3/22 Exit Slip

Today in class I learned about a blog from the MacArthur Foundation about students from grade K-12 who wrote in about creating personalized learning experiences.

I led the ch.7 discussion with Melissa, Tessa and Carly. I felt that it went well--we had a really good class discussion. It was not visually appealing but I think discussion was the right way to go given the information in the chapter. The things we needed to work on are giving clearer directions and watching the length of the presentation (we went about 20 minutes over).

Contemporary Issues:
Sexting in schools: They are trying to prohibit this on school buses as well as on school property and events. I do not think sexting should be happening and I am sad that younger children know about and are doing this. How will they implement this?
Cyber Bullying: Can lead to suicide due to bullying--it is happening at younger and younger ages. How can you stop bullying that is online like this? It happens at home and parents may not know about it or understand its consequences. This is a very important issue. Parents MUST be vigilant when their children go online!
Rethinking Sex Offender Legislation for Teenage Texting: When people send inappropriate pictures to minors, they are arrested and labeling a sex offender. What is the difference between sending them to your girl/boyfriend and receiving them against your will (but people can be arrested if they have them--willingly or not). They are thinking about changing this law because of this. Minors may not think about the implications of sending these (not getting a job or going to certain places because you are a sex offender). I guess if students are sleeping together already it is not that much different but I do not think people should be sending them.
Music Educators and Music Technology: Teachers were worried about learning how to use it, teach the students how to use it, they may encounter glitches, etc. Only 11% used technology in their music classrooms.

Cool Tools:
Jog the Web: It is an easy and quick way to search. There are not a lot of topics. You can find topics for children. A problem is that anyone can make a resource--it may not credible.
Wordle: You generate word clouds. Anyone can use it. It is easy to use. A problem is that you cannot search for clouds by title. You should save it to your computer. Another problem is that some word clouds may have inappropriate words in them--block the gallery so children cannot see. You can make lists of things on this site as well as vocabulary or spelling words. This seems like a great tool!
Livemocha: It is a way to learn foreign languages. You set up a profile and choose a language. Once you choose one, it has different lessons consisting of 4 steps. It is free and easy to use and work as your own pace. A weakness is that there is no video--only pictures and words.
Wiziq: It is an online learning system based on your interest--you can use it as a teacher or learner. It is free and easy to navigate. It is not as appropriate for younger learners to use individually. Teachers can use it to further their knowledge if they have a student who speaks another language.

We learned more about Scratch for our project. We talked about making and switching between costumes. We also learned about making a script (making an internal message that becomes part of the script). 'Broadcast' is under the control button. You need to use 'when I receive' with 'broadcast' in Scratch.