Don't Forget to Cite!

I have created the above tutorial, using Camtasia Studio. This video provides an excellent way for elementary teachers to ensure that their students are properly citing material that is not their own. Since the Oregon Public Education Network Clearinghouse website creates the citation, students, in the elementary grades, no longer have to memorize or look up the proper format for MLA citations. The following is another website that provides a citation generator using information from the source. This website is appropriate for grades 7-12 due to the small font size.

Son of Citation Machine

Become a Magazine Editor in 1 Hour!

mfilotas - Cultural Diversity: Sharing Our Cultures

Create Your OpenZine

This web magazine was created using the free site OpenZine. This is a wonderful tool for teachers to use with their students. My example deals with celebrating cultural diversity, and would be an excellent activity to start of the school year.

Dear Mayor...

Get a Voki now!


This Voki avatar was made for a problem-based learning lesson where students had to gather information from various websites in order to determine three reasons why some earthquakes cause more damage than others. Students participated in this problem-based learning activity through a WebQuest where they acted as scientists who were trying to uncover the answer to the earthquake question. Their final project was to present a speech to the mayor of Santa Barbara, California through a talking avatar. Although this avatar contains an advertisement, Voki is working on creating a site for educators which will eliminate ads. This should be available in the fall of 2010, so stay tuned!

Camtasia Studio

I created a tutorial using Camtasia Studio. This software is a screen recorder which means you select what you want to record from your own personal computer screen. My tutorial demonstrates how to erase a line from a table using Microsoft Word 2007. As you will see, I opened up a Microsoft Word document in order to begin my tutorial. Take a look at my video below.

Solar System Sightings

I have created a course on Moodle for fifth grade students studying the solar system. In order to cater to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, students complete a different assessment project each day, such as a poem, skit, journal entry, video, etc. The students will post their products to a discussion area in order for their classmates to offer feedback. The following is a link to my moodle course:

Solar System Moodle Course After clicking on this link, log in as a guest.

Digital Storytelling

The following is an example of a digital story that fourth grade students could create based on the three states of matter. In this digital story, created with Photo Story 3, students pretend that they are part of a television program where callers ask questions of an expert. Students respond to the callers' questions with answers that they have researched on the internet. Since students are very creative, they need little direction in developing final products, such as this one.

Wiki Mania

I created a course on wiki for teachers learning about reading strategies in the elementary grades. This wiki is a beneficial tool for teachers to learn the importance of reading strategies on reading comprehension achievement, since they are able to read literature, complete activities, and collaborate with their peers to share ideas. Review my course in order to get some ideas for incorporating a wiki in your classroom. Wikis are wonderful tools for promoting the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, problem solving, and critical thinking.

In addition to the wiki I created for teacher participants, I created another wiki that could be utilized in an elementary classroom learning about states of matter. The class of students could be divided into groups, and each group would be responsible for creating a product demonstrating the day's objectives. In order for students to present their projects to a real audience, groups could upload their assignments to the wiki. Each group would read and review the other groups' projects and offer suggestions and comments.

The following are some links that provide easy-to-use wikis:

PBworks

Wikispaces in Education

Wetpaint Wikis in Education

Knowledge Object Project

By clicking on the following picture, you will see an example of a knowledge object project that I created. Teachers can incorporate knowledge object projects into all content areas and grade levels by requiring students to pick a topic that they are studying. As I demonstrated in my knowledge object project, I gathered as much information as I could find using a variety of resources, such as books, websites, photographs, videos, interviews, and maps. Students could be given a choice as to the final product they would create based on their research, such as a website, blog, wiki, podcast, and brochure. In order to participate in a knowledge community, all students would be responsible for presenting their project to their class and teaching their classmates everything about their researched topic. For my knowledge object project, I chose to create a website using Webs which is free and extremely easy to use.