Looking ahead....peer review groups anyone?

One of the biggest hurdles I've found myself facing in this program is time management. I can have great time management skills when I put my mind to it, and I've accumulated a variety of tools (web2.0 and otherwise) to help me with this endeavor.

But life doesn't always work the way you intend it to, and my work situation is a bit different than others. So between home, family, work, and just life in general, sometimes I find myself working on projects on tighter timeline or schedule than I'd like.


To help stop this, I'm really trying to get in the habit of working ahead. I know this is something we all should be doing anyway and I think many of us, including myself, try to do so. It doesn't always work out (see above paragraph) but again, you try and work with what you have.

So, in the interest of working ahead, and planning ahead, I'm trying to get some stuff done as early as I can.

The point of all of this? (I do have one, I swear) I'm looking now to find and gather some folks for the Literature Review peer review group. We're supposed to have gathered our groups by the end of this week, and then evaluate each others papers next week.

Maybe I'm not working as far ahead as I think I am, maybe everyone else already has their group.

But if you don't have a group and are looking for one, well I am too! Send me a comment or email if you want to be Literature Review buddies. :)

Look forward to hearing from you all! I promise I don't bite!

BP7 OMM

Ok, here's my one minute movie. I actually choose a tool that I hadn't reviewed in my previous web2.0 posts, but was a tool I had been researching, reviewing and looking into for my CBR project.

The tool I chose to review is actually part of a larger category of web2.0 tools called virtual manipulatives. Theyre interactive programs/software used for teaching and reinforcing mathematical lessons.

For this project, and for my CBR I've been looking into the Illuminations website of virtual manipulative tools. You can see the site here: Illuminations

My "commercial" is as much of a commercial for the idea of using virtual manipulatives as it is for the site/tool itself. I created with the idea of using this to pitch my project to administration.

I look forward to your feedback!




Note: The image of the boy with the chalkboard is courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art. The image is royalty free and was retrieved from here:
Microsoft Clip Art Chalkboard Image

BP4_Quizlet

Many of the educational web2.0 tools I had seen, seemed more relevant for the K-12 crowd.  There were lots of engaging activities, manipulatives and platforms, but they were geared for middle or high school. 

The tools that could be used in the higher educational environment were mostly things like blogs, organization platforms, and media tools. These are all great tools, but not right for my environment. 

I needed something that allowed for interactive learning (as opposed to interactivity for entertainment or a platform) and was age and subject appropriate. 

Enter: Quizlet, the online, interactive flashcard tool. 

What I like about quizlet is that it lets you create your own flashcard set, based on whatever criteria you want. So I can set the age and content level to whatever I need.

But quizlet also keeps a database of definitions, so if you create a flashcard for a word, you can use one of their pre-entered definitions, if  it fits your  needs, rather than type it yourself.

It's very versatile, with the user having complete control over what they make, but it's also simple and intuitive to use. I had created my own (small) set of flashcards in 5 minutes!

In addition, you can choose to make your flashcard set public, or even viewable to a certain group. 

You can even set the option to allow discussion about a set.  I can see so many possibilities for this. 

In my environment, teaching math, vocabulary is actually one of the biggest hurdles my students have. Math can be considered an entire language on it's own, and without understanding the vocabulary, you're going to have a difficult time understanding the procedures. Yet, my students make little effort to learn and understand the specific terms for math that are so important. 

I also like the feature that showcases and highlights new, interesting and popular flashcards sets that have been created (and publicly viewable of course). 

New, interesting publicly viewable flash card sets

It's a great way to learn something new or get ideas to create your own set. I found myself immersed for at least an hour, browsing through various flashcard sets on everything from human anatomy and physiology (favorite topics of mine) to art history and greek myths. 

With this program, it would be possible to create an assignment requiring them to create their own flash card set, and then view, analyze and discuss each others vocabulary sets. Created sets could be compared to a master set created by the teacher. 

There are also "game" features to make studying a bit more entertaining. 

Example of a publicly available set with discussion features

Above is the greek myth set.  Notice the discussion feature, where people can discuss the information. In this case someone is pointing out an inconsistency and offering a correction. I can see use similar to wikipedia here.  There's also a "most often missed" and game result windows giving information. 

I  love the sharing, collaborative features.  The features give a creator (instructor) control, while still allowing others to use and interact. 

I can see a lot potential here, both as a teacher and a student.   I have plans to, hopefully one day, create an "anatomy for artists" monthly seminar for our art students here, and maybe even teach it as a class... and this would be so helpful to create my own, easily accessible, interactive study tools. 

Hopefully i'll be able to use this program sooner, in my current environment. I definitely have this on my bookmarks list. 

To my cohort, would this be a useful tool for any of you? How would you use this?

BP6_Link to "Searching for a Science Eye" blog

I really love it when concepts, ideas and real world tools come together. It's really satisfying to work on a project, and connect the ideas from that project with another idea, person, and project.

I've been doing a lot of research into the use of Virtual Worlds and Environments in education, and how these virtual worlds can be used to improve students engagement and understanding of material.
One of the more fascinating ideas I've come across in this research, is using game theory and design to create games, in a virtual environment setting. These games teach students a range of subjects, from science to literature arts, in an immersive, engaging and FUN manner.

So I was really excited and intrigued to read Stephaine Bivins review of the web 2.0 tool Electrocity.

www.electrocity.co.nz

It's a really neat program/tool with resources included to help teachers make the most of it.

Click this link to read more about what I have to say about this program, and my comments to Stephaine.