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.