Thing 23 The Journey Continues

Whew, what a journey so far...

I've been very fortunate to work in a district that sends me to two major conferences every year, MAME and MACUL. Also, I attend the REMC meetings every month for professional development. I am not a new convert. I have more than a passing acquaintance with Web 2.0 tools. However, that is not the same thing as spending ten intensive weeks learning more about and experimenting with the tools myself. I spent so much time looking at this and that, my head was spinning! Some of the tasks were easy and fun, some were complicated and took a lot to get the hang of how they work. Good experience all around.

I feel much more confident in being the "go to person." I am excited about the possibilities of collaborating with classroom teachers and know just who I will approach with suggestions for implementing the new technologies. Ideally, it would be great to present at staff meetings, but based on experience, I know this is not the way to go. Much better to use the one to one approach.

Several staff from my middle school have taken the course and some great things are happening. To my knowledge, no one from my high school has participated; I will certainly promote the class. I also agree with the comments from several others that a class should be developed for administrators. They not only face different challenges, they are the ones who can push the rest of us to acquire new skills. I can't wait for the day we move beyond the nineteenth century education model across the board!

Thing 21 and Thing 22 Wikis

I've been thinking about wikis for quite some time and have been unable to think of ways to personally implement the tool. I've discussed it with a colleague I'm mentoring and we decided a blog would work better for her purposes. Part of our discussion centered on the fact that it's hard to edit (read "criticize") one's peers as she has been asked to do in her grad classes, although we have no problem correcting students' work! By the same token, it's been my experience when I ask students for constructive criticism, all I get are positive comments which is not really helpful. I stress we can all do better to no avail.

I very much enjoyed looking at so many wikis; my head is spinning with ideas. I especially examined the Educational Wikis site and took note of a number of great one's which I plan to share with specific teachers or departments. Just directing them to the list is too much to ask. One suggestion I would have is to organize the page differently. Alphabetical is always good (although titles are not always descriptive) and abstracts are essential but I think it would be useful to sort by discipline and grade level, as well.

There were a couple of school web sites in a wiki format. I'm not sure this is the best format for that purpose. They seemed "messy" and unorganized to me. I prefer a more polished look.

The hurdles I foresee center around participation and time. When participation is voluntary, as it would be for me as I don't have students assigned to me, the wiki won't be successful. When there is accountability, the possibilities are limitless! I see my role as a mentor. Just today, the counseling department chair asked my advice about using a wiki for designing a powerpoint. I heartily agreed this would be the perfect tool. That department is really moving along in using technology and now web 2.0, as well! Last year they just asked me do it for them. The time issue is always a hurdle, time to explore and time to create. I seem to have more success at the middle school level where the teachers are more adventuresome and don't seem so rigid about the pacing guides.

I plan on promoting wikis and I'm looking forward to collaborating with a teacher on one in the very near future.

My Wiki
I've created a blog for my library CrestwoodHighSchoolLibrary. It's just a beginning, but I see a future with several pages and lots and lots of stuff related to independent reading. the headings include Purchase Suggestions, Reading Suggestion Portals, Book Related Podcasts, Author Sites, and Events. After I spruce it up a bit, I plan on having a link on my home page.

Obviously blogs and wikis have difference, but I'm not sure if one is better than the other for a specific purpose. I think it probably depends on personal preference for the task at hand. I tried using a blog with my book club with little success. I think the wiki might work better because I don't have any preconceived expectations. If students care to contribute, fine.

Thing 20 Subscribe to Podcasts

The Educational Podcast Network is as organized as can be under the circumstances. An effort has been made to group by grade level and subject area. Unfortunately, there aren't any abstracts, just a list of titles and names. I settled on the Information Skills category because this is my field and it had fewer listings. I clicked on "How to Sell your Car" by Eric Sotus because my husband sells cars. A menu opened stating "Tips on selling your car: a monthly podcast to help people with buying, selling and fixing their cars and trucks. Episode 1 - Selling Your Car The podcast was dated 11/12/07 and created at 4:03am. There were no other episodes listed. It was a legitimate podcast (I was leery) from Chicagolandauto.com I did not see a link to the podcast on the website. Could be a brilliant idea in the middle of the night that didn't fly.

Podcast Alley, on the other hand works much better. I picked a genre (education)and was provided with a list of titles. This is where the difference is apparent. When I clicked on "Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing," an abstract appeared. The ability to subscribe, vote or get more details is right there. "More details" provided episode titles. You can also comment, vote (it seems important but why?) or link to the website.

I don't have an iphone or an ipod. I don't even listen to NPR in the car. This isn't something I will be using, but it is really cool. If I wanted to subscribe to a podcast, I would use the itunes site which is very nicely organized.

