Thing 21

I was really impressed with the use of the wiki for literature (specifically the book Turn Homeward, Hannalee by Patricia Beatty) done by Woodward Academy. They had included Chapter summaries, a vocabulary dictionary, a timeline of American history contemporary to the story (Civil War Era in this case), a list of expressions common to the time and area, and even a Reader's Theater in which 2 or 3 students "act" out a short scene by speaking lines like the characters would . The teacher provided the narration. This wiki definitley covered all the bases!

I would also like to try a classroom wiki to communicate with parents. I could place the daily work plan and handouts on there for students who are absent - or have just lost their paperwork. Study guides and links to online support in core subjects could also be included along with classroom news reported by the students. What a great way to hone writing and editing skills!!

I am a little put off by the idea that a class wiki could be edited by anyone and wonder if I would have Jr. High wiki saboteurs. I would have to monitor the contents very closely. After experimenting with Wikipedia, I found there is definitely more to editing a wiki than I realized. I had visions of people planting their cursor into text and editing away. It seems that with Wikipedia at least, they do ask folks to cite a resource for their edited information and try to head off misinformation.

Another problem I might encounter is parents being skeptical of allowing their children to contribute to a website viewed by the public. Even if the faces are not shown, and last names not used, some parents may not want to allow students to participate in an unsecured space. I'm also wondering if our net nanny will allow students onto wikis? I know they can use wikipedia, but will have to experiment and see. They definitely can't blog, and I'm finding that many of my students have trouble getting their parents off the computer so they can blog to me once a week! As a result, I will have to remember that having a computer at home doesn't mean the student necessarily has unlimited use.

Is it worth the aggravation? Absolutely! In a perfect world, there would be an unlimited budget for technology and every student in my class would have their own laptop to use. But this isn't a perfect world, and we need to learn to accept the fact that there will be problems with technology. However solving those problems together sure provides a great educational experience! :-)

Thing 20

I subscribed to 3 podcasts, but my favorite is "The Teachers' Podcast - The New Generation of Ed. Tech Professional Development" hosted by Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura. In these podcasts, the hosts share the latest and greatest for educators using free web tools. I listened to 2 episodes and really liked the one telling about the tool "voice thread" which can take a Powerpoint to a new level by using audio. It seems that the format is similar to a Wiki, in that it can be critiqued and edited, but I am looking forward to exploring that - perhaps it is the answer to the Powerpoint marriage with student audio? And there are many past episodes to explore!

I preferred using the Itunes system because I am familiar with it. Although I have a PC laptop, our family desktop is a MAC, and I also have an Ipod Touch, so I already had an Itunes account - although I had never explored the podcast selections before. So, I downloaded the Itunes software onto my laptop for this assignment. I really liked the visual displays for the Itunes podcast selections. In my opinion, they were much more appealing and better organized than the selection lists on Podcast Alley. Also, with Podcast Alley, they provided a link to download their aggregator and didn't include links to any others that are popular. I thought they could have included options for a couple of the other most popular ones. I agree with the tutorial that Itunes is the easiest method to use when suscribing to podcasts.

The field is changing so rapidly, I think educators need an inservice at least every other year to keep on top of the latest and greatest tools available.

So many podcasts and so little time! Now let me go check out voice thread! :-)

Thing 19

I really liked a podcast from the Lower Merion School District covering how teachers can deal with the fear of technology and the snafus that go along with technological assignments. Several teachers related their personal stories of techno-disasters, how they handled it and what they learned from their experience. I think my favorite story was one where the principal was visiting a classroom, following along like the students on a laptop. The instructor sent the students to a website at a ".gov" address, and the principal typed ".com" out of habit, which brought up an inappropriate website. The principal started having a fit! Then when the truth was figured out, everyone - including the students and principal - had a discussion about what they had learned from the experience. http://www.lmsd.org/staff/techmentor/podcast/FearFactor.m4a

A podcast like this one is what I would share with colleagues who are afraid to use technology. The candid comments and great stories of trials and triumphs using technology have given me new inspiration to keep my focus on the fact that it is all worth it in the end because even a failure is a lesson learned! I will expect future trials, but try to look at them in a more positive light.

