This is the first time in recent history that I have taken a self-paced class. Though my pace of learning was not uniform along the path, it was planned. As these experiences had to be squeezed in during the regular work schedule, the holiday break time was a natural to do the bulk of the learning. I’ve had time to read several other blogs and the trials and tribulations of completing the required tasks. This makes me more comfortable stating my own learning experiences. Though when I read some of my earlier blogs, the first thing I see are the typos.
My favorites – RSS feeds, Flickr, Picnic, YouTube video embedding, Wikis, widgets. My least favorite: folksonomie 0r social tagging. (My reasoning at this point is there are too many descriptive terms and the common consensus of what to call the things has not been reached.) These are words and concepts that didn’t exist ten years ago. I started my career as an administrative professional at the dawn of the computer processing age with WordStar. Do you remember the time before WYSIWYG? Or the time before the Internet and the World Wide Web? WordStar’s text-formatting Dot Commands dictated a document’s attributes. You did not see the document until you printed it on your dot-matrix printer! (I’m dating myself.)
Now, I am writing in almost real-time and posting in a format that is available worldwide almost immediately. Now I’m frustrated at a few minutes delay in the processing. I have super-fast fiber connection at the office. But at home my DSL provides fast downloads, but slower uploads. I can link to content anywhere on the web, upload documents, videos, images and display it here NOW. That quick.
Those of us that are/were stuck in the pre-Web2.0 age, will take more coaxing to use the interactive social features that it offers. A small group working together toward a common goal of learning a Thing to implement immediately may work better for some settings.
Maybe there will be an MAISD Administrative Services Department wiki or blog. You should watch for this in the coming year.
I successfully added an idea for teacher use in education to the 23things Wiki.
Creating a wiki was quite easy. After opening an account, I uploaded a logo, played with changing colors and layouts. I did not invite any members but it appears easy to do. I was able to upload a PowerPoint presentation easily. Here is my wiki.
This seems to be a tool more suited to responsible adults and students. Wikis main purpose is teamwork – with different individuals adding information and editing previous information. This would have to be closely supervised for certain student groups and individuals. The ability of readers to leave comments on a blog is an important part of its format. But the intention is not for changing or editing the information posted, but adding additional useful information.
I can visual other ways to use wikis, for example, a wiki could be a method to store documents, presentations, links, etc for personal, school or business use to allow access from any computer at any location.
This is the first time I’ve looked at Wikis in depth. I was briefly introduced to them a year or two ago. To share a Wiki or other collaborative tools, one has to know their value, when to use them, and how to introduce them to others who might not share a Web 2.0 collaborative spirit.
Two uses come to mind immediately on how I can use Wikis in two different organizations. My IAAP chapter revises its bylaws and goals every year. This is done both in meetings and with emails sent between members. A Wiki would allow users to join an ongoing conversation when they have time and add or build upon ideas.
The second is our band organization which is hosting a National Convention in 2011. We have to collaborate about every little detail. And with many heads thinking of details, it would be wonderful to have one, consistent space where “everyone is on the same (Wiki) page.”
I tried to find the “How to Find Wikis” video on Teacher Tube, but the search option found 795 videos. I think I need instructions to find the video on how to find Wikis.
Is there anyone that has been ‘on the Internet’ that has not viewed You Tube? It is invasive, like a weed that you can’t get rid of at first, and then grow to like. I’ve never had a You Tube account, just viewed them from the You Tube site, or via embedded videos in websites.
You Tube is connected to Google, like Flickr is a product of Yahoo. The same challenges are presented when choosing a user name, password, and then being told the password does not match the gmail account. You Tube automatically looked for friends on gmail, but most of my friends have Yahoo accounts. I have subscribed to two friends’ channels. I viewed one, rated it ( 5 stars of course) and commented.
I watched with amusement some of Thing 19’s suggested videos. I loved the Honda Choir, what creativity! But there is something creepy about reading comments on some public websites. There are many people that leave mean, ignorant, vulgar comments that are most inappropriate for young audiences. I watched the Free Hugs Campaign and went on to read a couple comments, even one from Poland, and then the comment string deteriorated into profanity. You Tube should definitely have classroom and school restrictions!
My first impression of Slideshare is that it is slow. In addition, opening multiple Internet windows is time-consuming and frustrating. It’s easy to click on the wrong red X in the upper right corner and close out the wrong window. So I took the plunge and upgraded my office pc to Internet Explorer 8 – with tabs. Gotta love it.
