Thursday, July 10, 2008
Boog-Phil Summarization
YooHoooooooooooo!!! I'm finally here. Done! Finished! I think if you cracked my head open right now there would be about a million little number 23's run out! I'll admit that I've sortof been obsessed with working on these lessons and I really did enjoy the experience. I've learned much more than anticipated and expected. However, ultimately, it did confirm for me how computer deficient I am. I was pretty clueless about all of the tools that are available to us on the Internet. Some of this stuff is over my head somewhat but most of it is so great and is quite useful to anyone that is familiar with the tools and understands how to use them. I've been Flickr'd, Google'd, RSS'd, Zoho'd, Doc'd, MindMap'd, Wiki'd, Tada'd, Del.icio.us'd, YouTube'd, Animoto'd, Podcast'd, and CC'd. I have learned so many new things that I honestly believe that I should receive 3 College credit hours for this class. I know I spent allot more than 24 hours reading, researching, and doing application assignments for the information distributed to us in this program. 23 Things should definitely be worth more than 24 PGH's (35-40 perhaps). It certainly wasn't boring and well worth my time, energy, and effort. I'm the kind of guy that needs hands-on experience with tools like this, so the more I use something the better I will get at it. There's tremendous beneficial information within 23 Things, now it's just a matter of putting it to good use!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thing #23 - Creative Commons
I really enjoyed the creativity of the Disney Video clip "A Fair(y) Use Tale". It looks like that probably took a long, long time to edit all of those scenes into a piece of work as a teaching tool about Creative Commons. Speaking of which, Creative Commons gives us the freedom and right to use copyrighted work as long as we don't take credit away from an original author or creator of a product. We are allowed to use said work under 3 conditions:
1. Attribute - give credit to the original copyright author or creator
2. Noncommercial use - we can't sell or profit from the work
3. Share alike - we may alter, transform, add to , copy, and distribute as long as it is marked with a (cc) mark.
I think this is a wonderful tool for Librarians and Teachers alike b/c we are always worried about breaking copyright laws and Creative Commons gives us a way to work with the copyright laws without breaking them.
By the way . . .
The Disney video clip by itself is an example of Creative Commons the way that actual Disney movies were duplicated, altered, transformed, and edited to create a teaching tool.
1. Attribute - give credit to the original copyright author or creator
2. Noncommercial use - we can't sell or profit from the work
3. Share alike - we may alter, transform, add to , copy, and distribute as long as it is marked with a (cc) mark.
I think this is a wonderful tool for Librarians and Teachers alike b/c we are always worried about breaking copyright laws and Creative Commons gives us a way to work with the copyright laws without breaking them.
By the way . . .
The Disney video clip by itself is an example of Creative Commons the way that actual Disney movies were duplicated, altered, transformed, and edited to create a teaching tool.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Thing #22 - Podcasts: no iPods needed
http://www.donateyourweight.com/show/show_index.html
For this project on Podcasts I went to PodcastDirectory.com and searched under the "Health" category since I'm a Health teacher. I ended up at Trumix.com where I looked under the subtitle Health: Fitness & Nutrition - I found the podcast, "Donate Your Weight", Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. I listened to this podcast that was (8:32) 8 minutes/32 sec. in length about the rising obesity problem we have here in America. This was a very interesting podcast about how Americans eat unconsciously throughout each day. This lady issued this statement, "The rise in obesity rates are simply due to a net caloric imbalance of 100 calories per day. A calorie imbalance of this amont generates an average weight gain of about 10 lbs. a year". It's a snowball effect over time, 10 - 15 years. Her example was with Hershey's kisses. Four (4) Hershey's kisses are 100 calories. People at work with a bowl of Hershey kisses generally, unconsciously eat 5, 10, 15, 20 a day; 2 oreo cookies = 106 calories; an 8 oz. cola = 162 calories. Her point is that we as Americans mindlessly and unconsciously overindulge ourselves on a daily basis and over the course of time it adds up.
Anyhow, I thought PodcastDirectory was very simple and easy to use. It's just a matter of searching through and finding topics of interest. For this particular podcast I opened an RSS subscription to my Bloglines account for easy access. I also bookmarked it to my firefox bookmarks toolbar. I do believe that there are many, numerous podcasts that are Health related and could benefit my students to varying degrees. Creating our very own podcast would be a very interesting project. I don't know if I'm creative enough to produce my very own podcast, but there sure are plenty of topics to surf through and listen to. It's just a matter of finding topics relative to you and your subject area. The negative side is time constraints in the classroom. I'm not sure how efficient we can be with this tool in a classroom environment regarding time managment.
I'm certain with time and more research, I will find a podcast that will interest me enough to subscribe to and become a regular listener. I found one about the Dallas Cowboys that was pretty interesting, so i'm sure that as I surf through and listen to some of them I will eventually find one that really piques my interest.
Podcasts - new to me, but a very interesting concept!
