Video/TeacherTube/MovieMaker

A catchy video from TeacherTube for 2nd graders when studying the water cycle. Had no trouble putting this in my blog. Cannot figure out how to import it into MovieMaker. If and when I do, I will post a comment. I did figure out how to import pictures into MovieMaker, but still need lots of playtime to manipulate the pictures. Playtime is at a premium this time of the school year. Sure would like to continue our Table Play during our fall and winter district librarians' meetings!

PhotoStory

My PGP students have loved using PhotoStory for their research products. It lends itself to a great deal of creativity and fun! All are having trouble uploading today. Still waiting on mine.

Hooray! It finally loaded!! I discovered that I was trying to upload the PhotoStory wp3 file instead of the wmv file. I'm guessing that most of us were making that mistake when all had so much trouble.

Audio Manipulation

Once I got the headset working, I had fun creating audio files. Decided to save a short rendition of "The Washington Waddle" that I used to sing to my kids at bath time. It's a fun song that makes me laugh and relieves STRESS...
Major frustration when using the 2.0 Sandbox Wiki...my whole table tried uploading their audio files with NO LUCK. I will try uploading this tonight. I refuse to give up! I want to be successful with this! I want to feel like I can help my teachers by really knowing what I am talking about.
Okay, it's loaded on the Sandbox Wiki. Have no idea how to link it to this blog. Vaughn? Liz?

Image Manipulation

Had never used images in Discovery Education. Great resource. Loved using Flicker Creative Commons. Found pictures of my favorite bird...the hummer. Glad to find out how to add text and manipulate the hummer images in PPT. Made this motivational poster. Went over the time allotted, so my stress level is rising..

Thing #23 Old Dinosaur with lots of New Tricks!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Successfully creating my blog. I had tried once before very unsuccessfully. I like this description of a blog:

“A site one establishes for the purpose of putting one’s thoughts online for the edification or amusement of visitors, who may leave pieces of their own minds before departing.”

Discovering what others had found and were experiencing along the way by reading their blog entries, and then leaving a little piece of my own mind...

Playing with the online image generators

Discovering educational videos on YouTube

Using Flickr to share photos with friends and family

The entertaining and succinct Common Craft guys

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
While in graduate school (online), I had a mainline to the latest and greatest through my coursework. Participating in 23 Things was like being back in school with the bonus of no grades! I’m a hands-on learner, so 23 Things was the perfect learning tool. What's next, Kickball Captains?

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was amazed at the depth and breath of this online adventure.

Actually understanding and using the 2.0 web tools my children use and talk about and understanding and using 2.0 web tools my children have not heard of!

Learning more about my SBISD colleagues. It’s amazing what you can discover about a person from reading their blog.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Possibly offer smaller parts of the whole at a time by dividing the 23 Things into thirds and offering 6 hour credit segments.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Absolutely!

How would you describe your learning experience?
Hands-on learning of relevant and, best of all, applicable best practices and cutting edge technology for use with students and the faculty in my library.

Next to Last Thing #22 Nings

I love the concept of Nings, especially Shonda Brisco’s Texas School Librarians and Joyce Valenza’s TeacherLibrarianNing. It’s like having the best of LM_NET all in one location without the overload of irrelevant emails often found in the listserv messages. These Nings are the perfect venue for sharing best/interesting practices by having the opportunity to easily introduce and discuss topics of interest with librarians around the country. In addition to the main page, I noticed that there are different break out groups that the user can join, so that the discussion is more relevant to his/her particular interests within school librarianship. The video section would be a great place to share student or teacher or librarian generated videos. Both Nings are a nice extension to the terrific network of SBISD librarians we are so fortunate to have in our district. As an example of one of our own, check out this fabulous Ning!

Thing #21 Podcasts and Audio Books

My students have used Photo Story for creating final products after researching a topic, and they love it! Headsets with microphones are a must. They let students record without worrying about extraneous noise, and it helps keep the noise down when they add music and listen to their show. I normally make a PPT. of the new Bluebonnet books each year to introduce the books to my students, but I decided to try out Photo Story for this project instead. At first it was way too long. I went back and recorded less and spoke faster. The jury is still out on whether it is still too long!

