Photo by Miss Abigail 

OMG!  OMG Again!  I can’t believe I did not know about Library Thing before today!  Who has been hiding this from me?  As an English teacher, of course I am going nuts over this site.  As a bibliophile, I am going even more nuts!  I can see my book group loving the opportunity to form a little online group and forum for suggesting future book titles.  I can see my middle schoolers creating a community of reading and book title sharing like never before.  I can see my English department using a group to review possible summer reading titles.  I am practically going totally EMO over Library Thing!  EEEEEEK!  I am exhausted from just expressing how excited I am!  🙂

Ps.  I could not figure out how to invite members to a group.  I created a group.  I see only a place to enter a user name.  Does an invited group member have to be a member on the Library Thing site?  I searched their help menu and could find nothing specific about this.  Hmmmmmm.  Any help out there? 

I had a ball tagging and bookmarking in my exploration of del.icio.us!  I am thrilled to see an alternative to traditional bookmarking, and I love the social nature of it.  I can see how easy it would be to create a set of bookmarks for a department and then send them the link, including them in the sharing, and grow from there.  I went crazy bookmarking all the cool web 2.0 tools I’ve been learning about!  You can check out my link at http://del.icio.us/techbabble88. 

I think del.icio.us is quite user friendly, but I do not think I would have figured out the bundles or subscriptions without a nudge from an expert.  I wish the look of the page was more visually pleasing, as everything is so text intensive and crowded.  Finally, I love the power feature of highlighting the text on a page and it instantly appearing as tags, and the already provided tags saves a ton of time!

It’s national poetry month, so now I need to get cracking and find some more cool stuff!

Quizlet: 

I have been exploring Quizlet for a few weeks in my classroom.  I started off creating a vocabulary list for my students’ novel unit.  I posted the list as “public” so all the students could use it as a study tool.  For homework, they were asked to play the game “scatter” and bring in their printed scores.  Once the students were comfortable with the tool, I asked them to create their own account and work with a new vocabulary list, creating flashcards of their own.  Within days of doing this, the tool spread like wildfire.  Science, history, and other English teachers were learning how to use it from their students. 

After playing with Quizlet, I learned that you can create your own characters on a type keyboard.  This allows me to paste in Hebrew text, which is not typically recognized by browsers and many other programs.  I look forward to showing our Hebrew department how they can paste in Hebrew vocabulary for future study.

I also find it fun to search other public lists, including many SAT words.  This is a very useful creative writing warm-up activity, where students get a random word on a flashcard, and they have to use it to describe a character or someone they know. The students really enjoyed trying this in their 8th grade Romeo and Juliet unit.

One downside of this tool is that I caught students IM’ing on the Quizlet site to their friends during lab time.  Of course, the students discovered this tool’s communication feature–I did not even notice this was there.  Go figure! 

Gliffy:

I am just starting to play with  Gliffy as a graphic organizer tool.  I can see the potential in creating collaborative graphic organizers for writing, concept mapping, plot mapping, and more.  I think the students will pick this one up easily, as it imitiates their knowledge of Inspiration software.   When will these online tools start to put other software lines out of business? This looks like a potential software industry threat!  I will keep my eye on this in the future.  Why pay for what you can use for free, with an added collaboarative feature?

Photo by Rachel D

I enjoyed hanging out online in my slippers.  I think the idea of learning anytime anywhere is awesome.  The part that was missing for me is the face-t0-face discussion with my colleagues afterwards.  I would love to be able to sit down and hash out how to implement some of the ideas.

I attended the 2007 online session titled “Design Matters” by Dean Shareski.  He emphasizes the importance of design in everything we do.  We are living in a world where design creates siginificance, setting apart media, tools, and even classrooms.  The presentation is divided between a discussion of instructional design and multimedia design.  He argues that designing a classroom around the paradigm of a “studio” environment will create possiblities for learning and change the roles of the teacher and student.  He also proposes that in instructional design, follow the adage of “first do no harm” or “avoid doing violence to creativity”.  He says we need to get away from a technical, rational approach to instructional design, and instead think as an innovator.

In multimedia design, Shareski advocates the direct instruction of planning, giving students a clear purpose for their projects.  It does not matter which planning approach a student utilizes, as long as this stage in the creative process is emphasized.  This allows the teacher, who may not even be technologically savvy, to immerse themselves in ensuring that students will create effective pieces with relevant content.  Shareski also stresses the need for educators to directly teach visual literacy.  Students need to understand the fundamentals of good photographic design, good video design, how to use PowerPoint as a visual tool (as opposed to a text tool), and how to consider using multiple vantage points. 

Shareski compares learning the writing process to learning the visual design process.  The one tenant of his philsophy where I diverge is in his thoughts about templates. He says that we should rid our instruction of templates, so that students can start with a white canvas, allowing for students to create the desire to “build significance” on their own.  I argue as a writing teacher that students need a formula or roadmap, so that when they master the art form, they can then break the rules and do so with style, elegance, purpose, and significance.  We all need to start somewhere–have a simple structure that we can go beyond is always a helpful learning tool.  This is ONE way students learn to be effective writers, and I argue that in the creation of multimedia, beginners need a starting point.  Of course, we all hope our students will go beyond our expectations and usually they do, even when they are set high. 

