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
Thing #17
Disclaimer: I did not know delicious would be highlighted in Thing 17 when I choose to explore it in Thing 16!
The first thing I did was visit Digg and Stumble Upon and watch/read the tutorials. The Digg tutorial was a nice way to learn how to post stories you wish to share; however, I do think you need to have a specific topic in mind when you visit the site or an inordinate amount of free time to "just browse." I wasted 45min I was supposed to be working on this blog just clicking and reading stories posted on the Digg link that was provided. I think it could hurt rather then help productivity if you do not have a purpose in mind when you visit (I had no idea when I got up this morning I wanted to see the Daily Lives of Sumo Wrestlers in Photos!). I did like that you can use stacks to collect various info on a topic for students to have in a single location to view or for a teacher to review before presenting a lesson.
Next, I set up my Delicious account, choose an article, wrote my comments and tags, and added delicious to by toolbar. When I searched education technology I found an excelled article from the UK on why coding should be taught to kids in school. I also found a nice blog from a Canadian Professor who is a University Chair in Philosophy of Technology. It had a huge amount of info including his course syllabus with all of the required reading as well as interviews and videos. This blog is an excellent example of how university level resources and info can be accessed for free through these sharing sites. However, I always seem to have this gnawing fear that some of this technology is aiding the incessant need to "browse" and adding to already explosive levels of "surface knowledge," not just with students, but Americans in general. I have discovered this semester a number of technology tools that I plan to use, but in the back of my mind I'm always asking: will this particular technology increase depth of understanding or contribute to even more shallow awareness. Social bookmarking is good if you use it to access important information/ideas away from your home computer or find resources others have been kind enough to make public, but if you do not have something specific in mind or structure it in a way (such as stacking) that students can directly access what you want them to view then these sites can quickly turn into something like facebook creeping--- a way to waste a ton of time while telling yourself you are connecting.
Disclaimer: I did not know delicious would be highlighted in Thing 17 when I choose to explore it in Thing 16!
The first thing I did was visit Digg and Stumble Upon and watch/read the tutorials. The Digg tutorial was a nice way to learn how to post stories you wish to share; however, I do think you need to have a specific topic in mind when you visit the site or an inordinate amount of free time to "just browse." I wasted 45min I was supposed to be working on this blog just clicking and reading stories posted on the Digg link that was provided. I think it could hurt rather then help productivity if you do not have a purpose in mind when you visit (I had no idea when I got up this morning I wanted to see the Daily Lives of Sumo Wrestlers in Photos!). I did like that you can use stacks to collect various info on a topic for students to have in a single location to view or for a teacher to review before presenting a lesson.
Next, I set up my Delicious account, choose an article, wrote my comments and tags, and added delicious to by toolbar. When I searched education technology I found an excelled article from the UK on why coding should be taught to kids in school. I also found a nice blog from a Canadian Professor who is a University Chair in Philosophy of Technology. It had a huge amount of info including his course syllabus with all of the required reading as well as interviews and videos. This blog is an excellent example of how university level resources and info can be accessed for free through these sharing sites. However, I always seem to have this gnawing fear that some of this technology is aiding the incessant need to "browse" and adding to already explosive levels of "surface knowledge," not just with students, but Americans in general. I have discovered this semester a number of technology tools that I plan to use, but in the back of my mind I'm always asking: will this particular technology increase depth of understanding or contribute to even more shallow awareness. Social bookmarking is good if you use it to access important information/ideas away from your home computer or find resources others have been kind enough to make public, but if you do not have something specific in mind or structure it in a way (such as stacking) that students can directly access what you want them to view then these sites can quickly turn into something like facebook creeping--- a way to waste a ton of time while telling yourself you are connecting.
“Those are very wrong who say
that schoolboys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a
boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been
false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it
will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have
to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity
and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to
paragraph to learn how an actress has been divorced in California, a train
derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand.”
CS Lewis
Surprised by Joy
Thing #16
I decided to set up iGoogle as my customized start page. I already had Gmail, used blogger, and had my RSS feed set up, so I thought having immediate access to all of this through my home page would be nice. I have the weather, a calendar, spotlight YouTube videos, and I chose CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Times as front page links. I also have "artist of the day" links. I then clicked on "add gadgets" and added "to do list," local movie listings, and NPR news. I was really pleased with my work and ready to make it permanent when I noticed a flash on the top of my page. Apparently, iGoogle will be taken down as of Nov. 2013! I had already completed the page so I decided to keep it, but I guess I'll only have a few months to enjoy it. In following the link under 23things it was extremely easy to set it up, but not as easy to figure out how to actually make it my home page. I opened a new tab and Googled: how do you..... I found a link that gave me step by step instructions based on the browser I was using. This is definitely something I would not have gone to the trouble of doing if it had not been a part of 23things, but now that I have it I am enjoying it. I had the same issue with Ta da as I did with iGoogle in that its being retired, but unlike iGoogle it's not signing up any new people, so I moved on to "Remember the Milk." I liked that you can divide your task between personal, study and work. I also liked that you can attach due dates and estimated time to complete. You can also color code according of level of priority. I see the possibility of using this tool to manage a busy schedule, but I think I'll have to spend a bit more time organizing how I want to set it up. I went ahead and filled in reminders for each of the three tabs and linked it to my Gmail. For the calender, of course, I check out Google calendar, simply because everything else I've done has been linked with Google. I like that there is a small view of the entire month at the left and then the option to add a detailed agenda to the "day" tab, a less detailed schedule under "week", or some simple short reminders under "month." So that I didn't limit myself to only Google features I also looked at Scryybe. I liked the "work offline" feature. I also liked that you could click on the day to see the details and click and drag to move your schedule around. I really liked the "thought pad" that allows you to move ideas from the Internet to your calendar just as you would jot down ideas in an organizer. Next I tried Mystickies--I even signed up for an account, but when I tried to install it onto my firefox, it said that it wasn't compatible. I then decided to try chalksite, but also had no luck. Finally, I tried Delicious. I like the social bookmarking that we've looked at in our class and this one seems similar to Diigo and Pinit. This is great way for teachers to share with other teachers as well as students. It's also a great way for a teacher to tag a bunch of useful resources and easily find them later.
