Change is Challenging!

Here we are 4 weeks into another school year already.  Many changes in the WSD, buildings 're-purposed', people moved to new positions and new technology introduced every day. 

My Smart Board users at Knudsen Elementary have subscribed to an Interactive version of the Weekly Reader.  I had a chance to see this program in action and it is really cool.  The kids love it as the Smart Board reads the articles to them, and the video is amazing.

Smart Board has made it's way into the high school, the kids are so excited about it but the teachers are a bit shy. They need to take lessons from their elementary counter parts and dive in.  I am sure as they have more time to use the technology the high school teachers will realize what a powerful learning tool they have at their disposal and loosen up.  Learning is so much fun!!

On a personal level I have upgraded to a Smart Phone. It is awesome!  There really are apps for just about anything.  I can check my email anywhere, listen to my favorite jams, keep track of my food intake, my bowling scores, and the golf caddy really works!  So far the hardest thing to figure out is how to take that phone call when I am so busy exploring everything else!

New Beginnings

My 23 Things adventure is over but that doesn't mean that I am done exploring and learning new ways to use the Internet productively.  I have put my toes in the water and I like it.  I'm ready to dive in and start exploring the entire Internet ocean.

After my 23 Things class I participated in a Moodle workshop for teachers.  What an awesome experience, all of you WSD teachers out there should jump at the opportunity if it is offered to you.  Moodle is a means of taking your curriculum online and making your classroom available to students at home, in the library, or anywhere they have access to the Internet.  You can upload files, video, and photo's, include links to websites, allow conversations about content and even include quizzes!  Permissions are controlled by the teacher so no worries about who sees the work.  You can see everything the students do in the program but they cannot see each others work.

Cool stuff!!
 

Thing 23

This has been a great adventure. I cannot wait to share the things I have learned on this journey with others. As a building technician I am constantly being asked for ideas by teachers about how they can use the internet to help their students learn. It will be great to show them that they do not have to be afraid to use Web 2.0 applications to enhance the classroom experience. Students can collaborate on assignments from their own home computers and enjoy sharing what they have discovered with their teachers. Teachers can pre-plan web sites for their students to use and have them use Delicious to get to the sites. This will help reduce the cries of, ‘There is nothing about this subject on the Internet!’.



As with everything there is some prior planning involved. Yes, you have to check to see if some sites work from school. You should for any assignment you prepare. Many websites expire after a while and need to be checked for availability before an assignment is put together. For the most part there are ways to work around those that do not. Blocked educational sites can be unblocked if they do not have streaming audio or video or contain content that is not appropriate for school use. (Talk to your tech about this.) The WSD does not have the bandwidth to handle steaming audio and video in the classroom. This seems to be the biggest complaint that I have heard about any of the ‘Things’ we have discovered on this adventure. Taking the time to download a youtube video using http://keepvid.com/ or podcast at home will allow you to not only use the video in class it will also allow teachers to keep it in their curriculum long after it has disappeared from YouTube. (As a building tech I have shared this tidbit with several teachers who have loved learning this.)



On a personal level I have enjoyed learning about things like Delicious, Flickr, Google Apps, and a crazy site called ‘Remember the Milk’. I have already started using these sites; I rarely bookmark a favorite to a computer instead I save it to Delicious so I can find it where ever I am logged on. I am keeping up with new technology via my RSS feeds and because I am a list maker ‘Remember the Milk’ is keeping from forgetting to do things. Like buying milk!



One more thing, I really enjoy blogging and will keep it up, not sure what I will talk about but isn't that what I said in the beginning of Thing 1?

Wiki's Thing 21 and 22

Wiki's are not exactly what I expected.  I know about Wikipedia and that anyone can add content. Students are always told to check their sources especially when using Wikipedia for research.  So I just assumed that wikis were all about delivering information.  The idea of using a wiki to collaborate with others is really exciting.  The ideas are endless.

One of the wiki's I visited was a classroom newsletter.  It contained information about the class, dates that projects were due and even birthday announcements for the students.  Another wiki was for a school that was facing closing due to budget cuts.  Staff and parents used the wiki to brainstorm ideas for convincing the school board to save their school. The discussions and planning were awesome to read, I can see how you could get some great ideas by browsing through the endless number of wiki's out there.

