Thing 23: Final Thoughts

I am so glad I took the time this summer to explore the facets of Web 2.0. I knew about them in a vague way, but now I feel more familiar with them and even able to teach others. I can’t wait to see where this takes me in integrating technology into my life in and out of the workplace.

Thing 22: What Did I Learn Today?

I had maintained a blog for the past 6 months for my job; however I was limited in my use of it. I really think I learned a lot of ways to do so much more with my blog. It does take a commitment to work on updating a blog. Since our department plans to use a blog format instead of a paper copy of a newsletter I will work on it at least once a week. So instead of a Friday newsletter I will have an update to my blog. Over time, I hope more of my parents use it as a reference and resource for locating information.

Thing 21: Other Social Networks

I don’t really consider myself part of any online social network. I did join GoodReads this summer, and I signed up to try Shelfari. These two aren’t exactly as easy to use as I thought, but I like the concept. I am part of a book club, and I would really like to try and get them to try to use something like this so we could discuss books online as well. We’ll see if that really ever happens since my group isn’t so techie.

Thing 20: Facebook and MySpace

Okay, so I made the leap into trying out social networking. I created an account on Facebook and tried to add some friends. It took a couple of minutes to do because I had to wait for the confirmation email. I ended up locating some family members who I asked to be friends with online. Then I felt like I need to add a photo of myself so I did that, but I didn’t do much more to add to my site. I could see how you could hang out online for hours talking to friends online instead of one the phone. We’ll see where it takes me?....

Thing 19: Podcasts

Okay, I was really excited to do this Thing because I have wanted to do podcasts with my students all year long. In fact I almost submitted an Ed Fund on this topic of technology integration. I would like to have my students submit podcasts of book talks. I thought students would like to post their talks and listen to other student’s ones. I think it has leadership potential and I am going to start it next year.

So to test it out, I went to Minnesota Public Radio’s Podcasts and I clicked on Grammar Grater. Grammar Grater™ is a weekly podcast about English words, grammar and usage for the Information Age.

First I had to download Real Audio, but then it streamed very easily and I ended up adding the RSS feed to my blog along my side bar.

Another podcast, I happened upon when using Yahoo Podcasts searching using “children book chats” I found the Horn Book Podcasts and I linked up an RSS feed to my site. I am getting more comfortable with adding these all the time.

Thing 18: You Tube

I have been on youtube before for personal reasons, and I have tried to locate resources online to help me teach a concept in math. This morning, I did a search on "book clubs for kids". I came across a video from the Today Show's Book Club Series with Al Roker and it also has a an author visit. I am going to try and insert a video into my blog now too...Wish me luck!

Thing 17: ELM

I visited ELM today and I think it would be helpful for me to search for current online articles related to my professional field. I ended up doing a search for "Gifted Education", and I tried to insert an RSS feed into my blog. I really want to help raise the achievement scores of my gifted readers and especially the scores of my gifted boy readers. So I might also try to do a search for boys and reading.

I also saw a link on the right hand side for Kids: Grades K-5. I would like to introduce my students to this research tool, and I am making it a requirement that all of my students have a library card, so they would be able to practice searching on this at school.

Thing 16: Research Project Calculator

The Research Project Calculator seems like a good idea in that it can help a student get organized with the process. A student would have to be a student who is internally motivated like online students are. They would be able to adhere to the deadlines and the email notices. If it was a student who had did difficulty with this they actually may need a physical teacher who makes them accountable for the deadlines of eth process. Since I am an elementary teacher for grades 3-5 I could see using a hybrid model of this. Meaning I would have my students log in and see how to use it but then I would help them manage it. We will be doing a Nobel Laureate Peace Project and my students will do research on one and this could help them.

Thing 15: Online Games

This one is on gaming. This is something I have never gotten into. I don't like video games of any sort. So I am not too excited to try this one out but oh well, it is worth it to see what others are up to online. I decided to try Puzzle Pirates I had to download some software which I am not too excited about doing too since it took almost 7 minutes - maybe my children will do this someday so I should know what is going on with online gaming.