I decided to set up iGoogle as my customized start page. I already had Gmail, used blogger, and had my RSS feed set up, so I thought having immediate access to all of this through my home page would be nice. I have the weather, a calendar, spotlight YouTube videos, and I chose CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Times as front page links. I also have "artist of the day" links. I then clicked on "add gadgets" and added "to do list," local movie listings, and NPR news. I was really pleased with my work and ready to make it permanent when I noticed a flash on the top of my page. Apparently, iGoogle will be taken down as of Nov. 2013! I had already completed the page so I decided to keep it, but I guess I'll only have a few months to enjoy it. In following the link under 23things it was extremely easy to set it up, but not as easy to figure out how to actually make it my home page. I opened a new tab and Googled: how do you..... I found a link that gave me step by step instructions based on the browser I was using. This is definitely something I would not have gone to the trouble of doing if it had not been a part of 23things, but now that I have it I am enjoying it. I had the same issue with Ta da as I did with iGoogle in that its being retired, but unlike iGoogle it's not signing up any new people, so I moved on to "Remember the Milk." I liked that you can divide your task between personal, study and work. I also liked that you can attach due dates and estimated time to complete. You can also color code according of level of priority. I see the possibility of using this tool to manage a busy schedule, but I think I'll have to spend a bit more time organizing how I want to set it up. I went ahead and filled in reminders for each of the three tabs and linked it to my Gmail. For the calender, of course, I check out Google calendar, simply because everything else I've done has been linked with Google. I like that there is a small view of the entire month at the left and then the option to add a detailed agenda to the "day" tab, a less detailed schedule under "week", or some simple short reminders under "month." So that I didn't limit myself to only Google features I also looked at Scryybe. I liked the "work offline" feature. I also liked that you could click on the day to see the details and click and drag to move your schedule around. I really liked the "thought pad" that allows you to move ideas from the Internet to your calendar just as you would jot down ideas in an organizer. Next I tried Mystickies--I even signed up for an account, but when I tried to install it onto my firefox, it said that it wasn't compatible. I then decided to try chalksite, but also had no luck. Finally, I tried Delicious. I like the social bookmarking that we've looked at in our class and this one seems similar to Diigo and Pinit. This is great way for teachers to share with other teachers as well as students. It's also a great way for a teacher to tag a bunch of useful resources and easily find them later.
Thing # 15
Really, the only thing you have to tell me concerning a technology is that it will cut back on email and I'm immediately interested! That said, I do have some concerns. For control freaks or anyone interested in accuracy or privacy, wiki's can prove a bit of a challenge. The more proliferation there is of collaborative documents available on the web the more educators have to be careful about information literacy. I did however include a wiki in my webquest after I had checked to make sure only George Mason graduate students could contribute to it and only their professors could edit it. I'm not really sure how you set a wiki up with strict limits like that, but since it can obviously be done this is one way to help provide reputable educational wikis. Welker's Wikinomics was a very impressive example of how this kind of collaboration can be useful in the classroom. Thinking back to my education 2100 class I think I would have preferred this method for collaboration on our group's pbl's to the circles we had to create in google drive. The fact that they are web-based also offers students the ability to access their group's work anywhere and not be tied to a single file on a single computer. When looking at one of the links you provided with this activity one of my favorite wiki examples was one for travel and tourism. I really like the idea of being able to check out a city's wiki for input on where to go, what's really great or unexpected, or what to absolutely stay away from! I chose to post my animoto link in sandbox because it isn't very often I create something that's purely "creative," so I wanted to share it Almost everything I put together has an academic purpose. I created this video simply out of a desire to make something aesthetically pleasing! I'm sure an art or music teacher could find a way to make aesthetic appreciation part of their lesson plan.
Really, the only thing you have to tell me concerning a technology is that it will cut back on email and I'm immediately interested! That said, I do have some concerns. For control freaks or anyone interested in accuracy or privacy, wiki's can prove a bit of a challenge. The more proliferation there is of collaborative documents available on the web the more educators have to be careful about information literacy. I did however include a wiki in my webquest after I had checked to make sure only George Mason graduate students could contribute to it and only their professors could edit it. I'm not really sure how you set a wiki up with strict limits like that, but since it can obviously be done this is one way to help provide reputable educational wikis. Welker's Wikinomics was a very impressive example of how this kind of collaboration can be useful in the classroom. Thinking back to my education 2100 class I think I would have preferred this method for collaboration on our group's pbl's to the circles we had to create in google drive. The fact that they are web-based also offers students the ability to access their group's work anywhere and not be tied to a single file on a single computer. When looking at one of the links you provided with this activity one of my favorite wiki examples was one for travel and tourism. I really like the idea of being able to check out a city's wiki for input on where to go, what's really great or unexpected, or what to absolutely stay away from! I chose to post my animoto link in sandbox because it isn't very often I create something that's purely "creative," so I wanted to share it Almost everything I put together has an academic purpose. I created this video simply out of a desire to make something aesthetically pleasing! I'm sure an art or music teacher could find a way to make aesthetic appreciation part of their lesson plan.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Thing #14
I choose to make a mind map with bubble.us. To try out the site I started with the main theme "objectives for finishing the semester." Tab would allow me to make a new bubble and control enter created a "child bubble." If I hovered over the bubble I could change the color, adjust the size, or connect it with another bubble by using an arrowed line. I played around with setting up folders, sharing and exporting. I also found a setting for "auto save" which was useful when I hit the "mind map" tab to see what it would do and realized it started an entirely new page. Even though I had not saved my previous mind map it was still available thanks to the "auto save." I also discovered you could establish a "team" of users that belong to a certain mind map and even designate that team into "groups." You can also pick a customized bubble.us link for your team with a welcome message and instructions. However, when I went to the team details page and set it for 28 users (what I imagined a typical class size would be) I realized this service would cost $147.90 per month!!! While this is a nice way for an individual to organize ideas or information and export it to share, because of the expense I do not see it as a practical interactive tool for teachers. For my flowchart I choose Gliffy. The first thing I had to figure out was that Gliffy offers tons of stuff, flowchart was simply one of many choices. Once I clicked on flowchart I then clicked on "create document." What popped up were two "sample" flow charts that I could use as an outline, but change the text or add to it. On the left were numerous tools for creating (floor plans, shapes, venn diagrams,uploading images etc). I couldn't really figure out what to do with the templates so I went back to the original "categories" and simply choose "blank." This gave me all the same design choices but without the "example" flowchart template. I clicked, dragged, added lines, and made a venn diagram. After about thirty minutes I still didn't have anything very impressive, so I went to the "about tab" and choose "examples." It was easier for me to visualize the uses for this when I had several completed examples to look at. The "Vacation Decision" tree and Volleyball Rotation chart were really nice.
This is a wonderful tool for anyone with an exact purpose and huge imagination. The creative choices are almost limitless; however, creativity is not one of my strengths----I'm much more linear in my thinking. For this reason I preferred bubble.us. It was much easier for me to figure out, and while its too expensive to use interactively in the classroom, I can imagine many other uses. In a history class you could choose a person or event as your central theme and then mind map cause/effect, trickle down effects, and correlating factors. The fact that you can export your completed mind map to your own computer allows you to get around the "only three for free" rule. Just export your complete map and then delete it from your bubble account freeing up space to start a new one.