Thing #20 YouTube, TeacherTube and Zamzar

It was fun discovering an educational application for YouTube. Attached is a video of Bill Martin reading/singing his book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Kinder would love this if they could access it on the district computers. They all have ACTIVboards at my school, and the videos would play so well on the large white board! I am going to try the Zamzar conversion with this video to see if it will give me a video that will bypass the district filters.


This video is a creative take off on Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It could be used as the introduction/hook to a creative writing activity.



TeacherTube seems to have a buffering issue. I didn’t experience this with YouTube. The following video is an animated and somewhat humorous review of the states and capitals of the U.S., perfect for 4th or 5th graders. I'm wondering if converting this TeacherTube video on Zamzar would solve the buffering issue. Has anyone tried that solution?

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards List

Wow! What a selection of online tools! After browsing quite a few of them, I explored Comiqs. It’s a lot like Image Chef, but with many more creative possibilities for classroom use including creating a comic strip with more than one panel. Just like Image Chef, the created images could be used for story starters, creative writing activities, or just for grins. A big plus is that this site can link to Flickr for easy photo uploading of personal photos or photos from the creative commons area. Unfortunately, I came across a random picture with a highly inappropriate expletive in the Comiqs photo gallery. Definitely a problem with students, but with teacher supervision can be overcome.

Thing #18 Online Productivity Tools

It’s always interesting to see what is offered for free on the web. These online office suites are great for those who can’t afford to have an original load set or for those who want or need web-stored documents. If the business or personal documents were of a sensitive nature, I would worry about how secure they would be stored online. Besides the site tours, I wonder what kind of tech support is offered for these online office suites. Just some things to think about.

Thing #17 Rollyo

The concept of Rollyo is great, but I am a little discouraged about its use for elementary students because of all of the extraneous stuff: ads, polls, etc on the page and the location of the custom web results. I do, however, like the feature of being able to search and create a searchroll using only kid-friendly sites for students. I created a Weather Search searchroll that my 2nd grade teachers might enjoy using with their students.

Thing #16 Wikis

Those crazy paper tossing, finger counting, marker drawing CommonCraft guys are a hoot. Talk about making learning simple + to the point + fun + meaningful! Someone suggested that we have a “Thing” devoted just to them next time. I agree!

Posting to the Learning 2.0 Sandbox wiki was interesting. Viewing online video wiki posting help and actually doing it were two different animals for me. I first posted in the discussion area. Oops! When I discovered that my posting was not showing up on the main page, I went back and tried again. Success! The image I uploaded turned out to be animated. Surprise! :-)

Wikis are a great invention and a wonderful discussion and collaboration tool. I can see using a wiki on the SBISD curriculum portal pages for each of the grade level curriculum areas where teachers could share their successes and new resources (syllabi, rubrics, homework calendars, slide shows, etc) for a curriculum area or strand or unit. It would be an accessible and easy way for teachers across the district in a particular grade level or subject area to globally communicate and collaborate. The PB Wiki Tour talked about online chats. Another application idea might be to have an online chat on a district wiki between two or more teachers/administrators instead of a face-to-face meeting. With the cost of gas, leave the car parked and meet online!

Thing # 15 Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the future of libraries

The way students of the new "Net Generation" think and find, view, manipulate, process and use information has dramatically changed from the previous generation. While multitasking, they mentally and physically interact with their world on a daily basis. In creating library programs to address these students, it is important to define what their needs are, restructure the delivery of instruction according to those needs, incorporate a flexible library schedule with open access to address point of need access, learn and offer new technologies(!) in tandem with the classroom teachers, create and sustain remote online access creating a virtual library for anytime access, assure the freedom of the librarian to sustain a leadership role in the library program through adequate library staffing, and transform existing library buildings to meet the technological needs of these students. If the librarian can be the “go to” person in the building for supporting Web 2.0+ technologies, the library remains the information-rich learning hub of the school.