Maybe because I am inexperienced but his was way to difficult for me. I had no clue what to do. I just started clicking on things and eventually I got to be a Carpenter and fix boards on the deck. It was a little like pentominos and I had to fit puzzle pieces. It was okay – but not too challenging – wondering why you have to be 13 to play this game. I also don’t like violence or shooting so I was worried I would have to use a gun/canon.

Thing 14: Library Thing

Today, I explored LibraryThing and set up an account http://www.librarything.com/home/erica.wattson

I added two books I have read this summer, and I started to see the power of this online book club. It is exactly what I am searching for to use with my students. I don't want there to be advertising and I don't want inappropriate materials exposed for my elementary students. I am not sure if this site is too adult for my students, but I am curious about the power of using sites like this to get people to discuss books virtually. Very cool site!

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

Alright, I decided to try to set a free account to use an online calendar using the website Backpack, but after looking around it didn't look very user friendly. So I read that Google has a calendar gadget. So I went to my iGoogle page and added a calendar - very easy to do! Plus I went on a gadget hunt and added half a dozen other items that are supposed to save me time, but might cause me to do more unrelated useless searching when I am online. One of the gadgets I also added was a "To Do" list, we'll see if I use it. I like paper lists, but I like the feeling of crossing them out and throwing the paper away - it is such a feeling of completion. I am not quite ready for an online version.

Thing 12: More Social Media

Okay, I am not sure I really get this activity but I did a little work.

I decided to try Reddit and I typed in “kid book club” in the search field, which I assume tracks the tags that match up with these words. Then on the first page of hits there look something interesting about online book clubs, and I found BookSprouts Now this is the kind of site I would like to encourage my students to try and use. So maybe this would be helpful for me when searching for sites, I guess I just don't understand how this works differently than a search engine with tags. I guess it is the voting aspect if the site was useful or not, then social interaction where people get to vote.

On Digg, Newsvine, Mixx I also did the same search using the tags “kid book club” and I didn’t locate anything. But maybe I don’t get the purpose of the sites, as a teacher I need to find student or child related sites and I seemed to come across so much inappropriate media and sexual related links that I am not sure that I would use these again.

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

My most recent and most common experience with tagging is when I download my photos from my camera and I am prompted with a tag blank. I can type one in, but the problem is sometimes there are some photos from a birthday and some from a trip and I am not sure what to tag them as since they are both so different. So I end up creating new folders afterwards and sorting them later anyways, actually I still like to think of my photos in time sequence so I make folders by dates, but I could see how tagging can help on a site such as Flick'r where you can do a quick search. I did try the exercise to tag on this blog using blogger features. I learned how to do it, but I am not really sure why it is valuable. Who would want to look at my tags - I guess you never know!

I am so excited to try and learn more about Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us) I remember learning about this social bookmarking site where I can consolidate my bookmarks and have them all online in one place. I work on 3 computers and this would save me lots of time. Alright - here I go as I create my Del.icio.us account...It was easy to do since one else had the same username, and then I had to download some software, I had a to verify the message sent to my email address, alright 5 minutes later I am set up! I made a page a book mark and I tagged it. I can tell I have lots more to learn, but I am started and hopefully next school year I will have a well developed page.

Thing 10: Wikis

I created a wiki this fall for helping to schedule my parent teacher conferences.

Before I used a wiki, I would email 100 parents and ask them to email me a time to meet, then I would have to schedule them in and then email back with a confirmed time. If I had a secretary to help me manage this system this would be okay, but I don't. This would take me hours to do above and beyond my hours dedicated to my students each week.

Now that I have a wiki created I just send out the link with the calendar on it and my parents can sign themselves up for a conference. It manages itself - I LOVE it! Parents can cancel and resign up if needed and I am out of the loop with arranging schedules. It has saved me hours of extra work.

I used PBwiki to create my wiki & you view it online at: http://giftedhighlands.pbwiki.com/?full_access=BzqB6wFAoP&l=S

I will eventually update it for my early conference schedule, but since I am technically still on summer vacation this will wait until late August.

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

I have wanted to use Google Docs for a long time, so this is a great excuse to try it out!