I choose to make a mind map with bubble.us. To try out the site I started with the main theme "objectives for finishing the semester." Tab would allow me to make a new bubble and control enter created a "child bubble." If I hovered over the bubble I could change the color, adjust the size, or connect it with another bubble by using an arrowed line. I played around with setting up folders, sharing and exporting. I also found a setting for "auto save" which was useful when I hit the "mind map" tab to see what it would do and realized it started an entirely new page. Even though I had not saved my previous mind map it was still available thanks to the "auto save." I also discovered you could establish a "team" of users that belong to a certain mind map and even designate that team into "groups." You can also pick a customized bubble.us link for your team with a welcome message and instructions. However, when I went to the team details page and set it for 28 users (what I imagined a typical class size would be) I realized this service would cost $147.90 per month!!! While this is a nice way for an individual to organize ideas or information and export it to share, because of the expense I do not see it as a practical interactive tool for teachers. For my flowchart I choose Gliffy. The first thing I had to figure out was that Gliffy offers tons of stuff, flowchart was simply one of many choices. Once I clicked on flowchart I then clicked on "create document." What popped up were two "sample" flow charts that I could use as an outline, but change the text or add to it. On the left were numerous tools for creating (floor plans, shapes, venn diagrams,uploading images etc). I couldn't really figure out what to do with the templates so I went back to the original "categories" and simply choose "blank." This gave me all the same design choices but without the "example" flowchart template. I clicked, dragged, added lines, and made a venn diagram. After about thirty minutes I still didn't have anything very impressive, so I went to the "about tab" and choose "examples." It was easier for me to visualize the uses for this when I had several completed examples to look at. The "Vacation Decision" tree and Volleyball Rotation chart were really nice.
This is a wonderful tool for anyone with an exact purpose and huge imagination. The creative choices are almost limitless; however, creativity is not one of my strengths----I'm much more linear in my thinking. For this reason I preferred bubble.us. It was much easier for me to figure out, and while its too expensive to use interactively in the classroom, I can imagine many other uses. In a history class you could choose a person or event as your central theme and then mind map cause/effect, trickle down effects, and correlating factors. The fact that you can export your completed mind map to your own computer allows you to get around the "only three for free" rule. Just export your complete map and then delete it from your bubble account freeing up space to start a new one.
Thing #13
Zhoh vs Google Drive
I was really surprised how much like "word" Zoho writer was. In some ways I found it a bit easier to prepare a simple document because the tool bar at the top was much less complicated (it reminded me of some of the older versions of Microsoft Word). I decided to try out the import feature. I tried to import a few different things from online (using the URL feature), but was unable to do it. Then I tried to import a document directly from the files I had saved on my computer. This I was able to do. This would be useful in a similar way that dropbox is. If you wanted to print or work on a document away from your own computer you could simply import it to Zoho. I also like the "work offline" feature for when you need to edit documents where there is no Internet access. I clicked around on the presentation feature and was able to make a simple power-point similar to the demonstration one we did in class ("My Family"). It is only four slides long, but I was easily able to choose my themes, fill in my text with the correct font/size and add animations and transitions. Again, just as with the word document this site provides a way to do power-points away from your own computer, import, export, or open it up to collaborative ideas. In checking out some of the other available apps I played around with "Books" business app. This might be nice for any clubs, organizations, or fundraisers your class or school may be doing. However, because it is online I might be hesitant to keep any personal account info, but for keeping track of expenses, profits, vendors, etc. it is useful.
Concerning Google Drive, I see the possibilities for this app, but I tend to have a difficult time with it. We used it in our 2100 class several times. When our professor set up a group and invited the class to join and collaborate I was successful; however, when the group I was working with had to do the same we were really frustrated with the process. We were able to get our group set up and document created, but we never could figure out how to get it out of the "view only" setting so that everyone in the group could edit it. We ended up switching to the discussion board on D2L and had a lot of success collaborating there. I see the potential of Google Drive with PBL's and group work, but I have not had the success with it that so many others have had. I will have to set down and commit to spending some serious time reading and watching tutorials to really be able to utilize all of the available features. For this reason Zoho was my favorite. I was able to be productive with it immediately and any of the features I tried to use I was able to figure out.
For Zoho I have included a link to my power-point
For Google I have included a link to a document I made on things I want to do this summer.
https://show.zoho.com/document.do?p_id=1778581000000004267&a_t=EDIT_DOCUMENT
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iOhbq4sxza4iDkqNhicfFbbmsm5y1HikTyNb-u6PXe8/edit
Zhoh vs Google Drive
I was really surprised how much like "word" Zoho writer was. In some ways I found it a bit easier to prepare a simple document because the tool bar at the top was much less complicated (it reminded me of some of the older versions of Microsoft Word). I decided to try out the import feature. I tried to import a few different things from online (using the URL feature), but was unable to do it. Then I tried to import a document directly from the files I had saved on my computer. This I was able to do. This would be useful in a similar way that dropbox is. If you wanted to print or work on a document away from your own computer you could simply import it to Zoho. I also like the "work offline" feature for when you need to edit documents where there is no Internet access. I clicked around on the presentation feature and was able to make a simple power-point similar to the demonstration one we did in class ("My Family"). It is only four slides long, but I was easily able to choose my themes, fill in my text with the correct font/size and add animations and transitions. Again, just as with the word document this site provides a way to do power-points away from your own computer, import, export, or open it up to collaborative ideas. In checking out some of the other available apps I played around with "Books" business app. This might be nice for any clubs, organizations, or fundraisers your class or school may be doing. However, because it is online I might be hesitant to keep any personal account info, but for keeping track of expenses, profits, vendors, etc. it is useful.
Concerning Google Drive, I see the possibilities for this app, but I tend to have a difficult time with it. We used it in our 2100 class several times. When our professor set up a group and invited the class to join and collaborate I was successful; however, when the group I was working with had to do the same we were really frustrated with the process. We were able to get our group set up and document created, but we never could figure out how to get it out of the "view only" setting so that everyone in the group could edit it. We ended up switching to the discussion board on D2L and had a lot of success collaborating there. I see the potential of Google Drive with PBL's and group work, but I have not had the success with it that so many others have had. I will have to set down and commit to spending some serious time reading and watching tutorials to really be able to utilize all of the available features. For this reason Zoho was my favorite. I was able to be productive with it immediately and any of the features I tried to use I was able to figure out.
For Zoho I have included a link to my power-point
For Google I have included a link to a document I made on things I want to do this summer.
https://show.zoho.com/document.do?p_id=1778581000000004267&a_t=EDIT_DOCUMENT
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iOhbq4sxza4iDkqNhicfFbbmsm5y1HikTyNb-u6PXe8/edit
Monday, March 4, 2013
Thing #12!!!!
I decided to do the Alert first. It was extremely easy. After I read the tutorial, since I was already signed into my Gmail account, it took me directly to the Alert search page. All I had to do was enter my search term, choose how often (once a day) and how many (only the best) and then click "create Alert." There is also a manage Alert icon if you wish to change or delete anything. To get to Alerts directly from your Gmail (to add or manage) I just clicked on the more icon at the top of the page and then selected "even more." This will give you an extensive list of google tools and Alert is on this page. The second tool I used was google translate. I had actually played with this a bit last semester when I took an art history class. I would type in a piece of art or the name of an artist that I didn't know how to pronounce and then listen to the audio translation. I think this is a really great tool!
The uses for both of these tools in the classroom are numerous. I have already mentioned one, concerning my art history class, students could use it in any subject where pronouncing foreign people, places, or things would be helpful. This is also a great way to help English language learners or any student attempting a foreign language. You can't imagine how much I wished I had had this when I was in high school Spanish! The Alert tool could be useful in many ways as well. You could follow news stories in a political science class, or market info in an economics class. Science students could keep up with the latest discoveries, or sports fans could keep track of how often their school team is mentioned in the local paper. The applications are really only limited to the creativity of the teacher.
http://translate.google.com/#auto/fr/Happy%20Spring%20Break%20Everyone!!!
