Final Thoughts on the 23 Things...

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I definitely enjoyed learning about podcasts, how to use html editors, how to use audacity, and just generally my much better understanding and confidence in working with all of this stuff. Also the Animoto thing was pretty cool.

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?

I am MUCH more likely to use the Web 2.0 features than I was before. (of course the probability was approximately zero before this course so I had nowhere to go but up.) I actually feel comfortable diving into new "tech stuff" now and feel like I can hold my own in a worked that was in danger of passing me by. Gosh, this stuff is still overwhelming, but I feel I have a fighting chance now.

• Are there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Using online documents is cool. I could see that coming in handy. I want to try some Webquests. The thing is that this is all so new to me that all outcomes were unexpected. I look back at how I felt about this a few months ago, and I am amazed at how far I have come.

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

It was way too much work compared to other 3 hour college classes. Make some allowances for those without Macs and take into consideration that people working a full time job and having families don't benefit from staying up until 2:00 a.m. working on Zoho. Neither do the students they have to teach the next day.

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?

I have already used some of the things I have found on here in my class. I feel like I keep harping on this, but I had ZERO chance of taking advantage of any of this stuff before this class. Now I am using things, and definitely feel much more comfortable with my chances of learning and using whatever wild new things that will surely come down the pike in the years to come.

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.

I may look at these blogs from time to time. I hope that I can stay in touch online with some of you. I am so busy I will need that kind of support if I am to learn about new computer stuff. I still don't see myself as a person who would choose to spend my little free time wandering around on the computer. Blogs are good for folks like me. I can let others discover things whereas I can just read these summaries.

Thank you to all who organized this. I really learned a lot. Really! It was unpleasant at times, and required a lot of cigarettes (and I'm not even a smoker), coffee, and ibuprofin, but I still learned.

THANK GOD I'M DONE WITH THE 23 THINGS!!!!!!!

Happyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy!!!!!!

Is it summer yet?

Thing #23

I had noticed this earlier, but honestly failed to realize its significance. This whole project is an example of someone else's work being modified from its original form.
*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

I plan on using the excellent "A Fair(y) Use Tale" copyright law video from " The 23 Things" in my class as well as the tutorial I am developing for another assignment in my class. I was frighteningly ignorant about all this. I admit I am flabbergasted. I feel certain that my students are as in the dark as I was about this issue. I know they will benefit from a better understanding of copyright law. I am sure that whatever future classes they take, they will be expected to conform to these rules, and I hate to think how naive most people are in this area. With the growth in computer power and the ease of copying intellectual property, it is becoming more and more important that these rights are understood and respected.

Thing #22

PODCASTS!
Here are my two favorite podcasts:
The Mathgrad Podcast
The One Minute How To

I found these in Podcast Alley, the podcast directory with which I had the most success. I have recommended both to my classes and friends as they are both applicable of my curriculum and interesting enough to be worth a listen for anyone. This directory was the easiest for me to search and seemed to have more interesting topics to me.

The first, "Mathgrad"discusses famous math topics in everyday language. I like the way it models explaining difficult abstract concepts in terms anyone can understand

"The One Minute How To",follows up on the idea of explaining complex processes in a orderly concise manner. The gimmick of the podcast is that experts explain something in only one minute. This forces them to be very economical with words in much the same dense, terse manner of the mathematical proofs we do in class. Many of these are quite fascinating. It is surprising ow much one can explain in a minute.

I have subscribed to both of these and plan to listen to them in class regularly. I have already discussed my idea that I am kicking around about creating a podcast in which students pick an ACT problem and explain it in one minute or less. I have so much to do right now. I am not sure when I will implement this though. APSU keeps me swamped!

Thing #21

Wow! I am amazed how easy and fun Animoto was. I am beginning to be amazed at how much more comfortable I am becoming with all of this stuff. It's still not my cup of tea, mind you, but its getting easier. Making this video was easy, but only because I am so used to manipulating picture files and all of this other stuff we have been learning. I could definitely see how students could enjoy seeing a video such as this made of say pictures of projects or things we did during a semester. My parents are in town, and I think they may enjoy this with the grandkids pictures and such!

Thing #20

Youtube! I found a cool video telling how to embed videos. I thought it would be good practice to try to embed this video. If anyone else in the class has not done this yet and is reading my blog, I hope this is helpful. I had already looked at youtube many times to watch old jazz performances and just mess around. This is the first time I ever took the time to join though. Now that I have joined and know how to embed videos, I may actually be able to use this in my class. No, wait. Youtube is blocked by my school. Scratch that. I can, however, use this already to collaborate with other educators through this blog.

