Thing 23- Final Thoughts

Final Post:

A. What content from CL 2.0 did you find most useful?

I think what I found most useful was Thing 15 Online Collaboration Tools. The reason I found it so useful was I could really find so many uses for dabbleboard. As I posted dabblebaord is an online whiteboard. Anyone who has taught a course online could probably envision why this tool could be so useful for their students.

B.What Web 2.0 things or tools do you hope to incorporate into your school, library or classroom?

This is a very hard question, because there is so much in this class that I learned in this class that I hope to incorporate into my classroom next year. If I had to choose I think my favorite would have to be Animoto. I also really think I could find a place to incorprate digital storytelling into my curriculum.

C.How has participating in CL 2.0 impacted what you do personally and professionally?

Professionally I will incorporate: Animoto, Digital Storytelling, Podcasts, You Tube, Dabbleboard, Social Bookmarking, Wikis and learning more about Gen Y. Personally I will use the following things I learned from Gen Y: Podcasts, Animoto, Social Networking, YouTube and Online games.

Thing 22 -"Copyright”

Blog Post: “Thing 22, Copyright”:


How do you teach about copy right and other ethical decisions in your classroom?

Since I teach computer classes I find it especially important to teach my students about copyright issues especailly pertaining to the WWW. I did find the article http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/rules/cybercitizen.htm about cyber citiezens very intresting. I also found this site that I feel could be used in the discussion about copyright:
http://www.cyberbee.com/copyrt.html

I also found this site intresting:
http://www.legalzoom.com/sem/get-a-copyright.html?WT.srch=1&se=google&q=copyright+online&refcd=GO301595s_copyright_online&tsacr=GO1154043097&cm_mmc_o=7BBTkwCjCWwc%20C%202B5YybTtflCjC2B5YybTtfjGEfwyEwfCjCgB5YybTtf%20BEkbEw&gclid=CLzqpdepg5wCFRghDQoduyhr9Q

It would allow someone to register thier work that is on the internet so it can be protected.

Thing 21- "Games”

Blog Post: “Thing 21, Games”:

Find some games that can be used in school, link to them, and then write about how they can be used in your classroom.

Since I teach in a post secondary school I decided to search online games that my daughter could use as a learing tool. I plan to share what I have found with her second grade teacher. The sites I found, and bookmarked on our home computer are:

1.http://www.zoodles.com/landing/2nd-grade-online-education?gclid=CKXEt7Slg5wCFRghDQoduyhr9Q
Zoodles is a free online site that has created fun and engaging games for 2nd graders. Once of the things I really appreciated is on this site there are parent controls.

2.http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_2nd.htm
This site allows you to pick the grade level and content area that you would like to find games for. It could be used in any elementary setting for any of the content areas.

3.http://www.toonuniversity.com/free/math-games-1st-3rd_a.asp
This site is a free site that helps 1st through 4th graders with math skills.

4.http://www.starfall.com/
This is a great site that is available to help students learn to read and to test their comprehension.

Thing 20- "Digital StoryTelling”

“Thing 20, Digital StoryTelling”:

Find at least five digital stories that can be used in school, link to them, and then write about how they can be used in your classroom.

1. http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
This is a great site that would allow students to create their very own digital stories. It seems very user friendly. I could have students play with the software and develop a story that could be used for a class assignment.

2.http://www.storycenter.org/stories/
Is a site that will allow you to post the digital stories that you created.

3. http://tech-head.com/dstory.htm
This site has a wide variety of digital stories that have been created. I believe it is important to show examples of the types of stories that can be created. After showing examples of stories that have been created I would give my students the assignment to create one of their own.

4.http://www.isteconnects.org/2009/06/07/digital-storytelling-my-top-10-lessons-learned/
This site has good information about lessons learned from creating digital stories. It has a top 10 list of things to do to help make the project of digital stories go smoother.

5.http://www.digitales.us/
This site is a site that offers tips on telling digital stories, it also has lots of other digital stories available to be viewed.

Wow, before researching the 5 sites I did on digital stories, I did not realize how much work it would be to create one. I still would like to have my students create one for a oriject in one of my classes. However I now realize that I would have to allow them more time and give them more direction in creating a digital story.

