RDeibel's Blog

I had a little consternation setting up my delicious account, as it wouldn’t allow me to join without creating a Yahoo id, even after re-starting my computer.  If this was to be expected as a result of using Internet Explorer as my browser, it wasn’t mentioned in the videos (which were very helpful, other than the detour through Yahoo).  Once I did set up a Yahoo id, I was able to set up the account and create several bookmarks with tags without further trouble.

I’m very unsure of the tags I chose, mainly because I have no experience in how I’ll use the account or a particular bookmark that I might share with others.  Will I remember what tags I used once I have 400?  Will I decide tomorrow that my logic tonight was off?  (That’s a strong possibility!)   I think I’ll do a little more exploring on the notes that can be included on a tag that might remind me of what I was thinking (!) when I created it so I can use it consistently.  I’m looking forward to seeing other 23 Things students’ accounts to see what patterns appear in their tagging.

Coordinating tags seems critical to making the saved information serviceable.  For example, if my colleagues and I want to share reading strategies sites, deciding on a common tag for the sites we think are cool would make everyone’s search results available to everyone.  Guiding students to specific tags at my account would direct them quickly to the information I’ve already determined is valuable to them.  Without a designated tag, they might just as well search the whole internet and suffer the mish-mash of information that a wider search would produce. 

I see very plain benefits to using social bookmarking with colleagues, but I wonder if there are teachers among you who are using it in instruction to guide students to meaningful information and activities.  How is it working out?  Are there any issues with regard to security that have arisen in implementing its use in the school setting?  I’d love to hear about someone else’s experience with it.

The add-on video by Kathleen Gilroy was helpful as another explanation of what can be done using delicious and how it can benefit the user.  I didn’t understand the stuff about RSS Aggregators, but that’s a good reason to get on to Thing 8.

Well!  That was a lot to process (especially all the stuff about types of tagging and bundles and stuff!), but I love the idea of a bookmarking site, since I often regret working at home and needing a bookmark that’s saved on my office computer, or vice versa.  This could be very helpful in keeping me equally productive everywhere.  (That’s a good thing, right…?)

As for tagging, it sounds like the next example of how the internet is making the world (or at least the world of computer users) very democratic.  Since tagging allows users to decide on how information is organized, it allows users to steer how the information travels between users.  Tagging sounds like another step in the “information by the people” direction.  Really, something like folksonomy is how all language develops, so it makes sense that this medium of communication would evolve in the same way–real people nudging things one direction or another by validating some things and letting others fall by the wayside.

I loved the suggestion that e-mails might be taggable someday.  That’d be a real improvement in my life to be able to categorize the tens of messages I send to students and mentors in the community every week.  I’m also excited about the possibility of using social bookmarking and tagging with my students.  It sounds like an excellent means of allowing them to learn to access resources instead of memorizing information (the real benchmark of a successful adult, I think), and it allows them to share responsibility for discovering new information and sharing it with others, something most of them find meaningful and exciting.

I’m very interested in trying social bookmarking and tagging myself, so I’m eager to get to Thing 7, although I’m a little unsure of whether a new tag writer can be a really insightful one.   (Happily, if we don’t get it just right the first time, we can edit!)  To write good tags, it seems the onus is on the tagger to think carefully about the audience(s) who might be using them, to consider all the ways the information might be used and by whom, and to check on how others have tagged the address.  I wonder whether I’ll find other people’s tags truly helpful, or so antithetical to my thinking that they’re completely unhelpful.   Likely a little of both.  That might be both a weakness and a strength of tagging:  the variety of opinions and perspectives out there yields a myriad of tags; that variety might be powerful, but it may also sometimes be daunting to sort through (just like the internet).  But if it helps me keep stuff organized–and there is so much stuff out there–I’m all for it!

Commenting on posts is not just a key activity in blogging, doing it well and in accordance with some guidelines is clearly a deal-breaker in making it work in a teaching setting. 

