After discussions with some of you, I revised my original mindmap to include more detail for some of the categories.
Networks have definitely changed the way I teach and the way that I learn. My mindmap is composed of my favorites, however, there are so many that I used daily without even thinking about it. To reflect upon my favorite networks, I begin with my personal connections – facebook and pinterest. At this point, I still use facebook to keep up with friends and family and to form personal connections with other professionals. Pinterest is a network that I use in my daily life and for quite a while I thought it was for sharing fantastic ideas about decorating and cooking or fashion. I found out that this is a fantastic place to find some of my favorite lessons and projects to use in the classroom.
My favorite social networking tools that I use often with my fellow students, teachers, and my own students are the blogs and wikis. Until I started the Walden specialist program, I had not used either, and thought that my discussion drop box was really getting outside the box. The only connecting happening there was between myself and the student. Now, I am finding that the wikis and blogs are inspiring and motivational, encouraging my students to enter conversations for the first time ever. We are really learning from one another and the knowledge really does connect to real life when these tools are used correctly.
The major technology tools that I use in my classroom and teaching preparation are ITS Learning and Edmodo. The ITS learning is our new personalized learning system and the more I train on this program, the more I like it. It is so student friendly, and has chat capabilities, fantastic organizational capabilities, along with the technology that will identify personal needs for the students, allowing me to facilitate and monitor the learning as I should be doing! Edmodo is like a facebook for the schools and I have found more resources through connections on this site, shared apps with my students, and connected to several organizations through this one.
The Virtual tools are awesome and I am comfortable with the go animate site that allows me to create cartoonish lessons or turn group projects into animated discussions and presentations. This is a free site and has some interesting characters that can be selected. The students love to put themselves into another character's shoes and tape a debate or learning activity to present to others via our network or in the classroom. Noble is a virtual world that I am currently working with and its capabilities are amazing. I have quite a ways to go on this technology; however, the lessons in which I have participated create an unbelievable world of engagement. Students are able to create avatars and work together in protected worlds as they solve problems that are completely connected to real life situations.
As I share information about using one tool, another networking resource comes to mind, and as I read the blogs of my classmates, I see tools that I use often myself. There is no end to the digital tools and networking sites available to us and sometimes, the sheer quantity becomes overwhelming because I am anxious to try them all! I can see that our blogs this module will demonstrate just how effective the connectivist theory can be for growth in the area.
I commented on the following blogs:
http://loridodd.blogspot.com
http://lyndamarshallsblogpage.blogspot.com
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI like your mindmap. I like how you separated the items into categories. Mine is altogether only because I think I use all of the sites for all the categories. We use so many of the same sites. I have not used Edmodo but have checked it out in the past. I use Schoology which I think works very similar to Edmondo. Noble sounds awesome. My students love to create avatars and real world situations are highly necessary in class. I am excited to check that out and use it for my classes. Thanks for the information. Lori
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your mindmap. I like how you categorized the different networks. I began trying to do the same, but I found that so many of my networks overlap personal, professional, and school. You placed Pinterest as personal. I love Pinterest, and I use it all the time, but while I love finding personal goodies on there, I also largely use it for instructional ideas. I believe everyone's networks overlap in purpose.
Karen,
ReplyDeleteNice mind map! I'll have to try the tools you mentioned. I have heard of the cartoon lesson creation but seem to have so little time. I use Camtasia and created an account with Screencast to share the videos. It's a nice tool and allows creation of presentations from either a screen capture or powerpoint with the ability to add quizzes.
Tracy