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
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