I did it!!

Well, I survived the 20 things and it was a challenge. I did enjoy learning about the different tools and topics. I think that if it went at a little slower pace that I would have used the things I learned more in the classroom as I went along. As it is I will have to go back and relearn to move forward. There are several things I have or would like to use in the classroom.

1. PBworks Wiki - simple quick and powerful
2. Wordle - fun activity to use with the kids for vocabulary activities.
3. Voice Thread - I need to use it and practice more, but I think it could be powerful.
4. Flip Cameras - I have a love hate relationship with them. I love them when the software works, but do not like the one I got through this program because I can't use it!! I have used the cameras we have at my school and have had some students do projects and it is fun to watch the kids evolve from quiet, not interested into our next news reporter or film editor.
5. Glogster - now this one I love, but have not used to the full potential yet. I have a lot of ideas for this one, just not the time to get it going yet.

The main thing that I struggle with is all of the passwords, getting the programs available and working at my school, setting up accounts for all my students. All of this is time consuming and cannot always be done on my schedule. Nothing stinks more than creating a cool lesson only to have the students get on the camera and then the program doesn't work for students.

Thing #20

I went exploring and found Bubbl.us it is a fun way to create mind maps (I used it to create concept maps). It is easy, fast and creative so I think that the kids would have fun with it. By the way the travel IQ was a lot of fun. I really don't know my way around the world as well as I thought I did!

Thing #19

You have to love Google Earth. I enjoy site seeing and virtual travel with this program. What is really fun is to have your students find specific places and it helps them to better understand locations, how to get there and distances. You can have them plan their dream vacations, find historic sites, and visit places where discoveries happened. This program really gets the students engaged in an activity.

Thing #18

Slideshare provides a huge selection of different presentations you can use in the classroom or have your students watch independently. Some really neat stuff out there. Nanotechnology is one of my favorite science topics. This slideshare presentation has real nice pictures and explanations of nanotechnology.

Nano-Science

View more presentations from Walkiria Eyre.

Thing #17

Podcasts, I have been downloading podcasts to my Ipod for awhile now. I really like being able to find topics that I enjoy to listen to. It is not always easy to find things that I think my students would be interested in, but there are some out there. What I really like is that when you add them to you wiki or blog the students can listen to them as many times as they would like. I often will put a worksheet out there for them to complete while listening to the podcast.

Here is one I really like:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/naked_scientists_podcast.xml

I was unsuccessful at RSS previously so I may need to review and come back to this later to properly put the feed into my blog.

Thing #16

Youtube is one of those sites I think that everyone has been to at least once. You can find some really neat videos on Youtube, but you also need to be very careful. Not all videos or video titles are rated "G" or "PG". I would be concerned about content for younger students (and even some older students).

I did find a video that is really a good example of the neat things you can do with science. I like to use it to get kids excited about science.

Thing #15

Flip cameras and videos. This is a lot of fun and would be super engaging for students. Because of the boundaries you can set around producing a video it is a great way to have kids think about what message they want to convey, how to determine what is important to include and pre-plan the project using story boards. So many high quality skills can be taught and used when using this technology.

Challenges I had were determining how to deliver a message in a set amount of time without including too much or too little. Check out the Elephant Tooth Paste video.

Thing #14

During class today I commented on the voice thread Classrooms in America

Although a little intimidating to try the first time, it was kind of fun to put an actual voice comment onto a voice thread. I could see this as a neat option to posting on a forum. You could have students leave comments and actually explain their reasoning behind their comments. Many of my students struggle with typing their explanations.

Thing #14 Challenge

Thing #13

Google Docs

To create and share google docs is a inovative and fun way to collaborate. I could see this being used by staff or students to cooperatively share ideas for staff meeting agendas, student sharing for group projects or just a fun way to share a project.

One thing I really like about Web 2.0 so far is the many ways to get students to work together and share ideas and information!!

Just for Fun!!

Thing #12

Wiki's

Wiki's are a very useful tool for creating a site for students to access information, d0cuments, videos, etc. It is simple to use (some wiki's) and is easy to teach to your students. I think that it is a great organizational tool for both the teacher and student. I intend to keep a document repository on my wiki for students to find any documents that I hand out in class.

