Thing #7 - Explore Flickr

Flickr is an amazing. It is frustrating as well. As I feel I am computer literate and I felt like I explored enough of Flickr, I know I have barely scratched the surface as I ran into a few problems that took some time to work my way out of! It is actually an answer to a project I have this summer. I had planned to back up and organize all the pictures I have taken over the last 4 years. Since I have a recent graduate I don't want to loose any of those memories. So definitely has a personal use!! I think this project will give me the extra practice that I need. As for school use -- I can see having my students take random pictures and upload to a class set. From there they can download pictures to use in practically any type of writing.

Many of my family members use the Koday Gallery to share pictures since we all live at a great distance from each other but that is all that I have done is use it to upload pictures I wanted to share. I haven't stored any there even though I could. I think Flickr is a lot easier to use and I plan to explore even deeper when I have time.

Listing my pictures as public - I am not comfortable with! I don't think I will post any more pictures as public. Most of my pictures are personal and aren't needed for public display. Now I don't mind sharing with family and friends and I have no problem with posting pictures as public when it is a "generic" picture like the one I am uploading here.

Thing #6 - Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

In this exercise can I say I had difficulty from the first! Pick a site to explore - right I didn't even know where to begin!! So I did a quick view in each of the category that I was interested in. Problem 2 - several things were interesting! In the education category I chose .docstoc to explore. This is a place where people can store documents that they want to share with others. There is a section for education and then you choose the level you want. Some are documents and others are powerpoints. I thought this was a great idea because we are busy enough, why should we reinvent the wheel everyday. It was easy to move through the site and easy to download. I felt teachers can use this site to find resource to use in school. Students can use this site to find information for a project they are working on.

Thing #5 - Web 2.0 and School 2.0

In education for too many years to count now, the push has been for a shift in the classroom from the teacher teaching and the students reflecting the teaching as stated in More on School 2.0 to where learning is student driven. Well that is what has happening to the internet. The shift has been made from just going to the internet to get information (Web 1.0) to going to the web (Web 2.0) and being invited to become active participants in learning and perpetuating learning. So as a classroom teacher we need to utilize this powerful tool. Life is not stagnant, it is continuing to grow and change. I do not see a regression in the use of technology ever coming and for our students the necessary use of technology and the internet is their future. We ourselves as educators have to acquire new knowledge and skills on a continuous basis to keep up and to prepare for the future. It is the future.
I think after completing Thing #5 I finally have down how to approach learning and how this will work best for me. I complete the lesson and my posting and then I read everyone else's posting on the same thing as I just completed. Isn't this what School 2.0 is all about, exploring and learning the way that works best for you?!

Thing #4 - Commenting is important

My first approach as everyone is getting involved in participating in 23 Things is to first read what others have commented on for the next thing I am working on. I think approaching it this way gives me some background knowledge before learning. The process of blogging and commenting puts you out there. I am more of a watcher that one who "wears their heart on a sleeve" about everything. I only get on my "soapbox" when there is something I am very passionate about. Posting and commenting allow me to be who I am. Blogging in my opinion is a safer way to express your thought and opinions as is it not a face to face and will give people the opportunity to develop skills in expressing their thought and opinions. Msmusicteacher (MMS Notes) really made me think twice about blogging and commenting and I commented on this posting. Do I really want someone to comment? Do I really want to be noticed? That is a scary thought at first but then how do I not get better if I don't get feedback from others. People who are reading my postings are doing so because they are interested in the same thing I am and want to learn something new just as I do. So far there are some ideas I haven't thought of that I have learned from other postings. (Comments to come). This is how posting and commenting create a community.
In the blog How to Comment like a king (or queen) 2 points I felt were very powerful and important. The first one was #6 - teach commenting. If we are going to use this with our students this is one of the first skills we need to teach, model, and practice before letting students loose. #7 - Remember the power of words is also very important. We have all said the old saying -"sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me" and we all know how untrue that is! If we use blogging and commenting with our students we need to teach them how to properly comment and choose words that build and not hurt.
Although I read all of the suggested blogs about commenting and they all had important advice. I felt that this one statement in Edublogger Etiquette - Responding to Comments - "Are you listening to the voice of your readers or do they really have no voice?" was so powerful. We always have to make sure as teachers that we listen to our students. When we post something we need to "listen" to the comments posted this will help us grow as well and validate and help the person who posted the comment grow.

I posted a comment on 23 Things because I totally agree. When do we not use technology??? With cell phones, dvr, email, microwaves. I can't think of a day when we don't use it.
Wendy's Wanderings - the post on Thing 5 is so true we do need a balance between what these kids can do and help them learn to transfer to the classroom.
mathteachermrscpb had a suggestion of using the generator to create comics to help with SAT words. That was such a great idea that I have started a notebook to write down these ideas so I don't forget.
Additional comments on blogs to come!

Thing #3 - Register your blog

I haven't gotten very far as of yet but I will get on track now! I have 2 ideas for using blogs. The first is to set up a blog for our 6th grade parents to them informed of what is going on at school since most of the notes sent home don't get home! This won't be 100% full-proof as many of my parents don't have internet access but it will help those that do! Information I would post in the blog could include due dates of projects, fundraisers, upcoming events - for example pictures, awards, homework assignment, etc The other idea I have is to set up a student blog. Since I teach English/writing, the creation of blog would aide in writing skills whether they have their own or I post samples of their writing and have the student comment on the writing piece.

Thing #2 - Creating a Blog and Avatar

Creating the blog was very simple for me! I am good at following directions and love working on the computer. I want to come back and look at editing the layout and see what else I can do with it! Choosing my blog name and posting name took a little thought to work it out so it was smooth for me. I chose the names as they are to keep me focused on my goals. The avatar wasn't difficult to create either. I created my avatar to match my posting name. She is what I "wannabe" so maybe she will get me working on looking that way. She does have touches of the real me as well, I like to keep it simple.

Thing #1 - Lifelong Learning

It was very interesting seeing successful learning broken down into 7 1/2 definable habits. I know these and I use them somewhat so it was helpful to have them reinforced. One of the hardest things for me was to choose the easiest habit because with each of these habits I have a weakness! In the end the easiest habit for me is Habit 6: Use technology to my advantage - I do anything to make things easier, more perfect and interesting. The hardest one for me is Habit 7 1/2: Play. I have a hard time letting go and not staying driven!