Thing #19

Teacherpop Ning:

I signed up for an account on the specialized social network teacherpop. It was not too difficult. Unlike other social networks I have explored, there is a wait period while the administration of the site approves ones application for membership. This makes me feel a little more secure. I have had some paranoia about Myspace, the reasons for which involve a bad experience another teacher at my school had that I described in an earlier post here. Plus the fact that our administration says, (and I'm paraphrasing here), "DO NOT HAVE A MYSPACE!!!" Anyway, the wait period made me feel better. I don't know how effective whatever administrative check they do will be at eliminating abuses, but it made me feel better none the less. I posted a reply to a post by my instructor, Dr. Wall at APSU in which she asks people to post lesson ideas for using Web 2.0 tools. My post did not appear right away so I'm not sure it made it. I did come up with an interesting idea though, I think. I will paste it here so at least someone will read it sometime hopefully.:
I was intrigued by a Podcast I found "The One Minute How to" . In this podcast, various experts explain how do do anything form how to wax cross country skis to how to find a publisher to how to file a tax extension. The gimmick is that they must do this in less than 60 seconds. I was thinking about a one minute how to that students could do on ACT problems. I think the students would find it exciting and interesting to work within the strict time requirement and would develop organization, and verbal communication skills as they attempt to develop an explanation that fits with in the time limit. I have always read that one of the main characteristics of good business communication is that it must be concise. Assigning students to look through an ACT preparation booklet, pick a problem, and produce a 60 second or less Podcast would serve many useful educational purposes. Obviously it helps them review for the ACT. It gets them comfortable with technology. It forces them to think about not just the solution but also how to explain the reasoning. Finally it develops communication skills that will be valuable to them and to the company or organization they end up working for. If social networking sites were involved with this or bookmarking, one could get other students around the country involved and soon there would be a wealth of resources available. What a good "warm up" it would be to put up an ACT problem on the computer projector screen, have the students spend 5 minutes on it and then listen to the 60 second podcast. In less than ten minutes I could do my roll, take care of other clerical duties and have a meaningful engaging warm up for class. If there were lots of these out there bookmarked, it would be almost effortless to set this up each day.
It took me a while to find the tiny "get badge" button at the bottom right, but putting it on my blogger was easy once I did so. I can't believe that I am beginning to kind of understand what html code is and where to paste it and what it does. I'm learning a lot form this class. I still would rather be outside doing something fun though.

Thing #18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcpTCKOzJjA
A cool Youtube video I found on Myspace

Social Networking... Myspace...
Educators need to know about these because they have become so important to our culture. Young people in particular seem to be very in tune with these sites, and they are our business. . I was uncomfortable as I expected I would be with the idea of students being around sites like this. I was able to find an old friend on there who has a band in Hopkinsville, KY ("Black Cat Cadillacs" in case anyone is up there and interested.) Still, even this myspace had things on there that were not appropriate for students. There seem to be just too many dangers with these types of sites. I do not see any good use of them in the classroom. A teacher at our school had a myspace page made about him, by students without his knowledge. Many inappropriate pictures and words were placed right under his name. Because of this, all teachers at our school were required to search around to make sure we didn't have such a site about us. I have been paranoid about these ever since. I don't feel comfortable putting my real name out there. Teachers need to be aware of these sites if for no other reason than to guard against abuses like the one described above. I would like to see such a site with improved security features if such a thing is possible.

I'll be honest...this is just not my idea of fun.

Thing #17

Del.icio.us!

Boy! This has been an eye opener. I have often had the feeling that there was waaaaay more happening on the web than I was aware of. Watching these tutorial videos, I really began to have a strange mix of emotions. I was fascinated and a little awe struck by how much stuff is going on out there on the web that I have had and still have NO IDEA about. This was mixed with a whole lot of apathy toward the situation as well. Honestly, I am left feeling a little overwhelmed and inadequate for being so unaware of so much. I loved the concept of harnessing collective intelligence. I really think that the web has already provided and will continue to provide more useful information than any person can ever digest. What is needed most then is an ability to filter out the best information for ones one particular purposes. This is spot on what social bookmarking is all about. I began by typing in some interests I have in this area beginning with outdoors. I began following alternate tags set by other people and ended up finding out about a great place to go mountain biking, Lehigh Gorge in Pennsylvania pictured above. I can foresee many applications of this network. Research could be revolutionized. The more people spend time working with these sites, and the better the user gets at finding other users and tags with similar priorities, the more luck we will have hooking up with the information we need.it is easy to envision how making research more efficient could stimulate and motivate today's students to explore in ways that were impossible to us older folks. I honestly don't understand how people find time in the day to keep abreast with all of this stuff. I feel swamped most of the time. I'll bet that as one becomes better and better at using these networking tools, a snowball effect begins to take place where ones online contacts begin to do much of this staying caught up business for us.

