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!!