I can't believe I made it! 23 Things in less than 4 weeks. So my thoughts on the whole shabang?
1.What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
By far my favorites discoveries were the image generators/mashups, Rollyo, Nings, and Library Thing. Those have the most potential for incorporation into a library setting in my opinion.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I realized that even though I am a child of the first video game generation and thus one step ahead of many of my fellow LS grad students and librarians, I still have much to learn.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was amazed there was so much I didn't know about the internet and all it has to offer. I also had been dreading the podcast thing until I actually got into it and started playing around with photostory. Though I was correct in my assumption that it would be time consuming.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Warn people on the main page that Thing 21(podcasts) can be time consuming. If they have a deadline for completing the workshop, participants might wish to have had more time to work on it. I would also require participants to comment on one or two other participants podcasts to help foster community.
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Absolutely.
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? This program has shown me the existence of some valuable tools that I wouldn't have discovered on my own.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Vingt et un (Thing 21): Podcast
I don't have a video camera and my microphone is no longer operational. So the podcast I made doesn't have narration. The nice thing about Photostory is the ease with which you can add audio/music to your video. The 2 music clips for my homemade video came from the original soundtrack from the 80s movie, Flight of the Navigator, created by Alan Silvestri. It's my attempt to push librarians into changing with some of the new library and technology movements. Please feel free to make comments and suggestions for improvement.
It took me about 3 hours to put it all together. This includes choosing photos and music. It would have taken me longer had I decided to use a video camera or record narration with a microphone. So the process was very time consuming. But with practice I'm sure I will get faster. Photostory was easy to download and use. I'd never used it before, but it was so simple I didn't even need to go through a tutorial.
It took me about 3 hours to put it all together. This includes choosing photos and music. It would have taken me longer had I decided to use a video camera or record narration with a microphone. So the process was very time consuming. But with practice I'm sure I will get faster. Photostory was easy to download and use. I'd never used it before, but it was so simple I didn't even need to go through a tutorial.
Vingt duex (Thing 22): Nings
Yes, I skipped the podcast thing. I'm saving that for last. Ugh.
This Nings thing is really cool. What a great way to find what other teachers/librarians are doing with their students. I would definitely share this with other teachers. It didn't take me long at all to find something of value on the Texas School Libraries Ning. Doug Valentine created this video using various Web 2.0 tools and other media:
Find more videos like this on Texas School Librarians
I really recommend going to the page where he posted it and looking at his comments on how he made it. It's a bit labor intensive if you're not familiar with the programs, but I'm sure the student interest generated from the project is well worth the effort. But there's more value to the site than just videos. It's like one giant support group for teachers and librarians. You can't get that from YouTube or TeacherTube.
This Nings thing is really cool. What a great way to find what other teachers/librarians are doing with their students. I would definitely share this with other teachers. It didn't take me long at all to find something of value on the Texas School Libraries Ning. Doug Valentine created this video using various Web 2.0 tools and other media:
Find more videos like this on Texas School Librarians
I really recommend going to the page where he posted it and looking at his comments on how he made it. It's a bit labor intensive if you're not familiar with the programs, but I'm sure the student interest generated from the project is well worth the effort. But there's more value to the site than just videos. It's like one giant support group for teachers and librarians. You can't get that from YouTube or TeacherTube.
Vingt (Thing 20): YouTube/TeacherTube/Zamzar
There are so many reasons to use YouTube and TeacherTube. Teachers can find videos to help introduce or reinforce lessons. Librarians and teachers alike also grab ideas for lessons from videos. Librarians can find videos like this one:
to show teachers they are passionate about doing more than just circulating books.
I haven't tried Zamzar yet, but I have tried other video conversion sites. I was successful at pulling audio, but not at downloading both video and audio. Maybe my old computer didn't have enough memory to complete the process. Hopefully my laptop will be able to convert the whole video w/ audio.
to show teachers they are passionate about doing more than just circulating books.
