Relay 2009

Thing #23 - 23 Things - Finished!

This workshop has been a great activity and I have spent much more time on the activities than was estimated in the description. Why did I spend so much time, one activity lead to another, with a list of choices to check out, why check out just one or two. Checking out Twitter lead me to look at the tweets posted on the site, a couple of the tweets lead me to students posting videos and joining Stickam, while I'm not pleased with some of what I saw on Stickam (I don't recommend young people have built in cameras, on their laptops, in their bedrooms), it was a great learning experience. The Stickam site gave me some new information to include in my Internet safety lesson for freshman, which is sure to surprise a few folks. So basically 1/2 hour per lesson easily grew to an hour or more How could I stop playing with Pimpampum or the Flickr Toys? How could I stop reading others' blogs with their ideas and information?

I use and spend a great deal of reading about technology so there were no real surprises, no wow I didn't know that existed but there was an opportunity and motivation to get out there and take a look at new sites, improved sites, and creative uses of the sites. Resources were listed with new information on the topics and users shared ideas and experiences. I will continue to use as many Web 2.o tools as I'm allowed when they support the curriculum (the filters this week even blocked the 23 things blog from teachers, not just students.) With a review of some of the sources and a few new sites I have more tools and options to offer the students, I also have the "other school districts let them..." line when my ideas get blocked. I really would like to see teachers able to use some of the flickr toys, Google docs, and the comic strip generators. I plan to continue to work with teachers to post audio to their websites and use blogs for projects and maybe start using a wiki in some of the classes.

The big thing for me is the PLNs and how to continue to learn about all the new Web 2.0 items. I would love to see a group start a PLN and discuss and share new items monthly. Wouldn't it be great to discuss the online photo applications, people sharing their favorite sites and why, best way to use with students or teachers, why or why not the site should be blocked from school, which age students would the site be good for etc. The one thing I missed with this format is the chance for us to have one location to discuss a topic, a place where I could see every one's opinion, where we could ask each other questions and see the different answers. Thanks for every ones time.

Thanks for all your time.

Thing #22 - 23 things

School Tube, Teacher Tube, TED and YouTube all have useful features and lots of potential depending on what you need. Right now none of them are blocked at my school but because of Internet access speed you can not always view them at school. One of my concerns with YouTube is that some of the comments and videos that are posted are not always appropriate for school and there doesn't seem to be a way to filter the good from the bad when students have access. I work with freshman, so the teachers and I talk to the students about appropriate content, usage and making good choices. School and Teacher Tube are nice because they filter themselves but they don't yet have the variety of content that make them the first stop. I did enjoy some of the student posted projects and I like that fact that they can be shared there instead of YouTube because of the controls. I am more comfortable sending a student to School and Teacher Tube than YouTube but because of the choice on YouTube we often use it. TED is great for some serious, upper level content and I like the fact that they make it easy to download the video for viewing later. I think all of these services are going to continue to grow in importance for education.

Thing #21 - 23 Things

Twitter could be useful for keeping track of each other at major outings, family outings are even a possibility, keeping updated on major happenings (news in your area) by subscribing to a Tweet from a news agency is another possibility. I see some potential for temporary uses and for keeping up on news but I would want the posts to be kept private. After looking at some of the tweets online I was struck but information that was out there for others to see. I also pay for each text message and I don't feel a strong enough need to use twitter to change that, it could be an expansive way to communicate. I'm not sure I would want to see teachers or students using it in the daily settings I feel that it would be too distracting for the actual benefit.

Thing #20- 23 Things

My Delicious account is under kblunt. I orginially tried it in 2007 after hearing about it at a MAME conference where I also heard about Diigo, for whatever reason I became a Diigo user and that is what I've been using since then but I took another look at Delicious for this class. Both Delicious and Diigo have some nice features. I love tagging, looking up links by other peoples' tags, creating groups etc. I really can't see where one is a better tool than the other. Since revisiting delicious I have been using both services as a search engine for link on topics that I use for school. I find this helpful to find unique and unusually sources that I might not find in Google. Both services can also be used as a shared source with teachers and students as an active on the go way to share and organize resources. Both can be useful at school, if not blocked.

Thing #19 - 23 Things

I LOVE tagging, it allows me to put something (a website, photo, etc.) into more than one group. The tag clouds are a wonderful way for me to remember what tags I've been using and to see where most of my items are grouped together. I do try to be careful and think about the tags I'm going to use, how many and whether to use a dash etc. I don't want to create an overly long, complicated system of tags. When looking for resources using tags I get frustrated with non-related items from people that are being careless or rude with tags on public items.

Thing #18 - 23 Things

Nings could be a great way for groups of people to communicate, share, discuss and work together. Teacher Libarian Network is a good example, Nings are like an interactive listserve, which many of us have benefitted from in the past. A ning could be used to a class, a school, a committe, or any other group to work and communicate in a collaborative way. Setting a ning up, maintaining it and monitoring it become time consuming. Keeping people active in the Ning gives it strength so if the Ning's members don't keep participating it isn't as useful, it really is a lot like a listserve, it's strengths is its members.

Thing #17 - 23 Things

Community Walk is a mapping tool. I played with it awhile trying to create a map of a trip I'm taking this summer. It had some nice features; searching, adding markers, paths and photos. A site like this could be used to study geography, map the locations in a story, highlight historical activities and plan vacations. It was easy to use and you have the options of sharing your map publicly, inviting others or keeping it private. I like having the choice on the the privacy settings.

Thing #16 - 23 Things

Both videos make a point that education needs to change, I would agree that education needs to adapt and evolve but students also need to learn that learning is not always entertaining and that sometimes it is a challenge. Learning how to meet a challenge and how to adapt to different learning environments will be important the in working world.

Sir Ken Robinson speaking in "Do Schools Kill Creativity" makes some interesting points. My favorite quote to carry away from that speech is "if you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with anything original." The major emphasis in education now is preparing students to take test and to make sure we are all teaching the same thing for common assessments. Neither of these allow much room for "being wrong" or for creativity. Projects and activities that allow students and teachers to take risk, be creative, or allow time for being wrong are being cut from the curriculum. Activities that allow for dancing, moving, dramatics and creativity are being cut and it has very little to do with technology but has to do with time and resources. I strongly agree that we need to develop people's gifts of imagination and educate the whole being and technology tools should be a part of that.