Hello Everyone 2.0

Comment by Christy Tucker on April 30, 2008 at 9:26pm

Hi Kevin,

I'm not a science teacher, but I'm currently finishing up development on a course called "Strategies for Middle School Science Teachers." Web 2.0 isn't a big theme in the course, but we do talk about it somewhat.

I think what you're doing right now with your blog to highlight lessons and what your students have accomplished is a great start. This definitely gives families and the community a window into your classroom.

As for using it for teaching, what about using wikis or Google Docs (probably Spreadsheets) for collaboration? One of the things I discussed with the Subject Matter Expert for this course was using these tools for cross-curricular and even global collaboration. What if students collected data in science and then shared it in a wiki or Google Spreadsheet? Then students in a math class could analyze the data, perhaps making a chart or whatever is appropriate. Students in Language Arts could help write up the report. This collaboration could be with classrooms in your same school or district, or it could be with classrooms anywhere in the world.

You might want to look at the possibilities for Google Earth for collaborative projects too. I'm not familiar with the social studies standards in Pennsylvania, but I assume there's something about geography. Some of the geographical information might overlap with your science content. As with the previous idea, wikis would be good for collaboration and sharing information.

Do either of these ideas sound feasible in your situation, or do they spark ideas for something that you could do?

Comment by Kevin on May 1, 2008 at 3:38am

Hello Christy,

Thank you for the comment. My goal for the blog is to share and communicate with other teachers about science and science teaching. It is not for students. Anything that involves the students needs to be safeguarded and approved by a district.

With this in mind, any online activities would need to be done on the school network. You have many good ideas about using online tools with students, but one would have to think carefully about all the implications of using them in a public setting.

Comment by Christy Tucker on May 1, 2008 at 6:16pm

Sorry, I was going on the model of Vicki Davis & Julie Lindsay's Horizon Project, the 1001 Flat World Tales, etc. There's plenty of teachers out there successfully using these tools with students in public. i didn't realize you were under a different set of restrictions than other teachers in the US.

Comment by Kevin on May 1, 2008 at 6:33pm

Thank you. I'm sure there are many teachers using the internet with their students, but every school district is different and has their own set of requirements. Plus, when teachers do get the students involved, I'm sure they know what they are getting into. I just want to share and communicate with other teachers, that's all.

Comment by Christy Tucker on May 1, 2008 at 9:28pm

I guess when I saw that you wanted to use it for teaching, I assumed you meant with students, not for your professional development. It sounds like you're really looking for professional learning communities rather than teaching tools. Is that correct? Maybe with clarification on what you're trying to accomplish, you can get some better answers.

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