Thing #24

This class was a challenge for me, since I was unfamiliar with the majority of the applications required to complete each assignment.  Also when revamping this program, please consider polling neighboring school systems to determine if the majority of the sites required are blocked.  This was very frustrating for me.  If I did not own an iPhone, I would not have been able to complete the assignments unless I moved permanently into APSU’s computer lab.   Once I found the sites and worked through the activities, everything fell into place, and I was pleased with my accomplishments. 

This class offered many opportunities to explore technological opportunities to use in the classroom or for personal growth.  Animoto was the most exciting site, and I plan to use it to introduce new subject matter throughout the year.  It is so user friendly; I foresee teaching my students how to animate their graphic designs.  Also, this class allowed me to connect with fellow art teachers and share lesson plans, trade project ideas, discuss discipline issues, and other topics of interest.  Those links will remain as lifelines to colleagues with similar concerns.  LiveBinders was a useful tool for storing information needed for thematic units.  I will continue using them to organize all my photographs, lecture information, student assignments and worksheets.  When I began the class, I was already familiar with Google.  Now, I have switched to Google Chrome and enjoy it even more.  Finally, Web 2.0 is a useful source for collaborating or interacting with peers.  This will act as an outside source of information for me, since no one in my school can relate to my subject matter.  Due to the security blocks on student computers, I will have to transfer the majority of information to a jump drive so my class can have access to the data.  In conclusion, I resolve to continue using portions of the applications presented during our class, but my blogging days are over. 

Thing #23

An example of the use of Creative Commons is found on the content page of this website: 

       Credits

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

When is something plagiarized, and when is it acceptable to use other people’s work?  Creative Commons allows the use of photographs, activities, and similar information to be placed on the internet and used without being accused of plagiarism.  Since the internet holds multiple sources of information, untold numbers of documents, and representations of other people’s work, the best way to give credit to them is to document the source where it came from.  When credit is given for use of other people’s work and an explanation of how it was altered for use in your project, this is the most ethical means of acknowledging the originator of the idea.  Free access to information does not re-leave the use from giving credit for transferring information to your own personal use. 

When researching information for the activities presented in these assignments, I found students’ work placed on the website from various universities cooperating in the 23 Things project.  This was upsetting to me, because I did not realize that people other than APSU 5540 students would be viewing my blog for eternity.  I noticed that the latest date was 2009, so I hope this has been corrected.  When using other people’s ideas like basing a research paper on Wikipedia, one must be careful to check the facts before quoting them.  During research assignments, I will make sure all photographs and activities turned in by my students are cited correctly.  It amazes me that today’s students believe cutting and pasting constitutes writing a paper.  They are shocked to discover that I can look up sentences from their papers and tell who originally wrote it. 

Thing #22

This activity was very interesting and useful to me as an art teacher.  My presentations require a lot of photographs of various artists’ works and methods used to reproduce their techniques.  LiveBinders provides a method to store all my online resources for each artist, examples of their work, demographic information, and other facts about the period and style he used.  This app is easy to use and allows extensive data to be stored in each folder.  Tabs allow subject matter to be subdivided into meaningful categories and accessed during lectures.  LiveBinders is similar to Diigo and can be shared with fellow instructors with interests in similar subject matter.  In fact it is so user friendly, that students can setup files and collect data for upcoming reports.  Our school system does not block access to this site, so it has been deemed appropriate for student use.  I could for see teachers placing introductory information in the first folder and assignments sequentially under accompanying tabs.  In this manner, students could access the designated LiveBinder, review collected website information, print off worksheets, and finish assignments independently.  This is a means of providing online access to information, but still controlling the content. 

Thing #21

I wish I had found this app when my children were young.  It would have been wonderful to share short videos online with my parents.  The usual photo album does not compare to the movement and music that Animoto provides.  I was actually shocked at how well my amateur video turned out, and I only needed a little help from my teenagers to accomplish the task.  I can see the application of this site to student reports and demonstrations.  Since the teacher would have prior access to the photographs being uploaded, this would be a wonderful way for students to gain extra credit or introduce a topic for discussion.  As an art teacher, I plan to use this app during the instructional phase of my lessons.  Needless to say, I was impressed with the easy of creating videos and the quality of the finished product.  I would be interested in finding out the cost for producing videos longer than 30 seconds.  This would be great to email parents so they can see class projects developed by their own children.

