Final Post!!
This really has been a learning experience for me. Prior to this class I had used almost none of the tools highlighted in 23things. My favorites include Delicious, Creative Commons, Don't Forget the Milk, and RSS. In terms of my lifelong learning I think this activity took some of my fear and hesitancy away when it comes to technology. I hated signing up for accounts before this. Now I have so many I can't see how one more will hurt! I have also gotten more comfortable figuring out how to navigate through new sites. It will definitely have an impact in my classroom. I have "favourited" many of my new discoveries and will try to find creative ways to involve my students with them. I think blogging itself is now one of my favorite means for keeping up with new ideas. The blogs dedicated to education and free technology I am now using as references and will continue to do so when I am working in my own classroom. I know you are redesigning the 23 things for next semester, but I hope you will also leave up this one so those of us familiar with it can return for ideas and inspiration.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Thing #23
I can't imagine how much time it took to put that Disney video together!
Probably one of the most informative Livetext assignments we had was the one on Fair Use. Understanding the freedom that Fair Use offers is liberating, but realizing the extra care a teacher has to take when posting their work publicly can still cause hesitation. One of the things I appreciate about sites such as Flicker and Creative Commons is that it takes most of that fear out of lesson planning. A teacher can be free to concentrate on content and creativity. One of the most important thing I took away from our Livetext assignment was to ask yourself if your work would effect profitability for the original author or artist. Creative Commons and their Open Education Resource allow the teacher to set some of those thoughts aside and simply create! Examples of how this blog shows attribution: just above the blog archive list is a note that the entire blog was put together with permission under Creative Commons licensing, also Thing 14 has a note that it was originally posted on Explore, Discover, Play: Learning 2.1 and was used for our 23things under Creative Commons.
I can't imagine how much time it took to put that Disney video together!
Probably one of the most informative Livetext assignments we had was the one on Fair Use. Understanding the freedom that Fair Use offers is liberating, but realizing the extra care a teacher has to take when posting their work publicly can still cause hesitation. One of the things I appreciate about sites such as Flicker and Creative Commons is that it takes most of that fear out of lesson planning. A teacher can be free to concentrate on content and creativity. One of the most important thing I took away from our Livetext assignment was to ask yourself if your work would effect profitability for the original author or artist. Creative Commons and their Open Education Resource allow the teacher to set some of those thoughts aside and simply create! Examples of how this blog shows attribution: just above the blog archive list is a note that the entire blog was put together with permission under Creative Commons licensing, also Thing 14 has a note that it was originally posted on Explore, Discover, Play: Learning 2.1 and was used for our 23things under Creative Commons.
Thing #22
After watching the video and reading some of the tips/tricks, I set up my Livebinder account. The three binders I set up were: History, Geography and Favorite Documentaries. The one I'm choosing to share is my History binder. In it I have included: a link to: "music to teach history" (which was presented in class as a website of the day), a link to David Blight's wikipedia page (He is a writer and Civil War professor at Yale, APSU recently hosted him as a speaker, and at the bottom of his wiki page is a link to his free Open Yale Courses), and a link to National Archives Digital Vaults. I also included three links in each of my other binders. The National Archives Digital Vaults is a really amazing site that allows someone access to over 1200 historical documents, photographs, maps, etc. Visitors can create their own exhibits and share them via email. Each document is also linked to the National Archives research database. The site also has special interactive resources for educators and students and lesson plans where teachers can use reproducible primary sources. When I did a search for Livebinders in the classroom I was amazed at how many lesson plans are out there and stored in Livebinders. There are a number of educators who have created really nice binders with highly organized tabs with tons of lesson plans. I even found a binder with tabs dedicated to "Collaborative Mentoring for New Teachers." Using Livebinders, teachers can not only organize lesson plan ideas and resources, but they can upload documents, combine them with external links and instructions and share it across many spaces where students can access and complete the activities. You can also use them to collaborate with students. For example, in creating an exhibit on the Civil War using the National Archives Digital Vault, each student could be responsible for finding one original document and saving it in a binder the teacher has set up. The class could then combine all the tabs to make a complete exhibit of original Civil War documents. Below is the link to my History Binder
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=861860
