Ecology Podcast

The Blog I picked is about Ecology. In this podcasts students learn more about ecosystems, biomes and the effects that humans have on the environment. My 4th grade students are currently studying ecosystems and I believe this podcast would enhance their knowledge of the subject.

ePals

The ePals sight offers much to teachers and students. This website is a way for teachers and students to collaborate all over the world. I believe some of the most useful features include locating classroom penpals, virtual field trips, teacher and student work, and ePals book club.

In my classroom I could use several of these features. I would like to set up penpals for my classroom to practice their writing, so I think it might be nice to pick a different area in the world and locate penpals that are looking to achieve a similar goal as me. Also, I will use the virtual fieldtrips in my classroom to give my students a better view of different parts of the world.

Bubblr

All About Seeds

I looked into the website Bubblr. I tried out this site because I recently had my students create comic strips about what they learned about seeds. I created my own comic strip about seeds. This is something I could use as an example and either have the students create their own hand drawn comic strips or even use bubblr to create a comic strip.

Flickr: Creative Commons

Skiing on the Brain

I have just recently learned that there are six types of Creative Commons on Flickr that basically tell a member how they are allowed to use and share another members pictures that they make available to the public.

A brief overview of Licenses

Attribution License:

Others may use your copyrighted picture but must give you credit

Attribution-NoDervis License:

Others may use your copyrighted picture but only if they use the original (not change it in any way) and give the photographer credit

Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDervis License:

Others may use your copyrighted picture but only if they use the original (not change it in any way) and give the photographer credit for noncommercial purposes only

Attribution-Noncommercial License:

Others may use your copyrighted picture but must give you credit, only for noncommercial purposes

Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike License:

You allow others to use your work (and derived images) for noncommercial purposes but only under a license identical to the original license

Attribution-Sharealike License:

You allow others to use your work (and derived images) but only under a license identical to the original license

Microblogging: A Spiders Web

This week I read two articles about microblogging. The two articles both discussed mircoblogging but using two different ways. The first article about microblogging used a tool called micromobs. The second article used a tool called edmodo tutorial. Both of these articles/videos gave me a better idea of how I could use microblogging in my classroom. All these tools similarly remind me of facebook, or even voicethread, I think microblogging could be used in the same way in the classroom as a voicethread. Here students could share their thoughts and reactions to a topic. Microblogging could also be a way to get information to students, such as if you wanted them to read a post of a professional in a certain field the students could follow that professional and learn from them.

Professionally this could be used to stay current with different educators in the field. You could stay connected with your own staff through microblogging or educators all around the world. Microblogging is a way to create a web, to stay attached and connected to others in the field of education.

If you're going to give them garbage

vs.

On the blog ideaconnect, i found a post called "If you're going to give them garbage". Right away this blog caught my attention, as it contained a youbtube clip from one of my favorite shows The Office. Within this post I found this quote by Alfie Kohn, “Far less interesting to me than whether a student has learned what he was supposed to is the question, ‘Has the child been given something to do worth learning?" I think that this quote is extremely meaningful. It tells a a lot about a teacher. What are you giving your students to do? Is it something worth while that they should be learning, is it interesting to the student, if its not an interesting topic did you make it interesting to the student. Often we blame children for being off task, however I believe that there are many valid reason a child may be off task. I often think to many of my college courses, when I sat there off task. Why was I off task? Was I not interested in the subject, was the lecture important to me? Had I been sitting there too long? Or did the professor present in such a way that I couldn't bare to keep my eyes open another second? I believe this quote is something that all educators need to take into consideration when teaching.

http://ideaconnect.edublogs.org/2010/10/04/if-youre-going-to-give-them-garbage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ideaconnect+%28ideaconnect%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Voicethread 2.0

Voicethread 2.0

I visited the site voicethread 2.0. On this site I can learn more about ways to use voicethread in my classroom. Also, I can connect with other teachers and collaborate on voicethread projects. This site creates a network of learners, therefore expanding my knowledge of voicethread through others experiences.