Thing 24 Will My Frontier Ever End??

As I look back on my journey into technology, I can honestly say it was an adventure.  Granted it was not an adventure in the sense of climbing a mountain or swimming with dolphins, but it was an adventure none-the-less.  I certainly experienced all the emotions that people normally would if they did those things – I laughed, cried, smiled, got frustrated, felt proud, was nervous, etc.  I went through it all.  Now that this journey is ending, I am happy that I did it.  It took me out of my comfort zone and really forced me to confront my fears about technology.  I would have continued to avoid technology until it would be absolutely impossible to go without it.

            Although each of the 23 Things brought something new to my plate, I think the feature that influenced me most was the overall journey.  After I began completing each task, I was surprised how much I enjoyed them.  Perhaps it was the feat of accomplishing an area of technology that I have never attempted before, or maybe it was showing my children that you should not be afraid to face your fears.  I think I have to give myself a pat on my back.  To start from such a novice background, to being able to create my very own blog, I am amazed that I actually did all of the 23 Things on my own (well, maybe with a little help from my kids); I am proud of myself.  It took a great amount of courage to venture into the world of technology.  I know that might sound funny and silly to some of you, but for me, it is a real fear.  Some people are scared of heights (my husband’s knuckles turn white when he has to go over a bridge), I am afraid of technology.  This class, however, has helped me begin to conquer those fears. 

If I had to pick just one of the 23 Things that I enjoyed most, I would have to choose Thing 22, creating my own Livebinder.  This feature seems most applicable for my purposes.  I am notorious for ripping out articles from magazines, printing information off the computer, and shoving everything in a box.  With every single rip and print, I always say, “I will look at all of this in a few days.”  Well, it has been about 4 years and I have (at last count) three boot-size shoeboxes full of paper just waiting … and waiting for me.  Right at this very moment, I have a bag full of saved articles shoved in my dryer so my husband will not find it! – [Am I in the pre-hoarder stage??] –  Livebinders will save me from all of that though.  Now I can finally organize all my paper scraps and website information in one convenient place, and I can make as many as I want.  This way, I can get rid of the boxes, but still have all the material that I want to keep. 

Although this class was frustrating as times, I am glad that I completed it.  As an older teacher competing against the spring chickens, I will certainly have to step up my game.  Younger teachers have grown up knowing how to incorporate this technology; they use it in almost every part of their lives.  It is the older group of educators that has get on board and conform to the changing times.  With each passing year, technology will have an even bigger impact on education.  It is up to me to take charge of my own education and learn to integrate technology into my lessons.  This class has certainly given me a taste of what to expect, and I will continue to learn and grow in this ever-changing field.

I say so-long to you all for now, but be on the lookout for me in the future.  Who knows, maybe I will be the next Martha Stewart of technology! ;)

Thing 23 Sharing the Creativity

Out of curiosity, I entered “Learning 2.0 +23 Things” into the search engine to see what results would surface.  I was amazed to see that other colleges and universities had similar programs to the one we are completing.  After looking through a number of the other programs, I found that we are right on par with the larger named schools (Go APSU!).  All of the Learning 2.0/23 Things were comparable with only a few topics that varied.  While exploring around, it appears the the 23 Things project is based off of two other pieces of work.  The first is the website entitled, 43 Things.  It is a site that allows people to list and keep track of 43 things that they would like to do, or goals they would like to set.  The second is an article from Stephen Abram, entitled “43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year.”  This is designed as a 1-year project, where the other is for a longer period of time. 

The Creative Commons assignment that we completed as part of our larger LiveText project, really put copyrighting and copyright infringement into prospective.  I must admit that I have ‘copied and pasted’ a few images that I have found while surfing the internet.  In my defense though, I did not use it for commercial purposes, did not manipulate it in any way, and in no manner profited from it.  I did not realize though, that what I was doing was wrong.  I just assumed that since the material was on the internet, it was open for others to use.  Now that I have learned more about copyright infringement and Creative Commons, I will know the correct and legal avenues to take without violating any laws.  This is definitely a serious topic that I will cover with my students.  It is inevitable that they will also publish their own creative material on the internet for others to see.  They will need to know how to protect their creative/intellectual property as well.  They will need to be aware of locations on the internet where they can search and use material without legal ramifications.  Exposing information like Creative Commons to my students early will help them later in the future.  They will be able to apply that knowledge and have peace of mind when they work all of their future projects.