I haven't tried Zamzar yet, but I have tried other video conversion sites. I was successful at pulling audio, but not at downloading both video and audio. Maybe my old computer didn't have enough memory to complete the process. Hopefully my laptop will be able to convert the whole video w/ audio.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Dix-neuf (Thing 19): Web 2.0 Awards
I know we had guiding questions for this thing. But I'm going to say first from an educator's perspective I would have trouble justifying craigslist for first place in the classifieds category on the Web 2.0 awards (as of August 3rd, 2009). Though it's great for personal amusement and pure gross-out factor. If you haven't been watching the news in recent months and heard about the Craigslist killer, trying googling it or use the search terms "craigslist in the news" for other stories about related to garbage on craigslist. I will however admit that not all of craigslist is bad. My best friend goes there first to find ads for used cars.
I agreed with their choices in the Maps category. Google maps has the best convenience combined with innovation. The ability to see the "from the street" perspective from almost any point on a map is not only cool but useful. I used it personally 2 months ago to go to a concert in an arena I've never visited in downtown Houston (I live about an hour outside of Houston). Google Earth is also an incredible tool, but not as convenient because it requires a massive file download.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this site to my students as place to find good websites. Instead, I might use it as a place to teach students about comparing and evaluating websites -OR- have students make their own categories and supply their own websites to see what sites they like to visit.
I agreed with their choices in the Maps category. Google maps has the best convenience combined with innovation. The ability to see the "from the street" perspective from almost any point on a map is not only cool but useful. I used it personally 2 months ago to go to a concert in an arena I've never visited in downtown Houston (I live about an hour outside of Houston). Google Earth is also an incredible tool, but not as convenient because it requires a massive file download.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this site to my students as place to find good websites. Instead, I might use it as a place to teach students about comparing and evaluating websites -OR- have students make their own categories and supply their own websites to see what sites they like to visit.
Dix-huit (Thing 18): Online Productivity Tools
I already explored Google Docs for one of the webCT discussions so I'm sticking to it for right now. I do however plan on telling my mother about Open Office since she doesn't have any version of office on her computer and I know she will be vary greatful for the tool (that is as long as it's not a memory/cache hog).
Advantages of Google Docs
Advantages of Google Docs
- Free
- Easy to share files (with students or other teachers!)
- Has all the important features necessary to get a good working document
- Online storage
- Ability to upload existing files from your computer
- Ability to export (save) files to your computer
- Doesn't require a google account specifically to use it
Disadvantages of Google Docs
- Limited file size (at least with importing files)
- Limited customization (they're going to look a bit more boring)
- Slower processing
- No automatic saving
- If your computer crashes, there is no chance to recover the file.
All in all, I think Google Docs is a cool idea. It's probably really nice if you're out of town without a computer but have an iphone or a blackberry and need to work on a forgotten assignment. As for sharing documents with teachers from the library: unless it's a big campus-wide or department-wide collaboration project, it would just be simpler to post documents to the library website, use a wiki, or email a document if it's to an individual.
Dix-sept (or Thing #17): Rollyo
I really like the idea behind this site. From a librarian's standpoint, this is even better than social bookmarking, because it doesn't take the search out of researching. It's also a good way to introduce our younger students about the process of how to use a search engine to get what you need for researching a topic. I created a math/science search engine because i'm into math and i'm on a tight schedule and had sites already on my mind at the ready. But I could have just as easily collected sites for social studies, or literature, or music, or anything else. Signing up for an account was free and simple. Creating the engine was just as easy. I highly recommend showing this to teachers and fellow librarians in the district.
Numero Seize (Thing #16): Wikis
I got really familiar with wikis for the midterm. Sarah Bobbit, Stacey Depaola and I created a library services wiki for our midterm project. Check it out here. In it you'll find some basic information about general library services for school libraries and sites to go with each service. The project was made so much easier with a wiki. Even Sarah, who was terrified as she'd never worked in a wiki before, found it easy once she got started. So, for me, Thing 16's discovery exercise was a breeze. Took me less than 5 minutes to complete. See my post in the Sandbox.
Numero Quinze (Thing #15): Le futur de bibliotheque (The future of libraries)
In Rick Anderson's article "Away from the Icebergs", I agreed with some of his perspectives on some of the icebergs to libraries. However, his article is written from his perspective as a university librarian. His Iceberg theory is more wholly applicable to public, professional, and university libraries. Pre-k thru 12 schools have much different needs when it comes to libraries. He says to look skeptically at the need for "collections", print or non-print. However, school-age children will continue to need special collections even in non-print and web formats.
