A Few Final Thoughts

Although I use technology with my students, I was on the outskirts of the new media age and really looking for some direction.  My students and I started using a blog in January and, as Richardson suggested in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I started small, having my students respond to questions posted by me (p. 45 – 46); it has been an amazing experience.  Their excitement is inspiring, but, this is merely a stepping stone to what I want to accomplish in my classroom; the problem is, I didn’t know where to go, or how to get there. 

With Richardson’s approval to be a learner first and a teacher second (p. 6) I centered my inquiry proposal on four technology goals: editing photographs, creating a multi-modal presentation, becoming a more efficient user of the web, and building a strong foundation of knowledge I could use to learn and teach web 2.0 tools.

I will not say that the process was seamless, but which each tool I explored, my understanding and proficiency in web 2.0 did grow.  My understanding of these tools and how they work has been one of my greatest accomplishments as it has given me a strong foundation for learning. 

I have definitely become a more efficient user of the web.  With each tool I master, I become eager to try a new one.  Now, with these six tools under my belt, I feel confident in my ability to use the web instead of just talk about it.   Small things to many web users; linking, sharing, embedding, tagging have been giant accomplishments for me as it makes me believe that I am not only learning web 2.0 tools, but I am beginning to understand the terminology and the correlation between the tools.  I do believe that this journey has moved me from novice to intermediate in my abilities and more importantly it has ignited my desire and confidence to develop a classroom rich in web 2.0 tools.

Although I feel capable of making my way through most web 2.0 tools, I still have much room for growth, especially in receiving and using information. I recognize that I am only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of using RSS and social bookmarking.  I understand how they work and I am able to use them, however I know that there are many virtues still untapped.  Going forward, this is a focus for me.  With class wrapping up, I feel I have the time to truly explore these tools and develop a solid network of information retrieval, organization and sharing. 

I am committed to being an educator that models new media literacy and teaches my students to become literate in this new media society.  As Prensky (2001) stated, “unless we want to just forget about educating Digital Natives until they grow up and do it themselves, we had better confront this issue. And in so doing we need to reconsider both our methodology and our content”.  I know now that I have the foundation of skills to do this; but I also recognize that in many ways, my learning is just beginning. 

Glogster

The culmination of my inquiry project was to create a multi modal presentation using Glogster and I did it!

I love my glog!

This is a great tool that I will use both personally and in my classroom.  It is easy to use.  I used photoscape to edit my images, then uploaded them to glogster.  I added sound from the web and from my computer and I added a voice recording using my sound recorder (found in accessories).  Adding text and graphics are also easy, with many options to choose from.  Once your pictures are uploaded, they can easily be moved in to the fore or background using the edit function.

I chose to make my glog using family photos from 2011.  Right now my class is creating visual autobiographies on paper, in the future, we will use glogster.

Voicethread in the Classroom

Other than being hilarious, voicethread is useful!  It was a bit tricky to get myself organized but I kept watching the tutorials and it started to come together. It really is three steps: upload the file, comment on it and share.

You can upload both images and videos or a webcast.  In my classroom I would have students annotate work they have done.  Additionally, when posting instructions on our class website...

Hollywood, here I come!

Diigo in the classroom

In addition to 'My Library', there are three other tabs in Diigo which allow you to connect to others in the Diigo world.  You can search bookmarks through the community and search for groups that have similar interests (I have joined two groups, one on cyber-bullying and one on using web 2.0 in the classroom); you can see what has been bookmarked by group members by clicking 'My Groups' or, the preference I set was to have updates emailed to me daily.  You can also follow individuals in 'My Network'.

I feel organized, I feel connected, now, to bring it all together in the classroom... this video shows one use in a classroom setting for research..but, between bookmarking, highlighting and annotating, the options are fairly endless.

A revolution in the way I do things

So long sticky notes, hello Diigo!  It feels like this whole web thing has finally come together for me.  Signing up for an RSS feed reader was the first step.  Instead of taking a backseat approach to new information and ideas, I have a steady stream of them arriving daily on my doorstep - it makes it impossible not to be connected to _________ (insert interests here).  For me, the focus has been on education, partly because of the courses I am taking but mostly because I feel I could use a boost in my teaching.  So, for about a month I was flying down the information highway with lots of great ideas coming my way but, sometimes, it was a bit too much...(drum roll please) like a shining knight, Diigo appeared.  Now I can manage all of the information and find more.

I started by watching a few tutorials on the Diigo website.  I actually watched them a few times while I explored to clear up any confusion I had.


Diigo V4: Research ~ annotate, archive, organize from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

Now, using social bookmarking, I  am actually starting to feel web savvy.  I went through the four courses I am taking and took the time to actually look at the various links that people have posted and bookmarked the ones that interest me.

The process is simple, when I find that interesting article, I click on my diigolet in my favourites and the diigo toolbar pops up and then...