After watching the video and reading some of the tips/tricks, I set up my Livebinder account. The three binders I set up were: History, Geography and Favorite Documentaries. The one I'm choosing to share is my History binder. In it I have included: a link to: "music to teach history" (which was presented in class as a website of the day), a link to David Blight's wikipedia page (He is a writer and Civil War professor at Yale, APSU recently hosted him as a speaker, and at the bottom of his wiki page is a link to his free Open Yale Courses), and a link to National Archives Digital Vaults. I also included three links in each of my other binders. The National Archives Digital Vaults is a really amazing site that allows someone access to over 1200 historical documents, photographs, maps, etc. Visitors can create their own exhibits and share them via email. Each document is also linked to the National Archives research database. The site also has special interactive resources for educators and students and lesson plans where teachers can use reproducible primary sources. When I did a search for Livebinders in the classroom I was amazed at how many lesson plans are out there and stored in Livebinders. There are a number of educators who have created really nice binders with highly organized tabs with tons of lesson plans. I even found a binder with tabs dedicated to "Collaborative Mentoring for New Teachers." Using Livebinders, teachers can not only organize lesson plan ideas and resources, but they can upload documents, combine them with external links and instructions and share it across many spaces where students can access and complete the activities. You can also use them to collaborate with students. For example, in creating an exhibit on the Civil War using the National Archives Digital Vault, each student could be responsible for finding one original document and saving it in a binder the teacher has set up. The class could then combine all the tabs to make a complete exhibit of original Civil War documents. Below is the link to my History Binder
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=861860
Melancholy
Thing #21
I was really happy with my finished product in Animoto, but the process of making it was a bit frustrating. The first time I tried I could not get my flicker account to open and had trouble with the other photo links as well. I left it alone for a few days and when I tried again Flicker was working but I couldn't figure out how to export the pictures to Animoto. I didn't want to give permission for Animoto to link to my email account, so this may have been part of the problem. Finally, I figured out how to save my selected pictures to my desktop and upload them from there. Once I had that part of the project worked out I thought the experience was really neat. I did not expect the way the finished product turned out but I was really happy with it!
Melancholy
I was really happy with my finished product in Animoto, but the process of making it was a bit frustrating. The first time I tried I could not get my flicker account to open and had trouble with the other photo links as well. I left it alone for a few days and when I tried again Flicker was working but I couldn't figure out how to export the pictures to Animoto. I didn't want to give permission for Animoto to link to my email account, so this may have been part of the problem. Finally, I figured out how to save my selected pictures to my desktop and upload them from there. Once I had that part of the project worked out I thought the experience was really neat. I did not expect the way the finished product turned out but I was really happy with it!
Melancholy
Thing #20
I love YouTube! I use it all the time. You can find old interviews, musical performances, "how to" tutorials, and hilarious parody's. I once went through a phase where I couldn't get enough of old black and white 1950/60s educational videos. You can also find documentaries. Eyes on the Prize was one that I watched years ago in high school and fell in love with. You can't always find copies of it in libraries, but you can find episodes of it on YouTube. The clip I choose for this post is the movie trailer for the documentary/movie Dirt! I've watched tons of documentaries over the years and this is one of the best. My daughter actually found it on Netflix, watched it, and then begged me to sit down and watch it again with her. When a kid wants to rewatch an educational movie that's a pretty high recommendation! It combines science, environmentalism, world events, anthropology, history, and a number of other academic areas. I will absolutely use this film in my classroom.
A few days after I had typed this post and saved it in my blogger my history professor was speaking to our class about the importance of clarity in our research papers. He used a clip of Abbott and Costello to illustrate how important clarity can be in communicating. I thought it was a fun idea and decided to add it to the previous YouTube link I included.
http://www.youtube.com/user/getdirty2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5P04stMTak
I love YouTube! I use it all the time. You can find old interviews, musical performances, "how to" tutorials, and hilarious parody's. I once went through a phase where I couldn't get enough of old black and white 1950/60s educational videos. You can also find documentaries. Eyes on the Prize was one that I watched years ago in high school and fell in love with. You can't always find copies of it in libraries, but you can find episodes of it on YouTube. The clip I choose for this post is the movie trailer for the documentary/movie Dirt! I've watched tons of documentaries over the years and this is one of the best. My daughter actually found it on Netflix, watched it, and then begged me to sit down and watch it again with her. When a kid wants to rewatch an educational movie that's a pretty high recommendation! It combines science, environmentalism, world events, anthropology, history, and a number of other academic areas. I will absolutely use this film in my classroom.
