Tech tools

I have used several tech tools in the past couple of years and one that I keep going back to is hippocampus.org. It has short video clips available for all subjects and is geared to regular ed and ap students. I find this website most helpful in introducing new topics or units to my students. The video clips for history provide primary source documents as well as a written version of the audio for students to go back and review without having to re-listen to the entire clip. When I use this website I usually have the students watch three to four video clips within a class period in the MAC lab along with answering questions for each topic. This website could also be used for review before exams or especially final exams and the students could watch the clips at home with access to the internet. 

I have not yet taken advantage of this tool yet, but each educator who registers can create their own hippocampus webpage for their class. This would allow the teacher to post only those clips needed by the teacher instead of the students having to search for them.

A draw back to this website would be that there is no “real action” for the history video clips but rather just a collection of pictures (while still valuable as primary sources). This could cause a decline in student interest without real life action.

http://www.hippocampus.org/

Digital Citizenship Fluency

All the 21st Century fluencies are learned within the context of the Digital Citizen, using the guiding principles of leadership, ethics, accountability, fiscal responsibility, environmental awareness, global citizenship and personal responsibility (http://www.fluency21.com/fluencies.cfm).

The first week of school I used a paper magazine produced by the FTC to discuss with the students how to “Live Life Online.” This was a great resource because it includes several articles and short quizzes for the kids on crucial issues that they face almost on a daily basis such as sexting, cyberbullying, online etiquette, and how to analyze advertisements from companies. It also provided several real life dilemmas to the students that I used as bell ringers and also some as closing activities for the end of the hour.

This was truly beneficial because I found out that most of the students were not aware of the legal consequences that accompanied actions of sexting or simply forwarding a message they received by email or text. They were also not aware that typing things in all caps on text, email, or social networking sites is considered to be “online yelling” and they need to make sure they monitor their tone of voice.

These lessons helped me lead into the use of our class edmodo.com page because I first had the students and parents sign a responsible use policy before they were aloud to create a profile on the website.

I approach the global aspect of this fluency by using the CNN Student News in my class at least once a week. This news cast is written on a middle school level but allows the students to have insight on the issues of our country as well as issues that are affecting other nations of the world.

This fluency is critical to Heritage Hall due to the 1:1 movement beginning to take place. Our students will be “connected” on a daily basis while at school and must have the knowledge and skills to effectively navigate and contribute to the online world.

Going beyond the use of technology Heritage Hall is already approaching some aspects of this fluency by adopting a new set of core values; courage, responsibility, kindness, and intellectual purpose.

Resources used:

• http://k12digitalcitizenship.wikispaces.com/International+aspects
• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/livinglifeonline/index.shtm
• http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/
• http://www.diigo.com/list/abubnic/digital-citizenship_literacy-assessment
• http://www.edmodo.com
• http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/