I have found a few things in this course that I plan to incorporate into my class next year. Although, I would love to include a lot more I want to be realistic in my goals. I want to change a little bit at a time so the change isn't so overwhelming. The one thing that I am sure I will use this coming year is a blog and the Zoho software. I want to create a blog with math competitions for the school. I believe I will even make it possible for some of my students to submit their assignments electronically for the first time.
I am hoping that I will make the time to include VoiceThread in at least one assignment for my students this year. However, I have a lot to learn still on how to make that an effective choice for my content area.
I already have used some videos and podcasts to help my students learning new concepts, but I haven't yet created a video or podcast for my students. I have already started working on video to show my students on the first day of class. As for a podcast, I have noticed that there is a great need for podcasts in my field. I do not feel that I have the technology at my disposal to create a podcast, but I could be surprised. I am going to get together with my technology coordinator and figure out how feasible this will be. So, pending the results of my discussion about the equipment I have available, I will make a podcast to add to the minimal math library we have so far.
I am currently following several RSS feeds, however this is not really related to my school life and more just me keeping up with current events. I did find a few that were related to my content area, but most are just for me.
Overall, I think the biggest change I will make this year is an attempt to help my students become better learners and step back from my guru on the hill of the past and move toward the guide I want to be. With the new text books we have this year that are full of online opportunities for my students to learn I am hoping to guide them to use those resources and really take responsibility for their learning. That by far will be my biggest challenge this year.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Chapter 9
I love the concept of an educational system that adapts to a student's personal style much like amazons recommendations for each buyer. With the number of students I have each year it would be very difficult for me to take on this kind of personalizing myself. It would be interesting if we had some sort of software that would help make recommendations for each child. Treating each student as an individual is as far as I think I will get with this particular idea.
I also enjoyed reading about video games being given more creedence. I think that math could be taught some in a level based game. Especially, while learning multiplication tables or other topics that are enhanced with memorization. I liked what was said about people come back to what they have invested in, and wonder what I can do to help my students feel that buy in with my class.
I do disagree with one statement that was made which is that in your classroom the answers should always be close by. Perhaps I am misunderstanding what the author intended by this statement but I firmly believe that if I want to see really creative solutions from my students I need to give them problems they haven't seen before. I do not give these kind of problems on tests to measure their understanding, but as warm ups to see how much they can do.
Another point that was made that struck me was that teachers are too busy doing what they are already doing to change to meet the needs of our changing students. I agree, and the thought of changing much of what I am doing is frightening. I do think that teachers should be willing to make baby steps. I am not going to transform my classroom into a fancy 2.0 classroom overnight, in fact, probably not even in a year. However, I am going to make a few changes this year, then next year and keep changing until eventually I will be doing a lot more than I am now.
I also enjoyed reading about video games being given more creedence. I think that math could be taught some in a level based game. Especially, while learning multiplication tables or other topics that are enhanced with memorization. I liked what was said about people come back to what they have invested in, and wonder what I can do to help my students feel that buy in with my class.
I do disagree with one statement that was made which is that in your classroom the answers should always be close by. Perhaps I am misunderstanding what the author intended by this statement but I firmly believe that if I want to see really creative solutions from my students I need to give them problems they haven't seen before. I do not give these kind of problems on tests to measure their understanding, but as warm ups to see how much they can do.
Another point that was made that struck me was that teachers are too busy doing what they are already doing to change to meet the needs of our changing students. I agree, and the thought of changing much of what I am doing is frightening. I do think that teachers should be willing to make baby steps. I am not going to transform my classroom into a fancy 2.0 classroom overnight, in fact, probably not even in a year. However, I am going to make a few changes this year, then next year and keep changing until eventually I will be doing a lot more than I am now.
Chapter 7
While reading this chapter covering online safety and security I thought some on my own parenting style. I am very careful with what my daughter experiences online. We are quite strict with her. Her current level of online activity is not academic so I have no problem limiting her to very few things. With the discussion about security within the schools I am reminded of the debate about constitutional rights vs. safety and security of our country. We as a nation are finding a balance between our rights and the rights of our military and law enforcement. This is the same with schools and students. We all want our students to be safe and yet also want them to have access to all the fabulous tools available online. Finding that balance is what schools are doing. My school has a separate search engine we have access too, and I have found that it is nice to have. The results I get from searching things like matrix come up with the math version instead of images of Keanu Reeves. We also have a firewall, but it isn't perfect. Some sites are blocked because they have the word game in them, but yet they are educational.
I really enjoyed the charts and discussion on what is stealing. I also realize that using someone elses work without attribution is rampant among my students. Every time I give an assignment that calls for research I have students who copy and paste the information from websites and expect that to count for their own work. Sadly, this happens even after I tell them over and over again that I will check their sources.
I really enjoyed the charts and discussion on what is stealing. I also realize that using someone elses work without attribution is rampant among my students. Every time I give an assignment that calls for research I have students who copy and paste the information from websites and expect that to count for their own work. Sadly, this happens even after I tell them over and over again that I will check their sources.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Chapter of choice, 2
Based on my revelations from Chapter 1, my interest in Chapter 2 should be obvious. This past year I surveyed my students about the number of TVs and number of computers they had at home. This was the first year that all of my students had at least one computer at home. According to the book, which was written a few years ago, statistically 71% of students have access from home. Even with this access available I found it challenging to get my students to access the website set aside for them.
My teaching needs to focus on helping my students learn techniques to think, adapt and be effective learners. One of the ways I can do this is to find more ways to include the technologies they are using in a productive way in my class. I want to help my students achieve their highest potentials, currently that includes leaving my comfort zone and using the technologies they are interested in and will need familiarity with as they move into the professional world.
