4T-Taylor's Twenty-Three Things

Before I even have downloaded this tool I’m excited.  I have photos stored online and on my computer but never take the time to print or do fun things with them.  This is one of those things that’s on my “when the children all climb on the yellow bus” list.  (seriously it exists and will go into effect in 2 more years) So I’m hoping there are options here where I can print online or make some of those great books that people seem to do now.

I also love the fact that I can grab my photos from Facebook.  A few years ago I started an edublogs family blog to post pictures on but is was so excruciatingly difficult I rarely did.  I love Facebook because it’s a quick upload from my phone and all my family are on it, even my 67 year old dad!  But I digress. . .

To begin, I really like the interface, it seems fun and creative.  I did have a little trouble creating an account but only because I didn’t see where to create one to begin with.  After looking through the FAQ, uploading a picture, editing etc. I have to say I was a little disappointed but I think only because I was looking more for an online scrapbooking type site.  It did have a lot of editing options but I don’t usually need to do that.  I’m looking more for enhancements.  I often edit photos in Microsoft Word 2007 (believe it or not) and find the type of effects (like frames, rotation etc.)look very professional.   However, it doesn’t have things like airbrushing or other color effects so I might still use a site like this if I had a particular need with one photo.  To be fair, I did see the Fancy Collage and Collage sections.  Those look interesting but limited compared to others I have seen.

I think Picnik could be used in the classroom if students were making digital stories and needed to enhance pictures quickly and online.  I”m wondering though if since they would probably want an account to save the pictures to, teachers might just use whatever free software came on the machine rather than what create all those accounts.  I think in the elementary classroom I could also see teachers using it just to clean up pictures they had taken throughout the school year.  A lot of teachers create DVD’s for the kids at the end of the year. 

I hope to read others posts though and see their thoughts.  Maybe I’m missing something here.

Thanks to Diane for setting me straight on this one.  The link to my bloglines page is here http://www.bloglines.com/public/Miriam Taylor.

I kind of wondered when it said “myblog” cause obviously anyone could have that.  Anyway, I have made my account public so others can see it and it’s good to have the help.  I don’t think it matters how much you use technology each new tool has it’s own learning curve. Of course, had a I just been a good student and actually read then entire set of directions from Diane I would have seen her particular note on this.  Seriously how bad is that!

My favorite way to find feeds is just to find one good blog and see who they subscribe too.  This is how I started.  I also find that having too many doesn’t really do me any good; just more to ignore.  So over a few years I have weeded them down, also added a few until I have found some that are really good, cover topics I wouldn’t normally hear about at conferences etc and also post regularly enough that it’s worth my time.  I also have to admit that when subscribing to blogs related to my personal interests I didn’t really know where to start.  To be honest, I just googled “top ranked blogs for ____________”  I actually found several top ten lists where I could then check each one out.  I’m excited to stay on top of some of my personal interests because that’s where I feel I haven’t had much time for lately.

I have been subscribing to blogs for a few years now but I still remember my biggest hurdle.  I went to a great session at a conference and got my feed reader (in Protopage all set up)  then they showed us the orange RSS sign and told us to look for those.  The first time I found a good blog it had the “quick subscribe” button if you had iGoogle or other things like that.  I didn’t.  So I wasn’t sure what to do.  Then I found some other good ones with the RSS button but when you click on it it came up with a page of html code.  I tried pasting that and it didn’t work.  Finally, some good hearted soul took pity on me and showed me that you just had to copy/paste the URL of that page.  Seriously though, it was several months before I figured this out.  I think that now there are some really good videos (like Diane included) that make it so much easier to understand)

Finally, subscribing to blogs and actually podcasts or twitter all bring up a really important topic of a personal learning network.  I love this concept and have really found it much easier to stay on top of issues in my field.  I’m excited to present the concept to a group of faculty this winter. I’m still trying to figure out how to get past the technology so they don’t bog down in that but grasp the big concept.  I think I may do a general explanation of the concepts and benefits then offer small lab workshop time to introduce them to the technology. Other suggestions anyone??

I sort of skimmed this page and admit I wasn’t crazy about subscribing to one more thing.  Mostly it’s because I already have a Protopage as my homepage and it has a feed reader on it.  I didn’t really see the advantage of bloglines.  However, I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to give it a try.  One quick advantage is that my Protopage always loaded really slow because it was pulling in all the feeds.  Also, with bloglines I can subscribe to a lot more blogs.  I guess I’m slow because it just now dawned on me that I could just put the link to the bloglines page on my Protopage and get to it that way.

