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!