The one "iceberg" that has definitely been shaping all libraries, school libraries included, is the "come to us" library model of service. Most school libraries have embraced that change to web services. If they haven't, then it's probably a funding issue or a defunkt librarian who has been there since sliced bread was invented. I think a big "iceberg" for school libraries is their role on campus as services and collections shift to the web. Teachers have a definitive role, defined by a set of skills and objectives which they are to transfer to their students. Librarians roles are beginning to shift in an ambiguous manner, defined by the needs of the teachers and students who are slaves to ever-changing curriculum and standardized testing.
Thing # 14: Technorati and tagging
1. Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “School Library Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?
Well duh! Of course they're going to be different. If you do a keyword search in Blog posts, the results are going to be about individual posts that include info on School Library Learning 2.0. Searching in tags will get you videos, posts, and whole blogs dedicated to your search term.
I understand how searching blogs and posts will be different. I'm not sure I understand 100 percent how I get different results from searching posts vs. searching tags. Perhaps searching posts will search the title, text, and tags and searching tags is restricted to tags.
2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
I decided to explore the most popular tags. I clicked on the largest word in the tag cloud, which happened to be WEBLOG. I was surprised that the entire first page of results were for 1 blog in japanese (different posts from the same site) and 1 blog that was in spanish. Good thing you can filter by language!
3. Create a blog post for Thing #14 and express your thoughts regarding how Technorati and its features could assist you. Since you have now looked at several tools that use tagging (Technorati, de.licio.us, & Flickr), add your thoughts about the value of tagging information.
I think tags can help broaden or narrow your search. In my search for posts tagged with "School Library Learning 2.0", the tag helped me narrow my search. Tagging your posts can help lead people to your blog, site, photo, etc. Tagging is an imprecise science in some cases, but still a valuable way to increase access to information.
Well duh! Of course they're going to be different. If you do a keyword search in Blog posts, the results are going to be about individual posts that include info on School Library Learning 2.0. Searching in tags will get you videos, posts, and whole blogs dedicated to your search term.
I understand how searching blogs and posts will be different. I'm not sure I understand 100 percent how I get different results from searching posts vs. searching tags. Perhaps searching posts will search the title, text, and tags and searching tags is restricted to tags.
2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?
I decided to explore the most popular tags. I clicked on the largest word in the tag cloud, which happened to be WEBLOG. I was surprised that the entire first page of results were for 1 blog in japanese (different posts from the same site) and 1 blog that was in spanish. Good thing you can filter by language!
3. Create a blog post for Thing #14 and express your thoughts regarding how Technorati and its features could assist you. Since you have now looked at several tools that use tagging (Technorati, de.licio.us, & Flickr), add your thoughts about the value of tagging information.
I think tags can help broaden or narrow your search. In my search for posts tagged with "School Library Learning 2.0", the tag helped me narrow my search. Tagging your posts can help lead people to your blog, site, photo, etc. Tagging is an imprecise science in some cases, but still a valuable way to increase access to information.
Thing #13: Delicious and Social Bookmarking
When I first started exploring Delicious I wasn't all that thrilled. To me it felt no different than searching Yahoo or Google for sites. But there is an added convenience for students and teachers to have a list of librarian-approved sites when researching for specific topics or units. A librarian can create "lists" using tags. For example, if I found 10 sites each with unique information about the Civil War, the librarian can assign each one the same tag and all the students have to do is search for the librarian under "People" on delicious then click on the "Civil_War" tag. The one downside to tags is that the person adding tags has to remember that they can't use spaces; but from the student's perspective this isn't really an issue as they aren't the one's attaching tags.
One advantage to Delicious is that each teacher could make their own lists of bookmarks and share them with other teachers in and out of their departments or schools. Students always benefit when teachers share resources, and I definitely consider a teacher's list of preferred websites to be a valuable resource for research or general reference.
For junior high or high school this would be a great way to encourage the use of librarian/teacher-preferred sites for research. For elementary level, I think TrackStar would be a better bookmarking option. It's not a true social bookmarking site; it takes the social out of social bookmarking. However the interface is much easier for younger students and those who struggle with reading.
