Thing 11.5 Evaluation

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning program?
I am excited about using a Screencast to help with my faculty instruction as well as our student instruction. I know that our LA SIS is interested in using Bookr. I"ll have to find a good way to sift through the Video Resources.
2. How has this prgram assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Last year, I was able to present some Web 2.0 ideas to our faculty when they were writing their tech goals for the year and I hope to do that again this year. It gave some new options to teachers that had been doing the same old thing for the last few years. The students loved to see their Animotos, Wordles, and Smile Boxes sent to their parents' e-mails.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this that surprised you?
I always ask older students that I encounter what they've been doing in school technology-wise. My 18 year old nephew was with us for a few weeks this summer. He spent a lot of time on Facebook chatting with his girlfriend. I asked what kind of technology applications he uses in school. The answer was pretty much just PowerPoint. He had never heard of most of the Web 2.0 topics in our courses. His high school is huge and has a 50% dropout rate, so I don't think they have a lot of access to technology.
Also, I asked three graduate students (23 years old) at UNC if they had ever heard of Glogster, Bookr, Wordle, Word Sift, cloud computing, etc. They all said no. They are so busy researching they don't have time to just explore the web.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
The program is SBISD's best technology offering and I appreciate the time it takes our lifeguards to read all the blogs.
I do think that both 23 things and 11.5 things are worth more hours. I already had experience with at least half of the content in this course and it still took me way more than 11 hours to complete.

Thing #11 - Digital Citizenship

Using Web 2.0 applications moves students and teachers from an “Acceptable Use Policy” to a “Responsible Use Policy” as technology shifts. The online publishing and shared documents create an entirely different set of criteria. The whole world can see what you publish. And, you can stitch up your whole group on a shared online project.
The idea of using the iPods, iTouches, FlipVideos, etc. at school and possibly sending these hand held devices home relates to development of Digital Citizenship. To me, Digital Citizenship not only covers the content on the device but the care of the device. (ISTE#5) In the ideal, we would eventually issue one portable device per student. “If we encourage students to put their own work on the iPod, the device seems personal to the children as opposed to it just being another school device. If it’s personal to the child, then they’re going to take better care of it. They will make sure it’s charged, because it’s theirs….What’s important to you are those things that are personal to you.” (GoKnow interview from Tech and Learning Magazine, June 2009)

Thing #10 - Virtual Worlds

I was first introduced to Second Life at a TCEA workshop. (I would have to say it was one of the worst presentations I have ever sat through - which probably biases my attitude as a whole.)I had to go back and take a look later to try to make any sense of it at all. I found the whole site to be very time consuming. Why bother to "walk" up a flight of stairs and down the hall to find information? Give me a link to click on any day!
Meeting and chatting with other people on the site could be beneficial.I just could never figure out how you knew who was supposed to be when and where. It seemed to lead to random success.
Also, the concept of broadcasting conventions could be useful. It would be difficult to gain access to all breakout sessions, but at least the keynote speakers could be online.
Virtual worlds for kids have been around for years. My own kids played them at home for awhile. At school, our students would let us know the latest fascination, but if we played them with any frequency, the sites would soon be blocked by Tech Services. Which was okay by me. Most of the sites were really more of a gaming venue. I really prefer for the computers at school to be used with a clear learning objective in mind.

Thing #9 - Slideshare

It seems that there are a wealth of slidesharing sites available. Of the sites listed on your page, I ended up bookmarking AuthorStream and 280. Having free access to 280 would be a cost saver to the district. It would be a quick way to "author" student work and get out to a wider audience. And there are some good examples of PowerPoint design that could be deomonstrated to students.
For now, I am not sure how much we would use these at school because we already save to the student server for shared projects and post finished PowerPoint projects on our web page. (Although is would be easier for the majority of the teachers to post to AuthorStream.) Students don't work much on projects from home anymore due to our new homework policy so school access is sufficient. Also, we would once again be back to user name and login issues for the shared sites. Does the district have a policy for posting student work outside the district?

Thing #8 Sceencasts

This was a lot of fun and so easy! I used the Screencastle site to make a short video on using templates in Google Docs. I used a Math Quiz template in the video. Unfortunately, I can't get my home computer to recognize my microphone right now, but when I get to another computer, I'll redo the video.
This tool will be great to use for spreading new information to teachers and students. I also would like to make a video for parent access to Gradespeed since I am responsible for that project. I think I will download the Screencast and post them on the MDE website to make sure they don't disappear on me in the "cloud" world.