For this project on Podcasts I went to PodcastDirectory.com and searched under the "Health" category since I'm a Health teacher. I ended up at Trumix.com where I looked under the subtitle Health: Fitness & Nutrition - I found the podcast, "Donate Your Weight", Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. I listened to this podcast that was (8:32) 8 minutes/32 sec. in length about the rising obesity problem we have here in America. This was a very interesting podcast about how Americans eat unconsciously throughout each day. This lady issued this statement, "The rise in obesity rates are simply due to a net caloric imbalance of 100 calories per day. A calorie imbalance of this amont generates an average weight gain of about 10 lbs. a year". It's a snowball effect over time, 10 - 15 years. Her example was with Hershey's kisses. Four (4) Hershey's kisses are 100 calories. People at work with a bowl of Hershey kisses generally, unconsciously eat 5, 10, 15, 20 a day; 2 oreo cookies = 106 calories; an 8 oz. cola = 162 calories. Her point is that we as Americans mindlessly and unconsciously overindulge ourselves on a daily basis and over the course of time it adds up.
Anyhow, I thought PodcastDirectory was very simple and easy to use. It's just a matter of searching through and finding topics of interest. For this particular podcast I opened an RSS subscription to my Bloglines account for easy access. I also bookmarked it to my firefox bookmarks toolbar. I do believe that there are many, numerous podcasts that are Health related and could benefit my students to varying degrees. Creating our very own podcast would be a very interesting project. I don't know if I'm creative enough to produce my very own podcast, but there sure are plenty of topics to surf through and listen to. It's just a matter of finding topics relative to you and your subject area. The negative side is time constraints in the classroom. I'm not sure how efficient we can be with this tool in a classroom environment regarding time managment.
I'm certain with time and more research, I will find a podcast that will interest me enough to subscribe to and become a regular listener. I found one about the Dallas Cowboys that was pretty interesting, so i'm sure that as I surf through and listen to some of them I will eventually find one that really piques my interest.
Podcasts - new to me, but a very interesting concept!
Thing #21 - Animoto
Thia is crazy! What fun! Animoto took some time to upload the images but the steps were just Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 simple. I don't know how they could make it any easier. This was a really fun project and I think of the 23 things, this might be my fav!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thing #20 - Video & Audio sites/YouTube
Michael Jordans top 10 greatest highlight video clips/SpaceJam - "I Believe I can Fly" - take your pick: Since I'm a basketball coach and MJ is the greatest player to ever play the game, I thought it would be interesting to share this clip on my blog. I think YouTube is "greatness"! You can have so much fun with it and I think it's success is well documented and speaks for itself. You can do a search for any topic or subject and find almost any category you are looking for.
As for school or library use, I believe that students can use YouTube as a tool for classroom assignments or projects by preparing a curriculum based or content related video clip to share with the entire class. See ictbailey's blog - she posted the video clip that our son Cole uploaded onto YouTube for a Science project on the Everglades in Florida at The University of North Texas.
YouTube is "GREATNESS"! There are allot of worthless, fruitless videos on it but there are also allot of fun, interesting, and often educational clips. We have viewed many useful, informative educational video clips throughout this course, 23 Things.
Thing #19 - Other Social Networks
View my page on 23 Thingsters
OK - I have pasted the 23 Thingster Membership Badge on this post. I have uploaded a picture of our family under the photo tab on the MISD 23 Thingster site, and I have sent messages to Kelli Parmenter, Amanda Snyder, and my wife Angie. I have also created a playlist of fav's previously on my Blog.
I am now a member of Facebook, Ning 23 Thingster, and before I ever started this class I was/am a member of a social network message board which is a daily blog and it is for Texas high school basketball coaches at www.texasbasketballcoaches.com.
The TBC site was my very first membership on a daily blog message board. It's allot of fun and I can communicate with coaches all over the state of Texas. Now I can set up an educators network with Ning if I choose to do that, and I can stay in touch with people of my choice on Facebook.
All very interesting tools and each has a unique purpose.
Thing #18- Explore Social Networking
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo
I have opened a Facebook account. I chose Facebook b/c elementary - high school kids mostly used MySpace and I do not want to make myself accessible to them. I wouldn't even want a high school kid to know that I have a MySpace account. There are elementary kids and middle school kids with MySpace accounts. As a parent I think it is important to invade your kids space somewhat just to see what your kids are talking about and who they are communicating with. I do have some younger friends that have Facebook accounts. I've already sent out requests to several former players to be added as a friend on their accounts. It is probably important for educators to understand this tool because it is so widely used to network with your friends and professional co-workers. Looking over MySpace and Facebook has given me insight into the world of technology with a tool that I'm really not that familiar with and quite honestly do not use. However, it is easy to see why the multitudes are using these tools to communicate on a daily basis. I think the technology is incredible, easy to register for, but the only thing that I don't like about it is that I'm in an age group that is not very tech savvy. These tools appeal to younger generations (teenagers, 20's - 40ish ages). I'm 55 years old and I don't have any friends that are members of either of these networks. I did however immediately see many of my former students and athletes that have accounts. They are in their 20's and 30's now. I suppose if I wanted to stay in touch with this group that this would be an invaluable tool. I do think it would be valuable if you had the opportunity to reconnect with old high school or college friends.
