Cool Tool Review Number Two

For my second Cool Tool Review, I used befunky.com. This tool is a photo editor, collage maker, and allows you to do some graphic design. I found this tool to be similar to Instagram. You can edit photos with many different effects and are able to share it to Facebook and Twitter. You can use the free settings and templates which give you a more limited access but I feel like it is enough. The cost is $4.95 a month or $24.95 for a year.
You create an account and profile to personalize to make your page interesting. You can pull photos from your Facebook page and Instagram.

As and educator, if you were able to bring this tool into the classroom, I think that the collage maker would be the most effective feature to use. The reason being, it is very easy to use and the students could create a theme for their collage.

I came up with the idea for using this for middle school students to make an advertisement for Earth Day. I think that a science teacher and an art teacher could work together to make this possible. This way the students get the content of Earth Day from their science teacher and learn the content of creating their advertisement from the art teacher. The integration of science an art would be a fun way to get the students thinking. 

Here is an example I made for a middle school student's collage and advertisement for Earth Day for encouraging others in the school to celebrate Earth Day at their middle school:

The reason I chose middle school students is because I think that this is the youngest age where students would understand how to use this tool and would be a great introduction to learn how to use technology for school. The teacher would need to have the site on display for the students on a smart board so while the students sit at the computers, they are able to follow along with the teacher to see how the site works. I think that there are many kids who are digitally literate at this age already and they would be able to catch on quickly, Nevertheless, you have to remember that not every student is digitally literate due to limited access to technology so they will need extra help to be successful with their project.

Overall, I would say that I was semi-impressed with this tool. Yes, it was fun and I think that it would be fun for students but at the same time there has to be better tools out there to do a project like this although, this would be a good introduction tool for students to learn the ways of simple graphic design. Unfortunately, their are no school discounts for this site. It is pretty easy to use but if I would give it a 3 out of 5 star rating.

I do encourage you to check it out and see what you can create.

Here is the link to the site: https://www.befunky.com/

And here is the link to my profile: https://www.befunky.com/gallery/mspontwookie/

What Digital Citizenship Means To Me - Mark Spontarelli - EdTech

What digital Citizenship means to me in my personal life is making sure that I am ethical in what I am posting and sharing. I believe it is completely unnecessary to post things that will harm others. I want to have a positive citizenship in the way I present myself to the online world. I want to respect my family and friends in what I post or comment on. There are different social media sites that I use that I keep my profile and posts private so that only friends I have on the social media site I use can see what I am sharing. I want my footprint in my personal life to show the genuineness of my love for my family. I am a family man and I love to post the triumphs or successes that my family has made. Getting married, the birth of my son, the purchase of our home, and my family outside of my home. At the same time, I have sites that I use where my profile is not set to private so that I can get input and encouragement from others who have families that could be in a struggle or have also had a triumph. I am able to give advice and receive advice to and from others. I believe these things will give me a more positive digital citizenship. I want to be an encourager, not a problem starter.

When it comes to my professional life in my digital citizenship, this has been amazingly helpful for me to be able to share ideas I have with working in the Special Needs world. I am able to share articles or videos where I have learned a new concept that will help my kiddos. Also, other educators have responded with advice they have and other resources that they use where they have learned something that has helped them. This gives me joy having fellow digital citizens to communicate with professionally from all over. Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr have been great tools that have helped me.

I have only had a couple of instances where my feelings were hurt online. I was unfortunate because a comment was made that was hurtful by an old friend I had about where my future was going. But other than that, the only things people have responded with that were offensive would be on Reddit or YouTube where I post something I found or made that I was funny and I was cursed at or people commented that it was horrible or stupid. That didn't really hurt my feelings because I know there are digital citizens out there that look to write offensive comments. I never responded to them because there is no point in fighting back. That is their opinion and I think that get angry with it will get me nowhere.

I have not tried to intentionally find a way to hurt people's feelings. I think that is a complete waste of time and it is not proper digital citizenship. One offensive comment you make can bring a negative effect on your digital citizenship. One person could see an offensive comment or post that hurt their feelings and that would be all they remember you by.

The concerns of fears and lurking dangers would prevent digital citizens from being in a participatory culture would be the fear of stealing, getting your account hacked into, and harassment. We have to remember that there are such things as digital crimes, and those crimes are illegal. If you look at the article about the nine themes of digital citizenship, the ninth theme is Digital Security. The article mentions that we keep our home safe with locks and fire alarms and more and we can apply this to our online world. We must be careful of what we are doing. In this way, we can feel safe and be able to express our creativity and be comfortable in being a part of a participatory culture.

