THING 2

Having tried blogging before, I'm convinced that it's a time vampire. Not only is it easy to let it drift into oblivion, it's easy to get lost wandering through other blogs, posts and links.
My main question is: how do I change the name of this thing. I mean, what was I thinking!?

Thing 2

Well, I have nothing to add to the marvelously insightful post I did last year when attempting this course. That said, please skip over my last blog to the next one, which is also titled "Thing 2"!

It comes as no surprise to those who know me, but my desk is (still?) a mess. Not as bad or as good as it has been in the past, but I always seem to have several projects going at once. Right now, for example, I am editing videotapes I made of my mother. These have to be sent out to many friends and family who attended her funeral. Apologies to all for how long this has taken me. In addition, I brought home several projects I was unable to complete at work this year. So now I have bags of papers that have to be sorted and punched before they can be returned to school. At times my living room looks like a recycling center, what with all the papers, trash, paper clips, stapler, and rubber bands. Fortunately, it has to be clean at least two days a week when I see clients.

More recently, the carpets were cleaned. This necessitated all the clutter I tend to accumulate (and, lo, this is legion) being put into the kitchen, laundry room, or up on something else. This hasn't been put back yet, because it's a perfect opportunity to go through some of this stuff and pitch or place it appropriately. Yet another project!

It's possible that these things will all be completed when I retire, but I doubt it. My mother had a closet-ful of unfinished objects. And now, so do I.

Thing 2

As has been so often mentioned in the things we've read for Twitter, it seems to be a program that grows on you. It's also a program in which you can easily lose yourself as you chain from one site to the next, looking at postings and finding new people to follow.

On a personal level, I'm more likely (at this point, at least!) to text message my friends and family. Those who would be likely to use Twitter would have the phone access to text. The others wouldn't be online anyway.

Professionally, I see the benefit of asking for and providing help/suggestions and/or a heads up to fellow searchers. This could be very useful if I happened to be looking for specific information. Having access to all these people really could prevent re-invention! The difficulty is having social networking sites blocked at school. It could be useful, I suppose, to contact parents with some immediacy. However, a phone call could be just as quick, especially since there is no blocking.

Pedagogically, it would be interesting to follow new trends in my fields (speech path and clinical psych), without incurring the cost of multiple journals and periodicals. Save trees, and all that.

As for fun, who wouldn't follow Ashton Kucher?! LOL

Thing 3

Blogging. Turns out I love it. Of course, it's all just extemporania for the moment. After all, I don't have particularly DEEP THOUGHTS! I enjoy hearing others' comments, although there have not really been many (or any, other than Jim's -- thanks, pal). Ironically, I haven't been particularly interested in reading blogs before, mostly for the same reason I like my own: there's not always a lot there. Alas.

One concern, should anyone actually read these things, is that my comments might be misinterpreted. Writing is not the same as reading, is not the same as conversing. Paranoid, I know.

I expect I'll play at it for awhile and see how it goes. It's an interesting way to fulfill my mother's dream of me becoming a writer. What goes around, and all that.

Woo-Hoo!

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. I learned a lot of stuff. I'm smarter than the average bear. Knowing myself, I'll probably forget a ton of it. Le Sigh. That's why I'm going to print/copy/paste/abscond with as many of the directions as possible so I can continue to improve my skills. See you in the cloud, baby!!

Thing 23

This has changed my view of education, and excited me as to what is possible. It will take more than a few of us in any particular district to implement these Web 2.0 ideas and open the rest of the staff to what is possible. There is significant reluctance, in many cases, to spend the time on these things. Too many of us feel computer illiterate and afraid to make the attempt. Those of us who have these skills will have to "evangelize" and spread the word of how terrific this stuff is.

As for personal use, I love the blog world. Even if no one else sees it, it's fun to play at. Watch this space!

Thing 4

How has learning changed since I was a child, lo, those many, many years ago. Hmmm, let's see. The only educational stuff we had on TV was "Watch Mr. Wizard". Learning communities were developed by discussing letters to Dear Abby. Students were not encouraged to "share" information with others, as this might be confused with CHEATING!!! Research involved hauling your sorry self to the library and spending hours & hours with the card catalog, stacks, and note cards. A bookmark was a stiff piece of paper stuck in a book. Okay, okay. You already know I'm old.

What's too often the same is that students schlep books from lockers, read, answer questions, take a quiz/test, and move on. Stuff they may have just learned may be forgotten as they begin work on the new unit/chapter/assignment. There is collaborative work on projects, but it's much like it was (skenkty-five) years ago. That said, it's nice to see unitedstreaming vodcasts used in some rooms, access to online info, and quick collaboration with parents.

Hooray!!

Thing 22

Obviously, the advantage to online PD is convenience. It's self-paced and no one cares what you're wearing or if you have dragon mouth or whether you scratch something inappropriate. You don't have to re-arrange schedules, prep lesson plans for a substitute, or worry about getting there on time.

The disadvantage of online PD is that you have to show up. Knowing myself as well as I do, I find it easier to watch Burn Notice (or equivalent) than to park my body at the computer for another hour or two of an evening. The result is that I procrastinate (you may have noticed that on this course!) and sweat out getting the assignments done. Hewlett Packard offers online courses for FREE. I have signed up for several of them, started with a flourish, then walked away because I couldn't make myself put in the time. Bah.

