Thing #19

Okay, this is really fun! I found a Voicethread that showed how to construct a congruent line segment using the Promethean software. This has so much potential - it is very simple. The alphabet book by the first graders was super cute and I really like having a sample to be able to show teachers how easy it is. Again, students can take ownership. Everyone can give their opinion or instruction on a picture or video. We can use it to create simple instructional videos for teachers using technology. Teachers can use it to create curriculum instruction. This is going to be something that I want to show teachers on my campuses - especially those non-title I campuses that don't get all the "cool stuff." These are the type of tools that only require the computers we have on campuses and that everyone can use! Two thumbs up for Voicethread!

Constructing a Congruent Line Segment by Sandra Goldman

Thing #18

Youtube and Teachertube are definitely addicting! I found everything on Youtube from Promethean demonstrations to technology inspiration for the classroom. I included Technology in the 21st Century here and posted Hope for Technology in the Sandbox. My favorite how-to video is one by Johnny Lee that shows how to make an interactive whiteboard using a Wii remote. Just for fun, I also found one on how to crochet a hackey sack. My sons would love it (although they probably wouldn't make one themselves). :-)

I thought it was pretty funny when I typed "technology in the classroom" as a search for videos and the 2nd one that came up was the "Walkthroughs and Learning Objectives" done by Mesquite ISD! This is a great lesson in being careful what you let people video! You never know where it is going to turn up! I also found more technology inspiration videos for the classroom. In addition I found one on how to create groups in Teachertube.

Both of these sites can be a great resource in the classroom from finding inspiration for teachers and students to showing them how to do a task. I like the idea of creating groups for classroom videos. Videos and links can be embedded into presentations. (Although, I believe that Youtube is blocked with our district filter - not sure about Teachertube - so this could cause a problem with linking to them). Another idea that would really appeal to students would be to create their own video to post to one of these sites (although district guidelines must be followed before posting students online). Lots of topics could be covered this way and again, you're meeting students where they are and using technology that they use at home!

Technology in the 21st Century by abby1drew

Thing #17

I listened to several podcasts and found some interesting things. The ones that I was first interested in (TechPodZone and Geek!ed!) had some topics that I really wanted to hear. However, each of these was 30-40 minutes long and consisted of people sitting around chatting and joking, etc. I listened to about 7-8 minutes of each of them before I got totally annoyed because there was no "meat," yet. I don't think teachers are going to kill 40 minutes on something that should take 10 minutes. However, I also listened to Grammar Girl's Quidk and Dirty Tips as well as 60 Second Science and really liked the fact that they got to the point. I'm sure the other 2 had great information in them, but I really wanted to hear it and not wait for it (and this is summer when I'm not nearly as busy).

After listening to these, I had a better idea of what I like in a professional podcast. I searched Education Podcast Network and found one called Mac Tips Daily. These are short podcasts with cool tips on using the features of your Mac. I have downloaded podcasts for a year or so using iTunes. They actually have a great search feature and you can search virtually any topic and cost (I look for free ones). Promethean Planet puts out ActivTips to show new features of ActivStudio and ActivInspire. These are actually screencasts so there is a visual of the computer screen as well as audio. I use podcasts personally to listen to different Bible studies in the mornings while I get dressed. My oldest son is a counselor at Pine Cove Christian Camp this summer and they posted podcasts online for the counselors in the spring to prepare them and raise their enthusiasm for camp.

There are so many uses for podcasting in the classroom. I have taught some teachers how to use them in the classroom. They have done readers' theaters with their students, taught math problems, created short interviews with students playing famous leaders, and even had students podcast campaign speeches for campus elections. Just about any subject can be podcast. I have even heard of teachers using podcasts to over material for students that are out. If you have never seen the class webpage of Mr. Coley who is a teacher in California, then visit and check out the studycasts and other things that are done by his students. I was fascinated and very excited about the possibilities of using these ideas in a classroom. Again, the students have ownership of the webpage and therefore take responsibility for their learning! Yea, Mr. Coley!