Visit my wiki/ , I have dedicated it to the staff at Crary Middle School who will go in many different directions after this school year.  Hopefully this is one way they can keep track of who goes where, and still plan those occasional off site meetings!

Podcasts Things 19 and 20

I am very familiar with podcasts and have subscribed to a few over the years. One kept me updated on Tiger baseball and another had relaxation techniques used for yoga.  Podcasts are alright but sometimes my mind wonders and I lose track of the topic.  Just like kids do when a teacher presents a lesson in lecture format. I think most kids are visual learners as I am and video podcasts would work better for us. Although watching a video of someone giving a lecture would be really boring too!

If the History channel were a podcast ( and there is probably one out there somewhere) I am quite sure my husband could listen for hours.  Now that I think about it maybe I should find a History Podcast and subscribe to it for him.  He could stay happily plugged into the ipod and I could have the remote to the TV for a change!!

Online Productivity Things 16, 17 and 18

The idea of using 'clouds' to store data and having online tools available for most any project is really exciting to me. Always the one to think of the conspiracy theory behind everything I wonder what would happen if the 'cloud' burst and the data of the world starting raining down on all of us. (Yikes! Maybe someone will write a book or make a movie about that one.)

I love Google Docs, I have used it in the past for storing documents so that I can access them from everywhere. I can see how great it will be for sharing and collaborating on projects. Maybe I can get a group working on the 'Cloud Burst' book and we could write the great American novel online.

My favorite productivity tools were 'Remember the Milk' and Library Thing. I have been thinking of upgrading to a smart phone and Remember the Milk would be a great tool for use with a mobile device. I am a list maker and having all my lists in one place would really make life a bit easier. Library Thing is like going to the library in the comfort of your own home. You can search for books, get an idea of what they are about, find out what folks think about it and then decide if you want to read it or not.

Slideshare is like YouTube but with slide shows instead of movies. You can choose to get lost in time looking at slide shows that are just about anything, or you can search for ideas to help with any project you are working on.

I choose to find a slide show that will help all of you who are new to Office 07. Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Microsoft® Office Keyboard Shortcuts

View more presentations from lfish.

Social Bookmarking Things 13, 14 and 15

I love Delicious! What a great way to keep all of my favorite sites bookmarked in one place. Currently I keep all of my favorites backed up to a flash drive so that I can access the different sites I use no matter where I am at. Since I travel to several different buildings during the day this has been the best way for me to handle my bookmarks. Now that I have a Delicious account I can use that space on my flash drive for something else! The other bonus it that I can share informative sites with other Delicious users. It is like using ORCA to access all the district sites for Discovery, Kalpa, Aoesop,and etc, only this is my place for both personal and work related stuff. What a great idea!!!

Building Community Thing 11 and 12

Sharing information online is a great way for others to learn about you and also to get information to an audience.  When someone comments on your thoughts it really validates what you are doing.

Students in Mrs. Kortlandt's publishing class at Crary share their creative works on a classroom blog called, The Graffitti Wall'.  (http://blog.oakland.k12.mi.us/graffitiwall/) Once the class has published their work they are able to read and comment (positive comments only) on each others work.  You can hear a pin drop on the carpet when these 8th graders are in the computer lab, they are so engaged reading the blogs.  Students comment on stories and poems written by other students that they normally would not speak to at school.  The experiance encourages students to keep writing not to mention that they pay really close attention to spelling and grammer when they know that their peers are reading their work.


I chose the Google Widget for my blog, you can use it to access many of the Google options for Internet Research

Hint for those of you who are having trouble embedding objects.  Click on the drop down arrow that says Post Options while you are composing your blog post.  Make sure the 'Use tags' radio button is checked.  This will allow the code for your widget to work when you publish your blog.

On Line Video Sharing Thing 9 and 10

Maybe if the IPAD came with a cat I would get one!

YouTube can take up a lot of time, especially if you do not get specific about what you are looking for. The fact that anyone can post just about anything makes it difficult to stay on task.  You start off looking for something educational that will relate to a classroom subject and the next thing you know you are off enjoying your favorite music video or cartoons from the 1950's.  (Still love Felix the Cat!)  It can be fun but all of sudden you realize a few hours have passed and you have things to do. 