Thing #20

When your thirteen year old son shows you in five seconds how to go around the school systems blockers to access YouTube, you suddenly realize that students are more tech savvy than their teachers.  My daughter showed me her favorite sites and we laughed together about the antics of Fred, funny pet tricks and so forth.  I noted that if you clicked on the words, the school systems block popped up, but if you clicked on the picture the videos loaded immediately.  Many of them were too funny for words.  Unfortunately, they are not rated for content, so viewers must be prepared.  I can see an instructor downloading specific clips and playing them for their class.  For example when we were painting with wheeled toys, I downloaded BMW’s commercial to a jump drive and showed the students how they drove through various colored paint to create the video.  The students were so fascinated with the BMW sliding around the hockey rink making rainbow colored concentric circles, it was difficult to break them away from the screen to make their own miniature versions.  The only way I see this working in a classroom is for the instructor to control the videos, by loading them on to jump drives. 

Very Funny Cats 23

Thing #19

I chose to review wecollaborate.com since it offered an opportunity to dialogue with fellow educators on subject matters of interest to teachers.  Since our technology department just discovered how to link my Apple Computer to my Smart board, I found this site very useful, since I received no training on using a whiteboard.  The author accidentally found that student information could be dragged onto the whiteboard without using her screenshot program.  This was a revelation to me and several other followers.  I noticed that some of the bloggers had no hits on their posts, and decided that they possibly had joined the wrong social network.  Creating an account is easy and applications are reviewed prior to giving permission for usage in order to control spam.  Clients have access to a wealth of archived information, can join current forums for discussion or start a special discussion group. 

For fun, I joined opensourcefood.com.  This site had wonderful recipes and comments from readers on how to improve them.  Just looking at the photographs of the food caused my mouth to water, but at least there were no calories attached.  This site will continue to be a favorite place for me to visit, since I love to cook.

Thing #18

I wonder how many new words have been invented in the last two or three years?  Probably more than those created prior to internet access.  When I was in high school, “birds tweeted” not people.  We called, wrote or visited our friends.  Facebook and Twitter are both filtered out by the security system in our schools, so theoretically students are denied access to these sites.  Though access to social networking sites has been blocked within our schools, even our elementary students know how to get around the security system.  Just recently, our School Board voted to assign a supervisor to monitor all social networking sites for inflammatory, subversive or insubordinate statements regarding students, faculty, curriculum, and/or facilities.  Her role is to stop cyber bullying, warn the staff of controversial activities, and report erroneous or negative information placed on the internet.  Several teachers have received formal reprimands from our Director of Schools, for statements they placed on Facebook.  Within our county, students have been reported for posting inappropriate photographs on their privacy sites after they went viral, so parents and teachers should monitor this very closely.   

In regards to Facebook and Twitter, I have warned both of my children to never give out confidential information, say anything derogatory, only “friend” people they know, to remember that once it is posted everyone has access to it, and it is there forever.  To insure their safety, I periodically review my teenagers’ interactions.  Unfortunately, it would be difficult for me to determine if they had secret accounts. 

In Humphreys County, teachers are discouraged from directly communicating with students, so using Facebook and Twitter would not be an appropriate means of contacting parents or students.  As an adult, I use Facebook to talk with my friends and discuss college assignments.  It is user friendly and has more useful options.  Twitter is a very powerful tool when used to call vast numbers of clients’ attention to activities or events, and the users can limit the number of “followers” they have.

Thing #17

Delicious is a blocked website in our school system, so the students would not have access to it.  I was able to access it through my own personal account and found a wealth of information available.  The preset web links made researching various topics much easier, if bookmarks coincided with topic tagged by others.  Unlike Delicious, Diigo can be used by anyone and is not blocked by the school’s security system.   Teachers could bookmark items for research and students could have access to them.  The security on these sites is questionable because you are looking at other people’s social tags. I would be afraid that spam could be attached to them and import a virus into my computer.   Those that can be blocked for privacy could be used by teachers and their students without violating confidentiality.  Teachers would have to show their students how to view the protected area through a specified search engine.  These sites have comment sections available, but who would want to go back and see what other people thought about the way you linked articles together, unless they were used specifically by your students on a protected search engine.

