Drum roll, please... Thing #23

Wow, this has been a whirl wind of a course! I am so very grateful that I stumbled into it. I am very overwhelmed by all of it and I do really feel like this is just a beginning.
There are several things that I would categorize as my favorite discoveries on this learning journey. First and foremost is this Blog. I am going to continue to keep track of my life using this tool. It will probably take a more personal turn from here on out, but I kind of want to keep track of myself using this tool. It really will be part of my lifelong learning goals.
Another tool that I really enjoyed and mostly for personal use was Flickr. There was just some many fun tools that I could see myself really running with it.
The tool that I am most proud of getting comfortable enough to try something with was the Wiki. I can't believe that I built a Wiki for use by my students and myself in order to sign up for our service learning project. It really stemmed from the fact that I was at a conference out of town and needed a way for students to sign up while I wasn't there. It worked pretty well. I wasn't aware that I would have to approve them individually prior to them being able to contribute to the Wiki, but it worked anyways.
The only thing that I would have us do differently to improve upon this program would be to help us to be more interactive with our classmates. Have part of our assignments to be comment more often on each others work. I looked around at others stuff but not nearly as much as I should have. I think I could learn more about the process of the 23 Things by seeing how others were fairing. I would have also liked more feedback on what I was doing.

Lastly, I would most definately do something like this again. I would take this very class. I have told so many of my fellow Lambkin teachers about this class. Please continue to offer it. I loved this experience and I really do feel that I have grown as both a person and an educator by doing this work. Please tell me that we will have access to your Ning forever. Let me know please, I will need to be guided back to some of our tools.

Thank you and good night!
Elaine

#22 Audiobooks

I seemed to have hit the wall for the 23 Things class. I am totally exhausted. It is 8 p.m. and I am still at school and I am attempting to finish my 23 Things class and everything it due tomorrow. Now, I know how my students feel. On top of that the Audio books thing seems to dislike me. For one thing, I don't have library card for the Fort Collins Public Library so I was unable to access the Net Library. So, I turned instead to the Open Culture forum for audiobooks. There was quite an impressive list of books that could be downloaded as Mp3's or as podcasts. I chose to listen a version of Homer's Odyssey as offered up by Librivox. As I listened, I immediately thought about the uses of this tool. My first thought went to my students who are being served by our Special Education department and how they might benefit from this tool. I used to teach Classical Humanties and I thought how a student who was struggling with the text of the poem and how they might benefit from listening while reading along with the audiobook. I also thought about how I would love to listen to books while travelling. This is going to be a tool that is used by this woman.

#21 Podcasting Joy

I am feeling like a broken record. I really like this tool and I believe that I will be using this one in class. I do have a question, the assignment on the Ning, it said that you can add the RSS feed into you Bloglines account. Is that possible to do that in Blogger? Just wondering.
Well, I located two podcasts that I would like to use in class.
The first one is entitled "Great Speeches in History." I am currently teaching American History and I would like my students to actually hear the words out of the mouths of the orators and then I could see them blogging in response to what they hear.
http://odeo.com/channels/171803-Great-Speeches-in-History/episodes

Next, I found a podcast called Japan Considered. This one is good for both my Asian Humanities class and for my own personal use, as I will be travelling to Japan this summer. I am excited to listen to more of these in order to prepare myself for my journey.
http://odeo.com/channels/40295-The-Japan-Considered-Podcast

Another great tool! Thanks!

#20 Blessed by You Tube

This is a tool that I have been using alot for my classes already this semester. I am so grateful that the "powers that be" have allowed us access to this tool this year. There are certainly some things on You Tube that would not be very useful in the classroom. Our adminstration has decided to offer access to the students as well as the teachers and I personally applaud that decision. Students have utilized clips in my classes in order to enhance their presentations.

The clip that I chose for this assignment is called the "Top Ten Live TV Freudian Slips." This clip is actually perfect for my psychology classes. I teach a unit in those classes devoted to Freud and his ideas. Often, I have tried to come up with a good example of a Freudian slip for my students and this video (although a bit racy) is perfect to show this Freudian theory to my classes. They are all juniors and seniors, so I feel that I could show it to them without being too offensive.
Here is the link to the video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEIslG2McpA

I have to relate one quick story about You Tube. I added a unit on the study of Serial Killers to my psychology classes and we were watching a segment from the A and E Biography about Ted Bundy. My seventh hour was sitting in the dark watch a clip about a total sick and twisted human being. We were all leaning forward and totally enthralled by the horror in front of us, when down the hall came the FCHS choir singing "Joy To The World." My students and I all cracked up. It was hilarious.

