge my battery so that I can get ready to deal with 120 students for 180 days. There are some great reasons to go offline and other times it can feel overwhelming. So I am going to share with you some of the pros and cons of going offline. Cons- Going offline can be hard. Most of our lives are on some sort of online platform. If you are not the social media type you still have a lot of communication through online areas. Email is one of those things that can really hurt you if you do not check it or reply quick enough. This is the hardest for me. I communicate with colleagues the most through email. I have to check it everyday or I might miss something important like a training or a meeting. Social media
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Classroom wikis

So a long, long time ago, while I was in college, we were tasked with creating a personal wiki so that we could share with potential employers. I honestly did not know what a wiki was or what purpose it served at the time since it was such a new tool on the web. Now looking back I think that a classroom wiki is a great way to create produsage in the classroom. My idea for the class is to create a space where all students can share what they have learned about the course. I will go ahead and preload in the documents that we are going to cover over the course of the year and as we move along students can add in parts that they enjoyed and found interesting. I want to ultimately use this as a review site for upcoming assessments but this is something that students can collaborate on together. I really think that students will enjoy posting what they know the best and it would be a great way to share knowledge across the class. It is also something that I can control as the administrator
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