Working Mom

Thing # 11.5 - Evaluation

2009-08-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe I made it this far!!! I am ecstatic right now!

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I had several favorites - the most recent would have to be the Second Life. I surprisingly really enjoyed playing around with a few of the different features and I look forward to learning more about it. I also liked the Image Generators - I had fun with that as well. Animoto would probably have to be my all time favorite because I have discovered a new way to keep up with all of my online photos!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It has reminded me of all the technology that is out there that I am so unfamiliar with and that I need to stay updated for the sake of my students and my own young children. I don't want to get left behind and it is so valuable to stay on top of the latest technologies even if they take me completely out of my comfort zone.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
After completing the 23 Things last summer - I knew that I would have another great experience. I think that it is such a wonderful opportunity to have this offered and I look forward to completing something similar next summer!

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Extend the time if possible...I know that isn't really feasible, but this felt like a lot of work in a short amount of time. It was great though!

Thank you!

Thing # 11 - Digital Citizenship

2009-08-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Well, my initial first impression of Digital Citizenship is that it is a form of online etiquette. I hope that is correct. I would want to teach my students the following:
1) Danger associated with online social networking sites - their identity can be traced - school computers are the property of the school and anything inappropriate they may be looking at can come back to them.
2) Online bullying or written threats of any kind can get a student into a lot of trouble, possibly even legal trouble.
3) Plagiarism is illegal and will earn them a zero on an assignment - anything that is copy and pasted must be documented.
4) Learn to distinguish reliable sources versus unreliable sources - don't always use the first site you find. Check the credibility of the site.
5) The internet is a vast resource - use it wisely.

Thing # 10 - Virtual Worlds

2009-08-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

So, this is my first time hearing of this and when I first read the directions, I felt totally overwhelmed! What the heck is this? Very interesting. After playing around with it - I had a lot of fun. One downside, I feel like I would have to have some serious extra time on my hands to fully explore what all the Second Life has to offer. For the short amount of time that I played around with it, I had fun creating my new persona. I dare not tell my husband about this site - he would become addicted! There seem to be some really cool things that you could use it for. I love the idea of a virtual classroom - I would really like to try this out with my students, but I have quite a bit of learning to do before I venture out on that idea.

Thing # 9 - Slideshare

2009-08-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

This was interesting - I think that as a classroom teacher there is a great desire to have shared powerpoints; I don't know that kids would find it quite as useful or interesting. After reading Stephen's Lighthouse, it looks as though there are other web based sharing sites that might work better than Slideshare. 280 Slides would be excellent for those that do not have access to PowerPoint...as many of our students may not at home.

This one on advertising would be great to use in the classroom for a persuasive writing assignment - it was interesting to watch.

Advertising stunts and ideas Q1|2008

View more presentations from Ayman Sarhan.

As for the students using it, I suppose one could create a useful assignment to get the kids involved...I'll have to think on this one. I would love to be able to use it in the classroom though.

Thing # 8 - Screencast

2009-08-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

I used Screencast-o-matic because it didn't require me to upload anything to my computer and it was super easy to use.

I will be teaching the novel Montana 1948, so I chose to do a screen shot of an essay about racism against the Native Americans in the novel - students could go here and read the essay and make comments that could lead to a very useful classroom discussion.

Thing # 7 - Video Resources

2009-08-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

I had no idea there were so many great video resources out there for free! I browsed through several of the sites, but I have to admit that I'm not a big online video fan. Nonetheless, I did find some useful videos that could be used in the classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpfY8kh5lUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgR2Buke5MQ

These videos about the Great Depression could be used if you were teaching anything from that time period for an English class; it would certainly fit well within a history class. They were excellent videos. If you could find one for the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression it would work well as an introduction to the novel Out of the Dust.

Thing # 6 - I-Touch Apps

2009-08-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool phone! I have an Eternity touch phone, but it doesn't compare to the possibilities this one has. There were lots of neat apps to play around with, but all at a cost...that I would prefer not to spend! I could see how kids could really get into the different features and spend a lot of time using the various applications. As far as using it in school for instructional purposes, I think there might be problems monitoring what the kids are navigating. If on their own they would use it to create calendars, set up reminders, do the math games and the reader apps; it would have lots of educational potential.

