Final Presentation for Wikis, Blogs and Web Publishing Final Presentation

1. Wikis, Blogs and Web
Publishing Final
Presentation.
What I have learned
By Michael Sussman

2. Oh the times, they are a changin
-Not just an excellent Bob Dylan song
-This is the truth about students today
-21st Century Learners use different tools and have a
different mindset when they learn
This video explains the changes

3. How does this affect teaching
-Student spend hours online in the digital world
-If teachers want to reach students and prepare them
for the digital world they will live in, they must fully
embrace the digital tools available to them
-This course helped me to explain or better understand
the following technological tools: Wikispaces, RSS
feeds, Blogs and Glogster.

4. Wikispaces- For or against
What I thought
As a support teacher, I did not need a wikispace. I
co-teach numerous classes, and my co-teachers
all have wikispaces that I help create content for.
My students will overly rely on me to give them
information, and not continue to become more
independent
I was not sure how to organize my wikispace, or if it
would even be user friendly
What I learned
I could not have been more wrong. Through this
course I have found how to completely integrate
all of my classes into one helpful resource for my
students.
My students are coming to me everyday to tell me
they are finding information on the wikispace and
studying more each day.
I realized that I can group my review sheets by
subject. I can also directly embed quizlet sets
into my wikispace (my kids love this). Finally, I
was able to post videos and links to my reading
program. This has truly saved me time and helped
my students more and more each day.

5. My Wikispace - mrsussmanudsd
=>You will notice on the side bar there are sections for
each subject
=>I also have a study skills idea section, and a page on
multiple intelligences.
=>I have had students who have gone on the wiki and
asked for me to do a lesson using a different
intelligence teaching style

6. The aspect of the RSS feed I found most useful for education was the mass amounts of ideas
you can put on website.
In addition to having numerous different websites, you can also custom make your blog to
lead students to useful tools on the web
It is much easier and more focused than using google to scour the web for information.
Students know where to look and can search by subject.

7. The Differentiated Instruction Blog
To be honest, I had never blogged before. I found this process to be very difficult. I am very
tech savvy, but i still had difficulty loading images and files onto my blog. I found that the
wikispaces were much more useful, from a creation standpoint.
With that said, I found looking at other people’s blogs to be very interesting and eye opening. I
learned a lot about what it takes to make a blog. I certainly have a newfound respect for
bloggers.
My blog looked at ways to differentiate instruction. I examined the theories behind it, stated
ways to build a rapport with students and gave tips on how to create differentiated instruction
without losing any of the content.
My last post actually contained two versions of a social studies test: one with and one without
accommodations. This way fellow educators could see the final product of a modified test to
be used in a differentiated curriculum.
Click here to see my blog for yourself
Clic

8. Glogster?
I truly had no idea what to expect when I went on glogster. At first glance it just looked like a cluttered
webpage/powerpoint presentation slide. After looking through, and creating one for myself I could not have
been more incorrect about glogster.
Glogster is completely user friendly. Students and teachers can quickly and easily create “living” presentations.
With a few clicks of a button you can add youtube videos, animations, custom pictures and links to hundreds of
websites. No longer will students be forced to create print outs and flyers for their projects. Now they can
create weblinked resources for all to use.
I am going to post a few pictures below of glogster projects, and my next slide will be a screen shot of my
glogster.

9. The screenshot does not do this glogster justice. Click the link to be see it
one more time

10. Final Thoughts
I have always used as much technology in my teaching as possible. I have found students are much better learners
when they are motivated, and whether we like it or not students are motivated by technology. This course has
not just told me, but shown me how to fully incorporate a much broader range of interactive and online tools
into my personal pedagogical practices. I feel much more prepared to dive head first into the digital
generation, and to pass my knowledge and enthusiasm to my students.
I am now able to create wikispaces, blogs, rss feeds and interactive presentations for any class or skill. On top of
that, I now have the confidence to teach students how they can use these essential educational tools on their
own.
I feel like this course has helped me to be a better teacher, and that means a great deal to me.
Thank you.