Thing 22 Where have all the Trapper Keepers gone?

Elementary Education

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=855003

Oh, my how things have come such a long way since my days of carrying a Trapper-Keeper.  Now, come on, …. I know that those of us who were in school in the 1970’s and 1980’s had them, and decorated them with puffy stickers or gel stickers.  I loved mine so much that I put it in my memory box so when I am 90 years old I can show my great grandchildren.  By that time though, it will be a relic and the kids will have no clue what it is. 

            Considering that teachers have so much stuff to keep track of, Livebinders seem like a great alternative to filing hard copies of everything.  I think the biggest advantage is that it is available online, and can be accessed from any place that has internet access.  Teachers do not have to schlepp their wheeled suitcases home anymore.  They can create lessons, look at projects, and review material while sitting poolside soaking in the warm sun.  In all seriousness though, Livebinders are excellent because teachers can keep everything organized by tabs and sub-tabs, and streamline the resources that they access on a regular basis.  Not only is the Livebinder a place for websites, but teachers can also upload their own documents.  They can make an education Livebinder for personal use or they can create one for students to access when completing a larger project.  The nice thing is that teachers can do some of the legwork and choose specific websites to link on the Livebinder.  This way students do not just click on random websites that they find.  This will ensure that the information and websites they access are reliable and appropriate for their age.  Students can also produce their own Livebinders.  Teachers can assign a Livebinder project that the students must complete.  Students can research all the necessary information and then compile by tabs and sub-tabs.  Because projects like these are not restrictive, students can shine in their strengths and show what they can accomplish.  Teachers can then use these Livebinders as documentation for their progress throughout the year. 

Below is a Livebinder that I created.  I had such a great time compiling useful sites for students to use.  Since I am in the elementary field, I wanted to make a binder geared toward that age range.  For this specific activity, I concentrated on three tabs – Math, Language Arts, and General Use.  I chose Math because my son excels at it and I am constantly trying to challenge his math skills.  There is only so much he can do on the Math App that my husband has on his iPad, and he is getting bored with it.  I chose Language Arts because my daughter loves to write her own stories.  She has a notebook filled with imaginative stories, and I really want to foster that creativity.  The last tab entitled, General, I intended for the ‘all-encompassing’ material that the kids like to do.

Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the other binders that other teachers have already constructs.  Most of them are really outstanding.  In looking at the binders, it is obvious that teachers think Livebinders are valuable tools.  Why else would they spend so much time creating them.  I was impressed with the thought and skill that went into constructing them.  I hope that with some time and practice, I can make one just as good.  I definitely plan to use the Livebinder application when I start teaching.  I have already set up a few others so I can start compiling websites and documents that I feel are important.  … Now, if only I could find a way to put some cool 1970 stickers on the virtual cover …

Thing 21 Channeling Stephen Spielberg

Make your own slide show at Animoto.

            If I can boldly say this … I just might be the next Stephen Spielberg … No, not really, but in my non-tech would, that is pretty darn amazing for me.  I really enjoyed using the Animoto website to produce my very own video.  Whenever I am at a wedding, I always wonder how the videographer makes the stereotypical wedding video montage that is projected behind the couple and plays on the never-ending death loop.  It always includes the obligatory naked baby photo, the head stuck in the toilet photo (maybe that was just mine), the terrible 80’s hair/clothing photo, and the embarrassing high school prom date photo.  Oh, those were the days.  The video I made, is nowhere near that, but I did have a fun time creating it none-the-less.  Since I do not have any digital pictures on my computer, I used the ones offered on the Animoto website.  There are quite a few photographs from which to choose, so that was nice.  After scrolling through the bank of photograph categories, I selected a variety of flower pictures from the nature section.  The website has a wide variety of stock music to use as well.  Since nature can have a calming effect, I chose a classical piece to accompany it.   The directions to gather the pictures and music are very simple so it was easy to compile and save it.  Embedding the video is a little tricky though.  I had to click around a bit to find where to get that information.  I followed the directions, but I do not think I did it properly.  The video is located at the main section of my blog.  I will keep working on it to see if I can embed it into this particular blog.

            Anyway, click on it, and enjoy my Stephen Spielberg-ish amazing video creation!

