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=media type="custom" key="4687619"media type="custom" key="4687845"= = Welcome to my ICT Reflection Page. =

Here you will find my reflections on the Web2.0 IB workshop that I am currently enrolled in.

=Oct 30, 2009= PODCASTS Podcasts are easy to find and also easy to create. You can create podcasts using a program such as Audacity (free downloard) and Garageband, which comes with most mac computers.

I have gathered some podcasts for you to check out.Some I was able to embed into this wiki, others are links to be clicked on:

How to use Skype in Education: [] Here is a podcast that explores web2.0 tools and implications for schools:

This podcast was created by an elementary school. The students review books. You can find it at: []

This podcast comes from odeo.com This is an example of how a language teacher can produce a podcast that can be used to teach a language-in this case, French. media type="custom" key="4687881"

This podcast was created by audacity. It is a rough first cut, without sound effects and the first part in a radio script about internet safety.

=Oct 28, 2009= Slideshare.net Here is an example of how we can use slideshare.net This is a powerpoint created by one of our middle school students and uploaded to slideshare. The powerpoint is now accessible anywhere with an internet connection. media type="custom" key="4668173" There are tons of already made slideshows that you might be able to use in your classroom. For example, I browsed for "delicious" and got this slideshow which might prove useful to those interested in delicious.com media type="custom" key="4668189" =Oct. 8, 2009=

One of the great aspects of the IB Workshop Web2.0 is that we are encouraged to find web 2.0 tools. There are countless on the net and I will list a few here are pretty cool...
 * //NOTE: Many (but not all) of these are banned by MIS as "file sharing". I am trying to see if I can get this banned lifted for teachers, and in some cases, student users. In the meantime, you might want to take a look at some at home...//**

www.wordle.net Very cool site. You can produce "word clouds" that can be useful for brainstorming, vocabulary, word associations, or just for plain fun. [|www.slideshare.net] Another great site! Here you can upload your Powerpoints and view other presentations. There are many presentations on the site that can be used in your classroom and all are tagged and easy to find. Kind of a "youtube" for presentations. This site is marked as "file sharing" thus you might have to request access. Here is an example. If you cant access it, you might need a flash player upgrade. Try this at home if it does not work from the school firewall. media type="custom" key="4546480"

**http://docs.google.com/** Need to collaborate on a document with someone? Want to have a group discussion and save it on a document? Google docs allows you to create a document and share it with others. Anyone you give access to can open to document and save the changes. It seems that more than one person can be working on the document, which is really cool. Another one banned as "file sharing" but it should be easy to get access to. There is always home use as well....students can all contribute to a group story, or answer a discussion question and comment on others responses. www.edublogs.org We already use this here at MZIS. Joel has really developed a book review site and I have started to use it to keep students and parents informed about ICT work. Sometimes I have students reply to questions I post which creates a discussion page. The students at KK post book reviews and respond to each others comments and reviews. It really promotes literacy and creates a "buzz" about certain books. Check out our site at www.mzis.edublogs.org

www.delicious.com Don't forget to bookmark delicious.com. No, wait, you need to first have this great web based bookmarking service! See my earlier posting below on why, if you only choose one web2.0 application this has got to be the one!

www.voicethread.com You can view or upload photos here. The difference between normal photgraphs and this site is that you can then post audio or written comments on the photo. In other words you could have a group discussion on a painting, an animal, a historical photo, etc. You could also use it to create a digital story or even a portfolio. I can see this application being a great platform for language development as well. Imagine a picture and your students must add audio postings in spanish, indonesian, etc.

www.makebeliefscomix.com You can create short comic strips in no time at all. You cant save them but you can print them or save to .pdf.

[]

A site that helps students get organized. Calendar, to do list, whitboard, places for quizzes, grades,create mind maps, write a reflective journal, etc.

[|www.twitter.com] Basically just a microblog. You can write a short sentence or two and send it out to your "subscribers". Some teachers have students send tweets out to the group during lectures or group work and they get posted in real time on a projected computer screen. Students can also send tweets out as they reflect on leering throughout the day. Most tweets now seem to be trivial, but why not change, "I just drank a cup of coffee", to "I just learned that there are more species of ants on one tree in the Amazon rain forest than in all of Great Britain".? Students who reflect on learning and can collate their thoughts in one basic place may start to take more ownership over the learning process. Parents could be subscribers and learn throughout the day what their child is doing at school and could be receiving tweets on their cell phone.

=September 18, 2009=

I am currently taking the IB Workshop Web2.0. I am finding the course to be excellent and I would like to use this Wiki to give you a chance to learn about the many exciting tools that I am becoming familiar with through the workshop.....

Before I start, mark down this website; [|www.delicious.com], More on this later, but its the most useful and simple little site I have used in quite some time.

What exactly is Web 2.0? What are some examples of Web 2.0? What is a Wiki? What is social bookmarking?

**Web 2.0**
The second generation of usually FREE web services. People are not content with just "surfing" the web any longer. They want to interact with the web, and that's where Web 2.0 comes in. People want to comment on blogs, share pictures on social networking sites (Such as facebook), upload videos, Twitter (microblogging), share information on Wikis, and co-author webpage's and documents. Ok, so that's what Web 2.0 means....but what does that mean to educators?

Here are some ideas for how we can use Web 2.0

**Wikis**
-Whats a Wiki? Well, your looking at one! A wiki is basically a web page that allows for anyone to contribute towards the content (if the author wishes). The page can be edited so that as long as you are a member of the hosting site, you can edit and write directly on the page. Imagine a group site that students contribute information or pictures to help construct meaning on a subject or concept. Wikis are excellent places for students to create "learning journals" where they can reflect on what they are learning and it allows for other students to write comments back to the student's journals. Sign up for Wikis at http://www.wikispaces.com/

PLN (Personal Learning Network)
This seems to be in "vogue" among educators around the world. Basically, it is just a network of resources and contacts that educators and other professionals are using to connect globally as well as gain information from various sources. There is a remarkable amount of resources out there right now, so much, in fact, that people are finding that they need a mind map to keep in touch with everything they use! Here is an example of how one might compare the typical teachers learning network with that of a "connected one" ([])

Social Bookmarking:
Basically, this is a way to save your bookmarks, or internet favorites, in an organized manner (using tags) and then sharing them with the public, private groups, or just for you. Use [|www.delicious.com]. Do you save internet bookmarks to your computer at work and then wish you had the website when you transfer computers? Do your students conduct internet research on one laptop, save the bookmark, and then cant remember which computer it was on? Well, worry no more....www.delicious.com allows you to save bookmarks to your delicious homepage, so that you can access them on any computer with an internet connection. You can set it up so that when you add a page to your favorites, it goes directly to your delicious page, as long as you are logged in. You can also "tag" each favorite so that once you compile hundreds of pages, you can find them easily. A tag you might use is "PYP", "Middle School Science", "Villas in France", etc. You can also place descriptions of each website into your delicious page. This is a great tool for students as well. It will help them stay organized as well as give them the ability to compile important learning resources for future reference.