Final Capstone Reflection Things 1-21

Two technological items that I was introduced to while going through 21 Things for 21st Century Educators were Evernote and Diigo. I think both of these technology applications will make me a better professional because I can learn and share with others so they can learn more as well. I can be more productive and save paper from printing by looking at my diigo highlighted articles and with Evernote I can actually clip the entire article for reading later even if the website disappears. I see Diigo and Evernote as tools that help both me and my students to better summarize and take notes so we can see the similarities and differences between the different author’s points of view. We can also take our summaries and use them to generate and test hypothesis as we extend our knowledge. I think that digital storytelling is a thing that I will be incorporating more into my classroom. I see digital storytelling as a combination of visual learning, digital images, and sometimes screencasting. Digital storytelling requires students to think through what the main message is to be shared with their audience through succinct digital images - either still or video - with a sound track or captions that will catch another person’s attention. Digital storytelling requires students to put into practice all of the NETS-S. Most specifically the student must be creative in production of an original story covering a particular topic that requires multiple types of technology to complete. Students must communicate and collaborate with their team partners as well as consider how they communicate appropriately with their audience. Students must research how to best photograph or video record their subject. Students must evaluate, synthesize, and process all of the information about their subject into the creation of their story. Managing a project like this requires deep critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making to create the best project. Students will become better digital citizens when they see how human, cultural, and societal issues converge in their story. Because of the different facets of a digital story, students will learn how to select and use technological applications to create their story. Trouble shooting these applications and transferring what they know to others will happen because projects require those skills. It will be exciting to see what happens as I use digital storytelling with my students. One thing that I will use to continue growing professionally is developing my professional learning network through Twitter. I want to give myself 15 minutes a day to log in, read the pithy thoughts of others and read through linked articles that others have found useful, and collect their tweets in my diigo library or collect the articles in my Evernote notebook. I also want to interact with the individuals I follow on twitter by commenting on their tweets and links that they share. My interaction on Twitter has been a priceless to my growth and ability to connect with others who think deeply about ideas that I care about and share what they learn with others. One aspect of digital citizenship that I want to do well and teach my students and co-workers to do well is to create a positive digital footprint. I want students to see how I interact with people on Twitter and in my blogging and for them to model that behavior in their own online presence. I want students to understand that there must be boundaries about what personal information is shared online. I want them to live a life without regret and guilt over a status update, photo or video that they have uploaded. I want to remind them of the Golden Rule - treat others as you would want to be treated. I want them to think critically about how they use digital resources and to contribute to online communities in a positive way to build up others. My views have been widened through this course because I have come to see how wide technology is and where students could get into situations where negative choices could be made. Helping students have positive experiences and helping students learn positive ways of behaving will make all the difference as I move on in the way I educate young people about technology.

Battle Creek Michigan Community Garden Tour

Have you tried Google Earth?  Take a look at this Battle Creek Michigan Community Garden Tour. I have been involved with the Verona Community Garden but it was exciting to see all the other community gardens that were visible from the satellites.  Our beautiful lines of raised beds can be clearly seen on almost every location that is noted on the Sprout Urban Farms website.

