Top 10 Cool Tools for School

Who made the cut for the Top Ten Cool Tools for School?

(1) Andrea's ReadWriteThink 

(2) Victoria's Library of Congress 

(3) Ashley's Educreations

(4) Carly's Free Math Help

(5) Joel's United Streaming

(6) Jonathan's Glogster 

(7) Caitlin's Geometry Toolbox

(8) Angela's Shmoop

(9) Rosa's YouTube

(10) Sammie's TerraClues (I thought it was really handy and cool.) And it never hurts to vote for yourself . . . right? lol

There you have it, readers!

Till Next Time,

-SAS

Cool Tool for Schools

Hey readers,

Let me ask you a question: While in school, was there ever a time where you wish the teacher would make the lesson more fun?  I know I have, so that got me thinking.  With all this fanzy technology around us, how can teachers today use this to the student's (and their own) advantage.  So I surfed around the web and found this awesome website that makes learning fun!!

I love scavenger hunts, and this site offers people the virtual version!!  TerraClues is a scavenger hunting site where teachers can create clues -- or use ones already created by other educators -- the correlate with the class's lesson plan.  These clues can be anything from geography topics, to history, to english, to whatever you are learning.  The teacher makes these clues and the student's job is to find them using the internet.  The best part about this is that the teacher can have their own account to manage which also contains his/her class lists too.  You can give the clues difficulty levels, use either the Google Map or Google Search, and much much more!!!

This is an awesome tool that certainly makes learning fun!  Come one, who doesn't like a scavenger hunt?!  Take a look around TerraClues and even go make your own! Check out the video I found that will help you create your own Hunt!

Till Next Time

-SAS

Tweet Tweet!

Long time no talk, readers!


During my short time away, I have been reacquainted with the glorious world of Twitter!  I made myself an account a while back, but never saw the sense in sticking too it, but I have had a huge reality check.

Twitter is not just for the celebs, fashion designers, and obnoxious wannabees who are telling everyone (or no one) what they are doing with their days, it has some value!!  What value you may ask?  Well not only is it obvious that it is a great tool of connecting with people all over the world, but you are able to find knowledge users who are sharing knowledge ideas -- in you know where to look.  From educators to professional writers to athletic coaches, there are people out there on Twitter that are providing valid information that will help you in your career path, or even your hobbies!
The communication on Twitter is pretty handy, connecting people with common interests all over the world, and having the opportunity to learn different things that interest you.  But don't let it stop you there!!


You -- yes, you, my amazing readers -- are able to tweet about whatever you want.  And yeah, that could mean about you're every day life, but you can also tweet about the latest theory you learned in class, or the better way to go about a difficult problem, or the soultion to whatever answer.  The point of it all is a network connection to keep people informed and keep ideas flowing through different minds so we are not stuck thinking and doing that same old things! 


You are following me here (a good choice by the way), but if i may suggest clicking my sign out to follow me on Twitter.  It's a handy little too, especially when on the go!  Don't be left in the dust, find out what others are thinking and let your voice be heard too! 




Till next time, little birdies,


-SAS

New Era of Old School

                Personal Learning Networks by Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli is the text that was assigned for one of my courses this semester – SEDU 183 taught by Mr. Marc “Balddaddieteach” Smith, to be exact.  Just after reading the first chapter, however, I put down the book and had a mixed reaction, let me tell you why.  The first chapter, titled Understanding the Power of PLNs, dealt with the issue of why schools today have to become more technologically advanced.  It was argued that by becoming more tech-savvy will enhance the student’s education because they would be able to “self-direct our[ the students] learning(p.22)” in ways the interested them, also, it would allow the student to further broaden their educational horizons by having access to unlimited educational resources around the world, whether that be a student in Hong Kong or a teacher in Bangkok.   The authors further explained themselves, by reassuring that the students would be taught the safe, correct way to wander around the internet, and that schools only use the blocking of Facebook and MySpace (which is no longer a worry cause, serious, who uses MySpace anymore?) as an excuse to keep the children “safe”.

                Ok, and these are the points where I get my mixed reaction!  I put the book down and thought, “ . . . Well, I see two problems with this.”  The first problem being that students will learn more using technology by being able to access more information about what they are interested it!  The writers clam that we are shifting from a “generic to personal (p. 17)” learning system where we “pursue our interests and passions (p.17)” If I had it my way, back when I started school, I would not have touched a math book or learned a single mathematical equation!  I would have spent all my time researching historical England and reading whatever literature I could get my hands on.  Students need to learn all the different subjects in order to be the ideal Renaissance man – or woman.  It is better to be well rounded, even if you have your weak points, at least you would have some knowledge of what the subject entails.

                This issue then led into the next comment made in the chapter.  The writers stated that schools are only blocking networks such as Facebook (MySpace, who?) and Wikipedia because it is keeping children “safe”. They stated that, “we suspect that it has much to do with being an easy way not to have to deal with the real world realities that the web brings” (p 36). Firstly Wikipedia is a sorry excuse of an “informational” let alone “educational” site.  Anyone can go on there and say that Uranus used to be called a planet, but has now shrunk and has teleported to be a blemish on someone’s behind!  Wikipedia, not creditable and useless, next – Facebook.  

Most drama starts on Facebook, and cyber bullying is a rapid growing issue because people do not have the courage to say anything to someone’s face nowadays.  Let Facebook be on the student’s own personal time, not during school.  My high school had sites like that blocked until the end of the school day, so if there where students still waiting in the building for a ride or sports practice, they would let the rest of the world know too.

The point I am getting at is that, yes, schools do need to become more tech-savvy in order to teach the students and teachers more, but also make the teacher’s job a little easier; but they also need to realize that some of the “old” school ways are beneficial and should not be totally thrown out like your grandmothers moth eaten pajamas!  I had a Math course where we had to do much of the work online . . . and I HATED IT!!  I couldn’t understand it by myself, let alone have the text on the computer screen tell me how to do it.  And yes, this is an instance where I could have found some miraculous Math Heaven site and have the answer told or attempted to be taught to be, but all students learn in different ways.  We still need that teacher in the class room to sit us down with a pencil and paper and help us work it out and explain it to us in numerous ways if we don’t get it the first fifteen times. 

Then there is also the issue of communication.  Sure, a student can talk to the teacher in Bangkok about Lewis Carroll and his nonsense Wonderland world, or have the student in Hong Kong do his parent’s tax returns, but could that student be able to turn to his peer next to him and have an intelligent conversation without any stutters, “like’s”, awkward pauses, or anything else that is classified as poor communication skills?  Having all this technology at the students (and teachers) fingertips is great!  But are we losing the humanity, or I should rather say human communication, that has been taught all these years?

The authors have presented a good argument, and to some extend I do agree, but you also have to worry about what is going to be lost with the addition of all this new technology in the schools.  I do encourage students and people of all ages to go out and educated themselves, but it is not going to be spoon fed to you.  Schools should be teaching their students how to maneuver through the internet safely, and go out and find the information they need and want to learn!  The internet, when used properly is a great source to learn new things, but I believe that there are still some aspects of the old school way of learning that are still valuable to learn.

Well, I know many of my followers had to read what I did, so if any of you have your comments, remarks, criticism, or right out bashing of what I had to say about it, leave a comment below.

 Till next time.

-SAS