I decided to do the Alert first. It was extremely easy. After I read the tutorial, since I was already signed into my Gmail account, it took me directly to the Alert search page. All I had to do was enter my search term, choose how often (once a day) and how many (only the best) and then click "create Alert." There is also a manage Alert icon if you wish to change or delete anything. To get to Alerts directly from your Gmail (to add or manage) I just clicked on the more icon at the top of the page and then selected "even more." This will give you an extensive list of google tools and Alert is on this page. The second tool I used was google translate. I had actually played with this a bit last semester when I took an art history class. I would type in a piece of art or the name of an artist that I didn't know how to pronounce and then listen to the audio translation. I think this is a really great tool!
The uses for both of these tools in the classroom are numerous. I have already mentioned one, concerning my art history class, students could use it in any subject where pronouncing foreign people, places, or things would be helpful. This is also a great way to help English language learners or any student attempting a foreign language. You can't imagine how much I wished I had had this when I was in high school Spanish! The Alert tool could be useful in many ways as well. You could follow news stories in a political science class, or market info in an economics class. Science students could keep up with the latest discoveries, or sports fans could keep track of how often their school team is mentioned in the local paper. The applications are really only limited to the creativity of the teacher.
http://translate.google.com/#auto/fr/Happy%20Spring%20Break%20Everyone!!!
Thing #11
The Edublog's Award site was a nice link, but I had already "favorited" the 50 best education blogs from thing #3, and since these are going to take a bit of time to really go through and figure out which I want to follow, I decided to move on to Google Blog Search. This is exactly what its name says it is. A search engine for blogs. I had no idea where to even start, so I just typed in History. You can imagine how many entries turned up (470,000,000). Not very helpful! I tried something more specific, Modern American History. Not much better. I decided to forget academics and type in something fun! The French. This actually lead to something interesting, "The French Way." I then decided to follow Cool Cat's advice and look down the side of the blog to see what was listed. Liberty and Power sounded interesting. To my surprise, the site is George Mason University's History News Network! George Mason is where I was going to attend school if we had not moved from Virginia back to Kentucky, so I immediately RSS it (as well as the French site). What I learned from Google Blog is that you need to have something specific in mind, or you need to be willing to click around quite a bit; however, if you do you may find some interesting surprises. Topix.net offers a topic list across the top of the page (popular, local, US, politics sports etc.). This is nice in that you don't have to start completely from scratch, but ultimately I didn't find anything to RSS. Technorati was also nice. It had "top blogs" prominently displayed as well as a "drop down box" selection at the top of the page. I looked through several of the options, but finally decided to just return to the French blog I had found earlier and follow up on a few more interesting links that were listed down the side of the page. In the end, I found what Cool Cat said about blogrolls to be very useful. If you find a blog you really like, chances are good you will also find on that blog links to others that you will enjoy.
The Edublog's Award site was a nice link, but I had already "favorited" the 50 best education blogs from thing #3, and since these are going to take a bit of time to really go through and figure out which I want to follow, I decided to move on to Google Blog Search. This is exactly what its name says it is. A search engine for blogs. I had no idea where to even start, so I just typed in History. You can imagine how many entries turned up (470,000,000). Not very helpful! I tried something more specific, Modern American History. Not much better. I decided to forget academics and type in something fun! The French. This actually lead to something interesting, "The French Way." I then decided to follow Cool Cat's advice and look down the side of the blog to see what was listed. Liberty and Power sounded interesting. To my surprise, the site is George Mason University's History News Network! George Mason is where I was going to attend school if we had not moved from Virginia back to Kentucky, so I immediately RSS it (as well as the French site). What I learned from Google Blog is that you need to have something specific in mind, or you need to be willing to click around quite a bit; however, if you do you may find some interesting surprises. Topix.net offers a topic list across the top of the page (popular, local, US, politics sports etc.). This is nice in that you don't have to start completely from scratch, but ultimately I didn't find anything to RSS. Technorati was also nice. It had "top blogs" prominently displayed as well as a "drop down box" selection at the top of the page. I looked through several of the options, but finally decided to just return to the French blog I had found earlier and follow up on a few more interesting links that were listed down the side of the page. In the end, I found what Cool Cat said about blogrolls to be very useful. If you find a blog you really like, chances are good you will also find on that blog links to others that you will enjoy.
Thing #10
I had never heard of RSS, but I do like the concept of having updates brought directly to me, instead of me having to go out searching for them. Teachers can use this as a way to stay up to date on any issue they find relevant to their classroom. Personally, I love listening to NPR radio, but I can't be in my car all of the time. Three of the RSS "feeds" that I choose to subscribe to were related to NPR: All Things Considered, On Point, and Fresh Air. I also choose Rachel Maddow from MSNBC. All of these will help me follow current events for any public policy/history class that I may teach. They will also give me resource ideas for any research project that me or my future students may be working on. My fifth choice was a blog that I found while working on one of the other 23 things (I don't remember which one it was). It is called Keeper of the Home. This just had a lot of nice ideas that were of interest to me personally, and even though I don't follow blogs regularly, I thought I would enjoy keeping up with this one.
I had never heard of RSS, but I do like the concept of having updates brought directly to me, instead of me having to go out searching for them. Teachers can use this as a way to stay up to date on any issue they find relevant to their classroom. Personally, I love listening to NPR radio, but I can't be in my car all of the time. Three of the RSS "feeds" that I choose to subscribe to were related to NPR: All Things Considered, On Point, and Fresh Air. I also choose Rachel Maddow from MSNBC. All of these will help me follow current events for any public policy/history class that I may teach. They will also give me resource ideas for any research project that me or my future students may be working on. My fifth choice was a blog that I found while working on one of the other 23 things (I don't remember which one it was). It is called Keeper of the Home. This just had a lot of nice ideas that were of interest to me personally, and even though I don't follow blogs regularly, I thought I would enjoy keeping up with this one.
Thing #9
The first image generator I tried was the first on the list, not because it was first, but because I thought it would be fun to do a comic strip. I didn't have a lot of luck! The next one I tried was Custom Sign Generator. This one was MUCH easier. It had a really nice (and long) list of activities that you could try. The ones I clicked on were fairly easy to figure out. I liked the fake magazine covers, but I didn't have any photos on my PC to use on the covers. I then tried to do the little quote bubbles next to celebrities, but all of my quotes were too long and you could only read half of the text. Next I played around with the danger signs and licence plates, but ultimately I decided to come back to the celebrity quote bubbles. I really liked the Albert Einstein one, so I decided to simply find a shorter quote to use. I chose the one that I used because I thought it was a nice reminder to teachers and students that not all useful knowledge can be found in textbooks. Life itself has a few things to teach us. I'm not really a creative kind of person, but if this was something that you really enjoyed sitting around and playing with, you could find all kinds of uses for it. You could make lighthearted and/or educational signs for your classroom, send e-cards to family and friends, or use it for scrap- booking. I have included the link to the sign generator as well as a link to the web page where I found a lot of cute and useful quotes.
