Overall, I've found this blog assignment to be useful. I''ll admit that I'm skeptical of some of the Things discussed previously, but I have found a few new resources I can use in the future as well as some new uses of old resources I use everyday. My two favorite Things in this blog were the entries in which I explored the variety of Google applications and YouTube. I enjoyed losing track of time viewing videos in YouTube while performing "research" for my entry. Still I feel that a couple of the Things could be replaced by other Things that are more relevant to education in the classroom. For example, I'm unconvinced that I'll ever have a use for Facebook or Twitter even in a modern classroom. The 23 Things would probably be improved if that one was replaced with a Thing more relevant towards today's education.
I'm uncertain as to where this blog will go from here. Perhaps I'll dust it off from time to time whenever I have something relevant to add. Or perhaps this will be the last entry I'll ever write for it. Maybe I'll accidentally stumble across it twenty years later and reflect on how far I've grown as an educator since I wrote these entries. Only time will tell I suppose.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Thing 23 - Creative Commons
According to the APSU 23 Things page...
Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).
After reading more about Creative Commons, I have a greater understanding about online intellectual property and copyrights. Creative Commons gives anyone the ability to search for materials that have various copyright protections. Some materials may allow for alteration from the original product, while others may have stricter guidelines on how that material may be used. Even if a user allows for modifications and alterations it is still essential to give credit to the source. In the future I can use Creative Commons to safely search for appropriate material to use in my classroom. For example I can enhance a PowerPoint presentation with an image that has a copyright permitting use for non-commercial means as long as I give credit to the creator of the image. Even with this resource available I will still need to be careful as different materials may have different copyright protections. It will be imperative that I familiarize myself with them before I use those materials in my classroom.
Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).
After reading more about Creative Commons, I have a greater understanding about online intellectual property and copyrights. Creative Commons gives anyone the ability to search for materials that have various copyright protections. Some materials may allow for alteration from the original product, while others may have stricter guidelines on how that material may be used. Even if a user allows for modifications and alterations it is still essential to give credit to the source. In the future I can use Creative Commons to safely search for appropriate material to use in my classroom. For example I can enhance a PowerPoint presentation with an image that has a copyright permitting use for non-commercial means as long as I give credit to the creator of the image. Even with this resource available I will still need to be careful as different materials may have different copyright protections. It will be imperative that I familiarize myself with them before I use those materials in my classroom.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Thing 22 - LiveBinders
LiveBinders is certainly an easy way to keep track of the various resources we as teachers find on the Internet. It seems to be somewhat similar to some of the other organization 'things' we've done for this blog, and I can't exactly say that it does it any better or worse than the ones we've explored previously. I think I found a couple of interesting resources I hadn't seen previously though, so in that case the assignment was worth my time and effort. I created three binders - an algebra binder, a calculus binder, and a statistics binder. The one I will display is my calculus binder.
LiveBinders seem to be most useful in organizing various lessons plans and ideas for a class. One could break down binders by subject as I chose to do, or perhaps even more narrow like topics within a particular field. As I gather more resources and begin to develop and finalize my philosophy of teaching, websites like this could prove to be more valuable to me than they may be at this point in time.
LiveBinders seem to be most useful in organizing various lessons plans and ideas for a class. One could break down binders by subject as I chose to do, or perhaps even more narrow like topics within a particular field. As I gather more resources and begin to develop and finalize my philosophy of teaching, websites like this could prove to be more valuable to me than they may be at this point in time.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Thing 21 - Animoto
I'm somewhat surprised to admit this, but I enjoyed creating a video in Animoto for this assignment. The subject I chose was basic - essentially a vacation my brother and I took to Cleveland, Ohio in 2010. Animoto was easy to use and it practically does all the work except for picking out the photos and song for the video. I'm not sure of the applications that Animoto has in the classroom, but it is a fun way to reminisce about vacations.
Try our video maker at Animoto.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Thing 20 - YouTube
I can't remember the last day I didn't visit YouTube at least once. I visit the website for a variety of reasons, but the most common ones are to enjoy my favorite sports clips, listen to music, or to look for video game guides. You know, real professional stuff. In fact I became sidetracked and spent the next ten minutes watching big football hits. It may prove to be difficult to complete this assignment for that reason alone.
There's not a lot I can say I don't like about YouTube. I suppose I could complain that I spent twenty minutes watching Ohio State's comeback against Purdue this season, but if I complained about that then I wouldn't exactly be truthful about the situation. In a more professional sense, YouTube could have a place in an educational setting if it is allowed in schools. Users can create playlists which can group appropriate and related videos together in one easy to access spot. Unfortunately my "misuse" of YouTube while trying to complete this assignment is probably reason enough that many schools have the site blocked. It's way too easy to find yourself distracted and let half an hour pass by with nothing accomplished.