Thing # 5 - Microblogging

2009-06-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've personally been a fan of Facebook for awhile now - it has allowed me to reconnect with old high school and college friends, and even keep up with former students. The way I see it being used in the classroom would be to allow the teacher to post assignments, have students comment or ask questions, etc. I don't really care for the "What are you doing now?" - as I could really care less if someone is about to do laundry or they're laughing at an inside joke! Nonetheless, I think it definitely could be advantageous if used with more of a purpose in mind. As for Tweeter, not really feeling it. It seems so limiting in that the amount of text you can type in at one time is so confining. I have yet to figure out a real purpose for it. I checked out the post on some reasons teachers should consider using it, and I still didn't find a real purpose. Back-channeling seems pretty neat if you are lecturing to a large group and they all have access- that would be a challege in the typical classroom, and again I don't know how you would regulate it.

Thing # 4 - Video Hosting

2009-06-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

There clearly would be numerous advantages to having access to teaching videos at our disposal to share with the students. Depending on what you are teaching, videos are an excellent resource. I also think that putting student work on the web is a great way to validate their efforts. Additionally it would allow a way to share their work with other classes - I think that students always enjoy seeing what others have created. I had trouble uploading my video to YouTube, so I just pasted it directly from animoto.
My personal video: http://animoto.com/play/CxkaR3xcgr1lsusdspjYYg

Thing # 3 - Like Skype

2009-06-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

I had no clue that this type of technology was out there! Of course, I felt that way about most of the things that I learned last summer with 23 Things! Interesting. I'm not sure that this is something that I would ever personally use; it is a little out of my comfort zone. Saying that, I honestly don't know if it is something I would even want to take on in my classroom. I think that it has many benefits - especially if you were able to connect with another class and discuss something, but I have to wonder how effectively those conversations could be monitored within a class full of students. This might be something that the librarian could have set up in the library for a small number of trustworthy students to experiment with...I'm just not sure about it.

Thing # 2 - Image Generators 2

2009-06-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Wordle is really fun! I think that my students could find a lot of creative use for it - especially with a piece of literature we are reading. They could pull descriptive words for a character, quotes, all kinds of stuff. It would make it more interactive for the kids to do something like this online.
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/930357/life

Glogster - equally as fun to play around with.
Again, this would work very well for a piece of literature - maybe it could be our project for the summer reading activity! I would guess that students could be a lot more creative using this in lieu of a posterboard. The possibilities are absolutely endless as is the creativity. Many students feel inadequate when we ask them to draw something because they are not good artists - this puts everyone on equal turf. As far as the thinking being different, I feel that it would open the door for more opportunity to think outside of the box.
I came across this one and thought it was pretty neat:
http://horse14rider.glogster.com/Body-Peace-Treaty-Seventeen-Mag/

Voki - way entertaining - a little weird though! I played around with the applications and did the Trek Yourself. I think that if someone received this through email it would definitely send a different message than text alone.
http://www.trekyourself.com/?mId=30307340.3

Bookr - this is by far my personal favorite! What a neat way to store photos and tell a story - I have tried keeping up with my kids scrapbooks, but this would be so much easier. I'm not sure how I would use it in the classroom, unless I had the kids narrate a story. Maybe after writing their personal narrative, they could use pictures to narrate it. That would be kind of interesting, but I'm not real sure - I'd love to get other people's ideas on how to use it in a high school English classroom.

Thing # 1 - The Networked Student

2009-06-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

I think that although many teachers are outsmarted by the students advancement in technology, this clearly demonstrates that education through alternative methods is growing. I would love to become more tech savvy to be able to keep up with the interests of my students and to be able to reach them at their interest level. There are so many fascinating tools that are within our reach if we can just figure them out! I personally struggle with it. Just watching the video was a nightmare - it kept buffering; which finally after searching to see what exactly that meant, I was able to pause the video and let it load and eventually get through it. I'm sure one of my students would have had some code to bypass that!

I think that the teacher is showing the use of being a facilitator, which is what teachers are supposed to be. I see many benefits of this because it directly puts the learning back into the student's hands and gives him/her more ownership over their own learning.

Thing # 23 - Thoughts about This Program

2008-06-25T01:01:00.000-07:00

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Favorite discovery was the Comic Strip generator. I think that I could most easily incorporate this into my English classroom. My favorite exercise would be the blogging experience in general. I started out so nervous and unsure of what to expect and it turned out to be a really worthwhile experience--time consuming, but worth the effort.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
After completing all of the things, I feel more confident in my ability to use technology and very much empowered. As I've gotten older, I see the gap growing between myself and my students and the biggest reason is technology. This makes me feel more connected to the ever changing world we live in.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised at how easy most of the things were to use. I seriously have always feared technology because I just didn't get it. Now, I do still struggle with uploading and downloading stuff, but I learned a great deal of useful knowledge and stuff that I would greatly try to implement into my classroom.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I think it worked well the way it is set up. The directions were clear and easy to follow. I only once wanted to throw my computer to the ground, so format wise it was good. The concept is fantastic. I wish that more online professional development opportunities were offered. This has been the best I've had in my 10 years of teaching.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Absolutely! Just give me a warning on how time consuming it would be...this was a little more time consuming than I anticipated.