Another podcast I liked was a 2nd grade student-led Willoweb podcast covering solids, liquids and gases. The master of ceremonies was definitely reading a script, and he couldn't pronounce his R's, but that made it all the more charming. One student defined the 3 terms, another told a riddle related to states of matter, and still another gave a description of an experiment you can do with ice, salt, and string. Another interviewed a guest expert. The expert had the same last name as the teacher :-), but was also an engineer for the local natural gas utility. There were about 6 or 7 well thought out questions in the interview which was nicely done. I was very impressed with the integration of music into the background - very professional sounding. An added bonus was a demonstration video link done by 5th grader "Katherine". I noticed that Katherine's face was never shown. Only her hands as she performed the experiment and her voice explaining the actions were included. The 2nd graders all used first names only. I think this was well-thought out as an internet safety precaution. I also liked the fact that there was a printed agenda on the webpage along with the crawling sound bar, which was much more interesting to look at then the bar alone!
http://mps.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/shows/Willowcast35.html

It's obvious from what I have observed that even very young children can be involved in podcasts. The complexity (and teacher's expectations) increases with the students' grade level and experience, and I can see where they can learn to hone writing and speaking skills. I do think it would be exciting for my students to hear themselves, at least at first. But my concern is that this would eventually be considered lame without the visual aspect. My 7/8 graders seem to always want the visual - even if it's a slide show or still photo. I'm wondering if one can "marry" a Power Point for visuals and a podcast for sound? Defnitely something to research and find out about!

Thing 18

Found a great presentation about "25 tools" from the web which, with the exception of Slideshare, are not repeats of the ones we are learning in "23 Things"! That means MORE things to look into and learn! It's really mind-boggling what is available!

25 tools to entertain, educate, enthrall

View more presentations from Phil Bradley.

Professionally, I like the idea that there are many presentations out there ready to go, but there are so many! It might be faster to create and store my own that I'm sure will cover specific GLCE's. I can definitely get some great ideas from the site! I think the most useful part of this tool is its ability to store presentations - either mine or those of students. My presentations would be safe from computer mishaps and available all the time in one spot, accessible anywhere there's internet. My students have had a horrible time trying to save presentations on flash drives, so this would be a great alternative!

Thing 17

I am a consummate list-maker whose paper lists sometimes go missing, so I decided to explore "Remember the Milk" - a list making and reminding tool. I created an account to explore, and found that it can manage tasks by sending reminders pretty much anywhere - emails, SMS, and instant messages. I liked that you can set up events using a calendar. You can also store notes with tasks to keep all of the pertinent info together and schedule events to occur on a regular schedule. There are even maps to refer to, in case the things on your list(s) require(s) locating a destination. In addition, one can share, send and publish tasks and lists to select contacts or to everyone, and the tool can be used on a web-enabled mobile device.

I don't forget obligations very often, but I think it would be convenient to remind myself with an IM or email to make sure I recall a due date. I've scheduled some reminding to occur this week, so we'll see how that goes. I also think it might help me keep track of an ongoing grocery list, which after several days at home, seems to have sprouted legs and walked away! I can't find it to add items and can't recall what items were already on the list! I also think it might help me with something like a list of things to do to begin the school year.

I liked the fact that it included different categories for lists - work, personal, study etc.- to help keep the lists organized. This seems like it might be a good tool for students because of the "Study" tab. We give assignment sheets for the week ahead on Fridays, so on the weekend, my students could schedule their homework assignments to fit into their personal schedule for the next week.

Thing 16

A personal use for Google Docs, would be to upload all my genealogical documentation - photos, wills, deeds, baptismal certificates, etc. - in files by family name. When I want to share something with a newly discovered cousin, I won't have to search for files on my computer and send them as attachments because I can just include their email on my share list for the particular file of interest! In the past, I rescanned photos and documents because by the time I needed to access them again, the computer containing the scan was history. Google Docs fixes that problem.

Professionally I can share documents with colleagues and parents, although it still requires action on the part of the parent(s) to be effective, just liek an email. The point in the prompt regarding students needing email address is definitely a concern. When I started my Romeo and Juliet Blog, I was surprised how many of my 7th and 8th graders are not allowed to have email accounts because parents are concerned about it. Where it's good that parents are watching the email, I wonder how many of those kids have cell phones that text and do what the email would anyhow?

