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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.