Finally, one more thing I am taking away from this online session is to consider the 4-slide contest proposed by David Meyer for the Chicago Graduate School of Business application.  I think this is a wonderful way to teach visual literacy, constraint, and the power of significance.  This can tie into persuassion, memoir, and many other langauge arts related skills, not to mention visual literacy, of course.    I would  love to try this exercise with the faculty at my school. Take a look at the final entries!

I LOVE Rock You!  OMG!!!!! I can SOOOOO see my students loving this wonderful slideshow tool.  We always run into the problem of music.  Instead of the students having to search for creative commons music, they can use the library of music built into this site.  From creating my own little trailer, I have decided that this would be an extremely cool learning experience for my students to address more abstract concepts.  We will be reading The Giver in the spring.  There is not a movie out yet, due to some complications (It was supposed to be released fall 2007.).  This is a “quick and dirty” way to take the place of shooting a trailer–I would love my students to come up with a trailer representing the theme of the novel.  How awesome!  I think this is one of my favorite tools so far!

Check out my trailer:  The Outsiders

For my Flickr exploration, I chose the topic of symbols.  As an English teacher, I am always looking for visual ways to engage my students, especially with abstract literary concepts like symbolism.  I think it would be neat to ponder some symbols that are recognized around the globe and some that are not so recognized.  Maybe students could even design their own symbol, representing their own personal identity.  By seeing symbols visually and then creating their own visual image, they would more easily connect to the sunsets in the novel The Outsiders.

Symbol of the Day:  Daughters of the American Revolution

Image by Leo Reynolds

I was intrigued by this symbol because of the role of girls in the American Revolution, and because the symbol is intricate and unique.  This symbol is most likely unknown to students, so it could warrant an interesting discussion about what it might represent, who were the “daughters” and why did they need a symbol?

 I LOVED Flickr and I wish I knew more about all its wonderful tools long ago!  I strongly believe that kids today are hugely visual consumers.  I use pictures to inspire writing in my classroom on a regular basis, and I try to tap into their visual tendencies and interests.  What a wonderful new tool to add to my arsenal.  National Poetry Month is during April, so I just may have to try out a poetic Flickr twist!  Stay tuned!

Creative commons reminds me of one of the first things I learned in kindergarten…share.  It’s amazing that something so simple can make the world so much more collaborative and connected.  And isn’t this what we want our students to be able to do in the real world?  Connect. Share. Collaborate.  Particiapte in a meaningful way.  Contribute.

Creative Commons is a wonderful resource fore multimedia projects with students.  It is so disappointing to students when they are often “stuck” with the soundtracks packaged with video editing, sound editing, and other multimedia software programs.  As an instructor, being informed about creative commons and how to give students access to sound, images, and video that are protected in this way will open a whole new avenue of creative potential.

As for teaching materials, I find that teachers are generous to a fault in swapping materials and sharing units with one another.  The danger in this can be that materials posted online can be used by anyone, and the original author never receives credit for their original ideas and work.  Furthermore, what if someone takes your good ideas and then publishes a teacher guide based on your work?  If you want some credit and you still want to share, this is a great solution for any teacher posting their blood, sweat, and tears.

As for the downfall of creative commons, someone could potentially morph your original ideas in a way that you never envisioned.  You may disagree whole-heartedly with the quality or the form of the new work, but you will have little say about the end product.

Oveall, creative commons makes the possible use of your ideas much more clear, if you are willing to share.  What a wonderful “out of the box” solution for a long-existing problem.  I can’t wait to hook my students up with this new information!

 In my own search of creative commons items, I found myself overwhelmed by all the choices to explore.  Once again, I see the 2.0 things as a huge time devil, sucking me down the digital black hole.  I was pretty excited by MIT’s open courseware designed for high schools.  I found an online class on short stories, which would be a great tool for me the next time I teach that unit.  Why reinvent the wheel!  I also found an awesome pdf document on Web 2.0, defining basic information and how to access the different tools.  This is a wonderful reference tool for me as I venture further into the labyrinth of Web 2.0.  (Ps.  The OER Commons site is cool because it offers a little “bookmark” button to the right of each item, so that you can add it to your google bookmark toolbar.  Before this whole Web 2.0 class, I don’t think I would have even noticed the button!)

Cool Cat Teacher has done it again!  I saw Vicki Davis present at NECC in Atlanta last summer.  Her effervescence is truly contagious!  Reading her post reminds me how excited I am every time I discover a new tool and share it with my students. 