The video I chose is one of my favorite videos to watch. It's impossible to NOT get goosebumps after watching this. Unless of course you were rooting for the Soviet Union. USA! USA!
There's not a lot I can say I don't like about YouTube. I suppose I could complain that I spent twenty minutes watching Ohio State's comeback against Purdue this season, but if I complained about that then I wouldn't exactly be truthful about the situation. In a more professional sense, YouTube could have a place in an educational setting if it is allowed in schools. Users can create playlists which can group appropriate and related videos together in one easy to access spot. Unfortunately my "misuse" of YouTube while trying to complete this assignment is probably reason enough that many schools have the site blocked. It's way too easy to find yourself distracted and let half an hour pass by with nothing accomplished.
The video I chose is one of my favorite videos to watch. It's impossible to NOT get goosebumps after watching this. Unless of course you were rooting for the Soviet Union. USA! USA!
Thing 19 - Other Social Networks
TeacherPop is a social network that allows both future and current teachers to interact and share ideas. At the moment it appears that traffic is limited - as of now the traffic seems to consist of students creating profiles to fulfill the requirements of this assignment. If it reaches the point at which it becomes a thriving community it would be of substantial benefit to us as educators.
Visit TeacherPop
As mentioned in the previous post, I do have a Facebook page. Other than that and my pending application to join TeacherPop I haven't been very active in social media thus far. After exploring a few of the social networks provided to us I'm pretty sure my answer on that front isn't going to change. I've been to sites like Yelp! previously in order to get restaurant reviews in the Clarksville/Nashville area, but I have little to no desire to sign up for an account and post my own views. Other networks like the Classroom 2.0 Ning can be of substantial benefit, but it is more likely that I would browse for information as needed rather than join and become part of their online community.
Visit TeacherPop
Thing 18 - Facebook and Twitter
Here's a link to my Facebook account. I don't have a Twitter account, but there are a few people I "follow" without actually going through the process of actually signing up. Considering I'm pretty sure I'd never 'tweet' I don't really see the point. Anyway, both of these sites are good at what they do. Twitter is an excellent application for quickly spreading information to vast amounts of people, and some people and corporations may keep tabs on the site to see what is "trending." Facebook is great at creating a platform for friends to interact with one another, and it allows for a greater potential to allow people to share in one's life if one chooses to put that information out there for consumption. I enjoy and use both sites but for different reasons.
I'm uncertain of the role these networks have for educators. Perhaps schools could have pages on Facebook for students to 'like' or join, but it would be unwise at best to add any students as friends to a personal Facebook account or to follow them on Twitter. A teacher could perhaps have a Twitter page devoted to posting information from the classroom like homework assignment and test reminders, but it seems there are better alternatives out there that we've explored previously to send those messages.
I'm uncertain of the role these networks have for educators. Perhaps schools could have pages on Facebook for students to 'like' or join, but it would be unwise at best to add any students as friends to a personal Facebook account or to follow them on Twitter. A teacher could perhaps have a Twitter page devoted to posting information from the classroom like homework assignment and test reminders, but it seems there are better alternatives out there that we've explored previously to send those messages.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Thing 17 - Social Bookmarking
Before this assignment, I had never heard of the concept of "social bookmarking." After watching the tutorial videos provided, and spending some time exploring the websites I feel I have a better grasp of what social bookmarking websites, and Delicious in particular have to offer. As a prospective teacher, I feel that Delicious has something to offer me in staying organized. One of the tutorial videos mentioned how a browser's bookmark tab can get crowded and unorganized in a hurry. One of the nice things about Delicious is that one can tag websites in order to fit them into a specific category. This way a user can sort his favorite websites by category so that it is easier to find and use them in the future. I'm uncertain of how social bookmarking can be helpful in the classroom, but I can see it's use when preparing and organizing future lessons. Given that I wish to be a math teacher, I could tag certain sites based on the content and lessons they have to offer. If there is a website I feel is really strong on quadratic equations I could use the tags algebra, quadratic equations, etc. in order to group that site with similar sites in the future. This is certainly a tool I can see finding its way into my tool bag in the future.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Thing 16 - Organizing with Web 2.0
There are a lot of different organizational tools available on the Internet. The first one I explored was the iGoogle homepage. I wasn't aware of iGoogle's existence until this assignment so it was surprising to see that Google will be removing it on November 1, 2013. Goes to show how fast the Internet is evolving - in five years its replacement will probably be rendered irrelevant as well. Anyway, iGoogle was easy to use. I found a couple interesting gadgets to add to the original template that would theoretically reduce my time surfing the Web for news. However, I'll probably keep my old homepage because as I stated before, I kind of enjoying each site individually to see what is new. I suppose it's just my resistance to change.