Portfolio 21 Things for 21st century teachers Final Submission

1. Welcome or Landing Page: http://www.digbelyea.blogspot.com/
2. Google Document: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-2-google-drive-link-embedded-in.html
3. Diigo Links: The link to my Diigo account is found on the right under my blog archive and just above my Creative Commons license.
4. Accessibility Piece: I added a VozMe “Hear this Post” link to my blog by using the instructions on http://vozme.com/webmasters.php?lang=en. I figured out how to add a button in the header of each blog post so when a person clicks on it, vozme will read the words on the page. It doesn’t read it using proper breathing points and punctuation, but at least the words are said out loud to help people who struggle with vocabulary and reading use my blog. Check out http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/portfolio-piece-thing-6-adding-vozme.html
5. Digital Citizenship: I created digital citizenship page outlining a great link to Common Sense Media which has resources for teaching digital citizenship. http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/p/digital-citizenship.html
6. Creative Commons License: This is found on the right under blog archive and my Evernote and Diigo links
7. Digital Images:http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
8. Digital Story: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-19-digital-story-how-to-use.html
9. Presentation:.http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-11-portfolio-piece-general.html
10. Rubric: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-12-portfolio-piece-rubric-for.html
11. Interactive Activity: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/01/thing-13-flashcards-portfolio-piece.html
12. Video or Audio Resource: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-20-portofolio-piece-carla-belyea.html
13. Productivity Tool: I have included a link to my Evernote “For Teachers” notebook because I would like to connect my readers to the great blogs I read and write notes about. Hopefully they will share with me in return.
14. Research & Reference Tool: I included a link to the Michigan Electronic Library so they have a quick link to the databases that mel.org has available.
15. RSS Feed: I have an RSS feed to posts and comments on the right hand side at the top of the column there.
16. Virtual Classroom:  I created a site use and expectations page outlining how visitors should use my site. http://www.digbelyea.blogspot.com/p/site-use-and-expectations.html
17. Visual Organizers: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-8-visual-learning-using-bubblus.html
18. Screencast: http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/2013/02/thing-20-portfolio-piece-video-for.html
19. Finally:  I have been and will continue to use my web presences to connect with students, parents, co-workers, and other people interested in the technological and educational ideas I write and share about. It has been exciting to get more resources to use as I become more proficient in technology use.

To submit your final portfolio, include the following in your submission:

1. A link to your web presence site. #1 http://digbelyea.blogspot.com/
2. Provide your answers to the five questions that are listed in blue on the Portfolio Checklist; include each question's assigned number before each question (#4, #5, #13, #14, #19).

Portfolio Piece Thing 6 Adding VozMe link to blog

I found instructions at VozMe for Webmasters.  I wanted to include a text to speech button so users could listen to the blog posting if they wanted to. Now I know VozMe is not probably the best text to speech tool as far as fluent reading with proper stops in a sentence for breathing and punctuation but it gives another tool to help all people be able to access my blog. I did make one change to the directions. The original directions on line 3 said <div class='post footer'> but I wanted my readers to see this link when they first opened my blog posts, not when they have already looked at it.  I want to anticipate what my readers needs are, rather than giving them a resource when it is too late.  So I found <div class='post-header-line-1'/> instead and now there is a button that a reader can press to hear the post read to them.

Portfolio Piece Thing 8 Visual Learning using Bubbl.us

I love Bubbl.us for creating mind maps and other connected representations for students to use. I created this connected spoke activity to help students see how balanced they were in their work.

Capstone 15-21: Research paper on Educational Technology

In the last seven things, there were many different ways to get resources and to share them with others that are interested in the same things.  The Michigan Electronic Library is an awesome tool with full text articles about all areas of thought. It has improved my practice by giving me access to materials that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.

The Michigan Electronic Library provides an excellent collection of databases that students can use to take notes and summarize a topic. With these summaries, a student can identify similarities and differences between author’s writing and generate and test hypotheses about their thesis statement for their research based on what they have read. Having a wide body of peer-reviewed articles to chose from that have been verified for use in research helps students to create better research papers.

Objective:
Students will create a research project about a current or new technology using the Michigan Electronic Library.  Students will use Evernote to create notebook of their research. They will cite their sources using MLA format. Students will share their reports in a short video presentation.

Introduction:
Students have many different technology resources around them. Helping a young person understand the background and growth of a current technology will help that young person to better use the technology in the present. This project will put together research using digital tools like the Michigan Electronic Library and screencasting for effective communication of ideas that they have learned.

Standards Used:
http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-s-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including
at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats

3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks
d. Process data and report results


Materials:
internet access, computer, ip address in Michigan, login information for Evernote.

Activity:
Students will be introduced to the databases in the Michigan Electronic Library. The teacher will discuss the merits of the Academic OneFile and Expanded Academic: ASAP databases for research.  Students will create, if necessary, and use their Evernote account to clip articles for their research project.. Students will download the “add to Evernote” button to their toolbar.