The chapter mentioned how students customize their desktops and chairs to be uniquely theirs when they enter a computer lab. The question is asked how to we take this customization generation and apply that customization to the classroom. Admittedly, my students do not get to change the height of their chairs. I did visualize my classroom with adaptable chairs and I think it would be better for them if they could make those adjustments. One size fits all never really fit all in any generation. When the authors ask, "How do we take advantage of students' interests and the ways they learn to create new models for learning?" I thought about a student of mine from last year. He is visually impaired, and very interested in technology. Unfortunately, not interested in doing homework. It came to me that I might get more from this student if I encourage him to submit work to me in his comfort zone. It would be fairly easy to set up a blog that I subscribe to and use the Zoho program to make his homework submissions. This would also eliminate the loss of his papers. I am looking forward to experimenting with this and looking for ways to engage to my students within their comfort zone.
My teaching needs to focus on helping my students learn techniques to think, adapt and be effective learners. One of the ways I can do this is to find more ways to include the technologies they are using in a productive way in my class. I want to help my students achieve their highest potentials, currently that includes leaving my comfort zone and using the technologies they are interested in and will need familiarity with as they move into the professional world.
The chapter mentioned how students customize their desktops and chairs to be uniquely theirs when they enter a computer lab. The question is asked how to we take this customization generation and apply that customization to the classroom. Admittedly, my students do not get to change the height of their chairs. I did visualize my classroom with adaptable chairs and I think it would be better for them if they could make those adjustments. One size fits all never really fit all in any generation. When the authors ask, "How do we take advantage of students' interests and the ways they learn to create new models for learning?" I thought about a student of mine from last year. He is visually impaired, and very interested in technology. Unfortunately, not interested in doing homework. It came to me that I might get more from this student if I encourage him to submit work to me in his comfort zone. It would be fairly easy to set up a blog that I subscribe to and use the Zoho program to make his homework submissions. This would also eliminate the loss of his papers. I am looking forward to experimenting with this and looking for ways to engage to my students within their comfort zone.
Chapter 1
As I was reading this chapter I became very curious. In the economics section for example the implications was made that one of every ten jobs will move over seas in the next two years. Considering this book was published in 2007, they are taking about this year. The next implication is that one in four jobs will be moved over seas by 2010. I want to know if this really is true, did this happen? In our age of information it is hard to make predictions because everything is changing exponentially. I was unable to find any accurate information about the number of jobs sent overseas.
In contrast this quote did come true. "It is clear that the U.S. and other rich nations will have to transform their educational systems so as to produce workers for the jobs that will actually exist in their societies... In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important that how much we educate them. " (Binder, 2005) I discovered recently that according to the U.S. Department of Labor 25% of the population has been with the same employer for less than a year, 50% of the population has been with their employer for less than 5 years. Our students today are not being taught how to master a profession, but rather need to be taught to quickly pick up new professions.
Five years ago there was no You Tube or Twitter, who knows what we will have in the next five years. For my freshman this year this means as they enter college there are likely going to be jobs that didn't exist while they were my students. This revelation struck me. As a math teacher the content I go over has changed little in the last twenty years. However, my students have changed drastically. Consequently, I need to change and adapt as well. I have a challenging year ahead of me.
In contrast this quote did come true. "It is clear that the U.S. and other rich nations will have to transform their educational systems so as to produce workers for the jobs that will actually exist in their societies... In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important that how much we educate them. " (Binder, 2005) I discovered recently that according to the U.S. Department of Labor 25% of the population has been with the same employer for less than a year, 50% of the population has been with their employer for less than 5 years. Our students today are not being taught how to master a profession, but rather need to be taught to quickly pick up new professions.
Five years ago there was no You Tube or Twitter, who knows what we will have in the next five years. For my freshman this year this means as they enter college there are likely going to be jobs that didn't exist while they were my students. This revelation struck me. As a math teacher the content I go over has changed little in the last twenty years. However, my students have changed drastically. Consequently, I need to change and adapt as well. I have a challenging year ahead of me.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Week 8- 19.1 Digital Pipeline
It appears that this topic is included in the librarian list, and not in the classroom list of "things". I wasn't aware of this before and since I already did the exploration decided to write about it. This is another application that has way too many options for my brain to comfortably wade through. I am guessing that some of my students would feel the same way. Since I rarely do research projects in my math class it is unlikely that I will be showing this to my students. I do expect I will use it in the future when I take classes in the future.
I did find the folder option, it took me longer than usual to figure that one out. My problem was I was trying to find the folder from the SLED link, and didn't realize that I had to get into the search databases themselves before I had that option. Once I found that I was able to make my folder and also sign up for a journal alert. I did notice that a lot of journals were listed that the library did not have. I did not find any listing for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics journals.
I did find the Health option useful. My health insurance company has a similar database available to members, it is nice to know I can find another opinion here. I think I can find some uses for the digital pipeline and feel better now that I figured out that folder thing!
I did find the folder option, it took me longer than usual to figure that one out. My problem was I was trying to find the folder from the SLED link, and didn't realize that I had to get into the search databases themselves before I had that option. Once I found that I was able to make my folder and also sign up for a journal alert. I did notice that a lot of journals were listed that the library did not have. I did not find any listing for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics journals.