So, I went to create an account and discovered I already had one.  I guess I didn’t run into any roadbumps then did I? =)  I must have made it at a conference but never really did anything with it.

I do try to deal with information overload by using web 2.0 tools as much as possible.  However, that can even be overwhelming just trying to stay on top of the new features and new tools.  One thing I try to do is get an overall picture of what new tools are available.  Usually I hear of these at conferences or in articles. Then I’ll look at reviews and pick which one is best suited for me. I don’t use every web 2.0 tool out there either.   I subscribe to a limited number of blogs that I find the most useful.  I also follow a limited number of people on twitter although I don’t check it as often as I should. 

I think of all things blog subscriptions has helped keep me the most up to date and stay on top of things professionally.  I am excited to look at more blogs through this assignment though because I know I should expand my horizons.  

Here is the link to my bloglines account http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Delicious is one of the easiest web 2.0 tools to install and use.  The videos are so easy to follow and use but honestly it’s pretty simple even without those.  I started using it about a year ago and it’s so useful.

The funny thing about social bookmarking is that it’s something a few years ago I thought I probably just wouldn’t really use.  I don’t have a classroom of students to bookmark sites for.  Obviously we all use these various 23 things in different ways and I just sort of dismissed it.  However, within the space of a week I had 3 different people ask me for good books or sites I recommend.  I found myself scribbling these down on scraps of paper and suddenly the light bulb went on.  It’s so great to just tell someone to http://delicious.com/t3consultingand they’ll find books and sites categorized for what they are searching for.  I won’t say I’m the most prolific bookmarker; I try to only add sites that I think have some real value but I do have several pages now.

Earlier this year I even found myself bookmarking sites specifically for a group I was working with and tagging them with this group’s name so they could easily find their materials.  That was one time that I really appreciated the concept of tagging as opposed to folders.  With tagging I could tag it for this group but also tag it with the other tags I normally use so everyone could access it.

A couple of small issues I’ve had.  The tag bundles make sense but I have to really work to keep them organized and I need to work on that again.  I’m going to do that next.   The other small issue occurs if I’m logged out.  When I go to tag a site Delicious will prompt me to login.  However, I have to check the “remember me” box or it won’t ever let me tag anything.  It just keeps prompting me to login over and over.  It took me a while to figure that out and was frustrating but now it works fine.

And to think, just a few short years ago “tag” was just a game I played, and not well, I might add.

I think tagging is a very good way to organize digital resources.  I really like the concept with my files on my computer.  With Vista I can kind of “tag” files.  This is especially helpful because I often have presentation materials that are associated with more than one group of educators or subjects. 

But of course, the real use of tags is online and especially for social bookmarking.  My biggest struggle is remembering which tags I’ve already created and keeping them organized.  I will often tag something and later realize I already had a tag with a slightly different look.  Right now I really need to go to my delicious site and re-organize so I’m looking forward to Thing #7 which will force me to do this.

I thought I understood the concept of tagging to be a way for me to organize sites personally.  However, I was not familiar with the term “folksonomy” nor did I think through the ramifications of this. More and more it’s becoming less important to know “where” to find good information but instead how to find it.  Building that unique structure of key words could become an invaluable resource for a school building, subject matter departments or grade levels.  I can see huge advantages for teachers in a particular subject or grade sharing a delicious account that they all post to and develop tags for. 

Disadvantages. . . hmm, I had to think for a bit.  I guess two come to mind.  First, it does become yet another digital resource to maintain.  This can be overwhelming and then it loses it value.  However, I have found that I use my account for more and more things as time goes on.  It has become a personal filing cabinet for web resources.  The other disadvantage I think is more important.  Basically when using a social bookmarking site I am relying on the opinion of amateurs and those who have a vested interest in the subject.  This can lead to skewed articles or information that isn’t accurate.  As with anything on the web, I still have to read the article and check it against the facts and other sources of information.

One of the most immediate things that came to mind after reading the articles was that the suggestions were not that different to what we used recommend for discussion board postings; the technology has changed but not the etiquette.  But then, as I thought more I did think there was one critical difference.  When posting to a discussion board (at least within a course site) your comments (good, bad or ugly) are limited to your course, not the general public.    I think posting for the general public opens up yet another issue that students and teachers need to study closely.  Netiquette in general is not something students are good at.  Whether it’s posting comments to a blog or status updates on Facebook, I don’t think the average teen or tween really thinks about the audience it’s going out to.