Having to show up for a live PD presentation forces you to participate. It's also time limited, which helps me enormously. You take your notes, put the handouts in a binder, and use what you remember to improve your service delivery. That's it. You're done.

I'll probably do some of both in the future. Hopefully it'll work out better!

Thing 21

Well, this has been an exercise in frustration! I'm sure that with more use, it would become easier to embed video into a blog or wiki. At least I'm hoping that would be the case for a techno-novice such as me.

Videos could be used in the classroom to present materials in different ways. For example,on Teacher Tube, I learned about a multiplication grid. It was fascinating. There was also an Abbot and Costello video on doing multiplication incorrectly. Hilarious. It could engage students easily. The same video could be used in a social studies class to discuss WWII, starting with demographics of military personnel, draft vs. volunteer military service, etc.

You Tube is blocked for student access in our district. However, it is available for teachers, so it would more likely be used in large-group instruction rather than individual access. I jumped through hoops trying to make Firefox work. When this project is completed, I'll try again. I didn't actually try either Vixy or Zamzar because it was so easy to download things to Real Player, for which I have a subscription.

Optional Thing

Thing 20

Students would be interested in listening to podcasts if it was relevant to their work and engaging. One example might be the Podcast Club (http://education.podcast.com/show/34346/Podcast-Club/), which creates history podcasts. Another is a site related to snowboarding (http://snowboarding.podcast.com/episode/20980713/29973/), which could be used in physical education, physics, or anatomy classes. Music podcasts abound.

I think students would enjoy making podcasts for several reasons: hearing their own voices broadcast, playing with the technology, and (incidentally) actually demonstrating their knowledge through another medium.

I enjoy NPR broadcasts. Yes, I know this sounds like a broken record, but that's life. Fact is, I haven't had time to do all the exploring I might for podcast sites. It's on my list. After working out, but before root canal.

uses for podcasts

Okay, I lied. So sue me.

If you happen to glance to your left, you'll see a facebook badge for Sandy Shores. In actuality, that's me, sort of. Being the paranoid nutball I am, I tend to use aliases on pages like "My Face", or give different parts of birthdates, or generally screw up the demographics on everything. Except this. Of course I wouldn't lie to 23Things, would I? Of course not. Sure.

Thing 19

I've listened to podcasts before, especially those from NPR. I particularly like "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me", which I've reviewed on this blog. As a fan of audio books, podcasts are a natural. I can shift time to listen to programs at my convenience rather than when they're broadcast. I listened to Grammar Girl's podcast about posting blog comments, and heard a podcast from a school librarian putting forward some mysteries. Both were informative and helpful.

One of the difficulties I see with this is having students, especially young ones, maintain their attention during the podcast. Certainly, it could be used by a kindergarten teacher, for instance, to turn one of their story books into a podcast. That way they could listen from home. Students could present reports via podcast, which could then be used in different classrooms studying the same topic. At a higher level, students would presumably have a longer attention span (or at least be able to fake it better), so discussions could be captured and rebroadcast. This might be helpful when a test is looming.

Students would probably prefer vodcasts. When I was a student (lo, those many years ago), I always enjoyed slides or movies over just talk. They keep the participants focused. With podcasts, it would be too easy for them to just "half-listen" while doing something else, the much mis-named "multitasking".

Students could be made aware of podcasts by posting them on class blogs, making them feeds, or including them on a wiki. Students could compile their own list of podcasts, as part of a group projects on their wiki. Use of "Science Friday" from NPR could supplement specific topics presented in class. "Wait, Wait..." could be used during either Current Events-type class or ELA focus on humor. Social Studies classes could benefit from the many presentations on "Morning Edition" or BBC World News. Can you tell I'm a regular listener of NPR? "This American Life" could be used as a jumping-off point for journalism classes or writing memoirs. The possibilities are wonderful!

Thing 17

A wiki is a more focused instrument than a blog is. The wiki typically provides info on a particular topic of interest, whereas a blog might have that topic, but will also have other interests of the blogger.
I think a blog would be more useful for journaling activities, and reflection assignments. A wiki would be more collaborative, much as group projects are now. An assignment on planets could be put together by students as young as 3rd or 4th grade. Social studies assignments could use a wiki. The advantage is that it wouldn't necessarily be limited to in-class time, but could be a homework assignment to which each participant could contribute at their convenience.
The main problem I encountered with the wiki was getting it to look the way I wanted it to. Perhaps this could be solved in a group collaboration by each person contributing their info and then putting it together in a more stylish fashion at the end of the project.

dumpr.net

Museum by dumpr.net

Whose-ie Toes?

Whose-ie Toes?
Originally uploaded by lead_f00t

Thing 12

Flickr is a great way to keep photos organized. It can be especially useful in grabbing just the ones you want. Tagging is terrific! My only concern is that you lose control over any photos you make public. That has the possibility of misuse. Of course, this is probably urban legand, but it makes me cautious about what I want to put out in the cloud.

Thing 11

Adding slide shows could be very helpful in a regular classroom. From a therapeutic viewpoint, it has somewhat less utility. Certainly there are plenty of slide shows available regarding language skills, especially at a secondary level. However, given that I would be working one-on-one or with small groups, it is more likely that I would just provide the content myself.