http://www.famousdefaces.com/famous.asp
http://www.funnysayings4u.com/
The first image generator I tried was the first on the list, not because it was first, but because I thought it would be fun to do a comic strip. I didn't have a lot of luck! The next one I tried was Custom Sign Generator. This one was MUCH easier. It had a really nice (and long) list of activities that you could try. The ones I clicked on were fairly easy to figure out. I liked the fake magazine covers, but I didn't have any photos on my PC to use on the covers. I then tried to do the little quote bubbles next to celebrities, but all of my quotes were too long and you could only read half of the text. Next I played around with the danger signs and licence plates, but ultimately I decided to come back to the celebrity quote bubbles. I really liked the Albert Einstein one, so I decided to simply find a shorter quote to use. I chose the one that I used because I thought it was a nice reminder to teachers and students that not all useful knowledge can be found in textbooks. Life itself has a few things to teach us. I'm not really a creative kind of person, but if this was something that you really enjoyed sitting around and playing with, you could find all kinds of uses for it. You could make lighthearted and/or educational signs for your classroom, send e-cards to family and friends, or use it for scrap- booking. I have included the link to the sign generator as well as a link to the web page where I found a lot of cute and useful quotes.
http://www.famousdefaces.com/famous.asp
http://www.funnysayings4u.com/
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Thing # 8
I had a tad bit harder of a time with this blog post then I did some of the others. Obviously, with history and public policy, all of the galleries and tags (including the National Archives) on Flickr allow the teacher many options for incorporating photos into a history lectures. The mash-ups was a bit more challenging. I think the mosaic maker might be nice for an individual or group to use who wanted to do a visual presentation on a particular historic topic (like the history of children in the workforce or Civil Rights). The Mappr also seemed like there were some good potential applications. On my thing #6, Historypin, was a cite that used something similar to this to track the location on google maps of where different photos of the March on Washington may have taken place. Mappi seemed a little more complicated to figure out though, and would probably require a significant investment of time to learn and teach if it were to be used in the classroom. I ultimately decided to join "Big Huge Labs" and make a jigsaw puzzle of a U.S. map. I think it's very important to connect geography to the study of history, and students are notoriously bad at map skills. This would be a fun way for them to get some extra practice.
You ask about our personal feelings concerning sharing photos online. This is a bit of an issue for me, but I will try to keep my response a brief as possible. I am extremely grateful to have access to the historical images that allow visualization to take place in what would otherwise seem like a very static lesson; however, I hate the idea of no longer having control over my personal image. I have never been a huge fan of having my picture made, but knowing that many of those old photos may no longer be collecting dust in someones basement, but actually showing up on facebook accounts, online scrapbooks, or flickr, drives me crazy. My mother-in-law, just the other day, showed me a picture someone had posted on facebook of my husband when he was a kid at summer camp. There were several other kids in the photo, and the owner of the picture did not get permission from any of them before posting it online. This goes on all the time, and maybe it's the control freak in me, but I hate the fact that I have such little control over protecting the privacy of both recent and old photographs of myself and my family. I decline to be in pictures all the time, to the frustration of my family and friends, but how to maintain a "private" life and identity in such a public world is a legal, moral, personal, philosophical, and intellectual issues I am struggling with. This is just one more area of our life we will each have to figure out how we are going to handle as Web 2.0 becomes more of a reality in all of our lives.
I had a tad bit harder of a time with this blog post then I did some of the others. Obviously, with history and public policy, all of the galleries and tags (including the National Archives) on Flickr allow the teacher many options for incorporating photos into a history lectures. The mash-ups was a bit more challenging. I think the mosaic maker might be nice for an individual or group to use who wanted to do a visual presentation on a particular historic topic (like the history of children in the workforce or Civil Rights). The Mappr also seemed like there were some good potential applications. On my thing #6, Historypin, was a cite that used something similar to this to track the location on google maps of where different photos of the March on Washington may have taken place. Mappi seemed a little more complicated to figure out though, and would probably require a significant investment of time to learn and teach if it were to be used in the classroom. I ultimately decided to join "Big Huge Labs" and make a jigsaw puzzle of a U.S. map. I think it's very important to connect geography to the study of history, and students are notoriously bad at map skills. This would be a fun way for them to get some extra practice.
You ask about our personal feelings concerning sharing photos online. This is a bit of an issue for me, but I will try to keep my response a brief as possible. I am extremely grateful to have access to the historical images that allow visualization to take place in what would otherwise seem like a very static lesson; however, I hate the idea of no longer having control over my personal image. I have never been a huge fan of having my picture made, but knowing that many of those old photos may no longer be collecting dust in someones basement, but actually showing up on facebook accounts, online scrapbooks, or flickr, drives me crazy. My mother-in-law, just the other day, showed me a picture someone had posted on facebook of my husband when he was a kid at summer camp. There were several other kids in the photo, and the owner of the picture did not get permission from any of them before posting it online. This goes on all the time, and maybe it's the control freak in me, but I hate the fact that I have such little control over protecting the privacy of both recent and old photographs of myself and my family. I decline to be in pictures all the time, to the frustration of my family and friends, but how to maintain a "private" life and identity in such a public world is a legal, moral, personal, philosophical, and intellectual issues I am struggling with. This is just one more area of our life we will each have to figure out how we are going to handle as Web 2.0 becomes more of a reality in all of our lives.
Thing #7
I had never used Flickr before, so the first thing I did was simply browse through all of the beautiful photos. When I took the flickr "tour" I ended up on a page with current events, galleries, the commons, and places. I first visited "the commons" because it offered photography archives, which I thought might be good for a history class. I choose the Smithsonian, then I clicked on the "more" icon at the top of the page which gave me "tags." The list of tags was extensive. I tried several, and as weird as this sounds, I didn't find anything very useful. I went back to "the commons" and tried The U.S. National Archives. I tagged "working conditions." There were several pictures of children working in factories, fields, and mines. I chose one of a five year old girl picking berries. The caption under the picture said she picked berries from sun-up to sun-down, and had been doing this since she was three years old. I thought there was something in her eyes that looked much older and wiser then any five year old I have recently seen.
Hine, Lewis Wickes. "Alberta McNadd on Chester Truitt's Farm." U.S. National Archives.
May 1910. 2, March, 2013.
I had never used Flickr before, so the first thing I did was simply browse through all of the beautiful photos. When I took the flickr "tour" I ended up on a page with current events, galleries, the commons, and places. I first visited "the commons" because it offered photography archives, which I thought might be good for a history class. I choose the Smithsonian, then I clicked on the "more" icon at the top of the page which gave me "tags." The list of tags was extensive. I tried several, and as weird as this sounds, I didn't find anything very useful. I went back to "the commons" and tried The U.S. National Archives. I tagged "working conditions." There were several pictures of children working in factories, fields, and mines. I chose one of a five year old girl picking berries. The caption under the picture said she picked berries from sun-up to sun-down, and had been doing this since she was three years old. I thought there was something in her eyes that looked much older and wiser then any five year old I have recently seen.
Hine, Lewis Wickes. "Alberta McNadd on Chester Truitt's Farm." U.S. National Archives.
May 1910. 2, March, 2013.
