2. The most useful tool: Voicethread
Voicethread did a couple things for me. When I was out of the classroom, I
could still give the students an interactive experience, by linking to this site
and putting my own voice on the assignment. It also offered them the
opportunity to view other classmates’ comments and interact that way. And it
made use of the laptops that they bring to class:
You should be able to link to the Voicethread assignment by clicking on the image
3. Another useful tool: Blogging
For the students who are shy about speaking out in class, I’ve
found blogging to be a useful tool. Some students still seem to
view writing on the internet as anonymous, but again, it’s helpful
for them to immediately be able to see how other students in the
class are reacting to the prompt I want them to respond to.
Hopefully, the link on the image will work for you.
4. Successes !
I was able to incorporate a number of the features in this course
into two of the existing moodles I’ve been using: in AP
Government and in Economics. And student participation has
been encouraging.
RSS Feeds
Wikispace link on the Econ Moodle
Voicethread assignment link on the AP Gov Moodle
5. Challenges
For a number of reasons, the Wikispace was the most difficult tool to try and get
used to and to get the students familiar with. I wanted the students to be the
primary contributors, but the site does not allow simultaneous editing of pages,
making it hard to work in teams on wikipages. Students sometimes find
themselves overriding others work. The WYSIWYG editing is fairly limited
compared to other sites they are used to using. I will definitely need more time to
experiment with the features of Wikispaces.
6. Moodle
This is my second year using Moodle and it is my primary tool for posting assignments,
establishing a calendar and communicating with students. I’ve found it to be the easiest site
for adjusting due dates, mapping out units and collecting student work. Although I am not in
favor of public school districts using on-line learning as a primary way of delivering
instruction to kids, I am in favor of incorporating on-line resources in face-to-face instruction.
Moodle is a big part of that.
7. Wikis, Blogs & Web Publishing
Images (except the iGoogle Reader) should link to the websites
Wiki
Xtranormal message
to students
iGoogle RSS Reader
