One Last Thing!

Where to begin, where to begin? First off, I must say that this course was very engaging and informative. If I was forced to name my favorite discovery, it would probably be LibraryThing. I am and have always been an avid reader and lover of novels. Now that I have a way to keep up with ALL the books I have read (well the ones I can remember) and will read, I will never buy a book twice (it is so embarrassing to return a book back to bookstores for this reason). This program was right up my alley because I love to learn about new things and will always consider myself a lifelong learner. Participating in this class has given me a newfound awareness for Web 2.0 and its countless applications in the classroom. One way this class could be better is by making sure that all the links needed work properly and are attached to the wiki with the instructions. It would also be more enticing if more hours were offered for it because it does feel as if I spent more than 24 hours working on this course. If there were another discovery course offered, I would definitely take it, because I definitely enjoyed this one to the fullest. This blog will now become an online journal, that will also help me keep up with the things that I will continue to find on the web as well as my thoughts about how to use them in the classroom. I have already resolved to share my blog with other educators and have told anyone who will listen about what I have learned in this class.

Thing #23

Ning is a website that reminds me of a social wiki. I like the fact that people can create groups that are related to their interests as well as create professional groups. I am not sure if I will actually pay for a membership, though, because there are still other social networking sites that are free. I enjoyed poking around the Classroom 2.0 and MISD 23 Things sites and felt that they could really help me keep in touch with new ways to incorporate technology online. I joined both so that I would have a reminder to always keep my eye out for new (and hopefully free) websites that will allow me to incorporate lots of technology. I found the Learning 2.1 RSS feed on the MISD 23 Things site and automatically added it to my Reader. Overall, I feel that I will use these sites to broaden my horizons and integrate some variety in teaching methods. (I am also proud of my badge to the right because I put a lot of work into being a 23 Thingster.)

Thing #22

This was probably the easiest thing I've done in this class because I grew up in the Facebook and MySpace generations. Prior to this class, I had explored both of them and my personal preference is Facebook. I enjoy Facebook because of its new privacy settings (where my students can't find and add me) as well as the number of my friends and family that are connected. I use Facebook to keep up with all the people it would be tiring to call or e-mail all the time. It is important that teachers know how social networking works because it will help them keep in touch with professional friends in other districts. They also need to know how to work the privacy settings because many teachers have gotten fired over content that was on their Facebook or MySpace page. I did not really gain much insight because using Facebook regularly is what I do and I learn about the new things as they are added. I did learn that the MySpace account I created years ago is visible through Google searches, but the content is so old that it has me living in a totally different city. I will probably never use it again, unless Facebook starts charging. I have used facebook for educational purposes, by finding colleagues and collaborating with them. The colleagues I have used in the past are all ones that I knew personally, but eventually I would like to branch out and find teachers I don't know that teach the same subjects I do so that I can collaborate across the globe.

Thing #7b

I have found many interesting things on my Reader. The most interesting and important to me was the WikiPremed post from Free Technology 4 Teachers. My major was Biology with a focus on Premed and eventually I plan to go back to medical school, which will require me to retake the MCAT. When I went to the WikiPremed site, I fell in love and immediately began browsing. I found that they had all kinds of study tools including Physics flashcards (which will help me while I am teaching Physics this year) and Physiology Crosswords (which will really make reviewing fun). Of course I could also give this website as a reference to my students that have interest in Premedicine as a major, but I will be honest: my primary focus for vewing and bookmarking this website was for purely personal (and selfish) reasons.
Another interesting thing I found in my Reader was a short blog about Creating screencasts from Tech Learning. It simply listed the Top 10 programs that could be used to do so, but it was awesome in its simplicity because it compiled this list so that I could refer to it and find my favorite from the list. I will be using screencasts to explain directions for foldables so that I will not miss a step and all my classes will get the same demo.

Thing #21

Google has so much to offer educators that I don't know where to begin. Google calenders can be used to let students and parents know what will be coming up in class as well as to let them know what has been missed during absences. I also learned that it could be embedded into a webpage, which means it could be embedded into my moodle as well as their classroom wiki review as a reminder of the test dates. 

