Glogster is blogging with attitude, with glogster it is not just a matter of journaling with reflections and comments, it has the ability to add so much more - it is a sort of blogging poster. You can add text, images music and even video.When developed it was unique in its creativity, however now there is also Edu Glogster http://edu.glogster.com/ simply put glogsters for education. The beauty of this site is that it is run and controlled by the teacher, the teacher registers a virtual class and the students can express themselves using Web 2.0 technology. Once registered it appears to be an object based web page, with widgets that can be added to make the page more creative, it is all drag and drop or click select so really intuitive for both pupils and teachers alike. It enables creativity and is a basically an interactive poster.
As for teaching, it can be used for many things because of its creativity and interaction; however, anyone wishing to use a marketplace type activity, this is absolutely ideal for. Where the students are asked to research and feedback it allows for creativity and imagination, the widgets or placeholders linking into schooltube, or your own videos and allows both uploading and linking as it does with sound. Resources can be built using podcasts and videocasts.
I like it!!
Next step produce a glogster and see if I can embed into this blog -
A Glog in a blog - watch this space...
Well Ihave had a go at Edu glogster and used it to prepare a resource about esafety. One possible problwem is getting videis from You tube to the site there seems to be no way to embed??
Friday, 5 February 2010
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Wordle
A friend has just let me know about Wordle - an interactive site that will make a word cloud out of blogs and text and it is such a fun visual context that I got to thinking how I could use it in teaching. I have just created a word cloud using Wordle for my blog to see what themes are currently arising. See below
As to how we can use it teaching, well it is a nice way of visualising reflections and ramblings, and for those of us using blogging as a way of asking students to reflect on their experiences, you can use wordle to augment those reflections. creating a word cloud periodically on your blog, will allow you to see if there are any changes in the way you are reflecting, if the major lines of thought are changing. As well as being a fun thing to do, it is quite quick - once you have made sure that Java is up and running and for most it probably is and there are simple embed codes which can just be copied and pasted into your blog.
From a cross curricular tool it can be used to highlight aspects of English, to motivate children into story telling, or to use to highlight Key words, the pupils can be asked to pick a key word from the word cloud and attempt to deine it. I am sure there are many more applications and as I experiment with it I will let you know.
As to how we can use it teaching, well it is a nice way of visualising reflections and ramblings, and for those of us using blogging as a way of asking students to reflect on their experiences, you can use wordle to augment those reflections. creating a word cloud periodically on your blog, will allow you to see if there are any changes in the way you are reflecting, if the major lines of thought are changing. As well as being a fun thing to do, it is quite quick - once you have made sure that Java is up and running and for most it probably is and there are simple embed codes which can just be copied and pasted into your blog.
From a cross curricular tool it can be used to highlight aspects of English, to motivate children into story telling, or to use to highlight Key words, the pupils can be asked to pick a key word from the word cloud and attempt to deine it. I am sure there are many more applications and as I experiment with it I will let you know.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Xerte
Xerte is an online tool designed to enhance e-learning, it has been developed by the University of Nottingham adn in September 2009 won ALT's ‘Learning Technologist of the Year Team Award 2009’. together with reviews by amongst others JISC, techdis service UK and The Association for Learning Technology, however the proof will be in its use and subsequent evaluation. Is it a tool that caters for all ICT capabilities or will it ultimately be used by those with an interest or ICT specialism.
It is billed as being 'is a fully-featured e-learning development environment for creating rich interactivity'(http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/index.htm accessed 25/01/10). The software is designed for the use by teachers and educators in the production of interactive enriched resources. There is a combination of both WYSIWYG interface and a small amount of scripting, however, where it becomes accessable to many non-ICT specialists is with the Xerte Online Toolkits. This has a series of templates which, with limited training are editable giving the ability to design resources to the users specifications. It is a server based tool, meaning that it can exist either on a network server or as a standalone tool, with a series of templates and add-ons which can be selected by the user by the click of a menu.
