Karooba Endless Educational Trivia Quiz

Monday, June 13, 2011

Thing 23 - The Journey Continues...

Web 2.o is changing the way we use to computer and internet. Instead of just being a one way medium, it now allows for sharing, trading, and colloborating with others from all over the world. There is just an INCREDABLE amount of information being shared out there.  Searching for new things. making comments, and posting comments can become almost addictive.

This journey has diffinately been interesting...The comment "you don't really know what your missing...." comes to mind when I think about this course. I had been hearing about his technology thing and didn't think I was that illieterate on the subject. Well I did not know just how much I didn't know until I took this class. It makes me think that if this is what my first Wed 2.o class is teaching what else don't I know. I like how I can actually keep up with and understand conversations now when people are talking about blogs, widgets, and wikis.

Since my services in the school are so specialized and the fact that I don't have a student computer or projector in my room I feel limited with what I can do with students. However I can see using some of the things I learned when collaborating or doing professional development with staff. I can also see myself using Google Doc to help when I have to proof read and edit graduate intern reports.

Personally I think I will use Delicious often. This is such an easy way to tag and organization in formation and to be able to access that information from any computer. I have to say that taking this course has encouraged me to take small steps into utilizing some of this new technology on Wed 2.0 in my classroom and during my personal life.

Even though I feel that I have learned a great deal, I definitely feel like I might need to take a look of the "Things" over again to increase my comfort level. Thank for offering this course. I have learned a lot (and plan on to continue learning more!)

Questions: Will you be e-mailing me before next week as to whether or not I have been successful at completing this course in order to earn the credit. That way it would allow me to add or complete anything that I might have missed. Thank you!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Thing 22 - Create a Wiki

Here is the link to my wiki:

http://speakingofwikis.wikispaces.com/

I think that it was much easier for meto get used to creating/editing a Wiki , then it was for creating/editing a blog.  It was a lot easier to embed things into the wiki. Plus the editing and saving buttons were very visable and not complicated at all. I don't know if this was becuase it is actually easier or if I am just getting more used to the technology.  I think using a wiki would be more appropriate when you wanted to collaborate with others. That way you could share the creating and editing duties. With a Blog, individuals could provide suggestions, but only the blog holder can make changes.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Thing 21 - Learn About Wikis

I had the most success with WikiHow. I had problems opening many of them on my computer. The screen kept popping up saying that I was leaving a secure location and others would be able to see my information. But when I clicked "ok" nothing happened. This results in me not being able to a majority of the sites. Very Frustrating! I thought that the WikiHow website was very easy to use. The edit and publish buttons were very visible and easy to use. Searching for wikis was also very easy using this website.

I have to say, though, that I did not really feel inspired to create one of my own. There was a wide variety of wikis and many were very interesting, but I don't think  that they are for me (not yet). Many appeared to be informational. It felt strange how you could go in and edit someone else's hard work.  I can see the benefit of being able to work as a group on one site but I think that would prefer to use Google Docs. I guess I didn't see too much of a difference when creating word documents. Although I can see the value and appeal of how you can import picures and videos into the wikis.

Thing 20 - Finding and Subscribing to Podcasts

I did not really care for either EPN or Podcast Alley.
Podcast Alley: This would definately be better to use for non-academic/personal use. I tried to be consistent with what I was searching for from site to site to see how they compared. I did not get any listings for phonemic awareness on this site. The list of sites that they showed for my search was not narowed down enough.
EPN: This website was a visually was a bit too busy for me. I also had some difficulty opening more than one podcast stated on this site.

The thing I found the easiest which result in the best outcomes for my specific searches was to simply type in podcast + the areas I was interested in finding.

As for downloading things to i-tunes I have been doing this for a while with my churches sermon. I tried to listen to one of their podcasts and could not get it to "pop-up" for me to listen to. Then one day when I was searching for something else on my computer files I stumbles across all of the podcast that I had previously tried to listen to. I like how you can store them on your computers/in your files to easily find when you want them.

For this assessmnet I subscribed to the following podcasts:
1)"Nicki Collom" via Google Reader
 2) The Dave Ramsey Show via I-Tunes
3) Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life via I-Tunes.

