iSean

so, i know of colleagues in my field who have their students learn how to make a webpage/website. they make designing a website a lab to complete or even a longer term project. some have students learn to make a website with some limited HTML and others use a tool like Adobe Dreamweaver (that still seems weird to me to write Adobe instead of Macromedia, but i digress). i won’t beat around the bush . . . i think it’s an unproductive activity. the vast majority of preservice educators aren’t going to remember how to do it once they have their own classroom. the vast majority won’t care to do it even if they could remember. many will have websites provided by the school district that hires them. and many other just won’t have the time to devote to maintaining a whole website and being their own tech support. and these days, personal/teaching websites are becoming less and less necessary.

why not have students learn how to create a blog — takes all of 2 minutes on blogger.com? why not show them how to be involved in the blogging community? have your students go out and find ed tech related blogs and leave their own comments on these blogs. while your students are searching for a blog, they’ll inevitably find some blogs they’ll read and not comment on so they’ll be exposed to various perspectives in the field that may not be your perspective. they’ll learn that they can participate in the ed tech community and interact with curren ted tech progressionals, etc. — so they’ll see potential models for how blogs can be used in education and perhaps they’ll envision ways to use blogs in their own future classrooms. and unlike creating a static website, the blogging world is dynamic and alive and this type of activity can be assigned throughout a semester and each time it’s something new for the students to discover. you can even have students search for specific topic (e.g., Fair use and copyright; social networking in education). all the while, they’re seeing blogs used in an educational setting and seeing that blogging can be a perfect fit in the classroom.

so, if you are anything like me, you find yourself visiting many sites and maintaining many different sites (e.g., facebook, blog, twitter, etc.). that means a lot of tabs in your browser and then checking back and forth for new comments. tedious stuff, eh? well, tedious no more. Disqus is there for you. what is it?

Disqus, pronounced “discuss”, is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. The Disqus comment system can be plugged into any website, blog, or application. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community.

it’s a site that brings the various comments and communications you have into one place.

Threaded comments and comment ratings

Powerful moderation and admin tools

Filter out spam, trolls, and unwanted commenters

i have just started using it so i can’t give a good review, but the concept is something that appeals to me. hopefully this site can work as described. we’ll see.

i have been on twitter for a few years now. i have “twittered” about 5 or 6 times in 2 years so i am really not into it. however, i’ve noticed twitter gaining much attention lately in the news. an NPR report the other day noted that they are still trying to make money on the site and that they’re being supported by venture capitalists. fine. i still don’t fully get why this site is gaining popularity. perhaps i need to follow someone. i have about 8 people following me (obviously, masochists). i heard that Shaq had a nice tweet going . . . but i visited his site and it was all @this poster or @that poster responses. pretty mundane stuff. i am still trying to figure out how twitter is any different than facebook status updates. like i said, i have barely used twitter, but now i am thinking that i should put some effort into seeing what it is. perhaps i can use it in my teaching??? in any regard, i’ve added my tweet in my sidebar there on the right. enjoy . . . or not.

i went into my son’s class last Friday to teach a lesson during the computer time. the teacher was looking for ways to use the computer time they have each week. the kids have used the internet in limited capacity and they often use Kid Pix:

i wanted to go in an focus on writing skills. i met with the teacher ahead of time and we determined that there might be 3 levels of writing skills from very limited to writing full sentences. so i created 3 roles for the lesson. i would have them partner with a student from each of the other groups — 7 or 8 groups of 3 or thereabouts.

i also learned that they’d recently read a book they really enjoyed called, Stinky Cheese Man” and i borrowed the book to help supplement my lesson.

before we headed to the computer lab, i sat the kids in a group around me and told them a story that went about like this:

Last night, Mrs. (insert Principal’s name) found some stinky old cheese. She decided to make a man out of stinky cheese. He had olives for eyes and bacon for his mouth. She put him in the oven to cook. When she opened the door . . . PHEW!! EGADS!!! YUCK! The smell knocked her back and out jumped the Stinky Cheese Man. He is on the loose in East Grand Rapids (or your town) screaming, “Run run run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me. I’m the Stinky Cheese Man!”

Ooooh NO! The Stinky Cheese Man is on the loose and he has made his way into East Grand Rapids and headed towards Breton Downs Elementary School (or your school). Perhaps you can smell him now? Word on the street is that he scared all of the squirrels into hibernation. I bet nobody saw a squirrel this morning when you were coming to school. That’s Stinky Cheese Man for you. I even heard that he is headed for the Breton Downs cafeteria. Stinky Cheese Man wants to end up on your pizza, chicken nuggets, and in your Stinky Cheese nachos. Ewww. But we can stop him. We must stop him!

of course, i was overly dramatic to help draw the kids in . . . and it did. some even wondered out loud whether this was a true story only to have other children tell them it wasn’t. heh. i then explained my role to help them sort of like this:

To help you out, I am the Fairly Stupid Tale catcher . . . sort of like a dog catcher, but I catch Fairly Stupid Tale characters. And today that character just happens to be Stinky Cheese Man. If you are successful in warning East Grand Rapids citizens and if you are successful in setting the trap for the Stinky Cheese Man then I will plug my nose and run and throw him into Reeds Lake so he cannot mess with your lunch.

so then i provided the students with a task to complete that i explained about like this:

Stinky Cheese Man is on the loose and your group is responsible for doing 3 things. First, you need to set the trap. The doors into Breton Downs Elementary School need to have a plate of food set in front of them that will stop the Stinky Cheese Man before he goes into the school. Pick ingredients for your plates carefully to make sure that we catch the Stinky guy before he becomes our lunch. Ewww!

that job was for the students who weren’t quite writing yet. i also provided each of these students with a writing guide that gave them some instructions for drawing a picture of a plate with certain items on the plate as well as some items of their own choosing. they had to label everything. these kids were setting the trap.the next two groups also got a writer’s guide handed to them and i explained their roles similar to this:

We also have to warn people in East Grand Rapids that the Stinky Cheese Man is on the loose. So, some of you will write the story for the newspaper and the rest of you will make a wanted poster warning people about the Stinky Cheese Man.

so, the kids let were put into a role of making a wanted poster or writing an article for the newspaper. one student had a dad who was an editor at the local paper so the kids were convinced that their stories would get published . . . this matter was too urgent not to get published. and the wanted posters would be posted around town so people walking their dogs could try and avoid the Stinky Cheese Man.

for the writer’s guides, i provided very simple instructions. for example, i might have some starter sentences like this:

The Stinky Cheese Man has escaped and . . .

He smelled so bad that he scared . . .

i also provided the spelling for some common words that might end up in their writing like, “hibernation, principal, squirrels, lunch” and other words that were more specific to our town. the kids were very attentive and they worked hard.

my son is in the class so i was able to follow up easily to find out that the kids spent that day at recess looking for the Stinky Cheese Man. i was also able to see the finished products and provide a status report the next day that everything had worked and that we’d captured the Stinky Cheese Man and that our community was safe once again. one girl had even written a complete sentence even though she was in the first group that was just asked to label items. she really wanted to capture the Stinky Cheese Man.

all in all a very fun activity.