The guidelines provided were helpful and served to highlight for me some of the dangers of allowing students to use blogs.  One can’t simply hope that students will read carefully and use caution in writing; a teacher really has an imperative to structure the blog use to guarantee that it’s happening.   

The reminder that tone in any communication that isn’t face-to-face is easily misconstrued especially rang true for me.  I’m routinely explaining to students that I can’t hear their tone of voice or see their facial expression, and advising them to WAIT at least five minutes and re-read their missives before clicking “send.”   So often the tone they intended on an e-mail wasn’t at all the tone that was conveyed. 

The reminder that the reader read all the threads of a post before commenting was a very good one, but one I think students will struggle to follow in their impatience to get to the end.

I was interested in the recommendations that addressed the effort to increase your own credibility as a commenter, and increase traffic to one’s own website or blog.  It makes me wonder how many people comment with an eye to improving their reputation and increasing their market share, so to speak.

Receiving comments is validating (even if some of them result from a class requirement), and the requirement of commenting did cause me to slow down and read the whole thread carefully.  I liked receiving a comment not so much because I was flattered that someone was reading my blog, but because it’s so potentially helpful.  If you have a question or a problem, it seems an ideal solution would it be to put it out there for an unlimited number of people to see and help solve.  The potential for synergy is pretty breathtaking.  (I have a really cool poster that would be perfect right here, but I can’t figure out if it’s copyrighted.  Any guidelines or info on where to go for more info on that would be appreciated!)

I have a Facebook account, but can’t say I enjoy checking it too often, partly because the messages I really value–from good friends and family–don’t come in via Facebook, they come via my e-mail.  In addition, I don’t enjoy how scattered I feel moving around the site, perhaps only because I haven’t used it enough to feel like I’m really at home there.  I’ll resolve to visiting it more often to see if that helps.   If there’s a tutorial out there that will help me see the logic of the site’s organization more graphically, I’d love to hear about it.

I already had a Googledocs account, thanks to a really tech-savvy friend who recommended it, so I didn’t have to create one.  I hadn’t used it in a long time, and I have so many user accounts with so many different passwords, I couldn’t remember which one I’d used for Googledocs.  By asking for help resetting my password, I learned how quickly the site is set up to help you through that kind of a problem:  by the time I opened a new tab in IE, the e-mail with the link to reset the password was there.  Pretty good.

I uploaded a document without any problem.  I also spent some time exploring the calendar and the forms tool, and see some really exciting possibilities for using that in my work, such as putting the program calendar on Google calendar and letting students access it there.  I’d like to know if there’s an efficient way to copy all my students’ e-mail addresses into Google from a grouplist.  One negative was that things moved a little slowly from click to click (maybe that was my computer, not Google).  What I wasn’t able to figure out was how to print an individual form formatted exactly as I need it to print.  I see tools for viewing the responses to the form’s prompts, but haven’t discovered how to move the fields on the form around to my satisfaction (and, just as importantly, to the satisfaction of the attendance auditors that inspect the required forms for my programs).  If other students reading this post have more info about that, I’d love to hear it.

I’m already a user of Google Maps, both in my work and my personal life.  In my personal life I’ve used it to plan travel, and even to incorporate maps into worship presentations.  In my work, I use it to confirm the location of a site I need to visit, and sometimes have even used the photo tool to give me picture of what my required exit or destination building looks like.  I’m considering requiring my students to use it to search for their potential worksites, get directions and estimated travel time before they go out on interviews.  I think it’d be a great way to get them using the tool, and it’d save a few of them from getting lost and being late for an interview!  (That never makes a good impression.)  Maybe it will serve to make a few of them more conversant in map-reading and better oriented in their environs, something my experience tells me is lacking.  The only bummer about Googlemaps is the limits on the satellite views and photos available–some destinations are just not documented in photo form yet, or the magnification you’d like isn’t available.  I had not known about the personalized maps possibility, which I think would be fun to use planning a group outing or family trip. 

Just for fun, I searched for the map of the destination for our next family trip.  I wasn’t able to save the satellite picture and plunk it in here, but here’s a photo:

I wonder if Googledoc can serve as a storage site for photos I want to share with family and friends?