Online calendars and to-do lists have a lot of potential for people who need to stay organized and have mobile access. Since these applications are online they can be accessed from a variety of different points. While I don't use an online calendar or to-do list at the moment, it would certainly increase my organizational skills, which at this point is limited to things I do and don't remember. Thankfully I remember most things which has decreased my incentive to use either online or traditional calendars. In the future when more and more things are on my plate, I will probably have no choice but to change how I organize.
One of the tools I found from the list was the PDFConverter website. One of the benefits of converting a file to a PDF is that those who open the file do not need to have Microsoft Word, or any other word processor in order to open and read the document. This could be helpful when I put my syllabus or letter to the parents on my website so that it can be easily accessed by both parents and students whenever there is a question about classroom expectations, grading policies, etc.
Online calendars and to-do lists have a lot of potential for people who need to stay organized and have mobile access. Since these applications are online they can be accessed from a variety of different points. While I don't use an online calendar or to-do list at the moment, it would certainly increase my organizational skills, which at this point is limited to things I do and don't remember. Thankfully I remember most things which has decreased my incentive to use either online or traditional calendars. In the future when more and more things are on my plate, I will probably have no choice but to change how I organize.
One of the tools I found from the list was the PDFConverter website. One of the benefits of converting a file to a PDF is that those who open the file do not need to have Microsoft Word, or any other word processor in order to open and read the document. This could be helpful when I put my syllabus or letter to the parents on my website so that it can be easily accessed by both parents and students whenever there is a question about classroom expectations, grading policies, etc.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Thing 15 - The Wide World of Wikis
I am a big fan of several different wikis on the Internet. I think it's pretty awesome that there are wikis devoted to several different subjects and non-academic hobbies like video games. The most famous wiki of all is Wikipedia, and I'd imagine that everyone in our class has looked up at least one article on Wikipedia. Personally I can spend up to an hour just reading about different articles on the site. For example, I may see an article on the front page about some event in World War II. From there I may see another link within that article of something else I'm interested in and then open up another tab on my browser. By the end, it is not uncommon for me to have six or more tabs open from various articles I cared to learn more about. Although the productivity of doing this could be argued, I find that it's an easy way to let an hour or so go on by.
I'm not sure how I would use a wiki of my own creation. Being that my goal is to be a mathematics teacher, I'm not sure how it could work in the classroom, unless there was an assignment about the history of a famous mathematician and I wanted the class to upload their articles onto a classroom wiki. That doesn't mean there couldn't be use for third party wikis, although a couple of the math ones I looked at seemed to be incomplete. Perhaps in a couple of years they will have enough content to prove useful in the classroom.
I'm not sure how I would use a wiki of my own creation. Being that my goal is to be a mathematics teacher, I'm not sure how it could work in the classroom, unless there was an assignment about the history of a famous mathematician and I wanted the class to upload their articles onto a classroom wiki. That doesn't mean there couldn't be use for third party wikis, although a couple of the math ones I looked at seemed to be incomplete. Perhaps in a couple of years they will have enough content to prove useful in the classroom.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thing 14 - Flowcharts and Mind Maps
I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of mapping out my ideas in the form of a flowchart or a mind map. I'm not entirely sure why that's the case, but I imagine it has to do with hating to have to do similar tasks in school and this dislike has carried over into my adult years. Anyway, I attempted to put aside my dislike for such things and give a couple of these websites a try.
While making my mind map, I found the bubbl.us site to be easy to use. While on there I created a little map that shows some of the different disciplines that one could take an interest in by using math. It was very simple to export my creation once I was finished and then add it to this blog right here.
In order to make a flowchart, I decided to use Gliffy. Gliffy had a lot more user options that bubbl.us did, which made it slightly more difficult to learn at first, but it also allows for the creation of a neater, more professional chart. While on Gliffy I decided to make a flowchart for the different outcomes that can happen to a batter in a baseball game. I spent a few minutes creating it, and once I was finished I found out that I could not save it unless I signed up for a 30 day free trial. Perhaps I could have just signed up, saved my work and then immediately cancelled my account, but I figured it wasn't worth whatever minute risk there was that I would be unable to cancel and I would be stuck with a perpetual bill I would never be able to end. Chance of happening? Probably really really close to 0. However, I figured it was just easier to mention that I made a flowchart and then slightly complain about the whole 30 day trial thing. Just take my word for it that it was the best flowchart I've ever made.
While exploring the sites it appears that flowcharts allow for greater organization than mind maps. Mind maps seem like they would be useful when trying to find relationships between ideas, or when trying to break down a big idea into several smaller ones. Flowcharts, on the other hand, allow the creator to show a linear progression of events and thoughts. It seems to me that mind maps may be more appropriate for initial brainstorming activities, while the flowchart would see its best use during the outline creation phase of a project or paper.