Also on the website is an area called Xpert is an area for the sharing and re-use of materials, which can be developed and commented on by RSS feed. The real beauty of this software is that it is open source and in this climate of decreasing and limited budgets is of benefit to most educators.
Xerte is an icon based development tool that allows object based learning tools to be created and has two areas of capability. If you do not code then you can use the software to insert text, graphics, animations, sounds and video. It is delivered as an .XML document and is compatable in SCORM format for Virtual learning environments. If you code a little, you can add to the template and make the interactive resources, developing your own resources and interactivity, if you code competantly you can create sophisticated resources. By this means it shlould cater for all levels of ICT capability, however the proof will be in its' use.
The installation of the of the application is not intuitive, however the supporting instructions are clear and very helpful. One problem I have encountered is that it is unclear where the finished file is saved, which could make subsequesnt use difficult. I will investigate further. Also I will attempt to produce a publishable resource that can then be uploaded to my moodle site.
my verdict is that it is a potentially very useful tool.....Watch this space.
To evaluate the Xerte Online Toolkits go to the following link and go to Get Started
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/toolkits.htm
or alternatively watch a demonstration on
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/toolkits/play_560
Please make any comments on your experience when you have evaluated this link.
It is billed as being 'is a fully-featured e-learning development environment for creating rich interactivity'(http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/index.htm accessed 25/01/10). The software is designed for the use by teachers and educators in the production of interactive enriched resources. There is a combination of both WYSIWYG interface and a small amount of scripting, however, where it becomes accessable to many non-ICT specialists is with the Xerte Online Toolkits. This has a series of templates which, with limited training are editable giving the ability to design resources to the users specifications. It is a server based tool, meaning that it can exist either on a network server or as a standalone tool, with a series of templates and add-ons which can be selected by the user by the click of a menu.
Also on the website is an area called Xpert is an area for the sharing and re-use of materials, which can be developed and commented on by RSS feed. The real beauty of this software is that it is open source and in this climate of decreasing and limited budgets is of benefit to most educators.
Xerte is an icon based development tool that allows object based learning tools to be created and has two areas of capability. If you do not code then you can use the software to insert text, graphics, animations, sounds and video. It is delivered as an .XML document and is compatable in SCORM format for Virtual learning environments. If you code a little, you can add to the template and make the interactive resources, developing your own resources and interactivity, if you code competantly you can create sophisticated resources. By this means it shlould cater for all levels of ICT capability, however the proof will be in its' use.
The installation of the of the application is not intuitive, however the supporting instructions are clear and very helpful. One problem I have encountered is that it is unclear where the finished file is saved, which could make subsequesnt use difficult. I will investigate further. Also I will attempt to produce a publishable resource that can then be uploaded to my moodle site.
my verdict is that it is a potentially very useful tool.....Watch this space.
To evaluate the Xerte Online Toolkits go to the following link and go to Get Started
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/toolkits.htm
or alternatively watch a demonstration on
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/toolkits/play_560
Please make any comments on your experience when you have evaluated this link.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Blogs
I am introducing my students to Blogs and the joys of reflection this week. I have been blogging for a while although I will admit that I am not necessarily the most assiduous blogger and really have to get to grips with this. I decided that one of the problems was that my blog had no focus. I originally set it up as a research journal and it ended up getting used as a publish point for just about anything. So I have set this one up and am going to use it solely for highlighting any new software I come across for my teaching and keep the other one for for the research.
So Blogging well where do I begin for them to really understand what it is all about.
The history of blogs
Blogging has become something of a big thing in recent years and some of the big blogs attract alot of high profile attention. So what are they well they are a collection of interesting links, and reflective journal. the beauty of a blog is that it can be an extension of your voice. there are no rules as to the tone of language or the formality of the writing, they are about what you think and what you believe / feel as such they tend to reflect the personalities of their owners and are richer for it. They are almost always personal web pages, updated very often, and include a mixture of diary, bookmark list, and interactivity.
