Ah the joys of social networking. Of course you have your facebooks and your twitters, but give me good ol' Pinterest any day! I looooove pinterest! I use it almost everyday. I use it for school ideas, chemistry ideas, lab ideas, as well as crafting and recipes. It appeals to me in a very visceral way that I cannot fully explain. It has been an excellent platform for sharing ideas and information found around the web.
I am fascinated by the "Pinterest for Teachers". I am not sure I had noticed it as it's own entity until this very time! I am very excited to check it out and use it often!
Friday, March 28, 2014
#18 The Social butterfly.
I have been on twitter Me :) for about 4 years or so now. I seem to take it in spells. I think it would be a great way to make class announcements and to keep an eye on the pulse of your students. As a matter of fact so many of these great programs and sites would be quite useful. However, there simply are not enough hours in the day to keep up with all of them. I think perhaps starting with one, and then building as you become accustom to using it and keeping it updated is perhaps the best plan of action.
#17 Something Delicious this way comes!
Delicious
Hmmm, I am not feeling the social bookmarking love. I can see how it would be good from the standpoint of always having your bookmarks available from any computer at any time. I can also see the theory behind it, and the potential for sharing bookmarks with people of similar interests. I am not sure it is a service I will, however, use.
Now if you'd like to talk about Pinterest....
Hmmm, I am not feeling the social bookmarking love. I can see how it would be good from the standpoint of always having your bookmarks available from any computer at any time. I can also see the theory behind it, and the potential for sharing bookmarks with people of similar interests. I am not sure it is a service I will, however, use.
Now if you'd like to talk about Pinterest....
#16 Organize me! Please!
Hmmm, I must ponder the theoretical benefits of having to remember yet another website to remember websites. Please enjoy this gif while you are waiting:
Of the three customizable start pages I preferred the look of @Start.org. It had a pleasant background and easy to read fonts. I preferred that the information appeared on the start page itself, rather than having to click a button to travel to each individual site. Though I doubt I will use it. I am becoming overwhelmed with all of the websites about websites!
I actually use my google calendar quite a bit. It is linked to my phone, so that no matter where I add an event it appears on all calendars. I have also used it to send reminders and invites. It's quite handy!
As for the other widgets or tools, I could use the file converters (zamzar.com and PDF converter) tomorrow!! I am always needing to convert files at school or for lessons. I will definitely be using these!
#15 Wiki tiki tavi!
Oy Vey!!! The wiki!!! The apsu23things sandbox refused to be my friend. I begged and begged. I pleaded. I promised it brownies in a mug. Nothing. It refused to send a verification email to my email address. And, without said verification, was quite adamant "NO wiki mango for you!"
Alas, I am resigned that "tomorrow will be a better day!" And perhaps the verification will eventually arrive.
icanhazcheezburger.com
Here we are a couple weeks and one stomach virus later and the apsu23things.wiki has deigned to allow me to enter! Yay!! I really enjoy the concept of the editable wiki. I can see a lot of potential for collaboration amongst students and teachers. I will definitely keep it in the back of my mind!
#14 Mapping the convoluted mind or, as we like to call it in the biz, going with the flow!
#14 Mind Mapping and Creating Flow Charts.
My first thoughts are, why did I chose the programs I chose. In this case it was fairly simple, their design appealed to me. I liked the colors and the ease of use. I was attracted to their little advertising icon. Amazing the power of that first consumer hook!
So I decided to take Gliffy and bubbl.us out for a little test drive. See if it could withstand the clutter in my mind without over loading the server! I have to admit at first blush I was favoring Gliffy. All the fun shapes, the pretty color text, ease of use. And then I tried bubbl.us *angels sing aaaaaaa*! And I fell in love! I loved the little pop up boxes, the way everything connected, how easy it was to start a new set or add new boxes... I adored it!!! I would certainly put it down as my go to mind mapper or flow chart creator!!
As it turns out Science is perfect for these types of tools. And what a great activity to be able to have each student on a computer creating a mind map of their current knowledge of a subject before each instruction, and then one after!! It would be great for genetics. For teaching students cause and effect. For helping students get organized! Did I say I loved this particular app? I do!!
My first thoughts are, why did I chose the programs I chose. In this case it was fairly simple, their design appealed to me. I liked the colors and the ease of use. I was attracted to their little advertising icon. Amazing the power of that first consumer hook!
