It is done. I am finished! I am so proud of myself-I actually completed all my tasks before the deadline. I hope they are all done correctly.
I have learned a lot through this course, but I must admit I am looking forward to taking a break so I won’t have to be so stressed about it. Good luck to everyone taking this course this summer!
I just got finished exploring Ning. The first thing that caught my eye was someone posting about using the Smartboard in their classroom. I thought this was very neat that people were sharing their ideas. Smartboard constantly updates their software and tools, so this could really give you some cool ideas with their new stuff or even their old stuff! I browsed the photos section where I noticed people had published some of their students’ artwork, and I also looked at some of the videos. If I found a useful educational video, would I be able to show it directly from this site, or would I have to post it to teachertube?
There was a lot of stuff on this site! You could spend hours going from one tag to another! I do think this is definitely more of a social” place for teachers to share ideas as opposed to using this site with students. Besides, students have their own social places they use (such as myspace & Facebook)!
I just got finished creating my Pageflakes page. I must admit I was very overwhelmed with this activity. I was not familiar with Pageflakes, so I definitely had to use the Sticky Note help page to help me get through this!
In the educational setting, one could use this to createa type of informational page of what’s happening in your classroom. You could put useful things like the calendar, RSS feeds to articles that might be useful, and a “to do” list which might include homework assignments or upcoming projects. If someone missed class that day, you could put a podcast of your lesson each day on the site. It (Pageflakes) is very colorful, and it would definitely be something a teenager could get “in to.”
Some of the sites I might explore would be any related to my personal kids, eighties music, or cooking. :-) When do I have time to do these things? Almost never! I am lucky to get the laundry done….much less research something for myself!
I just got finished completing the Google Docs assignment (Thing 20). I had never used Google documents before. WOW! You can create the same stuff there as you can in Microsoft Word. Very interesting! I can see a definite benefit to using this in the classroom because you can create something online in your Google account, and it will always be there (on their server)-no need to use a memory stick or anything. Also, if you want to work on an idea and share it, another person can work on it by logging onto their Google account, and you don’t have to worry about having different versions of Microsoft Word or PowerPoint–no conversion issues!
When you have ideas, you could post them and have other people go in and make suggestions/revise you document with their ideas. You could send out a form template and have others complete it (in order to be environmentally friendly). You could even create an end-of-the-year “presentation” (aka PowerPoint) to send out to the parents. Very cool!
I explored TeacherTube and YouTube. I went ahead and signed up for a TeacherTube account so I could in the future find videos for the classroom–load them into TeacherTube–and show them safely in the classroom.
The two educational videos I found on YouTube were one of a Japanese tea ceremony (our class is studying Japan due to our class representing Japan in our Field Day School Olympics) and a Schoolhouse Rocks video on Interjections! (Yes–you remember that one I am sure). The tea ceremony was neat because I love learning the traditions of other cultures. The Schoolhouse Rocks video, I will admit, just brought back good memories of when I used to watch those on TV way back in the day! The “how-to” video I watched was a beginning lesson on how to care for orchids (my class gave me one for my birthday and I don’t want to kill it). The last video I watched, which was one for pleasure, was a funny video of a comedian reflecting on things we have all heard from our Moms…..the video is entitled “Because I’m the Mom” and it is sung to the William Tell Overture. Watch it and have a good laugh!
Our class could produce a video on our findings about Japan, and we could post it on our website! We could also copy it to a CD for them to have a hard copy to have always.
I found it very east to use Evoca–it was even easier to use than Audacity I thought, and I have used Audacity on many occasions in the classroom. I did not, however, like talking about my ideas “on the fly.” I am not very good on my feet when I know I am being recorded, so I don’t think this recording is the best I’ve ever done. Please take that into account when you listen to my thoughts!
Thanks for listening!
I went to iTunes (because it’s already loaded on my computer and because I am already familiar with using it) and listened to some podcasts. I viewed Sesame Street (yes, I have a 3 year old at home), Blues Clues, and then I browsed around the comedy section just to see if I could find something to humor me. After I was through browsing (playing around), I set out to find an educational one. I listed to Grammar Girls–GG Yo Mamma Uses Pronouns. In this podcast, researchers in Baltimore have discovered and they discussed how kids are using the word “Yo” as a gender neutral pronoun. Very strange!
I have never used a podcast in an education setting—or any setting for that matter. I think it could be neat in an upper elementary/middle/high school situation where the child was absent for class one day and could listen to the podcast of his/her class that day. Perhaps beginning elementary students could begin experimenting with this by putting a book report on a podcast (something simple).
I just explored 43 things. I did not like it. I kind of felt like I was reading a gossip forum. I usually like these kinds of things, but this did not impress me. I do not think I would publicly post my goals for all the world to see. I found some somewhat normal goals that people posted and some really weird ones. I don’t think I woulp post post goals personally or professionally.
I did find someone posted goals on how they could reduce their environmental footprint. That could give someone some different ideas. I also read a blog on someone wanting to know how to make friends–they were lonely. People gave them suggestions on how to do so–like use Twitter. I don’t know how realistic that is to find a lifelong friend, but whatever.
I am not against setting goals, but I don’t know if doing so online is the thing to do. I think it is good for people to set their goals. For the 2nd graders, perhaps they should write them down in a journal at home or at school–which would probably be more accessible for them. They might be more apt to follow through!
I just went and toured Library Thing. I had never heard of this site, but I found it to be quite interesting! I flipped through the tour, but I think I got more out of exploring the thing. I immediately started searching for books by one of my favorite childhood authors. I found several people that shared my love for her! I tried the Suggestor and the “Un”Suggestor–they were correct! With the unsuggestor, they listed many books I absolutely have no interest in reading.
How neat it would be if I could put our classroom library online and have the students go in and type a comment or two about the home reader books each time they read one. I think I saw where you can make your library private which would be VERY important if I did this with my 2nd grade classroom.
Another way I could see this as useful is you could have a book club with your friends. Time is always an issue with me, but doing a bookclub online would allow you to chat about your book at your own leisure AND you could have friends from all over participate–whether it be different parts of Atlanta, different cities, or even different states/countries. The disadvantage to that is you would miss some of the social interaction.
I think the idea of a “delicious” account is a neat idea because I can access my favorite places from any computer–not just my personal computer. When trying to search for items, a lot of things come up!! You can spend a long time getting lost in here. It is easy to tag items, but it can be difficult to find specific things on here because there is so much information to sort through (websites and such). Tagging items for students to use as a reference at home or in the classroom would be a useful way for a teacher to use this site. My del.icio.us site is http://del.icio.us/merikhoury .
