Thing #12

Pictures in the slide show are used under Creative Commons Agreement from The Lizard Queen, doug88888, jonrawlinson, and exfordy.

As stated in an earlier post, I chose to search for pictures of elephants because my three year old has stated multiple times that he is going to be an elephant when he grows up. I've also embedded this slide show in my wikispace.

Thing #11

Flickr was really interesting. I have received numerous emails from friends, sending me pictures of their children through Flickr. I never considered all of the multiple educational applications (beyond help with slide shows, anyway) for Flickr. Of all of the educational ideas listed by David Jakes, I was most intrigued by using Flickr images to stimulate creative writing and illustrate poetry. I also thought that using it with Google Earth to teach Geography sounded fun. I also enjoyed the idea put forth by Teacher Dude to teach vocabulary differences using images from Flickr; however, I thought it might prove fairly time-consuming overall to find images to represent certain vocabulary, unless the person posting the picture had decided to tag it with that descriptor.

I did a search in the CC Flicker database for pictures of elephants. I figured I'd better learn as much as I can about them, since my three year old has told me that he is going to be an elephant when he grows up. The picture from doug88888 (above) was interesting. I will create an elephant slide show in my wikispace later. I'm sure my son will enjoy it.

Thing #9

This was by far the most frustrating task for me. I had to try things over and over and finally had to use some of the tools in my toolbox (e.g. family members) to help me figure it out. Since I am a very independent-natured soul, this went against the grain. But, I got through it, and am no longer as frustrated with using and editing Wikis. There was a bit of a scary moment when I thought I had replaced the heading of the "Sites We Like" page with an external link to one of my favorite sites! But, all's well that ends well...it really is a powerful collaboration tool. I'm looking forward to adding content to my wiki site. Onward and upward to the future!

Creative Commons-Thing #10

Creative Commons is a significant refinement of Copyright. I've never really noticed it on a website before, but I often wondered about using others' content from the web, and how that would work. Now I know. I am really excited about OER and the possibilities of using it to enrich lessons with students. The face of education is truly changing, driven by technology. Up to this point, I have not shared information from the web in any of my presentations, largely because I wasn't sure how ownership of materials worked for Web content. The significant concern I have about Creative Commons is that you do have to trust others to credit you or cite their source to some extent, and some people may not be doing that. Creative Commons, and the use of content with this designation, will have a significant impact on my future instructional lessons.

Thing #8

Wikis are amazing! It's like a whole other world of possibilities. I found so many of the wikis interesting. I love the natural incorporation of editing, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis. I also think the focus on collaboration and forming a group consensus through interchange of ideas and/or compromise is so needed. I found the 1000 project wiki heartwarming. It seemed simple, but so relevant in its organization. I was a little overwhelmed with the Holocaust site, and had difficulty understanding how the project was supposed to work at first. I absolutely loved the creativity inherent in the 1001 tales wikispace. I also loved the fictitious code blue clinic site for mastering biology content. I was inspired by the CoolCatTeacher's blog about her first Wiki experience and how it evolved so quickly into an interactive student study hall.

I'm still struggling with how to apply it with my students, whose 30 minute sessions revolve around articulation/speech and communication goals. My focus with the students is more oral, rather than written. However, one of the ideas I read about in my 'meanderings' related to creating a collaborative story using vocabulary or spelling words for the week. This could address so many areas of difficulty with my language disordered students. I have also been finding more speech language pathology websites which provide activities to improve students' language and articulation skills. Slowly, but surely, I will figure out how to effectively implement these tools with my students!

Thing #7

I have really realized in this activity the importance of commenting. I'm not fully comfortable with it yet, but really think we need to thank each other at the very least for our contributions. I do agree with the Blue Skunk Blog that it should be relevant, meaningful and heartfelt. I think for these Web 2.0 tools to bring people together, there does have to be dialogue. This activity has helped me realize how empowering it can be to use these tools, and fully understand that everyone can have a voice in the blogosphere.

Thing #6

I became completely lost yesterday in my RSS Aggregator, and finally had to force myself to stop reading (at about 12:30) and go to sleep! I kept some of the original blogs in my reader, and found some extremely helpful and useful ones to add. I found an excellent Augmentative Communication blog with great websites and free tools to use with nonverbal students. I've already shared the blog address with my PPCD teachers on my campus. I'm going to take some time this weekend to look at specific posts more completely, to help me plan my lessons for these students. I was mesmerized, as always, by Cool Cat Teacher's blog, and used her blog roll to find a fellow Texan's blog. Finally, because, with a family of five, plus two dogs, my house is always a disaster area, I found a housekeeping blog to follow. I much prefer cooking and baking to cleaning. Oh, for a live in maid...All in all, it was a very productive, informative, and fun time!

Doing More with Less Thing #5

The RSS Aggregator is an incredibly powerful, free tool. As I scrolled through multiple articles, and listened to some wonderful podcasts, I was thinking about the amazing possibilities. All of this knowledge at our fingertips. We as a society are able to do so much more, using less time, because of technology.

So many of the articles from the NYT RSS feed related to developments in the economy. They all reinforced the idea of people learning to do more with less, whether it relates to managing their work with less time at the workplace, budgeting differently, growing their own food, and otherwise creatively trying to meet the financial challenges of the current recession. The internet, and all of the Web 2.0 tools, are amazing, free tools to help us as we acquire new information, share ideas with parents and colleagues, and organize our lives and careers, and enrich our students lives and learning experiences using online tools, applications, and activities.