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.

Organization? What Organization?

In "A Perfect Mess" by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, the authors challenge the assumption that neater is always better. From a purely practical standpoint (and knowing myself as I do), I embrace the idea that mess might be best. But here's the conflict: I'm an office supplies junkie. I go into Office Max/Depot for just one thing, but my eyes are scanning each and every aisle for something NEW and BETTER and MORE EFFICIENT or just plain COOLER. That way, the next time I need something, I can just stroll in for that new thing and feel perfectly justified.

Also, with as much time as I spend at work, I want stuff that will make my life easier, more convenient or just plain cooler. Get the pattern? This, of course, makes the authors' point. All that time I spend cruising Office Depot/Max negates the time I might save by being neat and organized. Not to mention all the time I spend implementing the new gadgets.

Will realizing this discrepancy between time used and neatness change my behavior. I fear not. I'll still cruise the office supply store, and play with new stuff at work/home. But I'll REALIZE that it's not really in the interest of efficiency, but just because I want to!

Thing 10

I totally love the idea of Google Docs, as it will save me printing and sending out each and every homework assignment. Now I will just need parents to access it and respond when the assignment is done. Another puzzle to solve.

One of the problems I had, though, was uploading documents. They didn't look the same as the original document, though I tried it several times. What would be the point of creating a document if it's not going to look right? Must be that thing about limited options in comparison to the original program. For example, on the spread sheet, I couldn't merge cells or upload the picture I had in the original document. On the text document, none of the lines appeared, and spacing was all off.

I did upload a new document to a colleague, and am waiting for her to respond.

Part of what we do involves confidential information, which would not be appropriate in google docs. We'll have to continue to do that in-house, which is not a problem since we have a common server.

Thing 8

Well, this is news. I often get so lost looking for particular material that I get frustrated. Or I may come across something I think is really neat, but it doesn't apply to the specific search I'm doing. Social networking looks like a terrific solution to that. Being able to put in the keywords that are meaningful to me will help, too, by eliminating some of the nutballs out there who love to take a topic to the ends of the earth and turn left. LOVE IT.

Thing 5

An amazing concept! An entire building linked by curriculum and interest. It really creates a learning community, both in and outside of the school. As a speech pathologist, it interests me because it allows me to incorporate time-sensitive vocabulary and language tasks into what I am doing with students. It is an overwhelming task to pursue these things on my own, across all academic areas, across so many grade levels. Having the ability to pick/choose which words or topics to include on a weekly basis, as they are being presented, would not only make me a more relevant part of the educational team, but would increase my effectiveness for the students with which I work.