What I love about using blogs and commenting in the classroom though is that it gives us the opportunity to teach them to be good digital citizens.  Whether they are posting a writing piece or commenting on someone else’s they need to pause and think through what they will say.  Following the guidelines of being concise, not writing in haste and sticking on topic are critical. 

The more I think about this though, the more I think this applies to social skills too right?  No one wants to talk f2f with a “no-it-all, a long-winded talker or someone who is angry and offensive.  It seems to me that perhaps these are just digital skills but social or life skills.  Engage the brain, think first about the person you are interacting with, and put their needs first.  This applies in person or online.

Aside from this course I don’t really participate commenting on blogs.  I read a lot of them but don’t contribute.  I do participate in a couple of online communities such as MACULSpace and find that a very helpful social network of educators.  My participation tends to ebb and flow depending on the time of year and topic but I find lots of members are like that.

Pardon my ramblings below but I wanted to post a real-life experience usign Google docs.

First, a cry for help.  Then I’ll post some of the ways I use Google docs and maps. 

Here’s my problem.  I made a google account using my email (not a gmail account) over a year ago to access some shared spreadsheets.  If I just go to a normal google login page and try to login it tells me my login isn’t correct and there is no account with my email address.  HOWEVER, if I go to a previous spreadsheet that I’ve used it will ask me to just use my email up to the extension (@) part and then let’s me right in.  If I check that page I’m logged into it shows the exact same account name as the one that it previously told me didn’t exist.  I have been baffled by this for a long time and have no good answer.  I really like google applications but this blip causes me no end of frustration if I’m trying to login somewhere where I don’t have a page cached.  Does anyone have any idea?  Otherwise I’m just going to resign myself to long hours in the tech support queu with google.

I started to use Google docs a little over a year ago to work on a big project that required a lot of scheduling among numerous people.  We created a shared spreadsheet where dates were kept and the two schedulers could enter new dates and locations.  This worked really nice and we even started to use it as a signup page as well so those that were to travel to the various locations could signup for the ones they wanted.  This saved a lot of emailing back and forth.  There were some confusing things.  I added all the appropriate email addresses but some people still couldn’t get into the spreadsheet unless they had a gmail account.  I’m still not sure why this happened.  This year we started using Google’s new forms feature which allows you to create a form that others can fill in.  Then this information gets pushed into a spreadsheet.  This saves a lot of the manual entering we were doing before.  I’ve also used google docs. for a sharing documents although more as a dropbox then as a location to really edit.  I have not used the presentation tool

I still have no idea what the issue is up above but I finally just made another google account (with the same information as my first one) and now have access to everything. 

I really like google maps.  I travel to certain locations a lot and I like the personalization I can create.  More importantly I like how I can send it to my cell phone then.  The street view features are really nice too if you’re wondering if that hotel really has “beach” access or whether the beach is across a divided highway.  My sister and husband moved back to the US from Calgary last year and bought a new home.  They used this extensively to see how the house “really” sat on the street.  Pictures can be so deceiving.   Since I never actually had an account I always just re-searched each time I wanted to go somewhere.  Now I just put in 3 different locations and with some specific information.  I’m really excited about this saving me time.  What I’m most excited about though is finding coffee shops nearby where I’m going. =)

Google docs with students is a great tool but does take some serious commitment on a part of a school building or district.  Of course one teacher can use them for document sharing and things like that but if all the teachers were committed it would make the implementation easier.  I think students will really find this tool useful and I’m not sure it’s one they would naturally think to use.  Students use a lot of technology but mainly for socializing.  Google docs has real applications for them and something they could definitely use way beyond high school.  A lot of companies use them even if they already use something like SharePoint.   Google maps is a little easier to use just because students don’t have to be logged in.  I can think of a lot of applications for geography alone and I wish it was around when I taught it.  Of course it has implications in all subject areas; finding a setting in a book, measuring distance, terrain in science etc.

Just starting here and I’ll add more later.  I’m going to work at adding to this site as well as updating the Edublog I operate.  You might find it strange but I have an Edublog to post training materials, handouts etc. on.  I don’t really like to tinker with my website all the time and the privacy settings for certain materials on the blog are easier to handle.  Here is the link to my Edublog.

