Thing 23 – Final Thoughts

I am so glad I took this class!  Thank you, Stacey!  As I said in my final voice message, I feel really proud for learning all of these great new tools myself by reading the class directions.  A few times I asked Paula, our tech specialist who is also in this class, for help but very rarely.  For me, that is quite an accomplishment!  I seemed to gain confidence with each task that I could figure things out and I know if I can do it, our teachers and students can too!

My next steps are:

1) to weed out my Google Reader – there is way to much info flowing in right now and I don’t want to be overwhelmed every time I open it!

2) find a teacher who wants to learn to create a wiki for a class project.

3) sit down with Paula and discuss the most useful web 2.0 tools we learned about and then share/teach them to our staff right away while it is all still fresh.

Good luck to everyone in putting all of these great tools to use.  Let’s keep sharing new ideas with each other so that we can keep learning!

Cindy

Thing 22 – Ning

I like the social or educational networking aspect of Ning.  It is helpful to read posts by other educators and to get information on specific topics of interest and what their experiences have been.  I read a post by a 4th grade teacher who had set up a writing blog for her students.  I followed the link and read a few posts by her students and thought what a creative way to get kids excited about writing.

Another educator posted a tutorial on creating quizzes and grading them automatically using Google docs.  I had no idea that was possible.  There is such a wealth of information on Ning in Education and Classroom 2.0 and most educators don’t know about those sites.  Sometimes, it is a little overwhelming just thinking about all of the information in cyberspace!  There is so much time saved by using digital technology, but on the other hand, it takes a lot of time to sort through all of the information and to decide what is useful.

Thing 7C – Google Reader

Like many of my classmates, I may have been overzealous when I started subscribing to various blogs.  I need to go back through and weed out what I’m really not that interested in.

However, while reviewing one of the library blogs I subscribe to called 100 Scope Notes, I came across an article about ebooks.  The author confirmed a fear that I have that more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon in favor of digital books.  He linked to a comic strip in which illustrator/author Lucy Knisley talked about how reading on her ipod has changed her life and how she now reads so much more because it is convenient.

I know this class is all about new technologies but the idea of digital books makes me sad.  You can’t get an author to autograph an ebook and I can’t picture sitting on the beach trying to block the glare from the computer screen so that I can read.  Call me old-fashioned but I like holding a book in my hand and I like the smell of a new book.  I am just about as excited when I open a box of new books for the school library as I am to open my birthday presents.  That being said, I did order some ebooks for the first time on my last book order.  I guess “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Thing 21 – Pageflakes

Pageflakes has me baffled a little bit.  I’m sure that I need to explore it more and that I need to have a particular use in mind for my page so that I can tailor it for certain readers.  I tried to put my own Delicious bookmarks on it but it continued to show someone else’s bookmarks.  I’m not sure how to fix that.

A media specialist or teacher could design a page to be used with certain units.  Students could be directed to web sites that they need for research or activities/games for enrichment purposes on the topic they are learning about.  A teacher could also use the site for homework help with web sites and games that would help students with any subject (math, for example).  As a media specialist, I think Pageflakes would be a great way to offer research and reference help for students and teachers.  I like the idea of having a dictionary, and links to websites including those in Galileo available in one place.

Thing 20 – Google Docs

The Media/Technology Committee at our school is supposed to send out a technology survey to our staff every year to get feedback on technology equipment and training needs.  So I decided to use Google Docs to get input from Paula, our tech specialist, and Stacey, our system tech trainer/specialist on what should be included in the survey.  I am looking forward to hearing from them and sharing ideas.

There are a lot of uses for Google Docs in the school setting.  Students collaborating on a research paper could write it together using Google Docs.    Another cool way to use Google Docs in the classroom would be for a teacher to write the beginning of a story and invite each student to add a paragraph.  That way, the end result is a story that the whole class collaborated on.

In the professional realm, we have four teachers at Burruss who are working on their specialist degrees right now.  I will suggest Google Docs to them as a way to collaborate on projects and papers that they are assigned so they don’t have to gather around one computer any more.