Thing 15

The concept of having selective information come to you instead of having to search for hours to find what you need is definitely fabulous. There will still be a time investment involved, but I see that if I manage the tags selectively, some great ideas can come right to me! I can also keep on top of the latest and greatest, both professionally and personally. Watching blogs and feeds is going to have to become a habit with me. Writing in blogs is no problem - I'm doing this one and another for my students. Hopefully the time I am carving out to accomplish this training can be replaced when I'm done with regular checking of all my new tools!

Thing 14

I found myself lost in exploring a sea of educational websites. There is an overwhelming amount of material out there, but the tags do help narrow the search process. Some of the sites I tagged to investigate later, and others are specific links I found while exploring. I also appreciate the fact that I can retrieve these from the web rather than a specific computer! Very handy - especially if your computer fries, which actually happened to me at school. Wish I had known about Delicious before that happened.

Thing 13

I can definitely see the need for a better system of keeping track of websites I like to use with certain units of study. I lost all my information when we had an electrical problem at school and my computer fried. Trying to find these sites again was not easy. There is so much out there on the web!
Tagging is definiely key to this tool and it could be tricky! A group would definitely have to have a system of tagging so they could find each other's tags. I can see this experience leading us to forming a CMA Wiki, which I think is a fabulous idea. I also think there could be "mini" wikis for each house.

Thing 12

Here is my widget!



Anyone who knows me or has been in my classroom will understand why I chose this one!

I am amazed at all of the tools, gadgets and gizmos out on the internet that are free! ALthough I don't recall really thinking about it, now that I'm making myself doso, I guess I have always assumed that anything on the computer that is worthwhile must be expensive and complicated. So not true! Now that I know these things are out there, I can embed the student-appropriate ones into my blogs. Now I have to work on students being able to blog in school so all can be included - there are too many kids that still don't have a computer at home.

Thing 11

I find that I am really careful about choosing words when commenting, because I don't want to seem critical. I've seen meanings misconstrued too many times when there are no facial expressions or vocal intonations accompanying the words. Comments should never criticize, but rather offer an alternative view, approach, or offer some other food for thought.

I personally like reading comments, because they provide an opportunity to look at something from another point of view. In my experience, there have been many times when a comment or suggestion has provided the perfect springboard for a wonderful idea. Commenting puts all of the heads of the learning community together! Think of all that knowledge being shared!

I am hopeful that students who don't like an oral discussion format will find freedon in using the written word to do so instead.

Thing 10

Here is my Thing 10 embedded video. I'm thrilled to be able to include comments and advice from my favorite mentor, Jim Fay! I especially liked this clip entitled: From Innocence to Entitlement.




In my Thing 9 blog entry, I expressed concern about policing kids on YouTube, but I now see how I can embed what I WANT students to see. Now the comment John made about embedding selected videos makes sense. I LOVE THIS!

Thing 9

I had such a great time looking at videos! I looked up a cartoon I remember watching in the morning before school in the late 50's early 60's. I have found one person in my adult lifetime that can recall this cartoon, and I actually found many of the "adventures" on YouTube! I really didn't imagine it! I also watched some old Carol Burnett outtakes (loved that show!) , Ma and Pa Kettle doing math (a hoot!), Tom Lehrer's "New Math" with animation (hysterical!), and Supermac's "My teacher follows me on Twitter" - (he never really talked about Twitter at all!?).

Then I checked out TeacherTube, which I had never heard of. What a wonderful resource! I watched several lessons, including Kindergarten music using a Smart Board. I plan to check it in the future for ideas, including additions that will spice up my lesson repertoire as well as finding resource possibilities for students - especially if they need support at home. Many of my parents can't help their kids with Algebra. Our current text has an online tutor students have been using at home if they feel the need, but it would be nice to be able to give them another resource to check as well.

Like everyone else, I've received tons of emails from friends which include YouTube links. I can't think of any that have been anything but funny! Although I didn't see anything crude or malicious on YouTube for this experience, I'm sure some creepy things exist out there if one would take the time to look for them. I regularly hear my students discuss this or that video they've viewed on YouTube, and I am sure they are looking at things they shouldn't, because if they realize I'm listening, all of a sudden the volume drops or the subject changes.

So we come back to that age old question: what is appropriate for the classroom and what isn't? The problem is, "appropriate" means something different to each person. Some 7/8 grade parents don't care what their kids watch, and others don't want them watching anything that isn't a G or PG! I think it would be very difficult to police an entire class on YouTube.