Thing #19 Experimenting the Learning 2.0

Well, hello out their in web land. Well, after looking around at the winners of the Web 2.o winners and goofing with a couple of them, I decided to create something I needed and needed now. Like I have written about, my students are completing a service learning project for psychology class. The party is the Friday and I need them to sign up for their shifts. I decided to visit the PB Wiki site and make a wiki for my students to sign up on. I will be gone on Monday, as well, so I am going to have my student teacher give the kids the instructions on how to sign up. I have added the link to the page here so you can go and check the tech. I can see where a lot of these tools have the great possiblity to help me in my classroom, I just need to get more comfortable with them and then I will hopefully utilize them more. I will let you know how this wiki pans out.

http://holmesservicelearning.pbwiki.com/Holiday-Party-at-LCMH

Thanks,
Elaine

Comment on Thing #18

Well, that was remarkably easy. It switched over with no problem. This is amazing stuff.

Elaine

Thing #18 ZoHo Dreaming

ZoHo Writing Experiment

 

This is yet another coincidence in my learning world. About a month ago, I had a parent of student call me all excited about just this type of web based goodness. What I realized as he was talking about it, was that I had absolutey no idea what he was talking about. He had just been to a conference where he had learned about these web-based products that allowed all student access to such applications and he had all these grand visions about the potential savings to the district by having our students do their work in this environment. I now see why he was so excited. We don't all have to go and by the latest Mircosoft Office package in order to complete out assignments. I really like the idea that I could have my students create a common document for a group project that they could collaborate on using something such as ZoHo writer. I just had a thought...this wouldn't be blocked by the smut filter would it? I am not using a school computer as I am at a conference. I will have to check that possibility out when I return to school in a couple of days. Back to my conversation with the parent...because I had no idea what he was talking about, I referred him to the IT department. I am now going to attempt to move this blog over to my blog site using this program. Wish me luck.

 

Thanks,

Elaine

Thing #17

Ahhh...the joys and frustration of technology. I listen the to the instructions and watched the video then was unable to locate the Rocky Mountain 23 Things Wiki. I did however, set up a space for my students for next semester's service learning project. I can see a sandbox being good for use with friends. The wiki that I am envisioning for my class would have to be fairly structured but I can see that it would be awesome for executing bigger projects. Please let me know if I there is something else that I do meet the requirements for this project. I am at a convention this weekend in Colorado Springs for the Colorado Association of the School Boards and there has been much discussion about the utilization of techology in the class room. What is cool is that because of this class, I knew what the speakers were talking about today.

Thanks,
Elaine

#16 Wiki Love Land

Having done the work around this assignment, I was kicking myself for not having taken this class last semester and thereby being aware of this tool for a service learning project that I am currently engaged in right now. I feel like booing, just like the guy on the video. As I watched the video, I knew that this would become the tool for my future service learning projects. I wrote and received a grant last year to create a service learning project related to civic education. I am currently teaching three sections of psychology. I decided to alter a current semester project and to create a community service project. The first task was deciding which community service organization to help. This was a task that could've been made easier by use of a wiki. I could've linking the possible agencies to the page and had the students vote on which organization to help. We chose the Larimer Center for Mental Health. We decided to help them with their holiday party for there clients. Here where the Wiki would've saved the day. I had three different classes planning for food, gifts, adverstising, crafts and then finally staffing the event itself. Had I had a Wiki in place, the three different classes could've effectively communicated who was doing what between the periods. Instead, I have had to facilitate all the activity and it has taken a significant amount of time to do so, both inside and outide of class. I am already going to plan on creating a wiki for next semester project. Again, another tool that will benefit both my students and myself.

Thanks 23 Things...this class is really helping me to be a better educator.