Students can work independently or cooperatively and the wiki will provide an easy location for students to access each others work, ideas, and opinions. Students can work together from home by sharing on the wiki. You can control the groups of students working together by creating different wikis and then you can also view the history to see what each student is doing.

The wiki will provide a very flexible and creative way to work with all students. My students are creating digital portfolios in Alec this year.

Thing #11

Wordle is a very fun and creative tool. I could see a lot of potential for students to use Wordle to help them with their vocabulary. I could see them creating a Wordle to focus on a vocabulary word (in caps) and find related words or descriptive words (in lowercase). FUN FUN FUN!!

Thing #10

Delicious -

This is a neat resource. I have trouble organizing my favorites and often I am saving them in a hurry and don't name them properly or create the folders that I should. I could see potential use for this to organize my own sites.

Another use I may use is creating an organized list of resources for my students to use. The resources could be easily organized so the students could quickly find them. This could make beginning reserch easier for my students and also be useful in time management for the students who often have trouble with research or trouble staying on task.

If students were able to create an account they could use this tool for their own personal organization. Many students struggle with organization and this tool could certainly help them learn to organize themselves.

Thing #9

Twitter............DON'T KEEP YOUR TWITTER PUBLIC.......choose your followers carefully. Within 60 sec I was hit by a person who became a follower of my twitter who was a less than appropriate individual. I have reset my account so I have to accept individuals as followers and I am trying to figure out how to get rid of this sick person off of my home page.

Thing #8

I posted a comment on Mr. Blatnick's blog because as I was checking out the various blogs I found an old math funny he posted regarding the pythagorean theorem. I always like it when you can insert humor into instruction.

Thing #7

I was skeptical about looking into the RSS and PLN's. When ever womeone tells me that it will be simple it generally ends up being a royal pain. Google reader was easy to work with and adding subscriptions were a snap. I was able to quickly add my favorite news website, favorite link for dressage, science sites and a couple of our own bloggers sites to watch and learn from.

I could see some real value to using google reader as a tool to quickly go to resources used frequently, to keep in touch with current events in organizations important to me or just the top headlines in the news. It is like a one stop shopping center for information important to you.

Thing #6 part 2

Thing #6

Well, creating a glog on glogster was interesting. I am finding it a little difficult to keep track of everything I am doing (somebody needs to invent the password and user name tracker for idiots). I can see a lot of uses for glogster to create some pretty fun things. I think if I could spend more time with it I would be able to put together some useful items for the classroom. I would like to eventually create a thematic poster for the beginning of new topics to allow my students to do some exploring before beginning a new topic.



Although not very complicated or creative here is the glog I created (still under construction):

http://turi.edu.glogster.com/The-horse-spot/

For some reason I could net embed this glog

Thing #5

This is FUN!!! I have been playing at a Flickr add on called FD Toys where I found FX. As you may have noticed horses are my hobby and I also take photos at schooling shows for my trainer. Here is a friends horse with some special FX. I really think students would have a blast mashing up photos for their own blogs or for their digital portfolios.

Thing #4

This is my dressage horse Tivios Real Illusion (we call him Turi). He keeps me sane in my busy world. You can also view him on Flickr.

Thing #3

Copyrights...
Students need to be aware of copyright laws. They often proceed to use images, statements, documents, etc without regard to ownership of the items. I think that teaching students about copyrights is an important first step to using the internet for research, projects, and blogging for example.

I would probably begin by introducing the law to the students and follow it up with the video that we viewed. It would be important to model to the students methods to search and find items that are free to use and the appropriate way to use copyrighted materials. I would probably end the lesson with a description of the potential penalties for inappropriately using material and how to protect any material that they may post on the internet.

Thing #2

E-mail off to to share the URL. I am sharing my URL with my mentee also to share ideas and give him a model to follow. My mentee is very excited about learning Web 2.0 Tools.

Thing#1

What an exciting first day of class. I never thought I would become a blogger, but here I am. This is going to be a great tool to learn for the classroom. I hope to get my students bouncing thoughts, ideas and questions off each other through the blog. I hope they will find it a great way to communicate about science and be more willing to share through the blog than they may be in the classroom.

My First Post In My First Blog

I have now gone off the edge of antiquity into the 21st Century technology!