Technology Options for Educators

A blog is an online forum for sharing the thoughts and ideas of an individual or group of individuals. They can be configured in a variety of formats that are only limited by one's imagination and intended application. There are options that can be enabled by the blog owner(s) to allow others from the web community to provide commentary, if they so desire.

One of the more well known blogs, wordpress, offered impressive and possibly expensive options for professional bloggers who have the time and initiative to learn some of the tools and familiarize themselves with the seemingly unlimited customizations available. They did have a completely free option for those who are new to blogging, but it became difficult and time consuming for me quite rapidly because I was unfamiliar with many of the operations.  I moved on quickly to other less challenging options because of my frustration. The amount of time I was using to set up a practice blog gave affordance new meaning when interacting with wordpress. My husband has no trouble working with it, but he's an engineer.

Another of the more well known blogging sites that I investigated was tumblr.com. I have taught many students and young adults who use it, but the site's appeal has been lost on me in the past.  I had set up an account about three years ago, but I was even less technologically literate back then. I think I had been attempting to treat it like twitter instead of a blog site. I had to reset my password and dust off my account just to investigate. My daughter correctly pointed out that perhaps I had not given it a fair shot or even gone through any tutorials, so I took another look.  I had complained about the scroll forever nature of the site to her, then I noticed a handy little arrow in the top right hand corner that immediately took me to the top.  I could also control the feeds that I received down to how many per day and the time I wanted to receive them by editing the appearance.  The blog also allowed a quick hyperlink setup, audio and video linking. One thing I did not find that would offer affordance is a hovering option that would tell me the function of an icon when moused over so I didn't have to click on it to find out. Overall my skills are much better than they were several years ago, or else tumblr has gotten easier to use.  I think the former... I may resurrect my previously unused account this fall and post some things to see if my students indicate any interest.

Another option I looked at was blogger. It seemed intuitive and user friendly when I set up an account. Many of the icons told me what they were when I moused over them and the page allowed me to preview it before publishing.  I was reminded that I was looking at a preview via a banner splashed across the corner of the page. The mobile interface is clean and uncluttered and it showed me exactly what my post will look like from a phone, which is a bonus due to the fact that so many people use their mobiles for web related activities.  It is completely free and was reminiscent of the google sites application that I have used in days past.

After my initial post I found another site that I liked almost as well - weebly. The drop and drag options will appeal to those who have become accustomed to the ever popular iOS operating systems and touch screen technology. I played with it for several hours getting my site to look just like I wanted it. The font sizes increase and decrease similar to touch screens, by + or - with a mouse if you are using a desktop. One big drawback that I could see was the lack of a preview before actually publishing the content. Another drawback was the captioning for photos being limited.

Glogster was one of the the glogs I investigated because it offers a protective and child friendly environment. The biggest drawback I found was that it requires annual fees or site licenses from a school district to set up accounts and can get pricey very quickly.  In the course of my glogster investigation a completely free glog surfaced: smore. It is a platform for sharing news with others through social media sites and offers the ability to imbed videos from youtube, vimeo, and viddler. The user interface offered quick and easy templates or flyers and easy editing capabilities on existing templates. Someone could also create their own templates if they were feeling adventurous.

At this point, I plan on using smore next year to provide district wide announcements for a micro business that my Culinary students always operate during the school year. Today I made a dummy news announcement for practice using the site. It was very user friendly and I could see that many other teachers are using it already. I think that incorporating it into my classroom will help me stand directly in the center of the TPACK model. My students will be creating and evaluating an ongoing marketing plan for the business they will be running from our class.  They will conduct an initial market survey, design and populate order forms using smore then make adjustments based on incoming orders.  The customizable forms are templates from another site: wufoo, that supports smore.  It can be as simple or as complex as the user desires and multiple people can share editing and design privileges.

With regard to Bloom's taxonomy my students will be performing higher thinking skills because they will be creating, evaluating, and analyzing the success of their venture on several levels. In the past we have used instagram, snapchat and twitter to promote our business but this platform will be superior because it has an interactive component that will help them analyze incoming data. They can collaborate and conquer!

From my early years as an educator I began to incorporate as much "doing" in my lesson planning as humanly possible because I have always believed that students learn best when they are up and moving and doing. The content area that I teach now lends itself beautifully to the facilitation of learning in this way because almost everything the students do is hands-on. The nature of smore is very hands-on as well and will allow my students to customize what they need based on the direction they take their business. In my other classes that have no business component  I can see using smore to upload instructional content with pictures and video for lab applicatons. Students will be able to see and then follow along, checking their product against my picture and instruction, much like thepioneerwoman (a food network blog from Ree Drummond) uses for her communication and facilitation of learning.

Pedagogically Montessori has been a large influence in the way I approach my students. I can see the value of her ideas and the progress of my students when they are allowed the freedom to create learning opportunities for themselves.  I am also standing squarely on Bandura's shoulders as well. By helping students draw the dotted line between what we do in class and what they will experience in their lives outside the school setting I am able to keep them engaged. Students are modeling what they observe and reproducing their own versions of what they have seen and learned. They are also teaching others what they have learned after they leave my classes. Parents often tell me about things their kids have taught them that they learned in my classes. (I usually see them when open house rolls around and they come to visit me.)

The primary obstacle to implementing  any new program in a school setting is usually financial whether it is a glog or another technology that is implemented for student use. For now, smore and wufoo are free and I hope they stay that way. I will be able to use them for a long time!  Another obstacle might be an initial issue with the school firewall, however; our technology crew is very quick to evaluate what I am attempting to do and work with me to achieve any goal that benefits the students.