Thing 19 Podcasting

Student produced podcasts, Radio WillowWeb, what a fabulous resource and model for our staff of how to intergrate 21st century skills into the curriculum.

I listened to #21 Endangered Animals, Everywhere which fits right in with a fifth grade research project we are beginning this week.

While searching for other excellent examples, I found the Education Podcast Network which also listed Radio WillowWeb at the top of the elementary list. The problem with this site is there are no abstracts, just a list of sites which lead to a list of dates of podcasts. The same holds true for Education Podcast.com. And I thought the WOW TV guide sucks!

My conclusion is this is an engaging way to assess learning and also with the ability to replay, to reinforce learning. However, searching for appropriate podcasts to use in your teaching would take an inordinate amount of time.

Thing 18 Slideshare

I asked our webmaster to upload a slideshow of Reading Month activities on our school website. She first uploaded it to Photostory because everyone doesn't own PowerPoint and Photostory is a free download. Valid point. I'm guessing uploading to Slideshare would take care of this, but that would not be an option in our district; even though technically speaking our website is accessible by anyone, we can assume we have a very limited audience. Even so, we have to check that we have permission for every recognizable student that appears in a photo. Posting student pictures on Slideshare with it's vast audience is not permitted. However, posting presentations would be acceptable. I'm impressed with the option to immediately e-mail the presentation to some one else.

Kids Need Reading Stamina

View more presentations from Anne Robinson.

Thing 17 Productivity Tools

Remember the Milk is great for those who have one of those "new fangled phones", but that's not me. I already use and share my Google calendar; that's how we all know where I am. I frequently have to check myself! LibraryThing requires way too much of a commitment. Knowtes will be great for students, I'll have to share with staff, particularly with the science department that's eating my ink budget with all the power points being printed for study guides. Trailfire looks like a more complicated Delicious. I don't need more complicated.

I tried Bubbl.us and was thrilled.This tool is fabulous. I've been using Inspiration, but there's always the issue of licensing and loading software. Now I have access to mind-mapping anywhere, anytime. Cool! I do have to say it wasn't totally intuitive, so I tried to find directions on Common Craft. I ended up at Tech-bites.com, which was new to me and works just as well. So I learned two new things today. Life is good!

Thing 16 Google Docs

I use Google Docs frequently and suggest and teach it as a solution for group projects for my students. (This is how I found out they don't use e-mail, but communicate via Facebook,etc.) Creating an e-mail account is not a problem in our district, thank goodness. I don't have much occasion to use spreadsheets and didn't see the normal "save" button that you see when using a word document. I located "save" under file. I see there's an auto save on this page. I don't know how to set this up. Is it available all the time?

Even if our students had personal files (which I've been begging for for years), Google Docs would still be necessary to do group work. the next step might be a wiki which I have not yet attempted with students.

Thing 15 Revisiting RSS

RSS isn't difficult to understand, but the process has not yet been internalized. I find myself subscribing five or six times to no avail before I realize that I didn't check a box and that's why it didn't work. Grrr! Of course the benefits are obvious, but honestly, I don't remember to check on a regular basis. Of all that I've subscribe to, the only one I find really useful are YALSA and ETLMS. It seems like checking a news feed would be important, but I'm really not interested, in fact, I deleted one. I'm one of the "over forty" crowd that is really upset we've lost our home delivery. I like to touch a newspaper! Warlick and Richardson are interesting, but they have sooo much to say. Ormiston is more like a regular teacher, but she's exhausting!

Thing 14 Delicious

User name:
lingarrt

I started using delicious last year and find it very useful. I particularly like the number of saves indicator for each link. One thing I find very annoying is the same link appearing multiple times in a tag list. Why is this? I also like to see the additional tags employed which gives additional search options. In libraryland we call this "pearl gathering." Delicious is a good tool to teach this skill to students. We talk about brainstorming keywords, but without a visual, it's not necessarily effective. It's also much more comprehensive than the additional search terms that appear on the bottom of google search pages.

While trying to print the directions for uploading my existing bookmarks into delicious, I found the site blocked. I thought that odd considering the source until a friend pointed out it was the word "delicious" that flagged the page. Blocked sites are so annoying!

Students experience this when they are doing legitimate research, as well. However, this gives me the opportunity to direct them to databases or the hotlists I have created and posted on my websites. The hotlists are assignment specific, annotated, student-friendly links which will allow students access to links including "hot" topics that would be blocked when googled.

We are not allowed to post links to blogs or wikis, nor can I see how giving students access to my bookmarks will be particularly useful. My delicious bookmarks with the same tag would include additional sites that are useful to me or a teacher, but not necessarily be useful to a student.