Thing #16

I could spend all day here! And I probably will when I finish this course! This would be a great place to set up a class group for students to share ideas about books or do book studies. A group similar to the 50 Book Challenge would be a great motivator in the classroom! I could spend hours in the group section - found several lively discussions that I could easily join. Best of all, this would be a great place to catalog a classroom, professional, or personal library. When I was in the classroom, I tried to have my books in themes or categories but so many of them could go in more than one. This is a great way to be able to pull your books by tags for each topic. On a more personal note, I am in charge of my church library and we are constantly getting books to catalog (not one of my best subjects in library school). Most of the time I can get everything I need from Library of Congress but they don't always have the Dewey Decimal number for the book and I am left to figure it out the best I can. Many of the books here have cataloging info - yea! Another resource to check before I "make it up!" As a librarian in a tech job, this has been one of my favorite 23 Things so far! Librarians rock!

Thing #15

Okay, this one was way too fun! I could have spent lots more time adding things to my wiki page (which I will probably do when I get a few more Things under my belt). Creating the page was actually pretty intuitive - nothing I ran across that was very tricky. I did have a little trouble creating the table of contents so I actually had to go back and READ the directions (I was only putting 1 bracket instead of double brackets). There were plenty of instructions available which was very helpful if I got stuck. At first I had trouble thinking of my favorite things and then suddenly I had lists popping in my head all morning. The burning questions were lots of fun and would probably be a really fun tool for kids to add to a blog - would personalize it and would really make kids think (you know, that higher order thinking thing)!

Thing #14

I must start out by saying that Vicki Davis' Wiki Wiki Teaching post got me pretty excited! How many times have I heard in my teaching career that it's all about making students responsible for their own learning. We must make it relevant and exciting for them. This teacher gave students ownership and they ran with it! And she didn't do it with paper and pencil tasks (yes, I know, my soapbox again)!

When I think of a wiki the first thing that comes to mind is collaboration. Some of the wiki examples could have just been webpages. The Holocaust Wiki Project was a real disappointment for me. I was looking forward to seeing some great student work about this topic. Instead, I found a site that was only a place for the teacher to post the assignment. This was a high school AP class, too! How frustrating that their best and brightest were not given the opportunity to really make use of this 21st century tool!

Another wiki I saw was the Kindergarten Counting Book. Each of the numbers had a picture posted next to it with the same number of objects in the picture. It's really hard to say if there was any collaboration - I'm hoping the students were at least able to take the pictures and help the teacher upload them to the wiki. I didn't see any responses (yes, kindergarteners can respond) and I only saw editing done by the teacher.

I did like the Schools in the Past wiki. This was done by a 1st grade class and students interviewed parents and grandparents about their school experience. The adults were then asked to post their answers online under the correct section. This was obviously done by multiple people because of the different writing styles (some had no capitalization) and grammar. So, even though the students did not do the actual typing, they participated by asking the questions and being part of the collaboration process. What a great way to get started! That teacher could then build from there and eventually get those students to log on themselves and respond to questions! Students are capable of doing just about anything we expect them to be able to do! And they're usually a lot better at catching on to technology than we are!

Thing #13 (Corrected)

I have been using my Delicious account for about a year and a half now. It seemed very overwhelming when I first learned about it with all the tags, etc. But then I realized that tags were just descriptors. I didn't know previously about clicking on the magic blue box to find other people - pretty fun! I really like the feature of being able to share articles with others (and others sharing with me). We do this in our department occasionally and it really comes in handy. I would love to be able to help teachers on my campuses set up Delicious accounts and share articles with them as well as show them how to share articles with each other. If students also had Delicious accounts, then teachers could share articles/websites with them and they could also share with each other. There are, of course, issues that come about when we have students sign up for accounts like that and we are unable to monitor them. Parents would have to be made aware so they could monitor those.