A few days after I had typed this post and saved it in my blogger my history professor was speaking to our class about the importance of clarity in our research papers. He used a clip of Abbott and Costello to illustrate how important clarity can be in communicating. I thought it was a fun idea and decided to add it to the previous YouTube link I included.
http://www.youtube.com/user/getdirty2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5P04stMTak
Thing #19
I wasn't a member of any of the listed communities, but I use IMDB all of the time. Never again will I have to sit through a movie wandering where else I seen a particular actor! I also use it to watch previews of upcoming films. I started my exploring of the unfamiliar sites with classroom 2.0. As I scrolled down the page, on the left, there was a way to look around by clicking on subjects of interest. I choose History and Geography. I found many pages of ideas with everything from Google Earth lessons to "Teaching History through Lady Gaga." Like so many other things I seen recently, this ends up being quite a labyrinth, so you need to have a specific goal in mind or simply the desire to set aside some time to browse through and check out anything new and unexpected that may catch your eye. Next, I clicked through all of the food sites that were listed under Thing#19, but I already have so many untried recipes bookmarked, clipped, and scribbled on index cards that I decided it best not to add any more to my collection, so I moved on to the Book sites. I liked Shelfari a lot. I liked how it was set up. The tabs were easy to navigate, and I liked that it's connected to Amazon where I already have an account. I also like Yelp. It was equally easy to navigate and I used it to search for hotels and restaurants for our summer vacation. I also checked out the cities in northern Virginia we used to visit to see if any new, local restaurants had opened up since we moved and I checked out the ratings on some of our old favorites. I ended up bookmarking Yelp and I added it to my new Delicious page. Concerning TeacerPop, I added a comment to James Johnson's page and I created a badge. It posted with my first name only on the "members" page, and I cut and pasted the badge onto my blog.
Thing #18
Twitter is a shorhand blog (text message that is only 140 characters). There are a number of means for sending (Twirl, Snitter) and receiving (SMS, RSS, email). It also makes conversations public which is not possible with email, and "re-tweeting" adds a whole new level to "going public." Furthermore, it has immediacy that e-mail, with its full in-boxes, does not. Also, there is a generational thing at work. It is often easier to reach a younger demographic with twitter then other forms of communication. The "All Finds" feed is similar to social bookmarking in that there are tons of recommendations for anything you may have an interest in. You can also receive/send twitter messages through texting by putting your cel# on devices under the settings tab. I did not have a twitter account, so when I set one up I simply choose to follow a few things/people I found interesting: The International Justice Mission, The Carter Center, Mike McCurry, and Kurt Sutter. I think it is important to know how social-networking works (even if your not an active user) to be relevant to your students. By the time we are teachers and working in an actual classroom the students we will be working with will have lived their entire lives in a digital (and instant) world. This is not technology they had to adapt to its technology they were born into. Not being familiar with it on even the most elementary level would be like one of my teachers when I was growing up not being familiar with television. The basic principles of how each of them work was something I was familiar with, but the actual "how too's" (ie finding friends on Facebook or making your tweets private) was something that these tutorials helped me to understand better. Probably one of the most useful features is the search feature on twitter and the enormous access this gives a teacher to new and relevant information and resources. Also I know a number of students that use Facebook to form study groups. This can either be student led or facilitated by the teacher. Now for the big question: What Do I Like or Dislike? I am not a huge fan of either of them, but I have a particular distaste for Facebook. A few years ago when my family and I were still living in northern Virgina, just outside of DC, a woman decided her husband was cheating on her and that she would use Facebook to do her investigative work. Her very inept investigation led her to a woman with the same last name as me. While I did not have a Facebook account I did have a listed phone number, so when she decided to look up the name of the lady she had found on Facebook in the phone book; it was our home number and address that she found. What followed was many harassing and angry phone calls and the fear that some crazy woman with our home address would show up at our door. My husband tried calmly explaining to her the mistake she had made, as did I, but not until we threatened to get the police involved did she stop harassing us. Several months after this experience when we were in the process of moving back home to Kentucky my mother-in-law began using Facebook to let all of our family and friends know we were coming home. She was not completely famillar with how all of the features worked and one evening when she thought she was having a private chat with a friend from church she shared some private information about my family. She was, in fact, not having a private chat and everything she posted went out publicly. My step-mother quickly called to let me know what had happened. I wasn't exactly embarrassed (private does not mean embarrassing it simply means private) but I was very frustrated that what at one time would have been a gossipy phone call between two church ladies now, because of Facebook, was broadcast publicly. Both of these things happened at exactly the same time I was trying to figure out how I felt about all of these new ways to communicate and stay in touch. As you can imagine, I ended up not being a fan. This does not mean I've stayed completely in the dark about what