I just discovered Google Voice. You can combine all of your phone numbers into one number. You also don’t have to give out your real number to people. I am going to start to play with it and see how it works.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Google Forms
I just learned about Google Forms. You can create your own forms or surveys and have all the information immediately downloaded into a spreadsheet in Google Docs. I have had some experience with Survey Monkey. I like this even better. For one thing, it’s free. Second it is simple and easily editable. Once you create a survey you can email it out anyone you wish.
The possibilities are endless in your classroom. You can have each student show what they learned about a topic by creating a survey for the class. You can also have them create a survey to gather information from the class. Create a survey that will allow the students to vote for which party in the Knesset they would like to win the election.
A years ago I created a survey with InspireData that allowed the students to choose the president. We had our election via the SMART Board. I think if I create a survey with Google Forms it would be nicer and easier to work with.
To get to Google Forms, open up Google Docs and click on “Create New” then click “Form”. Follow directions and enjoy. Here is a sample that I created, hope you enjoy it.
Filed under blogs, computers, Education, technology, twitter, Uncategorized, web 2.0
60 Tools in 60 Minutes
As part of a class I am taking on Educational Technology, I watched a session from ISTE 2011. I decided to watch a session a session called “60 in 60”. The presenter, Brandon Lutz, shared 60 web tools in 60 minutes. I want to share a few of them with you.
A simple question and answer site with various categories. For every question you get correct 10 grains of rice is donated to the hungry. A few minutes of learning can make a meal.
http://www.aviaryeducation.com/
A site that allows you to create and edit, music, audio, pictures etc. I find it to be a fun site to play with. I spent most of my time trying out the music and audio sections of the site. I am going to hold my judgement of the educational benefits because I am not musically inclined.
I have tried this site with my classes and experienced mixed results. Most of my students do not have email accounts, so it can be difficult to save them. I think that this is a wonderful tool for older students. I might try it again with my 5th grade and see what happens.
After looking at this site, I find it an OK site that will reference many different topics. I need to research it more to see exactly how reliable the information is, but it is a start.
There are a lot more sources that you can use, try them at https://60in60.wikispaces.com/ISTE2011. Some maybe good for you, some may not. That one is one thing that i like about this. Nothing is perfect for everyone, it just has a lot of stuff so somethings should be good for you.
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Check out my Wiki!
Check out my new wiki. It is intended for everyone to use to share different topics and resources in Educational Technology.
http://morehmichaelsedtech.wikispaces.com/
Please join and share your own resources. This is a Work in Progress – so please be kind.
Filed under computers, Education, technology, Uncategorized, web 2.0
Wiki’s as a Primary Source
Every year in the fifth grade at my school they do a research paper on a particular state. It is called the State Report. Part of my responsibilities in this assignment is teaching the students how to do better research . Inevitably someone brings up Wikipedia and such begins my explanation of wiki’s – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
Wiki’s allow students (or other users) to collaborate on a website or project. A group of students can work on a Hagaddah. The teacher will be able to see who gave their input (based on their screen names) and who did not. It therefore fosters individual accountability on a group project. Students can also edit each other’s parts to ensure a better outcome.
The Bad
Wikis are editable. Unfortunately, there are people who will wrongly edit a wiki, either by accident or on purpose and some people may not even know. In the past few years, Wikipedia has gotten better at reviewing changes and making sure that they are correct. But not all wikis are that aware of changes. I tell my students that Wikipedia is a good secondary source. They cannot use it alone, they need to corroborate the info with another source.
The Ugly
Not so much ugly. Wiki’s are a good and useful tool that many teacher’s currently use and more should use.
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Who Should I Friend?
Facebook is a wonderful tool. I have been on it for a few years now and I find it very useful. I have found friends from college that I have not heard from in twenty years, I have even had two apologies from people about the way they treated me in high school and I even found a way to get rid of Silly Putty from my couch. I share photos with my family who are across the country as well as friends who live down the block who I don’t get to see very often.
I currently have 478 friends and yes I know them all. I have friends that have over 2000 “friends” . The problem with that is that, if you are not careful, all of your “friends” can see your info, pictures and everything else. Even if you do set proper privacy settings Facebook routinely changes them and they get changed.
Is Facebook wrong to use? No. Can it be used with students? Yes – Carefully! If you are going to use it be careful. My suggestion is that you create a separate account. Do NOT friend any students on your personal account. Do NOT link your personal account to one that you are creating to work with students. I have known many people who have gotten into trouble because of their Facebook account.
In my school we had a teacher that did many wonderful activities and lessons on Facebook. It allowed her students to write and get descriptive about topics that they normally would not have done if she did it through conventional matters. As I have stated elsewhere, a great activity in Jewish Education would be to create a Facebook page for Anne Frank or Oscar Schindler and have the students update their statuses about what is going on. It would be the “New Diary of Anne Frank”.
In the end my answer is friend, but friend carefully and if you do friend students (I would only for a special project) then create a separate Facebook account.
Filed under computers, Education, facebook, technology, Uncategorized, web 2.0
Podcasts – The New Frontier
Podcasts are an extremely useful tool in education. They have broken the barriers that have long been set by time, distance and money. A class studying the Great Wall of China can now see it and hear first hand what it is like, how big it is and how it was created. Until now that was not able to be done because of the three factors I mentioned before and more. It has opened up a “New Frontier”.
A science class that wants to conduct an experiment and does not have the funds to create the actual experiment watch it on a vodcast. They can actually feel like they are the ones there. Additionally, a class creating an experiment can chronologize it periodically showing how it changes day by day or week by week.
In Jewish education, again there are number things that can be done with podcasts, either creating them or viewing them. Even though you can listen to shiurim on them (children will find that BORING), I think there are better uses for them. The music video created recently by the Macabeats around Chanukah could also be used (in a sense) to tell about the story of Chanukah. Children can act out the parsha each week instead of writing a d’var Torah.
As part of a group children can teach a topic from the torah, history or holidays. They can be put together to form a group of podcasts that will inform everyone about the entire topic or main idea.
In the past, I have not really used podcasts. After thinking about them and reviewing their usefulness, I am a believer and will try to use them more in the future.
Filed under blogs, computers, Education, podcasts, technology, Uncategorized, web 2.0
To Tweet or Not to Tweet
I have never been much of a tweeter. When everyone was talking about it, I decided to try it out. Even after trying it a bit I could not get into it.
I really disagree with the idea that people want to check in and hear about everyone’s mundane activities. Why would anyone want to know whether or not I am filling up with gas or is taking out the garbage? If you go with the theory that it is to keep in touch with people far away then they can’t meet you at the mall or go for a walk.
I will consent that it does have some uses. My school will tweet when a bus will be late or it lets parents know what is happening with their children while they are inIsrael. Overall I think that many, if not most, people tweet the STUPIDEST things. Also my page gets filled up constant retweets of stupid things.
This being said, what are the uses for twitter in a school setting? I work in an elementary school and there is not much use for it. These students are not allowed to have cell phones or PDAs in school.
Perhaps they could access it from the web, but I do not see the purpose.
One idea that could be done is have each child read a paragraph or two and tweet a summary. The 140 character restriction does lend itself to great summary skills.
While learning about Jewish history, students can create a twitter account as if they were a figure from history and tweet about the events that are happening “as they occur”.
As with anything, you can probably find a way to integrate it into Jewish education. I am not sure it would be the best use of time or the best idea. I guess I still need convincing. I am keeping an open mind. I would tweet this, but it is too long.
Filed under computers, Education, technology, twitter, Uncategorized, web 2.0
Ed Tech by Moreh Michael 