One Last Thing (#24)

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? Animoto and Image Chef
  

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals? I'll make more time to use these web tools for work and for fun!
  

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? the realization that I don't need a bunch of software loaded on a new computer -- it's available on the web!
  

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Divide it into 3 parts so we could have more time to play?
  

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher? I can be much more creative and the kids will have more fun.
  

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful. Subscribe to a emerging technologies website.
  

Thing Twenty

Pandy Pausch Inspires Graduates video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYv5x6gZTA

This video is exceptional and the reason I chose it is self-explanatory. YouTube has its place in our culture - I just hope we use its power for good rather than evil. :)

Thing Twenty Three

For this thing, I joined 23 Thingsters and I checked out the 43 Things website. I found the link at the bottom of the our 23 Things page along with this paragraph:

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Thing Twenty Two

I listened to a podcast from TeacherTube. A teacher presented a math lesson on the whiteboard. We actually watched it the next day in my inclusion math class.

I preferred the Educational Podcast Directory and found it most helpful.

I might have the kids make a podcast or two. It does look like fun.

I will probably use TeacherTube frequently from here forward.

Thing Nineteen

Visit TeacherPop


My membership is awaiting approval. I am not a member of any other online community except Facebook. When I am approved, I'll upload photos and make comments.

I will use GoodReads and the music websites recommended.

Thing Twenty One

My experience with Animoto was fantastically easy. I have bookmarked it and will use it again with personal photos. I will share it with my colleagues and my students.

It is the bomb!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing Eighteen

I've been facebooking for almost a year now and it wuickly became a habit. I play on facebook the way I used to read fiction, so I'm not sure it's an improvement! I do feel more connected to people. Most interesting to me is the number of people from my high school who are using it. It seems to have become the easiest way to reconnect.

Why is it important that educators know how social networking works? It is important for teachers to understand how young folks are connecting these days. Studying how they interact on facebook will give teachers info on how they think and what's important to them.

What new insights did you gain about these popular sites? People really like to talk about themselves!

What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored? MySpace has become the social networking site for teens and facebook is more for grown-ups.

Which site had the most useful features? Facebook

Can you see a classroom or school application for any of these sites? Facebook would be a great way for parents to stay up to date with their school's activities.

Thing Seventeen

How can teachers take advantage of social bookmarking websites? Well, for starters, Diigo provides a premium upgrade free of charge for educators:

• You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
• Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.
• Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
• Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Thing Sixteen

• Which start page did you choose? I chose to use the Google start page.
• Why did that one appeal to you? I am impressed with the Google's versatility.

• Will you make it your permanent home page? No - my permanent homepage will remain AT&T by Yahoo.

• How can the online calendars be useful to you? I use the online calendar that comes with my yahoo email for keep track of bill payments. Students can use them to keep track of assignments.

• What about the to-do lists? I like to-do lists, but I still tend to keep them on paper. If I had a more portable laptop, I might be tempted to keep my lists on it.

• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Remember the milk!
  
• Which tool(s) would you recommend to others? I'd recommend Google's tools because of the versatility.
  

Thing Fifteen

Well, so far thing 15 has been the most difficult to do. I'm hoping this works. At the very least, I am beginning to understand how to use all of these online apps together. Now let's see where I can go from here.

Curriculum ideas for wiki:

Take an area from a chapter in a science textbook and ask students to create a wiki by finding information on the web and adding it to the info they found in the textbook.

Thing Fourteen

I chose Gliffy and Bubbl.us to explore. I chose them because they were easy to use. I have bookmarked them for future use. I am in the middle of several projects for Dr. Mac's class and I can use both of these in the near future. I think the kids will love this because it is so cool! It makes learning fun.

Thing Thirteen

When the laptop I have now starts to fall apart, I plan an purchasing a netbook. I haven't really started shopping yet, so I wasn't sure if a netbook could hold all of the programs and features I might need. I am beginning to understand what web 2.0 is all about. I won't really need a word processing program on my netbook, because I can use Zoho Writer instead. I'm not much of a blogger or really a writer of any kind. It is good to know how convenient and accessible these web programs are for use at home and at school.

Thing Twelve

Since I already have a google acct, this one was easy. I tried to sign up for google notebook, but google recommended that I not do so since they are no longer improving it and will probably discontinue it soon. So I decided to utilize the calendar and the alerts. The calendar will come in handy with bill payments and school assignments. I will be alerted with information on Apolo Ohno, so I am thinking I'll really enjoy it :)

When I have more time and motivation, I'll try Picasa. It looks like fun!

Thing Eleven

In this blog, I'm addressing my search for RSS feeds. I started the search last night, but encountered some technical difficulties, so I have continued the journey today. I'm glad that I was able to access Edublog today. In truth, I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of feeds to choose from. I wish I could honestly say I plan to read these feeds every day, but I'm just not sure it will be humanly possible.

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Bloglines and Topix
Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Bloglines
Which was more confusing? Technorati
What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Hey Jude and others specific to education
What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? Google Blog Search is awesome!

Thing Ten

Google Reader

I created an RSS feed for news information that includes 9 sources. Some of them are local and some of them are not. I understand that the beauty of this application is the ability to keep informed on many different fronts and from many different locations. I don't have to do the daily searching, the info comes to me. It is pure genius and if I had realized what this was before today, I'd have done it a long time ago! This will definitely come in handy in the classroom. Students can access info for projects without having to waste lots of time re-inventing the wheel every day. I can use this service as a part of each days routine. I also shared my RSS feeds with my blog.

