We are continuing to grow in our technology skills. Many teachers have mastered the art of blogging through their homework hotlines. We have had more teachers using blogs in their classrooms including a blog by Patricia Wade Dougherty, who had her students blog with students from Cambodia. Boy! Did she have interpreters on the ball! As you know Pat spent about two weeks in Cambodia teaching with a group from her Lehigh University International Relations Graduate Class. What an experience! I'm Jealous. She skyped into her classes, staying up really late at night, and shared her adventures with her classes. Her students were able to see her and talk to her from half a world away. What a free and great communication tool Skype is with so much to offer in education! Anyone of our teachers can bring a professional educator from anywhere in the world into their class by simply making a skype call.
Mrs. Wade also taught a world cultures class using a webinar. Using a webinar allows the students to see your power point notes, pictures, maps, etc. It also allows students to use instant messaging to write down questions about what they see or about something else they might want to know. Mrs. Dogherty was able to read the questions from our students, but our students could hear Mrs. Dougherty's answer. We had WNEP channel 16 cover this webinar event.
Using a blog for homework helpline has our teachers using blogs weekly to post homework. Many of the skills used in posting messages, word documents, and videos are the same tech tools used in Wikispaces.
Our principal, Mrs. Snyder, has everyone using a wikispace for their quarterly writing prompts. What a super way to get each teacher technologically invloved! Students upload their Word documents to their teachers' wikispaces. Teachers can see every project and evaluate these projects from their wikispace. A wikispace is a website that can be shared and used by class members. Teachers are slowly realizing the different ways that a wikispace can be used in education. Teachers are using other teachers' wikispaces from other districts as well in their classrooms. Student wikispaces make great e-porfolios where students can upload and keep all their documents, pictures, and videos throughout their school years on one web site. Some teachers already have their whole English and Social Studies notes on line on their wikispace so students can get their notes at home off the wikispace site.(especially during flu season).
More and more teachers are using Google Docs for surveys, spreadsheets, word documents, slide shows, and calendars.