TPACK! - Week 5 Prompt - Mark Spontarelli

TPACK! - Week 5 Prompt - Mark Spontarelli

1. As an educator introducing new tools in the classroom, one must ask themselves if this tool will be useful for you as a teacher and for your students in gathering and learning the information you wish to present. Would these apps be age appropriate for your students? Could the students catch on without being overwhelmed? Using technology is not easy for everyone so you would want to make sure you know this tool inside and out. The technical side of presenting can be difficult so you would want to make sure you have your students on the same page before going further into using the app. This goes hand in hand with the pedagogical aspect. It is all about delivery of the technology and information! Know your content of the subject and the tool like the back of your hand so your teaching will not be confusing but orderly.
2. A positive attribute would be the excitement you give the students in learning the content through technology. Not only will this be exciting for the students, but this will be exciting for you as an educator to help improve your teaching! Another positive attribute would be enhancing the creativity of your students. Let them explore the tool.
A hindrance could be us as teachers being as the article about integrating technology, "digital immigrants". There are many teachers who are not familiar with this type of teaching and technology. This world of teaching is getting bigger and bigger, and we need to keep up with the times. There is excitement in TPACK and a teacher must be open to break away from there old ways of presenting and use this amazing technique. Another hindrance could be schools who do not have the funds to get this type of technology. I think that as teachers, we should present TPACK to the schools to show them the effectiveness of this style of teaching and where education is moving.
3. I will choose technologies that would contain content that would apply to the lesson I am teaching. There are many different tools out there and there are many that can apply to just one subject such as science or history. I would make sure that the content I am teaching would be shown with the tool best fit for the presentation. This is very important for our delivery when teaching.
4. After learning about TPACK, I would have questions such as, how can I present this information the most effectively in a way to get students to understand the content I am teaching and is the tool going to be effective for their level of learning when it comes to understanding the technological aspect of using this in their classroom? I would begin to answer these by reading and watching presentations of other teachers posts who use the tools that I am considering using. I would want to know how they presented the content and what was effective and what was not. I would need to consider the level of understanding that my students are at so that they get the most out of the tool and would feel confident when learning the lesson and participating in the work that the tool would require.     

Cool Tool Review - Storyboardthat.com

Storyboard

The tool I chose to try out is a site called, storyboardthat.com. The reason I chose this is because you can set up a comic type of storyboard to create presentations for classes for your students, or the students can do them themselves. Some of the examples shown on the site have to do with a summary of a book read for an English class, or a time period in History, and even Greek Mythology.

 As I kept inspecting the site, I saw there was a Special Education section. Special Education is my major, so I am pretty pumped about this! I am also an Education Aide for students with special needs so this site gave me some inspiration. 

A teacher on the website gave an idea of making a, "First, Then" storyboard for students with special needs. In this way, the students can get a visual of the mapping of their day instead of just hearing their teacher tell them. Many of these types of students need to stick to their routine because if the routine is broken, that is when the meltdowns happen. Believe me, I got a chunk of my hair ripped out on Friday because a student's routine was thrown off. It happens. BUT, this tool will give them a constant visual reminder of what the day will look like.

My first thought for using this was for one of my non-verbal students. He seems to understand visual prompts and auditory prompts for the most part but this could continue to help him get a better understanding as time goes on. Here is an example:

Yes this example is simple, but keep in mind I made this with one of my severely intellectually disabled students. Three simple steps could give him the full concept of the day.

Higher functioning students would be able to make their own and make the storyboard longer. They would not need it to only map out their day but could create a summary of what they had learned in class on a particular topic. This would allow the student to go beyond the assignment and use their creativity as well. This enhances the fun of this tool but would also challenge them to make a presentation in away that the students and teacher would understand in an organized fashion.

There are many different backgrounds, characters, themes, and scenarios you or your student could create. The site has a great instructional video on how to get started and the video does a wonderful job of how to create different scenarios with ease.

I used the free 14 day trial, so this does cost some money if you were to continue using this. The cost for a teacher is $9.95 a month, $19.95 Quarterly, and $59.95 for an entire year. And of course the school you are working for should be able to pay for the cost.