I like David Warlick's 10 step method for integrating oneself into 21st C. thinking and self-development as an educator. Our community of learners on the 2.0 playground this summer is a prime example of teachers/librarians who want to learn how to reach/teach/inspire/facilitate the digital natives we are given the opportunity to come into contact with each year. The digital language we are learning to speak requires networking/sharing with peers and maximum technology support. The final step in our journey is sharing successes with our uninformed (and possibly technophobic!) colleagues and “inviting them into the conversation,” so that they can develop an interest in joining the ranks of the digitally literate life-long learners.

I ran across this video when checking out TeacherTube. It is a “top rated” and “most viewed” video on the site. I can see why. It speaks loudly as to why we must continue to transform our teaching and evolve as educators.

Thimg #14 Technorati and How Tags Work

I did a blog search on Technorati using “School Library Learning 2.0” and came across the blog Library Byte by Byte's most recent posting (how fun to see a familiar blog among the many unknowns!), which was an outstanding podcast. This particular podcast is a prime example how one of our 2.0 tools can be used with students for reader's advisory!

Overall, Technorati was a bit overwhelming to me until I used the advanced search tool, which helped to narrow the results and get rid of many of the irrelevant blogs. The Technorati video produced by the (very young!) leadership made some interesting point about creating a community of 50 million people that is the vehicle for expressing the raw, uncut human experience from individuals who have not been edited. I guess the question that stands out most in my mind is how hard it might be to sift through the blah, blah, blah to reach the meaty, authoritative stuff. Or did I miss something?

Tagging is akin to using keywords for indexing information in an article. I like the way the author of the article decides what is important in the text. However, because it is up to the author to do the tagging, bloggers need to take the time to follow through. One of the articles on tagging cites the formation of online social groups when people using the same tags discover “similarities of interests and points of view.” Once again, here is a way for educators/students to find common ground and share/contribute/interact/collaborate with other educators/students around the world.

Thing #13 Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

Once again, someone thought of a great tool for managing and organizing the vast amount of cyberspace information that also incorporates sharing and community. I like the idea of not only putting all of my favorites in one list that I can access from any computer, but organizing the list so I can easily find what I’m looking for and view others’ lists, too. Installing the bookmarklets in the toolbar was easy (Yahoo! tried to get a freebie on my tool bar!), so I was able to start bookmarking quickly. It may take some time to learn how to tag so that I can find things easily.

Similar to our Librarians’ share folder, this site offers teachers and librarians the chance to easily collaborate online. For anyone doing research, this is the perfect tool for organizing web sites and online articles. Students in study groups or working on group projects can pool their resources in a structured, fast, and convenient way by combining their efforts and posting to a shared tag. If students/teachers have their own blog, they can track new entries by using the RSS feed feature as everyone shares . Teachers/librarians can also post web sites they want students using for a particular unit of study. By using the “popular tags” feature, suddenly users can tap into other peer-driven information directories and find resources they might have missed or overlooked when researching. Wow! The 2.0 playground just keeps getting bigger and more interesting!

Thing #12 Creating Community Through Commenting

Two points about commenting I thought were important:
· Contributing (from The Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting) by leaving a comment with more substance is important because usually the author of the original blog wants to know more about what the person commenting thinks and why. It can extend the discussion into new arenas of thought. Higher level thought/discussions?!
· Occasionally using humor in comments (also from The Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting) makes the learning process less daunting, and it is a great tool for keeping it light and having fun.

For students, I think one of the most important lessons to teach them about blog commenting is about being polite and showing respect for one another. As Brown mentions in the Ten Commandments article, "Just because you’re not interacting face to face doesn’t mean you can act like an idiot." Many students are used to quickly texting their feelings on a cell phone or on IM. They need to understand that commenting on a blog is not that same kind of intimate conversation and that their comments will be posted in a public forum.

Now that I am somewhat acclimated to this blogging business and I don't feel like such a bashful blogger, I am finding it fun to not only explore other sites, but actually comment. Having a few others suddenly posting on my site was helpful to jump-start the process. I like the way we are all linked, so that we can go to the sites of those who leave a comment to see where they hangout!

