Thing 11.5 Reflections

I made it! This was quite a journey. Although I didn't have time to do it this past summer as planned, it worked out ok to do it during the year. But I will be glad to get some time of my own on the weekends here before the holidays. One advantage is I feel that I have retained more doing it now, rather than if I had done it at the beginning of last summer.

1.Favorite Discoveries:
I am always looking for more image generators and quick, easy,fun things to show kids and teachers. I loved wordle and bookr, and have used them with several grades related to curriculum they were studying. I also loved Voki, playing with the iTouch, and exploring SchoolTube.

2.Affected lifelong learning:
You know the saying--"The more you learn-- the more you realize how much you still need to learn"-- or something like that. That is how I feel with technology. Every time I feel like I really get something down-- it changes or something better comes along to learn. Such is life in the 21st century library. I definitely want to explore more with slideshare,and I will be able to use screencast when I need that type of tool--I didn't own camtasia or snagit and had wanted to learn this one. And of course, this is all a great prerequisite to our new Mac equipment and training I will be attending in Dec.
3.Take-aways or unexpected outcomes/ surprises:
I was surprised at the amount of discussion and effectiveness of lessons I presented at my school on digital citizenship and online safety. I was so surprised how easy it was to install and use skype right away. I was definitely surprised at myself for my interest in second life-- I have never been a person to get into walking around and communicating with people in virtual worlds. I have to say that once I learned a few basics and got some cool clothes, I was enjoying it.

4. Improve program?
The 11.5 things did seem more manageable that taking on 23 things in a chunck. They still took many more hours than the credit given, but some of that was my extended "playing" on my own . The directions and links still are so very helpful and easy to follow! And I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it did seem that the pacing from longer to shorter things was good-- not a lot of longer complicated ones in a row-- so we didn't get bogged down or frustrated. Thanks for leading me through this step by step! Please continue to leave all of the 23 and 11.5 things on the web page so we can refer back to them as we use them and review them.

Thing #11 Digital Citizenship

Since our new state requirement, TEKS, and I-Safe materials have come this fall, I feel like I had a heads up on Digital Citizenship. I have already taught a 2 part lesson with all of Kg - 5th using the flipcharts and Brain Pop videos. I used the picture book "Arthur's Computer Disaster for KG and 1st for one of the lessons to start a discussion on when, where, and how computers should be used at home and school. I still have one more 3rd followup lesson to do with 4th and 5th dealing more with online safety using the activeoard flips. After teaching these lessons to elementary students, I was surprised at the amount of discussion and valuable information that was included that our students really did need. I feel this series was not only beneficial to them, but helped me to know their internet use and needs better.
I liked the visual of Digital Citizenship from the suggested readings that had a block with "Stutdents" in the middle, and blocks of Literacy, Safety, Ettiquette, and Learning Strategies surrounding. That seems to include it all-- using the internet appropriately, safely, and effectively.
I also liked the lesson idea from David Warlick where he takes students to Google and through the whole process of search, looking through the search results, demonstrating all of the things to consider and the decision-making process to cull out what is valuable, and then model verifying authority.

Thing # 10 Virtual Worlds

I checked out a few of the suggested virtual worlds for younger kids for entertainment, and they looked fun-- letting kids make stationery and play games. My son has been playing games for years using virtual worlds, and sometimes even being able to create his own maps and add to the world he originally purchased-- therefore adding a whole new dimension and expansion to the original. I think that is the attraction for older kids and even adults-- a chance to create and make an ever-changing and evolving game or place. I have played quite a bit this past week with Second Life--and have met the most polite and helpful "people". I have finally gotten out of my "newbie" clothes and have a full wardrobe of jeans, shirts, and hair. Just what you need to pack for travel--what's best is the price-- FREE. I got them on Black Bear Island, visited Statue of Liberty, the African plains, and Iste Island where I met up with Mary--where she gave me a bunch of landmarks to try for elementary kids. There is supposed to be one for younger kids that is like a nursery tale or fairy tale place that I need to get. I tried to teleport to Mount Rushmore but it was not working-- maybe it was closed for the holidays! I can see how this may be used for younger students with a teacher to lead them through it as part of a lesson to discover and explore. I expect that virtual worlds will continue to expand not just for entertainment, but also for informative and commercial applications that can be tapped into for educational purposes and classroom use-- like virtual field trips, trainings, and tours. I still need a lot more exploration with Second Life before I will be able to navigate easily.