I did find the Health option useful. My health insurance company has a similar database available to members, it is nice to know I can find another opinion here. I think I can find some uses for the digital pipeline and feel better now that I figured out that folder thing!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Week 9- Thing 23 Summary
When I started this course it felt like I was the only one participating. I did several "things" and then went on vacation. When I got back I was very surprised to see in my absence that not only had people joined me, but had finished the course! This made me feel a little behind. I set aside a couple of days so that I can finish this up.
I still have to finish thing 19.1 but the rest of my exploring is complete. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn about applications and software that I would not have taken the time to find otherwise. I have a few new ideas to try out this year on my unsuspecting students. Each of the "things" were very straight forward and easy to follow, except for 19.1. I am taking a break but will be back to find those tutorials I couldn't find my first time through! I know that as with anything new that I learn if I am not using it I forget about it. I have the best intentions to use some of the 2.0 materials in my class and in my life. What I need is a reminder in about 4 months asking me if I have remembered to use any of them. Perhaps, I will have to come back to this site and poke around to see what I have or haven't been doing.
As far as making this a better course for the future the one thing that came to mind is I didn't see the separate link for Classroom 2.0 until today. I am not sure how I missed that before but when I looked over the topics it seems that I have gone through the same material. If for some reason I missed something I should explore please help highlight that for me. I am unsure how you might make that link more obvious for a classroom teacher, but a big blinking light that said, "Hey you! Math teacher! Click here!" might have done it.
I still have to finish thing 19.1 but the rest of my exploring is complete. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn about applications and software that I would not have taken the time to find otherwise. I have a few new ideas to try out this year on my unsuspecting students. Each of the "things" were very straight forward and easy to follow, except for 19.1. I am taking a break but will be back to find those tutorials I couldn't find my first time through! I know that as with anything new that I learn if I am not using it I forget about it. I have the best intentions to use some of the 2.0 materials in my class and in my life. What I need is a reminder in about 4 months asking me if I have remembered to use any of them. Perhaps, I will have to come back to this site and poke around to see what I have or haven't been doing.
As far as making this a better course for the future the one thing that came to mind is I didn't see the separate link for Classroom 2.0 until today. I am not sure how I missed that before but when I looked over the topics it seems that I have gone through the same material. If for some reason I missed something I should explore please help highlight that for me. I am unsure how you might make that link more obvious for a classroom teacher, but a big blinking light that said, "Hey you! Math teacher! Click here!" might have done it.
Week 9-Thing 22 Audio & eBooks
I have been looking into eBooks for a little while as I put an application on my phone Stanza which allows me to search several sites for books and then read them from my phone. I did look through a few of the sites listed on the Best Places link and found some books that you can read online, but would have to pay to get the pdf. What I like about Stanza is that when I find the book I am interested in it will download to my phone, with these sites after I find a book I have to get it onto my phone.
I was overwhelmed by WorldeBookFair.org there was too much for me to wade through easily. I did find the link for mobile phones but didn't find any that were free there. It was easier to find the free books through Stanza on my phone or through the sites listed by the best places link. It is nice to have books to read when I have time to read them. I wish that LibraryThing would have an option to find my recommended books in a phone format. With so many books to choose from I prefer having a list of books I will probably like instead of thousands of books that I have to choose from. I am the kind of person who wants to read the whole menu before I figure out what I am having for dinner, having so many options is difficult for me.
I was overwhelmed by WorldeBookFair.org there was too much for me to wade through easily. I did find the link for mobile phones but didn't find any that were free there. It was easier to find the free books through Stanza on my phone or through the sites listed by the best places link. It is nice to have books to read when I have time to read them. I wish that LibraryThing would have an option to find my recommended books in a phone format. With so many books to choose from I prefer having a list of books I will probably like instead of thousands of books that I have to choose from. I am the kind of person who wants to read the whole menu before I figure out what I am having for dinner, having so many options is difficult for me.
Week 9- Thing 21 Podcasts
Podcast.net the link didn't work.
podcastalley.com and eductional podcast directory both had similar content. I liked that under the EPN link I was able to click on the math specific tab. I did notice that the number in the math folder was 15, which was almost the least of any subject. The only subject that had less was dance. This is typical of many resources I have looked into. There is a lot more available for history, science and English subjects then there is for me. I did not look into library tools because I am very interested in the math connections. I did find a few links that I hope will be useful. Unfortunatly it appears that I will show them to my students to help them realize I am not the most boring teacher out there. The podcasts are quite dry. I think there is a definate need in this area. Perhaps, I can get together with some dynamic math teachers and help fix this problem.
When I looked in the teacher created materials site the podcasts had nothing for me as a math teacher. There appeared to be materials here that would be useful for the younger crowd (elementary or middle school) and other subjects. I felt a little left out.
podcastalley.com and eductional podcast directory both had similar content. I liked that under the EPN link I was able to click on the math specific tab. I did notice that the number in the math folder was 15, which was almost the least of any subject. The only subject that had less was dance. This is typical of many resources I have looked into. There is a lot more available for history, science and English subjects then there is for me. I did not look into library tools because I am very interested in the math connections. I did find a few links that I hope will be useful. Unfortunatly it appears that I will show them to my students to help them realize I am not the most boring teacher out there. The podcasts are quite dry. I think there is a definate need in this area. Perhaps, I can get together with some dynamic math teachers and help fix this problem.
When I looked in the teacher created materials site the podcasts had nothing for me as a math teacher. There appeared to be materials here that would be useful for the younger crowd (elementary or middle school) and other subjects. I felt a little left out.