From what I could tell it appears that perhaps MySpace has more features but I think that's based on their primary users age group. You can really build a really nice MySpace page with the options that are available. Facebook, although very simple seems to be suited for an older age group, mostly college kids, 20 & 30 something, young professional adults.
Without further investigation I'm really not sure what applications would be available for school and library use.
I have opened a Facebook account. I chose Facebook b/c elementary - high school kids mostly used MySpace and I do not want to make myself accessible to them. I wouldn't even want a high school kid to know that I have a MySpace account. There are elementary kids and middle school kids with MySpace accounts. As a parent I think it is important to invade your kids space somewhat just to see what your kids are talking about and who they are communicating with. I do have some younger friends that have Facebook accounts. I've already sent out requests to several former players to be added as a friend on their accounts. It is probably important for educators to understand this tool because it is so widely used to network with your friends and professional co-workers. Looking over MySpace and Facebook has given me insight into the world of technology with a tool that I'm really not that familiar with and quite honestly do not use. However, it is easy to see why the multitudes are using these tools to communicate on a daily basis. I think the technology is incredible, easy to register for, but the only thing that I don't like about it is that I'm in an age group that is not very tech savvy. These tools appeal to younger generations (teenagers, 20's - 40ish ages). I'm 55 years old and I don't have any friends that are members of either of these networks. I did however immediately see many of my former students and athletes that have accounts. They are in their 20's and 30's now. I suppose if I wanted to stay in touch with this group that this would be an invaluable tool. I do think it would be valuable if you had the opportunity to reconnect with old high school or college friends.
From what I could tell it appears that perhaps MySpace has more features but I think that's based on their primary users age group. You can really build a really nice MySpace page with the options that are available. Facebook, although very simple seems to be suited for an older age group, mostly college kids, 20 & 30 something, young professional adults.
Without further investigation I'm really not sure what applications would be available for school and library use.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thing #17 - Tagging and Social Bookmarking with Del.icio.us
The first thing I did on this assignment was to view the CommonCraft exploration video about Del.icio.us Social Bookmarking. Secondly, I viewed the Del.icio.us tutorial podcast, and then I browsed through Furl and Ma.gnolia.
I have discovered that this is absolutely the best way to save websites. Del.icio.us allows you to bookmark websites then tag them into a particular category. Tagging simply means labeling your information into categories by using key words for online content. Then you have the advantage of social networking which allows you to view tags from other people and they can also see your tagged sites as well. You have the ability to view or discover websites on topics of interest that other poeple have already found, bookmarked and tagged.
This is an incredible research tool becasue it enables you to find information very quickly just by doing a content/topic/subject matter search. Then you will have at yor fingertips tons of information related to your research.
I set up my own Del.icio.us account and I have already tagged some basketball sites that I can share with other coaches. I also bookmarked a site on Flickr Photo Sharing and started a new tag under Photos. I see social bookmarking as a great tool for Libraries. This simple tool will help students find the information that they need for reports and research papers much faster, quicker and more efficiently.
I find this to be an extremely effective and efficient tool for anyone in any profession, not just teachers' and students'.
I have discovered that this is absolutely the best way to save websites. Del.icio.us allows you to bookmark websites then tag them into a particular category. Tagging simply means labeling your information into categories by using key words for online content. Then you have the advantage of social networking which allows you to view tags from other people and they can also see your tagged sites as well. You have the ability to view or discover websites on topics of interest that other poeple have already found, bookmarked and tagged.
This is an incredible research tool becasue it enables you to find information very quickly just by doing a content/topic/subject matter search. Then you will have at yor fingertips tons of information related to your research.
I set up my own Del.icio.us account and I have already tagged some basketball sites that I can share with other coaches. I also bookmarked a site on Flickr Photo Sharing and started a new tag under Photos. I see social bookmarking as a great tool for Libraries. This simple tool will help students find the information that they need for reports and research papers much faster, quicker and more efficiently.
I find this to be an extremely effective and efficient tool for anyone in any profession, not just teachers' and students'.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Thing #16 - Online Productivity Tools
The very first thing I've done is open and bookmark an iGoogle webpage. I have customized it to my own personal needs and desires. I created tabs for News, Humor, Music, Entertainment, and Sports. Also, on my iGoogle page I have icons(tabs) to open YouTube, Movie ratings, Weather reports based on zip code, CNN.com, current Date & Time, and Top Stories of the Day. This is an awesome tool and I wish I had learned of this devise much sooner. I'm highly impressed with how easy it was for me to set up my very own page, very user friendly and such an interesting tool for anyone, not just teachers. I chose iGoogle because we already have a Google account and because of it's simplicity.