Ranitas / Frogs in the forest

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Ranitas / Frogs in the forest

View more documents from Manuel Velasco.

Thing # 9 Slideshare

My 3 favorites of this type of tool was Slideshare, authorSTREAM and 280 slides --these sites are really chocked full of presentations teachers could use with students, students could access on their own for information, or places to store and publish their powerpoints.

I found some really great presentations on countries, nature, and current issues like glaciers and global warming on slideshare-- some beautiful photography with great quality. I also liked the feature that gave you other presentations related to the one you searched.

VWB-- in slideshare, I found a great one called Ranitas/Frogs of the Forest. Check out the previous post above.

I liked the features that Joyce Valenza pointed out about authorSTREAM-- all audio uploads in 1 file, full screen with good quality, and PPTs being able to be converted from PPTs to video files for easy sharing on iPods, YouTube, etc.

I'm glad I found LibrarianInBlack.net. I will have to checkout more topics there. I really thought the 280 slides looked very useful for our students who have internet at home--but outdated versions of PPT or no PPT at all. This will be a great help for those students to be able to create and work on projects and presentations at home, school, or the public library-- no matter what desktop applications they have that might limit them at home. And I think it is always a thrill for them to actually publish their work or share it easily-- and see the creative and professional aspects of other presentations online, also.

Thing # 8 Screencast

This took a lot of time to play with and load tools. I finally got Jing to work and played around with the SnagIt tools. I think this will be a great tool to use when I have time to play with all of the features and get down the process. It reminds me of the activeboard-- seems a lot at first, but once you have used it a while, it seems so natural and faster to navigate. I am going to have the kids on my afterschool AR group use this to make a tutorial for other students in how to locate, log on, and take a test. This would also be a good one to use for students needing help in learning how to log onto the district server...lots of uses besides professional development for teachers. I have seen lots of powerpoints and tutorials that other people have made using this, and it looks so professional and clear for the user. This is one tool I wanted to learn about, and glad there are different free ones now to choose from. I will work on getting the sound to work with it next.

Thing # 7 Videos

I enjoyed reading the interesting discussion and comments posed by Robert in response to the video on fair use.
I had heard of Hulu-- but never really watched anything from it-- so this was a great discovery for me personally (since I found free episodes of my favorite TV show along with interesting interviews) but also good stuff for school use.

I found this cool video segment from National Geographic that would be a great followup extention on a class study of earth forces and tornadoes. "Tornado in a Can"-- only 3 minutes long-- shows how science is reproducing tornadoes so they can build things that will withstand one. Just the type of thing that may encourage students to see how science investigation and research is applied to improve real life situations.



On PBS I found Nova and nature programs on all topics-- I found one I think I actually watched on TV and one that would be of great help on a research projects-- the one on the komodo dragon. Every year I have some boys wanting to learn everything there is about these unusual creatures-- some for a project, and some just because... I could not get this PBS one to embed so here is the link.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1300615533/
I also liked that books and weblinks are also given with these videos for further reading or info.

Thing # 6 iTouch Apps

I know this is going to be one of the most popular tools coming to our library-- our students will surely want more! Put them in an egg chair with an itouch, and we may never get them out-- they will not even know all of the learning that hits them. My husband has had an iphone for about a year-- so we have both enjoyed some cool apps for personal use. I borrow his quit a bit-- so I have just about decided that I need one of my own when my next birthday comes around. We have used some free apps and some we paid a nominal fee--I was so surprised how cheap (99 cents) most of them are. I found some free apps for Elementary to form group games or independent browsing or research:
Science (NASA,Stars in the Night sky,Hubble Images)
Math (drill,calculator,coin toss,calendar,numberline,flash cards,dice)
Social Studies (google earth,Birthday in History, Presidents,US Atlas,USA Factbook,Maps of the World, State Capitals, Constitution,)
Language arts and Reading (Bookshelf, Talking Phrasebook, Thesaurus,Pocket Phonics lite,Fairy Tales audio,Spell it Rite,Gutenberg)

Something for everyone-- individual research, brain games, drill (but not kill), Sudoku... I hope all of the librarians will have time to get together to explore more apps and share ideas for using them with classes and independent free times.

These are great to use for class curriculaum support, but I am also going to explore a lot of these with a new afterschool group that I will start in January. These will also be great to use with PGP groups and as a motivation for AR reading.