They are the product of their owners' imagination and wit, and it's probably this personal touch which has made them so popular.
The first weblog was probably the Netscape What's New page, but there are varying claims to the title of oldest or earliest weblog on the net.
The word 'weblog' was coined by Jorn Barger, owner of the long-established and extremely popular Robot Wisdom weblog.
In the beginning was the world wide web, and we all used to search for hours, finding obscure and little known facts about a variety of subject matter. Then we needed more sophistication and with the ability to design web pages and publish on the net came the web logs or blogs, along with wiki's and social networking sites such as facebook and the world of Web 2.0 is upon us. So how can we use this to promote learning.
Well we all know that if pupil's are enjoying themselves then they learn better, we also know that the learning styles have changed for predominantly auditory to a more visual and kineasthetic style, largely attributable to living in an increasingly visual and digital world. Pupil's all over have embraced technology in their social life and as such we Can use WEB 2.0 as a way of bridging the link between social and educational. Apart from the real responsibility we have to ensure that our pupils use online technology safely and responsibly, we can promote reflection action and re synthesis by using blogs as a way of writing up their experiences, we can promote collaboration and working with others by the use of wikis. With the use of new technology in the classroom we can use their skills formed in the social networking arena and build confidence in subject matter.
So Blogging well where do I begin for them to really understand what it is all about.
The history of blogs
Blogging has become something of a big thing in recent years and some of the big blogs attract alot of high profile attention. So what are they well they are a collection of interesting links, and reflective journal. the beauty of a blog is that it can be an extension of your voice. there are no rules as to the tone of language or the formality of the writing, they are about what you think and what you believe / feel as such they tend to reflect the personalities of their owners and are richer for it. They are almost always personal web pages, updated very often, and include a mixture of diary, bookmark list, and interactivity.
They are the product of their owners' imagination and wit, and it's probably this personal touch which has made them so popular.
The first weblog was probably the Netscape What's New page, but there are varying claims to the title of oldest or earliest weblog on the net.
The word 'weblog' was coined by Jorn Barger, owner of the long-established and extremely popular Robot Wisdom weblog.
In the beginning was the world wide web, and we all used to search for hours, finding obscure and little known facts about a variety of subject matter. Then we needed more sophistication and with the ability to design web pages and publish on the net came the web logs or blogs, along with wiki's and social networking sites such as facebook and the world of Web 2.0 is upon us. So how can we use this to promote learning.
Well we all know that if pupil's are enjoying themselves then they learn better, we also know that the learning styles have changed for predominantly auditory to a more visual and kineasthetic style, largely attributable to living in an increasingly visual and digital world. Pupil's all over have embraced technology in their social life and as such we Can use WEB 2.0 as a way of bridging the link between social and educational. Apart from the real responsibility we have to ensure that our pupils use online technology safely and responsibly, we can promote reflection action and re synthesis by using blogs as a way of writing up their experiences, we can promote collaboration and working with others by the use of wikis. With the use of new technology in the classroom we can use their skills formed in the social networking arena and build confidence in subject matter.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Bubbl
Mandy put me on to this web based mind - mapping / brainstorming tool and it is really quite good. I think I can use it to start planning my questionnaire. I have been playing around with it a planning tool for one of my groups that i hope to get blogging. I thought they could use it to plan their blog and then their first blog entry can be reflections on the use of maps such as these and blogs in the support of pedagogy. Thought has suddenly occurred I wonder if they can be adapted for the concept mapping stage of my research with the pupils. They may be more involved if it is carried out electronically. Have to think about that one.
Welcome
Welcome to ICTeach - this is a blog I have set up purely to excite students and introduce them to the joys of blogging. I am going to highlight software that can be used to aid teaching and learning and to support the learning process. So keep tuned.
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