I was very impressed with the information from the web interviews this week. The interview with Larry Fleriazzo was very informative. The details that he provided about how picky he is selecting websites and Internet tools was surprising to me. I also liked his website. As I scanned the website, the information and articles about national education policies and news are unique and details the "big picture" in education.
Richard Brynes' website has many great ideas for teachers. The initial article and Econ Ed link is a website that I currently use. He also has a link to a game that I am going to check out and possibly use in my Personal Finance classes.
The tool I am going to explore is Diigo. I used this tool a few years ago because it was required for the class. I also have co-workers who use Diigo and find it very useful for saving important websites and referring back to the sites and a description of the main purpose. An advantages to using Diigo is that I can continue to talk to colleagues about it, ask them questions and view their pages. I like how you can highlight parts of the website and also write notes about the website using Diigo.
When I'm thinking about using websites I select sites that contain information that brings something new to the class. I don't want to repeat or reinforce something that I already cover in class. I want something that bring a class concept to life or adds a new perspective.
I have many sources that I use in class including Econ Ed link, Financial websites and National Economics council on Financial Literacy websites. I also use Ted talks and interviews with Business/Industry leaders. I do not use websites from other teachers or partitioners, that is something I should look into.
Reflection
Over the last several days I looked at the curation tools again to get a better handle on what is the purpose of online curation programs. I looked at Paper.li and that seems to be similar to Glogster but more professional looking. It seems very simple and easy to create an online professional looking newsletter. I also looked at Flockler and something that they promoted is how easy it is to go from viewing your content from one to device to another. I also reviewed Scoop.it and decided to use this online tool to create an online magazine. Scoop.it looks easy to use and reminds me of Prezi which I use all the time. I like to try out new online programs with my students and this may be an interesting way to create an online magazine.
Here is a link to what I have so far - Scoop It
I think it is a great idea to look into websites from other teachers. I find this to be one of the best places for new ideas and perspectives.
ReplyDeleteThank you for describing Diigo. I did not look into this site, but I may now. I especially like the thought of highlighting websites and writing notes. Very useful!
Laura
ReplyDeleteI changed my mind and I am using Scoop.it instead. This looks straight forward and simple to use but also looks very clean and professional.
Shirl,
ReplyDeleteI chose to use Scoop.It! for the curation tool I wanted to practice this week, too. Why did you chose start-ups as your topic? Are you interested in business creation for personal or professional reasons? I really liked the video on the "Four Pillars" on your Scoop.It! page.
I agree with your comment that Scoop.It! looks more professional than Glogster. I never really liked Glogster because I thought it looked very elementary-school and, as a high school teacher, I wanted something more polished. I think Scoop.It! is a great resource for that more polished look.
How do you think you will use Scoop.It! in the classroom?
Kelly P.
I love that you updated your post as you learned something new. I think the use of these two tools are going to work well.
ReplyDeleteKelly,
ReplyDeleteYou might want to check back in with Glogster. They recently dropped the regular Glogster site to focus on GlogsterEDU. As they told me via Twitter, they want to streamline the brand as an educational tool. There may be changes since the last time you checked it out.
I agree that Larry F is great, but he is one of those people on Twitter who can sometimes over-shared and clog your feed.
I really liked the interviews as well. I think it's great how we are using digital tools to treat these teched leaders like rockstars. I especially liked the questions about the process of curation and what thoughts go into why they choose to highlight certain tools.