Thing 19 "Podcasts”

Which audio or video tool did you find most useful? Describe the online tool you used to create your picture slide show or video and what you created.

I have created a podcast before with my students and we have used Audacity which is another very simple software.

I used Animoto to create a picture slide show. I can not believe how easy that this was to create a nice slide show with pictures and music. I have created a picture slide shows with pinnacle, photostory and power point. None of these applications were as easy as Animoto and none of these apps are free. I will definitly introduce this application to my students this fall and have them create a slide show using this app.

Thing 17 "Online Videos”

Thing 17-Embed one of the videos in your blog and write about the video and what you have learned about online videos:

The Video I decided to write about was one that I found on YouTube. I teach Photoshop CS3 to my desktop publishing class and they always seem to struggle with layers. So I went out and found a video that simplifies it. I have known about YouTube and spent time watching popular funny videos but I have never searched for videos that I can acutually use in my classroom.

I am very excited about all the possibilites that I will have once I utilize the video sources that I have learned about through this course.

The video that I want to share is for creating layers in PS CS3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EooYoYYTQ
Check it out, I hope you learn something as I did.

Blog Post: “Thing 16, Google Earth, Literature Stories”

Blog Post: “Thing 16, Google Earth, Literature Stories”:

Post a picture of the diagram you created in Sketch Up. Discuss how you created it and what it could be used for in the classroom.

Secondly, discuss which Lit Trip you took and how this can be applied in your classroom.

Unfortunatly I am not allowed to load programs onto my school computer. So I did not load google earth or sketch up. I did however watch the videos and tutorials and they are both very impressive.

Google Earth--I can see how useful it would be in a science and social studies classroom. It is great how you can go anywhere in the world in just a few seconds with the software. Lots of kids never get the chance to travel so the Internet and programs liek Google Earth give them the chance to explore the world around them. I did a quick search on lessons for google earth and there are so many already canned lessons out there making it very easy for any teacher to incorporate google earth into their classroom. The problem is going to be getting your techs to give you permission to download these softwares.

SketchUp-- What a cool software to let you draw 3D diagrams. I teach at a technical institute and we do have an archetecture program. They have a very specific program for the program called Autocad but I can see how this could also be used in the beginning for drawing out smaller scale objects.

i do feel that both of these software have a valid place on school computers. When my internet at home is up and running I plan on downloading them both to my home computer to experiment with.

Thing 15- Online Collaboration Tools

Blog Post: “Thing 15, Online Collaboration Tools”: Create a blog post sharing how the collaboration activity worked. What did you share with others? Did you add some books to Library Thing? How might these be utilized with a class?

I used dabbleboard and wrote out the steps to upload an assignment into webct. I use webct as a classroom management tool. All of my students have accounts and they upload all of their assignments to webct. I then can view and grade their assignments right there. I figure I can link the steps to my webct shell and then my online students can see exactly how to upload their assignments.

I was very impressed with dabbleboard. There are lots of things that can be done with dabbleboard. More or less it is an online whiteboard. There is a free version of course there is more that can be done with the pro version. I of course would use the free version because I would not expect my students to pay for the pro version. I would have them all create their own free accounts and use dabbleboard with a presentation for one of my classes.

Thing 14- Online Resources

Blog Post: “Thing 14, Online Resources”: Create a blog post about which online resources you found that you can use. Put at least three of the web links you found into your blog post. Explain how these can be used with students.


1. http://www.thinkfinity.org/home.aspx
Has interactive games and activities for gradeschool through college and even adult education. I think that playing games is a great way to comprehend and remember information. When I was teaching lower elementary and middle school students I was always looking for games to help my students with their studies.

2. http://www.google.com/unclesam
You can use the site above to find something government by using the Goggle government search. I love google and did not realize that there was a google for government information. This is a great tool to use for Social Studies, History and trivia questions.

3.http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
The reason I choose PBS for one of my 3 sites is I have 2 small children and I love PBS. It is educational and a great stie for small kids. My kids love the characters on the PBS shows and site, I would highly recommend it for small kids and lower elementary kids.

There are so many free sites out there for educatiors and parents to use. I encourage everyone to take a peek at the 3 sites I have posted to this blog and to search for other free educational sites and share them with others.