In order to make a flowchart, I decided to use Gliffy. Gliffy had a lot more user options that bubbl.us did, which made it slightly more difficult to learn at first, but it also allows for the creation of a neater, more professional chart. While on Gliffy I decided to make a flowchart for the different outcomes that can happen to a batter in a baseball game. I spent a few minutes creating it, and once I was finished I found out that I could not save it unless I signed up for a 30 day free trial. Perhaps I could have just signed up, saved my work and then immediately cancelled my account, but I figured it wasn't worth whatever minute risk there was that I would be unable to cancel and I would be stuck with a perpetual bill I would never be able to end. Chance of happening? Probably really really close to 0. However, I figured it was just easier to mention that I made a flowchart and then slightly complain about the whole 30 day trial thing. Just take my word for it that it was the best flowchart I've ever made.
While exploring the sites it appears that flowcharts allow for greater organization than mind maps. Mind maps seem like they would be useful when trying to find relationships between ideas, or when trying to break down a big idea into several smaller ones. Flowcharts, on the other hand, allow the creator to show a linear progression of events and thoughts. It seems to me that mind maps may be more appropriate for initial brainstorming activities, while the flowchart would see its best use during the outline creation phase of a project or paper.
Thing 13 - Web-based Applications
The Zoho Writer application was fairly easy to use due to the fact that the layout of the toolbar seemed similar to that of Microsoft Word. I found it to be very convenient that it is possible to export a document created through Zoho as a Microsoft Word or Open Office document, or even a PDF if one so desired to do so. I've had some previous experience exploring Google Drive, but I have never used it to create an actual document or project. Browsing around the different features offered in Google Drive, I noticed that it also contains that same ability to export a document as a different type of file. I created a spreadsheet in Google Drive that shows how the number 'e' can be computed by both summation and by its limit definition. The summation result is to the left, and the limit result is in the center, while I have the actual value of 'e' towards the right side of the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can be found here.
After messing around with each for a few minutes I determined that I preferred the Zoho applications more than the Google Drive ones, which honestly surprised me. I felt that Zoho had a cleaner presentation than Google did, which made it a little easier to find how to perform different tasks both the word processing and spreadsheet applications.
Students can have the ability to work collaboratively with Google Drive through the ability to easily share documents. If students are working on a group project, the document can be set up to be able to be edited by all members of the group so that everyone has equal access to participate in creating it.
After messing around with each for a few minutes I determined that I preferred the Zoho applications more than the Google Drive ones, which honestly surprised me. I felt that Zoho had a cleaner presentation than Google did, which made it a little easier to find how to perform different tasks both the word processing and spreadsheet applications.
Students can have the ability to work collaboratively with Google Drive through the ability to easily share documents. If students are working on a group project, the document can be set up to be able to be edited by all members of the group so that everyone has equal access to participate in creating it.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Thing 12 - The Wonderful World of Google
I'm fairly certain everyone in our class and nearly everyone else in the world who has Internet access has used Google at some point in their lives. A great majority of that usage was probably spent looking up information that falls somewhere between fascinating and utterly pointless. I know my searches fall near both sides of that range. Anyway, Google has more to offer than an easy way to look up information. Two of the Google tools I chose to explore further were Google Calendar and Google Translate.
I had never used Google Calendar before today. In fact I don't think I've used a calendar or planner of any kind since I left high school so apparently I am an organizational mess. It was fairly simple to use so I decided to create a schedule of my obligations for the week of 10/14-10/20. In the future as I have more meetings, conferences, and various other events to attend I can see it becoming necessary to use something like Google Calendar on a daily basis in order to keep track of everything going on. I like the feature where you can chose to send email or text message alerts even up to 10 minutes before the event, although that seems to be cutting it pretty close at that point.
Next I spent a few minutes messing around with Google Translate. I decided to "borrow" an idea I saw from The Brennan Breeze blog and translate my blog post in a different language. I decided to translate it into Icelandic because its alphabet looks somewhat similar to ours, but its arrangement makes it look nearly indecipherable when comparing it to the English we use. In the future this could be potentially helpful if there is an English Language Learner in the classroom, and then we could have some accommodations for words that he/she may still be learning in English. On a lighter note, I also gave it some thought about how it could be used as a potential April Fools joke to have an entire lesson written out in a different language. It may not be fully formed yet, but I still have a couple years to figure it out...
My Google Calendar
My Google Translate
I had never used Google Calendar before today. In fact I don't think I've used a calendar or planner of any kind since I left high school so apparently I am an organizational mess. It was fairly simple to use so I decided to create a schedule of my obligations for the week of 10/14-10/20. In the future as I have more meetings, conferences, and various other events to attend I can see it becoming necessary to use something like Google Calendar on a daily basis in order to keep track of everything going on. I like the feature where you can chose to send email or text message alerts even up to 10 minutes before the event, although that seems to be cutting it pretty close at that point.
