Second Life

This is an innovation that enables you to be someone else, life another life and create your own world. It seems to be taking off with teens and older. I have to confess that I feel quite unsure about this whole idea. I think I need to live a second life to get this. I can see it becoming addictive and a form of escapism which I wonder about the ramifications for mental and emotional well being.

I still believe even in the midst of this technological world that there is a lot to be gained in life by just connecting with the real world around you, nature, family and friends in a real way. I guess Second Life and it's popularity indicates that there are many out there in the real world who have reason enough to want escape and I'm well aware of that working with girls who are rehabilitating from drug addictions.

I'm pretty happy with my life as it is and don't see myself needing to escape into another life. As far as using it in the classroom I'm sitting on the fence and watching. I'm not sure what I'm watching out for or looking for; I suppose I'm hoping that the real life for the second lifers gets good enough to enjoy without having to create an unreal one.

Hot Potatoes

Hot potatoes is a free software application that can be used to produce worksheets, activities and interactive learning experiences. They can be used to teach a concept, evaluate or just to have fun with. There are six different applications to produce language based interactive activities. They are crosswords, matching words, clozes, unjumbling words, multiple choice and short answer quizzes.

Having had a go at these they were very easy to use and quick to produce. Hot potatoes can be downloaded from this address http://www.iq.poquoson.org/hotpotatoes/#download. To access the activities and complete them online the students need access to a web server Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer. Some interesting games and activities can be found on the website which would be fun and engaging to use in the classroom to promote learning.

Students could create their own activity pages, a good way to evaluate what they have understood and then have others in the class complete their activity sheets. Connecting with other classes and sharing activities could be fun and help to add life and enjoyment to the more laborious and sometimes less interesting language type learning and skill development. Verbs, conjunctions and adjectives could be much more fun to learn and apply what is learned using Hot Potatoes with students in the classroom.

Game Maker

Game Maker is head banging stuff! Very complex at the start. Once you get your head around the jargon and the process it is a lot of fun. Game Maker is engaging and requires a lot of creative thinking and problem solving skills. It teaches computer programming in as simple way as possible. For the students who have a keen interest in games and computer technology would really enjoy this challenging,creative innovation.

It teaches problem solving, logical thinking and creativity in a fun motivating context. This concept is so much a part of life for children today with games and gaming being embraced in the classroom. I think a philosophical approach to accepting this as part of the culture of learning is important for oldies like me as technology invades every area of life and therefore learning.

I would definitely consider it's use in my classsroom.

Glogster

Twitter

Twitter, a social networking tool which has been embraced by many across the globe is now being embraced in the classroom. It is a communication tool in which it's users are referred to as twitters. I thought being called a "Twit" in the classroom would be highly offensive, not anymore. It would mean you are up to date and on the cutting edge of technology innovations in your class. You would be able to communicate quickly, briefly(only 140 characters per tweet allowed) and directly to another "Twit" signed on to Twitter. It is free innovation requiring you only to sign up and then you are in and able to network with the world of Twitters!

A number of schools are using it in interesting ways. At a school level communication happens immediately and information is very current. One school posted the status of a class on excursion and how things were going for them. Mother's comment to teachers about their issues of the day regarding their child's well being and teacher's comment to students to remind or prompt them regarding assignments or coming events for the day.

At a classroom level teacher's are using Twitter to develop language skills by giving a story intro or conversation starter, then having the class add to these taking turns to tweet. Sounds like a motivating way to get reluctant writers writing and limits the more verbose to 140 characters. Twitter is being used for dictionary meaning exercises and other English related exercises, like giving synonyms for words. It is used for brainstorming also sharing useful websites and links related to studies. It sounds like a creative teacher, well supported with the technology in the classroom could use Twitter in interesting and motivating ways.

Using technology in the classroom like this is a very relevant teaching tool and one I think would connect well with the students who live in such an advanced techno world. However how long does it take for them to realize they are still doing work and find ways to sabotage your teaching methods? It would need to be well supervised. I didn't see any way of monitoring it's use with a history tool like the Wikki pages and Google Docs offer. I like the fact that the Twitter page can be made private and I think that would be necessary for a class group.

Well I find my social life full enough and a mobile phone handier to send my brief but informative messages out so I won't be Tweeting. But thanks for enlightening me to the world of "Twits"!!

Jing

Jing is free software which can easily be downloaded from www.jingproject.com. Jing enables you to capture anything on your screen from a small part to the whole of the screen, and then save it where you choose, on your computer or uploaded to screencast or embedded on your blog or glog. It could be used as a bit of motivating fun for correcting students written work and maybe maths. Below is an example of capturing and editing a students work. Frankly I'd be horrified to get my work back looking like this.



It has taken me quite a bit of time to work Jing out though. I downloaded it to my computer to see how and if I would use it. The capture feature took me a bit of working out. I think I've got it now but as a busy teacher in a classroom I don't think I would have bothered. The photo capture was quite a process and the download time for videoing was exceptionally slow and not very reliable so I chose not to use it in this blog.
Instead I put in this:



I did this with Jing after a glass of red and really have no Idea how I did it as it took quite a few go's to achieve this. I guess it confirms my opinion originally formed in the class when Jing was presented, that Jing is not really for children and probably not for the teacher unless they enjoy a glass of red!!

Scratch

Scratch is a bright and colourful looking innovation. Looks like a lot of fun and could be great to enhance logic and thinking skills in students. Looks especially useful for the child who has good computer skills and needs some challenges of which I'm not one! I could see it as a useful classroom tool to give to the child who is turned on by the computer programming side of technology and have them create a scratch to show for the class. It could be a motivating force to develop other student's interest in learning these skills that scratch would develop.

The sequential nature of Scratch would be a great learning tool for some children. The more analytically minded child that learns well through logic and patterns would enjoy using Scratch. Some of the more creative children might find it too laborious. Scratch could be a match for some students. Not every child needs to do everything available. Knowing it's out there is good from my point of view. I can put it in my tool kit of technological learning innovations.

The downside is certainly the time consuming nature of learning it and getting familiar with it. However I wonder if time is not really the best framework to judge this innovation on though. So if it takes a bit of time in the classroom is this a bad thing?