Pre-service teacher training

We set our 1st year students a task to create a multimedia resource to use in the classroom with primary (elementary) aged children. The students were given a range of web 2 tools to use or they could use PhotoStory 3. The students were encouraged to use a tool they had not encountered before.

I provided online help tutorials as they were required - 'just in time learning'. As well students supported each other in group situations or through an online forum. This gave the students an experience where they were able to see how the tool (or something similary) could be used in their future classroom.

After making the resource they had to either give a link to their work or upload the work to our online learning environment. Many of the students who used Photostory 3 or Animoto then uploaded them to YouTube to be able to embed them in our online environment or into their e-portfolios. I wonder if there are many teachers who are providing experiences like this in their classrooms and how they are doing it. It is great to be able to show these students 'real life' examples to follow on.

Web 2.0 Projects

Terry Freedman has put together a series of projects that have been used in schools using Web 2.0 tools.

This is well worth classroom teachers having a look at to see how others have been using Wikis, blogs, podcasting, Google maps, social networking for example.

I will be using this with my students to give them some ideas of how these tools can be used in the classroom.

This is such a great idea to have these all together and share these stories. With the way all of these ideas have grown so quickly (and will continue to grow) it is so important that teachers do collaborate and share with each other.

Thanks so much Terry!!

Handpicked collaborative projects

Handpicked collaborative projects is a site that has been developed for NZ teachers to locate pedagogically-sound, active, online collaborative projects for use in their classrooms. It is hoped that this site will aid teachers in personalising learning for individuals and for groups of students.

There is a link to Teacher Tap where there are other interesting ideas for collaborative projects. There are ideas such as:

• What's it like to be an astronaut?
• What was it like to live during The Great Depression?
• Does water boil at the same temperature at different elevations?
• Where in the world do fireflies live?