Overall, I really enjoyed this course.  As I have mentioned time and again, I have learned so much about web 2.0 tools and how to implement them successfully into the classroom.  Many of the articles and websites you provided are great resources that I will refer back to as I embark on first year of teaching.  Initially I was intimidated by the notion of technology in the classroom.  Now, I am excited to begin to find ways to incorporate blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networking sites into my daily lessons.  When implemented correctly, technology can greatly impact student learning in a positive way.  I hope to meet my students on their level and incorporate technology to engage them in learning.  My goal is to make the tasks authentic and provide students with a public audience.  I hope that my new knowledge of the various web 2.0 tools can guide me through my first year of teaching as I try to make learning fun for all members of my classroom.

I really enjoyed exploring Classroom 2.0 networking site for educators.  Looking through the forum, I came across some interesting discussions about how to implement technology into the classroom.  One discussion category that really sparked my interest pertained to the use of interactive white boards, i.e. Smart Boards, in the classroom.  Although many teachers feel as though using a Smart Board is an asset to any classroom, most agree that the technology is too expensive for all schools to purchase.  Some teachers posted alternative ways to create an interactive white board without using the Smart Board or Smart software.  One person even uploaded a video that gives instructions on how to use a Nintendo Wii remote to achieve the same results given by a Smart Board.  The video is quite interesting and definitely worth watching if you are looking for a cheap alternative to an interactive white board.  I think I might try it once I’m in the classroom. 

I am definitely interested in using social networks to engage students in learning.  I am not sure how I would implement these social networking sites, but I plan to further research Ning and figure out if/how other English teachers are using them.

When reading through Anne Davis’ blog, I stumbled upon a post written on March 19, 2008.  In her post, Davis includes a link to a fascinating and uplifting article, The Book Trailer: Engaging Teens Through Technologies, written by Sara Kajder.  The article talks about a creative book talk project that was implemented in an 8th grade English classroom that consisted of 34 students who were described as struggling and disengaged readers.  To complete this project, students were required to select and read a particular book.  They were then expected to create a book trailer, much like movie trailer, that enticed others to read that particular book.  Kajder says,

I’ve used book talks throughout my teaching to challenge students to articulate what they have responded to within their reading and to invite others to read interesting texts. The problem? Asking reluctant or struggling readers to stand in front of their peers and talk about their reading just doesn’t work. Having students create trailers instead of giving traditional presentations opens up the modes and media students use to communicate. Students can use images, motion or special effects, a recorded soundtrack, and print text to share their thinking, their interpretations, and their critiques of the books they read. Garret and his peers call this “layered writing,” as meaning comes through the mixing of multiple modes as opposed to through a single one.

For the purposes of this project, I ask students to create a two-minute video using still images, transitions and special effects (generated with MovieMaker or iMovie software), voiceovers, and a soundtrack. Students, in consultation with me and our media center specialist, choose the books to present through the trailer. The goal of these trailer mirrors that of a movie trailer—to entice and attract audience. Students present the central characters, themes, or issues of the book visually and through written and voiceover narration. All trailers have to include the title of the book, the author’s name, and a presentation that is both authentic to the text and that works to “hook” readers. I also require students to submit their trailers with a piece of writing that explores the choices they made, with an analysis of the book that shows that they made decisions on the basis of the text, and not just by using the aspects of technology that would best captivate an audience        

As you can tell from this description, allowing students to create a book trailer allows them to interact with the text on a high cognitive level.  Because students only have two minutes to “sell” their book to an outside audience, they are required to sift and sort through the events of the book and highlight only those that are most important.  Furthermore, the various aspects of the presentation have to make sense when combined with one another.  It is definitely a multi-layered activity that can help bring students beyond a text. 

This article is definitely worth reading.  It really inspires mlways search for fun and creative ways to modify traditional classroom activities that have been used in the past.  I can’t wait to try it in my own classroom!