One advantage to Delicious is that each teacher could make their own lists of bookmarks and share them with other teachers in and out of their departments or schools. Students always benefit when teachers share resources, and I definitely consider a teacher's list of preferred websites to be a valuable resource for research or general reference.
For junior high or high school this would be a great way to encourage the use of librarian/teacher-preferred sites for research. For elementary level, I think TrackStar would be a better bookmarking option. It's not a true social bookmarking site; it takes the social out of social bookmarking. However the interface is much easier for younger students and those who struggle with reading.
Thing #9 Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds
I know I skipped Thing number 9, but I finally decided to get back to it.
Syndic8
I tried Syndic8 first to find some school library related news feeds. It was somewhat confusing and when I used to the terms "School Library" to search for school library related news feeds, it came up with only 9 feeds. Most of the feeds were about various Universities' SLIS programs. To be honest, once you become an actual school librarian, the advancement of these programs probably won't be of particular concern to you. I know if I were a school librarian, I wouldn't much care if Dr. so-and-so from Big Name University had an email interview posted on such-and-such website (unless it were one of my professors ^_^). Syndic8 allows you to subscribe to a feed directly from their site, but for some reason they don't have Google Reader in their list of readers to send to. So I'd have to either start using one of listed readers or open up google reader and copy and paste the URL info into it.
I decided sometime later to give Syndic8 another shot and decided to use expand my search by using "library" as my search term and managed to get back more results, about 800. At least you can tell by the icons which links might be broken or which feeds need repair, but Syndic8 was still confusing and disappointing nonetheless.
Google Blog Search
Next I tried Google Blog Search to find library related blogs. This one produced results much more relevant to my interest than Syndic8. Google Blog Search (GBS) isn't perfect. I used the same search terms as last time and several posts from School Library Journal's blog showed up in the results. I realize that some some websites have more than one blog attached to it. I would like to have seen the results listed in some other format so that the blog's title was the main focus and not the post. However, I get more results (and more relevance) than with Syndic8 and that satisfied me.
I found one of many blogs via GBS on the School Library Journal's site. It's called Good Comics for Kids. It was kind of neat and an unusual blog as it has multiple maintainers and it's all about comics made for children. The existence of School Library Journal's various blogs of course most of us in the biz already know about. But one non-SLJ blog I found through GBS that you might not have heard of is School Library Activities Monthly Blog. Librarians who have to run professional development sessions on technology and online media will be very interested in this blog. They also have a magazine for sale. (Note: School Library Activities Monthly Blog will be moving to a new address on August 5th to http://blog.schoollibrarymonthly.com.)
Syndic8
I tried Syndic8 first to find some school library related news feeds. It was somewhat confusing and when I used to the terms "School Library" to search for school library related news feeds, it came up with only 9 feeds. Most of the feeds were about various Universities' SLIS programs. To be honest, once you become an actual school librarian, the advancement of these programs probably won't be of particular concern to you. I know if I were a school librarian, I wouldn't much care if Dr. so-and-so from Big Name University had an email interview posted on such-and-such website (unless it were one of my professors ^_^). Syndic8 allows you to subscribe to a feed directly from their site, but for some reason they don't have Google Reader in their list of readers to send to. So I'd have to either start using one of listed readers or open up google reader and copy and paste the URL info into it.
I decided sometime later to give Syndic8 another shot and decided to use expand my search by using "library" as my search term and managed to get back more results, about 800. At least you can tell by the icons which links might be broken or which feeds need repair, but Syndic8 was still confusing and disappointing nonetheless.
Google Blog Search
Next I tried Google Blog Search to find library related blogs. This one produced results much more relevant to my interest than Syndic8. Google Blog Search (GBS) isn't perfect. I used the same search terms as last time and several posts from School Library Journal's blog showed up in the results. I realize that some some websites have more than one blog attached to it. I would like to have seen the results listed in some other format so that the blog's title was the main focus and not the post. However, I get more results (and more relevance) than with Syndic8 and that satisfied me.
