Using Flickr in the Classroom

     I never knew all the possibilities of using Flickr in the classroom.  I heard of the website before, but I never actually used it or knew much about it.  After reading the article "Motivating Language Learners With Flickr" I learned that there are many educational ways of using this website.  For students with special needs and language learners, this website opens many doors and can help them learn new things, and have fun at the same time. 

    Once a person joins this website, you are able to create a profile and put different personal information on it such as favorite music, books, hobbies, anything at all.  All students in the class with or without disabilities are able to make their own profile, and they are able to look at the other student's profiles as well and search them for different key words on their peer's profiles.  People are also able to upload pictures on this site and tag people and things in the pictures.  

    For language learners, this website can be very useful.  For example, if a teacher was trying to have their students learn what different animals are, they could ask the students to post different pictures of different animals and ask them to tag them with the appropriate name.  This can also be useful for students with special needs, because Flickr can help a child work on their writing skills.  A student can have fun posting different pictures, and by tagging them/filling out his/her profile, they are able to work on their reading and writing skills.  Flickr can also help children with special needs make friends with their peers.  They can look at each other's profiles and learn what common interests they may have and comment on each other's profiles.  This can help with social skills for not only children with special needs, but also children in general education who may be shy or need help with making friends.  Flickr is very helpful and teachers are able to encourage students to "use the English language in fun and personally meaningful ways" by having them explore it.

     According to the article "Photo Sharing in Education" students can use photo sharing to "make storybooks, embed your photos into your school or class website, inspire writing and creativity, create digital portfolios where students and instructors can comment on the photos that are included."  I think That the possibilities for using Flickr in the special education classroom are endless.  There are even different applications students can use to make different projects.  

     I chose to use the website http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ .  I looked around the site and saw that you could make a movie poster.  I remembered that in elementary school teachers had me make movie posters for books we read and we would have to think of actors to play each character.  I loved that project, and I think that my students would have even more fun making a poster online.  This application was very easy to use, and I think that if I was to split the students into groups and had them work together, it would be a good way to help the students work on their social skills, and the students without disabilities can help those with disabilities.  In the movie poster I posted at the top of the blog, I chose the book Flat Stanley, and I put the name of the characters, author, illustrator, a mpaa rating, and a release date on it.  

     I think that students would love using Flickr for class projects because it is different than most projects they work on.  I never did projects on the computer in elementary school, and I think that this is a very fun way for students to learn and even work together.

     

    

Quizlet and Web 2.0

     When I looked at Larry Ferlazzo's blog, I was very interested in number 25 on his List of the Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education called quizlet.  According to Ferlazzo, this is the best web site to make online flashcards and help students study words in "game form".  I thought that this sounded very interesting, so I decided to look at the website.

Here is a link to quizlet for anyone interested in looking at it.- http://quizlet.com/

     When I went on the quizlet website, I started to look at different flashcards teachers have posted, and I really enjoyed it.  I always made a bunch of flashcards for different classes all throughout middle school and high school, and this website is a wonderful tool for teachers to help their students out so they do not need to spend so much time making flash cards.  This could be used to study many different things such as vocabulary words,historical people, foreign languages, math facts, and just learning different facts in general. 

     The flashcards can have voices added to them so that the students can hear the word or number they need to study which I think would be a great tool for a special education teacher because students who have trouble reading can use this as a way to learn the words and match the audio of the word to the written word.  I love that you can also make games with your flashcards because it makes it much more fun for the student to study if they are playing a game.  

     The website gives the user many times to try and guess the correct answer while reviewing which I think is wonderful because it gives the students an opportunity to correct themselves.  After when it is time to be tested, the student is given, multiple different ways such as matching, true/false, short answer, and multiple choice which I feel gives children a better chance of doing well because some students do better with matching, while another student may like true/false.  After the test, the student is shown what questions they got wrong, and the correct answer.  This is a good way for students to know what they need to work on a little bit more.

     I think that quizlet could definitely be used in an inclusive general education classroom.  I feel that if all of the students are able to have access to a computer, then they can study by playing the games on their own, or even with a friend.  One way this could be used is if the class is working on multiplication tables and they have to know all of their facts from 0-12, the student with disabilities may be only required to learn their facts from 0-5.  This could easily be done because the student with disabilities could have their own set of flashcards on quizlet so they can still do the activities like the other students, but do a modified version. 

     Quizlet is an awesome tool for teachers. I think that students would have a lot of fun using this website because of the multiple ways of reviewing through tests and games.  I definitely would consider using this website in my classroom, and I would encourage other teachers to try it too.  

     

2-9-11 class

I enjoyed my EXE 375 class very much today.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do in class since we did a lot of activities online already, but I think that what we talked about was very interesting.  What I enjoyed most about the class was watching a video on YouTube from 1994 about what the Internet is.  I found this to be very funny and interesting because now everyone knows about the Internet, and the fact that these people didn't even know what the at symbol meant or how to even go on the Internet was just a real eye opener to me.  This video makes me very curious as to what technology will be like in a few years because everyday there are new advances in technology, and it is only a matter of time as to what will happen next.  I am really looking forward to the rest of the semester, and I am sure that I will learn a lot about technology in education.

Web 2.0 and UDL

      Web 2.0 has become a phenomenal way for educators to fully execute a Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  Teachers not only can educate their students in the classroom, but they are able to educate outside of the classroom as well.  Web 2.0 has given us the opportunity to fully take advantage of the internet by not only letting us look up information on a website, but also by allowing us to post information to share with others as well.  we can share information with thousands if not millions of people at a time when previously we would have never thought that was possible.  By using web 2.0 students can interact with not only their fellow students, but also their teachers.  Previously people were only able to see information presented to them on web sites but now anyone can post information to share with other people.     

     Web 2.0 is a wonderful tool to use in education because it increases learning potential as well as success in students.  According to the Center for Applied Special Technology, UDL is defined as providing "a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs." UDL involves the use of technology and other sources to help students live up to their full learning potential, and web 2.0 is a wonderful source for students to do just that. 

     For students with disabilities there are many benefits to using web 2.0.  One benefit is that it gives students a chance to communicate more with each other in a way in which they otherwise wouldn't.  It also give higher level students a chance to challenge themselves more and help students who may need help which is yet another way to work on social skills.  I think that another wonderful thing that Web 2.0 can do for the special education classroom is make students more independent by letting them work on the computer on their own.  Also, children who may not have the ability to write can use the technology to assist them in their work. One negative possibility of Web 2.0 is that an educator may not fully understand how to utilize it in the classroom.  Also, another negative possibility is that a school may not have enough money in the budget for the school to provide enough computers needed for students to utilize this form of education.

     I feel that web 2.0 is a wonderful resource for the classroom and fits in well with UDL.  The purpose of UDL is to give all student the ability to succeed in the classroom, and using web 2.0 does just that.  Not only can web 2.0 help students succeed in the classroom, I feel that it can also help students enjoy learning which in my opinion is very important because students are more likely to do well when they are enjoying themselves.