So I decided to take Gliffy and bubbl.us out for a little test drive. See if it could withstand the clutter in my mind without over loading the server! I have to admit at first blush I was favoring Gliffy. All the fun shapes, the pretty color text, ease of use. And then I tried bubbl.us *angels sing aaaaaaa*! And I fell in love! I loved the little pop up boxes, the way everything connected, how easy it was to start a new set or add new boxes... I adored it!!! I would certainly put it down as my go to mind mapper or flow chart creator!!
As it turns out Science is perfect for these types of tools. And what a great activity to be able to have each student on a computer creating a mind map of their current knowledge of a subject before each instruction, and then one after!! It would be great for genetics. For teaching students cause and effect. For helping students get organized! Did I say I loved this particular app? I do!!
#13 Driving Miss Google
Blog post in Google Drive!
I found it interesting and can see potential for educational purposes from a teaching standpoint also. Quizzes, homeworks, various assignments, Slideshows of the content covered… and many more!
When comparing Google Drive to Zoho I favored the system with which I was already familiar. I also like the “add app” feature in Google Drive, which made Google Drive virtually limitless (ha! see what I did there?).
I found Google Drive to be a wonderful for use anywhere anytime you have access to a computer. I think it is phenomenal for sharing and collaborative work. Students can work on group projects without having to physically be in the same room! They can share their ideas and their edits for papers and presentations and work together in real time. Definitely something to show them when they are working on their next STEM project!!
I found it interesting and can see potential for educational purposes from a teaching standpoint also. Quizzes, homeworks, various assignments, Slideshows of the content covered… and many more!
When comparing Google Drive to Zoho I favored the system with which I was already familiar. I also like the “add app” feature in Google Drive, which made Google Drive virtually limitless (ha! see what I did there?).
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Thing #12 Google is Not Just for Searching Anymore
Thing #12 Google is Not Just for Searching Anymore
I regularly use google scholar to search for journal articles. It is especially handy to use if the library does not have a full text version of an article that I am interested in reading. Usually if there is a free full text version out there google scholar can find it! Google scholar also searches a wider range of information sources than the well defined library searches by content.
Google translate! Huzzah!! It was the only way I could communicate with a chinese student I had last year (well, if the other chinese student wasn't there). It is an invaluable tool that is easily accessible on the computer or on a phone. I use it quite frequently.
Thing #11 Finding Good Feeds
Thing #11 Finding Good Feeds
Edublog where is your search box???? Not having a quick readily identifiable search function drives me up a wall!! Google blog search, while it shows new content within the search parameter, it is not presenting me with the types of blogs I am hoping to find. The search appears to be very comprehensive and were I looking for an obscure reference or topic I think this would be the place to be!!
I found several blogs to follow on blogsearchengine.org and I will certainly be perusing this search engine again for blogs. My by far favorite way to search for subject topics is the feedly search engine. Though I concentrated my search on content that is very specific to my area of interest and teaching I think that I can find most of the information needed with these two search engines.
It was interesting and surprising which websites and blogs did not contain an rss feed!! It is something I will certainly be looking at more closely now!
Thing #10 RSS Reader and Feeds
Thing #10 Set Up an RSS Reader and Add Feeds
Wow RSS has come a long way since the last time I used it!!! I followed several science sites since I try to stay current with new and ongoing research. RSS really puts all the newly published information at my fingertips without time consuming searches and weeding through those subsequent searches. This will help me (and all science teachers) really stay abreast of the new information and keep our students on the cutting edge of information!!!
Thing #9 Online Image Generators
Thing #9 Online Image Generators
Wow there is a dizzying array of generators out there! Though I found it difficult to pick through them and it seemed the ones I saw were all for one image (though I did find some that used your own photo, this would be easier). However, they were very easy to use. I used signgenerator.org to make this road sign to stop students in their tracks!!! Mwaaahhahahaaaaa!!!
Thing #8 Flickr Mashups
Thing #8 Flickr Mashups
How Fun!!! So many fun things to see and do with the Mashups!! I learned how to make a comic strip using open source photos and Bubbl! These could easily be incorporated into the classroom! Students love this sort of thing. I also found a gif maker called Gickr.com that I am looking forward to exploring later. I can see so many possibilities here that it's dizzying!Liquid Molecules
Thing #7 Explore Flickr
Thing #7 Explore Flickr
I enjoyed Flickr. I have used a couple of photo sharing sites in the past. When I was selling my art I used photobucket a lot. Now I use shutterfly and have a shutterfly account for my classroom. BlogSpot has been having some error difficulties and Flickr was unable to deprecate the image (flickr link to photo image that will not post right now). I will certainly try again to get a link to it from flickr as I'd like to be able to use that part of the program.