I chose to explore ToonDoo.  Using the tool is very easy.  All I needed to do was register for an account with ToonDoo and login.  Choosing from a number of different backgrounds, characters, text bubbles, etc., I was able to create my own cartoon.  Once I decided on something I liked, I simply had to drag and drop it into my cartoon panel.  Within minutes, I had a completed cartoon.     

When using ToonDoo, one has the option to use a toon designed by the creators of the website or to create their own toon using various traits that are provided.  It is also possible to draw on a particular toon to customize it.  Because ToonDoo can be used by all, it is difficult for the editors to monitor all of the cartoons that are published to the site.  Like many other social networking sites, ToonDoo relies on the fact that its various users will monitor the website and flag any inappropriate material.  ToonDoo offers a “Safe Search” feature that can be turned on and off.  When using Safe Search, all cartoons that are flagged as inappropriate will be filtered out and hidden.           

ToonDoo is collaborative in the sense that it features “Compleetoons,” incomplete toons that anyone can add to.  Individuals can access the compleetoons and add text to the empty bubbles.  New compleetoons are added every week, but users can access previous compleetoons and recreate them.  Cartoons that are published by users cannot be edited by others.    

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, completed cartoons can be shared publically on the internet, shared only within a particular group of friends, or saved as private.  These various privacy settings are important to keep in mind when using ToonDoo in the classroom. 

ToonDoo allows users to rate and comment on all of the public cartoons published to the site.  Users can cheer cartoons by giving it “thumbs up” or boo cartoons by giving it “thumbs down.”  Cartoons can be added to a list of favorites and even embedded in blogs and websites.  People can send their created toons to their friends and interact with other ToonDoo users via the ToonDoo forums.    

If using ToonDoo in the classroom and allowing students to publically publish cartoons, it is important to note that other users may potentially leave negative comments.  Students should understand this risk before publishing their work online.  Personally, I think it is best to protect students’ feelings by only sharing the cartoons with the class and establishing rules that discourage peers from leaving negative comments.      

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, one of my biggest challenges as an English teacher is providing my students a way to visualize the texts they are reading.  Using ToonDoo, students can recreate settings from a novel or scenes from a play.  Furthermore, I just found out that ToonDoo allows users to create a ToonBook, a series of cartoons that can be arranged in a specific order to tell a story.  I think that as a post reading activity, I could have students summarize a story by creating a series of ToonDoo cartoons that highlight the most important events of the text.  It would be a fun project for students to complete, and it would be interesting for me to see how each ToonBook varies.  I would allow students time to present their ToonBook to the class.  I think it would be a fun learning experience for all.

“If All My Classes Did This” – Wendy Wolf (October 19, 2007)

For this assignment, I “attended” Wendy Wolf’s presentation “If All My Classes Did This.”  Her brief presentation, only about 25 minutes in length, introduced me to some great web 2.0 tools that can be used, with ease, in the classroom.  Categories she discussed include cartoon creators, graphic organizers, productivity programs, and basic podcasting software. 

Attending this conference was definitely worthwhile.  Wolf discussed five programs that I have never heard of before.  I learned about a cool program called “ToonDoo.”  It is a cartoon creator that features various background templates and characters that are already designed.  ToonDoo provides the option to customize any characters that are included in a particular cartoon.  Individuals who use ToonDoo can publish their cartoons publically to the internet, choose to share them only with friends, or save their cartoons under a private setting.  It is good to have these options if using such a program in the classroom.  Wolf talked a bit about another cartoon creator program called “Comic Creator.”  It was more basic than ToonDoo and does not provide the option to publish to the internet.  It would probably work best with younger students who do not understand the risks of publishing their work online. 

I also learned about “Gliffy” a graphic organizer program in which one can create mind maps, flow charts, etc.  It is web based and can be accessed from any computer.  Gliffy offers a share feature and allows individuals to collaborate with one another.  This is a useful tool in the classroom, especially when students are required to work in pairs or in small groups on an assignment.  Each student can edit their Gliffy organizer from the comfort of their own home, without having to meet with their group members. 

