One Last Thing

The most enjoyable time I had while going through 23 Things was discovering new things. I enjoyed all the playing I got to do as I learned which reminded me that it is important to add fun to classroom lessons. I hope to continue to learn new things as I check out my RSS feeds every few days or every day. My most surprising outcome was how many doors opened in conversations when I used newly discovered terms from Web learning. Talking to my daughter about blogging and my son about Sketch up were definite highlights. I wasn't so much surprised as pleased to find myself getting more comfortable at blogging (only rereading and rewriting once instead of many times before clicking on publish post button). The only frustration I encountered were the one or two website links that were no longer available. While I didn't encounter too many of these, this is a little frustrating. However, I do appreciate how difficult it would be to correct this considering the lightening-paced change that occurs on the web each and every minute of the day. And, that is just something one has to expect when exploring over the Internet. Overall, I have to say that this has been one of the easiest online classes I have taken. Time consuming and long, but worth every minute spent! 23 Things has made me feel more comfortable about using Internet resources for lessons and has made me familiar with how to go out and find more resources, keep up to speed with things that are going on in education technology, and find a social network of people with similar interests and problems. I am not exactly sure about keeping up with new stuff in Web 2.0, but I believe that an RSS feed to Teacher 2.0 might be a good place to start. And, I am on my way to check out the Learning 2.1 blog. Thanks for a great course!

Thing #23 Ning

Thing 23 was a good thing to learn. I wasn't sure about using Facebook for the classroom, but I think I would be a little more apt to having a classroom participate in a social network that was much more limited. Not to discourage their growth and creativity, but just to maintain that "learning at school" type of interaction among students.

I found very useful information at the Classroom 2.0 Ning site for educators. I did find information that appears to have some value and joined the Special Education in the 21st Century group. It appeared to have the types of questions, discussions, and collaboration that I might be able to use to help with problem solving at school.

I guess I am on the journey to using a social network, having signed up although I do not have any specific goals in mind, I will just have to see where it leads, but I hope to get some new tricks to help deal with problems that might arise during the school year.

Thinng # 22 Social Networking

I am already on Facebook. However, I do not get on there very much. It is very time consuming. I do like to see what everyone is doing. But, I rarely ever post anything. I did play a lot of Bejeweled last summer while checking out Facebook. I never could get into Farmville. I think the most useful feature for me would be to just see what everyone is doing. In the past, you would have to call on the phone to catch up with everyone, one at a time. With Facebook, it is like having everyone you would want to catch up with in the same room at one time. You decide what time that will be, you decide when to send them all home. That is a definite advantage as far as managing time goes. Facebook does have a lot of distractions. For me it is the games. Fortunately, I don't like them all or I might never get off of Facebook. Also, there are some annoying things like pokes and hugs and the millions of announcements letting me know what other people's scores are on their games.

Educators need to know about social networking because that seems to be the way of the world today. As I said in an earlier blog, my vocabulary has been expanded through participation in 23 Things. When I told my daughter I had a blog on blogspot.com, she said, "Me too, we need to keep up with each other through blogging." We already talk in person and text, but this will be a new line of communication for us. It has to provide an advantage in the classroom to be able to speak the students language and social networking is very much their language. I would think that you would see the same advantage I have with my kids at home, a connection that wasn't there before. A relationship builder.

Other than that, I am not sure how to use this in or with a class unless it is used for a teacher to communicate with students. Sometimes it is very hectic during class and almost impossible to answer all student questions without taking over instruction time. This might be a way to communicate, but, I am not sure about managing what is put out there and what others are able to see and whose friends are available for who, etc. Seems to me that there are safer and more manageable ways to set up social networking for your class without using Facebook or MySpace. These two seem like a lunchroom or after school social networking time rather than a classroom networking time.

Thing # 7b - RSS Feeder Update of Interest

Lots of things popped into my head when I glanced at my feeder and saw this blurb from a blog site that is fast becoming one of my favorites, Larry Ferrlazzo's Websites of the Day. The blog referred to information published regarding boredom in the workplace. My mind began reeling over what we might be doing to our students when we do not keep them engaged in learning while they are at school. Are we reducing their lifespans because we present boring lessons in our classrooms? Enough said, you just have to read the description of the study and its results. This might make a good writing prompt for that English paper . . .

Thing # 21 Google Tools

This was definitely fun. First I visited iGoogle. By selecting information that I was interested in and adding lots of gadgets, windows for Epicurious, joke of the day, several games, and Spanish word of the day now show up when I go to my google home page. I also added weather, date & time, and news. I may never leave my home page! Next, I played around with Picasa uploading a picture, editing it, and attaching it to my blog profile (look to the left, not exactly Glamour Shots, but it'll do). Then I watched the tutorial for Sketchup, but didn't want to download it on my laptop. However, what a totally entertaining and educational site for students. This tool could offer a fun and visual way to teach some basic geometry. Also, it could be used for interior design class or figuring out your own classroom configuration, etc. What about those TAKS Math questions with the blocks (which view best represents this figure from the side), I'm not sure, but this might be a way for teachers, or students, to set up some practice questions. Then I got lost playing in the Google Lab - what should have been a short time exploring turned into an hour and a half. One of the choices to view was news and advertisements shown in a different way. I really liked viewing the books. I searched and found a few books I have been thinking about reading and checked them out. This was almost as good as The Library Thing, but I didn't find the reviews. There really aren't enough hours in a day are there?

Thing # 20 Google Docs

Google Docs is a great tool to have. It was very easy to use. It is difficult for me to contemplate using something like this since I schedule and hold ARDs and the information I deal with is generally confidential and not to be shared. I like to have lots of information for parents who attend ARDs though, so I set up a document with some of the information I give out frequently. Of course I have only put in a few things. My revision history holds a lot of versions already as I continually thought of information to add. I can see teachers collaboratively using this document to add their wiki spaces and web pages, project assignment info, etc. Also, as homework help sites are found they could be added.

Personally, I can see sharing a spreadsheet with the family to keep up with household budget goals and items, especially as they head off to college and are not as accessible as they once were. A Google Docs presentation could be used by students or teachers who are doing a group presentation so that each could add, edit, and update. Teachers can share lesson plans, lessons, and even field trip planning could be done using a Google Docs document. There were also lots of useful templates that were available so that no one has to start from scratch. I think the student information form would be beneficial as we begin school. Student info could be shared among only those teachers who are on the student's team. It might save some time if each teacher doesn't have to collect separate info from each student. Teachers wouldn't have to transfer written data to a spreadsheet (students could do this during a computer lab activity at the beginning of the year). Just some beginning thoughts for using Google Docs.

Thing # 19 - Voicethreads

This may be the answer to the oral test issue I discussed in the earlier blog on Podcasts. The Voicethread allows sound and was easy to stop, start, rewind. Wait, not rewind, but click to go forward and backward to different pages of the presentation. (I am showing my age, and what's even worse, I am not sure I remember what electronic device we used to rewind!) This would allow us to give tests on the computer, meet a multitude of different learning styles, and give our students who have difficulty reading the best chance of taking a test that would normally be just text on paper. It solves the problem of not having enough people to read six weeks tests on several subjects to several students at one time. And, it allows students to move through the test at an individualized pace. Now, if I can just round up what I need to make the recording and get the visuals together we will be set to use this technology. I will definitely be using this technology in the school year coming up.