Thing #11 LibraryThing

I liked the tour on this site and the quick sign up (without lots of personal questions to answer!). I can see using this site as a way to remember books I’ve read when it comes time to recommend a good book to colleagues and friends. It was easy to spend an hour or two exploring all of the reviews, the groups, the blog, and cataloging some of my favorite books. I couldn’t stop at just five. I especially like the feature where the user can click on an author’s name in “Your Library” and view a picture of the author along with personal information and a list of other books (with reviews) the author has written. I linked my library list to my blog just for fun. When students eventually have their own blogs, they will enjoy sharing their favorite books in the form of this visual reader's advisory!

Fun Thing #10 Online Image Generator

#10 is definitely a fun “Thing” to explore! Images like this one from Comic Strip Generator could be used in a classroom as a brainstorming activity, a story starter, creative writing activity, or just for grins. I encountered many problems figuring out how to upload it to my blog, so I finally saved it to my hard drive (saved into Picasa) and uploaded it from there. Whew!

This image is from Kid-Friendly Generators. I once again encountered the uploading problem and had to save this image to my hard drive before uploading it to my blog. Students could use these templates to make covers or title pages for student-made books, reports, Power Point and Photo Story projects.

Students will like the animated images in Image Chef. This site conveniently lets you save your image directly to your blog.

Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

I’m bloggy-eyed after trying out the various blog search tools and looking at a myriad of blogs. No wonder someone created the invaluable RSS readers! No one person could possibly keep track of all that is posted daily on each blog to which they subscribe without organizational tools to put it all in one spot and alert the user to new posts. However, the important part of all of this is finding blogs and newsfeeds that are just right for you. I liked Cool Cat Teacher’s advice about how to select your “circle of wise:” people you know, blogs listed on their blogrolls, people/organizations who inspire you, and blogs you come across on your own (whose authors exhibit the "mindset of the lifelong learner/pioneers in the field") using the blog/newsfeed search tools.

Edublogs’ list of award winners was straightforward and the easiest to use, but limiting. Bloglines was another easy-to-use site once I figured out that I needed to search using “Search for feeds.” I like the clean look of Bloglines and I liked the results I got when searching for various topics related to education, libraries, and technology. One of my favorites is Technorati. I liked Technorati’s tag layout, the well done tutorial, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality and number of the pertinent search results. The most confusing was Topix. It’s just too much of a good thing. I will have to check back with Suprglu because it was not working when I tried the link.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds and Readers

What do I like about RSS and newsreaders? Most of all, I like the idea of having someone (something) out in cyberspace helping to organize my online life for me. I have noticed on several blogs that they have a list (or two) of favorite blogs, and there are notations beside some of the blogs that something new is available. I like that feature. Any timesaver is a bonus. So many blogs, postings, information…so little time!

I would like to use this technology to keep up with not only the blog postings of the SBISD Library Services kickball captains, but also other blogs about school librarianship and children’s literature by authorities in the field, other school libraries and their students, and personal blogs of friends. I find it interesting to look at and explore the blog lists of blogs I enjoy reading to find new favorites.

Teachers and students with similar interests to other bloggers could use the RSS to keep tabs on what others are doing and/or learning. For the reluctant or beginning blogger, using a RSS reader would be a way to get his/her feet wet with the technology without feeling “blogged down!”

Thing #7 Cool Google Tools

Google Alert
This is a smart tool for teachers and students to use to receive notification about new information as it becomes available. Students and teachers tracking news about a current event such as the current NASA Phoenix Mars expedition would be able to easily keep up with the most recent discoveries. As the search results change for a previous search, the Google Alert proactively tells the user when new information is available. Since students cannot have school email accounts or check their personal email accounts at school, using this tool may pose a problem for that learning group.