I found one of many blogs via GBS on the School Library Journal's site. It's called Good Comics for Kids. It was kind of neat and an unusual blog as it has multiple maintainers and it's all about comics made for children. The existence of School Library Journal's various blogs of course most of us in the biz already know about. But one non-SLJ blog I found through GBS that you might not have heard of is School Library Activities Monthly Blog. Librarians who have to run professional development sessions on technology and online media will be very interested in this blog. They also have a magazine for sale. (Note: School Library Activities Monthly Blog will be moving to a new address on August 5th to http://blog.schoollibrarymonthly.com.)
Thing #12: Commenting
My thoughts on commenting:
When I read Blue Skunk's post on commenting, my first thoughts were that
a) I don't have time to respond to every comment and b) it gets rather annoying when I get an email notice for every little comment and response on facebook.
But then I chewed on Blue Skunk's idea for a bit (that if you get a comment you should respond even if it's to just to say thanks for the comment) and it really would get irritating if I got no response every time I commented on someone's status on facebook or commented on someone's blog post. I would feel like I was being ignored and that's not a fun feeling.
In Drape's Takes on blog commenting he made one statement that I felt was worthy of mention:
Commenting to other blogs:
See my comments on the following blogs:
Mrs. Wadyko - (23 Things blog) One thing to note is that she has turned on the option to review comments before they are made public. So my comment might not be visible just yet.
In Rachel's Words - (23 Thins blog) all about online image generators (Thing number 10)
Aspiring Librarian - (23 Things blog) all about Thing number 9 and looking for good blogs.
In Other Words - (23 Things blog) another Thing #10 post but with different image generators than the ones Rachel blogged about.
Sarahnading - (23 Things blog) This post is about Thing #5 (image hosting sites). Sarah chose to talk about Flickr.
The Book Oven Blog - This post was about the big controversy of Hamilton Nolan from Gawker blogging about (and linking to) one of Ian Shapira's stories in the Washington Post.
When I read Blue Skunk's post on commenting, my first thoughts were that
a) I don't have time to respond to every comment and b) it gets rather annoying when I get an email notice for every little comment and response on facebook.
But then I chewed on Blue Skunk's idea for a bit (that if you get a comment you should respond even if it's to just to say thanks for the comment) and it really would get irritating if I got no response every time I commented on someone's status on facebook or commented on someone's blog post. I would feel like I was being ignored and that's not a fun feeling.
In Drape's Takes on blog commenting he made one statement that I felt was worthy of mention:
- If a response to a comment will result in a
particularly lengthy retort, it is often the practice to reply by writing an entirely new post.
Commenting to other blogs:
See my comments on the following blogs:
Mrs. Wadyko - (23 Things blog) One thing to note is that she has turned on the option to review comments before they are made public. So my comment might not be visible just yet.
In Rachel's Words - (23 Thins blog) all about online image generators (Thing number 10)
Aspiring Librarian - (23 Things blog) all about Thing number 9 and looking for good blogs.
In Other Words - (23 Things blog) another Thing #10 post but with different image generators than the ones Rachel blogged about.
Sarahnading - (23 Things blog) This post is about Thing #5 (image hosting sites). Sarah chose to talk about Flickr.
The Book Oven Blog - This post was about the big controversy of Hamilton Nolan from Gawker blogging about (and linking to) one of Ian Shapira's stories in the Washington Post.
Tech Crunch - This post discusses the emerging battle between Microsoft and Google. Why is it relevant to librarians? Google just launched a new computer operating system (Chrome OS). If they become successful and flood the market, then we'll have to worry about more than just Macs vs. PCs (or Apple vs. Microsoft).
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Thing #11: Library Thing
I'd heard Dr. Griffith talk about Library Thing in the Reference and Bibliography class. But I haven't had a chance to look and explore it until now. So far everything is very simple which I actually prefer. Getting an account, adding books to your collection, searching for groups, and updating your profile are all very easy to do. However, as most established websites tend to do (i.e. Facebook) they grow above and beyond what they were originally designed to do. While some good things come out of this, with good will come some bad. In Facebook's case, their networks expanded and popularity grew but with the popularity came the need to expand their server capacity and that means necessary revenue. They had to begin posting advertisements and adding applications that will cost the user money, even if an account on facebook is free.
