The joys of YouTube! I've seen the video someone posted about Stacy Westfall freestyle horseback riding. It's inspirational, to say the least. There's also Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, which brought me to tears. Or, if you're looking for something just plain entertaining, how about The Evolution of Dance, featuring Judson Laipply. One of my former students performed this little ditty at a talent competition. I was suitably impressed. Anyway, these things generally make the rounds via email...but I'm more interested in TeacherTube for this class because YouTube is blocked at school (of course).
The thing about using technology to teach is that there is still a technology gap and technology still has many bugs and challenges that make teachers shy away from it. Do I whole-heartedly agree with everything in this video? No. But it does make me think about the options we have, how we can better utilize technology in our classrooms, and how we need to explore all of this to reach our students. Today's students, my own generation, my parents' generation...we are all different types of learners with different attention spans. It isn't just our teaching that needs to grow and evolve, but also our standards, our school environment, school hours, school year. Where do we start?
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Week 8: Thing 19
Library Thing. The thing that I most looked forward to and also the most daunting of projects for me. I actually want to use it personally to catalog my children's book collection. I'm having a baby in a month and it would be clever if folks knew what books I already own so that I don't end up with 47 copies of Good Night Moon (though it is my favorite, I don't need 47 copies and neither does Baby H). I also want to get my family on board so that I know what books to buy my nephews and nieces. Alas, it has taken me this long to even start my own collection. I can't expect too much from other parents...
As for uses at school...I'm not sure. I need to explore Library Thing for Libraries a little more in depth.
As for uses at school...I'm not sure. I need to explore Library Thing for Libraries a little more in depth.
Week 8: Thing 18
Zoho is pretty neat. I've played with it before...but not since all the new applications. I used it to create a pathfinder for a low level Freshman English class. Now I don't have to worry about remembering my flash drive! I think there are great opportunities here for students because of the ability to save as a word doc. They can easily export to Word on their network space or their own computers at home. It would eliminate so many problems!
If I had a dollar for every time a student "saved wrong," or didn't have the document on their flash drive, or had a broken floppy disk, or didn't attach the document correctly to their email...well, my library budget wouldn't be an issue, that's for sure!
If I had a dollar for every time a student "saved wrong," or didn't have the document on their flash drive, or had a broken floppy disk, or didn't attach the document correctly to their email...well, my library budget wouldn't be an issue, that's for sure!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Week 7: Thing 17
Given the option, I believe I'll skip Sandbox...I did explore the great ideas for using wikis and other 2.0 applications, but I don't feel like I have anything groundbreaking to contribute. As an aside, I did just get an email about NELINET's Technology Sandbox through LORI (Library of RI). I might begin exploring that as well. They are using it as a space to try out new technologies:
"This Sandbox enables librarians to keep abreast of trends, best practices, and emerging standards in the world of information content and technology. Current technologies available in the Sandbox include DSpace, Evergreen, MediaWiki, Moodle, WordPress and more. Some of these technologies are available as open source."
"This Sandbox enables librarians to keep abreast of trends, best practices, and emerging standards in the world of information content and technology. Current technologies available in the Sandbox include DSpace, Evergreen, MediaWiki, Moodle, WordPress and more. Some of these technologies are available as open source."
Week 7: Thing 16
Wikis are a great collaborative tool. The Policy and Inventory Subcommittee of our Technology Committee is using one right now to meet virtually and update our web, laptop, and acceptable use policies, among other things.
I really enjoyed teacherlibrarian for the resource-sharing, but I found the AP World History wiki a great classroom application. It's something that students have to contribute to for a grade, but it will also serve as a collaborative study guide. This would have been great for someone like me who studies better alone, but could benefit from a multi-contributor study guide. I also think using a library wiki to create pathfinders or class projects (including webquests) would be a great application for my school.
I really enjoyed teacherlibrarian for the resource-sharing, but I found the AP World History wiki a great classroom application. It's something that students have to contribute to for a grade, but it will also serve as a collaborative study guide. This would have been great for someone like me who studies better alone, but could benefit from a multi-contributor study guide. I also think using a library wiki to create pathfinders or class projects (including webquests) would be a great application for my school.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Week 6: Thing 15
Perspectives on (School) Library 2.0: Of course I couldn't read just two or three articles. I had to read so many of them my head was spinning. The articles from the OCLC newsletter were great and started me thinking about realistic possibilities of 2.0 applications for my library. As I kept exploring, I came across the list of Wikipedia (*gasp!*) references. I really like Chris Harris, and I went through his blog entries from January '06. He has such excitement and vision. I think the thing to keep most in mind is that we may not be able to tackle it all at once, but it is most important to do the one or two things that you can handle and do them well. We have to focus on the library as a virtual destination, not just as a room that the teachers have to book time to use with their classes.
I am amazed that I am so rarely called upon to visit the computer labs in our school. I know the number of students doing "research" in class is pretty large and there are still teachers who tell students to "google indians and click on the first link" for example. I watch students in the library type in worldbook.com (regardless of my instructions) to get to the database instead of clicking on the link from the library page. And then they are frustrated because they can't find the place to log in. It's a long, slow climb for me, but I love the challenge and I am very interested in making the library site an interactive, one-stop resource for students, faculty and staff alike.
I am amazed that I am so rarely called upon to visit the computer labs in our school. I know the number of students doing "research" in class is pretty large and there are still teachers who tell students to "google indians and click on the first link" for example. I watch students in the library type in worldbook.com (regardless of my instructions) to get to the database instead of clicking on the link from the library page. And then they are frustrated because they can't find the place to log in. It's a long, slow climb for me, but I love the challenge and I am very interested in making the library site an interactive, one-stop resource for students, faculty and staff alike.
Week 6: Thing 14
After playing around on Technorati, I am rather frustrated with a couple of things. First of all, the ads are annoying. Secondly, I don't like searching the tags because there are too many variables. Tags are handy for keeping track of your own favorites (in del.icio.us) or photographs (in flickr) or posts (in blogs), but who's to say other people will use the same tags? Tags are basically like subject headings with no governing body (LC or SEARS). This is liberating but also can make things a bit confusing. I know I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I might go back to my faves and try to find a random link. I also went back and added tags to this blog a couple posts ago so that if I ever wanted to see which Web 2.0 applications I used or which "Thing" was covered in a given post, I could easily find them.
Searching blog content seems to work okay, but the bigger question is why do we need to search blogs. I imagine the need arises professionally for us and our colleagues, but maybe not for our students in a research situation. We teach validity and authority and directing students to search blogs might be confusing. Not all bloggers are experts in their "field." However, the curriculum connection idea about finding election blogs might work in a bias, politics, sociology class.
Searching blog content seems to work okay, but the bigger question is why do we need to search blogs. I imagine the need arises professionally for us and our colleagues, but maybe not for our students in a research situation. We teach validity and authority and directing students to search blogs might be confusing. Not all bloggers are experts in their "field." However, the curriculum connection idea about finding election blogs might work in a bias, politics, sociology class.
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