The picture info said there was no known copyrights to this picture, but to cite the National Archives for retrieval info. This is what I tried to do based on the information I could piece together from the flickr site. I am also attaching the "incorrect" link that does not have "jpg" because a couple of times I had difficulty getting the above link to work.
Thing #6
I choose Historypin as my Web 2.0 tool. This is a global community where people share historical pictures and stories with the goal of building up a digital history of the world. I choose this because my goal is to teach secondary history, and I am always looking for ways to reach out to visual learners. I actually liked this site so much I saved it to my "favorites" so I can hopefully use it in my future classroom. The website has won a webby award for best charity non-profit website and they also have a smart phone app you can download. The first link I visited was an invention timeline: vacuums, radios, toasters, dishwashers, all with historical and background information. Since part of my standard is technological changes in the mid-20th century, I skipped forward to those dates and looked at pictures of the auto washing machine, the Manchester Mark 1 computer, television, and portable radios. There was also a Tours and Collections link that took you step by step through a series of pictures that told a story and provided a bit of historical background. Again, because of my standard, I looked at The March on Washington. In addition to the series of pictures, there was historical facts, links to youtube videos, and links to additional sites with original documents related to the march. Because this is a Web 2.0 tool, there is also the chance to contribute your own photos. It would be a great project for kids to bring in pictures that their grandparents or parents had that could be added to the website. One of the links is simply "Amazing Grandparents." Students could add pictures of their grandparents to the grandparent "hall of fame." Overall I think this is a nice resource. It is a little light on background content, so it would have to be used as a visual supplement to a content rich lesson, but it was fun to explore and I think students would enjoy looking at all of the photos, following up on some of the outside links, and possibly contributing some pictures of their own.
http://www.go2web20.net/app/?a=historypin
I choose Historypin as my Web 2.0 tool. This is a global community where people share historical pictures and stories with the goal of building up a digital history of the world. I choose this because my goal is to teach secondary history, and I am always looking for ways to reach out to visual learners. I actually liked this site so much I saved it to my "favorites" so I can hopefully use it in my future classroom. The website has won a webby award for best charity non-profit website and they also have a smart phone app you can download. The first link I visited was an invention timeline: vacuums, radios, toasters, dishwashers, all with historical and background information. Since part of my standard is technological changes in the mid-20th century, I skipped forward to those dates and looked at pictures of the auto washing machine, the Manchester Mark 1 computer, television, and portable radios. There was also a Tours and Collections link that took you step by step through a series of pictures that told a story and provided a bit of historical background. Again, because of my standard, I looked at The March on Washington. In addition to the series of pictures, there was historical facts, links to youtube videos, and links to additional sites with original documents related to the march. Because this is a Web 2.0 tool, there is also the chance to contribute your own photos. It would be a great project for kids to bring in pictures that their grandparents or parents had that could be added to the website. One of the links is simply "Amazing Grandparents." Students could add pictures of their grandparents to the grandparent "hall of fame." Overall I think this is a nice resource. It is a little light on background content, so it would have to be used as a visual supplement to a content rich lesson, but it was fun to explore and I think students would enjoy looking at all of the photos, following up on some of the outside links, and possibly contributing some pictures of their own.
http://www.go2web20.net/app/?a=historypin
Thing #5
Web 2.0 is the read/write attribute of the web, the "two-way" nature of the internet; School 2.0 being the implementation of Web 2.0 in the classroom. It means a classroom where students and teachers publish, create, and collaborate as a means of learning. It also gives teachers the ability to join groups of like-minded educators to discuss new technology and approaches to teaching. But with this ability comes access to massive amounts of information (much more then any single school library could ever hold) which also means helping students find and utilize relevant information and not be overwhelmed (or distracted) by the sheer volume of web tools, links, apps, and blogs available. It also means remembering the importance of mastering content. Anyone can add an opinion to a blog or post a few pictures they find interesting. It takes a bit of work to master content and have both background info and context to make a blog contribution more then just a personal opinion, but worthy of the scholastic environment that schools are supposed to be. It means making sure that students not only know how to participate in Web 2.0 forums, but have the ability to inform their contribution with knowledge and depth. It also means challenging what are already becoming common assumptions. In Web 2.0 is the Future of Education #7, the paragraph is titled The World is Getting Flat,which I assume is a reference to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat book. Last semester, in my World Geography class, our textbook authors took on some key ideas of Friedman, and really challenged their legitimacy, both in terms of economics and social/cultural happenings. The assumption of the Web 2.0 article (#7) by Steve Hargadon is that anyone, anywhere has access and can both use and contribute to Web 2.0 which in turn enhances the academics our classroom experiences. The truth is, hundreds of millions of people in the world do not have access or the ability to contribute to Web 2.0 tools and blogs, so in secondary history and political science classes, like I will be teaching, some questions have to be raised. Are these truly global perspectives that we now have access to, or are they merely reflections of the contributions of those who live in certain geographic, educational, or socio-economic realms that allow for their contributions? Web and School 2.0 offer some exciting possibilities, but as with all possibilities there will definitely be challenges, and as with so many parts of teaching, a lot of trial-by-error!
Web 2.0 is the read/write attribute of the web, the "two-way" nature of the internet; School 2.0 being the implementation of Web 2.0 in the classroom. It means a classroom where students and teachers publish, create, and collaborate as a means of learning. It also gives teachers the ability to join groups of like-minded educators to discuss new technology and approaches to teaching. But with this ability comes access to massive amounts of information (much more then any single school library could ever hold) which also means helping students find and utilize relevant information and not be overwhelmed (or distracted) by the sheer volume of web tools, links, apps, and blogs available. It also means remembering the importance of mastering content. Anyone can add an opinion to a blog or post a few pictures they find interesting. It takes a bit of work to master content and have both background info and context to make a blog contribution more then just a personal opinion, but worthy of the scholastic environment that schools are supposed to be. It means making sure that students not only know how to participate in Web 2.0 forums, but have the ability to inform their contribution with knowledge and depth. It also means challenging what are already becoming common assumptions. In Web 2.0 is the Future of Education #7, the paragraph is titled The World is Getting Flat,which I assume is a reference to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat book. Last semester, in my World Geography class, our textbook authors took on some key ideas of Friedman, and really challenged their legitimacy, both in terms of economics and social/cultural happenings. The assumption of the Web 2.0 article (#7) by Steve Hargadon is that anyone, anywhere has access and can both use and contribute to Web 2.0 which in turn enhances the academics our classroom experiences. The truth is, hundreds of millions of people in the world do not have access or the ability to contribute to Web 2.0 tools and blogs, so in secondary history and political science classes, like I will be teaching, some questions have to be raised. Are these truly global perspectives that we now have access to, or are they merely reflections of the contributions of those who live in certain geographic, educational, or socio-economic realms that allow for their contributions? Web and School 2.0 offer some exciting possibilities, but as with all possibilities there will definitely be challenges, and as with so many parts of teaching, a lot of trial-by-error!