Next I spent a few minutes messing around with Google Translate. I decided to "borrow" an idea I saw from The Brennan Breeze blog and translate my blog post in a different language. I decided to translate it into Icelandic because its alphabet looks somewhat similar to ours, but its arrangement makes it look nearly indecipherable when comparing it to the English we use. In the future this could be potentially helpful if there is an English Language Learner in the classroom, and then we could have some accommodations for words that he/she may still be learning in English. On a lighter note, I also gave it some thought about how it could be used as a potential April Fools joke to have an entire lesson written out in a different language. It may not be fully formed yet, but I still have a couple years to figure it out...
My Google Calendar
My Google Translate
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Thing 11 - Finding Good Feeds
I found that the Google Blog Search was the easiest for me to use. The largest reason for that is most likely due to the fact that the blog search works similarly to the Google search engine so it was very familiar. While searching on Google Blog Search I found the dy/dan blog - a blog mostly on math education. I browsed around the blog for a few minutes and then found this post on expected value that piqued my interest. I enjoyed the post due to the applications that could be used in an introductory statistics class, and it is something that I will keep in mind if I am given the opportunity to teach a statistics class in high school.
The Edublog awards site was interesting to look through for a few minutes. I was able to find one math teacher blog while browsing through the best teacher blog nominees called f(t). One post that I found interesting had little to do with education, but rather predicting Facebook's growth rate with regression analysis.
My Technocrati search brought up a lot of similar blogs that I had found while searching Google, but I did find this neat blog that explained a number of math concepts. This could potentially be a helpful resource later in the classroom and for some of the projects we will work on in our EDUC 5540 class. I didn't find much of anything of interest with Topix so I suppose that was the hardest to use by default.
The Edublog awards site was interesting to look through for a few minutes. I was able to find one math teacher blog while browsing through the best teacher blog nominees called f(t). One post that I found interesting had little to do with education, but rather predicting Facebook's growth rate with regression analysis.
My Technocrati search brought up a lot of similar blogs that I had found while searching Google, but I did find this neat blog that explained a number of math concepts. This could potentially be a helpful resource later in the classroom and for some of the projects we will work on in our EDUC 5540 class. I didn't find much of anything of interest with Topix so I suppose that was the hardest to use by default.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Thing 10 - RSS Feeds
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and with this first glance I've had with the concept and Google Reader it seem as if the acronym is true. The obvious thing I noticed was that Google Reader organized the blogs and websites that I had subscribed to by order in which an article was posted. This is obviously convenient for a person who may check several sites a day multiple times a day. I admit though to enjoying the searching of each site individually. Logically it may make little sense to knowingly use potentially valuable time in a scavenger hunt when I could easily just go to my newsreader and find any new information there, but I see the hunt as part of my routine so I may be reluctant to switch over.
I'm not certain how I could potentially use this for school or in a classroom setting. If I found some relevant education blogs that I found interesting I could subscribe to them and hopefully not fall into a routine of wanting to check them manually every day. I'm not sure how teachers could use RSS feeds or similar technology in the classroom unless the feeds were subscribed to websites or blogs that had some sort of interactive component that could in turn be used in a classroom lesson.
I'm not certain how I could potentially use this for school or in a classroom setting. If I found some relevant education blogs that I found interesting I could subscribe to them and hopefully not fall into a routine of wanting to check them manually every day. I'm not sure how teachers could use RSS feeds or similar technology in the classroom unless the feeds were subscribed to websites or blogs that had some sort of interactive component that could in turn be used in a classroom lesson.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Thing 9 - Image Generators
I spent a few minutes searching around the different generator websites, attempting to find something I could use. The first image I generated came from the Comic Strip Generator. I found a picture of a caveman who invented the wheel and thought that no one actually knows who invented the wheel. His optimism for glory will not be found in the history. The second image I generated came from the Happy Face Generator. I thought about grading in school and the different teachers who said that we should be thankful that they don't grade on a true curve. Once I gathered an understanding of statistics I realized how true that is.
I'm not sure if I'll ever use this image generators for personal use. I feel I extinguished all the creativity I could muster on them today. They may have applications for sprucing up PowerPoint presentations either in the classes that we have now, or when we are making notes for the students to view in our classrooms. A little humor never hurt anyone I suppose.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Thing 8 - Mashups
I'm not sure how I could use Flickr and its various apps in my classroom. I can see some value for history and geography teachers, but its difficult to see how I could apply this in a mathematics class. I'm willing to listen to any ideas though.
Thing 7 - Flickr
As I was looking for photos on Flickr, my goal was to find a photo that reminded me of something in my life. After a few minutes of staring blankly at the computer screen, I finally had the idea to look up a couple of the places I used to live as a child. I looked up "Ashland, Ohio", and found a picture of an Amish child with her back turned. Finally, I had an idea! From there I looked up more Amish photos until I found my favorite that I could share. I chose this photo because I figured it would be unique among the postings of my fellow classmates, and because I find Amish culture to be interesting. Ashland, Ohio is on the fringes of what people may refer to as "Amish Country", and I still remember seeing the horses and buggies, the animal driven plows, and the horse poop in the parking lots at the Aldi in town. This photo in particular shows how careful one needs to be when driving down the back roads of northeastern Ohio.