Week 9 thing 20 Teacher Tube
Did You Know - by Karl Fisch, I've seen this or a variation before. I would like to create something like this for the first day of school, provided that I still have the projector I had last year. This one is written with a teacher audience in mind, but some of what is said is really valuable information for my students. The idea that the top jobs in 10 years aren't even in existence right now is really important. Especially, since I want to be the teacher who teaches my students to learn more than teaches them to multiply polynomials. If I do my job right, my students will leave my class knowing more about how they learn and becoming better students.
I like that there are a lot of videos available to look through. I tried to find one about completing the square. It is a process used in algebra that my students generally struggle with. I wanted to find a spiffy video that would help me to present it to them. Unfortunatly, the only ones I saw were incredibly boring. I guess there is a need for me to create one myself!
I would like to spend a little more time figuring out how to do a good search within teacher tube, for more content that is specifically what I am looking for. I did find that clicking the most popular link gave me this video which I do love. There was another that was something a teacher made for the first day of school. I think I will combine the ideas and create something like this one to show my students on the first day while I hand out books.
Did You Know - by Karl Fisch
Shared via AddThis
I like that there are a lot of videos available to look through. I tried to find one about completing the square. It is a process used in algebra that my students generally struggle with. I wanted to find a spiffy video that would help me to present it to them. Unfortunatly, the only ones I saw were incredibly boring. I guess there is a need for me to create one myself!
I would like to spend a little more time figuring out how to do a good search within teacher tube, for more content that is specifically what I am looking for. I did find that clicking the most popular link gave me this video which I do love. There was another that was something a teacher made for the first day of school. I think I will combine the ideas and create something like this one to show my students on the first day while I hand out books.
Did You Know - by Karl Fisch
Shared via AddThis
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Week 8 -Thing 19- LibraryThing
It is easy to make an account and start adding books. I am curious if the recommendations they give are as good as some of the internet radio sites I have come to enjoy. I am looking forward to finding time to read some of the books that are on my list of recommendations. Unfortunately, I don't take much time to read books. Now, since I can put them on my phone and can carry them with me everywhere I am hoping to read more. For this reason I was disappointed I could not easily find this book in electronic format. It is possible I missed it, but it seems that it would be useful to have links to some of the electronic book vendors. I am looking forward to trying some of the recommended books and letting people know if they did pick books I would like.
Here is my library.
It seems that my books were somewhat popular. I had at most 3 matching books with other people, but considering I only have 7 books in my library that is a lot. I looked at some of the discussions about the books but I didn't like that feature as much as the recommendations.
Here is my library.
It seems that my books were somewhat popular. I had at most 3 matching books with other people, but considering I only have 7 books in my library that is a lot. I looked at some of the discussions about the books but I didn't like that feature as much as the recommendations.
Week 8 Thing 18- Zoho doc
Creating a document without knowing what I am to write about is difficult. Therefore, I am writing this document and going to export it as my blog for this assignment. The first thing I noticed is that after writing a sentence I was asked to create a title for this document. I like that, this way I don't end up with 30 different untitled documents because I forgot to give it a name. It seems that it would be easy to share this document, but I didn't have anyone to share it with so I haven't tested that.
The next thing I want to try is different formatting.
I see that bold, italics and underline are easy to use. In fact the familiar shortcuts that I use with word are available for them as well, ctrl b, ctrl i, ctrl u. I see that the subscript and superscript are readily available. This is useful for writing math notations such as (x2-y2)2
Since I am a math person I like to check to see if writing out math equations is possible.
as you can see, very simple. There is a built in equation editor that is really easy to follow. This would make it possible for my students to share problems without looking odd. 
a fraction like this typed without an equation editor would look like this [-9(x-3)^2]/5 and it is harder to see what is going on that way.
Changing colors is also pretty easy.
and I can even add a smiley face, or in this case a reminder to wash your hands because the first week back to school is horribly full of germs. I am interested in coming back to this when I actually have a document to create so that I have more to try to do.
This table is very easy to navigate, I'd say it is even easier than Word. Very nice. Now to try posting this to my blog!
The next thing I want to try is different formatting.
I see that bold, italics and underline are easy to use. In fact the familiar shortcuts that I use with word are available for them as well, ctrl b, ctrl i, ctrl u. I see that the subscript and superscript are readily available. This is useful for writing math notations such as (x2-y2)2
Since I am a math person I like to check to see if writing out math equations is possible.
as you can see, very simple. There is a built in equation editor that is really easy to follow. This would make it possible for my students to share problems without looking odd. a fraction like this typed without an equation editor would look like this [-9(x-3)^2]/5 and it is harder to see what is going on that way.Changing colors is also pretty easy.
and I can even add a smiley face, or in this case a reminder to wash your hands because the first week back to school is horribly full of germs. I am interested in coming back to this when I actually have a document to create so that I have more to try to do. | Tables | are | fun |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 6 | 9 |
| -1 | 5 | -8 |
Week 7 Thing 17- Sandbox
I found that editing in the wiki was quite easy. I did want to add a new topic and found I couldn't do that. The new topic I would add is cell phones. I have found several pages recently talking about how you can use cell phones as a learning tool. I am not sure I am ready to jump in and let my students use theirs in class, but I am curious if anyone is. So, not being able to add a wiki about cell phones I added to the wiki on RSS feeds about finding a reader for your cell phone. It went very smoothly.