So, onto Slideshare. I created an account with the intent of uploading a PowerPoint presentation. I searched for the presentation and the version I have is in PDF. I find the right tools to upload the PDF.
Next day. Log into Slideshare. How do I find the presentation I added? Searching, searching… On the upper right side under the login and the Hello there is a tiny tiny link for Quicklinks. The page is really cluttered. Too much information and advertising. My presentation has 11 views. I wonder if they are unique.
This presentation will be used at a meeting on Saturday. Do I trust this site enough to run the presentation from Slideshare? Do I trust any of these information sharing web services? How do we know if a site is legitimate, if it is a scam, if it will do harm? I think I strayed from the point of Thing Eighteen. But don’t you wonder the same thing?
I’m using the Google calendar now, so I don’t need 30 Boxes. The Google calendar syncs to my iPod Touch so it’s always up to date.
The Writeboard seems to be too much like Google docs. LibraryThing is not useful to me – but an organizer for DVDs and BRD would be great. Blabberize would not let me continue without upgrading my flash player. I created an account in Remember the Milk and was excited to see that there was an app for the iPod. But then, like most ‘free’ tools, the app was only available with the ‘not free’ Pro user edition.
I think PicLits would be great in a classroom literacy setting: an easy and fun way to illustrate your writing. I peeked at Gliffy- the diagram software. It looks like fun – I like rearranging furniture and I don’t have a good flowchart/diagram tool. But again it is a 30-day free trial before an upgrade to a Premium account @ $5.00/month.
So I’ve learned from this Thing – that Online tools are available – for a price.
Copyright laws has always been confusing. It’s ‘common’ knowledge that items with Copyright logo can not be legally copied. But much is copied without permission. The Classroom Copyright Chart is indispensable for teachers who want to use material for classroom purposes.
We have to view the restrictions from two perspectives: that of using someone else’s work with proper permission, and, that of allowing our own work to be used and what permission level we would like to grant. I do share content on the web via two websites but do not have any restrictions.
I have not seen the CC Creative Commons symbol before, or maybe I just didn’t notice it or knew what it meant. I looked for it on the MAISD Tech Integration blog but did not locate the symbol in use. When I did locate it on the Creative Commons website, I was pleased to see that it linked directly to the type of license it claimed.
Choosing a license could be a daunting task, but the article at Tech & Learning has an easy to use chart to choosing a license for applying to your work. This short article is licensed under a CC Attribution license which makes it available to use with credit given to Judy Salpeter, I think.
I have iTunes on my home laptop simple for my iPod touch. I do not use it for music, rather for calendaring, contacts and mail (when wifi is available). I’ll search for podcoasts via iTunes at home because I would rather not add it to my office pc.
Podcast Alley is totally new to me as are the other podcast search tools. The Alley is especially appealing, easy to read, easy to use, and quick.
I added two podcasts to the Bloglines account, and organized the folders there. The Grammar Girl podcast has the text too! Yippee! This gives me the opportunity to visit Bloglines and view the new podcasts that are available of the feeds I have added. The title is in bold with the number of podcasts in parenthesis.
After watching the two videos, I realized I already know quite a bit about podcasts. I am on a couple of mail lists that send links to new podcasts when they are available. I find that I would rather read the text than listen to a podcast. It’s more time-consuming to listen than to read.
The term podcatcher is new to me. I will have to find one.
The link to Great Educational podcasts took me to the REMC MI Streamnet site that required a QuickTime upgrade. I downloaded QuickTime 7 which took an additional 10 minutes because it required that the computer be restarted. The video podcast would not play from the website. I saved it to my desktop and then could view it.
The use of podcasting for study seems like an excellent idea for students on the go. They can easily listen from their MP3 player. Story podcasts with the text on the screen is a great way for kids to solve the “read to me” problem when there is no adult to devote one-on-one reading time. I was surprised to see the wide variety of creative uses for the podcasts, and that there are many that are short and useful. I have to check out Grammar Girl.
I have the same problem with Part 2. It will not play from the website so I saved it to my desktop.
NPR and Michigan Public Radio have some great podcasts, as does Prairie Home Companion. When you hear only part of a show on the radio, it’s great to be able to find the podcast online and listen!