Google Talk can be used to have video or audio parent conferences when the parent is unable to meet face-t0 face. Google SketchUp can be used to make a virtual 3D rollercoaster which will be an interesting activity because it teaches students to learn how to make plans in a virtual environment. Another great resource that Google has provided is Google Translator which translates the content of any webpage to another language. The translator will not only translate the site, but any links that are a part of it as well. The value of this to ELL students is beyond anything else I can ever do. The translator will also show them the content in English so they can compare the 2 languages side- by- side. I am definitely attaching a link to this to my moodle. I will even have a quick before or after school tutorial to show them how to use it if they don't already know. I believe this will allow their English to really grow because it shows them the equivalent information in their native tongue, so that they are not only learning English, but they are also learning the content as well.

Thing #20

Google Docs can be used for many things. I created a spreadsheet to track my Professional Development classes taken this summer. I also plan on using a spreadsheet to track my students progress on their wiki project, much like the progress tracker that was used for this class. I also foresee the use of Google Docs to share the responsibility for presentations and handouts to the students. Often, when teachers create something new to use in class, they either make a mistake or forget something important. However, if Google Docs is used, then more people will work on the item being prepared which will cut down on the errors made. I am also thinking about using Google Docs as a method to turn in presentations. My students could either create the presentation in Google Docs or create it using the software on their computer and then uploading it to Google Docs. Either way, they would send me the link as a viewer and it would be a very simple way to get rid of the excuses (My partner/ I lost it, left it at home, the mongoose ate it, etc.)

Thing #19

VoiceThread is a really interesting website. I like the idea of having a slideshow with audio attached. Above is an example of one that I will show in my classroom. It will probably be my introduction to Newton's 3rd Law. I will also browse other voicethreads by this author because I would like to use more examples like this to introduce a topic. I also think that I will refer VoiceThread to my students as an option to present projects. It would really help those students who are terrified of public speaking because they would be able to record their voice beforehand and let it speak for them. Another application I could use is to show and explain a project sample to my students. Using VoiceThread will ensure that all my students get the same information instead of having to rely on my memory (which isn't all that great).

Thing #18

I have tried to avoid getting caught up in YouTube because I did not want to waste my life looking at the junk that can be found there. However, if someone showed me a particular video or embedded it on my facebook page, I did watch and laugh for a moment. It is truly amazing what people will record and put on the internet for the world to see. However, having an assignment that forced me to search YouTube for educational content made me cringe because I just knew that there would be issues finding Physics related concepts. Fortunately, YouTube proved me wrong very quickly. Using the simple search "physics" I immediately found a clip that I can't embed because the person who uploaded it disabled that feature, but it is a phenomenal center of gravity demo. After finding this on the 1st try, I began to warm up to the educational value of YouTube. By skimming the comments I came across one that led me to search for the "Do Try This At Home" series that would teach me how to do it and voila here is an even better video! 

After finding this gold mine of How To videos. I got really excited and quickly found another content based video (posted on my wiki sandbox page) that gave me a new website to explore! The funniest thing about this assignment was after finding the 3 videos that I was dreading, I had fun and got to search for the one that would be just for me. I quickly went back to the homepage and found a video that was currently being watched and I found it hilarious as well. I enjoyed the last Old Spice commercial and hope they keep the Old Spice man. 




Whew!, I thought. Now that I completed my YouTube assignment I can talk about TeacherTube which I have used many times before. I really appreciate TeacherTube because it has easily accessible (read unblocked by MISD) content that is always appropriate for the topic I am looking for. I recently found a cute clip on TeacherTube that I embedded in a wiki that I will be using to get my students to create their own test review.

