Summary of Reading Review;
Last week I laid the foundation with the overall objectives for digital literacy and this week I was able to found resources that helped me with examples of how to curate and categorize apps and the purposeful uses of them. My exploration grew with my use of Popplet for brainstorming and my introduction to Buncee this week with further exploration coming with my plan to create a Buncee! I found the twittter feeds very useful for learning the name of digital apps that I had never heard of before;then I would check them out further online.
I found this week my resources delved deeper into the importance of curation and conscious choices of digital tools and the idea of smashing like an orchestra to use multiple apps to create work flow and creativity for students. I found checking out their list of resources/bibliography lend me into some helpful insights and reviews of digital tools for students. For example I had never heard of Commonsense Education which was in the bibliography for The Education Digest and I checked it out and found it very useful in categorizing/ curating tools for students because they are reviewed by a wide field of educators.
Bibliography:
1. Lindl J, Jessica Lindl. The Education digest: Evaluating EdTech: A Strategy for Selecting Digital Tools: Guidance from Common Sense Education for district-level decision making. Education Digest; 09/01
I found this a good starting point of how to take a common sense aproach to filtering down the ton of apps that can possible be used; Some of the criteria she names is; customization and integration; connectedness; equity and technical requirements. This was from the UBC library and I subscribed to the free e- newsletter for Ed Tech to keep up to date.
2. Valenza, J. (2017). Tool literacy as a new process — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch. [online] Blogs.slj.com. Available at: http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/05/14/tool-literacy: Common
Sense Education. (2017).
Enjoyed this blog on twitter because this is what I was thinking that its not enough to know about digital tools but for students to learn how to use multiple tools in combination creatively- smashing- ; which is a new term for me-to achieve their goal . To be like an artist with a palette and design their own set of tools that can be applied in combination . The author is aware of making conscious choices keeping in mind; affordances; which are varied and changing and constraints of digital tools.
The main take away is being able to constructively choose the best apps for different purposes to make a lesson flow which was demonstrated in the commonsense education videos which I found very helpful for application.
3.: https://www.commonsense.org/education/reviews/all?page=1&sort=changed&platforms=24&subjects=19646&grades=21927 [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].y/http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/05/14/tool-/2017;83:44
I found this resource very helpful because I hadn't found a resource that reviewed and categorized apps for teachers classifying them under many factors such as;grade level; subject; technology platform . I liked the term lesson flow instead of lesson plan and how the different apps are used for different purposes in the lesson flow: hook; direct instruction; guided practice; independent practice and wrap up .
Buncee Blog. (2017). 10 Ways to Use Buncee Boards in the Classroom - Buncee Blog. [online] Available at: https://www.buncee.com/blog/10-ways-to-use-buncee-boards-in-the-classroom/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2017]..
I attended a live webinar with Josh from Buncee in New York and he spoke to me all bout the Buncee application for educators for an hour on Wednesday. This was really informative and a new way of learning that I had never done before. I've downloaded the free version and will be trying it out this week. I really like the newest Buncee Board which students can display their Buncees together to be viewed and it can be private for only your school and it allows teacher editing if needed. Above is link to 10 ideas.
Powell, M. (2017). Modernizing Montessori_ Who are the Digital Natives?. Tomorrows Child, [online] pp.31-36. Available at: http://www.Montessori.Org [Accessed 1 Jan. 2015].
I found this article in my Montessori folder; though from 2015 I found it had some unique ideas I hadn't heard of such as DMOZ ; the largest , most comprehensive human reviewed directory of the web and WebQuests which use higher order thinking skills in which students around the globe can work towards a common goal. The author also wrote about Skype which I thought was just a video phone call . I went online to Skype classroom to learn more;finding a library of suggested lessons; teachers who want to connect and virtual field trips and author connections etc;. I checked the Skype Classroom website out and was interested to found an Empathy Education MInecraft course among many other empathy/listening to others etc; courses. Check out :
Skype in the Classroom . I joined the Microsoft Educator Community to access these resources and collaborate with other teachers.
He asks the question what motivates this new generation of Digital Natives? Motivation being a key component to authentic learning. In our Montessori school from grade 1 and up students have access to computers for research and projects using prezi etc;though I learned of many more digital tools since beginning this class.In summary ; the author concludes that Maria Montessori being a scientist and if still alive would encourage the use of technology for motivate students to be creative; communicative collaborative and curious.
