Watkins,+Teri+Jo-+Cool+Tools+Review

The first Cool Tools Session that I attended was 'Developing a Framework for How to Find and Select Tools', facilitated by Julian Wilson. We were introduced to such tools as Google Forms, SimilarSites.com, and Tricider. I enjoyed this session and could see myself utilizing all of these tools in my classroom. I was particularly excited about Tricider. I will definitely be using this with my students for class polling and activating strategies. I could also envision a principal being able to utilize this tool for polling staff members or survey questions. It provides quick feedback and collaboration. The next session that I attended was 'Creatively Synthesize, Evaluate, Publish and Share', facilitated by Laura Fogle. Here we learned how to create and utilize collaborative documents using Google Docs. I haven't used Google Doc's in my classroom yet but I plan to. We were then introduced to some amazing web 2.0 tools such as Sock Puppets, Toon Doo, Sliderocket, and Blabberize. I mentioned these four because these are the four that I haven't introduced my students to yet. I teach middle school and these are most definitely in the realm of tools that my students will absolutely love. I love Blabberize and have already created a practice one. It took me just a little while to figure out how to do the mouth correctly but otherwise it was very user-friendly. The Hot topics session that I attended was the one about Problem Based Learning. We discussed essential questions and there was a lot of confusion as to what an "essential question" really is. I didn't get a whole lot out of this session honestly.

On Wednesday, I attended 'Cool Tools for Learning: Administration'. I am not an Administrator, but I also do not teach any of the subjects that the other sessions were based on such as ELA, math, science, or social studies. I wasn't sure where to go, my principal just had me to go with him. I'm glad that I did because it was a great session and very informative. I did not know that you could use NC Wise in conjunction with Google Docs! This is very helpful information and will save me a lot of time in the future. I wish we had a little longer to really get into the nuts and bolts of that. We were also introduced to Prezi. I have been using Prezi with my students for about two years now. It is very engaging, and my middle school student love the way you can make your words flip, rotate, and zoom.

Conceptualized Lesson Plan: Topic: Digital Citizenship Tools: Tricider, Google, Voki, SockPuppets, Blabberize

Prior to the lesson students will have been introduced to the 3 strands of Digital Citizenship: Internet Safety, "net"iquette, and Cyberbullying. I would use a polling tool such as Tricider or Survey Monkey to conduct a class poll. The poll question would be "Have you ever felt personally victimized by a Cyberbully?" This question should generate a ton of class discussion due to the massive time that students spend on social networking sites. The next part of the lesson involves doing some research. The students will use google and commonsensemedia.org to find information on percentages and victims of cyberbullies, and some of the tragedies that have happened to others. The students will use what they know about digital citizenship to create a Public Service Announcement highlighting the dangers of cyberbulling and/or what you can do to prevent it from happening to you. The students will use Voki, Sock Puppets, or Blabberize to record their PSA's. The students will work collaboratively on this project in groups of three, with one researcher, one creator, and one recorder. Each groups final PSA will be posted on their Edmodo class website for others to view.