Right now, Library Thing slightly resembles facebook in it's beginning phases: well-organized, simple, and clean (minimal ads). I just hope that Library Thing stays the way it is for awhile. Although I wouldn't mind if they would use something other than Amazon to search for books to add to your collection. When I searched by title, such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I would have too many entries to choose from. Maybe they have a deal with Amazon that gets them revenue for sending people to Amazon to buy books.
I would use Library thing to help students keep a sort of online record of how many books they've read (either for the year or even for their life). It's amazing how much people who say they don't ready actually do. Even kids in elementary school could use this site to keep track of their collections or their reading.
One group I found that I fit in with was the Hogwarts Express. I'm a big fan of Harry Potter. Not everything the group talks about is Harry Potter, but they have some discussions that are relevant to the Harry Potter series. I think the Library Thing groups would be a good place to get ideas for book club talks.
Right now, Library Thing slightly resembles facebook in it's beginning phases: well-organized, simple, and clean (minimal ads). I just hope that Library Thing stays the way it is for awhile. Although I wouldn't mind if they would use something other than Amazon to search for books to add to your collection. When I searched by title, such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I would have too many entries to choose from. Maybe they have a deal with Amazon that gets them revenue for sending people to Amazon to buy books.
I would use Library thing to help students keep a sort of online record of how many books they've read (either for the year or even for their life). It's amazing how much people who say they don't ready actually do. Even kids in elementary school could use this site to keep track of their collections or their reading.
One group I found that I fit in with was the Hogwarts Express. I'm a big fan of Harry Potter. Not everything the group talks about is Harry Potter, but they have some discussions that are relevant to the Harry Potter series. I think the Library Thing groups would be a good place to get ideas for book club talks.
Thing # 10: Online image generators
I attended Dr. Bishop's summer workshop which was a preview of the 23 Things that we're working on now. My favorite image generator that we were introduced to at the workshop was Flickr's motivational poster generator. Not only does it have great applications in the library, such as allowing kids to analyze and summarize an image in as few words as possible, but it can be just plain fun. I've seen so many people use the image generator for fun on various forums. It was very easy to use and very easy to save the photos.
When I finally started working through the 23 Things blog and go to thing #10, I decided to explore other image generators and chose the Ecard generator. It would be an easy way to create certificates and send them online or just to print them for members of your book clubs or to your students after having finished a contest. You can also create posters to post in your library. I created the caution poster just for practice for this post. If you have the problem of people getting hit by doors being opened too quickly, you could make a caution poster for your door. All in all, image generators are definitely useful tools for a library setting, no matter the campus level.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thing #8: RSS and Readers
Yes, I am a part of that population of people who had no idea how RSS operated. I'd seen that orange icon hundreds of times but didn't truly understand what it meant.
What do you like about RSS and readers? I like the fact that your email inbox can be just slightly less flooded with notices about people updating their pages. I also like that the reader automatically flags each article as read as you read them.
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? If the faculty, campus, district, PTO, etc. had their own blogs or sites, I could get automatic updates without having to check each one individually. It's definitely a time saver.
How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology? Any of librarian, teacher, or administrator could use readers to help keep updated about the community, education news from various governing bodies such as SBEC or TEA, and even stay updated about upcoming books, technology, and more that are of interest to their student population. The list of possible uses could just go on and on.
What do you like about RSS and readers? I like the fact that your email inbox can be just slightly less flooded with notices about people updating their pages. I also like that the reader automatically flags each article as read as you read them.
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? If the faculty, campus, district, PTO, etc. had their own blogs or sites, I could get automatic updates without having to check each one individually. It's definitely a time saver.
How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology? Any of librarian, teacher, or administrator could use readers to help keep updated about the community, education news from various governing bodies such as SBEC or TEA, and even stay updated about upcoming books, technology, and more that are of interest to their student population. The list of possible uses could just go on and on.