Elaine

Thing #15 Learning and Web 2.0

Ahh, the 21 st century. What an interesting world that we live in isn't it? Well, after spending time with both Will Richardson and David Warlick, I now have an idea about Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0. Of the two authors, I was most drawn to the ideas and work of Will Richardson. From his page, I was able to see what exactly the main ideas about the topics were and to really look at the impact that technology as a whole is having upon education and our civilization as a whole. Learning in the 21st century is certainly a whole new ball game. The changes in the world economy are going to continue to alter the world as both myself and my students understand it. I got the idea that seem to be conflicting views as to the role of technology in the educational realm. To me that seems to be a moot point, as it is here now and we have to adapt to it as best we can. I am an educator that is trying to break out of my comfort zone when it comes to the use of technology in my classroom and I like to think that I have been attempting to do so throughout my career. I have a Masters degree in Educational Technology for pete's sake. But by taking this class, I have been blown away at all the changes that have taken place even since I earned my masters in 2002. I struggle to think about my co-workers who are still utilizing over head projectors in their classes. How must they view these changes? I know that it is best for my students for me to utilize the technological tools that are available to me in order to help them to be sucessful in this world. I am responsible for working and learning more about these tools. I also still want to be the best educator that I can be and to be honest, my strength as a teacher lies in my ability to connect to my students. Kids know that I sincerely care about their learning. There is no reason why my strength as a caring, loving and knowledgable teacher cannot be supplemented by the amazing technological tools at hand.

Yours, rolling with the changes of the 21st century!
Elaine

Thing #14 Technorati

Hello my beloved classmates,

I am at conference this weekend with students in Colorado Springs. I am hoping to get a lot done for this class while I am here so know that I will be posting quite a few blogs this weekend. Okay, here are my thoughts on this tool. There is an awful lot of people posting blogs out there and I was able to locate several that were of interest to me by just typing in a keyword in to the main search bar. However, I found myself having to wade though a bunch of random stuff as well. I decided not to the the challenge because I don't really feel like I want anyone reading these posts. I don't know that I am creating anything valuable for others to read at this juncture. I found quite a few blogs that seemed to fit the bill of random thoughts. I can see being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of blogs but I think that once you find someone that you enjoy that you can then use the tags and their links to find other blogs that would be of interest or beneficial to you.

Like I said this weekend will be one in which I attempt to crank this class out.

Sincerely,
Elaine

Thing #11 Library Thing

http://www.librarything.com/home/elholmes

Okay, I am realizing that my numbering on my "Things" is way off. Wow, Library Thing is pretty awesome, but to be honest, it is also a bit overwhelming. I liked the idea of of as an organizational tool for both my school and home library. I don't like the idea of having to set it up, even though it does most of the work for you. The real application that I can see for its use in my classroom stems from a semester long project that my students do in Psychology class. Over the years, I have created a data base of books that they can choose from to read for the project. I can now see that I could use Library Thing to list 200 of the books for the students to choose from and look more in-depth at. The list is longer but I can stand to weed out some of the older editions and some the more boring selections. To be honest, I would probably put a student aide on this project and then link it into my Blackboard site. Happy Thanksgiving my lovely classmates!

Thing #13 Tagging Love

Oops...I got so excited about Del.cious that I skipped number 11. Anyways, this is going be THE tool that I take from this class and incorporate into my daily usage. I am the queen of bookmarks and I am so very excited to have a handy way to manage my bookmarks and to connect to others and their systems. This is so exciting for me to find something that will really help my students and myself to connect others and their ideas about what are the really effective websites that are out. Thanks Carol for giving me this tool. I just spent an hour uploading and organizing my websites.



Rock on my techno geeks!

Elaine

Thing #11 Rollyo

My friends, I am on a "roll-yo." I know, I know, I am not punny. Whatever. Well, my next visit on the techno dream tool box was to the Rollyo site. I chose to create an Asian Art website list. I teach Asian Humanities at Fort Collins High School and we do several projects pretaining to the arts of China, Japan and India. I could see using this tool for younger students to refine their research techniques. I would also link this type of thing to my Blackboard site to help my students seek the sites that would most helpful to them in order pin point their searches and especially to help them seek information that is most viable.

