Challenges 8 & 9

Challenge 8

My wikispace link:  http://srobinson3.wikispaces.com/

A wiki editing project allows students to work collaboratively on a project in the classroom, in the library, or at home.  It does not matter where the students are they can still go online to the wiki project and complete the assignment.  Members of the group can go to the wikispace to check the work at any time as long as they have internet access.  They can manage the progress of the assignment easily. With the traditional in-class group work technology will not be used as often.

What is the difference between collaboration and cooperation?  Collaboration is a relatively new concept and is supported by tools such as wiki.  Collaboration requires for students to work together to achieve a common goal using higher order thinking skills.  Cooperation is the act of working together.  Students must learn how to work through their differences in opinions and come to a conclusion together.  Students look to the teacher for help during these situations and cooperation is something that should be modeled by the teacher.

How can collaboration be taught?  Collaboration can be taught by allowing students to work in groups. Students need the opportunity to work with others and allow the teacher to help to guide them as they talk through their differences and come to a conclusion.  Students should also be placed in different groups often.  They do not need to also work with the same people.

Challenge 9
I used the following rubric 2 (link below) while assessing the three wikispaces.  I looked over the following wikispaces:  Lori Ann Gibson, Nicole Hackett, and Stephanie Blackburn.
Rubric 2
All were engaged and communicated with team members.  They were also very organized.
Rating; 7

Challenges 6 and 7

Challenge 6 
This is the link to my Netvibes page.

http://www.netvibes.com/stephrobinson#General

I like how you can create a private page and a public page.  There are several widgets to choose from in each category.  Next week, I will allow my students to go to this page to search for information they can use for their biography project.


Challenge 7

I spoke with my colleague Nicole Hackett about how we could use "reverse mentoring" opportunities to stay abreast of digital citizenship.  We both teach third grade at L.E. Willson Elementary School and we often work closely on projects for our students. Next week, we are having our students complete a biography of a person of their choice.  We read a biography about Gertrude Ederle last week and we want them to create an extension project. Our students have used Storyjumper and Storybird in technology class.  We are not very familiar with either of these tools.  Since our students have used and created items using them in technology we are assuming the will be "reverse mentors" during this project.  My students recently created a Storykit on the iPad about a natural disaster.  We have an iPad cart at our school so the students were able to work on their own iPad.  They were able to act as "reverse mentors" and show me and each other several tips and tricks about using Storykit.   Next week while working on our biography projects we will use an iPad again to conduct their research.  I am looking forward to learning more tips and tricks they will show me while conducting research.

Challenge 5

Go Mobile!

I set up an account on Remind 101.  This is an awesome idea, and I am so excited about it!  Remind 101 allows parents to receive text messages from me about school functions and/or lessons.  The best part is that they will not know my cell phone number.  Important messages that do not make it home in the students' folders will now be delivered to the parent's mobile device. My first text will be about our Valentine's Party and Dance on Thursday, February 14th.

https://www.remind101.com/classes/378511/messages

Challenge 4

I have created an edmodo account to interact with my students.  I am excited about collaborating and discussing lessons with my students through this tool.  I am also excited because my coworker also set up an account, and our students will also be able to collaborate.  We collaborate and teach our students the same lessons, so they will be able to talk about that on edmodo. I know they will love this! We are about to begin a biography project and will allow the students to communicate via edmodo about their assignment.

www.edmodo.com/stephrobinson

Google Reader

Google Reader helps you find and keep track of interesting stuff on the web. You can subscribe to your favorite websites, and keep up with what's popular. New content comes to your Google Reader when it's posted, so you don't need to visit individual sites.  Reader keeps track of which items you've read, so you only see unread items when you come back. If there's a blue border to the left of an item, Reader is marking that item as read. It is similar to reading a magazine that you design. 

Pros:  Reading the RSS feeds is simple

Navigating Google Reader is easy

Allows you to label feeds

Cons:  Can't label items automatically based on past choices

You can't annotate items

Connect and Reflect-Challenges 1-3

Connect

I created a PLN page.  This is the link to my page http://edupln.ning.com/profile/StephanieRobinson.

I am excited about using this because I had never heard of this before.  I also a PLN on the Flattening Classrooms page.  This is the link to that page http://flatclassrooms.ning.com/profile/StephanieRobinson

The last thing that I did to "connect" was to update this blog!  I am looking forward to keeping it up to date.  

Reflect:  These three challenges have taught me just how much one can learn from connecting with other people.  These people may be across your town, state, nation, or across the world.  I have never really thought about how beneficial it would be to communicate with other students and educators globally.We can all learn valuable information and share ideas with each other.  My favorite form of communicating is through the blog.  I love looking at other blogs and getting ideas.  I am looking forward to learning how to post work that I have created for my classroom to share on my blog.