Putting it all to use ...

[Julie Miele]

Hi everyone. Like Beth, one of the things I've found interesting about the last two weeks is the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 tools - the way they can be used to communicate across (or within groups or with individuals outside of your own network and across the country for that matter). I'm thinking particularly about the ning here. I'd like to do more thinking about the ways in which I can use a ning in my own workshop series or graduate courses with teachers to build community in a building - or across buildings as well. I'm also wondering if it might be interesting to create a ning even before courses begin and to invite teachers in to contribute and discuss issues relating to reading and writing. Another project I've been involved with is helping to rethink the NYC Writing Project's website (with Gina Moss, Grace Raffael, Nancy Brodsky, and I think Paul's in on this too?). One of the questions that keeps coming up is this issue of public vs. static space. I'm thinking that a link to a NYC Writing Project ning would really help us create an open, public space while also allowing a static space on the main site. Just a thought.

In addition, I feel much more prepared to bring technology into my courses as options or "ways in" for classroom teachers. I'd like to use VoiceThread in a course this year as a way to build and tell stories. Our experiences and discussion of it were soooo rich last week; I'd like to take teachers through that process as well. Hypertextopia, I think has a lot of great uses for the classroom also, but my experience of that was a little frustrating, so I think I need more practice before sharing that one. I'm interesting in hearing people's ideas for application in the disciplines - such as social studies, science, math, art, etc.

I'm going to add that I was intrigued by this morning's discussion about using on-line tools to respond to literature. Both of the schools I work in have a 45 minutes DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) period each day. One of the biggest struggles I see teachers confronted with is figuring out how to build a reading community - how to choose books, make students accountable for their reading, share their reading and insights, etc. I think an on-line source like a blog or a ning would be a great way to do this. Students can log on at home or in school, respond to their texts, read other people's posts, share and recommend texts. The teachers can then use the posts to jumpstart classroom discussions, which might help those teachers who are uncomfortable facilitating a discussion around literature (it might also be a way out of it altogether!).

[Julie]

Julie, this idea about sharing books/reading through a ning or another tool is really important. I had a conversation not that long ago with a principal who said that the school had been reading "whole school" books and articles. When I asked what they did after they read the book, she kind of hemmed and hawed and said they hadn't gotten to that part yet. Just imagine if all the kids were responding to each other about a school-wide piece of literature -- so interesting!

[Wendy Farkas]

I'm having the same thoughts, but what's frustrating me is the question of HOW to integrate these things into the classroom. How would we use them? What should we expect as a final result or project? Should they be used in group work, or for individual work too? Should students be expected to work on them at home? I'd like to post all my homework assignments on my Ning, but I don't know if all my students will have computer/internet access at home. I'd also like my students to do their annotated bibliographies in blog form, but how do I set that up? I feel as though there are more questions than answers.

[Beth]

I would also like to use the ning to build a reading community, as I think its functionality would suit this purpose well. Our morning discussion, however, helped me to realize that in order to truly build a reading community, face-to-face discussions about books is still essential, so I think that using the ning as a jumping off point for whole-class, group, or partner discussions as you point out, would be a great way to integrate this technology into the classroom. In thisi way, students would be able to enjoy both the independence and immediacy of technology, while also becoming more familiar with how to engage in live conversations about literature.

[Aileen Malave]

I agree with you Julie about practicing a little more on these tools like Hypertextopia, Voicethread etc. I was thinking of using the projects I've done here and show it to our staff. I thought about creating a user friendly worksheet of directions on how to use each site and have them play with it a bit.