Thing #4
Blogs are not meant to be static. It is a form of "social networking." The kind of social "small talk" and opinionating that used to take place at parties, ballgames, or office water coolers now can happen via blog post. Furthermore, because it is online, you don't have to actually know the person to interact with them. I was recently trying to find information on a product I was thinking about ordering. It was fairly expensive, so I wanted to get some more info before I ordered it. I stumbled onto a blog where women were commenting, asking questions, receiving answers, and offering advise. I didn't know any of these women, but for a moment I felt like I was at an old fashioned slumber party or bridal shower, where women sit around and gossip and offer tips on their latest finds. This blog was not only of tremendous help to me concerning the product, but for a moment I felt connected to complete strangers. Blogs not only provide this sense of helpfulness and community in what they have to say, but they also offer suggestions and links to other blogs or web pages that may be of interest. If I like a particular writer, or want a certain artisan product, or I'm looking for information on a historical occurrence, I can find a blog that mentions it and chances are good there will be links to items, people, or places that I may also find useful. Its is like a community bulletin board designed with your taste and interest in mind. It is a bit overwhelming when you begin to think of the sheer volumes of like-minded people you can discover through blogs! Concerning two other interesting points of the provided links for thing #4, I really appreciated the information concerning the background of blogs in politics. While I did realize that blogs were playing a larger and larger role in how political information became public, I did not realize that it was bloggers who first picked up on Senator Trent Lott's comments concerning Senator Strom Thurmond, which eventually forced him to resign. I think that this proves that from almost the very beginning blogs were destined to play a role in political, media, and educational affairs; however, I appreciate President Obama's caution that if the future of news is blogging, with all opinions and no serious fact checking or attempt at context, then all we will end up with are "people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding." This nicely sums up some of my concerns. The second thing I found interesting was the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I'm not sure I agree with her comment that it is the right thing to do to comment on a blog when it is a topic you care about. I think wandering out into the waters of morality, right vs. wrong, is a bit much when the topic is blog commenting. I also found it a bit insincere when she says she doesn't comment on other blogs to create traffic on her own. She creates hyperlinks with her comments, using a tracking service, and has co-comment site. This is obviously a lady interested in what she has to say, and wants others to be as well. That is fine, if it gives her a sense of purpose---but please, no false modesty. I appreciated the honesty of the Blue Skunk blog----of course bloggers want traffic and they want to be read. His comment, "I just don't envision Emily Dickinson having a 'I Could not Stop for Death' blog is a nice reminder that there is a time and place for the personal and private. Posting and commenting are important, but I disagree that you haven't done the "right" thing if you choose not to share some important insight with the world-wide web.
My five classroom comments:
1. Chassity Halpin's Thing #1
2. Chassity Halpin's Thing#5
3. Holly Hudson's Thing #7
4. Jill Hutchison's Thing #8
5. Amber Law's Thing#4
My two public comments were for 50 Must See Teacher's Blogs: Let Children Play and The Thinking Mother
Blogs are not meant to be static. It is a form of "social networking." The kind of social "small talk" and opinionating that used to take place at parties, ballgames, or office water coolers now can happen via blog post. Furthermore, because it is online, you don't have to actually know the person to interact with them. I was recently trying to find information on a product I was thinking about ordering. It was fairly expensive, so I wanted to get some more info before I ordered it. I stumbled onto a blog where women were commenting, asking questions, receiving answers, and offering advise. I didn't know any of these women, but for a moment I felt like I was at an old fashioned slumber party or bridal shower, where women sit around and gossip and offer tips on their latest finds. This blog was not only of tremendous help to me concerning the product, but for a moment I felt connected to complete strangers. Blogs not only provide this sense of helpfulness and community in what they have to say, but they also offer suggestions and links to other blogs or web pages that may be of interest. If I like a particular writer, or want a certain artisan product, or I'm looking for information on a historical occurrence, I can find a blog that mentions it and chances are good there will be links to items, people, or places that I may also find useful. Its is like a community bulletin board designed with your taste and interest in mind. It is a bit overwhelming when you begin to think of the sheer volumes of like-minded people you can discover through blogs! Concerning two other interesting points of the provided links for thing #4, I really appreciated the information concerning the background of blogs in politics. While I did realize that blogs were playing a larger and larger role in how political information became public, I did not realize that it was bloggers who first picked up on Senator Trent Lott's comments concerning Senator Strom Thurmond, which eventually forced him to resign. I think that this proves that from almost the very beginning blogs were destined to play a role in political, media, and educational affairs; however, I appreciate President Obama's caution that if the future of news is blogging, with all opinions and no serious fact checking or attempt at context, then all we will end up with are "people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding." This nicely sums up some of my concerns. The second thing I found interesting was the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I'm not sure I agree with her comment that it is the right thing to do to comment on a blog when it is a topic you care about. I think wandering out into the waters of morality, right vs. wrong, is a bit much when the topic is blog commenting. I also found it a bit insincere when she says she doesn't comment on other blogs to create traffic on her own. She creates hyperlinks with her comments, using a tracking service, and has co-comment site. This is obviously a lady interested in what she has to say, and wants others to be as well. That is fine, if it gives her a sense of purpose---but please, no false modesty. I appreciated the honesty of the Blue Skunk blog----of course bloggers want traffic and they want to be read. His comment, "I just don't envision Emily Dickinson having a 'I Could not Stop for Death' blog is a nice reminder that there is a time and place for the personal and private. Posting and commenting are important, but I disagree that you haven't done the "right" thing if you choose not to share some important insight with the world-wide web.
My five classroom comments:
1. Chassity Halpin's Thing #1
2. Chassity Halpin's Thing#5
3. Holly Hudson's Thing #7
4. Jill Hutchison's Thing #8
5. Amber Law's Thing#4
My two public comments were for 50 Must See Teacher's Blogs: Let Children Play and The Thinking Mother
Thing # 3
I do not have much of a history with blogs, so to figure out how I might use them I started clicking through and visiting the 50 Must See Blogs. The Resource Page for Children's Literature had book reviews, author information, and illustration examples. This is a nice resource for parents who do not spend their working days pouring over literature reviews or are not fortunate enough to have a Barnes and Noble in their back yard. Having a place to go and get quality new ideas for children's lit would be very useful. Authentic Teaching gives a voice to the dynamics of the classroom experience and philosophic musings behind the when/why/hows of what educators and students do It is also a forum for rebuttal and commenting, which is nice. One of my favorites was i Learn Technology. It had links to some very interesting, educational and useful websites (kind of like a blog for "website of the day"). It showed the site, explained what it was,and how to integrate it into the classroom. There were sites that could be useful in almost any subject area that a teacher may need. As a future history teacher, my favorite that i Learn Technology shared was "If it were my Home: Compare Countries Visually." I would like to offer one warning though, to anyone who may suffer from "paralysis by analysis," with so many choices and so many tools trying to decide which is best for your classroom may be a bit overwhelming.