I have started using Delicious more often since I found an application called Stumble Upon in which you choose topics of interest and hit the Stumble Upon button and it randomly brings up websites in those categories. Sometimes they are really awesome and I want to save them. I was bookmarking them at first and now have an absurdly horrible bookmark list (which is why I don't want to export those, yet - need to get them organized). Then I started using Delicious for the ones I desperately wanted to keep. It is a really great way to keep me organized!

Thing #7a

This Infinite Thinking Machine posting by Lucy Gray had an interesting point about Twitter that I think can be expanded to use with any technology - especially in the classroom. She points out that many people with Twitter post everyday mundane things about their lives that they are doing that very moment. No one really cares if you're eating lunch or walking your dog right this second (well, a few people might care but not all of cyberspace). Technology is a pretty useless thing if its purpose is useless. I think the same can be said of using technology in the classroom just for technology's sake. I will be the first to tell you that Promethean boards are awesome! I LOVE them and think they have such great potential for students. But if they are used to scan in worksheets for students to circle and highlight and for nothing else, let's just buy more overheads - way cheaper! And doing a technology assignment with no real tie to curriculum is, of course, a waste of time which we don't have enough of in the classroom. Let's make technology meaningful and make the curriculum more meaningful by combining the two (used to be what we called integration and seem to have gotten away from - but that's for another soapbox). Let's not just Twitter away the mundane aspects of our curriculum - let's make it mean something to the kids! I'll bet we'll see more of it stick! What do you think?

Thing #12

I chose Weebly.com to review. This is such an easy and intuitive place to create a website. There are many themes to choose from and types of pages to add (including blogs). They even allow you to use your own domain if you have one. It is all totally free! Even though the district provides a space for teacher blogs, I can see where there might be times where a separate one would be effective. For example, if you are a high school coach who also teaches regular classes, you might want a blog for your class and a separate blog for the team that parents can also access. (Does it sound like I'm going to be team Mom next year and want to set up a blog for parents to stay informed)?

I looked at some of the other tools, as well. The Toondoo and Pikistrips are good alternatives to using Comic Life which is not on all computers. Comic tools are great for writing. I was also very impressed with Quizlet - great way for students to create study tools and share what they have created!

Thing #11

I created a comic strip with Bubblr. It was pretty fun and easy to find pictures! Although the text doesn't show up very well in the blog and it would cover the pictures if I made it bigger. Some of the applications take a little longer because the search for proper photos is time consuming. I also liked the Mosaic maker except you really need LOTS of photos to make it look good (probably depending on what master picture you use). PicMarkr was also very practical (my husband is a photographer) because it allows you to put watermarks on your photos. The sign makers were also pretty fun and there seemed to be hundreds! I created the Etch a Sketch sign in just a couple minutes. Students could do math problems, short writing exercises, ads, and the possibilities are endless!

Thing #10

I have created a slideshow using Animoto to show how technology has evolved. This was pretty easy to do and I really enjoyed it. It is actually much easier for younger students to manipulate than something like iMovie where you have so many choices. I like the fact that you can add text slides. I have actually seen Animoto slide shows created by high school students to teach math concepts as a review for TAKS.



Slides from Flickr created by:
Portal Technology by fPat
Technology Then and Now by ILoveButter
Technology and Literacy by christinapsych4
Kindle 2 by Affiliate
Darwin was Right About Media Players by Neeku
Swiss Telephone System by Kecko
iPhones by Mads Boedker
0890 Sharp Calculator by crabchick
0949 Rheinmetal Portable Typewriter by crabchick
New Look by Declan TM
Old Technology 4 by crabchick
Still Life with Modernity by Mat Honan
Orange Glow by Matthew Clark Photography and Design
MacBook Air by Jeffwilcox
Technology: A Gift that Keeps on Giving by CP

Thing #9 Stretch

The extra things are really fun. I like the spell feature - kids could practice spelling words with this feature or create great titles for posters. I also like the puzzle - students could create a puzzle with a picture from a geographical site or a math concept and create a puzzle with it. Lots of creative ways to use it.