Thing 20 Let's go Tubing

            I cannot lie, whenever I hear the word YouTube, all I think about is pointless animal videos and senseless videos from bored teenagers.  I never go on YouTube and delete any links that my friends send me to watch something on it.  They always say something along the lines of, “You have to watch this clip!  Can you believe someone was stupid enough to do this?”  That right there just puts me off even more.  It does not help either when my husband shoves the computer in my face and makes me watch endless, ‘unbelievable’ football passes/catches from past NFL games. 

            With much reluctance, I started exploring YouTube.  Indeed, I did find countless meaningless videos, but then I also started to see some videos that had some significance.  The more I explored, the better I felt about the website.  There are actually quite a few impressive videos.  Could it be that I was wrong about YouTube?  Well, yes and no.  I spent about two hours combing through the website and found it to be an extremely useful resource for education.  I can see using videos from YouTube to enhance traditional lessons and revive boing lectures.  If integrated properly, it can help redefine the way educators teach and students learn.  Incorporating media can help students connect with the topics in ways that are more meaningful.  Children today already use this technology and constantly have access to it, so it would behoove educators to merge it with traditional teaching.  Teachers can use YouTube during instruction to highlight certain features of a lesson, they can assign videos for supplemental review of material, or they can even have their students create their own videos as a project. 

            As a side note, I also found two other sites that are similar to YouTube, but are specific to education.  The first is called TeacherTube.  It is a video file-sharing website where educators can post and share lesson plans, exchange teaching tips, give helpful suggestions, and present instructional videos over popular topics in education.  The second website I found is called SchoolTube.  This is also a video file-sharing website, but is catered more to students.  Here students can post their media projects and educational school events.  The nice thing is that before the material can be posted, it has to be approved by a teacher who is registered on the website.  This ensures that the content is appropriate and meaningful.  I will put the links at the bottom of this post.

Since I am concentrating on elementary school, I searched the site for videos on volcanoes.  I was pleasantly surprised when a number of videos popped up.  I clicked on a few, but found that many were not applicable to education.  The videos were either silly, poorly made, or not relevant.  Before I was about to abandon my search in lieu of something else, I changed my parameters to ‘volcanoes +education’.  The results from this search were so much better.  I found an amazing video by Bill Nye the Science Guy.  (For those of you who are not familiar with Bill Nye, he is a scientist who presents science topics in fun, yet educational ways that are interesting to children.  My two kids think he is great.  His show is produced by Disney and it is one of the few shows that my kids are allowed to watch and really look forward to it.  They are learning about science, but do not realize it.  Anyway, this particular video about volcanoes would be perfect to show in the classroom.)  It presents the science behind volcanoes in a very kid-friendly way, and is directed specifically at the elementary school level.  Bill Nye uses humor, great graphics, sound effects, music, and supplemental video clips to enhance his lesson.  He takes kids all around the world to see different volcanoes.  Through the use of props and experiments that kids can easily reproduce at home, he shows how volcanoes are formed, how they develop, and how they explode.  The best part is you can actually eat the experiment at the end because it is made out of food!  Billy Nye certainly makes learning and education fun and exciting.  If I were a student watching productions like this one, I would be very interested in science.

After spending time on YouTube, I can definitely see the benefits of using it in education.  Yes, there will always be inane videos from bored teenagers, but there are also numerous videos that have real depth and significance.  It will just take some time and patience to uncover the ones that are applicable to education and can be incorporated in a meaningful way.

Teacher Tube website:  www.teachertube.com

School Tube website:  www.schooltube.com

Bill Nye’s volcano video:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M5JQDdardM

Thing 19 Casting out the social nets

I have never joined any social networking groups or online communities.  I am part of a mom’s group, a hula troupe, and a German organization, but nothing in the virtual world.  I signed up for the APSU TeacherPop website and spent time time looking around.  There are some areas in TeacherPop that I think I would use in the future.  It seems like a good place to find resources, suggestions, and feedback for education.  There is always a comfort in knowing that other people are having similar experiences.  It helps to have a place to find advice, get help, … and sometimes even vent frustrations.  After poking around TeacherPop, I clicked on a few of the other social networking sites that were listed as suggestions. 

