iTeacherEd Project: Using Technology Wisely in the Classroom

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Preservice Module #4: Blogging & Software: What's It Good For?

• Introduction
• | Task
• | New Encounters
• | Concept Mapping
• | Presentations
• | Spreadsheets
• | Blogs
• | How-To Tutorials
• | Assignment
• | Conclusion

Introduction

This module covers topics including Web Logs (Blogs/Blogging) and Software (Concept Mapping, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Photo Manipulation). This module is an overview of some of the commonly used programs and software that are used by practicing teachers in Saskatchewan schools.

Task

In this module, students will explore and evaluate resources and software for classroom integration. Students will be provided with a variety of links and information related to software and blogging and be asked to determine what software is appropriate for use in achieving curricular and common essential learning outcomes.

New Encounters

Whenever we encounter a new software or technology, our job, as a teacher, is to determine what it is good for...how can it be used to improve student learning?

It is important to ask questions like:

1. What is the program?

2. What does that mean to me?

3. Why is it important for my curriculum area?

4. What are learner outcomes that can be linked to this?

5. How can I use it in my teaching?

6. Will it improve student learning?

7. What is 'better' about this software, technology, etc.?

These questions are a guide for helping you to decide how to best use the technology in your teaching. It is suggested that you use them whenever you are exposed to a new technology or software.

Concept Mapping (Inspiration, Kidspiration)

Concept mapping is a general method that can be used to help any individual or group describe their ideas about some topic in a pictorial form. There are several different methods that go by names like "concept mapping", "mental mapping" or "concept webbing." All of them are similar in that they result in a picture of someone's ideas. The concept map is a constructivist tool for planning, providing, and assessing instruction. Concept maps graphically illustrate relationships between ideas. In a concept map, two or more concepts are linked by words that describe their relationship. Concept mapping, mind mapping, tree diagrams, organization charts, spider diagrams are all terms used to describe graphical organization methods

Concept Mapping Home Page:  http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm

The Concept Mapping Classroom:  http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech164.shtml

Concept Mapping:  http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/conceptmap.htm

Concept Maps:  http://www.inspiration.com/vlearning/index.cfm?fuseaction=concept_maps

Presentations (Microsoft PowerPoint)

PowerPoint is a high-powered software tool used for presenting information in a dynamic slide show format. Text, charts, graphs, sound effects and video are just some of the elements PowerPoint can incorporate into your presentations with ease. Whether it's a classroom lesson, a parents' group meeting, a teachers' seminar or an unattended kiosk at the Science Fair - PowerPoint shows you how to make a powerful impression on your audience. Source: http://www.actden.com/pp/guide.htm

Spend some time exploring links on the 2Learn.ca website and find some innovative uses for PowerPoint in teaching and learning. The website is located here: http://www.2learn.ca/teachertools/multimedia/mmediahowto.html#Presentation

If you have never used PowerPoint™, don't worry the link below will take you to a number of tutorials on getting started. If you have used PowerPoint™ before then take a bit of time to explore some new features or help out a fellow student who may be struggling with it.

• PowerPoint™Tutorials at Telus 2Learn
• PowerPoint™Tutorials at the CRDC at the University of Lethbridge

If you have never used PowerPoint™ before (and even if you have) you may be wondering about what makes a good presentation. Well, here are a few links to websites that discuss good PowerPoint™ design:

• The Craig Web Experience - Presentation Tips
• Building and Giving Presentation Tips
• Road Tools - Quick PowerPoint Tip

Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel)

Electronic spreadsheets simulate ledger paper. They contain words, numbers, and formulas arranged in rows and columns. Typically, a spreadsheet is a list of similar items, with each row representing a particular item and each column representing some particular characteristic of those items.

A spreadsheet is a grid of cells that are arranged horizontally in rows and vertically in columns. If you put numbers in these cells, you can tell the program to perform mathematical operations on the numbers. The advantage of a spreadsheet is that when one number is changed, every number that depends on it is recalculated automatically and changed as well. MUCH easier than the traditional ledger.

In teaching, what this allows you to do, is to show students how different numbers, give different end results. Exploring different possibilities and outcomes is very easy with a spreadsheet.

Today, most spreadsheets can also make graphs of their data. If you use spreadsheets to teach math, science or social studies, there are all sorts of things you can do to enhance student learning. Check out this math graphing site.

Spreadsheets can help students visualize, understand, and predict data patterns. (Try using a spreadsheet and chart to show data patterns and changes in data.)

Spreadsheets are useful anytime that numeric and text data need to be displayed in columns and rows. (Think rows and columns... seating charts, calendars, grade books, check lists, tally lists.)

There is increasing recognition that the end result of computer literacy is not knowing how to operate computers, but to use technology as a tool for organization, communication, research, and problem solving. This is an important shift in approach and emphasis. For teachers this shift requires that you to think of applications of the software...integration! Explore the following useful links for further information on spreadsheets:

A Variety of Spreadsheet Ideas for Classroom Use:  http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow4/may99/spreadsheet.html

A Quick Tutorial to Microsoft Excel: http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/alummis/excel/exceltutorial.html

Sample Microsoft Excel Activities: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_excel.htm#sample

To Excel in the Classroom is Elementary: http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/kadkins/spreadsheet.htm

Statistics Canada (Lesson Plan site from Stats Canada) Lessons to use with your class, also includes data sets that can be downloaded. Check out the teacher page!