Week 7 Thing 16- Wikis
I glanced over several of the wiki links provided and then looked closer at a few of them. I do like the concept. I believe there are a lot of benefits to using a wiki with a classroom. It would be possible to collaborate on group projects, help each other find useful links, help each other understand difficult assignments and give general information to the class. The troubles I have with wikis are similar to other things we have covered. Just like the RSS feeds, if you don't check it, you don't see it. My students had an opportunity to use a website that isn't quite a wiki but a place where all the information they needed was stored. (Moodle) I found that unless their grade depended upon them visiting the site, they did not. There were some exceptions but for the most part it was an unused resource. I noticed that several of the wikis that were linked were outdated, some haven't been updated since 2007. The best practices for teachers wiki was last updated in May of 2009, of course this could be due to summer vacation.
For the last several years for my statistics class we gather some data from my students. I ask them the number of TV's and number of computers they have in their house. Last year was the first year that all students had at least one computer in their house. This is probably not true for many teachers and districts around the nation. But my class should be able to make good use of the computer to enhance our learning. However, even given that they had the access, most of my students still didn't use it. The next thing I will have to learn is how to encourage them to use what we have available.
For the last several years for my statistics class we gather some data from my students. I ask them the number of TV's and number of computers they have in their house. Last year was the first year that all students had at least one computer in their house. This is probably not true for many teachers and districts around the nation. But my class should be able to make good use of the computer to enhance our learning. However, even given that they had the access, most of my students still didn't use it. The next thing I will have to learn is how to encourage them to use what we have available.
Week 6 Thing 15- Future of Libraries
I read through a few of the articles linked. Some parts were very library specific and I felt at times that I was not in my comfort zone. There were some vocabulary words that are not commonly used in a math classroom. However, I did find that there were some interesting points made. In the article by Dr. Schultz she talks about a vision of where libraries are going. The description of what are libraries is similar to how I would describe classrooms. Some classes are still back in Classroom 1.0, but most are moving toward Classroom 2.0 where the students are a community of learners. This is similar to the idea of the library having the information and people coming to you to get it. In the article by Rick Anderson he mentions that one of the icebergs is the "come to us" model. I believe this is true for all educators. The more we can reach our students in their natural environments the better off we all will be.
In the Schultz article I liked reading about her vision of the Library 4.0. Complete with coffee and malt beverages. Upon reading that I realized that if my local library had a coffee cart and allowed me my latte indulgence while browsing the books I literally would spend hours there. I love going to a coffee shop to do my grading, meet with friends, catch up on homework, or just take in the smell. In the library the smell is dusty, no drinks allowed so I can't even bring my own. As overpriced as lattes and mochas are, I bet my local branch could bring in enough cash to open up on Mondays again. But this would require the librarians to be ok with books smelling like coffee and the screetching sound of steaming milk. Perhaps we aren't there yet.
The future of my classroom is already changing again. This year we have new books for our Algebra classes. The books themselves are not far from what we used when we were in school. We still get to solve for x. However, the books now come with a miriade of online materials. There are questions in the book that you can find worked out online if you get stuck and need another example. There are online quizzes and tutorials to make sure you are prepared for the exams. There are glosseries in other languages. Calculators and other demonstarations to help each student see the reasoning behind the answers. If you have a computer and a connection to the internet you may not even need your teacher anymore. I don't see the books themselves being replaced completely. Even just today I printed these articles to read because I couldn't focus well on the screen. It was mentioned in the articles themselves that the new libraries are not replacing the old, but integrating with them. Parts of life that we call "old school" are being included with the newer innovations.
I could probably write a two page article myself about all of the changes this 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 buzz is bringing about. There are many overlaps between the libraries future and the future of classrooms. Especially, in allowing patrons and students to contribute to the learning community. No longer is the librarian or teacher the sage on the hill that we come to see for learning, but more and more is a guide to the world of information available at your fingertips.
In the Schultz article I liked reading about her vision of the Library 4.0. Complete with coffee and malt beverages. Upon reading that I realized that if my local library had a coffee cart and allowed me my latte indulgence while browsing the books I literally would spend hours there. I love going to a coffee shop to do my grading, meet with friends, catch up on homework, or just take in the smell. In the library the smell is dusty, no drinks allowed so I can't even bring my own. As overpriced as lattes and mochas are, I bet my local branch could bring in enough cash to open up on Mondays again. But this would require the librarians to be ok with books smelling like coffee and the screetching sound of steaming milk. Perhaps we aren't there yet.
The future of my classroom is already changing again. This year we have new books for our Algebra classes. The books themselves are not far from what we used when we were in school. We still get to solve for x. However, the books now come with a miriade of online materials. There are questions in the book that you can find worked out online if you get stuck and need another example. There are online quizzes and tutorials to make sure you are prepared for the exams. There are glosseries in other languages. Calculators and other demonstarations to help each student see the reasoning behind the answers. If you have a computer and a connection to the internet you may not even need your teacher anymore. I don't see the books themselves being replaced completely. Even just today I printed these articles to read because I couldn't focus well on the screen. It was mentioned in the articles themselves that the new libraries are not replacing the old, but integrating with them. Parts of life that we call "old school" are being included with the newer innovations.
I could probably write a two page article myself about all of the changes this 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 buzz is bringing about. There are many overlaps between the libraries future and the future of classrooms. Especially, in allowing patrons and students to contribute to the learning community. No longer is the librarian or teacher the sage on the hill that we come to see for learning, but more and more is a guide to the world of information available at your fingertips.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Week 6 Thing 14 Technorati
I find that this site has too much information for me. Perhaps, I just need to spend some more time learning how to filter properly the results I am interested in. I have found that there are a lot of results that have little to do with what I am interested in. Even when I searched using the tags only I get a lot of results that seem extraneous. However, searching tags was likely to get me closer to what I wanted to find. I am not convinced that this tool will become as much a part of my technical life as the RSS reader has. Although, I could be surprised when I get back into looking for information. During summer vacation I do not spend much time looking things up. It probably doesn't help that I am currently away from my own computer and my own space and my nice internet connection. This means that I am at the mercy of the internet connections I can find while I am away and often have to wait a long time for the search results to load, only to be annoyed by the results I didn't want.
