Extra Benefits

There is a definite added benefit to having the Asus netbooks in our classrooms. Aside from the planned activities and events that we all share, having them in the room allows for faster research and more engaging projects. My government students are currently working on foldables for the three branches of government. Normally it is a very textbook intensive assignment but with the netbooks they have been able to create more engaging projects with better graphics by being able to get on the internet in the classroom without the disruption of moving to a computer lab. They are also able to get real time information that applies to each branch to include which makes it a much more lively interaction.

World News by BLOG POPULARITY!

In exploring current events and world news with my students, I have come across a pretty cool Web 2.0 app called THOORA (http://beta.thoora.com/). It allows the reader to explore world news by popularity of what's being talked about on people's blogs. This website tells you when the issue became popular, how many people are blogging or tweeting about the issue, links to articles on the issue, and essentially what issue is getting the most attention. Thoora is an interesting way to attract students' interest in what's going on in the world.

Pros:
(1)Thoora is a different and interesting way to discover world news!
(2)Students able to navigate the website with ease and research without needing too much instruction on how to operate the site.
(3)I was able to connect this website to teaching primary/secondary sources.

Cons:
(1)Web 2.0 apps generally function best using Firefox, which is not supported in SBISD.

Puzzled......

I am having a dilemma. My students are performing unusually high on my tests (the same tests that I have given in the past) and I am not sure why. I know they are not cheating....I watch them like a hawk! I am not sure what is happening. Are my tests too easy for this generation of sophomores? Am I teaching too low on the taxonomy? Is the use of the technology and more pictures making that much of a difference? I am at a loss. I talked to S. Russo about this the other night and she recommended that I consistently give pretests before each new unit. She thought this would help me assess the difference in learning between units that include technology projects and units that do not, as well as, provide valuable/measurable feedback regarding the effectiveness of the PTL grant resources/increased use of technology in the classroom in general.

Is anyone else experiencing a similar situation?

Eco Tycoon Update

Last week was my first opportunity to use the laptops. The project my students were working on was centered around the "Eco Tycoon" game. The premise of this game is very simple. Players select a continent that they will be in charge of. From that point on, they have free reign over all political, economic, and environmental decisions that are made. As the game progresses, students are given an Annual Report for their continent. Within this Annual Report one can find carbon levels, energy production numbers, and import/export information. Given this information, students attempt to consistently improve their continent on a year to year basis.

Originally, our team was going to base an Urban Planning lesson off of the Sim City games. We weren't able to get access to this game, but "Eco Tycoon" seems to be a sufficient alternate. Students still have the ability to manipulate the landscape by deciding which forms of energy and industry will be built on their continent. On the other hand, this game seems to lean more towards the Human-Environment Interaction realm as opposed to Urban Planning.

Nonetheless, the project I created still involves critical thinking questions, keeping an annual log, and producing a hard copy map of their finished continent.

US History Update

Today was my first chance to get to use the Asus laptops in my classroom. Because most of the games for US History don't come into effect until after World War I, we spent the day working on Wordle.net which is a Web 2.0 app. After the initial oohing and ahhing, the students were immediately ready to get to work. Their assignment was to find three different articles looking at different aspects of the Presidency. They then had to pick what they thought were the two most important paragraphs for each and then insert them in no particular order into wordle. They were excited to see the word clouds, and were surprised at which words were "highlighted" as the most repeated. They then had to decide why they thought those words were repeated in all the articles, and if different articles had different emphasis.

Pros to Wordle:
1. Students were very excited to get to use it, and appreciated the ease of the app.
2. Students were able to do quick analysis on articles and view different perspectives on how words were used, picking up on key vocabulary

Cons:
1. no save option, only print or save online for public view.
2. Students that had an issue printing, tried to email me screen shots but since the screen is small, the screen shot does not capture the entire word cloud.

Toon Doo Experience

Overall, I think Toon Doo is a good web program to use with our students. It allows for seemingly endless creativity which is something that many of my students mentioned was their favorite aspect of the program in their post project reflections. However, there were some problems encountered.

Pros:

1. The program is user friendly. Overall, the majority of my students were able to figure out how to use the various functions of the web program fairly quickly.
2. Many of the students expressed their like for the ability to use their creativity in showing their learning.
3. Many of the students expressed that they liked the "newness" and uniqueness of the web program.
4. Some students expressed that they felt that they thought they "remembered" the notes because they were creating stories with pictures. They felt that clicking and dragging was quicker, more visually appealing, and more efficient that illustrating by hand.

Cons:

1. Signing up for Toon Doo accounts and learning how to navigate/use the program takes at least 1 full class period.
2. Some students (approx. 10) were overwhelmed/confused by the amount of choices.
3. SAVING ISSUES: many of the students lost a days worth of work because their work would not save. We suspect this was an issue caused by the wireless kicking in and out. If the students attempted to save without checking to the wireless connection, the program froze in save mode and the work was lost. Many had to restart their comic strips. This caused disappointment/dispair in these students. We solved the problem by resorting to saving screen shots.

http://www.toondoo.com/

Student Work Sample:

Special Delivery

We got them! Our students logged on to the netbooks within moments of them being delivered. They were excited to finally have them in the classroom. So far so good!

My students are using the netbooks and ToonDoo (www.toondoo.com) this week to create comic strips illustrating the Rise of the Roman Empire. I am loving this web site and it seems that my students are too. It is very user friendly and allows for endless creativity and imagination.

Was introduced to Brain Pop (www.brainpop.com) this afternoon and think it is awesome! Like ToonDoo, it is very user friendly and interactive. It seems that this will be an excellent resource for our ESL/LEP students. Check out the Social Studies section of the site. I have the passwords and will pass them along.

Hmmm...I am trying to figure out a system for managing all of the user names and passwords for our students. Any ideas?????