I have already created a Google Calendar and it is an excellent tool to help me plan and organize my schedule. It is basically a daily/weekly/monthly planner, which ever one you prefer or need.
For this assignment I created an account with Ta da List. It was so easy to use and I created a task list of things that I need to get done over the next few days. All of these gadgets are very user friendly and extremely useful products to use.
I have already created a Google Calendar and it is an excellent tool to help me plan and organize my schedule. It is basically a daily/weekly/monthly planner, which ever one you prefer or need.
For this assignment I created an account with Ta da List. It was so easy to use and I created a task list of things that I need to get done over the next few days. All of these gadgets are very user friendly and extremely useful products to use.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Thing #15 - What in the world is a Wiki?
I've always wanted to know what in the heck is a Wiki? Now I know! Wiki stands for "quick", and I just thought it was short for Wikipedia. I have come to the knowledge or awareness that wiki's are collaborative websites that allow students and/or teachers to author their ideas, concepts, opinions, or educational materials, information, projects and assignments simply by adding, editing, or deleting information on a wiki website. A wiki allows for coordinating information and it is a sharing tool which allows people to build information together. In other words it is a content management system between two or more people.
I also went to the MISD 23 Things Sandbox Wiki and pasted this same blog on to that site under Blogs, Avatars, and Comments.
I also went to the MISD 23 Things Sandbox Wiki and pasted this same blog on to that site under Blogs, Avatars, and Comments.
Thing #14 - Go With The Flow
I have opened accounts with FlowChart.com and bubbl.us. Apparently there is a wait period for your account with FlowChart so I went ahead and built a sample mind map on bubbl.us. My mind map is a chart of "The Food Guide Pyramid" which is content subject matter for my Health class at school. I found bubbl.us very simple to use to construct this mind map. I can see how flowcharts and mind maps can be a wonderful, effective tool in the classroom. It's very simple and user friendly, which is a necessity for me.
HINT: On my SAMPLE MIND MAP you can go to the top of the bubble (The Food Guide Pyramid) click on it and drag it up to center the mind map on my Blog, then you can to go to the + or - symbols to enlarge or reduce the words in the bubbles.
Thing #13 - Online Applications - Zoho Test Writing
I just created accounts with Zoho Writer and Google Docs. Wow - this is great!! It is much better that Microsoft Word! I think this will put Microsoft Office out of business and when people discover how to use this tool they will prefer using Zoho Writer instead. You still have pretty much the same options as Word but it appears that you can do so much more with this. 
It appears to be very user friendly and as I navigate through the options I don't seem to be having any trouble knowing how to use the various tools on Zoho. This is very neat and I like it allot.
Well when I did this Zoho Test writing I was playing with background colors. I chose yellow gold and I used black print on Zoho but when I published it to my Blog you can barely see the words. "Sorry about that Chief" - Maxwell Smart/Get Smart
Also, where it says wink and smile is where I had inserted the little emotion faces and for some reason when I published to my Blog the showed up in print.
It appears to be very user friendly and as I navigate through the options I don't seem to be having any trouble knowing how to use the various tools on Zoho. This is very neat and I like it allot.
Well when I did this Zoho Test writing I was playing with background colors. I chose yellow gold and I used black print on Zoho but when I published it to my Blog you can barely see the words. "Sorry about that Chief" - Maxwell Smart/Get Smart
Also, where it says wink and smile is where I had inserted the little emotion faces and for some reason when I published to my Blog the showed up in print.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Thing #12 - Google, more than a web search engine
The most applicable google tool for me is Google Calendar. As a matter of fact I have already created a July Calendar for my players for Open Gym nights on Mondays and Thursdays, 6pm - 8pm, throughout the month of July. It is really handy how you can create a calendar based on what day it is, weekly or monthly. You can simply highlight one particular day and type in an hourly schedule for that particular day. If you need to, you can set up a weekly calendar Sunday - Saturday and plan out your entire week, on an hourly basis. You also have the opton of using a monthly format and you can type in times and event schedules that will take place on certain days during a selected month. Like I said I have already used th monthly format to set up a July Calendar fo my players.
This is pretty much takes the placed of a hard copy daily planner notebook, much more convenient, organized, and very user friendly. I have found all options very easy to use. Coaches are always putting together itineraries and calendars of events and this will help me stay more organized on a weekly and monthly basis. I also really like the event reminders you can receive by email, popup windows, or even text messages to your cell phone. That is a very unique option!
Next I set up a Google alert account via email msging on a daily basis for any news relating to the Dallas Cowboys. I was 8 years old in 1960 when the Dallas Cowboys were an NFL expansion franchise and came to Dallas. They are 48 years old now and I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, so I love following them, even in the off-season. However, they will be going to their pre-seaason camp at the end of July and this Google alert will help keep me posted on any current day-to-day news involving The 'Boys!