I like the concept of tagging sites, pictures etc so that I can find things I am looking for with less trouble. However, I do not like that some tags are used just to get you to a site that has nothing to do with anything I am interested in. This did not happen when I searched something very specific like School Library Learning 2.0, but instead when I did a broad search for things like education or math.
I like the concept of tagging sites, pictures etc so that I can find things I am looking for with less trouble. However, I do not like that some tags are used just to get you to a site that has nothing to do with anything I am interested in. This did not happen when I searched something very specific like School Library Learning 2.0, but instead when I did a broad search for things like education or math.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Week 6- Thing 13 Del.icio.us
I like the idea of having my bookmarks on any computer I use. I don't have a lot of sites that regularly want to visit, but for the few that I do this will be a good option for me. I am wondering if in my class I can encourage my students to use this to share with each other good sites for math tutoring. I am sure they would find plenty of other sites to share as well, but I could at least offer my profile for them to see what sites I have found. Although, I will likely have to make a separate profile for work vs home as I try to keep my personal life separate. I don't mind that my students know I play video games, but I would rather not have them find my bookmarks to the maps and guides. I did enjoy seeing the comments people were making about the bookmarked sites. When I am doing another research project this will be very useful. I also think this is something that my colleague next door would find helpful to use with her students. She teaches history and often I see her students in the lab finding new information and going projects. It seems to me that they could use this tool to consolidate efforts on finding good accurate information.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Week 5 Thing 12-Voice Thread
Although it was not specified to make a blog about this particular "thing", I am guessing that it is something we should plan to do for each of them. I enjoyed playing with Voice thread. It was fun to make a comment by phone. I could see this as a valuable tool for getting students to present work to the class in the form of problem solving. I like the ability to use multiple inputs to make comments and such. I also think that this would be a fun way to share things with family. I would love to have my parents talk about some of the old photographs of them so I can share that with my grandkids one day. Of course, this does imply that the threads would still be viewable then. I have a feeling they would be.
Week 5 Thing 11
When asked to find one award winning site to explore I ended up opening a bunch of them in new tabs and narrowing the field a bit. There were several that at least at first piqued my interest. I did find that I was very drawn toward the entertaining sites. I ended up trying Last.fm since I have been a pandora user before and this one got first, while pandora got second. The basic premise of both is the same. You tell the program a particular artist you enjoy listening to and the program devises songs that you may like based on that information. I really enjoy tools like pandora because I do not get out much and finding new artists to listen to is not something I normally do. The only option I brainstormed on how I can use this in my classroom or the library is to keep in touch with the younger generations musical tastes. It is a stretch I know. I have been known to play music in my classroom during work time but I have a feeling this site is blocked at school because most other streaming music is. I do like the music it has selected for me. I like that there is an app for my phone so I can use this on the go. I like the ease of use. The only negative I have found is that I don't think I can use this at school. However, since stress relief is an important aspect of my profession I know I can use this to help with that. I did glance at some of the other more education minded tools, but they didn't grab me right away as something I would use.
I signed up for a ning account awhile back when it was going to be used for our next textbook adoption, however, it wasn't used much so I haven't done much with that. I also have an account with http://education.ning.com/ but I haven't used this one either. I started a page here because some of my sorority sisters were interested in finding a way to keep in touch. I posted one thread which asked,"What would we do with a ning site?" intending to ask my sorority sisters what they wanted to do with this site. However, I got a lot of responses from random people about what I should do with my site.
I signed up for a ning account awhile back when it was going to be used for our next textbook adoption, however, it wasn't used much so I haven't done much with that. I also have an account with http://education.ning.com/ but I haven't used this one either. I started a page here because some of my sorority sisters were interested in finding a way to keep in touch. I posted one thread which asked,"What would we do with a ning site?" intending to ask my sorority sisters what they wanted to do with this site. However, I got a lot of responses from random people about what I should do with my site.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Week 5 Thing 10 (Long!)
I created this image at imagechef I used the arrow because in my class that arrow means implies. It was the only symbol I found that was math related.
fototrix was not as user friendly. I was able to create a picture but figuring out how to get the code was a pain. I ended up using the add image feature here in the blog and then had to rearrange my pictures. I also figured out if you change your uploaded picture it can change your posted picture here. After a day they put their pictures in. I am sure you can pay somewhere to "fix" that. Yesterday this picture was a dragon, today it is a naked man, who knows what it will be tomorrow.
The small image was made at BigHugeLabs.com there were some fun options there but I had to join them.
This one is from jellymuffin.com and is cute. They had a few other options as well.
Myspace Picture Generator I notice that their html code includes a link to their site for you.
Here is something from smilebox.com you have to pay to share without ads and to be able to print. They have options for subscriptions and you can pay as you go for some of their scrapbooks. I am going to continue to look for another site that does this digital scrapbooking as well for free. The ease of use is what you are paying for it seems.
fototrix was not as user friendly. I was able to create a picture but figuring out how to get the code was a pain. I ended up using the add image feature here in the blog and then had to rearrange my pictures. I also figured out if you change your uploaded picture it can change your posted picture here. After a day they put their pictures in. I am sure you can pay somewhere to "fix" that. Yesterday this picture was a dragon, today it is a naked man, who knows what it will be tomorrow.