The reason YouTube is blocked in school is because it is video streaming.  Information (the video and audio) is being streamed into your classroom computer while the rest of the school is trying to send out information from their computers.  I was recently upgrading a computer at one building when everyone started complaining about the Internet being exceptionally slow.  When we started tracing the huge amount of activity coming into the building (yes we can do that ) we discovered that it was going to the computer I was working on. It was indeed my fault., I was bringing a ton of data into the computer to repair it while everyone else was trying to take attendance, work on grades and classes were trying to do internet research in the computer lab.

This was an isolated incident, normally when we update computers we do not block the bandwidth. You can imagine though what would happen if several computers in your building were streaming video and audio at the same time, the network would come to a complete halt and no one would be able to do anything.  All that information trying to come in while more information is trying to get out. And just one little network cable to handle it all!

The solution to this problem is simple, $$$, and lots of it.  If the district had enough money to update the internet bandwidth and install the latest and greatest servers in every building there would be a lot more you could do with your computer.  Until then we just have to make do with what we have and one way to help is to remember that your classroom computer is for computing, it is not a boom box or television.

It's not often I'm right, but I'm wrong again... Thing 6,7 and 8

Just when I thought I could simplify my life with Google along comes Flckr and I need a Yahoo account to join. So much for keeping things simple with one email account. I was however able to use the same screen name I use for my other accounts, not a simple task when you have a common name.

Let this be a lesson to all, I keep a spreadsheet with all of my user names and passwords. The spreadsheet is password protected (so others cannot access it) with my first choice password and a backup copy is kept in a secure place.

As for Flckr I uploaded some photos and played for days with the various items. I now have film strips and cubes with photo's of my grandson. I created magazine covers and puzzles. Too much fun!

End of a calm day on Flickr - Photo Sharing! I loved this photo...

In the computer classroom I could see this as a tool for showing students how to be creative with their photo's. Lets face it kids love to take pictures, especially of themselves and their friends. This is something they will have fun doing for family and friends.

I could see this used in other classrooms as well. They could create photos of themselves in places around the world, or in historical settings, or how about creating characters for a graphic novel. Yes this would all take time, something we don't have a lot of in school, but maybe a combined project between a core class and computer class??

Another Account? I Say Keep It Simple Thing 4 and 5

For some reason I froze up at this point. Creating a blog-line account would mean another web site to go to, another password and user name to remember. All so I could find (eventually) all of the blogs I want to subscribe to. At home I have used Outlook to save my RSS feeds but I cannot take my home Outlook with me everywhere I go and my WSD Outlook account would go over its limit in no time if I tried to save RSS feeds to it. (Actually I tried with Megan Kortlandt's class blog and got my first ever 'your mailbox is over the limit' message.)

Then I remembered the video for Thing 4 saying you could use Google Reader, how wonderful I already have a google account! Not only do I have gmail but I also use google voice to stay in contact with the other techies in the WSD. All in one web site, I like that!

Now I am beginning to wonder what other wonderful things Google can do. To stay on track with my idea of creating a help site for WSD employees I think I will investigate this some more.

How Can I Use Blogs for Education? Thing 3

Reflections of Thing 3

This is a bit different for me than for the rest of my 23Things classmates. As a 'Tech' person for the school district I fix the 'tech stuff' when it doesn't work. So I need to find a different way to use a blog for education. The idea forming in the back of my head is to have a blog that helps teachers understand how to use the technology available to them in the classroom.

I got lost in cyberspace looking for existing blogs on this subject and found most of them are written by teachers. Then I found blogs that just talk about using the computer, simple basic stuff like how to use keystrokes to accomplish tasks to much more complicated things like building your own computer.

Somehow I would like to merge these two types of blogs and create something that would be helpful to computer users in WSD who are at all levels of technology expertise.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Here it is my first blog! Setting it up was a breeze. The hardest part was deciding on a name for my blog.

I went with Jacksonjammerings because lets face it that is pretty much what it will be. Well maybe at first. Hopefully as I continue through the 23 things class I will find a direction, or maybe I'll just keep going on endlessly without really saying anything at all. The great thing about a blog is that it is my choice.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 have shown me that blogs can be anything you would like. My experience has been that they are either a place for folks to vent their frustrations or pat themselves on the back. Now that I know different I bet I will be able to find blogs that are interesting and educational to me.