Students will write a hypothesis about educational technology that they want to research. They will develop a thesis statement based on that hypothesis. Once students have developed an initial thesis statement, they will be directed to search for articles that both support and refute that thesis statement. We will discuss how to tag articles in order to categorize based on similarities and differences. and to write notes about the articles that are clipped to their Evernote account. Students will be asked to expand on their tagged similarities and differences between individual articles in their notes in their Evernote notebook. Students will accumulate sufficient articles to develop a basis for the body and conclusion of their research paper.

Practice:
Students will revise their thesis statement based on their research and develop their logical argument to support their hypothesis. They will create a research paper using a word processing software package. Students will perform peer edits on 2 other students papers in the classroom using the attached rubric.

Assessment:
Students will revise their research papers based on their peer edits. They will submit their papers for assessment by the teaching using the same rubric used by the students. Students will create a 2 to 3 minute screen cast using Windows Movie Maker, Ink2go, Jing, or Screen-cast-o-matic. These screencasts will be used to assess the student’s understanding of their research topic. Students will be assessed using the video production rubric.

Resources:

Research Paper Rubric on Google Drive

Video Production Rubric

Thing 21 Screencasting Reflection

I have been creating screencasts since May 2012. I have found out how important it is for me to wear my headset so extraneous noise doesn’t distract from the video and how important it is to use text tools to type as much text as I can for a student to see. I find having my picture in the picture useful to connect with students when they are viewing my videos outside of my classroom. My students have told me that shorter videos are better than longer ones. Also keeping one main idea to a video is best so students can focus on that idea and then create their connections before moving onto a new idea.

When I think about my screencasts, I know that screencasts with step by step directions are very useful for students who lack confidence in their problem solving skills. As I think about the videos that I have posted on my youtube channel, the ones that are watched the most are the ones where I balance chemical equations. The fact that people view them from all over the world is amazing. It gives me such a good feeling to know that I am helping many people not just those that are in my classroom. Some things that my math students struggle with the most are ratios, fractions, the distributive property, and solving for a variable. I have made some of those tutorials already but I would like to rework some of them to better connect my students to the necessary ideas to be successful.

Thing 20 Portofolio Piece: Carla Belyea on Youtube

I have been creating many different video resources for my students on Youtube. You can follow my channel at Carla Belyea on Youtube

Thing 21 Portfolio Piece: Video for General definitions of Trigonometric Functions

I created this video for my Algebra 2 class on how to calculate sine, cosine, tangent, cosecant, secant, and cotangent values.  General Definitions of Trigonometric Functions

Thing 14 Portfolio Piece: Evernote notebook link

I have edited my html for my template to include a link to my Evernote notebook "For Teachers".

Thing 12 Portfolio Piece: Rubric for project

I created a rubric for a Right Triangle Project. It can be found at Right Triangle Application Project Rubric

This rubric can be used by math students to critique and assess their project as they develop some connections to non-linguistic representations of right triangles.

Thing 11 Portfolio Piece: General Education Planning Prezi

My seniors are creating their own college plan in a written form. I discussed how to select general education classes given an example from Andrews University. I used Prezi to connect them to each step of the way to fulfilling general education requirements.

General Education Planning

Thing 2: Google Drive link embedded in web presence

My students in my Algebra 2 class can go to our quarterly plan that is a Google Drive document embedded in our Algebra 2 web presence. This quarterly plan gives them the goals for each day, the in class and out of class assignments, and links to any additional resources. The link to the page with this document is Algebra 2 Quarterly plan, syllabus, and course content .