(credit for this photo goes to MidwestFarmland from Flickr)
I'm not sure if I'll use Flickr much again after this exercise. I don't see how it can be applied in a mathematics class, and honestly I don't take a lot of pictures so there isn't much use of opening up a Flickr account. It was a neat website to explore for a few minutes though.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Thing 6 - Wikipedia
I decided to choose Wikipedia as the Web 2.0 tool to write about. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that any user can edit. This ability is Wikipedia's greatest strength, but also its greatest weakness. While the open editing policy has allowed for millions of articles to be posted, it also allows for anyone to edit false information onto a page. It is this main reason why Wikipedia is an unreliable source when performing research, but that doesn't mean it is without use in schools. Many of Wikipedia's articles contains cites from reliable sources. On a personal note, I find myself scouring Wikipedia often whenever I'm bored. I'll look up various articles either dealing with history, math and science, or demographics for example. When I find an interesting point I'd like to learn more about, I always click on the citation to get directed to the reference the editor used when creating that portion of the article. If it is a website that I have access to, I'll click on that and look around on there, hoping to gather more new information on the subject I was reading about. Students can use Wikipedia in a similar way. It's an easy website to access and to gather information from, and it also may contain leads of where to find additional, more reliable information that can be used in a proper research paper.
Thing 5 - School 2.0
To me, School 2.0 is essentially the evolution of the classroom through the utilization of modern technologies. The Atomic Learning video made an interesting point that this is not the first transformation of the classroom. Over a hundred years ago schools were nothing more than a room with a chalkboard and teacher at the front, with students looking forward in their desks. Over time the classroom has grown to include items such as textbooks, projectors, and computers among other things. It shouldn't be surprising to see that as technology changes over time, so do the things affected by technology such as school. As School 2.0 gains more and more of a foothold in the classroom, we'll see familiar classroom items change in ways that may not have been conceived as early as a decade ago. For example as tablets become more and more user friendly and cheaper in price we may see schools completely abandon physical textbooks in favor of e-textbooks that can be loaded onto the students tablet. Instead of having to carry a load of textbooks and binders to class, a student may merely need to bring his tablet to school and have everything he needs at the tip of his fingers.
The growth of social networking may also have a profound effect on how School 2.0 evolves over time. The Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators post cited a 2007 national survey in which it was found that about 55% of students ages 12-17 are active on social media. The key word in that statement to me is '2007'. That was nearly five years ago - social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter either didn't exist or had yet to become the behemoths that they are currently today. If a similar survey was taken today, I'd wager to guess that the percentage of social media users in that age group is significantly greater than 55%. That seems to indicate a significant opportunity for the growth of School 2.0. The challenge, of course, would be to harness this source of communication and control it in a way that is appropriate for the classroom. Definitely not an easy feat, but perhaps it'll be a key feature in our classrooms one day.
The growth of social networking may also have a profound effect on how School 2.0 evolves over time. The Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators post cited a 2007 national survey in which it was found that about 55% of students ages 12-17 are active on social media. The key word in that statement to me is '2007'. That was nearly five years ago - social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter either didn't exist or had yet to become the behemoths that they are currently today. If a similar survey was taken today, I'd wager to guess that the percentage of social media users in that age group is significantly greater than 55%. That seems to indicate a significant opportunity for the growth of School 2.0. The challenge, of course, would be to harness this source of communication and control it in a way that is appropriate for the classroom. Definitely not an easy feat, but perhaps it'll be a key feature in our classrooms one day.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Thing 4 - Commenting on Blogs
Commenting is important on blogs because it allows for the development and sharing of ideas. Through the use of the comment section, readers can add their thoughts at the bottom of the blogger's post. While in the comment section, readers can debate and discuss with one another or the original author if the author chooses to be active. The Cool Cat Teacher Blog made an interesting point that relationships can be created just by having readers comment interesting points or counterpoints to the original post. If the commenter has a blog of her own, then the original blogger can read that blog and leave thoughtful, meaningful comments as well, thus keeping the cycle running.
One of the points I found to be important came from the Blue Skunk Blog. The point the author made was that when people write online, they enjoy knowing that others read and care about what they have written. You don't have to be a blogger for this to be true. Even on Facebook, there is a sense of satisfaction when someone comments on one of your posts, even if that post was not necessarily directed at that person. I assume it will be no different on this assignment as well considering we have to post comments on five of our classmates blogs. I'd appreciate a comment, and I'm sure if anyone else actually reads this they would probably appreciate one as well.
