KathyK’s Edublog

After unsuccessfully trying to record with a microphone on two computers at home, and two at school, I am unable to record my last message. I have used all my phone minutes and will not purchase any.

Therefore, I am including the text of my Voicethread for the second slide here:

“I have been introduced to so many valuable tools that it’s difficult to choose just one or two! The tool that I have used the most, and will continue to use, is Del.icio.us. I love that I can view my tagged sites from any computer. The other great thing about Delicious is that I can view and add other peoples’ sites with the same tag. This is a much more efficient search tool than just ‘googling’, because these sites are already reviewed and approved! My second favorite tool is Pageflakes, which I have chosen for my homepage. It has all the resources I need on one page. I really love the fact that it is customizable, and again, available on any computer. Pageflakes ties together all we learned about RSS feeds, widgets, and organizing webpages.”

My Mothers Day present to me is to take time to finish the last two “Things.” I am basically done–just have to rerecord my comments, as I don’t have a picture attached to my VoiceThread. I’m out of phone minutes, so I’ll have to use my husband’s laptop to record since we can’t seem to get a microphone to work on my PC. Ah…technology!

I have learned so much through this course, and am empowered with so many useful Web2.0 tools! Initially, I explored and reviewed tools as if I were continuing in my current teaching position. Now that I have a better idea of what I plan to do as a teacher–begin my own business as an educational consultant to home-schooling groups–I have a new outlook on these tools. I’m looking at them as a way to develop curriculum, organize, and advertise my business.

I really wanted to share what I learned with my colleagues at school this year, but they weren’t very receptive. When one asked if she should take the course over the summer, I enthusiastically recommended it. I hope she will implement the tools in the fall with the incoming fifth graders.

I hope to continue this Edublog as I move in this new direction. I hope to also be able to connect with other teachers who are “freelancers.” The world is changing, education is changing, and I’m determined to keep up with it!

Schools and school districts prohibit the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace for good reason. Although about half of youngsters who use the sites frequently  chat about or post school work, much of their time is spent downloading and uploading music and videos. See the executive summary of the excellent study,  Creating and Connecting. Monitoring whether students are illegally sharing copyrighted material on school computers seems virtually impossible. I am strongly opposed to this type of activity, which is all too common among children and adults. I’m amazed at the cavalier attitude of teachers who think nothing of using illegally copied CDs, videos, and software!

While we can’t control what students do at home, we can restrict what they do at school. Schools can and should encourage social networking on an approved safe, legal venue. Whether the network is within the school or worldwide, the educational value of networking is enormous.

Ning’s Classroom 2.o  is a relatively new social networking site that has great potential. It’s a great way to share teaching ideas, review and troubleshoot technology, and just connect with other educators in your field. I have never heard of this site before, so hopefully more schools will consider recommending it to their teachers and staff.

I searched for home school groups, educational consultants, and tutors, and came up empty. So far, there are no networks covering these areas within Ning. This is now the area to which I am moving, so I will search other social networking sites to find such groups.

Pageflakes is a Web 2.0 tool that I will definitely use in my professional practice. There is seemingly an infinite number of “flakes” available. I had great fun setting up my page, and it will certainly evolve even as my career is evolving. I will not be returning to my current position next school year in order to find employment closer to home. A colleague pitched an idea to me that I intend to pursue: educational consultant to home-school groups.

As a consulting educator, I could provide enrichment curriculum to home-schoolers. My passion has always been developing interesting and engaging curriculum, and this just could be my outlet for that.

So where does Pageflakes fit in? I can create pages for each group I work with, or create pages for each unit I teach. One unit that would lend itself perfectly to Pageflakes is Environmental Education, an area I have been heavily involved in with my current position. I can embed different news feeds, videos, and blogs related to various aspects of this topic.

As with many other tools we have explored in this course, Pageflakes can be accessed from any computer simply by logging on. This way I can pull up the page from my own or a client’s computer. I can share the page, posting instructions to students on a notepad flake.

I only encountered one problem with Pageflakes. It sometimes wanted to default to the Little Rock, Arkansas, location, and I had to change settings again. I couldn’t find a history of revisions tab so I could revert to a previous setting that I liked. So I wasted a bit of time reinstalling feeds a couple of times. But I definitely recommend this tool to anyone who would like everything accessible from one page. It is now my homepage when I pull up the internet!