Some cool stuff I found on educational wikis:

• At the Wolves Den Wiki, I was delighted with all the wonderful resources posted for the English and History students.  What excited me more was the link to oodles of Web 2.0 tools.  I can’t wait to explore this site, Go To Web20.  I have to remember my first idea about life-long learning–play!
• At Kindergarten Counting Book I was pleasantly surprised with the creative use of digital photography and counting to post a class-created counting book for kindergarten students. I can totally see my own 5 year old being engrossed in this class creation.  What a wonderful way to use a meaningful project where all students can contribute, learn, and then later view their accomplishments from home with their families.
• Jennifer Dorman’s wiki, Grazing for Digital Natives, is a wonderful compilation of resources for all things digital.  I look forward to checking out her information on digital storytelling! I also wonder how she has time to post all that stuff!

What resonates with me after surfing a few educational wikis is that the more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.  It overwhelms me to see how much information is really out there, and it also energizes me.  The trick is to find the balance between burning time surfing and exploring and really creating something that will work for me professionally.

I already know that the next time I use a wiki with my students, which will be this spring, I plan on using RSS to track the student pages.  I’m also going to loosen the reigns a bit and let the kids really own it.  

What was missing in the wikis I browsed?  Well, each one has its own style.  I think a wiki is very similar to an essay.  If it addresses its purpose, uses appropriate and meaningful content, and appeals to the intended audience, then it is viable.  And like writing, a real-time audience that can collaborate, edit, post, and comment, is the most valuable piece of the whole environment. 

Student Application:  What an amazing tool!  Go Google!  The education possibilities of google news feeds are endless!  I can see our history teachers assigning currents events in a whole new way.  Instead of surfing newspapers for an article that interests a student for a current events assignment, students can set up their own news feed on a topic related to their current studies in history.  For instance, a World Cultures course studying Africa can send students to Google news to set up a feed about an African country they want to study for current events and developments.  All of a sudden, the news is relevant, personal, and more exciting than ever.

Personal Feeds:  I set up a feed on the subject of teens.  While I was not surprised, I was saddened to find that most stories in the current news about teens are not positive.  Topics like car crashes, shootings, knifings, violence, obesity, and depression clutter the news listing for teens this past week.  The article that caught my eye the most, however, is “Kids Dis E-mail, My-Space Dominates and Cyber-Attacks Grow More Dangerous” because my own experience with teens at school is they do not see the Internet as a potentially dangerous space.  They think nothing of sharing their most intimiate secrets with a few billion online users.  And according to this article, Korean teens see email as a formal communication tool, designed for business.  Instead, teens in Korea are using a social networking technology, similar to Face Book, to communicate .  In fact, Koreans are ahead of the Japanese in the uptake of this new technology.  So, my question is where are American teens?  I venture to guess we are not too far behind (knowing how popular My Space has become), but is our current educational practices, curriculum, and instruction preparing the teens for this?  Is it something to fear as a parent and educator, or is it an exciting new development on the technology frontier?

Initial Reaction to All That Good Stuff:  I have a whole slew of informative and smart blogs popping up in my reader.  My first reaction to all this news is overload.  It’s unbelievable how much information is out there.  Every time I read a post, I find another nugget to bookmark, star, or email to a friend.  I am back to the time factor.  Thank goodness the RSS reader is set up so user-friendly.  I love it that I can surf through 200 new items in a short while.  I guess this is like skimming through the Sunday paper, well sort of.  It’s not as cozy as a pair of slippers and a newspaper in bed.  Even though I have a wireless laptop, I’d much rather snuggle up with a paper than a laptop that tends to get warm on my lap.  Maybe if I were a cat…j/k.

Gems of the Week:  I saw Cool Cat Teacher present at NECC last summer in Atlanta, and she inspired me to start a class wiki.  She made teaching sound so easy and fun.  She is sharp, dynamic, and fearless.  I find her blog no less than her real life persona.  She pointed out some new tools called “microblogging streams”, “backchannels“, and a twitter search engine called Terraminds for the microblogging streams .  I have no clue what she is talking about, but I know know enough about her cutting-edge style to know that these are things to spend some time exploring.  Does anyone out there know about these tools?  She also points out that PowerPoint is not the end-all in presentation tools, and if we really want to instill technology fluency in our students, we need to expose them to multiple tools that serve the same purpose.  Check out the 13 online alternatives to PowerPoint.  The days of PowerPoints being too large for email or bringing to a conference on a thumbdrive are long gone. Use an online presentation tool instead.  The last little jewel I found was another blog called First Day of Kindergarten, which was mentioned by another blogger.  (I so cannot tell you who, as everything gets so interconnected and you forget where you started in the first place!)  This blog was designed for a teacher’s online high school course.  Mr. Plough offers students a chance to approach assignments in multiple ways, utilizing web 2.0 tools they choose to explore.  He even gives tutorials and links to all the tools.  This is a great resource!  Check out the little slide show on how he defines Web 2.0 and take notice of all the wonderful links on this post for learning to use the tools.  I’ve added Mr. Plough’s blog to my reader–why reinvent the wheel?