Microblogging Thing #5

For sharing ideas and looking for innovation for "old" lessons especially because I am not on a team, Facebook and Twitter will be something to use this upcoming year. Also, I can compare how globally the topic of education is addressed and try, in a small way (micro), improve things in my classroom to get my students ready for the "real 'flat' world." It scares me how little these kids know about how technology can be applied in the workforce and is not just about texting, microblogging for gossip, and video games.
Communication is key, but me being a "word" person, the 140 character limit will be a challenge for me :)
The key to being a good teacher is to not become "crusty" with your skills and lessons and improve those skills and lessons to meet the standards of the 21st century--microblogging will help me with this challenge---why go it alone when I can get help?
As well, Twitter can be a way to let others know what I am doing in my classroom--especially those in my departement or especially my appraiser. By attaching the link onto my lessons, others can view/see/know what I am doing daily. This will be a challenge for me to keep up with it, but I am up for the challenge. Keeping things stress-free is my goal every year and the old adage--"work smark not hard" is my mantra. Who knows--maybe microblogging will/can replace lesson plans being turned in and (ah hem) boring staff development?!

Video Hosting thing 4

Animoto only lets you download full-length videos, but it lets you export the short-length ones to You-tube, so that's what I did.
I will have to work on making a full-length video and posting it--don't know what of though. I will have to really think about a student project where we could utitlize this--maybe a remake of A Raisin in the Sun scene or for a journalism assignment. The ideas are endless and the possibilities boundless...

Skyping Thing 3

I had already heard of Skype from some friends and Oprah. It is very good to use if you have friends or family who live far away and do not get to visit often--seeing them makes it so much better; however, this program is voice-driven because the technology is so new, so new etiquette is essential.
As far as my classroom, I could see using this for a speaker who is far away and cannot visit; or like the teacher on Edublogger, interacting with students from other countries. This is a key aspect of the whole "flat classroom/flat world", which is very interesting to me. Because I teach poverty kids who will probably not get to interact with people of other cultures and therefore, open their "little 5 block radius" world, it is essential to their survival in the 21st century. I can't wait to see if our library has a camera so I can set this up. I am trying to get an author of one of the books we read to come visit; maybe with Skype, it may be possible...

Thing #2 Image Generators 2

Wordle is very cute because of the colors and the font; however, just because a word is used several times, doesn't mean it's important and should be made bigger. For instance, I tried it with my blog and an SAT passage and it made words large and bold that were not necessarily important--so that's something you need to watch for with using literature. It may work well with non fiction--we'll see...

Glogster had some inappropriate posters, so I would have a hard time monitoring whether my students are looking at "content that is appropriate" especially with the COW. Because VoiceThread is a strictly monitored web-based networking tool, I would prefer its use in my classroom. The 5 different ways to comment and converse seem very efficient, while the zooming mechanism is very "cool." This is a great way to "teach" kids how to appropriately comment with intelligent feedback--I find plenty of my students (because they don't speak with adults in a positive way or have no positive role models) do not know how to converse appropriately or intelligently as well as stay on topic.

What can I say?????? Animoto is so awesome--I wish I would have taken more pictures of myself pregnant and then I could do a progression video! For the classroom though, especially for Journalism or maybe for a research project and definitely the senior legacy, this would be the best tool to use...photos for stories and it could be paired with Voice Thread for commenting. Since it's applicable with Facebook, you could definitely do a research and networking based project.

Bookr is very interesting and would be for students for a book review, a comic book/children's book/book jacket project. The point of all these new programs is to get kids to do what we want in a new way. Here's my bookr on art:
Art by Rachel Bush

Thing #1 Summer 2009

The aspect of connectivism really does empower students to strengthen their learning, especially through what they love: social networking sites. We, as teachers of the 21st century, need to get our students excited about blogging academically and NOT just socially like on Facebook.
Using Google scholar in addition to the library resources pages will definitely be something for me to use for next year's research paper. I am going to, this summer, check it out more in-depth to see what is offered topic-wise and possibly change my lesson plan.
I want to with my research paper, use the concept of:
posting to social networking site (Oh know, now I have to get a facebook page)
sharing sites/information found with others (classmates)
searching blogs and evaluating information for credibility (a much needed tool since the kids don't know what is what)
commenting on and offering opinions (part of daily grades)
using Google Reader to get updates about blogs
posting own blog (part of end grade)
watching documentaries on topics and offering "reviews" to others and using as source
I-Tunes U: university courses on topic
video conferencing with "experts"
creating own wiki on topic (other part of end grade)
It will be new for me to not be "teacher" and be more of an organizer, manager, guide, motivator, and evaluator for my students--but I am up for the challenge because I really want to be "with it" in terms of technology and keep my students interested and engaged. My only concern is the network here at SWHS; last year when I applied the Yahoo Avatars and Google Docs applications to my lesson, the whole system shut down for 2 days and I had to dismantle. It was extremely frustrating. We'll see with the "new and improved" library.

