Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, & YouTube

I begin my search for this week's design experiment by searching Khan Academy. As a Pre-K teacher, I saw that Pre-K was not an option for grade level, but I chose to explore the kindergarten links, because many times the School Readiness Goals and Texas PreK Guidelines, which I use as goals for the content of my classroom, overlap with curriculum that is commonly seen on a Kindergarten level.

I discovered that the objectives of Khan Academy align with Common Core Math Standards, and I realized that it would not be difficult at all to find content relevant to my own classroom goals using this website.  The first video I found was listed under kindergarten geometry, and called, "Cousin Fal's Shape Collection."  Here is the video...

After watching the video, I feel as if this content could be beneficially used toward my instructional goals.  Goal #23 on my School Readiness Goal list states that a student, "Identifies Familiar Shapes."  Goal #24 states that a student, "Sorts diverse objects based on multiple attributes."

Watching this video clip, and learning about the "Flipped Classroom" this week gave me an idea. I next went to http://www.goqr.me, which is a free site for creating QR codes, and I generated a QR code for the video, which I have included to the right. ---------------------------------------------------->

Each week on my classroom newsletter, I include Family Involvement activities for each night.  I now have an idea of printing this QR code on the newsletter.  I will include instructions for parents to download a free QR reader app on their device and scan the code.  Their family involvement activity for the night  will be to watch the video with their child.  Then they will be asked to discuss what they have seen and learned with their child.

The next day in class I can ask my students, "Who had the opportunity to watch the video last night with their family?"  I could always show the video again, for students who missed out on watching it.  I could also have a link to the video available for view on the desktop computers, interactive whiteboard, and iPads during center time, so that my students would have a variety of places to choose to view the video.

Next I visited http://ixl.com.  I was excited to learn this website had a lot of content for Pre-K.  The content on this website was not video, but more interactive activities with opportunities for students to answer questions of perform task related to specific content areas.  These activities available on this site still could be assigned as at home Family Involvement Activities in the same manner as I mentioned with the Khan Academy videos.  I could generate a QR code for these links just like I did with the video.  The opportunity to explore and experiment with on-line teaching videos and activities has given me great ideas and motivation to try out some of these ideas in my classroom this upcoming school year.

Edmodo and Other CMSs

As a Pre-K teacher, Edmodo and other CMSs are tools I have no experience with since they seem irrelevant to an early childhood learning environment.  Since my ultimate goal in the field of educational technology is to someday obtain a position as a Instructional Technology Specialist, I do realize that it is extremely important for me to learn more about these types of tools.  My goal became to search the web to learn more about this system and other CMSs.

From visiting the Edmodo website, I learned that it was created to bring education into the 21st century.  I learned that one purpose of Edmodo is to create connections, which certainly relates to my discussion post this week about the importance of building connections between teachers and students for successful learning. Next I visited the Wikipedia page for Edmodo.  Here I learned that Edmodo is a network that provides teachers with the ability of sharing information, distributing quizzes and assignments, and creating opportunities for communication between other teachers, students and parents.  Next I viewed a Bing video where it was explained that the way in which teachers and students can interact outside the classroom through the social networking of Edmodo creates positive effect inside the classroom.  This video explained that Edmodo is social learning for classrooms.  I learned that teachers create and Edmodo account and then create a class.  They then share a code to their students so that they are able to join the class.  Edmodo makes it easy for teachers to share internet content with their students and other teachers.  I also learned that teachers can also browse and share content recommend by other teachers from across the country, using Edmodo.

Through my new knowledge about Edmodo, I immediately began to think of its affordances for a classroom.  I thought about the statements I had made in my discussion posts about the concern of forming connections between teachers and students so that bonds can be formed in ways that students develop trust, which I believe is extremely important in a learning environment.  Edmodo would be an awesome way to build connections with its social networking style design.  Kids today are very familiar and comfortable with technology, often more than most adults.  Kids today love social networking and text messages.  Edmodo seems like it would really be beneficial towards building connections that allow students to trust their teachers.  Kids might feel more comfortable contacting their teachers with questions or issues through Edmodo rather than a face to face contact method.  Another affordance of this technology would be the ease of contact and communication between parents and teachers.  Many times parents might be uncomfortable going to their child's school or making a phone call to address the teacher about a concern.  Edmodo seems to provide a communication option that might be more comfortable for many parents. 