I do actually spend some time thinking through the philosophical implications of a lot of these web 2.0 tools and their use in the classroom.  However, I don’t really have the time to blog about technology on an on-going basis.  So I’m excited to spend the time doing that in this class and then also making this blog available to other teachers so they can see my thoughts and more importantly, learn more about different web 2.0 tools (My thoughts aren’t so great.  There are a lot of better bloggers out there that I really enjoy reading)

• Changed my theme and will probably do it again.  I like change.  It is interesting though to play around with them because, like Diane said, they don’t all have the same tabs and look.
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  My husband and I in Paris this summer. He had to go for the Paris Air Show and I got to join him. The Eiffel Tower looks like it's coming out of my head.

  Here is the picture I embedded.  Not the greatest picture BUT it was a great trip! We had to take self-portraits because we hadn’t yet mastered how to ask someone to take our picture in French.

I have changed my theme, moderated all my comments and attempted to add a widget (see below).  I also added some of my favorite websites in my blog roll.

So, the first thing I did was download the Twitter plug-in and then tried to drop it into the plugin area.  I couldn’t find a way to upload it.  I’m going to have to play around with this more.  Maybe it’s at the admin level at the ISD.

Here’s a few brief comments about my favorite educational web site.  I could never actually pick one because there are so many.  So in a foreshadow of things to come, I’ll say that my favorite site is my own Delicious site (see blogroll)  It’s not because it’s mine. =)  It’s because that’s where I bookmark all the great sites I come across.  I keep promising myself I’ll clean up the tags and bundles so I’m looking forward to working on that “thing” because it will force me to.  Today I just bookmarked a great article that includes a list of 20 mashups that college students should use.  It was very interesting and something I think would be very helpful to our high school seniors.

Kindergarten Tales-http://kdgroom102.blogspot.com/

I immediately jumped to this blog because of the grad class I teach.  It’s a required technology course so I get all the K-12 teachers in the Masters program and many of them teach lower el.  One of my favorite things is to watch their skepticism turn to genuine excitement throughout the course.  I do often get questions or concerns especially from Kindergarten teachers so I’m excited by what I see at this site.

All the video makes is so interesting and I can tell by the comments that the parents like it.  Obviously this is a blog where the teacher is mainly communicating what is going on in her classroom.  However, it must be so reassuring for parents of kindergartners.  I especially think the audio of the text is great.  Obviously the kids can’t read yet but they can listen.  I’m going to check out what tool she used to make those because it sounds like it was a computerized voice recording the text she wrote.

Speaking of History-http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/

This is a different kind of blog, written by a very tech savvy teacher.  It’s not intended as a communication tool to parents but rather a posting of presentations and activities the teacher does with his students.  I think the audience would be other teachers. He has  a lot of good ideas he shares and they are in the form of video, text and podcasting.  Two neat things I liked were the flag counter and the twitter column.  When he posts to Twitter it shows up on his blog too.  The flag counter shows the flags from the countries where visitors to his site live.

I feel like I’m re-writing the Cat in the Hat with Thing one and Thing two.  So here we go with Thing Two.

This summary is one of the clearest I’ve seen and I’ve never seen blogging simplified so succinctly.  It really hits home and I think it could be convincing to a skeptic.  Often I have teachers ask me to teach them how to use a blog so they can post their newsletter or classroom events; sort of a simplified website.  That certainly has value, especially for a teacher who previously had nothing online.  However, it always makes me a little sad because I want them to understand the true power of a blog.  (and usually I can sneak that in somewhere  =)

A few years ago I read Will Richardson’s book, Blogs, Podcasts and Wikis.  I think he was so clear about how to really dig into blogging and make sure that it was a literacy experience for students.

I like how this wiki breaks down the various ways that bloggin can be used in education.  Certainly the most powerful is when students start writing for a public audience and have their work reviewed.  One thing I think students really don’t understand yet is responsible journalism.  I hadn’t heard this term before and I like how it sums up the issue of posting in public places.  I don’t know how many students really understand that what they post on Facebook, MySpace or blogging can cost them entrance to college or a future job.  On the converse side, well-written, thoughtful blogging could gain them those things. 

Most important, the fact that it empowers students to write and continue to write beyond the classroom is what I find so exciting!