Robin's Tech Tips

October is Computer Learning Month

I had a dream last night that got me thinking about "perspective"  and how to give students different perspectives on what is being taught.  Our students are what some call "digital natives" and are wired differently than students of the past.  Think of all the ways they can get and send information in a moment's notice.  So how can we tap into that part of their thinking and get them thinking about school and the subjects being presented from a different perspective?  How can we start to speak their  digital language?

With this thought in mind I bring you this post: Perspectives in Writing and Reading

So often as a history teacher I would present textbook reading as here it is and answer the questions at the end.  As I began to understand the importance of engaging students before, during and after reading, I used questions, discussions, paper and pencil, drawing, etc. to help get the students to see the information in a different way.

With technology I am amazed at what the other options can be!

To demonstrate some of the ways that a reading passage (fiction or non-fiction) could be presented using technology, I took the school's weekly newsletter and ran it through several options.  These activities could be used as pre-reading hooks or as a post-reading assignment for the students.

Wordle:

The first is a web site called "Wordle."  Wordle takes text and makes a word cloud out of it.  The more a word is mentioned, the larger it appears.  Think of it as a tag cloud for your reading.



Students could also upload their own writing and see what words they are using the most and how their writing is coming across.  For a list of ideas on this, please see the Tech Ed Know blog.

Inspiration:

I used Inspiration 8 to create a web of the information as well:

PhotoStory:

Pictures are another great way to tell a story.  I took the same key words, found pictures to illustrate those words from flickr and made a short movie using photo story.

Contest:

For Ridgeview Teachers: Here are a few wordles that come from history or literature.  If you are able to identify what text they come from and leave your guess as a comment to this blog, a prize will be awarded.   There will be a prize per entry, so you don't have to know them all, just guess on one!  Click on the picture to see a larger image.

Entry 1:




Entry 2:



Entry 3:



Entry 4:

Ideas?  thoughts?  Suggestions?  Please share in the comments section.