I encourage teachers to request my expertise in collecting good links and posting them rather than teaching them to do it themselves. I need to be needed! The only downside to the hotlists is the rule they be updated every twelve months. I know this and try to keep on top of it, to avoid the pages being removed. Just recently for the second time, I lost about a third of my lists and I'm in the process of recreating them. Grrr!

Thing 13 Tagging and Social Bookkmarking

Finally, something I'm familiar with and use on a daily basis. However, we can all learn something new. In reference to the article "Thirteen Tips for Effective Tagging," I learned a couple of new things:

• Co-ordinate your efforts - I can see how this will be particularly useful. but at what point are we moving away from a "folksonomy" toward a "cataloging thesaurus?"
• Tags are written in pencil - This is good to know, I've been editing on a one-by-one basis. I hope I remember and do it.

My goal is to review all my saved in folders bookmarks and slowly add them to my delicious bookmarks. Hopefully, this won't take the rest of my life!

I certainly pay attention to the number of saves for a particular site, but as of yet, have not followed any particular "tagger." I have noticed that sometimes a descriptor is evident. I don't know how these are added.

Thing 12 Widgets

I'm not getting this at all. I copied the embed code for You Tube and pasted it under the "edit html" tab, but got nothing.

I use Firefox exclusively and had no trouble opening the two widgets. The Voki was very cute, but what would I say? A message to my students? Possibly. The Polldaddy widget could be very useful. I can see this being used daily.

There was an interesting scenario on Grey's Anatomy last week. A very disfigured person was having a "face replacement." Part of the eligibility requirement was having a support group to help with the transition. Apparently, he had met people online through his interest in orchids or something. They were to be his support group and unexpectidly showed up before the surgery. His refuseing to meet them in his disfigured condition disqualified him from the surgery. Long story short, he agreed and they turned out to be real friends and very suportive. Could this happen in real life. I think yes. The statistics for online mate selection, for example, seem to bear this out.

I thought having access to e-mail would be such a boon for communicating with students. This has not turned out to be the case. Apparently, no one e-mails anymore. The students don't check their accounts unless you specifically instruct them to, thus defeating the purpose. Facebook is the way to go. Unfortunatly, Facebook, et all, is blocked in our district and suspect it is blocked in every district. What to do?

Thing 11 Connect with Comments

I'm really not comfortable leaving posts on the sites of the other participants in this class. Without knowing anything about the other members, I just chose to look at blogs that had a cool title and then looked for posts that stuck a nerve, so to speak. I agree with one I read about feeling compelled to post on The New York Times, for example, but the hoops (logging in, ets.) were too time consuming and not worth the effort. Ironically, I've asked my students to do the very same thing. I guess this is walking a mile in someone else's moccasins. However, I do appreciate the posts you (Carol and Jackie) have left on my blog. As far as using this as a classroom tool, I can see how modeling will be very important.

Thing 9 and Thing 10 Video

I love U Tube and I'm so glad it isn't blocked in our district. The students use it extensively for research and presentations, even at the middle school level. Most recently, the sixth grades were creating power points on unsolved mysteries. U Tube is absolutely perfect for that goofy topic, e.g., Bigfoot, etc. I've been meaning to share the following with the REMC group:

The Internet Overdose Song

My post suggested "password" be added as a tag, I always have such a hard time finding this video!

Since I already had a Google account, I should have been able to link the two accounts instead of creating yet another account with another password. However, that didn't work. Bummer.

I watched this very well done video that came across on my MAME listserve from a home-schooler comparing public libraries and school (libraries.) He made several valid points. I suspect, however, he had some collaboration. When I viewed his other posts, they were just rants about random things.

Here is my download:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

This didn't seem to work. I think there's a step missing. I thought it would end up on my desktop, but it didn't.
Then I tried zamzar, which I have used to convert files students create at home in, for example, "works." Now I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for the file to arrive in my e-mail. OK, it finally arrived, but I don't know how to get it into the blog. At any rate, watch the video, it's pretty powerful.

Thing 8 Mash-ups

I love the letter thing and recreated my blog title, but I can't figure out how to get it on the page. I tried the edit header page several times and I'm not getting anywhere.

The color wheel is awesome but I can't think of an application at the moment.

I'm not interested in doing sudoku (I also can never remember if the "u" is first or the "o"), let alone creating one, but it looks nice.

The montager is fascinating. One could kill an hour or two mousing over the tiles. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time. How could I apply this to the classroom?

I really suck at the Memry game, but I will play it with my granddaughter. She likes to win! Since you can't really control the images in the game, I'm not sure how useful it would be in the classroom.

I was excited about trying trading cards in Big Huge Labs. I thought it would work for author studies, book reports, historical figures, etc. But I couldn't figure out how to apply it at no cost.
Here's the link to this card: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/viewpostcard.php?id=119769-49452

In fact, every application was cool, but apparently, cool costs! Writer is free as far as I can tell and reminded me of the "old days." I might use this if I wasn't already aware of the Google docs.
application.

