iPads Have Arrived, Step 1

This week I am double dipping a bit! :) My two classes are starting to bleed into each other, I cannot help it. So I decided to post my discussion board post in my blog, because I realized it is the first step into integrating games into my classroom through the iPads, which have finally arrived! Hooray!
So here is the post:
This weeks reading was great fun, and sent me in many directions to explore many different possibilities, such as “Reader has a pretty cool option that lets you create your own bloggy page of items that you find most interesting so other people on the Web can read those items too” (Richardson 2010, p.76).

But what I think I like most about this week’s reading is the thinking behind using wikis and blogs. For example, Richardson (2010 p. 62) states, “Personally the ability to easily amass and publish a wide-ranging, tailor made resource like this is why I have a feeling that textbook manufacturers don’t like the ideas of wikis one bit. Sure, they can always say that you can’t trust a source that’s not professionally edited, but in the era of the Read/Write Web, we are all editors, and we must all become skilled at doing that work.” This fits so tightly with Berger and Wiggin’s and Mctighe’s work. We want our students to feel that they are part of the smaller and larger learning community, and their learning and discoveries have value, just as they may utilize and value others.

And I love that Richardson (2010, p.56) reference Halavais (2004) work to ease concerns about vandals, “There are vastly more editors who want to make it right than those who want to make it wrong. When mistakes occur or vandals strike, the collaborative effort of the group set it straight, usually very quickly. University of Buffalo professor Alex Halavais tested this by creating 13 errors on various posts on Wikipedia, all of which were fixed within a couple of hours (Halavais,
2004).”

Furthermore, Richardson (2010, p.72) points out, “Given the fact that the amount of information going online shows no sign of slowing, if they are unable to consistently collect potentially relevant information for their lives and careers and quickly discern what of that information is most useful, they will be at a disadvantage.” Being able to review other blogs and discern information that is relevant or accurate is critical. “This is a part of digital reading literacy that our students will have to master, a vetting process that they (and we) should be going through whenever we land on a new site on the Web” (Richardson 2010, p.73). So Richardson (2010, p.73) provides these fantastic questions to help students further evaluate quality content:

• Are there advertisements?
• Is the author’s full name used?  
• What are the authors’ (and the blogs’) credentials, both traditional and
  nontraditional?
• How often is the site updated?
• What is the quality of the writing? Is it measured or overly opinionated, easy to read,
  relevant, and so on?

So, since I have already set up and utilized many blogs and wikis, I spent my time this week exploring the possible ideas and resources provided in Richardson’s book. In particular my favorite so far was the use of wikis in your classroom having “your students create or edit entries to books that have already been started elsewhere” (Richardson 2010, p.62).  I came across Regents Earth Science Wikibooks, which would be a great place to start to culminate content that they learn through out the year in Earth Science, each week they can add their learning to the wiki. The wiki currently is all on 1 page, and Richardson (2010, p.64) provided the example of the physics wiki, which “Each unit has several subchapters where students enter whatever information and resources they feel will help them in their preparation.” The Earth Science wiki can be arranged in such a manner as well.

But, as I began to put these ideas together for my Earth Science class, I began to realize that I would need a culminating location to put these resources that my students could use and quickly access. A blog would be the perfect medium. Furthermore I began to realize that this blog I created would need to be accessible and usable via the class set of iPads. I searched for possible solutions and then came across one that had been recommended several times, Tumblr. I quickly set up an account and within minutes had setup a Tumblr blog for my Physical Education class to use this week and then started to put one together for my Earth Science Class. Within minutes I had setup the resources I want for my classes to use on their iPads for the week. Furthermore, I can put a desktop link on the ipad screen so it looks like an app, and the students can quickly go into the Tagged Sections of the posts and see the specific posts and links I want! AWESOME!

And of course, the icing to the cake this week was re-installing Flipboard, because I finally realize the power of the visual RSS feed for myself from Messieh (2010), ““Flipboard takes a very different approach to following your favorite blogs and sites. There is no syncing option, instead you have to manually add feeds, but the layout more than makes up for that. Reading stories on Flipboard is very much like flipping through a magazine.”

So, what are my end thoughts for this week’s learning? Richardson (2010, p.82) states, “The real job now is to make Reader or Pageflakes (or whatever other aggregator you choose to use) as part of your daily practice” and “Remember: Resistance is futile” (Richardson 2010, p.82).

 But there is always more, and so next week I will explore Flipsnack and ipads.

Richardson,
W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podscasts, and other powerful web tools for
classrooms. (3 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?id=CArG5bfUy-sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Will
Richardson

Regents Earth Science (High School) (2011, October 14). In Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World. Retrieved 17:50, October 29, 2011, from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Regents_Earth_Science_(High_School)

 Freitas, D. (2011, 09 09). How to
share your rss feeds right from your google plus stream [Web log message].
Retrieved from http://www.googleplustoday.net/home/2011/9/9/how-to-share-your-rss-feeds-right-from-your-google-plus-stre.html

 Messieh, N. (2010, Dec 18) 6 of The
Best Free Rss Readers for the iPad {Weblog message]. Retreived from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-free-rss-readers-ipad/