Thing 19 - Learn About Podcasting

THIS IS NOT COMPLETE YET~~~~~~

I found so many interesting podcasts in MANY different subject areas. One I really enjoy are the ones by Dave Ramsey for just personal enjoyment and learning. Here is a link for one below:
http://www.daveramsey.com/media/audio/podcast/podcast_itunes.xml

As for enducational purposed I can see some podcast being used for professional development for staff. Two that I liked are posted below. Since I am a specialist and a consultant I am not in the classroom a great deal, but I think podcasts would be good to use with students who have difficulty reading. They may learn better through hearing it, plus I liked how some have vidoes or pictures that go along with it. I have enjoyed listening to them during my lunch break; just enough time to learn something new.






Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Thing 18 - Slideshare

What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might Slideshare be useful in the classroom? out of the classroom?

I embedded this slide show because I am very interested in children's phonemic awareness skills and how that is a major factor in regards to reading development. I enjoyed seeing all the different presentations on this particular subject, but this one appeared to be very accurate and thorough.

I know that many students with special learning needs learn better by seeing things. Slide shows would be more visually appealing to many students which might help keep there attention. It also brings in another modality for learning. Also many students have difficulty with taking accurate notes or even taking any notes at all. If the teacher used a slide show, she could simply print it off for the student to see on paper. Then use it for studying later on. And with so slide shows on this website to share/see you can almost find one for any subject area you are teaching without having to put in a lot of work.



http://www.slideshare.net/grammarschool/phonemic-awareness-what-is-it

Thing 17 - Online Productivity

One of the  productivity tools that I thought that I could use in my classroom was http://flashcarddb.com/.  On this website students can take classroom material and create their own memory games or I could create one for them. This would be a great way to study new information. I liked how it provided multiple choice answers as well as graphs to track progress.

Some of the other  productivity tools  like the online calendars and reminder lists were neat, but I don't think that I would use them either at work or at home. The main reason is because so many require registering and having to remember user names and passwords. It is starting to get confusing with all the things that I have to remember. Maybe I have to think of a universal username and password that I always use for these types of things and save my more private passwords/usernames for more personal information (like bank accounts.)

Thing 16 - Google Docs

I still find all of this technology stuff to be a little scary. Putting thing on the web makes me a bit nervous. I liked google docs and how you were the only one that had access to your documents unless you specifically gave them permission by putting in their e-mail address. I particularly like this site becauce it shows the revisions that have been made. I often work with graduate interns who are required to write reports for me. We do a lot of e-mailing with attachment, printing it off, writing in corrections, then e-amiling again. We try to take good notes, but it is often tricky to remember which was the first draft vs th 4th draft. It gets very confusing. This would be PERFECT to use.

I did not have a problem uploading or creating a new doc. Actually uploading was a lot easier then I thought it was going to be. I DID have problem with adding my information/details to the "23Things Learners" spreadsheets though, as I could not locate it. I looked and looked with no success. I though it would be under the area that said "collections shared with me" but it was not there.....where else might I find it?
What issues come to mind about using this tool with students (ie, they need email addresses to log-in)?
Well of cource the e-mail address thing could be a problem. I work with younger one so them not having the keyboarding skills needed could also be a problem.

Thing 15 - RSS Revisited

Things are beginning to get easier. I like how this assignment made you go back and practice the things you already learned. It took me a while to figure things out. I don't know why, but subscribing to the tag feed was the most difficult. I kept trying to do it over and over again, but found out that I had aleady done it correctly. I just couldn't find it because my subscriptions were't organized very well.

I have not really been checking my news feeds regularly. I thought (and still think) that the google reader page can be a bit busy and overwhelming.
I was able to organize it a bit better by putting things into different folders. Looking through it was fun. I began to see again why I had chosen the blogs that I did. I am hoping that it does become a habit. I think I can learn a lot from others.

Thing 14 - Bookmarking with Delicious

My Delicious username is syversonl. I think that using a social bookmarking wesite,such as Delecious, will be very helpful. I do a lot of consulting with staff and often do research on my computer. This will help me locate good websites quicker and will save me a lot of time. I love how it gets loaded onto your browser. It makes bookmarking sites so easy. I think I will be using this daily.