Thing #9

I LOVE Flickr! I have heard about it and have been intending for awhile to check it out but never really took the time. I will now begin to start using it personally and professionally. My dad left notebooks full of family history and photos which I have scanned for family members - what a great place to host and share these! There were some great ideas for classroom use of Flickr. Some of my favorites were for writing - especially the six word stories using 1 image and six words. What a great higher order thinking writing activity (which also goes along with the whole brevity issue I talked about in an earlier post.
This great picture was found on Flickr and was posted by ILoveButter and is called Technology Then and Now. The pictures I searched were geared toward technology and also included the ways technology has changed over the years. I thought this one was fun and could help show teachers that time does not stand still when it comes to teaching!

Thing #8

It seems like the past year has brought more and more questions about copyright to our office. With the new Web20 Wiki for Mesquite that includes a blog site for teachers, people are constantly asking if certain pictures or videos are legal to post. As a former (yet, always) librarian, you think I would know the answer to these questions. The internet seems to constantly bring up new questions. I love Creative Commons because it really simplifies things. However, it seems that the CC licenses can all be a little different, and I'm not quite sure how to research each one - might take a bit more delving. But this will be a great source to send teachers. Our department is trying to post Promethean flipcharts on the wiki so teachers will have access to ready made curriculum that matches our district's standards and we have already come up against so many copyright issues of flipcharts that have been submitted. They may have used graphics that were fine for class, but are they legal to post on the web? Every answer seems to be different according to specific circumstances. Hopefully, Creative Commons will make life a bit easier. And, if not, we'll just refer them to our awesome Library Services department for the real scoop!

Thing #6

I have actually been following an RSS reader for awhile (NetNewsWire) that we set up through the Information Technology department. In the beginning, I felt like I had to read through as many posts as I could and got totally overwhelmed. If I got busy and had to skip a week, I would have several hundred posts to go through. Eventually, I realized that I only had to read the ones I was interested in. I also found that many of the posts were similar (at least with the ones that talked about new technology coming out) and I could skim through the topics pretty quickly. Most importantly, I realized that it was all for my own information and learning - I wasn't going to be quizzed or graded on any of it - and that I only needed to look at what I was interested in.

And, speaking of being interested, I love Wes Fryer's "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" blog. I have followed him for about a year now, and there is always something interesting that catches my eye. One of his recent posts was actually a quick little video his daughter took with his new iPhone. I almost skipped right over it because I don't have one - yet - but the extra words "Irrelevant Paper" caught my eye. In the video he talks about the waste of paper he got from attending a superintendent's conference. The information could have very easily been digitized and accessed as necessary insteading of killing the trees it took to create the notebook - that will very probably end up in the trash. We taught a class last week and posted the handouts on the district Web20 Wiki and emailed participants with the link telling them to feel free to print them ahead of time if they wanted them during the class. Several people showed up with them - others did not. And on the evaluation we got some not-so-happy-comments about not having handouts. Sigh...what's a tree lover to do? Any suggestions on how to make this more palatable for teachers?

Thing #7

I commented on a couple of postings from my RSS feed one being "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" on his Irrelevant Paper posting. (I love this post, by the way - we're trying to save paper in our staff development classes by posting handouts online and letting participants know where they are ahead of time. Some people love it and some, well, not so much. Need to emphasize more of the "being green" factor, I guess). Anyway, I have always been a lurker on blogs and not a commenter. Knowing that I was going to comment forced me to read the posting a little bit more closely and follow other comments, as well, so as to not duplicate comments and so as to not sound like a dork. I definitely think that commenting makes you more a part of the blog community and really makes you focus more on the "conversation."