Thing #16

Online Productivity! I chose the Google startup page because I normally start searching with Google and I'm comfortable with the site. I have made it my homepage. Why not? I created a Google online calendar, and found it to be excessively complicated compared to the paper and pencil , but I did decide to have the students in my Mu Alpha Theta club use this feature. It has the advantages of being "Technologyish", which will appeal to the students, plus it can be accessed by all club members. I really plan to pass on much more of the organizational responsibilities to the students next year. They will get more out of the club that way and I'm way too busy! I did put a ToDo list right on my custom homepage. That has already come in handy. I really recommend this homepage idea with the to do list and local weather and personal interests and all. I plan on figuring out how to get my kids sports schedules linked directly on there. I see no reason why anyone could not get some benefit from this.

Thing #15

Exploring Wikis:
I have been exploring some recommended wiki sites with mixed results. I have been interested in reading across the curriculum lately due to some reading that I have been doing in connection with a paper I am writing as well as due to conversations this has sparked with colleagues. I thought I would explore some of the book/ library focused wikis to see if I could develop some good reading recommendations for my students. I know there is great stuff to read out there and I know I have several students that love to read. It is a shame we don't do a better job bringing those two groups together.
I found that the Booklovers wiki is mainly old stuff published a few years ago to document a summer reading from Princeton University. I guess it is human nature, but I was turned off by the fact that most entries were years old. The point of a wiki is to be new and up to date. I think students will agree and be more likely to use and get excited about wikis with recent activity. Teacherlibrarian wiki had some more up to date stuff and some good booklists.
Then I looked at Welkerswikinomics and found some cool stuff that could apply to my calculus class such as the page at the following link.: http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Price+Elasticity+of+Supply
There are many other cool applications of slope and reading graphs such as this in there.
I selected my Zoho slideshow to post into the APSU 23 things sandbox Wiki. I am comfortable enough now with all of this that it was straight forward. I EVEN USED THE HTML EDITOR TO PUT IN THE ACTUAL SLIDESHOW! I never could have done that before this Educational Technology class I'm in!
I have been using Wikis in my class as a general resource for some time now. They are a handy reference if one needs to know the formula for the volume of a sphere or something like that. They come up on Google automatically. Wikipedia is well known. I enjoyed looking at the other wikis I found during this assignment. I see now that they have much more potential than as mere quick reference tools.

Thing #14

My Bubbl.us brainstorm. Planning a field trip contest.


My Gliffy Factoring Flow Chart.

I'll be honest. I selected these two services to sign up for because they were the first of each type listed by my instructor. I was to explore and test flow chart producer and a brainstorm producer. I could readily see the advantages of each. The flow chart is much more flexible and able to produce many cross links and interesting designs. The brainstorm has much less flexibility. The new bubbles are created automatically with the press of a button and do not need to be drawn in like the ones in the flow chart. This gives speed in exchange for the power to fully customize. As the name implies, the brainstorm allows one to move rapidly from idea to idea without taking time to switch from the bubble tool to the line tool. One can focus ones efforts on the ideas being explored rather than the design. The flow chart is far better for considering the audience and adjusting the organization and appearance accordingly. I must say I enjoyed the fast pace of the brainstormer and would probably use the brain stormer as a kind of"prewriting" to produce my next flowchart. I will definitely show the Field trip flow chart to the other members of my department to help finalize plans for this year's contest and to make adjustments in how we plan and implement next year. This is fine since all my fellow math dept. members have a basic understanding of what the contest is about and just need reminders and a basic, easily modified layout to keep us on track and possibly to spark ideas about how to improve our process. I think the flowchart maker would be good for students to use to create documents for their own use as well as projects to present to the class. Making the chart about factoring really made me think about the process involve. I know students would benefit from the planning and thought involved in creating one of these

Thing #13

MY ZOHO SLIDE SHOW!!!

Above is a link to my Zoho online document. I created this in about an hour and a half and ran into surprisingly few difficulties for once. My first problem was when I tried to choose from among the many options of backgrounds and styles. I was impressed by the variety in this free service. Then things went smoothly until I tried to insert a picture. On my old clunky computer, the bottom part of the page is hidden and you cant "grab" the screen and move it up. Anyway, I am no techno expert and I could not see the "upload image" command at the bottom of the "insert image" screen. I could not figure out how to put my pictures into the slide show for a few minutes and finally had to "hide" my toolbars under the view menu of mozilla to be able to see the "upload image" button. Also I could not find a drawing tool like in Microsoft Powerpoint. One could easily overcome this by creating drawings elsewhere and uploading them, but it was a little clunky for this reason. I am tired from a long day of teaching and everything else (3 kids, 2 sports, etc.) and I still managed to create something with not too much misery. OK, I lied. It was roughly 62% misery, but only because I'm so tired. I could see the advantages of this for easily producing something viewable for a large number of students, colleagues, or any large group you didn't feel like sending an email to with a file attachment.