Thing 20: Online Video and Audio Resources Reflection

Online video and audio resources are a great educational tool that has become very useful and easily acquirable in the last decade. Tools like youtube, teachertube, discoveryeducation, and learn360 are all great locations where videos have been collected. Now even better curation tools are making their mark to create collections of videos for educators and students. Curation sites like mentormob and sophia are free tools that help educators find videos that are the best of the best. These curation tools make it easier for teachers to find what they need, when they need it, quickly. Audio tools like iTunes often have videos attached to them so a student can see what is going on in a podcast. These videos and audio resources help me to connect students early on to something interesting and in a media format that catches their attention. Video and audio resources are a great way to motivate an opening to a lesson.

Videos are great for seeing and hearing the big picture for a particular topic so a student receives the information in more than one way. Videos require the ability to view as well as hear so a video can’t be used when walking or driving. An audio resource could be used while walking or driving because listening is all that is required. I think it is best to remember that a compilation of resources is best without focusing on just one mode of learning.

Thing 19: Digital Storytelling Reflection

Digital storytelling has several great ways it could be used in my classroom. I could use photographs and captions to create a sequence of images related to story problems that students work out. Having students see the step wise progression of solving a problem through pictures would help them to connect the non-linguistic representations of math and science to the concrete problem solving algorithms. Using digital story telling to create mnemonics for problem solving would be another great use. Having students create their own digital stories to show how they solved a question would give them yet another way to see the similarities and differences between how they solved a question and how another student solved a question.

So far the feedback I have received on my project has been positive and points to creativity in my creation. This was helpful in that it was reassuring but I would like more creative critique next time.  This thing was probably the most intense learning curve for me of the entire set of Things because first I had to create a storyboard with succinct ideas that I wanted to get across in my story. Then I had to find pictures that conveyed this idea that were copy-right free or could be used under a Creative Commons license. I made great use of http://pics.tech4learning.com/ , http://www.morguefile.com/archive , and www.flickr.com . As I consider my project there are two things that I would like to edit, now that I have completed the project. With the captions, sometimes the colored background used to separate the caption from the underlying photo weren’t big enough. Next time I would either edit my captions to be much smaller or figure out a way to make the colored background larger. Also I had found a piece of music that I really liked however it wasn’t quite long enough for my presentation. I cut and pasted the pieces together but the transition from the end of the first loop and the second loop is very distinct. Having used Movie Maker for the first time, I think my next uses of Movie Maker will be better and I can play more with other features.

Thing 19 Digital Story: How to use Twitter for Personal and Professional Growth

I am so glad that http://pics.tech4learning.com/ , www.morguefile.com/, and www.flickr.com exist with individuals who use Creative Commons licenses for others to use their photos.

Watch my digital story at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLeLDk_or5k

Things 8-14 Capstone Project: Using Digital Images with Right Triangle Real World Applications

Helping students connect with non-linguistic representations of the sometimes abstract concepts in math is my goal. I would like to use digital photos as a way for students to summarize what they have learned, identify similarities and differences, and generate and test hypothesis about right triangles. With today's electronic devices that so many students have, I want to have them do a cooperative project where they use photos and information about the photo or video to create story problems for math. Using technology like cameras, cell phones, smart phones, and tablets with photography capabilities, I can help students connect the technology they already own with real world contexts and hopefully will be generalizable to later learning.


Right Triangle Real World Applications

Objective:
Students will use photos of real world applications of right triangles to determine lengths of the legs or hypotenuse or the angle measure of the incline or decline. Create digital images that connect mathematics with real life.

Introduction:
Students have been introduced to the Pythagorean theorem and fundamental trigonometric identities of sine, cosine, and tangent. This lesson will allow students to connect their knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem and trigonometry in order to find find unknowns involving right triangles. Real life applications of right triangles are used in construction, manufacturing, quilt design, home improvements, land surveying, and other areas.