Students would need to be supplied with the right technology tools to accomplish this. Computers and iPads would be ideal. It would be awesome to have enough of these resources for each student so that they could work together and the teacher can give a great visual step by step direction on how to use this tool.

Here are a couple of links for this site: 

http://www.storyboardthat.com/

https://www.storyboardthat.com/portal/storyboards/mspontwookie/class-storyboard/first--then/copy

Mark Spontarelli - Openness and Participatory Culture - Ed. Tech.

1. We capture the spirit of openness and participatory communities in our learning environments by being generous with our information, teachings, and ideas. Like in the TedTalks video, the speaker said that education is not immune to selfishness, so we must be open to sharing. If there is no sharing, there is no education. The more that we share the more others will be able to participate not only as consumers of the information we give but a producers as well as said on Wikipedia.Therefore, the sharing of education keeps growing and growing.

2.Open access in the classroom is access to all of the teaching and the class criteria from all over. Like in the video where it showed the teacher who started out from 100 students, then put his teachings online, it exploded. People from all over the world were able to access the information of this class and the peer taught class. Open access in this class was also made possible by: redistribution, remixed content, revised by translating, and was reused by others. This is the amazing power of open access in the classroom.

3. I see the future of education getting bigger and bigger in relation to learning anywhere at anytime with anyone. As the one video says on the importance of sharing content, everyone has the right to be educated - only a few have access to school. With that being said, we are going to be able to learn from so many people from all over the globe. We have come so far with our ability to do this thanks to social media, blogging, etc. and it is exciting to see what the future brings. I believe its only going to get better.

4.I can see textbooks slowly fading away. Although, I prefer printed textbooks, having your text book online is cheaper and will always be able to be accessed, whereas a textbook might be sold out and you would have to wait until they re-stock. I know as time goes on I will be able to get used to online textbooks, just a strange concept to me, but one that will be more useful in the end. I feel as the younger generations start coming into school they will only have online textbooks. I have an online Bible from the YouVersion app. I have access to SO MANY translations that I may not be able to find in any store. Its free and there all of the time. I can even highlight in it which is wonderful! So maybe this will be my way of easing in to it. 

Mark Spontarelli - Share Your Thoughts Prompt - UAEdTech

1. Teachers and leaders should share their work by blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. The internet is an amazing tool to get one's ideas and thoughts shared and read not just by students and colleagues, but people all over the world.

2. Choose to share something that you believe in, a valid opinion, idea, or thought. In this way others can read your posts and be able to get ideas on their own ideas and also you can get input from people who comment on your posts. Share something inspirational or an epiphany that you have had. The beauty of having your ideas and thoughts on the internet is you can get great input from people across the world. This will also improve your Professional Learning Network. Don't share things that you know are false and want to start controversy with. This will not encourage others to read your posts and give you constructive criticism.

3. What students need to learn off stage is confidence in their writing and ideas. Failure hits harder than when you do well. It's something we naturally linger on. By learning to be confident in their work they won't be afraid to share their ideas and as they keep sharing and writing, they can only get better and will  be successful.

4. Sharing does not always have to be online. Although, I believe online can be most effective, face - to - face offers a more intimate conversation or presentation. This makes me think of conferences. They are great and all and can be a wealth of information, but many times you have to pay to go see them whereas online blogging is free.

5. The value of sharing everything is a way of improving. As you keep sharing, ideas will be able to be made clearly and you will keep building your network and keep getting new ideas from people who are reading your posts. As the video put it, it is our job as educators to be doing this. This again, will build confidence! This has made me want to share more and more so I can get all the help I can get!

6. By encouraging my students to be engaged in blogging and sharing their ideas, this will build a community where you are sharing and commenting on others ideas receiving helpful constructive criticism that will only help you. The criticism is not meant to diminish you, you will continue to learn.

7. When it comes to always being formal and error free, I think that is a very hard expectation to meet. The reason being is that we are doing this to learn. If there are errors, their will be people commenting and responding to help us. I think we should focus from being formal to innovative. With the resources available to us, we can present in new ways.

8. We can create a culture to use multiple ways to be effective in our classroom. We do not have to stick to one method of teaching but we can integrate both formal and new technological ways to teach our students. We begin by sharing these concepts both in person and online. You can start out small and slowly build your ways of giving information and building a professional learning network that will have other teachers along side of you to help you along the way and you can help them too.