The New Read/Write Web

Everyone by now has used the read-only Web. The web we use to google for information for our report. The new web some have called Web 2 or the Read/Write Web is changing how students are communicating. Not only can you read some information but you can respond to it. Teachers are using blogs to get their students communicating through writing. When you know there is a real audience out there it feels different. In writing this blog I find myself writing much more than I ever thought I would. It appears that teachers who use blogs in the classroom are finding students reacting this way also. They aren't just reading and writing, they are collaborating and correcting.

Some of the "new" things on this "new" web - A blog is short for a web log. It's an online journal that is archived and that readers can respond to. I have a school account with Blogmeister that I think will work for RMS. It allows teachers to filter student writing. RSS Feeds are another new tool that stands for Reallly Simple Syndication. They allow you to subscribe to different sources of information that will collect into a file for you to read. For instance, if you are interested in wind power as an energy and want all the latest news and writing about it, you can have it collected for you. The sources of information could be from online newspapers, magazines, or blogs. Student could also use RSS feeds. Another new one that was news to me is something called social bookmarking. It works a little like bookmarking a website that you want to remember. With social bookmarking you actually save a copy of the website into a searchable folder. I guess it would actually be like accumulating a stack of books for your term paper. And you can subscribe to someone else's collection of websites on your RSS feed. Two websites to try to investigate social bookmarking are Furl.net and del.icio.us. You may have heard of podcasting. Many teachers are getting into this with their students. It's actually similar to a radio broadcast but it's distributed on the web. Listeners can listen to them when they want.

I'm hoping to try some of these new tools at RMS. Experiment at home. To start a blog go to blogger.com. It's almost as easy as setting up a Hotmail account and it's free. Put your class assignments up for each week so students can refer back to them. Give extra credit if they respond to a question or comment. Subscribe to an RSS feed. It could be on any topic such as gardening, a certain author, adventure vacation spots, or the Patriots. I'm going to try social bookmarking. When I find an excellent website for a particular project I'll try "collecting" it so I can pull it up quickly. Anyone want to do a podcast at RMS?

Geometer's Sketchpad

I attended a math workshop in November and listened to a middle school teacher present her successes with Geometer's Sketchpad. It's a geometry program that allows student to visually see results. It also allows algebra students to graph equations. A very neat program. I gave Marie B., our Math C.C. the disk to try and she is excited about it also. We may try to do a workshop in March if we can learn it well enough by then. It is free to download at this site for 30 days but you cannot save or print. The package is about $1300. and comes with lessons and worksheets. There is an excellent tutorial at this site that has some basic lessons with lines, triangles and circles. I found this lesson about pinwheels that looked interesting. Hoping we can get the money.

It's Official - 1 Tech Facilitator/4 teams

Wally made it official yesterday that Carleen will begin teaching 7th grade Computer Class next semester (Jan. 23). I will continue as the technology facilitator for all 4 8th grade teams. We saw a need for 7th graders to learn computer technology. Seventh grade teachers have been complaining that the students have "no clue" how to save, print, edit, etc. The present 8th graders had the course last year so we are coasting on that. Next year it could be disastrous! So Carleen will teach keyboarding, WORD and a little of Excel and PowerPoint. It's still a work in progress so please comment if you have any suggestions.