I uploaded a poetry assignment that I have had my 4th graders when I was a classroom teacher, but I might use it with my gifted 3rd graders. I then shared it with myself at my work email address. When I logged on 2 minutes later it wasn't there, so I am not sure how long it will take. But I am curious to see what it would look like when emailed.

I think there could be potential to use this when sharing documents with my students or with parents of my students. I could post assignments using this and it would be available to my students at home or I could post a newsletter.

Thing 8: Share Your Creations

I singed up for a FREE acount with PictureTrail. It was pretty easy to do, the hardest part was finding an available username. Finally, I got one, and then I skipped all of the other advertsing. I uploaed 2 photos. Here is what they turned out like:

This one if of Doug and I our with our German au pairs:


This is a photo of our past au pair and our current au pair from Germany:

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

My reflections on email, IM, text messaging, and web conferencing....

1. Email...I like the tips on ways to not let email run your job. I liked the five tips at Five fast email productivity tips I think I already do some of them such as pick off easy ones...such as the 1-2 line response ones and get those off my plate.

2. IM...I have done Yahoo! Messenger in the past with our former German au pairs when they are back in Germany, but I did not find it helpful. It demanded me to be available every time I was logged on to the computer and I found it interfered with my task/work. I ended up removing it from my computer.

3. Text Messaging...I have only done this a couple of times, but I would rather call my husband than text message him. Maybe I will use it in the future, but I don't really need to get short messages and I don't feel the need to send them out to anyone...at least yet I don't.

4. Web Conferencing...Last spring I attended a webinar through Johns Hopkins to help me understand more about the EXPLORE test and the benefits of participating in a talent search. I phoned in and then watched a live presentation online as well. I was able to interact and ask questions and found it very useful and helpful. I could see myself holding these types of online conferences rather than face to face ones with my students parents.

Thing 6: Online Image Generator

I took a look at what Carleton College librarians have done using image generators http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/library/help/help/liaisons/cards/, and I think that my students would get a hoot out of creating a superhero trading card identity. I would like to interfuse more creativity into my curriculum and I think this is an easy assignment I could give my students to do even at home. All of my students have Internet access at home, and we have limited lab time available in school but I think after a quick demo using a proxima my students could go home and play with these creative photo image websites. I would have to think about having their image not in a public site, maybe within my moodle classroom it would work out just fine to create links for students to view other students cards.

Actually the Big Huge Labs trading cards were limited with the creativity options. I would do some other searches for ones more like the Carleton College one. I did try to do the one on Image Chef where you can make license plates. My 4th graders might do a storybook travel idea and read books from across the USA using a travel theme. They could log their books this way. I did one for Wisconsin.

Thing 5: More Flickr Fun

I ended up clicking on several mashups and the creativity options seem endless. I could see spending over one hour tooling around seeing what I could create. For my classroom, I tried to find what would be useful for my students. I thought it was fun to see my name in flicker images. I went to Spell with Flickr http://metaatem.net/words/and typed in my name and here is how it turned out:

Thing 4: Flickr

I am trying to think of ways I could integrate using http://www.flickr.com/ within my reading program, and I think one of the ways if for my students to share their personal reading histories. In other words, for example students can select their top 10 books that they feel changed them as a person after reading. This list could grow or modify over their three years with me but it would be an online portfolio almost demonstrating the students personal likes in reading. I am okay with doing this since it is photos of objects and not people.

Madeline Island 040 by tnombobbluem Tagged with island, madeline Taken on June 7, 2006, uploaded July 23, 2006

I ended up doing a search of the place where my summer home is and I love it up there in the summer time and I found that lots of people had shared scenic photos of Madeline Island in Wisconsin. I borrowed one of the photos to share on my blog to see how easy it was to post a photo on a blog. The photo is taken from the bay where my cabin is located and you can see our cabin in the background.

I have not used Flickr until today, I personally use Snapfish http://www.snapfish.com/ to warehouse my family photos. I like Snapfish because I can share my albums with family and friends. Since I am not comfortable with having photos of me all over the public Internet, I like that I only provide access to those who I want to share my photos with others.