The small image was made at BigHugeLabs.com there were some fun options there but I had to join them.This one is from jellymuffin.com and is cute. They had a few other options as well.
Myspace Picture Generator I notice that their html code includes a link to their site for you.
Here is something from smilebox.com you have to pay to share without ads and to be able to print. They have options for subscriptions and you can pay as you go for some of their scrapbooks. I am going to continue to look for another site that does this digital scrapbooking as well for free. The ease of use is what you are paying for it seems.
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| Make a Smilebox scrapbook |
Week 4 Thing 9
I probably spent way more time on this thing than I should have. I got curious enough that I signed up also for Bloglines. It helped that I discovered there are free RSS readers for my iPhone which will put my Google Reader and my Bloglines account in one place. I knew that if this wasn't connected to my phone I would not use it. I rarely check my email on my computer anymore, just my phone. So, realistically I wouldn't check my readers either. I have only just installed the application so I will have to update my iPhone post later once I figure out if I like it or not. As for searching for blogs here are some notes about what I found.
Blogdigger: When I searched 'math' only got ads from google and no blogs relating to what I wanted. For example the first result was top 13 American Idol from March 11, 2009. Not very useful.
BlogPulse: Searched CSLA 2.0 and got one related conversation, this doesn't seem that useful yet but I am willing to try it again sometime.
Google Blog Search: Found Raven About Web 2.0, searched math found several sites and gave suggestions for the best ones. I like this one best so far.
Bloglines Search: When I searched 'math' I got a lot of random posts, but under the matching feeds I found a few that seemed interesting. One was a video podcasting site about Algebra I, so I didn't link that to my RSS readers. I found another about math games online, so I subscribed to this one.
From Edublog: hard to see what would be interesting, since you only get a title you are judging each book by the cover. I don't have time to click on all of those to see what I would really be interested in.
Topix: Wow! Lots of distraction, would be easy to waste a day here. Several news items pop up automatically, similar to MSN or Yahoo! home pages. Search for math only gives news items so, not what I am looking for.
SYndic8: Only gives titles, judging books by covers again.
Technorati: You can change search paramaters but still gives a lot of junk unless I search for blogs instead of posts. Apparently, somewhere in this post, College Life: Beer Booze and Barfing, there is the word math. I didn't read it all to find out.
Blogdigger: When I searched 'math' only got ads from google and no blogs relating to what I wanted. For example the first result was top 13 American Idol from March 11, 2009. Not very useful.
BlogPulse: Searched CSLA 2.0 and got one related conversation, this doesn't seem that useful yet but I am willing to try it again sometime.
Google Blog Search: Found Raven About Web 2.0, searched math found several sites and gave suggestions for the best ones. I like this one best so far.
Bloglines Search: When I searched 'math' I got a lot of random posts, but under the matching feeds I found a few that seemed interesting. One was a video podcasting site about Algebra I, so I didn't link that to my RSS readers. I found another about math games online, so I subscribed to this one.
From Edublog: hard to see what would be interesting, since you only get a title you are judging each book by the cover. I don't have time to click on all of those to see what I would really be interested in.
Topix: Wow! Lots of distraction, would be easy to waste a day here. Several news items pop up automatically, similar to MSN or Yahoo! home pages. Search for math only gives news items so, not what I am looking for.
SYndic8: Only gives titles, judging books by covers again.
Technorati: You can change search paramaters but still gives a lot of junk unless I search for blogs instead of posts. Apparently, somewhere in this post, College Life: Beer Booze and Barfing, there is the word math. I didn't read it all to find out.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Week 4 Thing 8
I have not used any RSS feeds before. I decided to use Google Reader since I have been using other Google products. I found a few sites to subscribe to and made the mistake of clicking on the add staff picks link. It was impressive that in the 15 sites they subscribed me to I didn't find a single one that was interesting. I figure they are from a different era. So, I had to learn how to unsubscribe. You can unsubscribe each one individually, but I knew there had to be a better way and I found it. Manage your subscriptions allows you to massively unsubscribe, whew! I am hoping to find a subscription that will help me with creating math competitions. I like giving my students challenging non-routine questions but it is difficult and time consuming to find good ones. I found one site so far that seems to be close to what I am thinking about so I will continue searching. I also added some news sites and one on backpacking for variety. I found where I can share my feeds with contacts, but I am not certain I can share publically like you can with bloglines. I am hoping to get some good information and news.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Week 3 Thing 7
I love my iPhone. My family was talking about getting iPhones and sharing a plan. I wasn't sure I needed one. My cell phone was working fine for me, I don't text or anything so what do I need one for? At least this is how I thought until I got it. Now, I use the GPS feature to find my way around strange cities and states, I email photos taken with my phone back home when I am on vacation to keep my people in the loop, I can send and receive email from anywhere with cell phone reception to name a few things. The list goes on and on. I was recently in a class where were learning how to use some new technology, the latest calculators from Texas Instruments. There were a few times that we would want to do something but not know how, the instructor had only been using these calculators for a short while, it was very easy to use my phone to find solutions and how to guides.
The different applications allow me to do a lot of things I would not be doing otherwise. One of my apps allows me to keep track of my daily calorie intake to help keep me honest about what I am eating. I have word games that I can play when I am waiting in the airport or on a plane. I can find movies to watch and of course listen to music. Now that I have a "Smartphone" I can not see myself going back to a regular cell phone again. There are too many things this phone can do that I want to have available. I am sure that if there was some crazy disaster and all iPhone stopped working tomorrow I would survive, but I like it better with my phone. If even only for the calendar feature, since I never really kept an update calendar before.