Thing #17

Podcasts in education are an excellent way to introduce more topics into the classroom without having to actually having to teach them. Students can subscribe to a particular podcast and get extra information in a format that they are already comfortable with. I browsed a few Physics podcasts from Education Podcast Network, but felt that a few of them were too wordy and others were not high school level material. I finally found one from LearnOutLoud that would be helpful and subscribed to it. iTunes was really the best directory because I found that entering a few keywords brought up many useful podcasts, including one from iTunesU that is the Universist of Berkeley's Introduction to Physics class. I have an iPod and iTunes, but haven't used them for podcasting yet because I never thought to. My husband, however has a few podcasts that he subscribes to and we listen to them together on road trips. My personal outlook is that I will use podcasts as an outside resource that I recommend for students that need additional help. I will embed related podcasts to my moodle website and as a simple assignment ask my students to post to a forum about what they found interesting.

Thing #16

LibraryThing is awesome! I am an avid novel reader and I sorely needed this site a long time ago. As soon as I began reading about the website, I knew I would join even though it wasn't required. I automatically began loading a few of my books, and plan to add a few here and there as I have time. I am very excited to have my own online catalog because I needed a way to keep up with my books. Recently I was asked if I even knew how many books I owned and I had to think about it and finally say no. Now that I have my own LibraryThing account, however, now I can keep up with how many books I have read this year as well as with the number of books I have altogether. Now that I have represented my personal views of usage for LibraryThing, I can think about outside uses. It would be great for students to keep track of the books they have read both for school and recreational purposes. Language Arts teachers can track their students' reading by following their LibraryThing account using RSS feed. The teacher can also start an online forum about books the students are reading. I think the coolest thing the teacher can do is to encourage the students to join an online community of book lovers where they can receive their own recommendations as well as give them. This site can be used as the Facebook for readers. Personally, I will use this site to catalog my own collection as well as find new authors to branch out to. After I finish cataloging my own, then I will start searching for the books I have read, but don't own so that my library can be even more accurate.

Thing #15

Delicious is a great bookmarking site that allows people to tag their bookmarks to help others search. It was very easy to type in a few keywords and find sites that I wanted to visit. I ended up finding some Creative Commons websites that will help me find images and music for future use. I have always wanted to incorporate more music in my classroom but was afraid to because I didn't know the law. However, it has been my personal experience that delicious is blocked by MISD servers since it has a Yahoo login. Because I don't want to override the firewall every time I want to look at my bookmarks at an MISD computer, I find that Xmarks is much easier for me. I will continue to use my Delicious account from home to search for more websites that will help me, but unfortunately, I will not be installing it on my work computer. If you would like to see my shared bookmarks, you can find them here: http://delicious.com/pvzeta3 . 

Thing #7a

I have found many interesting things on my Google Reader. I have so many stars on items because as I scan, I find so many new things I want to learn about and incorporate in my classroom. One of the latest ones was about School Safe ClipArt. I am always looking for more ways to bring visuals, especially for my ELLs and SpEd students as well as for the visual learners. From the same feed, I came across Ad-Aware which is free anti-virus protection. I wondered why no one else has thought to make protection free since everyone needs it and most anti-virus software costs an arm and a leg. Of course, since its free, I automatically began to doubt its scanning prowess. When it comes to technology, my husband always assures me that "you get what you pay for". 

From a feed that I added purely for my own interest, I found an article talking about foods that boost your mood. I thought this was interesting because certain foods (CHOCOLATE!!!!!!) have always made me happy and I wanted to see what research shows about mood-enhancing food. Although this article slightly disparages my claim that chocolate is the ultimate feel-good food (said that it would more likely prolong a bad mood- how lame is that, seriously, eating chocolate even while in a bad mood has always brightened my day), it did have some healthy meal and snack ideas that included links to the recipes. I really appreciated those links because it gave me the option to try one of the mood boosting foods to see if it could compete with the endorphin high I get from chocolate. (...I wonder if anyone can tell how much I love and think about chocolate...)