In both the work-based learning programs I coordinate, I’ve wrestled with the issue of setting expectations and assigning tasks that require students to have internet access, and now it has arisen in the classroom setting as well.  In an effort to be inclusive of students who don’t have home access or an e-mail address, I’ve set up the program parameters so that students without home access use the school’s access, and this arrangement has worked well, drawing complaints only from students who feel they’re inconvenienced by having to use the school’s computers instead of having the luxury of using one at home.  Although I wouldn’t impose a financial obligation on a student by dictating that they have home internet access, I don’t think we’re doing them any favors by designing curricula that avoid use of the internet and use of e-mail.  It’s how people communicate in the real world, and students need to be truly conversant in using it.

I’m glad I tried the presentation tool, because it showed me how to share and revealed how the multiple editors option might work.  Now I want to know whether there’s an option to save a database on Googledocs that could be accessed and edited by selected people…?  The more I learn, the more the possibilities expand.

Changing my theme was easy, thanks to the software making it obvious what I had to do (the only hard part was deciding on which theme–each had something I liked and something I didn’t care for).   It took a little longer to change my widgets, but not too long, and I’m glad I did it, because it allowed me to put the features I think are most important at the top so they’re easy to find.

Here’s my picture, which I took in my May garden.  The peonies have been in the family for at least 80 years.  Their fragrance is amazing! 

I messed around with it quite a bit trying to get the picture the right size and the text aligned with it the way I wanted.  Part of the problem was my unfamiliarity with the design tools–for example, I wasn’t sure what pre-set size for the picture would be in the ball park.  That the post looks different in the edit window than in the post was also a problem.  I discovered the full screen toggle tool, and although it was interesting, it didn’t give me the view I wanted.  In the end, I had to go back & forth between the post and the site to see if it looked like I wanted it to.   Anybody out there know a quicker way?

Inserting the links was easy also, again thanks to the software.  That it’s easy is a very good thing–that way I can change them as the demands of a class change, keeping only the currently relevant ones on the blogroll.  There were a couple of options there I wasn’t sure about, such as the ”targets” and advanced stuff.   I hope we learn more on that later.  My favorite site is one I added to my blogroll:  http://www.chemistry.about.com/  It’s got SO much fun stuff in it–not only content, but do-at-home experiments and activities.  It’s changed almost daily to keep things really fresh, and the search built in is really helpful.

All these tasks are confirming my belief in the “Dink-around Method” of learning.  It works for me:  even with a goal in mind, sometimes you just need to dink around with something to figure it out.  True, learning to use a tool like a piece of software is in some ways different than teaching concepts, but there are also important parallels.  If the only thing we all get from this course is a reminder through our own learning of the value of setting things up so students can experiment and figure it out, it’ll be the best course we ever took!

I think my favorite of those listed is a tie between “A Really Different Place” at:

http://areallydifferentplace.org/node/268

and “Welcome to Room 8″ at:

http://jmyrmel.edublogs.org/

At first I couldn’t decide what blog I liked–some seemed cluttered but helpful, others were attractive but the purpose was unclear or scattered.  After looking at them all several days ago, and making some detours to additional sites beyond the list, I noticed that the ones listed above kept popping back into my head.  If something about each of them was getting me to think about them, I figure they may have some of the right stuff to get kids to use them as well.

Why were they memorable?  First, both were visually uncluttered–one with bright colors and well-spaced elements, the other with more muted colors but enough space between the features to make them readable.  Both made it really clear that the blog was about the kids.  “A Really Different Place” has a clear statement of the purpose of the blog placed very prominently on the home page, and a list of all the students’ blog links right on the home page.  ”Room 8″ has lots of pictures of the kids–a great way to get them to look at the blog, for sure!–and again, I think, made it clear that the site was about student learning.  Although other sites had some really cool tools for involving kids in the blog, both of the two I’ve cited provided an example of how a blog can state its purpose clearly, while being visually appealing and student-centered, too.

