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!