Thing 19 – YouTube/TeacherTube

YouTube and TeacherTube are amazing Web sites.  What great examples of innovation and creativity!  Who would have thought that it would be so popular to look at homemade videos by ordinary people?  But that’s exactly what we did this week  while enjoying Thanksgiving break with our family in Savannah.  We all gathered around the computer to watch and laugh about several YouTube videos.  My personal favorite was of a U.S. congresswoman giving a speech about her beloved Florida Gators.  She was not a skilled orator.  In fact, what we loved about the speech, as Georgia Bulldog fans, was that it was so bad it was likely an embarrassment to her team.

While conducting a search for videos related to my profession, I came across some very interesting clips about education and 21st century skills.  I have recently purchased some flip cameras for our students to use and I hope we will be launching soon into producing videos as class projects.  As mentioned in the video below, we have to prepare our students to question, problem solve, communicate and to use the tools of the 21st century.

Thing 17 – Podcasts

Podcasts can be a cool thing if you’re  interested in what the speaker has to say, and if you play the podcast and listen while you are doing other things (like listening to the radio).  However, looking at the computer screen while an audio podcast is playing is kind of a waste of time, not to mention that it is boring.  A video podcast is another story.  The visual aspect of a podcast is important to me because it keeps my interest.

I did not have a lot of luck in clicking on a podcast that was interesting to me.  I tried itunes, Podcast Alley, and Learn Out Loud and listened for a few minutes to about 10 different podcasts but never found anything all that exciting.  The speaker’s delivery is very important and it seemed to me that while many knew their topic, they had had no training in presentation and were very monotone.  Which brings up a great point to make with your students:  it’s not just what you say but how you say it.  Since the focus of our school is communication, podcasts are a great vehicle for teaching speaking, writing and presentation skills.  I have never done a podcast but I think it would be a worthwhile way for students to share their thoughts about their learning.

By the way, I do not have an iPod or MP3 player but I’ve been watching my daughter use hers for a few years.  I guess I need to start paying a little more attention!

Thing 16 – Library Thing

Of course,  I think “Library Thing” is cool because I’m a school librarian.  On a professional level, I could get ideas for good books by reading reviews by the groups that focus on children’s literature.  It is also great for teachers to create student groups so that the kids could write book reviews for things they are reading in class.  For that matter, I could create a group for all of our Burruss students to share with each other about books they enjoy!  I can also envision a lot of  personal uses for this Web site.

A few months ago, one of the members of a book club that I’m in put our group on Library Thing so that we could discuss our book of the month before we actually meet.  Sometimes you just can’t wait till you finish a book to talk about a chapter or a particular character.   I also think I will benefit from creating my own library.  Why?  Because I can’t remember what I’ve read after a few months and the details get sketchy!  By keeping a record of books that I’ve really enjoyed,  I’ll be able to make a recommendation to friends years after I’ve read something!

Thing 15 – Delicious

I confess I’ve been using Delicious since August after David Warlick spoke about it during his technology presentation to the school system at the start of the school year.  It sounds silly but it has changed my life.  Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but it really has helped me to organize my work life.  Instead of having a huge favorites folder with so many Web sites that I can’t find anything, Delicious allows me to tag and save them so that I can find them much easier.  I have saved a lot of Web sites, including this class, under the tag of technology.  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve pulled up my Delicious bookmarks, clicked on technology, and then gone to page 2 to find this Web 2.0 class.  Easy!

What I love about Delicious other than being able to tag and find things is that no matter where I am, or whose computer I’m on, I can get to my bookmarks.  It gives me assurance that after discovering a great Web site, I won’t forget it, or write it down and lose it like I used to.

Thing 7b – Tech Is All The Talk

There is a conference for every subject in education, it seems, and I’m sure that Web 2.0 tools are a huge part of each of those gatherings.  A week ago, I attended the National Social Studies Conference and integrating technology was woven into a majority of the sessions.  Not only was it a focus in what we should be teaching, but use of technology was apparent among the attending educators as well.   People were tweeting (?), or twittering (?) all over the World Congress Center with other attendees about what they were learning in the various sessions.

According to the School Library Journal article I just read, “Tech Is All The Talk At NCTE,” technology was just as much the rage at the National Council Of Teachers Of English.  Educators “took to Twitter, blogs, and other networking platforms to share their experiences.”  They shared methods for tying technology into lessons on literacy.

It’s a good thing that we’re in this class so that we can try to keep up with what’s new and what’s already happening in our students’ world!