Wolf also discussed a program called Zoho show, which is designed much like PowerPoint.  It is much simpler in the sense that it has a limited number of background templates and does not contain the various animation features that come with PowerPoint.  However, it is completely web based, eliminating the need to save the presentations to an external drive and transport them from computer to computer.  It seems fairly easy to work with and was well received by Wolf’s students.

The final program Wolf discussed was “G-Cast.”  It is a basic podcasting program that allows anyone to call in a podcast via a telephone.  It does not have any editing tools, and the quality of sound is not great.  However, anyone with access to a telephone can use it, which makes it accessible to virtually everyone.  Even without computer access or fancy headphones, anyone can create a basic podcast.        

I am so happy that I now know about this K12 Online Conference website.  It is so convenient to be able to access the conferences online at my convenience.  Between work and personal responsibilities, it is so hard to find the time to attend live conferences.  With online conferences, anytime I have some free time, I can “attend” a professional development conference.  What I liked most about this online, anytime delivery option is my ability to stop the conference if I need to leave my computer for any reason.  If a conference is too long to watch in one sitting, I can simply stop the video and return when I have more free time.  This is such a good idea!  

Of the five tools discussed, I can see myself introducing my students to ToonDoo, Gliffy, and Zoho.  Being an English teacher, one of my biggest challenges is providing my students a way to visualize the texts they are reading.  ToonDoo will give them the ability to interpret and recreate settings from a novel or scenes from a play.  Students could use Gliffy as a way to organize the events of a particular story they are reading.  Perhaps they can use the program to outline character analyses and create flow charts that demonstrate how or why certain character traits lead to certain actions.  There are a number of possibilities!  I would encourage students to use Zoho show when they need to create a basic slideshow presentation.  PowerPoint has more bells and whistles and can lend itself to very well-made presentations, but Zoho can create simple presentations just as well as PowerPoint.  In using Zoho, students would not have to worry about forgetting their PowerPoint presentation at home. 

I had a great experience attending this online conference, and I plan to visit this site again in the future!

This was my first ever attempt at using Diigo.  After watching the video clips provided on Blackboard, I was really excited to use the bookmarking tool.  One thing that really frustrates me about reading articles online is my inability to highlight and comment on the text.  I find that I often daydream while reading online articles because I cannot interact with the text.  The Diigo toolbar changed that for me!  Now I know that I can use the highlight and comment feature to annotate and mark up the text as I read.  This proves to be very useful for me. 

I must say that I had some trouble when I first began using Diigo.  I specifically tagged each website with a umb611 tag and shared it with the umb611 group.  However, not all of my resources initially transferred to the group page.  Furthermore, those that did read “no_tag” instead of “umb611.”  I spent a lot of time trying to edit each bookmark to make sure they were tagged and shared.  The Diigo server was slow, and I kept receiving an error message.  It was really frustrating!

Another thing that frustrated me was the comment feature.  Many times I made a comment that appeared on my Diigo sidebar and under “My Bookmarks” on the Diigo website.  However, my annotations did not show up on the shared umb611 group page.  I don’t think I did anything wrong, but I cannot figure out why my annotations did not transfer.

All things aside, I really like using Diigo to bookmark important resources.  I found so many great websites that pertain to teaching Romeo and Juliet in the 9th grade classroom.  I am glad that I had the chance to bookmark them for later use.  There is nothing more frustrating than finding a good web resource and never being able to locate it a second time.  I will definitely use Diigo in the future.  I am happy to know that a bookmarking tool like this exists.   

You can view my bookmarks here.

I used Flickr Creative Commons photos to create my Romeo and Juliet Slideshow.  I found some great pictures, taken by ~*Bomba Rosa*~, of a ballet production of Romeo and Juliet.  Using Rock You!, I created a slideshow of some pictures that I thought represented the story well.  I played around with the transitions and ultimtaly decided on the ‘heart’ transition offered by Rock You!  (It’s kind of corny, but it’s kind of cute.)  I also added a song.  I’m impressed by how easy it was to create!