This is pretty much takes the placed of a hard copy daily planner notebook, much more convenient, organized, and very user friendly. I have found all options very easy to use. Coaches are always putting together itineraries and calendars of events and this will help me stay more organized on a weekly and monthly basis. I also really like the event reminders you can receive by email, popup windows, or even text messages to your cell phone. That is a very unique option!
Next I set up a Google alert account via email msging on a daily basis for any news relating to the Dallas Cowboys. I was 8 years old in 1960 when the Dallas Cowboys were an NFL expansion franchise and came to Dallas. They are 48 years old now and I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, so I love following them, even in the off-season. However, they will be going to their pre-seaason camp at the end of July and this Google alert will help keep me posted on any current day-to-day news involving The 'Boys!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thing #11 - Finding good Feeds
I have spent parts of the last 2 days (Sat. & Sun.) surfing through the RSS search tools that were provided for this exercise. I thought each one was pretty simple to find feeds and I really didn't find any difficulties with any searches. I actually subscribed to Bloglines and Technorati but I really did like Topix.net. Topix was very easy and as soon as I opened this feed I had the options of local news, top stories, forums, popular, US, World, Sports, and Entertainment. I could have selected any of these feeds and saved them on my RSS feeds.
On Bloglines I actually saved 2 feeds; Quotes of the day and Sub with Bloglines. As a coach I am always looking for famous quotes to use with my players. This feed had unlimited quotes from humor, to inspirational, to motivational, etc. Sub with Bloglines had a Feed tab and the feature that I really liked the most was a feed labeled Bloglines Top 1000. WOW!! Information overload. I guess you could spend all day reading these informative feeds. On the Technorati feed I actually saved a sports feed to my bookmark bar, but when you open the Technorati site you find tabs for the following subjects: Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Politics, Sports, Technology, Blogs, Photos, & Videos.
These RSS feeds are so extensive that it is overwhelming, almost information overload for a simple guy like me. Great information and great learning/education tools!!
On Bloglines I actually saved 2 feeds; Quotes of the day and Sub with Bloglines. As a coach I am always looking for famous quotes to use with my players. This feed had unlimited quotes from humor, to inspirational, to motivational, etc. Sub with Bloglines had a Feed tab and the feature that I really liked the most was a feed labeled Bloglines Top 1000. WOW!! Information overload. I guess you could spend all day reading these informative feeds. On the Technorati feed I actually saved a sports feed to my bookmark bar, but when you open the Technorati site you find tabs for the following subjects: Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Politics, Sports, Technology, Blogs, Photos, & Videos.
These RSS feeds are so extensive that it is overwhelming, almost information overload for a simple guy like me. Great information and great learning/education tools!!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thing # 10 - RSS feeds
I have successfully opened an RSS feed account with Google Reader. I have set up accounts with YouTube, ESPN.com, DallasNews.com, USATODAY.com, and SI.com.
I'm sortof a sports freak so I have set up accounts with these sources so that I can check quick updated information as it occurs either in the news or in the world of sports. I read another blog from one of our other bloggers in "Thing 23" (Mandy's Mailbag) and she said she copied and pasted everyones blog sites onto her RSS account so that she could access their blogs much quicker. That is an intriguing possibility and I fully intend to explore that concept to see if I can do the same thing.
Very interesting! This is another great lesson in our 23 class and I am excited with this new knowledge that I have acquired today!
I'm sortof a sports freak so I have set up accounts with these sources so that I can check quick updated information as it occurs either in the news or in the world of sports. I read another blog from one of our other bloggers in "Thing 23" (Mandy's Mailbag) and she said she copied and pasted everyones blog sites onto her RSS account so that she could access their blogs much quicker. That is an intriguing possibility and I fully intend to explore that concept to see if I can do the same thing.
Very interesting! This is another great lesson in our 23 class and I am excited with this new knowledge that I have acquired today!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thing #9 - Image generator
http://www.imagechef.com -Since I am a basketball Coach, I thought I would make my own customized basketball jersey. I see this as a tool to use when messaging within your network of friends whether it is emails, myspace, facebook, etc. Looks to me like you could implement the image generator in classroom power point presentations but I would need further experimentation with that idea.
This morning I was playing around with this assignment and I've added a little smiley face sign to my image generator post. That was a fun little image to create from www.signgenerator.org.; or www.happyfacegenerator.com
How do you like my little one eyed monster? That's just a disparaging comment that I've always wanted to say to a basketball referee, but I think it would get me ejected.
Pretty cool stuff, this is pretty fun!
Thing #8 - Flickr Masher
Fickr Masher - spell with flickr: What a unique tool! Some of this stuff is somewhat difficult for me to do but I chose to use spell with flickr b/c of its' simplicity. It seemed fairly easy and quick, however, I couldn't figure out how to downsize the letters so that they could fit in my blog correctly. It is supposed to read "U Need 2 Know . . .". Some of the other options like mosaic maker for instance, seemed very difficult for this assignment.
I can see how I can use this type of masher to develop headers for vocabulary assignments or quick fact or statistical readings in my Health class. For example, I use an information sheet on suicide warning signs and this will be a perfect way to create a header for my students to get this information into their hands.