Standards Used:
http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-s-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

NETS-S: 1a, b, c; 2a, b, d; 3a, b, c, d; 4a, b, c, d; 5b, c

Materials:

Digital camera, presentation software, clinometer, trundle wheel or measuring tape

Activity:
Students will create a project that contains 20 real life photos of right triangles. Students will use a clinometer and trundle wheel or measuring tape to measure the triangle leg lengths and/or angle of inclination or declination. Students will create story problems that use the photos and real world information. Students will create triangle overlays on the real life pictures.  Students will create worked examples to accompany their initial picture and overlay.  These story problems and photos will be used by other students to understand the Pythagorean theorem and sine, cosine, and tangent. Students will create a presentation using Prezi or another presentation software package to show their photos to the class. Students will share their presentations on the class website so that students in other schools can make use of them.


Practice:
Students will work through a presentation of another group in the classroom. They will compare their worked answers with the creators worked examples.

Assessment:
Students will critique the presentation using the attached rubric. Students will make adjustments to their presentations based on classmates critiques. The teacher will critique the presentation after final edits are completed.

Rubric:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avkkz2Vwt_UrdFZqNmxob29XaE12U2VGZnRRM19pcEE&usp=sharing

Resources:

How to make a clinometer:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Clinometer

Outdoor learning idea:
http://numberloving.com/2012/03/05/outdoor-learning-the-first-instalment/

Pages about triangle applications:
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt668/emat6680.folders/brooks/6690stuff/righttriangle/Applicationpp.html

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt668/emat6680.folders/brooks/6690stuff/righttriangle/FinalReview.html

How to use Twitter for Personal Growth

I am working on a story boarding exercise to create a digital story of how to use Twitter for Personal Growth. Have I missed anything in my story boarding that would be necessary to make my story better? I updated my presentation to include @ mentions as communications tools.

Thing 18 Virtual Classrom

Virtual classroom experiences can be tricky.  As I navigated through the “Land of Online Learning” looking at the requirements from a student perspective, I was reminded just how important collaboration is to success in the virtual classroom. There are so many slippery slopes where student can fall down and it is possible that the student will never recover from those falls. As a private school, the swamp of surprises has held up some students from taking an online class for lack of a mentor to be sure the student is registered in an online course.  Next is the importance of a student having enough connected time to access the material he or she is to cover. Then the slippery slope of completion. I have seen such a difference between several students that I have mentored - some get right into the work, work steadily, and finish before time is up for the class while others make excuses and never get up to speed nor complete the course they started. For me, the infrequent feedback and lack of time with the teacher that is synchronous really thwarted my initial work into the 21 Things for 21st Century Teachers. As an adult learner, I needed to know that my work was being critiqued and I needed feedback to feel confident about my forward movement. My students need that same measure of confidence.

The CAPSpace (TWICE) site was an amazing resource that I think I could use more if I was a teacher of an English, History, or World Languages class. Most of the projects I saw were in those categories. I like the idea of using video conferencing to connect with classrooms across the state or around the world. I would like to develop a network of professionals that I could “bring into my classroom” via skype for a videoconferencing presentation on career items necessary for student success.  I think that video conferencing has power over even watching videos because an individual can talk back in forth in real time and see the responses of his or her fellow conference attendee.

I would like to use moodle to extend my classroom online. There are several different ways I could use moodle to streamline the careers course I teach which would make it easier to give students feedback as they work through their career development plan. An online classroom experience using moodle or google drive would allow students to communicate and collaborate as they learn new information and synthesize the information into different mediums for redistribution to others. I have loved the way that Google drive has allowed me to give feedback on work that students have completed and to see the transitions in their learning as work is reviewed and critiqued. I think this kind of review and critique allows students to use their critical thinking skills and decision making skills to develop the best learning products. This transfer of knowledge from introduction to completion is a great reason to use a virtual classroom to moderate the flow of information. This moderation is one way my teaching and learning will be positively affected and it will help my students meet several NETS-S.

Thing 17 Professional Learning Networks

Wow, MACUL is free!  I had a friend who talked about attending the MACUL conference and the information he was sharing was excellent and gave me tools that I have been able to use in my classroom to improve instruction. It is awesome that the purpose of MACUL is to keep up with the ever changing world of educational technology, collaborate with people who enjoy using technology in their classroom, and learn new things from those that are members in MACUL. I can contribute to an organization like this by my excitement to use technology to improve instruction and support my students new learning.