Picasa Web Albums
I was quite surprised when I logged in to Picasa Web Albums and found the pictures I had uploaded to my blog already in my web album! Even the title of my blog was imported as the new title of my web album. Kind of scary (how much privacy do we sacrifice for convenience these days?!), but very handy. It’s a similar sort of web-sharing that I found when using Yahoo’s Flickr and exporting pictures to my blog.
One interesting feature in Picasa is the Organize option, which lets the user see every picture/image on the computer/laptop hard drive. The feature lets the user rename and move pictures around for easier access later. I saw pictures and images I had forgotten I had saved over the past few years. What a great tool.
One drawback I noticed was that because Picasa and my blog are linked, if I delete a photo in Picasa, it automatically deletes it in my blog. Not a good thing for one who has a history of deletion blunders. Also, I found Picasa much less user friendly than Flickr when searching for community shared photos.

Note: I looked at several of the Atomic Learning videos for several of the Google Tools and liked the quick and easy explanations. Some were much better explanations of the tools than the Google web site tutorials!

Thing #6 Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

The possibilities for using fd’s Flickr Toys are endless. Here are a few ideas:

Science trading card, using Trading Card, with picture of insect/animal and interesting facts about insect/animal
Language Arts trading card with picture or Avatar of main character and character traits
Social studies mosaic, using Mosaic Maker, of famous person including birthplace, family, why person is famous or mosaic of a state with pictures of state symbols and/or landmarks
Badge Maker could be used to make press badges for interviewers to wear while video taping an interview; voting badges for Bluebonnet readers eligible to vote for their favorite book
Jigsaw might be used for making a jigsaw puzzle using the classroom group picture
Magazine Cover could be used for making covers of a story's main character, someone in history, or a student’s picture which would include titles of articles pertinent to that person
Motivator could be used by a school student council for making posters to motivate students to participate in school-sponsored activities and/or volunteer programs
Students could use CD/DVD Cover to make personalized covers for the CD/DVD case after their project had been burned to a CD or DVD.

Thing #5 Flickr

I got my first introduction to Flickr on a personal level. My daughter lives in Chicago and regularly posts pictures on Flickr for family and friends to view. When I visited her this summer and took way too many pictures (!), she kept asking when I was going to put them on Flickr. I finally did and spent hours trying out the web site by uploading, editing, and naming my slide show of 70+ photos. The attached picture is of the Chicago’s Cloud Gate (or as it is most commonly called “The Bean”) in Millennium Park, a 110-ton, highly polished steel monolith shaped like a kidney bean. It’s a fascinating marvel that reflects not only the people close to it, but also the entire skyline. I was able to upload my photo directly from Flickr to my blog. How cool is that?!

I can see many applications for Flickr to the classroom. A teacher could create a private classroom group and post student-generated pictures and videos. Also, a Flickr group could have pictures of students taken at school for the “author page” of a Power Point or Photo Story or for students to create a personalized trading card or an “All About Me” magazine cover. It’s a perfect resource for students to find public commons pictures for their multimedia and Big Huge Labs projects. Great tool for photo needs of any kind!

Thing #3 Blog/Avatar

Once over the hump of deciding on a blog title, setting up the blog was fairly straightforward. Creating my avatar was the best part when I finally got the hang of it. It was frustrating at first when clicking on the numerous 1,2,3,4,5,6… pages to see all of the selections (because I am one who likes to see ALL of the possibilities and ALL at the same time!), but when I discovered the “search” feature it was suddenly doable. I like the way each person's avatar gives his/her blog added personality!

Thing #2 Lifelong Learner

I find few things more exciting than learning something new and then sharing it with someone else. The habit of accepting responsibility for my own learning has been easy for me. Going back to school in mid-life enabled me to realize the dream of waking up to a job I love on a daily basis. Learn something new every day!

The habit of viewing problems as challenges is the hardest habit for me. I often view a problem as a crisis, and it paralyzes me for the moment. I then have to readjust my thinking as I begin gathering information about the problem. Once armed and ready, I can then jump in and turn the obstacle into a learning opportunity. Now that my paralysis over beginning 23 Things is past, I’m ready to play!