The other important point I found came from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. The point the blogger made was don't be afraid to comment. I'm fairly certain that before today I have never commented on a blog. I've read plenty of them in the past, but I've never actually attempted to contribute to the discussion. Now it may not be fear as much as it is reluctance to put my thoughts out there, but the end result is ultimately the same. Perhaps nothing will come of a comment - it may be one of a thousand comments that get lost in the shuffle. However there is a chance that someone may read it and have something meaningful to add in response. You never know until you try I suppose.
The "23 things" blogs I decided to comment on were the Adventures in Learning blog, the LearnLiveMoore blog, Crane's US HIST-tech experience blog, frankE's blog, and the Samples of Learning blog. I chose those blogs because after I read them I found interesting points from them that I wanted to acknowledge. I tried to explain why I agreed with the point I referenced, and in the case of the Adventures in Learning blog, I appreciated the flashback to my old middle school social studies class.
The two blogs outside of our classroom I decided to comment on were the Major League Bastian blog, a blog written by the Cleveland Indians beat writer from MLB.com, and Men of the Scarlet and Gray blog, a blog on Ohio State athletics. I chose those blogs because I'm a fan of the teams the blogs cover, and I felt I had relevant opinions that I could add to the discussions that were going on there. The comments I made dealt with my frustrations with the Indians this year, and my questioning the blogger about his positioning of the Northwestern football team in his rankings.
One of the points I found to be important came from the Blue Skunk Blog. The point the author made was that when people write online, they enjoy knowing that others read and care about what they have written. You don't have to be a blogger for this to be true. Even on Facebook, there is a sense of satisfaction when someone comments on one of your posts, even if that post was not necessarily directed at that person. I assume it will be no different on this assignment as well considering we have to post comments on five of our classmates blogs. I'd appreciate a comment, and I'm sure if anyone else actually reads this they would probably appreciate one as well.
The other important point I found came from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. The point the blogger made was don't be afraid to comment. I'm fairly certain that before today I have never commented on a blog. I've read plenty of them in the past, but I've never actually attempted to contribute to the discussion. Now it may not be fear as much as it is reluctance to put my thoughts out there, but the end result is ultimately the same. Perhaps nothing will come of a comment - it may be one of a thousand comments that get lost in the shuffle. However there is a chance that someone may read it and have something meaningful to add in response. You never know until you try I suppose.
The "23 things" blogs I decided to comment on were the Adventures in Learning blog, the LearnLiveMoore blog, Crane's US HIST-tech experience blog, frankE's blog, and the Samples of Learning blog. I chose those blogs because after I read them I found interesting points from them that I wanted to acknowledge. I tried to explain why I agreed with the point I referenced, and in the case of the Adventures in Learning blog, I appreciated the flashback to my old middle school social studies class.
The two blogs outside of our classroom I decided to comment on were the Major League Bastian blog, a blog written by the Cleveland Indians beat writer from MLB.com, and Men of the Scarlet and Gray blog, a blog on Ohio State athletics. I chose those blogs because I'm a fan of the teams the blogs cover, and I felt I had relevant opinions that I could add to the discussions that were going on there. The comments I made dealt with my frustrations with the Indians this year, and my questioning the blogger about his positioning of the Northwestern football team in his rankings.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Thing 3 - How I Would Use a Blog in the Classroom
I admit it was initially difficult to come up with ideas for this subject. It's been less than a decade since I was in high school, but even with that short amount of time between then and now it's hard for me to comprehend that blogs may have a place in the classroom. However, after looking over a list of ideas provided to us and then thinking about how I would actually want to use a blog as a tool, I've come up with a few ideas.
My first idea I had was to use the blog as a platform for my students to discuss some relevant topics from our physical classroom. This would be similar to the message boards I've encountered while taking online classes at Austin Peay State University. Given that I'm aiming to teach math in high school, an appropriate topic in this setting could be quadratic equations. I could ask the students to state their preferred method for solving quadratic equations, explain how it works, and then why they prefer that one method over the others. On the flip-side, I could also ask which one they least prefer and the reasons for that. I imagine this could have a couple possible benefits. If there are overwhelming answers in either direction, it could indicate to me as the teacher that I have done a good job in teaching one of the methods, but I may need to spend some more time on one of the others. Also, this could allow a student struggling with one of the methods to read about one of their classmates explanations. Perhaps one of those explanation may be phrased in a way I wasn't able or hadn't thought of doing, and therefore help give some understanding to the struggling student.
My second idea was to use the blog as a bulletin board. I could post the homework assignments, reminders of when the next test will be, study guides, etc. Essentially those posts would be reinforcements to what was stated in class, but it could potentially be helpful if a student forgets to write down which problems to do for homework or misplaces his study guide, among other things.
My third idea for the blog would be more for the parents than the students themselves. I could post items like the syllabus so they can know for certain what is expected of their child in my classroom. Also I could provide occasional updates of the content we've covered so far, and also post recommendations for additional problems to work on if they feel their child needs more practice with certain things we've been covering. Finally I could also post links on the blog to neat websites that breakdown many of the ideas we'll be discussing in the classroom.
