Final+Examination

** The Read Write Web Final Examination **
EDU653 The internet has developed into an ideal tool to incorporate communication and collaboration between individuals. In particular, web 2.0 applications are an effective tool in education. Students and teachers now have access to websites and the ability to collaborate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Web 2.0 applications are accommodating for all schedules as it removes the barriers of time and distance. The text, __BLOGS, WIKIS, PODCASTS, AND OTHER POWERFUL WEB TOOLS FOR CLASSROOMS__ by Will Richardson discusses several applications that help to make collaboration, social learning, and connections between individuals possible.

Weblogs or blogs allow users to easily write to the web and provides for other individuals to comment on the writing, or post, and are usually updated frequently. There are several free blog applications available. Blogs give students an authentic audience for their writing. Students are no longer writing an essay just for the teacher’s eyes but for peers, content professionals, the community, and society at large. I feel that when students are writing for others, besides the teacher, they will put in greater effort to make the writing valuable and are learning to consider other’s thoughts and opinions. “Students are learning to read more critically, think about that reading more analytically, and write more clearly. And, they are building relationships with peers, teachers, mentors, and professionals within the Weblog environment” (Richardson, 2010). Blogs also provide a voice for all students in the class. The student who is reluctant to speak up in class has the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. The fact that a blog is a conversation is another benefit. Blogging is “transactional writing, as writing to be interacted with, to be returned to and reflected upon” (Richardson, 2010).

There are several ways that blogging can be useful to me personally and professionally. As an education professional I can utilize several blogs to stay up to date on current educational issues and technology. Two blogs that I enjoy following are //Math and Multimedia// and //Wild About Math//. Both blogs offer math teachers resources and ideas to make math both challenging and fun. Beyond using blogs to provide professional development, math teachers can use blogs to engage students in mathematical conversations. Beginning this fall I plan to incorporate the use of blogs to allow students a space to work together to solve and discuss solutions to problems. The blog, entitled Math @ CTC will be used weekly and I am looking forward to having a great conversation about how math applies in everyday life and my students’ chosen career fields. Current research on writing in mathematics shows that students who write about math “deepen” their understanding of the concepts. “Teachers who include writing experiences in their classrooms set the stage for active problem solving, invention and discovery, increased reading, and improved content learning” (Urquhart, 2009).

Using a blog for math problem solutions may be challenging. When creating handouts and example problems for my website I must create graphics that appropriately show mathematical notations (exponents, function notation, and fractions). This could be a problem for students and will require that I instruct them on using the math type application within Word and the process for creating a graphic.

Another web2.0 application that is useful in the classroom would be the wiki. Wikis are collaborative websites where everyone is an editor and contributor. According to Will Richardson, “Everyone together is smarter than anyone alone” (Richardson, 2010). Using a wiki in education is a great way for students to construct knowledge and discuss concepts. Not only does a wiki help with content area concepts, students learn to negotiate and arrive at the best possible way to present the topic.

Having used a wiki in our Instructional Design course (EDU643) to build class glossaries for each module and this course, The Read Write Web(EDU653), to provide links to additional resources, I can envision using a wiki in Algebra 2. During each unit students will be required to enter vocabulary, problem solving strategies and resources for that topic. In addition, I’d like to see students research the application of the concept in the real world and locate and post photos, videos, and links to help themselves and others understand the concept/process more thoroughly. This could also be a place for further discussion. At the end of each unit students would have access to an online study guide written collaboratively in a way that, hopefully, will help students comprehend the unit concepts. I think it would be extremely valuable to have students create instructional videos and post them to the class wiki. In addition to the concept skills learned, students will gain necessary collaborative skills. “The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community ,and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort” (Richardson, 2010). Once again the use of mathematical symbols may be a concern. Teaching students to create graphics to appropriately display math symbols and operations will be needed.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds will be a mainstay of my professional development! I find that keeping track of new posts on blogs and journals that are pertinent to my continued growth as a teacher has become so much easier. Using Goggle Reader provides me with a list of new posts and articles that I can access when and where ever it is convenient. This is a valuable resource!

Students can subscribe to the RSS feeds of experts in their field and learn directly from the professionals. This will be helpful for students when locating real world applications of the math content taught that will be required for the class blog. The web provides and vast amount of information and I am concerned that this may be overwhelming for my students. I think I’ll start by having students subscribe to our class blog to keep up to date and from there I can provide links to other valuable resources.

The web has become a very social learning environment. “All roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation and all things are collaborative and social in nature” (Richardson, 2010). Twitter is the perfect example of the social learning environment. With my twitter account I am able to follow leaders in education and technology and keep myself updated on multiple topics. Mircoblogging, using 140 characters or less, provides quick updates on the people I am following and I am able to pose a question and usually receive multiple responses in a matter of seconds. I follow the White House, Katie Couric, Kathy Schrock, Leslie Fisher, Bruce Umpsted, Teacher Survival, Teacher Net, and more. This can be addicting! I have stopped from adding tweet deck and aps to my cell phone or I’d be twittering all the day long.



Social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Diigo are valuable to educators by providing a site to organize and access necessary links at any computer. In addition, I am able to browse through the sites others with similar interests have saved and often find myself lost in Delicious following link after link and adding to my personal collection of sites. The two sites mentioned above also help me to organize the sites by keyword and I can easily locate them. I can see this being used during research for students. Simply click the Delicious icon on the tool bar or copy and paste the URL on your site and compile a list of resources for research. What could be easier?



