Long Overdue Update

I have been too busy to add anything to my blog for many months. I am currently trying to update my "Teaching in the Cloud" skills and would welcome any comments about any online tools that you are finding useful in K-12. Also, we are incorporating some iPads into some of our elementary classrooms, and I'd like to hear from some of you in that area.

Thing #23 of 23!! Summary

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Some of my favories were Wordle, dialoging with other bloggers, and learning how to embed videos and graphics with code. Of course, creating the avatar was fun, too.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Learning new things can be difficult if you have to figure out everything for yourself. This program has structure and specific activities that make it easy to learn new things; and, it does it in a non-threatening and cooperative & supportive way. With programs like this available, I see no reason to NOT be a life-long learner. I've done this type of learning before, while working on the MTTC certification, but doing 23 Things this summer has just remined me how much I do like to learn, share, and create things.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I had not thought that I would care about blogging or joining nings, but once I could see that these are merely ways of communicating with other teachers and librarians, it made sense to join right in. I linked to my blog from my school web page and put some of the graphics from this course on my webpage. I think these additions to my page will demonstrate that I am "a lifelong learner."

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I really like the program like it is. I know that I've spent many more hours than 18 on these activities, but most of it was very educational and motivating. I tend to be too detailed with everything myself. Just reading others' blogs has reminded me that some people can say things so much better in fewer words.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
I would definitely be interested if it is during the summer and if it covers things that I need/want to know.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
23 Things--a 24/7 Workshop in a Box

Thanks, Spring Branch, for opening this up to those of us in smaller districts. This was great!

Thing #22 Things--Nings

This quote from 7 Things About Nings is the most meaningful to me since it relates to learning:

By creating social networks around academic topics, or even about specific
projects for a course, an instructor can facilitate a strong sense of
community among the students, encouraging personal interactions that can
lead to the creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence.

I located the following video about "smart searching" on Shonda Brisco's Ning for Texas School Librarians. It was created by Naomi Bates. These are two librarians whose name I recognized from the TLC listserve.

Google Smart Search Formula - Watch more free videos

Nings combine photos, videos, blogs, forums...for a specific interest group. I wasn't particularly interested in the member list since I didn't know the members but I figure you would get to know the other members online and be able to network with others who are in similar situations. Although we get input from Texas librarians on the TLC listserve, the ning offers a way to share video book talks and ways to promote your library. These are definitely useful things to a librarian who is by nature not very creative in these areas.

I joined the Texas School Librarians Ning; here's my badge:

Visit Texas School Librarians

Thing #21 Podcasts with Photostory & Audacity

Our 8th grade advanced language arts students created PhotoStory book reviews over Holocaust books for the first time last spring. Their teacher is going to make this a tradition now that she has seen how much the students enjoyed doing this. There is a great tutorial online that she used with them which walks the user through one step at a time:

http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm

I located the tutorials and went through them, but they never even needed any help from me on this. PhotoStory3 is very easy to use.

I knew about Audacity and had downloaded it but had not used it. Since I'm very visual, I like to see things best but some of the audio podcasts (especially by younger kids) can be very effective. Younger kids aren't as critical of their own voices.

Here is a Photostory3 Video I created featuring my son-in-law. He caught the largest fish of the day plus another one so I took pictures of him in our back yard and then had fun playing with the features in PhotoStory3 to give the story some colorful and crazy scenes. I thought that making the last photo go "negative" made it look like he was still standing there with his catch late into the night.

Thing #20 TeacherTube & YouTube

TeacherTube has much more than I realized. Not only does it have videos, but it has photos, powerpoints, documents, blogs, etc. in different subject areas of education. While looking at TeacherTube, I found a great periodic table for science teachers, some geometry interactive lessons, and also watched a tutorial on how to embed a movie in Moodle.


Although I have accessed it from home, YouTube IS blocked in our district, and I don't think all teachers know about TeacherTube. I'm adding a link to it from my Tech Integration website at school. The graphic embedded below is Readfaster's logo from The Literacy Company from TeacherTube (http://teachertube.com/viewPhoto.php?photo_id=1084)

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Award winners

Writeboard is listed on the Web 2.0 Award winners in the writing category. It makes it easy to...

• Write without fear of losing or overwriting
• Compare different versions of a document
• Collaborate with colleagues or fellow students on projects
• Subscribe to documents via RSS and be notified of changes
• Keep your writings organized with Backpack (which isn't free)

With the emphasis on collaboration and communication in all of the new tech standards, our teachers must start to use some of these online tools--especially the free ones. I am sharing this site with our language arts teachers at the middle school level.

I also checked out .Docstoc and downloaded some Kidspiration graphics on education topics. We are always looking for more images to use with interactive whiteboards and software such as Kidspiration and Inspiration. I had to register but it did not cost anything to download. This site also had downloadable Powerpoint jeopardy quizzes for math and science plus lots of other educational resources.

CareerBuilder is an employment / job site that shows jobs available with 30 / 50 / ? miles of your location. After looking at it, I think that our career education teachers might make use of such a practical site to demonstrate to our students where the jobs are in our area right now.

I was surprised to see how many jobs were available just 17 miles from our school at one of the local hospitals.

Thing #18 Online productivity tools

We have Open Office on our library circulation PC. It just wasn't cost effective to install MS Office on it when it is mostly used for running Follett Destiny. I have used it a few times for creating a quick sign or document, but it does not have graphics readily available from within the program. If all you need is limited word processing, then Open Office (free software) works OK. We haven't really tried to use it for shared documents, though, so I'm not positive it is always compatible with Word. It has a much simpler interface than Word 2007--though fewer features.

I'm just beginning to use Google docs. I've created a spreadsheet, a presentation, and a word processing document. I think this might be a solution for students who are always needing work at home and at school. We'll have to see if this would work for research papers and homework assignments. It would be safer than carrying flash drives around. I think we will discover several uses for it now that we know how easy it is to use (with a Google account).