LearnPort is great and it is how I learned about the Calhoun ISD courses. I like LearnPort because it leads me to webinars that I could watch to grow as an individual and get involved with groups of people who are doing technology based things like I do. I am glad places like LearnPort exist because it inspires me to connect with others to grow as a professional.

The purpose of Twitter, Facebook, and MACULspace is to connect with others who are excited about learning about what others are doing and how we can join others in doing things we find interesting. I see the greatest pro of Twitter is its linear nature. I can go through my tweetdeck with my multiple columns of hashtags and read what is important to me with #edtech or #edchat or #mathed. Tweetdeck helps me not be distracted by streams of information that are unimportant to me or totally off the topic I am interested in at the moment. Another pro of Twitter is that you can follow what another person tweets about without being a member on twitter and without them necessarily following you back. For people that are hesitant to use a social media platform, twitter allows an individual to see a stream of tweets without requiring a sign in. But that leads to a con for Twitter where if I want to communicate with someone on Twitter, I must be signed in to my account. A pro for Facebook is that many people use it personally so that a transition to professional use isn’t so daunting. However a con of Facebook is that you have little control over the stream of content that comes through your news feed and much of the content can be distracting from a professional viewpoint. Although MACUL looks like a great professional organization, MACULspace seems to have gone the way of Myspace, because there seemed to be little relevant new content there. Instead MACULspace seemed to point to twitter as the location to get up to date information. I know that I appreciate social networking sites that make my professional growth easier, not more complicated and distracted. For me Twitter has become my go to social media and networking site for its ease of use and linear stream of content.

Thing 12 Evaluation & Assessment Tools

Currently in my school we have a student information system, RenWeb, which allows access to student demographic information, grades, and medical information. It has been helpful for parent communication and co-worker communication because we can see how students are doing in each others courses. I look forward to using course management systems like moodle to streamline how students access and complete work. Data warehousing of item level information for assessment would also be helpful for teachers to use to inform instruction. The biggest challenge right now is getting our data into a tool that allows us to run reports, find similarities and differences, and look at trends.

The FERPA/HIPAA quiz was informative because I wasn’t aware of some of the particulars of FERPA. I thought that once a student turned 18 and graduated from high school, that their parent no longer had access to their child’s educational record. I learned that was false, as long as the parent still claimed the child on their IRS forms, the parent had the right to see the child’s educational record. Another interesting thing I learned is the lack of length of time required for maintaining student records. As a counselor I get calls all the time asking for verification of attendance for students who did not graduate from our institution or for verification that students completed GED testing at our school. I often do not have any records, yet other educational agencies expect that I will have them. It seems obvious that a student should be allowed to see his or her educational record, but then I wonder what purpose it would hold. Keeping FERPA information close at hand is probably the best way to decide if a record should be shared or not.

Rubrics allow me to give students more freedom to complete requirements for a given task. It also allows them to self score themselves to see if they are completing work that is worthy of demonstrating mastery and advanced skill. It helps me to better assess in an objective way, rather than subjectively.

Educational surveys like Google forms are great to collect large amounts of data and summarize that data for further consideration. I used the Google Forms as a survey tool to determine where students were feeling the most need to get practice for the upcoming ACT. In the past I have used Survey Monkey to do needs assessments for our school guidance program. The ease of use for both Google Forms and Survey Monkey make them very user friendly surveying tools.

Thing 14: Productivity Tools

I really enjoyed learning about some of the productivity tools that were in this lesson. I had never heard of Zamzar before and I think it has great possibilities for my work. Being able to convert a text file to a pdf so a student or parent can’t cause the format to be ruined is priceless. Zamzar also allows me to convert files that are in older formats into newer formats especially some work that I did using Corel WordPerfect.

