Blog Journal #5
Hello and welcome back to Bookmark It!
For all of my viewers currently being affected or who will be affected by Hurricane Michael, stay safe and prepare for the storm as best as you can, I am keeping you in my prayers.
In this weeks blog, I will be discussing my experiences so far in the course with my blog, Diigo, as well as a Web 2.0 tool that I would use in my own classroom.
My experience so far with Diigo has been that as a teacher it would be very beneficial to use this tool to find sites as well as other people with similar bookmarks to mine. The site is great for providing connections between educators to share ideas, websites, and tools. I like that when you bookmark pages you can highlight and circle certain parts to emphasize what that person liked about the site. This also allows for me to get a snapshot of what the site will be about and if it will benefit me. Furthermore, the ability to comment and see other peoples opinions of the site makes it easier for me to see if certain sites are worth looking into. However, the parts that I do not like about Diigo is the format of the site itself. The format seems to be older and it is a little hard to navigate so it takes a little bit of time to adjust and learn how to begin using it. Although, after working with it for a while it gets much easier.
Also, after using this blog for the past five weeks, I have started to enjoy being able to share my opinions in this format. I believe that blogs are great for sharing personal experiences and provide people with information, tips, and opinions, that may not be found on more formal websites. Plus, the personal aspect of a blog definitely relates to people more as the viewer knows who is writing the blog and can have more of a connection with the author. I like that it is very user friendly and it is easy for anyone to begin using. One aspect I do not like about it is that most blogs are based on personal opinions and the facts can get lost in it, making it hard to tell what may be true or false. From working with this blog, I have learned the proper way to keep a blog and how to format one as well as how to speak to the audience of a blog (depending on the purpose of the blog, of course). I have now figured out a way to format a blog depending on why I am writing this, I had never considered that the design of a blog mattered depending on what you are writing about.
After doing my research on Web 2.0 tools, keeping in mind that the grade I would like to teach is second grade, I chose to use the tool Storybird. This is a site where children and adults can write picture books as well as create more advanced stories. It is easy to use and has pictures that children can use as templates and then they can move words over the picture, similar to a picture book. If a person were to write a normal novel with fewer pictures, this is also possible with this tool. It encourages students to write and create their own stories and could even be used to pertain to the topics they are already learning. From viewing this site, I like that it can be used for all ages and not just younger children. However, when used in a classroom, such as second grade, it is easy to use as they can move the words and pictures around easily and the page is formatted in a way that is easy to understand and navigate. I find this is important for children of a younger age still becoming familiar with technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9ycfrCR44
Until next week! Again, stay safe!
Taylor
For all of my viewers currently being affected or who will be affected by Hurricane Michael, stay safe and prepare for the storm as best as you can, I am keeping you in my prayers.
In this weeks blog, I will be discussing my experiences so far in the course with my blog, Diigo, as well as a Web 2.0 tool that I would use in my own classroom.
My experience so far with Diigo has been that as a teacher it would be very beneficial to use this tool to find sites as well as other people with similar bookmarks to mine. The site is great for providing connections between educators to share ideas, websites, and tools. I like that when you bookmark pages you can highlight and circle certain parts to emphasize what that person liked about the site. This also allows for me to get a snapshot of what the site will be about and if it will benefit me. Furthermore, the ability to comment and see other peoples opinions of the site makes it easier for me to see if certain sites are worth looking into. However, the parts that I do not like about Diigo is the format of the site itself. The format seems to be older and it is a little hard to navigate so it takes a little bit of time to adjust and learn how to begin using it. Although, after working with it for a while it gets much easier.
Also, after using this blog for the past five weeks, I have started to enjoy being able to share my opinions in this format. I believe that blogs are great for sharing personal experiences and provide people with information, tips, and opinions, that may not be found on more formal websites. Plus, the personal aspect of a blog definitely relates to people more as the viewer knows who is writing the blog and can have more of a connection with the author. I like that it is very user friendly and it is easy for anyone to begin using. One aspect I do not like about it is that most blogs are based on personal opinions and the facts can get lost in it, making it hard to tell what may be true or false. From working with this blog, I have learned the proper way to keep a blog and how to format one as well as how to speak to the audience of a blog (depending on the purpose of the blog, of course). I have now figured out a way to format a blog depending on why I am writing this, I had never considered that the design of a blog mattered depending on what you are writing about.
After doing my research on Web 2.0 tools, keeping in mind that the grade I would like to teach is second grade, I chose to use the tool Storybird. This is a site where children and adults can write picture books as well as create more advanced stories. It is easy to use and has pictures that children can use as templates and then they can move words over the picture, similar to a picture book. If a person were to write a normal novel with fewer pictures, this is also possible with this tool. It encourages students to write and create their own stories and could even be used to pertain to the topics they are already learning. From viewing this site, I like that it can be used for all ages and not just younger children. However, when used in a classroom, such as second grade, it is easy to use as they can move the words and pictures around easily and the page is formatted in a way that is easy to understand and navigate. I find this is important for children of a younger age still becoming familiar with technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9ycfrCR44
Until next week! Again, stay safe!
Taylor
Great! Thank you for sharing this cool, new application. I am adding a URLfor Storybird ( https://storybird.com/).
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