The different applications allow me to do a lot of things I would not be doing otherwise. One of my apps allows me to keep track of my daily calorie intake to help keep me honest about what I am eating. I have word games that I can play when I am waiting in the airport or on a plane. I can find movies to watch and of course listen to music. Now that I have a "Smartphone" I can not see myself going back to a regular cell phone again. There are too many things this phone can do that I want to have available. I am sure that if there was some crazy disaster and all iPhone stopped working tomorrow I would survive, but I like it better with my phone. If even only for the calendar feature, since I never really kept an update calendar before.
Week 3 Thing 6
I tried out Flickr Color Pickr and Montagr
I found that the Montagr is a great idea but I had a lot of trouble getting it to use one of my own pictures. I would love to have something that is mine. I did find another site designamosaic.com that is very easy to use, but is not free. The smallest mosaic they have is $25. I am not interested in that either. I did a search and did find another place, PicArtia that will create a mosaic for you free, but the quality is low. You also do not get to use your own pictures in the mashup.
The Flickr Color Pickr was fun, but I am unsure where I would use it. I did notice that if you pick the same spot multiple times you get new results each time. Therefore, if you don't like the first options you get try again.
I found that the Montagr is a great idea but I had a lot of trouble getting it to use one of my own pictures. I would love to have something that is mine. I did find another site designamosaic.com that is very easy to use, but is not free. The smallest mosaic they have is $25. I am not interested in that either. I did a search and did find another place, PicArtia that will create a mosaic for you free, but the quality is low. You also do not get to use your own pictures in the mashup.
The Flickr Color Pickr was fun, but I am unsure where I would use it. I did notice that if you pick the same spot multiple times you get new results each time. Therefore, if you don't like the first options you get try again.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Week 3, Thing 5 -Rainbow
I took a picture I uploaded to Flickr and tried out some of the editing features. You can see that I added a border and made this look more like a painting than a picture. Many of the editing features are only available if you are a premium member, but the ones I chose are free.
Week 3 Thing 5
Since I am working on this course during the summer I am not on site at my school. However, being resourceful I did find a picture of our school library and proceeded with this assignment. I used the photo upload tool here on this site for this photo. It was relatively easy to do. The hardest part of this was finding a picture of our library! I am also going to post one from Flickr.
Monday, June 8, 2009
week two thing four
I am testing out emailing a blog. I figured it would be appropriate to
try this out on the part that asked me to email my blog. I am hoping
this works as easily as it seems. This way I could blog from my phone
in the airport and not fall behind on my schooling!
Wow! That worked fabulously and quickly too! I sent the email and it was nearly instantly available for me to view here. I wonder if my students ever do this while in my class... I could just see them posting about how excited they are to finally understand factoring, or something else ;)
try this out on the part that asked me to email my blog. I am hoping
this works as easily as it seems. This way I could blog from my phone
in the airport and not fall behind on my schooling!
Wow! That worked fabulously and quickly too! I sent the email and it was nearly instantly available for me to view here. I wonder if my students ever do this while in my class... I could just see them posting about how excited they are to finally understand factoring, or something else ;)
Week 2 thing 3
Creating my own blog was very straightforward. I like the look of the background and found a few things to change to suit my style. My daughter and I had a fabulous time creating the avatar. I did have a little trouble getting my avatar to show up as I had left the settings the default GIF and this site wants JPEG.
I noticed that there was a lot of content available for my avatar that I would not want my daughter using on an avatar for herself. She commented to me that she can't wait until she is old enough to have her own avatar and I just cringed. There were several outfits that were too risque for me to use professionally and this makes me wonder if using an avatar from this site would be useful in my classroom? I want to believe that my students would choose the right way to dress themselves, but I know that it would be easy for them to cross my line. I suppose it would be just like the dress code we adhere to at school and if they didn't follow it there would be sanctions.
I noticed that there was a lot of content available for my avatar that I would not want my daughter using on an avatar for herself. She commented to me that she can't wait until she is old enough to have her own avatar and I just cringed. There were several outfits that were too risque for me to use professionally and this makes me wonder if using an avatar from this site would be useful in my classroom? I want to believe that my students would choose the right way to dress themselves, but I know that it would be easy for them to cross my line. I suppose it would be just like the dress code we adhere to at school and if they didn't follow it there would be sanctions.
Week 1 Thing 2
I enjoyed watching the presentation about lifelong learning. It was especially nice to watch it with my daughter in my lap. She called out after each of the 7.5 habits that she did that or this or whatever. Coming from a family of educators many of the habits seem to be ingrained in my world. So figuring out which trait is my strongest is difficult. However, it was easier for me to figure out which was my weakest. Viewing problems as challenges has been something I have been working on for as long as I can remember. I do well in a crisis, but tend to over think and over stress about the day to day challenges that come my way. If I had to choose a habit that is my strongest it would come down to either accepting responsibility for my learning or teaching others. I love to teach, I try to teach someone something everyday. However, I also love to learn and also try to learn something new everyday. Since teaching others can be part of taking responsibility for my learning if I was forced to choose I would choose taking responsibility as my strongest habit.
Week 1 Thing 1
Reflecting on what I read about this course I am hoping to learn some new skills to be used with my classroom, specifically to facilitate learning better. I want my students to be more self reliant about their learning and to become better students in the process. I have high hopes for what this course can show me. Since I am not a school librarian, I am not a member of AKASL However, it does appear that this course is laid out to be useful to classroom teachers as well as librarians. I am finding that blogging here is very easy to do, but difficult to find what to say.
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