Thing #16

Since I currently use Gmail as my email address, I looked into Google’s time saver website: Gmail Tasks.  Gmail Tasks was easily accessed and user friendly, which I definitely need at this stage of my life.  I was able to post messages to my Gmail account, list when all my homework assignments were due or my children have appointments and my parents have to drive them because I have a class.  I sometimes wonder how my parents managed to do all the things they had to do and still get me to ball games and dance recitals.  Gmail Tasks allows me to post all of these things in advance and then notifies me of the upcoming event.  I do not think my mother’s desk calendar ever sent her a message to do something. 

My parents and students have access to my iGoogle calendar listing class/school events, and activities of interest in art.  I post a list of needed household items for future projects, and the parents start collecting them for me.  The students get extra credit for bringing in these items.  The parents get a masterpiece created from recycled junk. The landfill gets less trash.

Thing #15

Wikis would be a wonderful tool for classroom use, as long as it remained protected.  When I looked at some of the student created websites, it was obvious that lots of prior planning, editing and technological expertise had been incorporated into their presentations.  The games, documentaries, slideshows, and photography were very colorful, well organized, and information packed.  The sites were user friendly, motivational, and held my attention.  It was apparent that the students who worked on the sites had spent a great deal of time on their projects, and their enthusiasm was obvious. If students were given a choice between writing a research paper or presenting the facts in a website documentary format, they would jump at the chance to participate in a Wiki assignment.  The current tech savvy generation would spend more time completing web based activities than looking up information for a boring report.  

This site can be used as a class project, and the instructor can have an instant snapshot of the changes made to the activity, so he can monitor the students’ progress.  Also, teachers/students can list pages and make side by side comparisons of the changes made to the script.  Then, they have the option of choosing the original versions rather than the edited editions. 

Thing #14

Flowcharts have been around a long time, just not in computer form.  Authors, scientist, and inventors have recorded their ideas on napkins and scraps of paper for years.  Speakers today have the advantage of charting connected information or talking points into easily followed formats.  Arrows or lines demonstrate relationships between facts presented to audiences, so they can easily follow the speaker’s train of thoughts. Unlike bulleted points, flowcharts clearly trace information from its source through all connecting data presented.  Flowcharts have a beginning, connections, an ending and can easily be reviewed at a later time.  They are used to symbolically explain complicated processes.  Each step of the process is represented by different shapes and contains further information on the subject.  Flowcharts allow instant understanding of a process without an in depth discussion of the subject.  Flowcharts can be designed with hyperlinks, so further details can be added.

Unlike flowcharts moving from start to finish, mind maps usually provide information in a clockwise manner with cross-referencing radial branches.  They allow speakers to keep track of where they are during their presentations and commit more information to memory.  Mind maps are designed to assist the speaker more so than the audience.   Mind maps are excellent study guides, because they focus on a central topic and allow the creator a chance to organize his thoughts.  They are great to use during brainstorming sessions, since mind maps do not list items in preferential order.  Many times, mind maps are used to condense information into a concise memorable structure.  They are useful for graphically organizing data and depicting directly related information through branches off the main topic. 

To make my mind map, I chose to use MindMeister because it allowed free access for a limited number of applications.  It was easily accessed and user friendly for a novice like myself.  Once I chose the topic and connecting concepts, all that remained was the typing.  A student could use this software to make a study guide, but I do not foresee having any additional need for this tool. 

To make my flowchart, I employed Gliffy.  This graphic organizer will be used in my after-school science class to teach the scientific method of doing research.   Also, this program will be useful in writing future research papers and power points.   

Thing #13

Zoho Writer is free and easy to use.  It is a great way of accessing information when you are away from your own personal computer.  For example in the past when I wrote my parent newsletters, I typed them at home and emailed them to myself, so pictures of the students’ artwork could be added later.  With Zoho Writer, I just post the document and reopen it at school.  When finished, I send a copy to my principal for approval before printing it for parents.  Zoho Writer allows my principal to alter my document rather than emailing it back to me with comments, because it is in read only format when emailed.  No more doing “save as” documents and trying to determine which is the most recent form. 

During undergraduate work, I wrote a paper on Joan of Arc and submitted it to my professor for proofreading and corrections.  I still have four Joan of Arc “save as” documents listed on my computer.  If I had used Zoho Writer, it would have kept all my revisions stored in memory for retrieval, but the current document would have shown first.  My professor and I could have dialogued about the changes through a living document. 


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