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?
Best professional development I've had in 10 years!!!

Thing # 22 - Ning

2008-06-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

I searched Ning for Teachers. It was useful and interesting. I got caught up in several blog postings about handling parent behaviors. I also enjoyed looking at lessons. I liked how you could enter your specific grade and subject matter (didn't have to search through a bunch of stuff that doesn't apply to my grade/subject, which is usually the case when you search for lessons). There weren't a whole lot to look at, but there are also Tags that you can click on that relate to the topic you've searched. I also love Message Boards (looking, not posting), so those were fun to browse through.

Thing # 21 - Podcasts and Audio Books

2008-06-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so to be honest, this is probably my least favorite thing. I had a lot of trouble downloading the Photostory; it kept saying that I needed some other program. When it finally downloaded, I realized that it would take a lot of time to upload pictures, then if you wanted to do a narration, that would be more time spent. I got a little sick of it. I did a really simple picture story using pictures of my own kids and then I parked it in Switchpod, which was fairly easy to use. Still not 100% sure about it though.

However, I do see a great deal of potential in using this in the classroom, especially the idea of having students do book talks. I love the idea of it, but honestly the practicality of it did not appeal to me. At the same time, I know the kids would love it.

Thing # 20 - Explore YouTube And TeacherTube

2008-06-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun looking at videos on You Tube and Teacher Tube...I did find it a little disturbing at what can get posted on the internet for all to see! I posted a high school English teacher's video about what he sees as needing to change in the classroom. Pretty interesting views. I think overall having videos like this at our disposal is a great teaching and learning tool (as evidenced in their use during the Library2Play activities).

Thing # 19 - Web 2.0 Awards List

2008-06-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

So many to choose from! I felt proud of myself for actually recognizing and knowing what several of them were! I like the way it is broken down and it gives the top 3 so you know which ones are the best to use. I got lost in the MotherClick. Surprise! I'm not sure how to link this to student use, but I definitely see ways that I could use it for educational purposes and personal. I think that it would be useful for library use in terms of having a specific category to search under.

Thing # 18 - Online Productivity Tools

2008-06-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hate to complain, but it took forever to download Open Office. I am familiar with Google Docs, so I wanted to try the other. It is a great alternative to MS Office, but I really dread changing from something I'm familiar with. Google Docs is a great way to share handouts, PowerPoint, etc. One of my coworkers has been using it this summer and sharing documents with me through email. It's worked out well. I also like the little email that they send you when someone wants to share a document.

Thing # 17 - Rollyo

2008-06-24T23:17:00.000-07:00

http://rollyo.com/mooseyface/my_news/
This one took me awhile to figure out. I was nervous about downloading Firefox (but I had to in order to create my own rollyo search). I'm still a little confused about how it works and it took me forever to customize my search. The one I created is really basic, verging on embarrassing, so please, no one feel obligated to visit.

Thing # 16 - Wikis

2008-06-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is great. I liked searching the teacher Wikis. I found some wonderful ideas and ways to use these in the classroom. I visited the sandbox. It was interesting to see what others had to say about their experience thus far. I found good teaching tools and I love the idea for the English class connection. I think the students would enjoy it, as would I.

Thing # 15 - Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

2008-06-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

The video made me sad...but it also was the same way that I felt in college. The difference, I was in my last year when the internet and cellphones began to become popular and more advantageous. So, I cannot identify with having a laptop in class and searching Facebook or MySpace. I probably would have failed out of college if I'd had access to those things. Sadly, I know that library use is different then what it was even just 10 years ago...when I take my students to the library it is usually to use the computer to search for information. Few kids want to take the time to search a book for information.

I don't know how I feel about this. I think it unfortunately and fortunately is the direction that we are headed in, but the thing I don't like about computers is it takes away the personal connection. I don't want to go off on any random tangents here, this just really got my mind working, thinking about how much technology is going to change our daily interactions with students. I think we have just seen the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

Thing # 14 - Technorati and How Tags Work

2008-06-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Another overwhelming feeling...I am most certainly out of my comfort zone with all of this amazing technology! I barely understand one thing and then I am on to barely understanding another. That's okay though. I'm learning something new, and that is a good thing.