Thing 23 I am done and I have learned copious amounts!

1. My favorite discoveries were the avatar and Google Docs, as well as Teacher Tube. I always thought that some of these online things were just a waste of time, but I found out that there is another whole world out there that I had no clue existed. The avatar was cute and I would like to in my free time (what's that?) travel through some of those avatarian (a word?) worlds like City of Heroes and Second Life. I think (and hope) my students will enjoy the avatar project that I want to do with them on the first week of school. Let's hope all goes well, technologically speaking...
Also, Google Docs, I think, is amazing; no more saving and wondering where things are and emailing myself; it's all there and I can make whatever I want my students to view "public" (no more extra handouts kids...go to My Google Docs and print one!).
Finally, creating my own blog was incredible and I am really proud of it and have been showing it off to people.

2. This program has drastically improved my technological online skills. I thought I was tech savvy, but I was so wrong. Lifelong learning goals are just that...life long and I have learned that is much that I have learned online and more to come. I really need to master RSS feeds and podcasting; those are my goals for this school year.

3. The thing that I will takeaway from this program is that as far as technology goes, one can NEVER stop learning because just when you think you mastered it, there is something new and what you learned, is now irrelevant.

4. To me, RSS feeds and podcasting were challenging, so more explanation would be better, but how do you do that without boring or bombarding someone with too much information? I don't have the answers; I thought the format was done well and I don't have any complaints.

5. I would definitely participate again; I liked the "work at your own pace" format and not being in a classroom doing a staff development was a welcome change. Is this the way all classrooms will be soon?

6. "Eyeopener" is a noun that I would use to describe my experience because I just...never knew...

Thing 22 Nings

I already signed up for The Flat Classroom Project Ning earlier in the course because I was very interested in the concept of a "flat earth" and the fact that we are just divided up as far as email or network can keep us.

Because I would not be interested in something like Facebook or Myspace, Teacher Lingo, which I signed up for, seems right up my alley. Teaching, like medicine and law, is one of those careers where you are required, even if not, to keep up with the new trends and you must have new ideas or you just become irrelevant, and that is my greatest fear!

Teacher Lingo is really great; they have many features, including one I like "Tell us about your day". It can be something bad, something good, something funny; sometimes you just gotta tell someone else what happened because you may be in disbelief or think it's hilarious. I will definitely use this for venting, collecting ideas, and watching podcasts.

Thing 21 Podcasts

I do not get this at all. I embedded the podcast "Podcasting in Secondary Education in the UK".

According to one of the kickball captains, I was supposed to make my own, but I don't understand how to, so...if someone could help me who has already done it, that would be great. Thanks all.

Again, I tried using Audacity, and I downloaded it, but I don't know how to use it. Oh well, I can learn when I get back to school by "stalking" our local Library2Play graduate...you know who you are!

I have seen these podcasts on Teacher Tube and You Tube and they look like fun, but I just don't think I am savvy enough (yet) to use them. I saw how they were used to improve younger students' speech and story telling abilities. I hope that our technology teachers are using this though because it looks like something that will be quite viable in the business (real) world for our students to be marketable.

Thing 20 Videos!

Having videos at our disposal is a wonderful teaching tool to create more modern lessons. I am using one from Teacher Tube for my Avatar Project; it's cute and silly and "clean", so we'll see how it goes.

I wish I had a projector in my classroom to show all of these videos. It's kind of a pain to sign up for it each time. Supposedly , we are getting whiteboards, which I would rather a projector and some laptops, but I hear it's a little complicated. My goal this year is to really spice up my lessons with technology and pepper in some videos, some cool sites, and making it my priority to see that my students learn what I have learned. The whole global "flat" world thing is really worrying me, considering how low level my students in previous years have been, technology and English wise.

Thing 20 WiziQ Free Web 2.0 Education

Thing 19 Web 2.0 Awards!

