Thing 13: Never Too Young
It is not very often you can attend a conference without getting dressed up and traveling to another town! After looking at the sessions offered, I chose to attend “Never Too Young” presented by Sharon Betts and part of the 2008 archives. Although the presentation video was not as clear as one would have hoped, Sharon presented ideas for using three tech tools with children as young as kindergarten and first grade.
Voice Threads: The presentation discussed using a site that would allow you and your children to create voice threads for ten to fifty dollars a year, depending on how you wanted to set up the voice threads. Two very good suggestions for using the voice threads were to showcase a trade book and allow the students with their families to make comments about the book. The second suggestion was for the students to create a book and read the book using voice threads.
Time Lines: Using the site dipity.com, Sharon suggested the time line tool be used by teachers to make time lines of the school year or daily schedule. A positive to the site was the time line could also be displayed as a book. I would not use this site due to the some of the pictures which show on the site.
Blogging: Sharon emphasized what we have discussed before, the power of having written work published so others can see it. She gave an example of first grade students who wrote a blog highlighting their favorite things and what they learned each day.
While the presentation answered the Essential Questions of 1) Why use tech tools with the very young? 2) How can you integrate WEB 2.0 with beginning readers? 3) What tools are applicable to the young learners?, there is always the issue of time. A teacher always wants technology to enhance what is already being learned rather than create new things that have to be done. I think the easiest one for young students to participate with would be the voice threads. I could see the voice threads encouraging excitement about reading and sharing our learning.
