Using technology is very helpful with supporting writing. I always knew that you could use some sort of word processing to write more quickly, but had never really thought of ways to incorporate other parts of writing with technology. Technology can be used to help with the organization and planning of writing. One way is through concept maps. You can just write out on a piece of paper concept maps, outlines, etc, but technology can make this process more organized. There are many online tools that can do concept maps. Many of these you have to buy, but I found several that were free to use.
Webspiration- This site seems easy to use and has examples to help get you started. It also has tips and tricks when you might get stuck. This could be very helpful as a college student and as an educator. For all uses and particularly for classroom use, you can make the concept maps very colorful which I think is great for kids and helps them follow along. You can also use lots of cool shapes. I would definitely use this site in my classroom.
http://www.bubbl.us/ - This is another site that is fairly simple to use. It also uses color and has good instructions. This site and webspiration also allow people to work collaboratively on the same project since it is on the web. I could also use this site in my classroom although I think I prefer webspiration.
Technology can also be used to present writing. I have known this for a long time as I and my teachers have been using this for presentations for a long time. I was somewhat surprised to see that the book recommended power point while it seems to get a negative reaction from some teachers these days. Of course, the text wants people to use many of the features that power point has to offer which many people do not. I did not even know about some of these features until reading the book. For example I did not know that there was an "AutoContent" wizard that has different types of slides depending on the type of presentation. I also was only somewhat familiar with adding links into the presentation. I have never done this but I have seen other presenters who have. I also learned that teachers need to make sure that students do not spend too much time on the visual design features of their presentation.
The text also gave suggestions for ways to use technology to help children become more creative writers. The texts mentions using online sites for publishing. I have learned in my previous teaching writing class that publishing students' writings definitely motivates them to write better and to enjoy writing more. I checked out some of the websites suggested in the book and some that I found on my own.
http://www.poetryforge.org/index.html0 This site was suggested in the book. I like that it seemed fairly simple to use for both teachers and students. It definitely seems like something kids could almost use on their own as it gives prompts and recommendations. However, this site was only for poetry and did not seem to have as much freedom as other sites.
http://www.biguniverse.com/ - This website is my favorite. Children can create and share their stories for free. Children can also add pictures and colors to their stories. Children can also read a ton of stories published by other children and some real published books. I think I will definitely use this site in my classroom.
http://www.kidpub.com/ - This is another website where students can write their own stories and read other children's stories. They can also get their books published and enter contests. I also liked that there is a "never-ending" story that children can just keep adding on to. This is a good site; however, it does cost $12.95 per year.
The text also discusses collaborative writing. I feel like I did not really collaborate with other students when in t came to writing in school. However, I do like the idea and learned that there are different types of collaborative writing: intensive collaboration (working side by side on the project), writing that is done apart but work together a little, and writing that occurs sequentially. By working together, students can learn other points of view and practice having different roles. Writing like this can at times used the sites listed above, but many other sites are better. Also these sites will allow students in your classroom to work with students all over the world.
http://docs.google.com/# - This site allows users to upload documents and other users to see and edit these documents. The site also allows the user to make their documents private if needed. The way the site is presented is a little boring so I think it might be more beneficial for older students.
http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/ - This website allows children to write their own stories, poems, etc and read those of other children. It also lets children write collaboratively. This site was very student friendly and I liked that it had lots of different topics that children can rite about and it puts all of their writings together.
The texts also recommends peer review and feedback on writing. I found that most of the websites allow people to make comments about the writings. Although this may not be the best form of review since some people might be writing things of little importance, it does allow some feedback.
I found this chapter to be the most useful for classroom use so far and I feel that I learned about a lot of tools that I id not even know existed until searching for them.
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Good web sites, I also found some of the same! I agree, even though many of those sites are not used specifically for peer reviewing, we can still develop them into something relate able for our students. I think another plus to having other people give feedback through the sites is that they are views of people throughout the WORLD! I think that is kind of amazing and students might want to listen what random people are saying about their writing more than what their friends think. I too was surprised PowerPoint was mentioned in the book, but after reading I saw it does have its benefits. I still think it is a bit outdated though and that students can have those benefits (and more) through the use of presentation tools via the Internet.
ReplyDeleteHey Emily!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the biguniverse.com website as well. I loved how kids can not only publish their stories for free, but they can also add illustration. This allows students to get even more creative with their work. I also felt that this chapter has truly been the most helpful so far. Since writing is essential in any grade level, it is important for us as future teachers to expose writing with technology to help them become better writers.
I've used google docs in the past to do group assignments. It makes it super easy for multiple people to collaborate on one piece of work and is so helpful because planning one time for everyone to meet can be nearly impossible.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the poetryforge.com website because poetry is such a hard style of writing to introduce to students. The website seemed easy to navigate and I liked that it was useful for both teachers and students. I also did not participate in a lot of collaborative writing in my elementary years and I liked that they have games, like the virtual garden, to help to introduce students to working collaboratively together. Collaborative working will help students enjoy and find stronger passion in writing.
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