Thing Nine

Created with ImageChef

This one took longer than I thought it would simply because I had to keep starting over. I love to play with this sort of creative software, but tonight there were just too many distractions for me. I'll come back to it when I have more time and less noise.

Thing Eight

Below, you see my creation using Big Huge Labs. I really liked this activity. I'll use it again in my photographic efforts with Aiden, my grandson. I think the kids at school would love to use this also. The problem will be finding the money for ink and good paper so their creations can be printed out. Of course, just having them online to admire is a good thing, too!

Aiden

Aiden
Originally uploaded by lizajean58

Wow this is cool! I'll use this again....

Thing Seven

Well, below this post you see the photo of the water lilies I found on my computer. I used it because I think it is strikingly beautiful and it makes me think of Monet's painting of water lilies.

My Flickr experience was fairly good. I already had a Yahoo acct, so that part was easy. For some reason, I had difficulty adding a photo for my icon, but I finally got the program to cooperate. I haven't used any other photo hosting service but I probably will use Flickr again just for fun. I will definitely mark many of my photos for private viewing and then make sure family members can see them. Not sure I will need this in the classroom, but you just never know!

Water lilies

Water lilies
Originally uploaded by lizajean58

I can't take credit for this photo -- it came with my computer!

Thing Six

I chose PBWorks as the tool I think would be most useful in the classroom. It encourages student participation by providing the framework for interactive wiki pages. The following information explains why I came to this conclusion:

Set up in 60 Seconds

• Get set up instantly. There's nothing to install, so you don't need help from IT.

Create and Edit Wiki Pages

• Quickly create new wiki pages and share information with students, parents or other educators. Each page has a revision history so you never lose content and you always know who edited the page.

Public or Private

• You control who can view and edit your workspace. Each student has a unique login and password, so you always know who made what change.

Education Friendly Security

• Email email notifications help you monitor changes on your workspace. And Classroom Accounts let you create accounts for students who don't have email. No matter who edits the page, you're always notified and can reverse the changes at anytime.

You can also share class resources and completed student work with parents and collaborate with fellow educators on courses and curriculum. PBWorks is free and easily available at the following web address: http://pbworks.com

Thing Five

What does web/school 2.0 mean to me? Well, from what I perused, it means paper and pencil is so 2000 and late :) the statement I read that got my attention came from New Literacies: 57% of all students, in 2006, said they were already content creators. This means that more than half of our students were contributing to a wiki in 2006. The percentage is bound to be greater now. They say the best way to learn is by doing, therefore becoming a "content creator" has got to be an excellent way for students to expand their knowledge base and become better writers.

What does this mean for schools of the future? I think it means teachers at the high school level, and possibly 7th and 8th grade levels, will become more like facilitators of learning, guiding students in the right direction and giving corrective feedback. Of course, this can't happen unless our students have access to current and plentiful technology in the classroom. Teacher training will need to change as well. A good example of this is the class Dr. Slayden-McMahan at APSU teaches regarding science and social studies instruction. Her material includes 100 webquests for students at the middle school level.

Finally, state and federal governments will find it necessary to reconsider the way they measure success in the classroom. Standardized testing has it's place, but it should not only measure content knowledge. Assessments should also measure the ability of the student to synthesize and analyze information. The world is changing and our expectations and outcomes must change as well.

Thing Three

How would I use this blog for educational purposes? For the most part, I think I'd use this blog to share my observations and concerns regarding the practice of inclusion at the high school level. Blogging seems to be the perfect way to vent and/or work out issues in writing. I don't really plan to have a following, other than Dr. Wall and classmates from 5611, but I realize I could be googled since I've used my real name. Therefore, it will be necessary to use discretion in my writing.


Blogging would also be a practical way for students to improve their writing skills. Written expression is an area of weakness for many students. Blogging offers the opportunity for students to develop their written expressions skills and keep a complete record of their progress. A blog can be accessed from any location in order to be updated and reviewed. Blogs can be edited if the writer finds mistakes or would like to add something new. Teachers and peers can access the blog and provide feedback to the writer.

I'm just beginning to understand the value of blogging, so I may need to come back to this one and improve it. It is already apparent to me, however, that blogging can be very entertaining and thought-provoking.

Thing Two

Creating my blogspot and my avatar took longer than I thought it should simply because I'm working online and keeping track of a toddler at the same time. My grandson did not appreciate the fact that I could not give him my undivided attention and I became a little frustrated, but the task was accomplished with relatively little pain. It took me several tries to realize that I would have to pay for the dress I really wanted for my avatar. I don't spend money on my virtual realities, so I had to settle for something less glamorous. As for the blog, I monetized it just in case there is a possibility that I could actually make money on this effort. We shall see!

I really like the fact that I can come back to blog and edit it if I think I need to do so. I just renamed it because the first name was not creative enough. I might just like this blogging thing!

In summary, I feel my experiences with Blogger and Doppleme today have been a little bit frustrating due to some distractions, but everything turned out OK.

Thing One

The habit I have the most trouble with is viewing a problem as a challenge. I don't mind challenges, I just prefer not to think of them as problems, I suppose. When I think of a challenge, I think of a situation that is desirable. When I think of a problem, I think of a situation that is undesirable. Like most people, I would rather avoid a problem. However, I understand that problems happen. I tend to think of problems as situations that need to be fixed and challenges as situations that can provide something useful to me. Clearly, I need to shift my paradigm!

The habit I have the least trouble with is accepting the responsibility for my own learning. I believe I am now, have always been, and will be until I kick the bucket, a lifelong learner. I just have a natural curiosity that lends itself to learning new things. Of course, the fact that I can research just about any topic via the internet has made this habit much easier to feed.