The networking sites that I especially liked were Bake Space and Good Reads.  Since I love baking and cooking, I thought Bake Space would be a good place to start.  I did not think much of it at first, but as I began to click on different links, the site became much more interesting.  This site allows members to swap recipes, share ideas and tips, and even sell recipes.  I particularly likes the the section where you can make and publish your own cookbook.  Granted you will have to pay for it yourself, but hey, you will have an official looking cookbook!  Pretty cool!  There is also an interesting tab for a mentor program.  Here, you can connect with other members who have a culinary skill that you are interested in learning.  Through the website, those people will mentor you and help you learn that particular skill.  As if that is not enough, there is also a tab called My Kitchen, where you can save all the recipes, articles and cookbook reviews that you like.

The second networking site I reviewed was Good Reads.  I really liked this one because I love to read theme based novels.  According to its ‘About Us’ tab, it is the largest website for readers and book recommendations.  As I was exploring, I kept thinking, “Wow, this is really great.  I will totally use this.”  I kept reading and searching, and the next thing I knew, one hour had passed.  Yikes, I was so sidetracked by all the great things the website had to offer that I totally did not hear my laundry buzzer go off.  Now I will have to iron!  Ugh!  Anyway, there are a number of fantastic features on this website.  First, you can set up your own virtual bookshelf.  There are two areas within the bookshelf – one where you can ‘place’ the books that you have already read, and the other where you can list the books you want to read.  Once you finish reading a book, you move it over to the already read section.  This way, you will not have to remember if you already read a book, or if you overlooked a book within the series.  There is also another tab for book recommendations.  Here you can read reviews about books you might be interested in reading.  This will certainly save you a few dollars by not choosing a book that will be disappointing.  You can also leave your own review for the books you have read.  If you want, there is an opt-in option that will assess the books you have on your bookshelf, and then recommend other books in which you might be interested.  That is great, because I am always on the hunt for different authors within my chosen genres.  

If you are an avid reader, I highly recommend this website.  I am not one for keeping up on different websites, but I will definite use Good Reads.  It is a perfect match for me.  Now I can get rid of all my scraps of paper on which I write my newly found authors.  I usually lose these anyway and end up having to start all over again.

 

Bakespace website:  www.bakespace.com

            Goodreads website:  www.goodreads.com

Thing 17 So this isn’t Rachael Ray

Okay, well I think someone should have warned me about Thing 17.  As I read the word “Delicious”, I was so psyched because I thought I was going to use my newly acquired technology skills to conduct some research on Chef Rachael Ray.  After all, her famous catchphrase, ‘Delish’, is derived from the word Delicious.  I have all of her books and constantly use her recipes.  That story sure changed when I started exploring Delicious and social bookmarking.  There was nothing about Rachael Ray or cooking. 

            After I got over the initial shock, I did become interested in learning more about social bookmarking.  The most bookmarking that I have ever done was was use a piece of scrap paper to mark my place in Culinary Mystery novels.  Once I read through the discovery exercises, I realized that social bookmarking was similar to my ‘primitive’ scrap sheet of paper.  The potential for social bookmarking in the classroom can be advantageous.  I can see teachers using this application on their classroom websites.  Teachers can do some of the legwork for projects and bookmark some trusted, useful websites that will help students with their projects.  This will enable students to start working, without wasting their time searching around the internet for websites that might not even be applicable.  It can be especially beneficial for elementary school students.  Because their understanding of research is limited, they can use the social bookmarking sites to help them find appropriate websites.  Social bookmarking can also help teachers.  With social bookmarking, teachers can easily call up important websites that will help them in class.  Sometimes it is difficult remembering all of the great website addresses, and social bookmarking is a way to organize and combine favorite sites in one convenient place.  Teachers do not even have to use their own computer.  Because their information is stored on the web, they can assess their personal site from anywhere - not just on one computer.  By tagging certain sites, it is easy to call up specific groups of websites that are pertinent for particular topics.

            Below are two websites that I found that sound very useful to education.  The first link is called Thinkfinity.  It is a website dedicated to helping educators enhance their curriculum.  It provides lesson planes that are aligned to state and common cores standards, professional development, technology tools, and activities.  The second link is called Schooltube.  It is similar to Youtube, but for education.  Here, students and teachers can post videos to show off what they have produced in school.  There are educational videos that cover subject lessons, there are student created projects, news stations, webisodes, and other fun things.  So check them out when you have a chance.

 

www.thinkfinity.com

www.schooltube.com