My first idea I had was to use the blog as a platform for my students to discuss some relevant topics from our physical classroom. This would be similar to the message boards I've encountered while taking online classes at Austin Peay State University. Given that I'm aiming to teach math in high school, an appropriate topic in this setting could be quadratic equations. I could ask the students to state their preferred method for solving quadratic equations, explain how it works, and then why they prefer that one method over the others. On the flip-side, I could also ask which one they least prefer and the reasons for that. I imagine this could have a couple possible benefits. If there are overwhelming answers in either direction, it could indicate to me as the teacher that I have done a good job in teaching one of the methods, but I may need to spend some more time on one of the others. Also, this could allow a student struggling with one of the methods to read about one of their classmates explanations. Perhaps one of those explanation may be phrased in a way I wasn't able or hadn't thought of doing, and therefore help give some understanding to the struggling student.
My second idea was to use the blog as a bulletin board. I could post the homework assignments, reminders of when the next test will be, study guides, etc. Essentially those posts would be reinforcements to what was stated in class, but it could potentially be helpful if a student forgets to write down which problems to do for homework or misplaces his study guide, among other things.
My third idea for the blog would be more for the parents than the students themselves. I could post items like the syllabus so they can know for certain what is expected of their child in my classroom. Also I could provide occasional updates of the content we've covered so far, and also post recommendations for additional problems to work on if they feel their child needs more practice with certain things we've been covering. Finally I could also post links on the blog to neat websites that breakdown many of the ideas we'll be discussing in the classroom.
Thing 2 - Why This Blog Looks Like it Does
My experience creating this blog was enjoyable. I had never created a blog before so this was new to me, but most of the process was self-explanatory and I tried to keep it as basic as possible for now. Perhaps in a few months there will be a bunch of bells and whistles on this page, but for now I'm going to keep it basic.
My posting name took all the creativity I could muster. I merely took the front part of my personal email address and made it my user name. The title of my blog is a little less obvious, but no less creative. I just took my nickname and put the word "thoughts" right next to it. After all, this will be "Cleanup's Thoughts", and I figured it was a little more inspired than my original title which was "Chris Carroll's blog". Like I said, I was feeling very creative when I came up with this.
I attempted to make my avatar look like me, although I will admit it was tempting to give it a handlebar mustache or something equally crazy. I gave it red hair, made it a little unkempt, and then put some clothes on it. In order to make my avatar more unique I gave it a baseball and bat since baseball is my favorite sport and I figured I should give some allusion towards that.
My posting name took all the creativity I could muster. I merely took the front part of my personal email address and made it my user name. The title of my blog is a little less obvious, but no less creative. I just took my nickname and put the word "thoughts" right next to it. After all, this will be "Cleanup's Thoughts", and I figured it was a little more inspired than my original title which was "Chris Carroll's blog". Like I said, I was feeling very creative when I came up with this.
I attempted to make my avatar look like me, although I will admit it was tempting to give it a handlebar mustache or something equally crazy. I gave it red hair, made it a little unkempt, and then put some clothes on it. In order to make my avatar more unique I gave it a baseball and bat since baseball is my favorite sport and I figured I should give some allusion towards that.
Thing 1 - 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners
After viewing the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners it was clear that there were a few habits that have or will come easily to me, and that there are some habits that will require more learning and/or understanding. The habit among the 7 1/2 that I believe is the easiest for me is #4 which is to have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. Throughout my life I've always had confidence in my ability to learn, especially in math or logic based areas. It may sound a tad arrogant, but in a lot of areas I believe that if other people can figure something out and understand it, then I definitely can as well.
The habit I believe will be the hardest to implement is #5 - to create your own learning toolbox. As of right now, if I was asked to describe the contents of my learning toolbox I would probably stutter and stammer around, reluctantly choose my brain as one of the contents and then draw a total blank. The title of the habit seems rather vague. What is a learning toolbox and what should I include in it? I suppose the key word in the name of the habit is 'own.' Apparently we all have unique tools in our toolbox, and we choose these tools based on what works best for us in the learning process. I still have a long way to go before I'll be able to accurately state what belongs in my learning toolbox.
The habit I believe will be the hardest to implement is #5 - to create your own learning toolbox. As of right now, if I was asked to describe the contents of my learning toolbox I would probably stutter and stammer around, reluctantly choose my brain as one of the contents and then draw a total blank. The title of the habit seems rather vague. What is a learning toolbox and what should I include in it? I suppose the key word in the name of the habit is 'own.' Apparently we all have unique tools in our toolbox, and we choose these tools based on what works best for us in the learning process. I still have a long way to go before I'll be able to accurately state what belongs in my learning toolbox.
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