Thing #5

Don't Save the World was a great article by a high school student who spent her summer knitting and reading library books instead of going on exotic vacations that would look good on a college application. We put so much pressure on kids today to do everything perfectly. My youngest son is going to be a senior next year and his schedule is packed full of AP classes. Somehow he has to fit in varsity soccer and a job. My oldest son had a similar schedule his senior year and realized it was so not worth it when he chose to attend a smaller college. I'm all for having kids do worthwhile activities during the summer, but sometimes they just need to "chill" and be kids, too!

Thing #4

I loved reading the different blogs - so much information out there. All of them seem to be informative or persuasive - giving an opinion and expecting others to comment or add to it. Blog reading is different from other reading in that it is short and I tend to do more skimming through the blogs, especially the comments unless I find one that really catches my attention. Therefore, a blog (that really has the intention of being read) needs to be written in a way that especially catches and holds the reader's attention. I agree with Anne Davis of Edublog Insights that the comments written on the blog allow readers to learn from each other and create a more collaborative learning environment. Comments encourage readers (and contributors) to delve more deeply into a topic and help them apply it to their own situation.

Blogging also encourages brevity in writing. The original post should be short enough to not lose readers' attention, and the comments should be precise and to the point. I love one of the comments to the Student 2.0 blog that said "with brevity comes ambiguity, with ambiguity comes questioning and reflecting." Isn't that what we want from our students - questioning and reflecting? Once students start reflecting, questioning, and commenting, then they get ownership of their learning. Then they begin to collaborate, and according to the Ripe Environment on the Discourse about Discourse blog, this fosters a need to collaborate and collaboration is an extension of our natural instincts as a teacher. And what better way for students to learn than to teach each other. Along with this, though, becomes a necessity for teaching responsible public writing. Students (and some teachers) need to learn what is appropriate and inappropriate and also learn that cyberbullying is no less harmful than bullying someone face to face. Blogging can become a very important part of classroom instruction when used correctly.

Thing #2

Web 2.0 have totally changed the way I work! With technology constantly changing the only way I can keep up with new trends is to use my RSS feed. I currently use NetNewsWire and it allows me to scan articles and spend more time on the ones I need (or have an interest in). The Mesquite hosted blog not only allows me to communicate with others but also allows the teachers I teach to communicate with their students online. This year we have discovered a tool called Drop Box which allows us to quickly share documents, edit them, and put them back in the drop box to share them again. It is similar to our network drop box, however, we can access it even at home so that we always have access.

I would love to get more teachers to set up blogs to use with their students. They can use them to ask higher order thinking questions of students, use them for book studies, and use them to get them to participate more in discussions. The other great thing about blogs in a classroom is that they can encourage parent particpation. Parents can know what's going on in class and even post comments! I always notice more participation from students when their parents are involved! Wikis are another great tool - students can create their own study guides. I always learn more when I have to prepare to teach others and students do, too. Students are constantly on social networking sites and interacting with each other online. We need to meet them where they are and use the tools they enjoy using. Teaching just isn't about paper and pencil anymore!

Thing #1

The video of 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners was very interesting. I have always considered myself a lifelong learner - I love learning new things and get pretty pumped when I can find new tools or ways of teaching. I think that's why I love my technology job so much! There are constantly new things to learn!

I think the most challenging habit for me is to view a problem as a challenge - and not as a problem. This is especially difficult under stress - a teacher needs something fixed right now and I'm under the gun to help her (or him) or risk looking like I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath, relax, and start thinking of it as a puzzle to be worked out.

I think the easiest habit is to accept responsibility for my own learning. As I said, I love to learn and I want to found out information. (It's usually more difficult for me to understand why others don't want to learn something).

The most important habit, IMHB, is to PLAY! This is especially important with technology. I read an article last year about doing technology staff development for teachers and how it's important to get them doing a project for fun first - something with which they can personalize and take ownership. Then they can more easily make the transition into using it in their classroom. It seems more like play to them and their students. It would sure make teaching more fun! "Using technology in the classroom is a mindset - not a skillset."