Thing # 5--Microblogging

Wow-- for 3 things ( Facebook, Twitter, and Back Channeling) that are so very simple and easy to signup for and use, there is a lot of reading and information about them. My husband (the geek) already had a facebook account for himself, but I was starting to feel the need to have one soon anyway. Mainly to keep up with family and friends. Almost everyone in my extended family had an account, so now I am officially on Facebook too. (Still need to get a good picture, though) Of course, I spent the usual next two hours locating old friends from high school and college, and family members out of state. Now that I am "in"-- I can see how it would really be an asset to have a class facebook account or twitter account for discussing topics, reviewing assignments, clarifying and answering questions-- especially being able to post pictures (appropriate of course). What is so nice about facebook is that you can limit who uses it and views it, so I think that would really work well for any group or class that needed to stay private or contained. They are both so much quicker to use, up to the minute real time, and seem much less cumbersome than communicating on a blog--if that is what you need.
Twitter and back channeling on the other hand lend themselves to just the opposite-- getting input and ideas first from within the group, and then growing to others outside. I really enjoyed the articles and discussions about using Twitter in colllege--and the legality of tweeting information.(I think that is how the rules say to state it-- don't want to sound like the newbie that I am!) Since my son will be going off soon, I had a particular interest in how colleges and professors were embracing some of these tools. I did have 2 interesting things happen when I signed up for Twitter. I saw all of the suggested 20 people to start following, and then too quickly went to the bottom to click the button-- not realizing that all of the boxes for these people were automatically "checked" and I was their follower-- like it or not. But the help button actually helped me to know what to do.
UNFORTUNATELY--you have to go into each profile and unselect them-- that took a while, but I decided it was worth it because I instantly had gotten at least 30 tweets from someone watching a sports game-- play... by... play....
FORTUNATELY--One of those checked was an astronaut for Atlantis, and he is doing a series of tweets for NASA about the next mission to the space station coming up Nov. 16th, and it had a nice You Tube video of "This Week at NASA". Something I can use. So I kept him on my list to follow-- getting rid of Kirstie Alley who was on her way out the door to go TP houses-- no joke!
I wish I would have had back channeling in some of my high school classes-- if you can believe it, I was fairly shy, and usually had good ideas to add to discussions, or had a question to ask, but really didn't want to speak up much-- also great for small or really large groups. I also like the idea of being able to back channel with a speaker or teacher so that they can use the questions or comments to guide the teaching or a discussion live or look at it to see what to focus on the next day...

Thing #4 You Tube, Teacher Tube, School Tube

I have previously searched, viewed, and enjoyed videos from Teacher and You Tube for professional and personal reasons, but had never uploaded a video. So here is one of a group my husband plays with. (He is the 4th one in the first row)


I really had not taken a good look at School Tube until now. I thought I would take a quick look to see an overview... wrong!... 2 hours later...I stopped because I had to go somewhere. There was so much I wanted to look at. I found several videos I could use at school right now with classes-- a program by a wildlife group with real birds of prey, a time lapse video of a monarch caterpillar pupating before your eyes, a great video to show my music teacher of kids doing a drum circle, and a cool project a student made on the 10 most dangerous animals-- a real boy pleaser! I also found this funny one posted below as I explored School Tube-- and I only made it through about 6 pages worth! I also loved a video in the technology section where a teacher taped himself leading kids through the processes of doing a lesson on computer-- he was absent and had a sub, but was still able to have his class go on with the instruction he would have normally done on that day! There was also a comment by another teacher that she was so happy to have School Tube because she was told there was not enough room on her district servers to store her student's work. I found this one in the technology section--need a giggle? Check it out!

Thing # 3 Like Skype

I first participated on Skype several weeks ago when my husband called me in to talk to a friend over his computer. He has since had 8 other friends and family members find him and ask to be on his contacts. It's a great thing for families and friends to be able to see and communicate free over the miles, and I just found out that is what my son has been using to talk to his friends while studying or playing computer games. He has been using something like skype for years--since he and his friends (I think in 2nd grade then) figured out how to hook up free on their own. Mostly for entertainment, but it has come in handy when a group of his friends studied together-- dividing up the review guides and teaching each other without having to be all together at someone's house at 11:00 at night. (Nice for parents who would have to go pick them up, too!)If I only had a nickel for every $30.00 headset he has gone through in the last 10 years or so.

