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!!!
Monday, March 4, 2013
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!
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