Week 6 - Thing 15

I began exploring some of the exercises for Thing 15, but will need to come back to this. There's so much here!

Week 6 - Thing 14

We worked on the VoiceThreads during one of our workshop sessions so, I didn't feel the need to recap everything we did in that class. I like VoiceThread and spent a lot of time during our class looking, listening, and commenting on them. I'm not sure, yet, how I want to use this in my classroom.

Week 5 - Thing 13

I watched the Google Docs in Plain English video. This makes so much sense. My question is, though, will others actually be able to view/edit a document posted if they don't have a google account? I would think not. Then, you have to try to convince others why they need to have an account. Folks are so used to email attachments that I think it will take many more years for this great concept to "kick in." We could begin by using this more in schools between teachers and administrators. I like the idea. How many times do we think we've attached the attachment to an email only to click send and then have to send another one WITH the actual attachment!

Week 5 - Thing 12

At this point, I am using my wiki for classroom use. I loved the Woodward Academy wiki and actually shared it with my students back in the fall. We began typing up information, recording novel videos, and a PowerPoint that could be loaded onto our wiki to demonstrate our reading understandings. So, my students are all editors on the wiki and we're finding ways to make it meaningful for our reading class. They love it. I also like being able to comment on their work during the evening right online. I know I have much more to learn about it, but I'm loving what we're doing for now. This is one tool, I know for sure, I will continue to use to showcase student knowledge.

Week 4 - Thing 11

I like the Wordles. I tried creating one using words to describe this class, but it wouldn't show up once I tried to view it. Something is wrong with my javascript or other application needed on my computer for it. So, no luck with a finished product. I'll have to retry it sometime on my school computer. I can see many uses for this with students. It would be great for a review of content material. I also think it would be fun for students to actually help create a Wordle that describes positive attributes about their classmates. Each student could contribute one word per classmate. This would make a nice end of the year gift.

Week 4 - Thing 10

I can kind of see how this whole idea of social bookmarking could be a real time saver. But, even though I looked around a bit, it seems confusing to me. I'll have to come back to this and spend more time here. I don't really care for the cogdogblog. I don't really understand how this is different than just doing a google search for something. I would have to spend MUCH more time on my computer before I could even find this regularly useful with my elementary students. I don't think I'll be "getting into this" for quite some time. I see other tools much more useful. I remember really liking Flickr but can't even remember all that was there. I think this is all a TON of information.

Week 3 - Thing 9

I've had my own Twitter account for probably a year and never use it. I find it confusing. I've tried to follow KRDO TV and Pride Soccer Club and just can't seem to find it handy enough for me to continue using. At this point, I can't see how I would use this with my elementary students.

Week 3 - Thing 8

I read through this exercise way back and felt it was confusing. I've blogged with TV stations but can't seem to really get into this yet. I am communicating more with my students now through my wiki, but can't seem to manage all these different tools yet. It's just going to take much more time on the computer and practice. I also worry, still, about my students accidentally writing before they think carefully and saying something they shouldn't.

Week 3 - Thing 7

This new concept to me of RSS is very interesting. I subscribed to 6 different sites. Three of them are blogs and 3 are news feeds. I included KRDO news channel, fox news latest news, fox news entertainment, science channel blog, discovery channel blog, common craft blog. Common craft is interesting. They have some good informational videos. I'll have to come back to that one and poke around a bit. There were two sites I frequent regularly that did not provide RSS. I think this is a very good idea. I hope I use it.

Week 2 - Thing 6

Well, so much for the learning curve! I spent two and a half hours creating my glog on Glogster to lose it as I clicked a link to search for a math site to embed. That's frustrating. I had created a nice blue background with puzzle pieces for my edge. I used the snowman decoration to go with my name and uploaded a picture of myself. I looked around for other pictures to add, but didn't find anything pertinent to what I want it to be like. I like the idea of math resources since I teach advanced math classes to my TAG students. I'll have to go back again and recreate my page and spend lots of time working on it. I can tell this could be quite lengthy. Sorry I goofed it up.

Week 2 - Thing 5

This was very fun! I looked at all the links including the sample lesson plans. They were great. I ended up, though, spending hours creating once I clicked on the trading card site. It took me to bighugelabs.com where I created a fun sample poster and ended up creating an account so I can do more. I see a direct connection in using this site with my students to create magazine covers of story characters. They will really love this! So far, this has been my favorite "thing."

Week 2 - Thing 4

I really like this Flickr site. I enjoy scrapbooking and can see how this might be useful for me. I also see, after looking around, why the district blocks this site from kids. I found some weird photos when I was looking at panther pictures. The other big area I looked into was the Belgian Tervuren dog breed. They are intelligent, sensitive and amazing dogs. I have one and was poking around the site to see what might be posted on that particular breed. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=belgian+tervuren&m=text#page=0. Fun! I may have found a great place to share more photos with friends and family. I'll have to think more on how I would use this in my elementary classroom. This one doesn't seem as obvious except by using FlickrStorm.

Week 1 - Thing 3

I was working on finding some waterfall images for a student of mine who is doing a research project. I didn't have any luck finding any photo that didn't have a license fee attached or permission needed. I also ended up finding plumbing products using the word waterfall as my search. It's great how you can set the parameters for searching but also very time consuming. I've spent a long time on this. With no luck, I went to searching for a panther that is my daughter's soccer team mascot. I had to change my search to clip art instead of all content in order to narrow it down and find something. I actually found a blogspot site that has free panther clip art. We might actually be able to use one. The link is: http://www.clipart-for-free.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-panther-clipart.html. It is a necessity to go through this process with your students so they understand the technology copyright information just as they understand the importance of not plagerizing when writing. The technology piece is the same thing. After looking at all the links and watching the videos, I realize one of the important ideas is to not always look at one source as an absolute when wanting to use an idea from online or even your own. You really ned to check multiple place to make sure what you are wanting to use is ok and make sure your own idea is truly original. Each persons creative idea is protected. As with anything new, I will understand this more clearly once I continue to dig in.

Week 1 - Thing 2

I haven't set up a blog for my students yet, but think this would be a fun thing to try in the future. I did look at each of the blog links listed in the 20/20 Things. My favorite was the Sullivan BookBlog. I thought it was set up nicely with much information about what's going on and presented in a way to share unique ideas to that school. In fact, I might try some next year. I really like the Crunchin' Munchin Gaming Luncheon that was talked of in the post regarding the new cafe'. I can see how this blog is informative of how literacy is being promoted in that particular school and in corporating the technology piece makes it even better. As good as this blog is set up, I'm surprised not to see more numbers in the reaction posts on that blog. I thought the Uclan student elections 2008 was nicely done, too. That's a fun way to keep kids informed of this type of event. I couldn't get to the Peanut Gallery: Ms. Gold's Classroom Blog when I clicked on it. Maybe it's inactive now. The 817 Math blog site was ok in my opinion. Maybe if there was more activity on it, it would seem a bit better.