Blog #3 Safe Practices with web 2.0

When it comes to safe practices with web 2.0 tools and student use, I believe that the values, skills, and effective practice need to be instilled at a young age. As I said in the Ning conversation on this topic I think it would be very difficult to have students in a high school setting start using certain blogging sites without ever being exposed to them before. I am not saying it could not be done but I look at the population of students that I have and I think asking 400 students with various academic tracks using certain tools and I just think they would have a rough time with it. Now if all of these students used these types of tools in a classroom setting from day one I think the task would be less daunting. I would like to attempt some of the concepts and skills that we learned in class but I think I would have to choose one of my classes that is on a higher maturity level or I think that my life may consist of just monitoring the site and making sure nobody writes anything inappropriate.
When reading chaper 7 in Solomon and Schrum I cannot help but be impressed with the student/teacher code of ethics. I think that all of the points in that section are important but my favorite one is everyone being held accountable. As a teacher I believe that you need to be accountable for everything that is going on and as a student as long as you practice within the guidelines of the class everything should run smoothly with whatever 2.0 tools that the class is using. My other issue or question concerning practices with 2.0 tools is how do you get your school to see that these teaching tools are such an asset to a classroom and convince them that we need to have access to them. I have been trying to get our sites that we use for class unlocked since day one and nobody seems to have any answers for me. If a teacher cannot even have access to the sites how can we introduce them to our students?

Blog #2 Research and the reflective practitioner

Overwhelmed is the best word I can think of when describing all of the web 2.0tools that I have looked at over the past week or so. Actually most of the tools that we have used or discussed are all new to me, I never had any idea that there were so many different learning devices that could be used in the classroom. When being overwhelmed by the variety I was not too overwhelmed by the complexity. I thought that a lot of the tools I looked at were pretty easy to use even though it was only at a quick glance.
When researching I thought how graphic organizers would be a really good asset to my teaching but I also think that a wiki would help me as a teacher and also the students. At my school classes meet on a six day cycle and for my classes every third meeting we are in a classroom the other meetings being in the gymnasium, so I thought to myself it seems like I am always reminding the students what to do and what assignments are coming. If I were to establish a wiki it would save me a lot of time and be very beneficial to the students. Overall I was amazed at the information and tools that our out their to use. I only wish that our district would make it possible for the teachers and students to access these websites.

Ideas for project

My initial idea was to create a project based learning lesson that would take place in a health classroom setting. My thought would be to have the students put into small groups and have them research a specific type of addiction. The project would take place over a few class periods of research and collaboration. One idea I had was for the students to create a mind map on www.mindomo.com where they would have to create a map on their specific addiction and upload videos and articles as well as their own personal research on the topic then they would share it with the class through the site. I also had the idea of using voicethread, which was discussed in class to do the same type of thing where they would tell the class about the addiction and have pictures to go along with it.