Image Generator : this must be the home page for all those people that have nothing to do but create those fabulously entertaining e-mails that I keep getting.

Thing 6 and Thing 7 Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dungpow/105472699/

Virginia Beach Sunrise
I chose this photo because we vacationed here last year and I most certainly never saw a sunrise.

I can't imagine uploading any of my photos to Flickr. I have used Shutterfly for years to share and store my photos and for the most part am happy with the service. I have no desire for the world to look at my photos because I almost never take photos of scenery, etc., without "my people" in the shot. I consider it a job well done when I upload them to a folder while deleting the not so good ones. I would never take the time to tag each photo which is the point in Flicker. I think its a good idea, but for me, not so much.

After wracking my brain I remembered I had taken photos of food at my grandson's Halloween party that didn't have any "faces", and therefore no possible objections to posting. This is an issue I have run into countless times, and not just in the school setting. I know the point is being "social," but how much thought are people putting into this. Maybe the default shouldn't be "any Flickr member."
I found the process very easy except I thought I had capitalized "Halloween", yet it came up with a lower case "h." I didn't find an easy way to correct this. (I obsess over things like this.) I'm also not sure about the process of making my photos totally free, joining the Creative Commons "set," and whatever other options are available. I understand how to search in Creative Commons only, but haven't figured out how to search in LOC only. This is something I think would be useful for the classroom because searching on the LOC site is not particularly user friendly, especially for students.

Thing 5 More Blogs

I had to subscribe several times before I remembered to scroll down and put the blog in a folder. I really would prefer to have notification of blog updates in my e-mail, since that is something I follow constantly. Personal life - I am following a blog from the mother of a very sick child that's on the Care Pages website. Updates arrive in my inbox with a direct link to the login page. This is my idea of how blogs should work. I'm really not interested in adding any more reading to my daily tasks by adding personal interest blogs. The Google site might be more beneficial since I use many features including my calendar every day. Not sure how this will work though.

Thing 4 RSS

I've been through this before but haven't been back to it since. Hooray, I still have an account! Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I have a hard time keeping up with my e-mail, and the listserves, etc. At the blog suggestion from "heldmyw"I checked out Google Reader and I think it is a better product, as well. Is there an easy way to migrate?

Thing 3 More Blogs

"Form follows function," Sullivan's mantra that I try to adhere to. I'm awfully glad that the new technologies offer templates. I have so little imagination, I'd never get my blog into cyberspace if I had to design it from the ground up. (I spent no time at all choosing a template, I think time is better spent considering intended audiences.) As we all become more familiar with the new technologies, they will more easily be incorporated into our teaching and learning. I remember how resistant our staff was to using e-mail initially; now the task is to get them to use a more appropriate tool for the task and audience at hand. Will it be a blog, or as one of the members of this class suggested, a wiki?

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Blogs

I've been following David Warlick for a number of years and, in theory, totally agree with his idea of how schools (life) should function. But that's not the world we live in. It would be great if students could use their cell phones for the applications he describes, but the reality is they will use them for "off task" purposes more often than not. It's just not possible to keep a whole class so engaged that they wouldn't consider texting their bff in the middle of class. Even in college classes, where students pay for the privilege of attending (with their laptop), according to many reports I've seen, much time is spent surfing or checking e-mail, etc. I'm guilty of this myself. There is also the very prevalent reality of using 2.0 tools to cheat.
And then there's the whole equity issue. Even at the high school there are many students who don't have cell phones, ipods or even internet access at home. And with the economy the way it is, these have-nots are increasing, not decreasing. I think podcasts are super and I do think we could manage to use them more effectively. As a matter of fact, I thought a special ed student was listening to one the other day (I am aware that the science department has created several). I was wrong. She was listening to music, which was allowed because it was part of her IEP. Wouldn't she have been better served listening to a podcast on the subject she was supposedly reviewing?
Blogs... I totally think they're great. My experience, not so much.
Several years ago I created one to use with my book club. I was very excited at the possibilities. After many months of cajoling studnets to post, I gave up on it. I think I had a total of five posts. I was also surprised at the quality of the writing. In theory, students should be more careful considering the wide audience, but I did not find this to be true. It was atrocious.
Quite a few teachers have created classroom blogs that I think are being used effectively. Several, I suspect, we're created in this class. Anyway, I thought it would be a great idea to post the links on the library website so that students and parents could access them more easily. So did others, until the approval process got to the top. Now I have a print-out posted in the library with the addresses for students who can't remember how to get to their homework assignment.
However there is hope.
My principal and I think this will be a great communicaation tool for staff. Can't wait to get that going!