Delicious is the best for bookmarking becaue it's user friendly and of course, popular, which means more "stuff". Bookmarking is wonderful for collaborating with others on teams/in dept. on similar educational information. If one person on the team finds something great, he/she can share with the ideas and vice versa, until there's a database of "stuff" that is easily accessible to all.

Google Docs is one of my favs also because it allows me to create documents/spreadsheets/presentations, all in one place, that I can easily access without having to save or remember which computer and where; I can share and publish for all to see and even to collaborate upon. I have created a few things already; I hope my visiters/collaborators will give me feedback.

.Doc Stoc is really amazing, especially, of course, the educational section. There are presentations, handouts, charts, everything you would need to create a great lesson. Also, just like Google Docs, you can share with others, which I love to do, and I love when others share with me and we collaborate to make something that otherwise would not have been so good. Here's the link so I won't forget: http://www.docstoc.com/documents/educational/

Let's not forget Google Blogsearch, which I find easier to use than Technorati for searching for what blogs are new and for what you WANT to read, like a sifter.

As well a favorite is of course, Flickr. Who doesn't love photos? And this way you can find exactly what you want. I can use this in my Jouralism class, as well as for inspiration to write in ENG III and IV.

Last but not least, there's good old You Tube for videos that you don't have to download, you can just stream/show, but of course sometimes you will run into the SBISD filter that will block your favorite, non threatening video, and ask yourself WHY????

Thing 18 Open Office vs Google Docs

Obviously, the advantage of these products is that what you save is always going to be there and you can make them private or public; however, if the net is down, then your presentation or lesson is sc***ed!
I really like Google Docs and I just completed a presentation about Flowers for Algernon on it, but if the Internet is down when I go to use it, I don't know what I will do because many links on the presentation are web based. However, it is very convenient to not have to save anymore and remember where you put it.
Open Office seems more user friendly because I suppose it's their primary tool; unlike Google, who has other things going on, and I don't see any type of "support" with Google, like in Open Office.
I couldn't download Open Office at home, but I will definitely do it when I get back to school, so here is the link for me to remember to do that:
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html

Thing 17 Rollyo

Select Search Engine...Have Job Have Baby Will TravelSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Rollyo allows me to put my searches in a "card catalog" type fashion. This will definitely get me more organized. I found some sites on Journalism, which I will be teaching this upcoming school year and have never taught before, so now when I have more time, I can read those articles/information. Also, because I am a new mom, I have created a "roll" for parenting. I need to definitely read the articles on Dr. Brazelton, and so should anyone with a baby, because he is the fore most expert on what he calls "Touchpoints."

Thing 16 Wikis

I made a wiki at PB wiki already, but clearly I did not know what I was doing. Now that I have watched the tutorials, I can go in and edit to make it better. I really need to add video instead of the link to it, my avatar as a slideshow/photo, a calendar of due dates, and a chat aspect in case students have problems...it's a work in progress.

In my class, I could have my students create one to collaborate on group projects, including the research project/paper. Also, I like the idea of using it for my syllabus/policies and for resumes. Maybe paper will be obsolete soon...hmmm!

Thing 15 Web, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

http://flatclassroomproject2006.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Flat_Classroom_Handout_June07.pdf
Link to the flat classroom project that contains all the links to explain what it is and all the contributors. Sounds great to me...since we are getting whiteboards, maybe my school could get involved? Any thoughts...

Right now, I am reading The World is Flat and this is amazing that I am seeing some of those concepts come to life with these two projects. Wouldn't it be amazing for someone from Montanat to speak to my students about the setting of Montana 1948 or a brain surgeon to speak to my students on brain surgery and intelligence for a discussion of Flowers for Algernon. Who needs wikipedia or google, when you have the real thing? Who needs notebooks when students can just blog and have a full fledged discussion? I wonder if these things are possible for Spring Woods students because we would have some difficult obstacles?!

http://socialnetworking4teachers.wikispaces.com/Bloggers+to+Learn+From
This is an extensive list for learning everything you would want to know about Web 2.0; it's all in one place in case anyone needs a review. I am posting it so it will be there "always" for me!

Library and Web 2.0 technology means a whole new world of information collecting, collaborating, and gathering. If I can figure all of these new technologies out, then I think that teaching the research paper would actually be rewarding and exciting, for me as well as for my students. The one sided library is out...collaboration is in...the difficulties come with a population like at my school where so many students seem computer/internet/technology illiterate, I worry about the implications of allowing high school students be involved in the process. That's kind of the problem I am having with wikis is that what if someone edits it and they vandalize or do something inappropriate. What if I plan all of these activities, and my students are just not tech savvy enough and it makes it worse? I am super excited about implementing all of these new things that I have learned, but of course, I have concerns.