I love using my Google Calendar. I have an app on my phone that takes me directly to all the Google Calendars that I subscribe to so I can keep up with both school and personal events in one place. Each calendar has a different color so I can reference who is doing what and where. I could see using Google Calendar to note test dates and other unique homework assignments. I use a Google spreadsheets for my quarterly plans currently but I could transition those assignments to a Google Calendar for students and parents to follow.

I like using productivity tools like this that are online web based rather than computer application based because I can share my work with others in the cloud without having multiple versions of a resource. I liked using Evernote and its web clipper function to create notebooks. I haven’t shared any yet, but I think that Evernote is a tool I would like to use for students to create portfolios of what they are studying. I see it complimenting diigo as a research organizational tool. I appreciate using a tool like Evernote because it will help keep my class paperless in the research process yet organized.

A big disadvantage of all these great tools is that if the internet isn’t working or the electronic device isn’t working, students, parents, and coworkers can’t use the tools. Another disadvantage is that sometimes lessons get thwarted from forward progress because access is limited by IT stipulations on which what tools are allowed for use in a school. As a technology using educator, it is my challenge to educate my co-workers, administrators, and IT staff about the great tools available and the rationale for their use.

21ThingsBCK Thing 16 Research and Reference Tools

I use mel.org all of the time to better educate myself about different new concepts. Since I am trained as a guidance counselor, I prefer to use APA style for the citations. I am going to compare Infotrac Junior Edition and Infotrac Student Edition.

I looked at Infotrac Junior Edition and read the article

Instagram users should wise up. (2012, December 20). CNN Wire. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA312576238&v=2.1&u=lom_accessmich&it=r&p=STOJ&sw=w

I like that it had full text option and that peer reviewed articles could also be found in this database.  I searched for dolphins and it took me to a Science News article, without pictures, but there was a link to the actual magazine with color photos that would be appropriate for all ages. I think that Infotrac Junior is a great database with access to great full text articles from nice colorful magazines that are attractive to young people.

I looked at Infotrac Student Edition and read the article

Ehrenberg, R. (2012, December 29). Scientists take on Twitter: social media comes into its own as a tool and a subject for study. Science News, 182(13), 22. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA313796244&v=2.1&u=lom_accessmich&it=r&p=STOM&sw=w

Infotrac Student Edition seemed basically the same as Infotrac Junior edition. It think both are very simple to use for young people, intuitive, and clear about the results from credible sources given based on a particular topic. This clarity makes both databases appropriate for middle school and high school research.

For the advanced searching I used the Academic OneFile and read the article

Angelova, R., Lipczak, M., Milios, E., & Pralat, P. (2010). Investigating the properties of a social bookmarking and tagging network. International Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining, 6(1), 1+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA215246715&v=2.1&u=lom_accessmich&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

I appreciated the color pdf file where I could read all about social bookmarking and discussing the properties that were found within the social bookmarking constructs.

I think it was a really useful database with peer reviewed journals that had pdf of the exact article so that I could see the mathematical expressions and graphs in their original form.

Another article I read in the Academic OneFile was

Erwin, H. E., & Fedewa, A. L. (2011). Stability balls and students with attention and hyperactivity concerns: implications for on-task and in-seat behavior. AJOT: American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(4), 393+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA263786116&v=2.1&u=lom_accessmich&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Bushong, S. (2009). Keeping Students on the Ball. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(21). Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA192644092&v=2.1&u=lom_accessmich&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

Was another very short article that was about stability balls.

These articles are useful as I look at participating in a research project with my students. Having information like this available is really useful to a teacher and allows me to share information with students that is from a reputable source. It is appropriate for high school students and the content is much more higher academic so it would require additional research skills in order for students to make the best use of this content because the articles come from peer reviewed journals, not from magazines.

I liked the citation makers on each article so that students could create an annotated bibliography of their research with a link back to the mel.org database location where it was originally found. Being able to use APA or MLA is useful depending on which format is required in a particular discipline. I think that using a citation maker like this should begin by grade 3 because by then students can understand the concept of written work belonging to another and they can understand how important it is to properly attribute material they use from another person within their own written work.