Thing 13- eBooks

Blog Post: “Thing 13, eBooks”: Create a blog post about which online books may work for what you teach. How might these be utilized with a class?

After looking through all of the options for online books, I was very impressed at what is available for free. As a post secondary teacher I did not find a ton of stuff that I could use because I teach technology and the subject matters were mainly: math, science, SS, English. But on the other hand using any of these would be incorporating technology.

What I found most intresting was the on-line publishing resources that would allow anyone to publish there own work. I could see where I could incorporate that into my E-commerce class, I have them create a marketing plan and it would be beneficail to have them publish it online.

For personal use I could publish books that my kids write or have their pics in, not for sale but just for keepsake. I also loved the read along books. My kids could sit at the computer and have books read to them as they see the words that are being spoke.

I was a little unsure of this assignment because I did grow up with stricktly printed books and I do not like to read online but it is the future and it is good that there are many options available.

Blog Post: “Thing 12, Social book marking”

Blog Post: “Thing 12, Social book marking”: Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? How can educators take advantage of social bookmarking sites? How can brick and mortar or online teachers utilize these tools for teaching?

I have heard of del.icio.us before and actually taken a look at it but i have never used diigo before. They are both very similar nad very useful for keeping track of all of the bookmarked sites that I have stored on my computer. The problem of just bookmarking them on my machine is that when I do that I am tying those favorite sites to one machine. So if I go to a friends site I can not access my bookmarked sites unless I use a social bookmark site like del.icio.us or diigo.

As a teacher I think that it is very important to share good sites with other educators and this is a great way to share all the great sites that are available to educators and students by posting them to a social bookmark site.

As I take this class I have my blog bookmarked and the URL for clovis23 things bookmarked so the other day when I was at work and on my laptop I did not work on this class for the simple fact that I did not have the URL marked on my laptop since I have been completein the class on my desktop at home. If I had set up a social bookmark site and marked these URL on there it would of been much easier for me to continue with the course from any computer.

Another thought would be if your computer crashes you may not be able to restore you favorite sites. If they were marked on a social bookmarking site that is one less thing to worry about if you computer crashes.

I highly recommend everyone taking a few hours to register with a social bookmarking site and organize all of your favorite sites there.

Blog Post: “Thing 11, Gen Y”:

Blog Post: “Thing 11, Gen Y”: Choose one of the above blog entries and write your thoughts about what you have learned about Gen Y and education.

I am very interested in Generation Y. Partly because I just barely missed being considered Gen Y myself. I was born in 1976 and most research considers Gen Y being born between 1977 and 1998, other research puts it between 1980 and 1998.

I believe there are lots of stereotypes out there about the Gen Y student. They get called lazy, unmotivated, and told that they are not goal oriented. I feel that the people saying these things have to realize all the great qualities the gen Y has to offer and teach the rest of us. gen Y are very tech savvy with games, texting, IM,and social networking. The biggest quality that I believe gen y carries is there ability to mulit-task. I feel that Gen Y individuals will be able to accomplish more in an 8 hour work day then we have ever been able to complete. Mainly because there tech skills, ability to multi- task and their stress free life styles. Instead of putting down gen Y we should all be seeing what we can learn from them.

Blog Post: Thing 10 – wikis

Blog Post: Thing 10 – wikis
Create a blog post about your findings. Explain what you posted on the Curriculum Connection wiki. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within schools might work well with a wiki? If you were going to create your own wiki, what subject and content would you include?

This is what I posted on the Curriculum Connection Wiki:
I feel that there are many valuable ways to use wikis in schools and libraries. I also teach a few classes online and can see how wikis can make collaborating with a group very easy in an online class. I think with the discussion capabilities group projects can be run very smoothly.

I think what I found most interesting about wikis is that you do not need to know how to use HTML or create a website in order to create a wiki. Making it much easier for the person with average tech skills to create one.

I think of my students and the classes I teach and all the ways that we can use Wikis. As teachers we need to get rid of notebooks and have students keep track of class lectures through a wiki. Also wikis can be used as a great way to correspond with classmates in a group project wheater it be an online course or a Face to Face class. Wikis can be utilized in all of our classes.

