Professional Deelopment

This week's assignment was to create a professional development plan and presentation. I chose to follow the organization of this class and developed a 5 workshop series on web 2.0 tools and applications. I attempted to show teachers the basics of each of the tools as well as some examples of uses in the classroom or on way that can help them to organize. I think the workshops cover a lot of tools and it will probably be necessary to do some follow up workshops on specific tools for the teachers that use them and then want to do more. I don't think that all of the teacher will like each tools but I hope by presenting so many different options that everyone will be able to find something that works for them and is applicable to a current topic or lesson.

Web 2.0 Tools and the Curriculum

A 5 workshop series

Introduction to Blogs and Wikis
In this hands on workshop teachers will develop the beginnings of their own blog and wiki. The workshop will cover an introduction to blogs and wikis as well as concrete examples of their use in the classroom and lessons. Additional topics include; a discussion and demo of Wikipedia and it’s educational application., Internet safety and ethics and the choices for access will be discussed, as well as the various free online options and the pros and cons of each.

Help me Organize my Stuff!..and be able to find it
In this workshop we will explore all of the  online tols out there to help us keep track of all of out stuff plus a lot of them have great potential. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to keep up on what is new at the sites or blogs we read most often? Setup an RSS feed. Have pictures or even books o keep track of? Try Flickr or Shelfari. Want to collect all of those great links you come across or have your students use specific ones fr an assignment? Try Delicious. We will explore these applications and more as we take a look at all the tools to make it easier to keep track of everything

Apps you don’t need an i-phone for!
Online applications are easy to use and many are free. Discover applications which can convert any type of file, create word posters, enable multiple people to work on one document, from home. Develop online tutorials and discover web links. Create surveys, photo albums, and brainstorm. Even create a talking avatar of a character or a professional looking movie. The possibilities are endless. This workshop will introduce you to the multitude of tools out there, provide ideas for using each within the curriculum and provide resources for locating more.

Online Multimedia- How to find it and create it. It’s easier than you think…
Youtube in school? There are some treasures to be found. If not than Ted or Teacher tube. Explore free video sites on the web. If video isn’t your thing than how about audio? Discover tools to create your own pod casts and explore ways to locate ones others have created. Even explore an online radio station which chooses the next song based on what you like.

Now what do I do with all this new stuff?.
Use it! In this last workshop we will talk about lessons. Great resources for lessons, ones we have done, ones we have heard about and begin to figure out how to use all these tools with students. Bring along a lesson that you would like to integrate technology into or one that you would just like to do some thing different with. Not all of the tools we learned about are for students but a lot can be used for fun applicable assessments that are interesting and less time consuming to grade.