Thing #7 Video Resources

I had not looked at the PBS site for awhile, so it was good to see all their latest. With so many of their shows online, there is a lot of material that can be presented. This is a link to a program on how Grand Central Station was built. (Trains are a favorite topic in our house.) I did not see any links to embed the video.
Grand Central Station on PBS
The amount of video online is staggering. I spent two hours browsing through the sites and didn't watch all of any one piece. I see that Google Video has identified their main problem as making sure that all videos posted are searchable. I agree with that assessment. You can spend hours looking for just the right content for a lesson. I think that United Streaming has done a good job labelling their videos which is why it is so popular with our teachers. They can find what they need in a short amount of time.
I will have to use some self-discipline to complete the reminder of the course. Now that I know I can watch Antiques Roadshow on PBS online, I can see myself easily distracted.....

Thing #7 Video Resources

This video is on Compost Tea for your garden. It is from Blip.TV. It mentions the soil cycle - we always talk about cycles. And, it is on plants - every grade level grows plants sometimes during the year.

Thing #6 - iTouch Applications

I bought an iPhone in January and have enjoyed experimenting with it. Amazing technology. I visited the Top 100 site you suggested and downloaded a dozen or so new apps. Dictionary.com comes up with a defintion and recorded pronunciation fairly quickly. I love the Google Search that can be used by voice. It recognized what I was saying and came up with a range of search results. The connection to all the other Google apps from that program is handy, too.
I use my iPhone to hunt down information all the time and I imagine students will, too. While recently visiting my mother-in-law, we were talking about pirates in the Seychelles area. She really wasn't familiar with that island country so I went to Wikipedia and read her that information. We had a debate going over birthstones for each month and solved that with the iPhone, too. She suffers from blindness, so she can't really see the device screen, just the device. She kept saying, "you're getting all that information from that little thing!"
I see students mainly using them for gathering information and possibly placing that information on a "Cloud Computing" server such as Google Documents. I see the shared documents as a great resource for students (although, quite frankly, I can't imagine that any business would want to store their business information on someone else's remote server as was suggested in the linked video. Most of the companies I know have strict policies against doing that.)
Once the iTouches are fitted with cameras, having the ablity to take and save photos can provide great documentation for events.
I, personally, find my eyes strained when I try to read a lengthy passage. I'm especially better off in other formats for book reading.
There are a few challenges for school use:
1. We cannot receive cell phone reception on most of our campus. We have to walk outside to get a signal.
2. The battery/recharge issue. My phone charge lasts about two hours if using the Apps features.
3. They are so small - where might they hide?

Thing #5 - Microblogging

I have been using Twitter to try to keep up with happenings in the Texas Legislature and the US Congress. Across the year, this usage has changed. The current trend seems to lead to a Tweet being sent out on a hot issue that links to their web page. IF they are still tweeting at all. (John Culberson seems to have a pretty good system going on this.) Many of their Twitter accounts just have a link to their home page on their Twitter page.
I happened to be listening to Glenn Beck the day that he decided he needed to Tweet. He was pressured into it because other people kept signing up for Twitter accounts saying they were him, but they weren't. So Twitter agreed to delete those accounts and now he has his real account. Since he loves to ramble, the Twitter format suits his personality. His Tweets are meant to be more humorous than informative (Michael Jackson is still dead.) I'll be curious to see how long he keeps it up. I think he started around Memorial Day.
I checked out some other "personalities" and there are many that have established accounts in self-defense. They just link to their real website to avoid having other people masquerade as them. I mention this because it does set off some warning bells to me that elementary students could easily be commnicating with people that are not who they say they are. I don't really see any way of a teacher monitoring these short messages that can be exchanged so rapidly. (BTW- Twitter has yet to figure out how to make money. They are in the hole big time. Maybe that is an indicator of how long they will actually survive.)
I admire the Facebook creators for a novel idea that has been implemented successfully. The Group facebook pages can certainly provide information and interaction. The last account I asked to Friend was Rachel Ray's.
Of your suggested sites, the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented had the most current postings. Not a whole lot of interaction, though. (I signed up for "Houston's Deal of the Day" from their ads on site. Will see what that brings. I wanted to support Facebook who actually is making a profit.) I do think that their stongest usage is from young adults networking socially and foresee that continuing in the future.
The Today's Meet and Tiny Chat microblogs have a huge appeal to me. They have a specific goal in mind with a limited time span set to implement. I read somewhere yesterday, (maybe in Wall Street Journal?), that something like 75% of the web pages that exist really aren't in use at all. Great ideas are started, but no follow through. Topics expire. Etc. These two sites would help students focus on a specific task or assignment.
I now have over twenty accounts created in all kinds of places for all kinds of chat. While watching "He's Just Not That Into You" this weekend. Drew Barrymore's character said, “I had this guy leave me a voice mail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.” She closed by stating that she longs for the days when she just had to answer one phone and check for messages on one phone. Somehow, I really identified with this sentiment.