Thing #7: Google Tools
Google Advanced Search: I wish I had known about this tool a long time ago. There have been times I've looked for existing powerpoints on the web and wasn't very successful because searching for "math powerpoints" or something of that nature would ultimately bring up Microsoft's help page with tutorials on how to make a powerpoint, not even close to what I was hoping for. I did an experiment to compare Google Advanced Search and Google Scholar. I search for articles and documents on teen issues. With Google Advanced Search, I was able to limit it to pdf files. Surprisingly, Google Scholar doesn't have that option, or if it does, it's hidden and not easy to find. As Dr. Bishop said last night, July 24, 2009, "convenience over quality first." While Google Scholar offers quality it doesn't offer as much convenience for research as Google Advanced Search.
Google Docs: I may have heard of Google Docs before, but until I tried it I didn't really know exactly what it was. I just thought it was a way to take documents you had already made on your computer and upload them to the web. I didn't know you could actually make documents online. While it's very basic and runs a bit slow, I think it could have some application in a classroom environment. Any groups with three or more members required to produce a digital product such as an powerpoint or other document for a project typically resorts to emailing the document back and forth. They might also hand off the creation of the document to one person as it's just not practical to expect large groups to contribute equally to a project in any matter that can be called efficient. This would allow teachers to assign projects where groups contain 3 or 4 students and expect contributions from each member on the digital project in a slightly more efficient manner than passing a file back and forth between the group members.
Google Docs: I may have heard of Google Docs before, but until I tried it I didn't really know exactly what it was. I just thought it was a way to take documents you had already made on your computer and upload them to the web. I didn't know you could actually make documents online. While it's very basic and runs a bit slow, I think it could have some application in a classroom environment. Any groups with three or more members required to produce a digital product such as an powerpoint or other document for a project typically resorts to emailing the document back and forth. They might also hand off the creation of the document to one person as it's just not practical to expect large groups to contribute equally to a project in any matter that can be called efficient. This would allow teachers to assign projects where groups contain 3 or 4 students and expect contributions from each member on the digital project in a slightly more efficient manner than passing a file back and forth between the group members.
Thing #6: Mashups, Flickr Color Pickr/Motivational Poster/Trading Card
Now I'm not proposing a mashup between the Color Pickr and the motivational poster maker and the trading card maker. Although that would certainly be an interesting mashup. The Color Pickr intrigued me because I've always been fascinated by artistic digital and non-digital mosaics that uses pictures to create a larger picture (Example: http://www.coverpop.com/pop/flickr_stickfigures/). Color Pickr would make it easier for a person like me, who has almost no artisitic instincts, to at least dabble in digital mosaics based on color. It makes the process of choosing photos much easier. However, the photos connected to Color Pickr aren't always apart of the creative commons and thus subject to copyright. It didn't take me long to find a photograph that had all its rights reserved.
The motivational poster maker (http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php) is so simple and easy to make and has so many applications in the library. Students could create their own collection of small posters to illustrate their knowledge of genre. A motivational poster is also a great way to help students establish the main idea, theme, or moral of a story in as few words or sentences as possible.
The Trading Card maker (http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php) also has could be useful in the library. Students could make a trading card for each book they've read or for their favorite characters. It could also be used for nonfiction, making trading cards for animals, places, famous people, architecture, etc. The possibilities are endless. One thing I found very interesting was that the format of the card, from the backgrounds to the title/subtitle/description to the icons, is almost identical to the Magic the Gathering trading cards. I probably wouldn't have noticed if not for all the copyright discussion we've been having in class.
The motivational poster maker (http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php) is so simple and easy to make and has so many applications in the library. Students could create their own collection of small posters to illustrate their knowledge of genre. A motivational poster is also a great way to help students establish the main idea, theme, or moral of a story in as few words or sentences as possible.
The Trading Card maker (http://bighugelabs.com/deck.php) also has could be useful in the library. Students could make a trading card for each book they've read or for their favorite characters. It could also be used for nonfiction, making trading cards for animals, places, famous people, architecture, etc. The possibilities are endless. One thing I found very interesting was that the format of the card, from the backgrounds to the title/subtitle/description to the icons, is almost identical to the Magic the Gathering trading cards. I probably wouldn't have noticed if not for all the copyright discussion we've been having in class.