Below is the link to the intial list of sites that I created.
http://rollyo.com/eholmes/asian_art_sites/

This stuff is fun, isn't it?
Thanks,
Elaine

Thing #10 Fun With Images

I chose to mess around with the "Hockneyizer" photo option from the FD Toys site. There are some many different things that we could mess with here. I chose to have fun with a picture of my beloved mother, my precious son and one of his best friends. This site could be cool for students to create portfolios with as an end of the year project.
Below is a link to the website where I create my picture collage.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/hockney.php

Thing #9 Newfeeds

Well, hello virtual world. I have been getting behind on my beloved coursework. Darn teaching career getting in my way again. Anyways, to the point. I messed around with the various newsfeeds offered for this assignment and I found that I liked the the Topix site the best. I found it very easy to navigate and it had a bunch of local links that I appreciated. I found it to be user friendly as well. I thought that Syndic8 was not as user friendly as the other offerings. It was a bit too much for me. I also really liked the Technorati site. It was easy to navigate and I was able to connect to several blogs here. I don't know about the rest of the class, but I am reeling from the amount of blogs out there and I am wonder how to sift through all this information to find the ones that will be most valuable to me in both my career and my personal life.

Thing #8 RSS and Newsreaders

There were several things I liked about RSS and newsreaders. I liked that I had the multiple news sources that I usually check together in one place. I liked that I could bee bop back and forth in them. I also liked that I was able to introduced to several news sources that I not thought about visting before. I also checked into some other feeds about movies and music that seemed intesting.
I will be able to use this technology at work by going to my Bloglines account rather than surfing the various news websites that I usually use to discuss current events. I think that as I get better, I will be able to use Bloglines better in my Advanced Placement Psychology classes. I could see having student research a controversial new psychology finding using Bloglines and then having them do an online discussion over what they found out on Bloglines. They would be using other people's ideas to better shape their own.
In my personal life, I can see using Bloglines to follow music that is of interest to me.
I think that schools/classrooms/libraries could use RSS technology to offer students access to large amounts of data without subcribing to expensive data bases. I am going to go and read what my media technicians thought about this tool and see what they wrote. I think that they may have more ideas about the utilization of this tool than I do.

Cool stuff yet again.
Thanks, Elaine

Thing #7 Technology Blog

Okay, this blog will be kind of a venting one. I am currently enrolled in two technology classes through the Poudre School District. I am taking 23 Things and I am also taking Blackboard and Softchalk. To be honest, I am excited and yet a bit overwhelmed about all the new technology that I am learning about. Over the last four weeks, I have been introduced to so many new applications and ideas about technology that I feel like my head is spinning. The main crux of my problem is how and where to implement all these new things into my already overloaded class room content. We are asked to cover so much material and content that my class time is often scheduled down to the minute. I think that many of the tools that I am learning can be adapted to existing content. It is just going to be require me to plan more and be willing to change. That is not always the easiest thing for a teacher to do, especially when we feel like we have something that really works in our classrooms. I am just going to have to challenge myself to change for the betterment of my students.
Another issue that I keep bumping up against mentally has to do with the access to technology both within my school and on the part of my students. Our labs at FCHS are in constant demand and often we have plan weeks in advance in order to have access to a lab. Again, I am just going to have to be more organized if I am going to start to use these new tools for the educational gain of my students. The second part that has been bothering me, had been the realization that not all of my students have access to technology at home. I believe that this is known as the "Digital Divide." How can I ask students to complete technological assignments when they don't have a computer in their home? That is the reality of several of my students.

Okay, I have vented enough for today. Thanks, Elaine

Thing #6 More Flickr Fun

Wow, to be honest, I am getting overwhelmed at all the possibilities of the utilities that we are being introduced to in this course.

The tool that I chose to play with the most from this list was from Big Huge Labs.com. It was a tool called "Map Maker." I was able to go t world map and then click on all the countries that I have been blessed to travel to. If, I then wanted to I could've copied and pasted the html code into a website for others to view.

I thought this could be a really cool tool for 10th grade geography students. As we learn about the world, they could create a "dream map" of place that they learn about and want to travel to in their life time. They could also use the mappr tool to create such a dream map. I could envision this being an end of the year final project.

Thanks again for opening my eyes to so many new possibilities about technology.

We are living in a blessed age to be able to do all of these things.

Thanks,
Elaine

Thing #5 Discover Flickr

This is just a test

I am praying that this works.