they are and why others love them. It also doesn't mean that I haven't put up with quite a bit of harassment from family and friends for not getting on board. However, I recently listened to an NPR broadcast on the latest ways people (especially young people) are communicating. Apparently, e-mail is going the way of snail mail and younger generations are by-passing Facebook (too many nosy parents) for other apps with features such as self-destructing messages/photos. This was a fascinating conversation with expert guest and lots of great call-ins. I have included a link to it at the bottom of this post. This broadcast reminded me that we are in a digital world constantly changing, and if one form of technology doesn't appeal to you just wait a few minutes and another will come along. Facebook and Twitter may never be the way I communicate with my students, but I have enough confidence in tech developers that I will eventually find a way to stay relevant to my students while maintaining a private life.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/04/03/communication
https://twitter.com/CSBAGK
Twitter is a shorhand blog (text message that is only 140 characters). There are a number of means for sending (Twirl, Snitter) and receiving (SMS, RSS, email). It also makes conversations public which is not possible with email, and "re-tweeting" adds a whole new level to "going public." Furthermore, it has immediacy that e-mail, with its full in-boxes, does not. Also, there is a generational thing at work. It is often easier to reach a younger demographic with twitter then other forms of communication. The "All Finds" feed is similar to social bookmarking in that there are tons of recommendations for anything you may have an interest in. You can also receive/send twitter messages through texting by putting your cel# on devices under the settings tab. I did not have a twitter account, so when I set one up I simply choose to follow a few things/people I found interesting: The International Justice Mission, The Carter Center, Mike McCurry, and Kurt Sutter. I think it is important to know how social-networking works (even if your not an active user) to be relevant to your students. By the time we are teachers and working in an actual classroom the students we will be working with will have lived their entire lives in a digital (and instant) world. This is not technology they had to adapt to its technology they were born into. Not being familiar with it on even the most elementary level would be like one of my teachers when I was growing up not being familiar with television. The basic principles of how each of them work was something I was familiar with, but the actual "how too's" (ie finding friends on Facebook or making your tweets private) was something that these tutorials helped me to understand better. Probably one of the most useful features is the search feature on twitter and the enormous access this gives a teacher to new and relevant information and resources. Also I know a number of students that use Facebook to form study groups. This can either be student led or facilitated by the teacher. Now for the big question: What Do I Like or Dislike? I am not a huge fan of either of them, but I have a particular distaste for Facebook. A few years ago when my family and I were still living in northern Virgina, just outside of DC, a woman decided her husband was cheating on her and that she would use Facebook to do her investigative work. Her very inept investigation led her to a woman with the same last name as me. While I did not have a Facebook account I did have a listed phone number, so when she decided to look up the name of the lady she had found on Facebook in the phone book; it was our home number and address that she found. What followed was many harassing and angry phone calls and the fear that some crazy woman with our home address would show up at our door. My husband tried calmly explaining to her the mistake she had made, as did I, but not until we threatened to get the police involved did she stop harassing us. Several months after this experience when we were in the process of moving back home to Kentucky my mother-in-law began using Facebook to let all of our family and friends know we were coming home. She was not completely famillar with how all of the features worked and one evening when she thought she was having a private chat with a friend from church she shared some private information about my family. She was, in fact, not having a private chat and everything she posted went out publicly. My step-mother quickly called to let me know what had happened. I wasn't exactly embarrassed (private does not mean embarrassing it simply means private) but I was very frustrated that what at one time would have been a gossipy phone call between two church ladies now, because of Facebook, was broadcast publicly. Both of these things happened at exactly the same time I was trying to figure out how I felt about all of these new ways to communicate and stay in touch. As you can imagine, I ended up not being a fan. This does not mean I've stayed completely in the dark about what they are and why others love them. It also doesn't mean that I haven't put up with quite a bit of harassment from family and friends for not getting on board. However, I recently listened to an NPR broadcast on the latest ways people (especially young people) are communicating. Apparently, e-mail is going the way of snail mail and younger generations are by-passing Facebook (too many nosy parents) for other apps with features such as self-destructing messages/photos. This was a fascinating conversation with expert guest and lots of great call-ins. I have included a link to it at the bottom of this post. This broadcast reminded me that we are in a digital world constantly changing, and if one form of technology doesn't appeal to you just wait a few minutes and another will come along. Facebook and Twitter may never be the way I communicate with my students, but I have enough confidence in tech developers that I will eventually find a way to stay relevant to my students while maintaining a private life.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/04/03/communication
https://twitter.com/CSBAGK
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