Anyhow...when I searched Technorati for School Library Learning 2.0 it first searched the Posts which didn't show a whole lot of matches (there was one on the 1st page...I only searched the first 3 pages), but then when I searched under Blogs, there were a lot more immediate matches.

When I searched Blogger Central/What's Popular, I felt old (and I'm not that old!). The top searches seemed to be done by teens (again showing my lack of technological skills and getting passed by the younger generations)! :) That's okay!

Thing # 13 - Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

2008-06-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

This one made me a little nervous. After reading all the directions and watching the videos, I felt a bit overwhelmed. However, when I clicked on the first site, 'a cloud of...', I felt relief. This is pretty cool; definitely a time saver. I don't know how I feel about the one word tags though. They seem too broad...I need more specific stuff. I think it would be valuable to use in the library and in the classroom; just as a means to show the students all the different connections that can be made with a single word.

Thing #12 - Commenting

2008-06-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

I just completed my 5 comments for L2P and my 2 by using Google Blog Search. I have to admit I chose my blogs based on interest of the blogger names. It was fun to comment and see what other people are blogging about.

Thing # 11- Library Thing

2008-06-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I added my list of 5 books...they are actually books that I just bought about parenting a spirited 3 year old...aren't they all! This is a great site. I enjoyed going through other people's lists to see what good books are out there. I didn't find any groups on parenting books, so maybe I'll create one!

Thing #10 - Online Image Generator

2008-06-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

This is pretty cool. I could definitely use this in my English class by having my students create comics for a character in the book they are reading or even about themselves as a getting to know them at activity at the beginning of the year. I found this generator the easiest to use. I tried the magazine cover one and the swapping body one, but they were too wordy for me to follow.

Thing # 9 - RSS Experience

2008-06-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

I like Blogline's Search Tool and Google Blog Search the best. I thought they were the easiest to use because you can search specifically for what you are looking for and it was easy to subscribe to the feeds that I was interested in. I also liked the fact that Blogline let you search through other posts. I found some interesting stuff...like random quotes overheard. Another way that I found to locate news feeds was to go directly to certain news websites and subscribe to their updates and feeds. It is still a little too technical for my comfort level though.

Thing # 8 - RSS

2008-06-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

I love that I can get all of the latest updates and news in one spot. I am constantly going to the same couple of websites to look at local news and it does take a lot of extra time to peruse through everything. This makes it a lot more simple. I also like the fact that you can organize the information. I easily made a category for personal interests (such as the local news) and one specifically for school related material (teaching articles, research articles, etc.). I think that our school library could use this information specifically for my content area when it comes to research. It would be nice to have all the most current information in one spot (for student or teacher use).

Thing # 7 - Google

2008-06-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

I found Google Advanced Search to be extremely helpful. I did a search on A Raisin in the Sun powerpoints and was amazed at what came up. It was a lot easier than just doing a regular search and having to go through all of results to find the type of file you are wanting to use. I also think that Google Scholar would be useful in my English class; especially if you are wanting to find background information on a specific author. I thought Google Earth was really neat, but I don't know how I would incorporate its use. Google Calendar would be good for setting up team meetings and plans.

Thing # 6 - Mashups

2008-06-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is so cool! I have been searching for creative ways to display my digital pictures and I love the Mosaic idea and the fd's Flickr Toys. For my classroom, it would be pretty neat to create my own motivational posters using actual student photographs. I would also enjoy having the students create trading cards for the various characters they encounter in a novel we are reading.

Thing # 5 - Flicker Picture

2008-06-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

I love the saying next to this picture on Flicker..."A house without books is like a room without windows."

Thing # 3 - Set Up

2008-06-08T22:20:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I did it - I set up a blogging profile and an avatar! I had never even heard of an avatar before now and my husband has been watching over my back wondering what the heck a blog is...I feel so empowered!

Thing # 2 - Easiest

2008-06-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

Mentoring is the easiest thing for me. I do it on a daily basis, as a high school teacher, a mother, a friend, and a wife. I also find it to be a rewarding experience--challenging at times, but definitely worth the end result.

Thing # 2 - Hardest

2008-06-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

Techonology is definitely at the top of my list for things I need to work on! It took me forever just to make it to this point. After reading the Habits, I realized there are many things that I need to work on to be an effective person. Starting with the end in mind is one area that I could definetly start with. I often just start doing with no end in mind.