I'm not at all opposed to sharing pictures through flickr online, especially for educational purposes! It's fun to see photo's from other people's photo libraries about their family, friends, vacations, travel experiences, museums, art work, hobbies & interests, etc.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thing # 7 - Flickr/photo sharing
YooHoo!! What a great deal Flickr is! It's great to have a wife that can show you how to do this stuff. By the way . . . I had to open my own Yahoo acct. and break away from the acct. that my wife and I share together. My flickr photo on the "23 Thingster" site will be under the username of plb1751.This is a great photo that is in our family photo collection. This is "Hell's Gate" on Lake Possum Kingdom which is due west of Jacksboro, TX., just south of Graham, TX. This is where we have our family reunion every summer. The point of the cliff on the left is about 100' high and the water inside Hell's Gate is 95-100' deep. The water is very cool and fun to swim in but you'd better have your life jacket on because of the depth of the water. Possum Kingdom is well known for scuba diver's. They say there are catfish down by the dam that are as big as I am, and I'm a pretty big fella.
This is a piece of technology that I can see will require some practice and attention on my part but it looks like such a great tool to share your photo's with other people. I can see where photographers would have a field day with this system, or people who just use photography as a hobby would have a blast with Flickr. I know that young kids (teenagers) already use this technology and are very comfortable with it. They share photo's all the time.
Apparently you can tag photo's by labeling them with a key word which helps you file and organize your photo's for easy access or future reference. I also like the idea of creating group pools which enable you to select groups of people that you can send your photo's to. It is also quite unique that you have the option of keeping some pictures private as well as the ability of opening certain pictures for group or public consumption.
Thing #6 - Web 2.0 Awards List
In this Web 2.0 awards assignment I discovered a massive number of awards sites and readings to browse through and choose from. I chose to review a site in the Category of Health since I am a Health teacher and because I am in a constant war with weight loss and weight management. I chose the 2nd place award winning site called PEERtrainer. I thought this was an incredible site regarding the war on weight loss. I think this site could have wonderful benefits for people that are trying to lose weight and has endless potential to support a weight loss unit in the classroom as well.
Basically this is a peerhelpers buddy system which is a powerful tool for weight loss, fitness, and training support. It allows you to hold yourself accountable with the support of a small online group or team of others who have the exact same goals that you have. This program is free and with the help of daily logs, journals, community posts (threads), and individual blogs about nutrition, workouts, weight loss strategies, and calorie counting, etc., you can maintain your personal motivation with the encouragement and help of others. I found this to be an extremely functional and useful site for people to collaberate and share information about their fitness goals and weight loss ambitions. I really didn't find any dislikes about this site. I discovered that this can be applied or implemented by individuals, teams (groups) of people, or has definite useful features to reinforce a teaching unit within a Health classroom.
The success of this site was supported with many testimonials. For instance, jess5ash has been a member of PEERtrainer since May 2006. In that time she has lost 77 lbs., 22 inches, and 12 dress sizes; fleur 83 has been logging and blogging into this site for about a year now and she has lost approximately 35 lbs. There were many other testimonials but the proof is in the pudding. This site appears to be a very successful tool for fitness and weight loss goals and I see nothing but benefit by using this source.
Basically this is a peerhelpers buddy system which is a powerful tool for weight loss, fitness, and training support. It allows you to hold yourself accountable with the support of a small online group or team of others who have the exact same goals that you have. This program is free and with the help of daily logs, journals, community posts (threads), and individual blogs about nutrition, workouts, weight loss strategies, and calorie counting, etc., you can maintain your personal motivation with the encouragement and help of others. I found this to be an extremely functional and useful site for people to collaberate and share information about their fitness goals and weight loss ambitions. I really didn't find any dislikes about this site. I discovered that this can be applied or implemented by individuals, teams (groups) of people, or has definite useful features to reinforce a teaching unit within a Health classroom.
The success of this site was supported with many testimonials. For instance, jess5ash has been a member of PEERtrainer since May 2006. In that time she has lost 77 lbs., 22 inches, and 12 dress sizes; fleur 83 has been logging and blogging into this site for about a year now and she has lost approximately 35 lbs. There were many other testimonials but the proof is in the pudding. This site appears to be a very successful tool for fitness and weight loss goals and I see nothing but benefit by using this source.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thing #5 - Web 2.0/School 2.0/Library 2.0
WOW! ATOMIC LEARNING! It appears that we are heading towards an explosion of technology in the classrooms and on school campuses. To me School 2.0 means that we are going to have a collaboration of learning going on between teacher's, students, and even parents. We now have 21st Century learning. Web 2.0 learning is based more on read-write learning. Students now have blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networking (myspace, facebook, etc.) to engage each other in an information gathering/sharing world.