If I was going to create a wiki I would start by creating one about my courses, I would have my syllabus my assignments and the agenda of what is to be covered in each class. I would then allow my students to comment with questions about the assignments right in the wiki.

Blog Post: Thing 9

Blog Post: Thing 9 – Exploring Web 2.0 Tools: Write about the five tools, Nings, or websites you found that will be useful in your teaching. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? What tools can you use in your classroom or library? How can these tools be used?

I am a big fan of social networking. I grew up in Illinois and now live in SD, so it is important to me to be able to communicate with friends and family that I do not see very often. It is a huge bonus that through social networking I can do it for free. I have also used social networking to communicate with students over the summer and throughout the year. I have used Instant Messenger with online students and find it to be a huge time saver vs e-mail. I can help them with their problems instantaneously.

The social networking that I have used and currently use are:
1. Facebook
2. Instant Messenging
3. Twitter
4. MySapce

I have not used Nings nor did I know what they were. After learing about them in this lesson I could see how they could be useful in my career. I plan on signing up for an account today and learning more about them.

I would have to say that of the social networking tools that I have already used the one I did not like the most was twitter. I was surprised that on: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0#cat_90

Twitter won 1st place for Socail Networking. The reason I did not like Twitter is to me Twitter is the worst part of FB. I hate on FB how people post every non important thing they are doing like I am going to take a nap, or watch a soap...who really cares! To me that is all twitter is people are sharing with others every non important thing that they are doing. I am too busy to read all that non-sense. Maybe I did not give twitter a chance and maybe I am completly wrong with what its capabilities are.

The website that I really liked about web 2.0 for teachers is:
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listweb20s.html
It is a great place for teachers to go to as a directory to get to many more educational web 2.0 sites.

Blog Post: Thing 8

Blog Post: Thing 8 – Free Technology Resources: Write about the five tools or website you found that will be useful in your teaching.

The top 5 Free Technologies I found through thing 8 are:

1.Parentella- Parentella is a free site that allows a teacher to communicate online with parents. I teach at a post secondary level so for me I would use this as another way to communicate with my online students not their parents.

2. World Image Kiosk- World Image Kiosk hold over 75,000 images that can be used eduactionally. Every semester my students have to do a power point presentation. I would say the hardest part of the presentation is getting images that they can use legally. This would be a site that quite possibly could have an image or two that goes with their topic and they could use.

3. Google Earth- I have not downloaded google earth to my computer yet because I believe it takes up quite a bit of space. I have seen it and it is a pretty impressive tool that allows you to look at the city, state, coutry and world we live in.

4. Podcasts- There are many sites that allow us to view and create podcasts for free. I could have my students create podcasts as a presentation or a training tool teaching others how to use a certain technology.

5. You Tube/ Teacher Tube- Again a great place to get free information. I go to you tube quite frequently to find out how to's I use it for both personal and educational reasons. For example If I was using outlook 2007 and not sure how to use a certain part of the program I may search yo tube for an instructional video on how to use it. I would also have my students post the training podcasts they create on to Youtube.

As a teacher I am so happy that there are so many Free technologies available to us and our students via the Internet. Most of us teach in schools where money is tight so it is a relief to know that we can go ahead and expose our students to so many fantastic technologies for free.

Thing 7- RSS Feeds

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? How can students use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

I like that I do not have to search for the new articles about my favorite things once subscribed to they will just show up in my reader/ bloglines.

I think there are many ways I can use this in my school. First off I teach computers and am always trying to know about the latest and greatest softwares available for me and my students. Using RSS Feeds I will easily be able to find out about the latest and greatest technologies out. Knowing more about RSS Feeds will be a big time saver for me and my students.

In my personal life I will also be able to utilize RSS feeds to find articles for parents, fitness, cooking and much more. I have many intrests and trying to keep up with everything is tought but through RSS Feeds it should be easier.

My only problem with the Blog Line was trying to make my blog public through Blog Lines. I followed the steps but kept getting an error about my username should not be my e-mail address, I changed it and still get the error. I messed with it for 45 minutes and still don't have it working. Any one know what I am doing wrong?

Thing 6--Image Generators

I have had a good time working with Image Generators. My kids ages 4 and 7 were having me make different things for them. My son is in T-ball and wanted me to make a Jersey with his number and nick name on the back. I can't believe how easy it is. I could see how these could be used in my desktop publishing class and used for the students web design class to have on their sites. These would work well for printed materials as well.

