Parent Website - Experience and Readers' Comments

Wednesday, April 27, I "launched" my parent website, entitled CCCA Kindergarten Kids!! on Weebly. It was definitely a learning experience to build and design my first website! After getting accustomed to the mechanics of Weebly, I found that it was very user-friendly, in that I could manipulate the 'Elements' components to customize the pages to my needs. I really enjoyed being able to create a "place" where the parents of my students could better see and understand what special activities and events their children enjoy and learn about. Having the opportunity to combine text, pictures, video and links to educational websites makes it much more personal than simply communicating using a weekly newsletter. Our class is blessed to have a number of engaging, unique learning experiences to introduce content and review and reinforce it in memorable ways. I was pleased with the way that the site personalizes kindergarten for the families. I learned a few important basics about photography and filming, and to try to include each child somewhere in the website, whether in still pictures or video format. I have learned to use a few technology tools to create the site, such as Voki, Wordle, Windows Movie Maker, and several educational sites for younger students. I hope that the site will make a stronger and more effective home to school connection, and that families will feel more a part of their children's school day.

I did receive a few comments about the site:

• Awesome!!!!!! (from my teaching partner :))

• thank you.... this web site is fantastic!!!

• Thank you Mrs. Johnson! That was absolutely WONDERFUL! I enjoyed cruising around and looking at the different things. Thank you again for all that you do!!!

• WOW - what an awesome website!! It was so great to see all the pictures and videos - we hear about a lot of what happens at school but it is great to actually see what we are being told to help put it all together!

• This is very nice. Thank you for sharing. Is it a public site? If so, I would request that names are not used and events are not listed until after they have occured. (I responded to this parent that no names would be used and I would intentionally be aware of privacy and security issues).

I have begun to plan more web pages for special activities and events, to post on the site shortly. Doing this project made me much more aware and appreciative of what the creators of websites, videos, newspapers, etc. go through to create a final product to communicate to an audience. But the end result has been rewarding!

Woody Norris Invents Amazing Things - TED video

Woody Norris invents sound-related devices, one of which can target and channel sound to particular locations with a clearer more intense quality, calling it 'hypersonic sound'. He has marketed his invention, and sold it to the military, which uses it to create the sound of troops where there are none, thereby fooling the enemy. He has also sold sound devices to the ABC Network, Sony Entertainment ('Jabber' headphones), and Safeway Food Stores (for broadcasting advertisers). The science behind the invention is to create sound out in front of the source, not directly from the source itself, which can therefore amplify and purify the sound. He claims the concert industry could use it to assure a front row concertgoer hears the same sound quality as the backrow patron. The relevance of Norris' video talk to education is that he feels sometimes education closes peoples' minds to new and different, untried possibilities, because they feel that they've been taught the most recent innovations, and aren't willing to explore other possibilities. I think in some ways he is right, because education can channel students' thinking, much like the sound waves concept he has invented. It doesn't always promote divergent thinking, but may try to direct students' thoughts to one 'correct' answer. I would be interested in Norris' educational and employment background, just to see if he was more of a maverick and pursued his own ideas and ways of thinking. Very interesting video!

The Death of the Flip Camera - What a Big Mistake!