School 2.0 simply means that the days of students simply regurgitating information back to a teacher on a sheet of paper are over. Teachers will engage learning and the learners will turn around and become teachers through a sharing process. Learning will take place at home, at school, within the whole community. Students will be able to become more self paced whether they are slow learners, with learning disabilities, or gifted and talented learners. Technology has changed education drastically. When the internet was first invented it was a "read" only tool, but now students, teachers, and parents have so many new tools to share information with each other. We have become a "read & write", or read & share" society. School 2.0 gives us all of these tools to share our learning experiences with others.
Library 2.0 means that libraries have to adapt to all of this technology and maintain the services that kids need today. I don't think the Library is a complete dinosaur but they will really have to stay updated and maintain current technology for the type of learning that kids will be doing in the 21st Century.
School 2.0 simply means that the days of students simply regurgitating information back to a teacher on a sheet of paper are over. Teachers will engage learning and the learners will turn around and become teachers through a sharing process. Learning will take place at home, at school, within the whole community. Students will be able to become more self paced whether they are slow learners, with learning disabilities, or gifted and talented learners. Technology has changed education drastically. When the internet was first invented it was a "read" only tool, but now students, teachers, and parents have so many new tools to share information with each other. We have become a "read & write", or read & share" society. School 2.0 gives us all of these tools to share our learning experiences with others.
Library 2.0 means that libraries have to adapt to all of this technology and maintain the services that kids need today. I don't think the Library is a complete dinosaur but they will really have to stay updated and maintain current technology for the type of learning that kids will be doing in the 21st Century.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Thing #4 - Commenting
After reading some of the blogs about the etiquette of commenting, I have discovered some information which I naturally took for granted. It is obvious that commenting on a particular blog creates an interaction with others. It allows you to communicate with a single person or perhaps a group of people and establish some rapport while you are discussing certain topics. Commenting gives you needed feedback, opinions, or ideas from someone that is neutral and willing to tell you what they might think about your blog. It's an information gathering process.
I think it's quite natural to understand while commenting that there is a real person on the other end that deserves your respect, and that you should communicate with a gracious, polite tone. The 10 commandments of commenting was quite interesting. I particularly like the idea of making a contribution, don't just make a comment simply to be commenting. We should really try to contribute to the conversation with a pertinent feedback. I also like the advice to stay open-minded, respect others opinions and ideas. Thirdly, I really like the advice to "never flame". In other words do not start a war of words by being argumentative in a blog/comment forum.
Names of 7 Blogs: I'm not sure I'm answering this part of the assignment correctly, but here goes!
(5) from our group
a. lifelong learning
b. how blogging can be used within my school
c. the importance of commenting
d. web based applications
e. explore filckr
(2) others
a. 10 commandments of commenting
b. top 10 techniques to get more comments
c. TBC.com This is a website, Texas Basketball Coaches.com, that I blog on every day. It's a msg board for high school basketball coaches to exchange thoughts, philosophies, and ideas.
My commenting will be a work in progress over the next few weeks:
I just posted a comment to Learning Something New. Apparently she has a real love for technology and I told her that I envy her because of this. I'm very uncomfortable with technology and learning new things. I feel like a dinosaur. As a matter of fact I told Ms. Learning Something New that I feel like I just invented the wheel but now I really don't know what to do with it! She seems excited about this class and technology doesn't worry or scare her at all!
I just sent a comment to 23 things regarding her comments on thing #5 about perspectives on web 2.0 and how it will affect schools, libraries, and student learning in the future of education. She had some interesting observations about how technology is changing schools, use of libraries, and student learning. She made a comment about how we've become so dependent on the technology that is at our fingertips in todays society. I enjoyed her thoughts and comments about the articles on school 2.0 and library 2.0.
I just posted a comment on Mandy's Mailbag about her assignment on flickr masher. She did an amazing job creating 3-4 items. I was really impressed with the collage of pictures of she and her sister, and I really loved how she downloaded the list of songs that actually play as soon as you open her mailbag. Very interesting and very impressive!
I think it's quite natural to understand while commenting that there is a real person on the other end that deserves your respect, and that you should communicate with a gracious, polite tone. The 10 commandments of commenting was quite interesting. I particularly like the idea of making a contribution, don't just make a comment simply to be commenting. We should really try to contribute to the conversation with a pertinent feedback. I also like the advice to stay open-minded, respect others opinions and ideas. Thirdly, I really like the advice to "never flame". In other words do not start a war of words by being argumentative in a blog/comment forum.
Names of 7 Blogs: I'm not sure I'm answering this part of the assignment correctly, but here goes!
(5) from our group
a. lifelong learning
b. how blogging can be used within my school
c. the importance of commenting
d. web based applications
e. explore filckr
(2) others
a. 10 commandments of commenting
b. top 10 techniques to get more comments
c. TBC.com This is a website, Texas Basketball Coaches.com, that I blog on every day. It's a msg board for high school basketball coaches to exchange thoughts, philosophies, and ideas.