Thing #14

I tried 2 different tools and loved them both. The 1st one I tried was Wordle. I have seen the collages that other teachers made and thought they were cool, but assumed that I would never have the time to make one myself. Once I got to the website, I realized that they were much easier to make than I thought. I believe that I will use this as a word bank when I have my students working on fill-in-the-blank things. I think this would be a fun way for them to see the words and it would really be entertaining for me to watch them read while turning their heads to read sideways.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

The 2nd tool I tried was MixBook. Of course, since I had issues finding science related pictures I liked from Flickr, I decided to use some of my own photos to create an album. Since I am a newlywed, I decided to make an online wedding album. Because I have about 800 pictures to choose from (my photographers were very thorough), it took a while to pick the photos I wanted to upload. Once I did that, I decided to let the program "Randomize" the album out of curiosity. The album came out great! With minimum effort, I now have an online album that I can allow my friends and family to see. I haven't decided if I will allow them to edit it or not since I would like to keep peace. I am also thinking about asking for help on adding the text so I might let them view and ask for comments for suggestions about the text. Either way, the album is not finished and by the time it is, I will have another decision on whether or not to buy it so that I can have a physical copy. Please feel free to comment and give me ideas.

Thing #13

Dummies Book Cover Maker 2010

Comic Strip Generator

Custom image generators are fun ways to create classroom visuals. Making these images online was fun because instead of searching for images related to a specific topic, I can make my own! At first, it took a while to figure out what to say because I was so used to living in the dark ages where images were generated for me. However, once I created a few, I immediately saw all the possibilities of having images generated to spice up boring PowerPoint presentations, using image generators to help students find visuals for projects, or even using a generated image to inspire a group conversation. Image generators will without a doubt be heavily used in my classroom.

Thing #12

No Child Left Understanding Science by Colin Purrington
Science Fiction Museum by ricardo.martins
Pentaindenocorannulene by Ethan Hein
Fields of Science by Image Editor
Science! by Andrew Huff
USA 2005 (September 09th) Washington, Seattle, Pacific Science Center by Paraflyer

Creating a slideshow with captions nearly had me in tears because I am a perfectionist. I originally started out using Rock You!, but became annoyed with it because it would not save the changes I was making to the slideshow. Once I finally got the preview to look the way I wanted and tried to save it, the website told me that my slideshow had already been saved and I had to log on to change it. Imagine my frustration due to the fact that I had not registered for the site, hence no login information. Needless to say, because that site was not user-friendly, I had to move on to make a pikistrip because I at least wanted text, if I couldn't have all the glitz and glam (not to mention music) from Rock You! Because of all the change and the time it consumed, I decided to change the original intent of my presentation to "helping my students understand the importance of science". Hopefully, the end product satisfies its purpose because it cost me a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I am not sure if I personally will use this in the classroom to make  a slideshow for my students, but I might use it as an option for a project that my students have to present to me.

Thing #11

from "Spell with flickr" by kastner

Uploaded from flickr, photo by Image Editor

Browsing flickr was more of an experience than I thought it would be. I thought that it would be really easy and simple to find a few pictures about science and then I would be done with this topic quickly. Instead, I ended up finding out that people tag their photos with very generic things that may or may not be related to the word I used for the search. When I typed in "physics" and "chemistry" I kept running into construction site images, when all I was really looking for were images of people performing interesting experiments. The topic I want to create a slideshow about is the different ways that science can be fun and not just a difficult subject that you are forced to take in order to graduate. I plan to use the slideshow as an introductory tool next year or as a writing prompt for TELPAS. I will use the Flickr website next time I want graphics for a presentation or if I want to show my students some examples of vocabulary. I appreciate having another source for finding photos, especially one that only allows you to search for those that already have the Creative Commons license. 

Thing #10

Creative Commons is one of those things that as soon as you hear about it, you wonder "why didn't I think of that and become famous?" It will definitely impact the educational world because now we know who doesn't mind us using their work and who wants us to gain permission 1st. I have used pictures and video clips in my classroom from sites that were referred to me by the library. Now that I know about the websites that collect information for this specific purpose, I can use those to search the next time. I can also refer these sites to my students when they are working on projects. I can let them know that they will not have to ask about the author's permission as long as the Creative Commons license permits it. I also learned about fair use with regards to transformativeness. I always assumed that if I used material that belonged to someone, that I could not publish it publicly because I would need to make sure that I had permission to do so. Now that I know that if I have transformed the work, I can publish it as long as I make sure to cite the original author.