Helpful tools I saw that I plan to use are links to cool websites, links to homework and assignments, and a calendar.  The links to assignments and a calendar would be VERY helpful when students return after an absence.  Though I’m posting some of my assignments to my school blog, I know I’ve only done a small portion of what’s possible to help students keep organized.  The coolest tool is the student blogs.  This would be a great way to get kids thinking about what they’re experiencing or reading.  I hope we learn to create those in this course!

I’m really excited about the possibility of not only using my own blog to keep students up to date on assignments, but trying to create ways for them to use it as a conduit for commentary and reflections (kind of like I’m doing right now)–keeping them really engaged.  I’ve long believed reading is just everything when it comes to success in learning, and there are powerful possibilities here for getting students to read for understanding–to really process what’s coming at them.

I also love the idea of allowing students to create their own blogs where they could both post their thoughts and keep their information organized.  I want to do that!  A teacher could monitor content and quality while (pretty literally) letting them own it.  I’m always trying to think of ways to get students to help one another to understand–the whole “to teach is to learn twice” approach, so the students-as-teachers possibilities really strike a chord for me.

I’ve got so many thoughts about what I’ve read and seen, I don’t know where to start.  Good stuff, and a couple of fun ideas.

First of all, I think you have to try to meet students where they live.  That’s why we’re all taking this course, right?–to try to gain the use of a few of the tools that will help us get into their world and communicate with them?  But the sheer number of tools is pretty daunting.  Even updating my R-P blog takes me a chunk of time.  (I’m not so good at it yet, and I hope very much that I’ll get much faster.)  Add that to the time I’d like to spend learning about other new tools, and it looks like a steep climb at the moment.  Fortunately, I’m old enough to be methodical, and I’m pretty determined to get on top of at least a few of them, one tool at a time.

On the positive side, I see a bunch of tools I’d like to learn at least well enough to try them, and I trust that this course will set me straight on the difference between and the advantages/disadvantages of wikis versus moodle versus blogs.  I want to keep learning–it’s what I ask my students to do every day.

Also on the positive side, I find students very willing to let me try new stuff with them.  If the flow of the activity isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be because I’m not completely conversant in the use of a tool, they don’t care.  They’re pretty flexible (we seem to gradually lose that lifeskill as we get older, don’t we?), and they like that I tried something new.

On the flip side, I see challenges as well.  One is that our school policies, staff time restraints and facilities don’t allow for full-blown use of technology.  I’d love to coordinate my lessons with other teachers!  It’d make the lessons so much more meaningful!  But (you’ve heard all this before) there is very little time available in a day to check up on what other teachers are doing, much less to talk with them and coordinate; we don’t have adequate funding for nearly all the latest-greatest stuff; and in many districts, policy prohibits the use of cell phones, for example, during school hours.  (I just heard mention a couple days ago of the growing power of cell phones and blackberries as teaching tools, and wonder if the administration in any district in the area is ready to tackle the huge undertaking of re-setting policy to allow the use to these tools during school hours for teaching purposes, while still regulating their use as a social tool.  I’m glad I’m not an administrator!)

The other glitch I see relates to the way most students currently use technology.  For many students, technology is a way to do things fast, not necessarily well or meaningfully.  For many of them, the result of trying to communicate quickly with several of their friends on Facebook or via text messages, or pull in the latest technology trick to a class presentation, is a student who doesn’t finish any one thing, who doesn’t stop to consider quality before moving on to the next thing.  I’m not just beefing about it, I’m truly worried about the trend I see.  But as a teacher, I have to hope that there’s a huge opportunity here in not only incorporating the tools mentioned in the article and the video into our lessons, but in the opportunity to guide students to use them in a way that encourages increased attention span and a focus on quality.  Maybe if we knew how to use the tools ourselves, we could reverse the trend a little?  I’d like to hear other teachers weigh in on this.

Welcome to my blog on Blogs.muskegonisd.org.   This is my first post on this blog.  I see some names of other teachers I know on the 23 Things blog, and I’m looking forward to working with you all.