Spreadsheet Theme (this site has everything including beginning tutorials, graphing exercises and more)

Creative Ways To Teach Graphing

Integrating Spreadsheets into the Classroom

Using Spreadsheets to Compare Provincial Stats (Lesson Plans)

Worm Watch site (with lesson plan ideas for spreadsheets)

Blogs (Blogging)

The word blog is short for web log (weblog) and can be used as both a noun and verb. As a noun, a blog is referred to as an online journal or web diary. As a verb, 'to blog' me ans to write on one's weblog. The author can talk about anything and everything in his or her blog.  Blogs often contain links to relevant web sites or bits and pieces of information that the author finds interesting, often which relate to his or her focus.  

Components of a Blog 

A weblog is a reverse-chronologically organized site with the latest entry appearing at the top of the page. When viewing a blog, one normally sees the main page of the blog (the most current information) and has access to an archive of postings via hyperlinks. Blogs are typically accessible to the public—the whole world can view them.  Blogs are updated using these main items in each entry:

a) Main Body - where personal commentaries, ideas, and/or stories are typically written in first person.

b) Date/Time Stamp - to show the day and/or time of the entry.

c) Title - to give a general idea or topic of what the entry is all about.

How does a Blog work?

Blogs are very simple to use—making them appropriate for virtually any classroom setting.

Creating your own blog is now incredibly easy because there are Web-based toolsets that make the management of your blog incredibly simple. The most popular of these toolsets is Blogger, but there are now many others as well.

Creating a simple blog is free and only takes about five minutes. You enter your name, e-mail address and a few other pieces of information. You select "the look" (template) for your blog from a set of standard templates. Click a few buttons and you're done.  

Now you can add new entries to your blog. Basically, all you do is type in the entry and push the "post" button to post it. You can edit the entry as much as you like by clicking the "edit" button. When you are happy with the new entry, you push the "publish" button to make your new entry visible on your public blog. 

One of the best Web sites I have found recently is called http://www.2learn.ca/ I added a short entry about it to my blog in about 10 seconds. The entry says simply:  

I really like this Web site: http://www.2learn.ca/

That's it. A blog entry can be that simple. Or it can be an entire story. It's all up to you.

Hosting Your Blog

You have several options on where your blog can live:  

Your blog can live for free on the Blogger.com blog site, called Blogspot.com. You create a custom URL for your blog and Blogspot.com does all the work of hosting your blog. For example, Marshall Brain's Blog can be found at http://MarshallBrain.Blogspot.com. Since the blog hosting is free, Blogger puts ads at the top of your blog.  

You can pay Blogger.com money for more services. For $15/year, Blogger.com will turn off the ads. For a monthly fee you can add other features, like the ability to add photos and sub-pages to your blog.

You can host your blog yourself on some other Web site. Every time you "publish" your blog, Blogger uses FTP to send the latest HTML code for your blog to the chosen location. Since you are doing the hosting, there are no ads.

The incredible simplicity of blogging is one of the things that makes blogging so popular.

The entries in a blog are usually stream-of-consciousness. There is no particular order to them. For example, if I see a good link, I can throw it in my blog. The tools that most bloggers use make it incredibly easy to add entries to a blog any time they feel like it.

One thing about blogs that is so fascinating is the interlinking. There are perhaps a million people keeping active blogs, and bloggers often tend to look at other people's blogs. When they see something they like in their favorite blogs, bloggers will often link to and comment on it.

All of this tight interlinking has created a phenomenon known as the Blogosphere. The Blogosphere consists of all the cross-linked blogs. Once you arrive at one blog in the Blogosphere, it will often have links that connect you to many of the other sites in the Blogosphere. You can bounce around in the Blogosphere for years if you like that sort of thing.

Many blog readers enter the Blogosphere and find one (or a few) bloggers they really like. For example, you might have a blog you use to keep up to date on the latest technology, and another to keep up to date on the latest news, and yet another that discusses issues of classroom management. The blogger is acting a lot like a DJ on a radio show, choosing stories, links and/or snippets just like the DJ chooses songs. People who like what the blogger focuses on each day come back and read that blogger every day or so.

How does a Blog differ from a discussion board or a web page?

What makes blogs unique in comparison to discussion boards and web pages is that individual student can take ownership of them. Unlike a discussion board which is shared by the entire class or group or a web page that is the responsibility of one individual to design and update, blogs allow individuals to take responsibility for creating, maintaining, and promoting their site. Blogs provide unique uniform resource locators (URLs) for each individual log—so each individual has their own ‘website’.

Important!

Professionalism: Any material posted to your blog MUST follow the professional code of conduct. .

Creating a Blog: Go to: http://www.blogger.com/signup.g or http://www.blogger.com/ and select "Create your Blog Now"

The what key? When creating your blog, you use the 'Enter' key (there is no 'submit' button). This is not necessarily intuitive.

Making Changes: When you make changes to your blog you need to save AND publish. To make changes to the look of your blog (add links etc.)! you need to go into Template view.

Inserting a Picture: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=324&topic=17

Inserting links into the body of your text: Use the following HTML code:

<a href=http://cloudchamber.blogspot.com/>Dale's Blog</a>

Copy the entire line from < to >. Replace the text "http://cloudchamber.blogspot.com" ! with the URL you want to link to and replace the text "Dale's Blog"  with the name of the site.

Readings and Resources

Conclusion

Whenever we encounter a new software or technology, our job, as a teacher, is to determine what it is good for...how can it be used to improve student learning?

It is important to ask questions like:

These questions are a guide for helping you to decide how to best use the technology in your teaching. It is suggested that you use them whenever you are exposed to a new technology or software.

References

About.com. Web Logs FAQs Index. Retrieved February 3, 2005 from:  http://weblogs.about.com/cs/f.htm