Webquest- question answered

"Ultimately your QUEST is to determine the most effective way of sharing this new knowledge and resources about one innovation to bridge the gap between those who 'know' and those that 'don't know', in particular your colleagues in the course and faculty members"

This QUEST was achieved in our class presentation of the Web 2.0 innovation 'Scratch'. To 'bridge the gap' for this innovation we took everyone through the program in a step-by-step process but also allowed for them to 'play around' with the program whilst doing so. This meant that everyone was not only being fed direct information about the program through our presentation but also building their own knowledge about it through paly. This meant that those who 'know' did not become frustrated and rush ahead (as they were able to play whilst waiting for others), whilst those who 'don't know' were able to raise any concerns or problems they were having and have them rectified before moving onto the next steps.

We also created a Scratch Wiki page which contained further information about Scratch along with numerous Scratch resources including video tutorials and links to help pages. This wiki was created with the intention of enhancing and detailing information given in the presentation some background informaition about the program and information about the future of the program and its uses in the classroom. All of this information was gathered and documented with the intention of also helping to 'bridge the gap'.

Edmodo- the virtual classroom

Edmodo is baisically facebook for teachers and students (in fact it was around BEFORE facebook was). However it not only allows teachers and students to communicate privately online with one another, but also acts as a virtual classroom where you can share notes, links, files, attachments and homework.

Edmodo is free, simple for both teachers and students to follow and use, and sdoes not require students to have an email account in order to sign up.

It can be used in the classroom:
- to send allerts about upcomming events

- to send assignments to teachers

- as a means of record keeping (for any online tasks)

- as a means of communication teacher-> student or student->student

and lastly my favourite...

- Edmodo leaves no excuses for students who NEVER hand in a piece of homework! (By posting the homework online children cannot lose it and once they’ve uploaded their finished homework, they can forget about it until it’s time to review the work in class)

Of course with everything good, there are some downfalls, namely children not remembering to check the site and an increased workload for the teacher, however I think Edmodo will rapidly evolve into an excellent tool for future classroom management and discussion.

VoiceThread- be heard

VoiceThread is similar to an online version of power-point. It is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice, text, audio file, or video. And, like Jing, VoiceThread allows you to draw on images whilst commenting.

VoiceThread is simple and free to use. It also can download files much faster than Jing, however only a maximum of 3 voice threads can be stored at one time.

VoiceThread can be used in the classroom:
- to communicate with individual students as well as the whole class,
- to develop speaking listening, reading, writing, viewing skills,
- to create an e-portfolio of students work,
- as a means of self assessment- students can record themselves reading,
- as a tool for students to narrate their own stories.

Personally if i were going to use such a tool as this one, i would prefer to use Jing however Jing does require you to download it's program whereas VoiceThread does not.

Hot Potatoes

What a brilliant educational tool for teachers! Hot Potatoes is an easy to use program which enables teachers to create and record worksheets online. It includes five applications where you can create online exercises such as multiple choice, gap completion, crosswords, a non graphical matching exercise and more!

Hot Potatoes promotes interactive learning and allows teachers to:
- compare and print student results
- track student progress
- comment on work (students can also comment on their own work for the teacher to
see)
- create different classes to cater for different learning needs
- and more...

I think Hot Potatoes is a fantastic tool and I am excited about implementing it into my classroom in the furutre.

Game Maker

Game Maker is, as the name suggests, a free to download program for making games. Game maker is basically the same as Scratch as it too offers a program which does not require users to learn complex programming language in order to create an animation/game. However, much like Scratch, this program is also very difficult and confusing to use and would not only be difficult to teach to children but also does not really have any place in the classroom.

Personally I did not like using this program, I found it confusing, complicated, frustrating and 'messy' to use. The only way that I feel this could be implemented into the classroom would be as a reward.

Glogster- poster yourself

Glogster is an online interactive poster. It allows you to upload photos, songs, text and other stuff, drag it around and be creative. Glogster also allows you to share your posters with others, so in a way it is also a social networking site.

Glogster is free to use and does not require any additional software to run it.

In the classroom Glogster can be used to:
- Create interesting posters for Science, Maths, English etc..
- Demonstrate and use artistic flare
- Develop computer skills.

Glogster means you can kiss good-bye the messy task of students creating posters by hand- good-bye glue, scissors and texta's; hello to click and drag movies, photos, graphics and text. I think Glogster is a fantastic tool which will allow students to create some amazing posters which I'm sure they will thoroughly enjoy doing!

This is my Glog...
http://s004.teacherlorraine.edu.glogster.com/Ingrids-Glog/

Scratch- imagine, program, share

Scratch is a program designed to make it easy to create your own animations. It is a visual programming system which allows users to import 'actors' (sprites) and program them by connecting a series of commands- much like pieces of a puzzle. Scratch also allows you to upload and share your creations with people all over the world.

After extensively researching Scratch my partner Kendall Hill (blog site: Scratcher2) and I found that we were extremely dissatisfied with Scratch. We found it to be time consuming, complex and to try to implement such a complex programming tool into the classroom would be a nightmare!

The only benefits we found with Scratch was the ability to download other people's animations (this includes an extensive range of classroom suitable games and tools) and the potential to use it as a 'reward' in the classroom.

Overall we were really disappointed with Scratch. We started off so enthusiastic about the program but slowly became frustrated with the complexity and lack of explicit instruction and support for the program. That said, those who enjoy programming will most definitely fall in love with this program!

Visit our Wiki page at http://curtineducation2009.wetpaint.com/page/Scratch for more information.