"Have some fun discovering and exploring some of these neat little apps, but be careful. Playing with these tools can be habit-forming. You may discover that you have a new hobby!"OK. While I can see some practical applications that can be utilized within my classroom, this is far from a hobby for me. Gardening...now there's a hobby. Or the guitar. Or the banjo. The piano. Backpacking. Photography. Those are my hobbies. Yes, there are some neat pictures and things you can do with Flickr. For example, I used Retrievr by System One Labs and sketched an ellipse and it generated several examples of real life ellipses, such as the girl with the hula hoop above. This would be a good assignment for some of my Algebra II students when we cover conic sections in class. They enjoy seeing how conic sections appear in everyday life.
However, sitting in front of this computer is not a hobby for me. I want to be outside so bad I can hardly stand it! (Maybe I'm ADHD. My mother thinks so.) Technology is what I call a necessary evil. I understand the need to be fluent, but it in no way, shape, form, or fashion falls under the umbrella of what I consider "fun". Surfing the Internet is laborious to me. I could throw my TV and computer out the front door and never miss either one. (However, take away my ipod and I'd probably cry. Best darn invention since the wheel.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that the linear and nonlinear power points were much more applicable for the subjects I teach. Those are something I will use. To be honest, I don't know that I will ever explore Flickr again after this class. I'd rather be somewhere taking a picture instead of looking through someone else's. I don't see anything wrong with publishing pictures on the Internet, but it's just not what I want to spend my time looking at.
The above image of my name was made with Spell by Flickr. My daughter thinks this is "ultra-cool".
No comments:
Post a Comment