I enjoyed Anne Mirtschin's advice, along with the blog of 50 ways to use skype in the classroom. I looked into WiZiQ because I saw free virtual classroom, but it turned out to be a free demo. That looked really cool. Using skype, I feel it would be most useful to elementary school for virtual field trips, experts and speakers for career days, author / illustrator talks, talking to classrooms in other locations and cultures, travels, and tutoring sessions.

If teachers would permit a camera in their classroom, it would be so great for students to be able to "tune in" to their classes when they are absent. My son missed 3 days of school out sick last week, and it would have been so good for him just to have listened and watched what went on-- so he would not have so much work to makeup and missed so much instruction. Maybe in the future...

Thing # 2 Image Generators

Wordle is so fun, quick, and easy-- I can see so many applications for even the youngest students. Create them as a class, group, or individually to describe attributes of a character, biographical person, place, concept, animal, or just about any topic of study. Details from a story could put into a wordle, showing the emphasis by size of the most important to the smallest details. I am going to use it to make some gifts for volunteers-- using words that descbribe them. As a team building activity, students could do an "about me" wordle at the beginning of school and print it out on a paper or label as an activity to get to know other students.
Wordle and Wordshift would be fun to do with the same words, and compare how they are the same and different--someone suggested pairing students to do this.

Bookr is the easiest for teachers and kids that I have ever seen --and has so many applications for even the little kids. I wish they did have more picture choices or let us upload our own photos. But that may be part of what makes it so easy to use. The class can make a book on the activeboard together-- introducing or reviewing a unit of study. Or individuals or groups can make books for any unit of study or interest. I will definitely use this one a lot to allow students to quickly record their research and knowledge. Students will have fun and learn from reading the books from each other. I will post the insect book I will make with 1st graders next week. I can't wait to try this one with kids.

Glogster was fun to play with-- it took a little time to learn all of the possibilities-- but I think students would navigate it faster than I originally did. I loved the fact that you could add text and pictures like a regular poster, but really make it more fun and interactive by adding animated objects and even vidoes or sound. Here is just a little example of some of my play in designing a base for a report on MLK-- one that kids have traditionally done in regular poster fashion at my school. I am definitely going to push this one for intermediate students-- especially those who have already experienced trading cards and magazine covers-- this will be a step up that can include more creativity and information-- and fun. It's a good way to include those students who enjoy computer and those who enjoy the art and design type of project-- this has it all. http://sbelibrary.edu.glogster.com/MLK/

I have done quite a few animotos in the past, but hadn't explored much with the new and improved features using video and adding exteded text. So I revisited it to play a bit. I have also checked into getting the subscription for educators so we can make longer free videos. This will be really fun and easy for students to use when we get our new flip cameras. (I had trouble getting their "embed in blog" button to work, so I just used the email feature-- I will explore that further later)

http://animoto.com/play/PKgMxiElgvk4HrytD1BVwg?

Get a Voki now!

Thing #1 Connectivism

I can see this really happening in some classes in education in the upper levels for high school and college, and in the future trickling down to more appropriate applications at the earlier grades-- certainly in GT or AP classes. Kids are already connecting with each other through online games, social networking, etc. This just takes it to the educational level by pulling in online resources as we have in the past, but connecting it with other students and experts without having to be face to face. To me, this includes the best of both worlds in research-- connecting students interactively with content and real people for support and information. I love the idea of students being able to tap into lectures by experts, authors, and other college professors...

Librarians have been pulling from different materials and resources for years-- this is just a little shift in the types of resources and the way they are accessed. Reminds me of a 21st century version of cooperative learning or independent study. I think librarians would be able to make this shift easier than the departmentalized teacher that has been teaching the same content or subject each year-- especially those who have relied heavily on textbooks. But parts of this way of learning could certainly start to be incorporated into teaching and learning now.

I like the idea of some days with a teacher for access instruction , modeling, guidance, etc., (because these skills will have to be taught and nurtured at various levels-- especially at schools where students do not often have access at home to updated computers with fast internet and have limited computer, reading, and life experiences outside of school.

I also like the flexibility of having other days for self motivated and capable students to not have class, but have group and individual work time using tools that does not have to include a face to face. This seems like a real time saver to me, that I think would foster independence and self-motivation in students. I think, though, there should also be the opportunity for any students to meet every day with the teacher or librarian if needed for extra support or guidance.
The possiblilities for this type of class or study really is limitless and everchanging.