Staff Development 1

Running head: STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Web 2.0 Tools to Save You Time

by

Maggie Davis
 Staff Development 2

Summary of Unit

I had the opportunity to teach a group of teachers and paraprofessionals at an elementary

school in Columbia County, GA. Trina Galvin, a media specialist at Euchee Creek Elementary,
was teaching an entire course on Web 2.0 tools. Her course spanned 4 weeks with the students
meeting a total of five days. She developed the course so that each time she met with the
teachers, they were learning a different “theme” of Web 2.0 tools. She allowed me to teach one
of her five days, and I was able to develop my own theme for the lesson.
My theme for the afternoon was “Web 2.0 Tools to Help You Have More Free Time”. I
wanted to show these teachers that there are tools out there that are designed to make their lives,
in the classroom and at home, much easier. I only had about two and a half hours with them,
so I had to choose carefully which tools I wanted to show them. These tools had to be
something that we could learn and use in one day. I chose Pageflakes, Sliderocket and
Rubistar. The unit is described below.

Learner Analysis
The group of learners during the course of this lesson consisted of ten women. Among
the women were one elementary school guidance counselor, three paraprofessionals, one media
specialist, and five elementary teachers. Only two of the women (the media specialist and
guidance counselor) were familiar with Web 2.0 tools before the start of the staff development
course. The other women had very limited knowledge of the kinds of tools that are available for
use.

Title of Web 2.0 Tools to Help You Have More Free Time

Unit
Audience Elementary School Teachers and Paraprofessionals

Time 1 afternoon after school (2.5 hours)

Frame
 Staff Development 3

Identify Desired Results

Content Standards
st
Standards for the 21 Century Learner
 1.3.4 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within the learning community.
 4.1.6 Organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily.
 4.1.7 Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information.
 4.3.2 Recognize that resources are created for a variety of purposes.

Enduring Understandings Essential Questions

Students will understand that:
 How can I create more hours in the day?
 Technology can help one stay  How can web 2.0 tools make my life easier?
organized.
 Various Web 2.0 tools are available
to aide in classroom instruction.
 Web 2.0 tools are designed to make
life simpler.

Knowledge Skills
Students will know… Students will be able to…

 How web 2.0 tools can help
simplify their lives.
 How to use particular web 2.0 tools
 How to share documents with the
online community
 log into my own Pageflakes account
 create pages within my Pageflakes account
 add and delete flakes within my Pageflakes
account
 move flakes from page to page
 arrange flakes on a page
 search for flakes
 edit privacy settings within my Pageflakes
account
 log into my Slide Rocket account
 Begin a new presentation within Sliderocket
 Add slides, pictures, music, text and video to
a presentation in Sliderocket
 Add custom animations to a presentation on
Sliderocket
 Share my presentation with others
 Search for a completed rubric on Rubistar
 Create a rubric using the Rubistar wizard
 Customize a rubric to fit my needs
 Share my rubric with others
 Staff Development 4

A Collection of Assessment Evidence

Web 2.0 Tools to Help You Have More Free Time

Performance Tasks
 Students will create their own personal learning environment using Pageflakes.
 Students will create their own slide show presentation using Slide Rocket.
 Students will create their own rubric using Rubistar.

Other Evidence (tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples, observations)

Observations, work samples, prompts, etc.

1. Teacher Observation: The instructor will monitor and coach during class
activities.

Student Self-Assessment and Reflection

 End of Lesson Self-Assessment
 Staff Development Evaluation Form
 Staff Development 5

Learning Plan
The teacher is asks the students to find the Weebly site that has been set up for them with all of
the appropriate links already listed.

Pageflakes Lesson:

The teacher will begin the lesson by saying:

“Do you think there is any way you could get more time in your day? One of the things that I
find very time consuming is checking my email, the weather, the latest news, etc. when I get
home from work every day. One of the most time consuming things about checking all of my
internet sites is that I have to go and search for them. What Pageflakes allows you to do is to set
up your own personal learning environment, so instead of you searching for the sites, the sites
come to you. You are able to customize your own environment to include the sites that you visit
most often.”

The teacher then puts Pageflakes on the smartboard, asks the students to click the Pageflakes link
on their Weebly page, and begins to show them how to create their own account.

The teacher then logs into her own account and begins to instruct the students on how to set-up
pages, search for flakes, and to customize their own personal learning environment.

SlideRocket Lesson:

The teacher begins this portion of the lesson by saying:

“I spend a lot of time in the evening creating PowerPoint presentations for my students. I save
them on my jump drive so I can take the presentation into work the next day. What I end up
doing much of the time is forgetting to put my jump drive in my work bag. I am so busy on
school nights helping my children with their homework, making dinner, making lunches for the
next day, which makes keeping up with a jump drive difficult. SlideRocket is a web based
presentation tool that allows you to show presentations without having to keep up with a jump
drive. If you are able to remember a username and password then you will have your
presentation wherever you have an internet connection.”

The teacher will then put SlideRocket on the Smartboard, ask students to click the SlideRocket
link on their Weebly page and begin to instruct them how to create their own account.

The teacher begins to instruct the students how to create, edit and share their own presentation.
 Staff Development 6

Rubistar Lesson:

The teacher begins this portion of the lesson by saying:

“There is such a push now- a- days for teachers to have rubrics to grade anything that a student
turns in to you. Unfortunately, making a rubric is extremely time consuming. Rubistar is a
tool that allows you to search for rubrics others have created or you can make your own rubric
using the wizard provided. You can even edit the wizard to suit your needs!!” You can easily
have a rubric in less than 5 minutes.”

The teacher will then put Rubistar on the Smartboard, ask students to click the Rubistar link on
their Weebly page, and begin instructing the students how to search and/or create their own
rubric.

After students have created their personal learning environment, a slideshow presentation and a
rubric, they will be asked to complete the Self-Assessment Rubric as well as the Staff
Development Evaluation Form.

At the conclusion of the entire course, Ms. Galvin will add these three web 2.0 tools to a wiki
containing all of the web 2.0 tools that have been taught.
 Staff Development 7

Self Assessment Rubric

back to stage 2

Name: ____________________________________

Please check the appropriate box in the table below.

As a result of completing this lesson I can…

YES NOT SURE NO

log into my own Pageflakes account
create pages within my Pageflakes account
add and delete flakes within my Pageflakes
account
move flakes from page to page
arrange flakes on a page
search for flakes
edit privacy settings within my Pageflakes
account
log into my Slide Rocket account
Begin a new presentation within
Sliderocket
Add slides, pictures, music, text and video
to a presentation in Sliderocket
Add custom animations to a presentation
on Sliderocket
Share my presentation with others
Search for a completed rubric on Rubistar
Create a rubric using the Rubistar wizard
Customize a rubric to fit my needs
Share my rubric with others
TOTALS
 Staff Development 8

Staff Development Evaluation Form

Back to stage 2

Please take a moment and complete the following evaluation form.

1. How difficult was this lesson for you?

2. Do you feel more comfortable using Web 2.0 tools?

3. Do you think you will continue to use these Web 2.0 tools after today?

4. Did you find your instructor helpful? Explain.

5. What suggestions do you have that might improve this lesson?