The tools available in Google Docs are easy to use, but a bit basic. If I wanted to put more pizazz into a presentation, I would choose Power Point or a similar program. I created a simple 3-slide presentation illustrating the idiom “Who let the cat out of the bag?” There doesn’t seem to be a way to make slide transitions. However, you can upload an existing Power Point presentation into Google Docs. I uploaded my webquest about American westward expansion. The navigation buttons do not work, but the links to outside websites do. Since this document doesn’t feature transitions, I uploaded one that I knew did, and the transitions didn’t play. So if you want bells and whistles, Google Docs is not the program for you.

I also explored the features of the word processor in my document “Playing With Google Docs.” This tool seems adequate for basic applications.

The best features of Google Docs are that it is collaborative, is available from any computer with an internet connection, and users can view revisions.

I could use this program to:

• Create surveys for my students
• Make a class presentation where groups or pairs create a slide together
• Create a continuing story that students can revise and edit

Here is a link to one of my favorite cartoons, Zits. Yesterday’s installment, April 27, 2008, is about frustration with the new technology, and I can totally relate!

YouTube is the ultimate video sharing site, and if you know how to search, a great resource for teaching materials. I had fun searching for videos I could use in teaching about the Civil War, and in teaching idioms. For an instructional video, I chose one that showed how to take digital pictures of pets. The just-for-fun video I found was of a toddler eating ice cream in fast motion.

TeacherTube is superior as far as teaching materials is concerned. The content is safe, and is oriented toward education. I found many videos made by students. I would love to have my students explain the causes of the Civil War using photographs and their own illustrations. Another idea is for them to act out idioms. I found a couple of videos like this, and I think fifth graders could get very creative and do a fine job.

My favorite video is this one, which shows how not to use PowerPoint:

Download Video: Posted by jmcmahon at TeacherTube.com.

The best way to search if you don’t have a subject in mind is to look at the highest rated videos, which is how I found that one.

Using Evoca, I created my very own podcast! You can listen to it below:

My husband and I spent a frustrating hour trying to get a microphone to work. Again, technical difficulties are a major reason why I avoid doing things like this. I have an older computer, so I guess it’s time to upgrade. I finally called in my podcast on my telephone, which worked great! On the Evoca site, I was able to edit my recording, assigning tags, adding a picture, and making the podcast public.

I would recommend Evoca as an easy to use tool for recording podcasts (especially if your microphone works)!

I have listened to podcasts before, and have iTunes already downloaded on my computer. I just downloaded the latest version of iTunes, and have had difficulty launching it. Technical glitches really do frustrate me at times!

The sites I viewed to find podcasts were Educational Podcast Network and Learn Out Loud. From the first site I subscribed to two feeds that I added to my Google Reader. One is a geography and travel lecture, and the other is lectures on the Revolutionary War. Learn Out Loud didn’t seem to have any subscription options. I found some interesting history lectures and primary sources, but they were single recordings. I also subscribed to Wired Science from PBS through iTunes (not available through Google). I prefer Google because iTunes launches through a separate connection from Firefox.

I don’t think I would use podcasts in my teaching. It is difficult to find anything relevant for fifth graders. Maybe I’m just not searching far enough. The only thing I would find useful would be primary sources for history, and they are available as documents rather than as podcasts generally.

43 Things is a site I can do without. I can see its merit, but it isn’t for me. This is one of those places you can spend way too much time on. I entered several practice goals, chief of which is “spend less time on the computer.” The number of others who chose that goal was zero. However, when I searched goals using the tags less, time, computer, I saw there were over 25,000 goals that included these words. Different people word goals in different ways.

I think this site would be helpful for those who need cheering for their goals. I find that I can accomplish my goals if I really want to do them. For example, I lost 45 lbs. last year and have kept them off. I really worked at it, and didn’t do it for anyone but myself.

As far as cheering others goes, I prefer to encourage those I have a personal connection to rather than perfect strangers on the internet. That means so much more.

I doubt I would use this site in teaching, as some material is inappropriate for children. It would be better to set up a similar forum within the class instead.