I've often had mixed feelings about bogs. On one hand, I think it involves quite a bit of hubris to assume your personal thoughts, opinions, and interest are of such great importance and interest that they deserve to be posted on the web and read by the world at large; however, as I move through the education program and realize just how much there is out there in terms of websites, technology tools, books, videos, images, etc. it is very useful to have people willing to sort through so much and compile their findings in a useful way. Blogs also provide a forum to present thoughts and opinions on issues within the classroom and field of education and to receive feedback. A dialogue with other interested parties in a form that allows you to carefully consider your points of view before you post them, without the pressure of having to instantly verbalize your ideas in a face to face encounter. I also saw through the 50 Must See Blogs that they are a way for teachers to support one another and receive encouragement and inspiration. On the Tempered Radical site, Bill Ferriter posted a letter that a former 6th grade student, now a law school student, emailed him. It was very inspiring and showed how blogs can be use to encourage other teachers. Whether writing one yourself or reading someone else's, blogs are a good source of academic resources, tips on useful technology, places to muse over the philosophical underpinnings of our profession, and a place to question, encourage, and inspire. Ultimately, like all social media, they are a place to connect and share.
I do not have much of a history with blogs, so to figure out how I might use them I started clicking through and visiting the 50 Must See Blogs. The Resource Page for Children's Literature had book reviews, author information, and illustration examples. This is a nice resource for parents who do not spend their working days pouring over literature reviews or are not fortunate enough to have a Barnes and Noble in their back yard. Having a place to go and get quality new ideas for children's lit would be very useful. Authentic Teaching gives a voice to the dynamics of the classroom experience and philosophic musings behind the when/why/hows of what educators and students do It is also a forum for rebuttal and commenting, which is nice. One of my favorites was i Learn Technology. It had links to some very interesting, educational and useful websites (kind of like a blog for "website of the day"). It showed the site, explained what it was,and how to integrate it into the classroom. There were sites that could be useful in almost any subject area that a teacher may need. As a future history teacher, my favorite that i Learn Technology shared was "If it were my Home: Compare Countries Visually." I would like to offer one warning though, to anyone who may suffer from "paralysis by analysis," with so many choices and so many tools trying to decide which is best for your classroom may be a bit overwhelming.
I've often had mixed feelings about bogs. On one hand, I think it involves quite a bit of hubris to assume your personal thoughts, opinions, and interest are of such great importance and interest that they deserve to be posted on the web and read by the world at large; however, as I move through the education program and realize just how much there is out there in terms of websites, technology tools, books, videos, images, etc. it is very useful to have people willing to sort through so much and compile their findings in a useful way. Blogs also provide a forum to present thoughts and opinions on issues within the classroom and field of education and to receive feedback. A dialogue with other interested parties in a form that allows you to carefully consider your points of view before you post them, without the pressure of having to instantly verbalize your ideas in a face to face encounter. I also saw through the 50 Must See Blogs that they are a way for teachers to support one another and receive encouragement and inspiration. On the Tempered Radical site, Bill Ferriter posted a letter that a former 6th grade student, now a law school student, emailed him. It was very inspiring and showed how blogs can be use to encourage other teachers. Whether writing one yourself or reading someone else's, blogs are a good source of academic resources, tips on useful technology, places to muse over the philosophical underpinnings of our profession, and a place to question, encourage, and inspire. Ultimately, like all social media, they are a place to connect and share.
Thing #2
I have no experience at all with creating or writing my own blog; however, I have occasionally read them. Many times when searching a particular topic online some of the results will include blog entries; this was especially true during this past presidential campaign season. While I have at times found them interesting to read I tend to be more critical of their factual content. I just always assume blogs are purely opinion based. Naming my blog was easy one I settled on just using my own name! Creating it was also easy because Dr. Wall was there to walk us through it. I'm not sure I would have even known where to start if I hadn't had her guidance. My avatar was fun to create; again, I don't think this is something I would have ever sought out on my own, but once I was given instructions on how to do it, the process was fun. I did try to make it look a little like me. I usually tuck my hair behind my ears, and I wear black pants all the time!
I have no experience at all with creating or writing my own blog; however, I have occasionally read them. Many times when searching a particular topic online some of the results will include blog entries; this was especially true during this past presidential campaign season. While I have at times found them interesting to read I tend to be more critical of their factual content. I just always assume blogs are purely opinion based. Naming my blog was easy one I settled on just using my own name! Creating it was also easy because Dr. Wall was there to walk us through it. I'm not sure I would have even known where to start if I hadn't had her guidance. My avatar was fun to create; again, I don't think this is something I would have ever sought out on my own, but once I was given instructions on how to do it, the process was fun. I did try to make it look a little like me. I usually tuck my hair behind my ears, and I wear black pants all the time!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Thing # 1
Out of the 7.5 habits for lifelong learning, habit number two (accept responsibility for your own learning) is by far the easiest for me. I've always been comfortable reading and learning independently; I'm also usually pretty comfortable asking questions or finding a tutor if I am really struggling with something. I've never felt it was my teacher's responsibility to make sure all relevant information was hand-delivered to me by them. I also think that because I do enjoy reading so much I've always read a wide variety of books across a broad spectrum of subjects, which makes lifelong learning something that seems inherently independent to me. I do not think it has ever occurred to me that the responsibility should be anyones other than my own. Habit number six (use technology to your advantage) is definitely the hardest for me. I'm excited to be taking this class because I recognize there is so much I need to learn, and I genuinely want to learn it; however, because I've always been such a book, pen and paper kind of person it is extremely challenging. Even with this blog, I have to write it down on paper first and then type it. I just seem to think better with a pen in my hand. I really do want to be more tech-savvy, but it's intimidating, and I think I tend to fall back on whats comfortable and familiar. I can't really say specifically what I want to learn playing with 2.0 tools because learning anything at all will be a step ahead of where I am now. I am just excited to see what I've been missing and become familiar with new ways of doing things. Setting up the blog in class was much easier then if I had tried to figure it out without any instructions. I am a little nervous and uncomfortable having my personal thoughts put in a public domain, but I know I can control the content and not write anything too personal, and it is kind of exciting to put in an http: address and see a blog you've designed and written pop up!
Out of the 7.5 habits for lifelong learning, habit number two (accept responsibility for your own learning) is by far the easiest for me. I've always been comfortable reading and learning independently; I'm also usually pretty comfortable asking questions or finding a tutor if I am really struggling with something. I've never felt it was my teacher's responsibility to make sure all relevant information was hand-delivered to me by them. I also think that because I do enjoy reading so much I've always read a wide variety of books across a broad spectrum of subjects, which makes lifelong learning something that seems inherently independent to me. I do not think it has ever occurred to me that the responsibility should be anyones other than my own. Habit number six (use technology to your advantage) is definitely the hardest for me. I'm excited to be taking this class because I recognize there is so much I need to learn, and I genuinely want to learn it; however, because I've always been such a book, pen and paper kind of person it is extremely challenging. Even with this blog, I have to write it down on paper first and then type it. I just seem to think better with a pen in my hand. I really do want to be more tech-savvy, but it's intimidating, and I think I tend to fall back on whats comfortable and familiar. I can't really say specifically what I want to learn playing with 2.0 tools because learning anything at all will be a step ahead of where I am now. I am just excited to see what I've been missing and become familiar with new ways of doing things. Setting up the blog in class was much easier then if I had tried to figure it out without any instructions. I am a little nervous and uncomfortable having my personal thoughts put in a public domain, but I know I can control the content and not write anything too personal, and it is kind of exciting to put in an http: address and see a blog you've designed and written pop up!
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