I enjoyed Flickr. I have used a couple of photo sharing sites in the past. When I was selling my art I used photobucket a lot. Now I use shutterfly and have a shutterfly account for my classroom. BlogSpot has been having some error difficulties and Flickr was unable to deprecate the image (flickr link to photo image that will not post right now). I will certainly try again to get a link to it from flickr as I'd like to be able to use that part of the program.
Thing #6 Discovering Web 2.0 Tools
Thing #6 Discovering Web 2.0 Tools
I chose PowToon because it came up in a "Teacher" search on GoToWeb20. (It was the only "toon" app that came up in an education/teacher search). I have been looking for an animated "short" program for some time now, so I thought I'd give it a try. The program seemed easy to navigate and you could use your own images or images from the web. The downside is that the best "characters" were paid images and the characters did not move around like I wanted them to. While they were animated, in that they kind of had a little movement to them, they would not walk from place to place or speak. So while this tool would make a nice little static movie with images, text, and video sliding in and out it would not produce a "cartoon" like those for which I have been looking.
I chose PowToon because it came up in a "Teacher" search on GoToWeb20. (It was the only "toon" app that came up in an education/teacher search). I have been looking for an animated "short" program for some time now, so I thought I'd give it a try. The program seemed easy to navigate and you could use your own images or images from the web. The downside is that the best "characters" were paid images and the characters did not move around like I wanted them to. While they were animated, in that they kind of had a little movement to them, they would not walk from place to place or speak. So while this tool would make a nice little static movie with images, text, and video sliding in and out it would not produce a "cartoon" like those for which I have been looking.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Thing #5 Web 2.0 To be or not to be.
Thing #5 Some Perspectives on Web 2.0/School 2.0 and the Future of Education
Well, not one to be without an opinion about things, I find myself "uncomfortable" with the pronouncement of "Web 2.0". Perhaps it is merely the syntax of the title, but it is also the concept. Generally in programming a 2.0 version would be a complete rewrite and revamp of the system with upgrades and new thingamabobs. I perceived the change in the internet to be a slow progression over time; with new and innovative uses appearing as each step of programming became more and more elaborate. To suggest that there was a sudden "revamping" or 2.0izing of the internet seems capricious. "2.0" did not suddenly appear out of thin air.
Nonetheless, regardless of the correctness of the term, it is true that the internet holds infinite possibilities for education. From information gathering, to idea sharing, to collaborative conferencing with students around the world, we are yet to even scratch the surface of the possible uses of the internet in education. However, free and easy access to the very technology needed to facilitate this "connectedness" is difficult for most and impossible for many. Even our own school district cannot provide each student with their own tablet. Until we are about to resource our students we will not be able to utilize the internet to it's fullest capabilities. I do believe that when that time comes the educational experience will be fuller and more robust. For now we utilize that for which we have time and equipment and hope for a better funded educational path in the future.
Well, not one to be without an opinion about things, I find myself "uncomfortable" with the pronouncement of "Web 2.0". Perhaps it is merely the syntax of the title, but it is also the concept. Generally in programming a 2.0 version would be a complete rewrite and revamp of the system with upgrades and new thingamabobs. I perceived the change in the internet to be a slow progression over time; with new and innovative uses appearing as each step of programming became more and more elaborate. To suggest that there was a sudden "revamping" or 2.0izing of the internet seems capricious. "2.0" did not suddenly appear out of thin air.
Nonetheless, regardless of the correctness of the term, it is true that the internet holds infinite possibilities for education. From information gathering, to idea sharing, to collaborative conferencing with students around the world, we are yet to even scratch the surface of the possible uses of the internet in education. However, free and easy access to the very technology needed to facilitate this "connectedness" is difficult for most and impossible for many. Even our own school district cannot provide each student with their own tablet. Until we are about to resource our students we will not be able to utilize the internet to it's fullest capabilities. I do believe that when that time comes the educational experience will be fuller and more robust. For now we utilize that for which we have time and equipment and hope for a better funded educational path in the future.
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