As far as school libraries go, again, can our/my/all students participate in the process of being collaborators in the "new future libraries"? Can all teachers? Are districts going to keep up with technology by training us? I am still dismayed at what I don't know and I am very glad that I am learning about these new pieces of information.

Thing 14 Technorati

Blog posts seem more "chatty" than the Blog Directory for School Library Learning 2.0, I guess because posts has "fans" and the directory has "authorities." The tags were not what I expected, so it makes me wonder: are they useful for the reader, the creator, or the commentor?
I guess if you have researched elsewhere and have failed, these tags sites are great because they give you perspectives that you may have not considered or thought of, as well as, authorities on subjects that you would otherwise NEVER get to speak to, and that's actually amazing. You could be speaking to the president for all you know! :)
I don't see myself using Technorati as much as maybe a site like Flickr, just because I don't blog all that much, even now; however, after doing this online course, maybe that will change...

Thing 13 What am I Doing?

I don't really get how to work delicious. I understand what a tag is and what it does, but I installed the buttons while I was on the site and when I went to another site to find something to tag, they "went away." So, what did I do wrong?

I think bookmarking, the concept, sounds great, if I could just "get it." Colleagues and others being collaborators on tasks, especially in educational teams is always a good thing. Being overwhelmed by all of this information, seems to be a motto for me in this course.

Delicious is more popular and all, but Furl gives other options that Delicious doesn't: highlighting text that you want the other person to specifically read; ratings in numerical form, instead of stars; and keywords that may/may not have to do with the information, like "follow up", just for you.

The potential for bookmarking for research is boundless; for students who become overwhelmed by an overload of information, if they could learn how to use "bookmarks" then they could organize their online article better than they do now, but I wonder, does it have to be installed onto our school's computers; is it already; will they let the students do it?

For teachers, bookmarking would help with team teaching and research gathering--I would have loved to have known about it earlier this year when I was working on lessons for my maternity leave and gathering information and speakers for a presentation on college and career planning.
So...I have yet to find my "magic middle" because I am befuddled by what I have learned and I really need to take a break and explore and absorb before I move onto Thing 14...here I come soon.

If anyone can make a comment on this posting and explain to me (preferrably a food metaphor) in layman's terms, what the heck is all this about?!

PB Wiki

Could anyone who needs to comment on a blog or has free time, take a look at my wiki and let me know:

• does it make sense? is it understandable/clear in regard to the directions
  and tasks? do the links work for you on your end?

http://rachelbushenglish.pbwiki.com/Mrs-Bush-ENG-SWHS

I am doing this in lieu of what I usually do the first week of school to:

• get to know my students
• do something fun and not stressful being it's right after summer
• start them off with a piece for their personal essay
• integrate technology that I have learned.

Thanks for any help.

Thing 12 Blogging Communities

Looking at all of these professional bloggers makes me jealous and makes me feel like I will never get there. It is important, I now know, to be polite, yet honest, when commenting on different blogs or responding to comments made on yours. I tend to be sarcastic in real life, but that is not "proper blog etiquette" according to "coolcatteacher" and drake, so I will have to start with the positives in that regard.

I commented on "blueskunk" about presentations and blogging in general and tried to heed the advice from the article that I read. I need to look out for "DC" and not let someone make me feel stupid because I am just a beginner.

In my readings, I found some great links that lead me to Student 2.0, a student based blog that spoke of some educational trends that intrigued me--edupunk and the website of all student posted literature called Space.

Library Thing 11

I posted some books that are either on my book shelf, that I loved, or am reading right now. I really like this website; it gives me a chance to discuss books with others who enjoy them also--as well, it is easier for me because I am always on the go, and I don't have time to go to "sit down book club" or to start my own. My husband and I usually like different kinds of books, so now I can discuss these books with other adults (especially since my only other choice is my baby, who is still "reading" board books).

Thing 10 Response

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/poem/

This is a link to "visual poetry" if any poets are interested.

The comic strip generator was very cute and not complicated. Image chef had plenty of variety if you really want to play around with the images and animation--fun stuff. However,the sign generator site was a bit more complicated and looked like it was for serious sites, like businesses.

Of course, these sites can be used in the classroom for supplemental or "get to know you" activities, but I will have to think about how it could translate to "serious" language arts lessons...any suggestions out there?

What I hope I don't hear the first week of school!

Sign Generator Link