Teacher Tube - MDE TV

We were trying out the Flip Camera. Basically, the whole project was a big experiment. I learned that this group of kids really liked to give ALL the details.


You can view the view at MDE TV

I took down the YouTube postings because I don't feel comforatable putting students on that site.

Thing #4 Posting Videos and Podcasts

I have used Teacher Tube to find examples of video projects for teachers and students. We showed several videos based on classroom Science experiments on MDE TV to give teachers examples of how videos might be created in the classroom and shared.
I also spent time last year trying to post to theses sites from school. I could only post very short videos without our network quitting in the middle of longer uploads. I ended up having to work from home in order to successfully post a video on Teacher Tube.
Our new web masters have created server space for us to post podcasts and videos on the SBISD site. I worked with our Kindergarten team to post some songs and poems online so that they could listen and practice at home. I hope to expand this effort this coming year. They can be heard at Podcasts. Also, our Spanish teacher has posted some of her songs at Spanish at MDE.
As best as we can tell, these files are running pretty well from this site thus avoiding a third party user name and ID.

Thing #3 Skype

Skype seems to be an affordable option for world wide communication. Our family has enjoyed using Skype while our nephew was in Japan for a year. Our niece is currently in Spain and her parents have enjoyed talking with her AND seeing the room she is staying in.
The audio and video feeds can provide a lot of information for parents as well as our students at school. All real time! Primary resources would be much more accessible. Information can be shared immediately and interaction can take place.
The time zone differences around the world do pose some challenges. Europe is generally 6-7 hours ahead of us. Japan and the Far East are day vs. night which makes them hard to schedule for classroom time.
Also, I am wondering, has anyone actually Skyped from within SBISD? Does our network support this use or are we blocked out of this? (Either by an actual blocking tool or by lack of band width?)

Thing #2

I have spent quite a long time on Thing #2. Especially considering I have already used Animoto and Wordle extensively, so I didn't spent any time there. Word Sift looks interesting. I was interested in the visual aspect, so I put in the lyrics to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to see what would be generated. The "rainbow" and "bluebird" worked out okay, but the "fly" totally missed the mark with photos of fighter jets. Couldn't figure out a way to work around that.
The Glogster site provides a creative presentation. I can see using it as a quick, summary assignment. I don't think the writing format really encourages "good" writing so wouldn't want to use it for a large project.
Bookr is my favorite of the bunch. I can see elementary students using it for content. I'd like to see some students use it to retell their science experiments using photographs of their experiments. Maybe use it instead of Science journals? BTW - I could never get a Bookr sent through e-mail. I tried sending it to two different addresses. It's been an hour and a half and I still don't see it. Even checked the Junk Mail in case it went there.

Bookr

Glogster 2

Fourth of July Practice Glogster

I am having trouble getting the entire Glogster to be embedded in my page. I have tried reducing the width and height in the html, but is still cut off. Anyone know how to do this?
Also, I was trying to bring in a flash "swf" file, but couldn't find a way to do that. Any hints there?

Glogster

Part 2 - Thing #1

"The Network Student" has a lot of ideas to access loads of resources. Certainly tons of information available. The student would have to analyze and synthesize quite a bit to determine which information is valid and worth mentioning in their own project. The bookmarking sites would be helpful to review where information on the final project was acquired.
On the practical side, I would be interested in another movie or site that gives specific suggestions as to how to instruct accessing these resources and how to monitor content. Especially at the elementary level. What standards are set for evaluation? How do you set up user names, passwords, e-mail accounts for all your students?
I would also love to see a project such as this that is completed by an elementary student.