Equal Access to the Digital World!

Providing equal access to the digital world is an ongoing process that involves constant assessment. Many large digital companies provide a wide variety of adaptive technology tools that can assist those who need to access to the digital world (i.e. the iPhone for example is designed to be fully accessible to the visually and audibly challenged). Within the classroom setting, students with various learning needs may  require assistive technology tools and/or hardware to access what other students can easily access. “A critical component of systemic accessibility is for high-level leaders to make accessibility a priority.” (Goldstein and Care, 2012). School administrators need to understand the ethical and legal responsibilities that accompany technology integration within school settings. In the same way that content and instruction is differentiated, “equal access to the digital world” requires schools to ensure that digital content is easily accessible to a variety of learners, and budgets must be in place to acquire these tools.

Goldstein, D., & Care, G. (2012, January 1). Disability Rights and Access to the Digital World: An Advocate's Analysis of an Emerging Field. Retrieved from http://dredf.org/media-disability/disability-rights-and-access-to-the-digital-world/

Levin, B. Barbara & Schrum, Lynne. (2009). Leading 21st Century School: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Assistive Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://videos.disabled-world.com/video/29/assistive-technology-in-the-classroom

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://aem.cast.org

Educational Value of Social Media

This WebQuest offers the invaluable experience of using social media in the form of blogging as well as Edmodo, a social networking website similar to Facebook, in which teachers, students, and family members can connect safely to join in classroom discussions. Through guided experiences with the teacher, students will develop their social media skills via blogging. According to an extensive review of research and literature by Barbara Hagler in 2013, social media allows students to practice collaborating both within the confines of a classroom and beyond cross-culturally. “Teaching students to collaborate and be team players is just one of the benefits of teaching social media” skills, which will be an asset to their working lives in the future. (Hagler, 2013).

Students will be sharing their experiences from the webquest via the blog, so that other classmates can read about what they are learning. Additionally, I encourage students and parents to create an account on Edmodo (just click the link to the right to log in). Use this group code to join our 3rd grade group: abpba9

Students can also follow me on twitter - the widget is to the right, above Edmodo. Although the blog will be the primary source of social media experience I encourage students and families to experience Edmodo and/or Twitter as well, and share their experiences using these social media sites.

Hagler, B. E. (2013). VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN TODAY'S CLASSROOM. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 55(1), 14-23. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1543749636?accountid=3783

Introduction to the Class WebQuest

Hello students and families!

This exciting environmental education unit on squid will be done via a WebQuest. “A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the internet” (Levin & Schrum, 2009, p. 63). Although I will provide guidance and assistance, as well as all necessary components of the WebQuest, students will conduct their own self-paced learning. Additionally, the nature of the WebQuest allows students to engage in the unit while exercising and developing their digital citizenship skills.

Students will work through a set of tasks involving activities such as:

• selecting and going on virtual field trips
• measuring their carbon footprint
• connecting with other 3rd grade environmental stewards around the globe
• dissecting squid (with the option to do it in your own home!)
• analyzing data trends on global warming to identify possible relationships in animal population changes
• sharing creative aspects of learning via the class blog

A rubric will accompany the WebQuest, so that students and families know what is expected of them, and how they will be assessed. Please take some time to explore the WebQuest as a family. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email.

I look forward to our upcoming adventure!

Warmly,

Mr. Kelly

Levin, B. Barbara & Schrum, Lynne. (2009). Leading 21st Century School: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Educational Value of Animoto

Animoto is an excellent educational Web 2.0 tool in which students (as educators) can use text, images, and sound to create meaningful animated shorts. I envision using Animoto to show guiding questions to start a unit project (similar to the above Animoto which will accompany my WebQuest project). Like a short film, this Web 2.0 tool is multi-sensory, helping to make memorable connections to content.

Educational Value of Wordle

This scrolling word cloud was created using Tagul.com. Word clouds (such as Wordle and Tagxedo) can visually accompany lessons and conversations in a stimulating way. I chose Tagul after conducting a search for various free word cloud generators. I liked the scrolling feature of Tagul, as it offers a more interactive component to viewing the word cloud.

For this particular word cloud, I'm asking students to scroll over the image and consider why some words are larger than others. Upcoming lessons will involve researching the connections between global warming, climate change, supply and demand and the increase in the Humboldt squid population in the Pacific ocean.

I see using word cloud websites as a fun way for students to represent information gathered from research (such as science projects), literacy activities (character analysis), social studies projects and even math.

Created with Tagul.com