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the TCEA Tots and Technology Conference in Galveston.  I attended a session at the conference over Seesaw.  It was a tool I had never heard of.  The presenter demonstrated ways in which she uses Seesaw in her Kindergarten classroom.  Her students create videos or images using a variety of apps, and the upload their assignments to their class on Seesaw.  Parents were also invited to view their student's work on Seesaw.  One example she showed us was an assignment where her students created videos explain long vowel sounds with words ending in e.  Another example was collages students had created using collage makers apps related to the vocabulary word, entomology, the study of insects.  Seesaw uses QR codes to join classes and share and view information, which makes it especially easy for young learners.  When looking up information about Seesaw, I didn't see anything that called it a CMS, but it's similarity to Edmodo makes me believe that it is one too.  From experimenting with both Edmodo and Seesaw, I believe that Seesaw would be more beneficial for young learners than Edmodo.

Both systems I explored this week clearly have great affordances towards education.  I plan to learn more ways in which I can implement these tools in the future to benefit both teachers and students.

Design Experiment #1: Google Apps

Google Classroom is a powerful web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to share resources and information with their class and other invested parties. 

One powerful advantage of google classroom is that it is accessible from almost all devices, whether iOS, android, or Windows, including tablets, smart phones, laptops, and desktops.  Another advantage is the limitless ability to share documents, pictures, or other files through Google Drive.  Another pro is the quick ability to post assignments, the quickness for students to submit the assignments, and the availability of easily seeing who has or has not submitted assignments.

One disadvantage I have personally experienced with Google is the inability to log in with multiple accounts in one browser.  I have 3 accounts with google: one through TAMU-C, one through Clarksville ISD, and a personal account I have created.  Right now, I am logged into MyLeo with the TAMU-C account, but I created my blogger account with my personal Google account many years ago, so I have to log out of MyLeo to get into the blogger account and make this post.  Sometimes it is annoying to be logged in my e-mail on one account, but unable to log into my YouTube, or other linked Google app, without signing out of the e-mail.  I have learned with accessing one app through Google Chrome, and another through Microsoft Edge, does serve as a solution.

If teachers obtain knowledge of the abilities of the technology of Google Classroom, they can brainstorm ways in which they can create and post assignments related to the content knowledge of the subject in which they are teaching, in a fashion that meets the pedagogy of their choice.  This is how Google Classroom should be analyzed when considering TPACK when planning instruction.  I personally think one style of successful pedagogy is one that allows communication not only between teachers and students but also among students to other students, and the easy ability to comment in Google Classroom helps makes this possible.

Google Earth is an app I have had the opportunity to see demonstrated at several technology conferences I have attended in the past.  I have seen teachers assign specific GPS coordinates across the globe for students to use in a scavenger hunt type activity, where they complete a specific task of some kind at each location.  I think Google Earth is an awesome app for low socioeconomic students, or really any students, to get the opportunity to explore places on earth they probably would not have the opportunity to see in real life.  It is even possible that an activity like this could create a goal for an individual to one-day travel to a location they explore on Google Earth as something to motivate them throughout their educational career.

Google Translate is an app I use every week.  Since I am ESL certified, and have many parents that speak absolutely no English, Google Translates allows me to easily translate my weekly newsletters, or other written correspondence to parents.  My Pre-K students, who cannot yet spell and type, can speak into a device and use this app to have their speech translated.  I have actually had conversations with parents where I have had my phone handy with Google Translate up so that my phone could translate what I said and then speak it for the parents to understand.  Spanish is the only language I have personally experimented with using Google Translate, but I believe students interest could be engaged towards culture and diversity by experimenting with a variety of languages used around the globe.