http://http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/the-tragic-death-of-the-flip/?ref=personaltechemail&nl=technology&emc=cta1 Although I have had only three occasions to use the Flip Camera, I am totally sold on what a great product it is! As I am not very tech-savvy, I appreciated the user-friendly appeal of the conveniently sized device. I just used the Flip camera yesterday, to capture our kindergarten mega-learning stations event, with about 12 different measurement centers and 44 rotating kindergarteners, over an hour's time. I had never used the Flip without a tripod, and so I was a little doubtful about the quality of the footage I would create. I went from station to station, to try and record the essence of the station's objective - kids having fun learning about various facets of science. I have to say that, in that hour's time, I was able to video each child, engaged in whatever station he or she visited, experimenting, exploring, sharing what was learned with their group members. I must have recorded about 25 different short segments, and I was impressed by what I saw on each one. The picture quality was great - the color and clarity were super! If I decide to use the audio, that was audible in each case. I found that due to the light-weight aspect of the camera, it was so easy to manipulate, as I panned from one child to another. Also, by just the touch of one button as a toggle switch, I could quickly catch special moments on video, which I probably would have missed with a more complex device. As to the New York Times article by David Pogue, I would totally agree with him. He was absolutely correct in giving the Flip camera a '10', for all the reasons I stated above. I didn't know all the 'behind the scenes' reasons that the parent company likely discontinued the Flip. If Pogue's allegations are correct, what a sad decision the company made, on several counts. Getting rid of a great product, eliminating all those employee jobs, not realizing what a gold mine they really have - all ridiculous, from the point of view of those who would be buying such a wonderful product. All future novice videographers will be truly missing out on access to a tool that could ease them into the world of technology. I plan to get as much use out of our school's Flip camera before it dies a natural death - at least ours will have lived a useful life and made this teacher happy!

ISTE February 2011 issue article - Brain Training With Video Games

http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-february-march-2011.aspx I just read an interesting ISTE February 2011 journal article, Brain Training With Video Games, by Curtis Boehmer. He has worked over 30 years in a Michigan school with speech and language delayed students, and has sought effective ways to support their academic achievement. He certainly seems sold on an intensive, research-based intervention program using video games to teach attention skills, visualization, sequencing, patterning and spatial relationship abilities. The program does involve a 45 minute, 4 day a week commitment by the students, over a 12 week period. Boehmer admits that teachers of these students didn't see any visible progress until after 6 or 7 weeks, but then noticed academic gains from the students. I agree with Boehmer that the video games' inherent engaging format, repetition of skills, and integration of different abilities is what helps make it successful for these students. But he also admitted that after students "peak" at a certain point, they don't really show more gains unless their teacher steps in with encouragement, to spur them on to further achievement. It seems as if the combination of technology (to "hook" students and keep them engaged with repeated practice and the intrinsic motivation to succeed in the games) and human contact (teacher praise and encouragement) is likely the key to the program's success. I know in today's world, we can't fight students' attraction to video games - they are addictive. But I was glad to see that human contact and intervention also play a part in helping struggling students. Technology can be rather distant and sterile, and most everyone likes to share what they have learned or achieved with other people, or someone significant in their lives. So while I understand that "brain training" may be the way to proceed with students, I hope we teachers don't neglect that human touch. People still need people!

Three Web 2.0 Tools and Help Videos

I thought that the three Web 2.0 tools - Kerpoof, AnswerGarden, and Symbaloo - all had some educational value, perhaps moreso at one grade level than another. For me as a kindergarten teacher, I thought that the first tool, Kerpoof, held the most promise for use with students in the classroom. I teach emerging readers and writers, and they need help with the whole literacy process. Kerpoof offers young elementary students the opportunity to compose, spell, create a storyline, illustrate and share with an audience. I like that it is so user-friendly, and clear for the students to understand as a literacy tool. They are very imaginative, and would really enjoy being a part of the creative process in developing a story from start to finish. We read from the 'Magic Tree House' series, which is an adventure fantasy that gets their attention, keeps them interested and prompts lots of comments! They would therefore enjoy working together as a class in sharing their ideas, while learning about the writing process and its basic steps. They love any type of animation, and would love to re-read the stories and revisit the characters, perhaps even creating a series of their own! The AnswerGarden tool might be more appropriate for older elementary students, and I like that it gets them involved through an online poll activity. It also provides a great visual for brainstorming together. The Symbaloo tool is wonderful in that it helps a teacher be organized by grouping websites according to common themes, topics, etc. Having the visual of each icon to click and access the websites is very user-friendly, especially for those new to navigation. It's a very effective way for anyone to manage resources and reference others to use them.