Image Chef is the one I spent the most time on. It was very user friendly. Like I said my young kids were also able to use it. The posters and comic strips were also good and I could truly see so many project ideas that could be created with image generators.

I would encourage everyone who is reading this blog to take sometime and use image generator. I think you will be able to easily find a use for this application.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Thing 5--Flickr

Thing 5--Flickr

I have spent the last few hours playing and looking through images on Flickr. I am really impressed with the free service that flickr has to offer. It was so intresting to see all of the photo ideas that are out there. The photo talent that is out there is truly amazing!

I did create an account with flickr and added a few pictures. I do not think that I will use flickr to keep track of all of my pictures because for the last 4 years I have been using another free photo storage device "shutterfly". Shutterfly seems to let me do just about everything that you can do in flickr. Although I do not know if shutterfly allows you to attach a picture to a blog like flickr does.

I did add a few pictures to my flickr account and posted it to this blog called flickr test. Please take a look.

Thing 4 Search Engines

Question:
What did you discover about Web searches that is important to share with students?

Wow, everything I read is important to share with my students. I have learned most of what I read prior to this class but it was a good refresher. The sites I was at I will bookmark and make sure my students spend time on those site going through all of the information for making searches easier and more accurate. I think Thing 4 is something that everyone who spends time on the Internet should read. We all have wasted time sifting through websites trying to find the exact information that we need. Thing 4 gives great tips on searching quickly and more accurately.

Thing 3, iGoogle Suite

Blog question:
How can the Google suite of tools help you to organize information and how can the Google suite of tools be used for education? What is the “paradigm flip” that the article suggests should occur in classrooms and school libraries?

The Google suite of tools can help you organize information by having many different links located all on the igoogle search page. Now when I go to google.com I can do a regular search or I can check my gmail, check the local weather, see my to do list, check my calendar, read the blogs I have selected, access my blog, read documents that I have shared and much more. I really like my igoogle page. I have it personalized with all of the sites that I would go to found in one space.

This can be also used educationally, because from this site I can locate the educational blogs that I want to read to keep me knowledgeable in my content areas. It also can be used for students. All of my students are part of a laptop program, so they all have their own personal laptops that can be used to customize their very own igoogle page. This way they can have their classmates and instructors blogs linked to their page so they can easily read everyone's blogs. As an instructor I can post assignments, reading assignments and follow up questions on my blog and have them respond to the questions on their own blog.

The paradigm flip that was mentioned in the article I take the paradigm flip to meaning that we need to change the way we think about our school libraries and classrooms. We need to move to being a web 2.0 school. With web 2.0 not only would the "library" be open from 8-4 it would be open 24/7 the reason we could accommodate students with the flip is because we would take our "libraries/ classrooms" virtual. We would have unlimited resources available online for our students and staff. We could be at the "library" anytime anywhere. That is what I believe it means to do a paradigm flip.

Thing 2---My First Blog Post

Today I registered and created my first blog. I am taking a course using web 2.o. In the course I go to the following URL: http://clovis23things.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/register/ where I see what item I need to complete. The course ends once I have gone through all 23 items. I am to blog about each of the 23 items so check back and see what I am learning each week, I will keep my blog up to date. So far I am pretty impressed with blogging, very easy to register, set up and create entries. Not quite sure how to tag a blog??? I will have to go through help to figure it out.

Just got done reading all the directions, I should of read through them all before starting. I am as bad as my students. I read that you should not name you Blog with your real name. Oops. My blog URL has my real name. I am sure I can change it but for this class I will keep it as it is.

Question:
What have you learned so far about blogging and how can it be applied in the education field?
I have learned that blogs are easy and free. As far as teaching I can have my students all create a blog and keep a journal for my classes. It would be easy and probably something different and fun for the students. It would also be an easy way for parents to see what the kids are doing in school. They could just log on and check out there child's blog.

As far as a personal use I could see me using this to keep family and friends up to date with what my family has been up to. I can really see myself getting into blogging!

Have a good day!

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=Deb Giblin&target=http://debgiblin.blogspot.com/