Flickr is a great site to upload and store photos as well as locate photographs for use in the classroom. The use of Creative Commons licenses makes it quite simple to remain copyright compliant and attribute the photographer. I have used Flickr in the past and will continue to do so when creating presentations for the classroom. The use of images adds interest and provides for the visual learner. Making the connection of math to real world applications is essential in my school. Our students are more hands-on and need to know how the concepts being taught will apply to their chosen field. This is important for all of education but I think extremely important for the Career-Technical teacher. Teaching an academic subject at a Career-Tech Center provides its challenges, but having access to the images on Flickr helps me to integrate my academic subject with my students’ chosen field of study. The image below of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power would be very helpful in discussing the topic and would provide our class with relevant information to perform some calculations on the savings created with wind power.

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GDS Infographics, Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power, Creative Commons Attribution

In addition, one of our school’s educational goals is to show improvement in reading for information. This is very applicable to mathematics and reading charts and graphs. The following image on the Most Dangerous Foods could be used in the Culinary Arts Program and the Organ Donation image would work well in Allied Health. The possibilities are endless and are only limited by the educator’s imagination.

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GDS Infographics, Most Dangerous Foods, Creative Commons Attribution

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GDS Infographics, Organ Donation, Creative Commons Attribution

Podcasting seems to be the most useful web2.0 tool. The application, like the rest can be used as a resource for students as well as a demonstration of student learning. There are several podcasts available on all subjects. One of my favorite podcasts is entitled The Math Dude. The Math Dude produces interesting and helpful podcasts on a wide variety of math topics. I have a few of his podcasts linked on the Career-Tech Math Essentials web site. The Quick and Dirty podcasts provide accurate information that is delivered with emotion and has the written text so students can follow along. Furnishing the written problems is essential for mathematics, students need to “see” the math problem in order to understand the process being demonstrated.

In addition to using podcasts as resources students can easily create podcast to demonstrate their learning and help peers. In an Edutopia blog by Maya Payne Smart the author relates how Brent Coley’s fifth grade students utilize podcasting to demonstrate learning. With little technology, Mr. Coley gives his students the opportunity to communicate to an authentic global audience and in the process have created a library of educational podcasts. There are several sites available that provide libraries of podcasts such as Education Podcast Networkwhere student work can be organized. Delivering content to an authentic audience produces pride and is a great motivator. Students strive to do their very best since what they produce will be viewed by a much larger audience. Keeping the focus on content is essential. According to the blog author, “We’re in the classroom to teach them not how to podcast, but how to communicate and communicate compellingly” (Payne-Smart, 2008). The class is producing a library of course material that is accessible 24/7.

Screencasting is a method in which the user creates a video demonstrating how to accomplish a task on a computer. This is very useful and I have created a few screencasts for a previous class to help students navigate a website and create an e-portfolio utilizing weebly. The use of screencasts accommodates both audio and visual learning styles.

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In addition to the e-portfolio screencast I created another to assist students in navigating and understanding the layout of the Math Essentials website. Using screencasting applications is an easy way to produce informational/educational videos.

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Facebook and Ning are valuable tools for networking. I am hesitant to use them with my students and probably will not. There are multiple issues that can arise in using Facebook and Ning with students and I just don’t want to go there. However, while attending the MACUL conference this spring I learned of Edmodo, an educational social networking site whose sole purpose is to provide a safe and secure environment for students and teachers to collaborate and network. Teachers can safely share documents, links, lessons, ideas, and engage students in the conversation. Edmodo looks and feels much like Facebook without having to fear you’ll stumble upon an inappropriate photo or share personal information with students. Teachers create Edmodo sites that are password protected and only those invited are able to post and read the content. Edmodo seems to be the perfect combination of a safe environment and social networking. In addition to the social networking capabilities, Edmodo also provides teachers with lesson plans, resources, the ability to collaborate with one another, grade book options, and the ability to connect instantly with the class.

The Read Write Web has the capacity to radically change education in a positive way. Will Richardson suggests that teachers will need to redefine what it means to teach by becoming “connectors, not only of content, but of people” (Richardson, 2010). We must become models of the behaviors necessary in the 21st Century. In addition to connecting resources, teachers need to be active in creating content and collaborating with one another. Teachers “need, in short, to know how to build and sustain their own personal learning networks” (Richardson, 2010).

** Resources **
Bautista, G. (2011). Math and multimedia [Web log message]. Retrieved from []

GDS Infographics. (Photographer). (2009). //Advantages and disadvantages of wind power//. [Web]. Retrieved from []

GDS Infographics. (Photographer). (2009). //Organ donation//. [Web]. Retrieved from []

Lederman, S. (2011). Wild about math [Web log message]. Retrieved from []

Marshall, J. (Producer). (2011, July 30). How to add quickly [Audio Podcast]. //The Math Dude//. Retrieved from []

Payne Smart, M. (2008, November 12). Listening to themselves: podcasting takes lessons beyond the classroom [Web log message]. Retrieved from []

Richardson, W. (2010). //Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Urguhart, V. (2009). //Using writing in mathematics to deepen student learning//. Retrieved from []