My commenting will be a work in progress over the next few weeks:
I just posted a comment to Learning Something New. Apparently she has a real love for technology and I told her that I envy her because of this. I'm very uncomfortable with technology and learning new things. I feel like a dinosaur. As a matter of fact I told Ms. Learning Something New that I feel like I just invented the wheel but now I really don't know what to do with it! She seems excited about this class and technology doesn't worry or scare her at all!
I just sent a comment to 23 things regarding her comments on thing #5 about perspectives on web 2.0 and how it will affect schools, libraries, and student learning in the future of education. She had some interesting observations about how technology is changing schools, use of libraries, and student learning. She made a comment about how we've become so dependent on the technology that is at our fingertips in todays society. I enjoyed her thoughts and comments about the articles on school 2.0 and library 2.0.
I just posted a comment on Mandy's Mailbag about her assignment on flickr masher. She did an amazing job creating 3-4 items. I was really impressed with the collage of pictures of she and her sister, and I really loved how she downloaded the list of songs that actually play as soon as you open her mailbag. Very interesting and very impressive!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Thing #3 - Using Blogs at School
There are multitudes of ways and opportunities to use blogs within a school setting. Teachers can communicate with blog journals to reflect on a teaching unit to describe to other teacher's what was successful and what really didn't work too well; to share ideas for similar teaching activities; or to perhaps keep a log of teacher training or staff development activities that are common within your curriculum department.
You can set up class blogs to communicate important dates, deadlines, special events, project due dates, etc.; small student group work which would require communication between students; for students to voice comments about things they enjoy or don't enjoy about a particular activity or unit of study; to blog with other classes of similar interests whether in the same school bldg or even some other part of the country, or maybe even another country. Blogs can be used so that students can express their own ideas or opinions about subject content or class discussions.
Teachers can use blogs to communicate effectively with parents about assignments, projects, test scores or grade averages; to post pictures of class activities or to showcase student work such as poetry or art projects, writings done in class. I like the idea of creating a student newsletter using articles written by students with graphic art or pictures posted within the newsletter.
There seems to be unlimited uses for blogs within a school community. I think that with the technology that kids have at their fingertips today, blogging is a natural concept for them and they would love doing something like this!
You can set up class blogs to communicate important dates, deadlines, special events, project due dates, etc.; small student group work which would require communication between students; for students to voice comments about things they enjoy or don't enjoy about a particular activity or unit of study; to blog with other classes of similar interests whether in the same school bldg or even some other part of the country, or maybe even another country. Blogs can be used so that students can express their own ideas or opinions about subject content or class discussions.
Teachers can use blogs to communicate effectively with parents about assignments, projects, test scores or grade averages; to post pictures of class activities or to showcase student work such as poetry or art projects, writings done in class. I like the idea of creating a student newsletter using articles written by students with graphic art or pictures posted within the newsletter.
There seems to be unlimited uses for blogs within a school community. I think that with the technology that kids have at their fingertips today, blogging is a natural concept for them and they would love doing something like this!
Thing #2 - Selecting an Avatar Pic
In thing #2, I'm having a problem posting my Avatar picture for some reason. My wife and I are working on the same laptop and we're both using Yahoo. I keep getting her Avatar picture on my blog site. I selected a male figure with a Hawaiian shirt with a Luau (sp) background. When I select the male Avatar it also shows up as a male figure on my wifes blog site as well.
We're both confused and have tried to fix it but neither of us knows how to keep mine as a male and hers' as a female.
Anyway, for thing #2 we both successfully downloaded an Avatar picture on our blog site, we just can't get the male-female picture figured out. Help anyone????
My wife and I have just discovered that our Avatar pic's are backwards. The picture that I selected is on her blog site and her picture is on my blog site. We think it's because we're both using the same laptop with Yahoo as I stated previously. Neither of us knows how to correct this problem.
We're both confused and have tried to fix it but neither of us knows how to keep mine as a male and hers' as a female.
Anyway, for thing #2 we both successfully downloaded an Avatar picture on our blog site, we just can't get the male-female picture figured out. Help anyone????
My wife and I have just discovered that our Avatar pic's are backwards. The picture that I selected is on her blog site and her picture is on my blog site. We think it's because we're both using the same laptop with Yahoo as I stated previously. Neither of us knows how to correct this problem.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Thing#1
7 and a half habits of learning: I've always believed in the importance of life-long learning and have taken responsibility for my own learning experiences. My biggest downfall is that I do not stay up to date with technology and how to implement it in my classroom teaching. Therefore, in this class, 23 things, my goal is to become more accomplished in internet technology and how I can possibly use this information more efficiently as a classroom teacher. I am ready to learn and explore at my own pace by playing with the various "things" that we will be studying. I need to be more informed and up to date on various teaching tools that will enable me to be a more efficient classroom teacher, however, I always lack confidence when I'm trying to maneuver around the internet. Blogging is new to me and I'm not very comfortable doing this. It will take a few "thing" lessons to get me into a comfort zone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