Thing #5: Flickr Geotagging
I learn something new every time I visit Flickr. This time I focused on geotagging. I assumed that when Dr. Bishop said you could search for a location he meant you could search on the homepage. But I think what he actually meant was you could go to the world map on Flickr (and he probably said as much but I don't retain information well when so much as thrown at me at once). The coolest thing is seeing the dots on the map, clicking on one, and a photo pops up which was taken in that place. I searched for my hometown of Lake Jackson, TX and the two photos taken closest to my location was one of a cute dog and one of a family's large collection of cell phones (top right photo) by Paul Nicholson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/82879511@N00/2229151987). Both taken just blocks from my house. Not especially interesting photos and not from anyone i know, but the whole idea is still really awe inspiring and really mindboggling. Besides, if I wanted to see photos of people I knew I'd just go to their facebook or myspace page. The whole concept of this is to find photographs of people, places, and things in locations that you might not ever have a chance to visit. It also seems like a great resource for all sorts of school projects in any number of subjects, not just social studies.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thing #4: Registering My Blog
Registering my blog for the 23 Things seminar will most likely be the easiest and fastest Thing of all the 23 Things.
Thing #3: Creating an Avatar
I had been hoping to make a Southpark avatar, but it didn't want to download to my computer so I had to stick with Yahoo Avatars. It was fairly simple, except I couldn't figure out how to change the hair length and the eye color. I wanted slightly longer hair, but then I thought it was cute the way it was. As for eye color, well my eyes aren't brown, but they're not quite any color but I guess they're closest to a dark blue/hazel/green. I was getting frustrated that the thumbnail (picture) wasn't showing up on my blog except as a blank frame with a red-X. Then I finally read a little further into the Thing#3 directions and saw that the html wasn't working anymore. Now I don't feel quite so stupid.
Thing #2 (again): Habit 1: "Set Goals"
Habit 1: “Set Goals”. This Habit is perhaps my most challenging because I have an inherent fear of failure. I’m afraid of setting goals that I don’t think I can meet. I’ve short-changed myself though most of my life because of this fear. I ended up choosing high school math teacher for a career because I was too afraid of failing the classes that it would take for me to get a masters degree and teach community college. I had interest in several other careers (accounting, computer programming), but the fear of failure kept me from setting a goal that I really wanted to achieve. Recently I set a goal to lose weight, and as I’ve failed at that before, I wasn’t so afraid to set the goal again. This time I succeeded, managing to lose about 25 pounds. I set the goal differently this time. I don’t set a target weight loss. The goal is simply to lose weight. This way if I lose 1 pound or 4 pounds in a week, I’m successful. Hopefully, I can apply this philosophy to my library and be successful in that arena too.
Thing #2: Habit # 7.5
Habit 7 ½: “Play”. Experiment and be active and involved are alternative ways to describe this last highly effective habit. As my best friend said, you can’t learn how to build a car without doing it. I wouldn’t have been able to be a math teacher if I didn’t play with the math I was learning. In another blog I did for a previous course, I put that one of my hopes for math education in the future, is that teachers will find ways to incorporate manipulatives, games, and experimentation into as much of the curriculum as possible. Unfortunately, TAKS testing, time and budget constraints, stunted creativity and experimentation constraints all have severely limited the math educator community and its ability to innovate new and exciting ways to teach math after elementary school. Practicing on paper is a big part of learning, but its not play. Play can support and extend learning.
Habits 7 and 7.5 are the easiest ones for me to apply to myself. These are the ones I'm most experienced with.
Habits 7 and 7.5 are the easiest ones for me to apply to myself. These are the ones I'm most experienced with.
Thing #2: Habit #7
Habit 7: “The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.” I am a firm believer to some extent. However I’d have to modify that statement. I would say the best way to reinforce what you learned is to teach someone else. As a math teacher, I’ve observed there are different types or scales of learning. There’s the initial phase, where you learn something new. Next is the mastery phase, where you begin to apply or practice what you learned. Finally there’s the reinforcement phase where you take what you’ve mastered and repeat it in some way to stamp it into your memory. Teaching someone else is an excellent way to reinforce what you learned. However, you have to learn before you can teach. I had to learn math before I could start teaching it. There are other skills that I learned while teaching, such as how to be a better public speaker, but I don’t learn math as I teach it. I don't advise trying to teach someone something if you haven't already learned/mastered it. You run the risk of teaching them wrong.
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