I can add tags, upload the page and save it to a list I have already created.  For example, this is saved in my Web 2.0 list.  Now when I access that list, I have a variety of articles on web 2.0 tools.  Needless to say this is just one of the many lists I have created so far.  Never again will I catch myself wondering "what was that website...", now if I like it, I archive it.

Additional features on the toolbar are sticky note, highlight, and share.  I have used these to highlight important parts of articles and then add notations which can be saved for my reference later (searchable by text, tags or lists) or shared...with people on Diigo or through email.

I chose Diigo over other social bookmarking sites based on Will Richardson's rave reviews; "Diigo...continues to be one of my favourite tools..allows you to begin constructing your own little piece of the Web, it's a way of organizing it for yourself and for those you are collaborating with." (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, p. 92). 

Google+

On Stephen Abram's blog stephenslighthouse.com, he provides a link to 50 ways school librarians can use google+. The list offers a brief synopsis of each suggestion with a link to further information.

Ways to Evaluate Educational Apps

Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand - Blog - Ways to Evaluate Educational Apps | Diigo

As I was getting aquainted with Diigo I found this rubric for evaluating apps.

Flickr Cloud Activity (Grade 4)

clouds, a gallery on Flickr.

Richardson (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, p. 107) also gave me a great idea for studying clouds (which just happens to be a part of the grade 4 curriculum); it is exciting to stumble across seemingly small yet inspired ideas to enhance my teaching.  After teaching characteristics of clouds, I would have students study a gallery of cloud photographs (as above) and sort them in to groups based on features.

To create the gallery I went in to Flickr and searched clouds, I clicked on the ones I liked and from the action menu chose save to gallery.  On the first image I created the gallery called clouds and it was on my list of galleries for subsequent images.

To use this in the classroom I would add more images to the gallery but, this is a snapshot of the potential.  It honestly took less than 2 minutes and is a great example of technology making teaching easier and not adding extra work.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I wouldn't say that I know Flickr inside and out but, we have been spending a serious amount of time together.  I uploaded some family pictures, edited them using Picnik and created a slideshow (with a link on my blog).  Creating the account and uploading the images was simple.  I would not use Piknik again (which is good since it is closing next month), but instead, as recommended by Richardson (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, p. 103) would do my editing prior to uploading my images.

The slideshow was user friendly.  I was able to add images and arrange them in the order I wanted, I had a few glitches along the way but nothing serious.  I love how easy it is to share using Flickr. I emailed the slideshow to my family and explored connecting it to my blog. 

Originally, I shared the images using blogger, from the Flickr website; this created a new post with thumbnails which seemed a bit more intrusive than I wanted for my family photos so I decided to add the slideshow as a link in my design instead.

This created a check on my inquiry to do list but, I was interested to see what I could do with Flickr on a professional level.  My plan is to take pictures of my students working on a Language Arts assignment which I will upload to Flickr and then post on our class website.  Then, using the annotation tool, I will have them comment on their contribution to a group display for the same unit.  As Richardson promised, the annotation tool is really great for highlighting parts of an image.  When you scroll over the image, boxes appear, scrolling over the boxes reveals the text.

In our class we do a lot of work on inferring and it hadn't occurred to me until reading Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Richardson, 2010, p. 105) that Flickr is the ideal tool for this.  Last year, to teach this skill I looked through old National Geographic Magazines and photocopied (in black and white) sets of images...how archaic of me! Needless to say the quality was terrible and the lesson, mediocre.  This year we will be in the computer lab. 

Picture Book Apps

Recently I was in a workshop where a small portion of the time was dedicated to picture book apps. One of the questions asked to the speaker was "where do you find good apps and how do you know they are good?"  On Horn Book's blog, I came across an article which offers 8 criteria for a quality picture book app and a few recommendations. The criteria are:
 
- Is interactive but not too interactive 
- Creates meaningful counterpoint between all parts of the app 
- Makes use of the drama of turning the page 
- Puts users in charge 
- Is easy to navigate 
- Provides a joyful and surprising experience 
- Withstands repeated use 
- Adds to or extends the original story.


One app I explored was Oliver Jeffers, Heart and the Bottle.  This is one of the best picture book apps I have seen.  It takes a beautiful heartfelt story and truly brings it to life.  I highly recommend this to teachers, parents and teacher-librarians. 

I then found a follow up: a look in to the process of creating a picture book app.  Personally, based on the criteria from Horn Book, I do not find the featured app particularly appealing but it is interesting to learn about the process.

For reviews on book apps, I have been following Digital Storytime which reviews apps for children's books, and Smart Apps for Kids where a Dad reviews apps, with his kids, and posts recommendations and a daily free app. I like this site and am feeling very advanced for being one of the first RSS subscribers. 



Misuse of Technology

Recently I have heard two unrelated news clips on different aspects of cyber bullying. Daniel Radcliffe, in a recent interview, expressed concern for the popularity of social networking sites. His opinion is that, because of the 24/7 nature of the internet, high school students who are being bullied cannot get away from it and it is leading to an increase in teen suicide.

A rising phenomena in adolescent girls has been to post their picture with the question "Am I pretty or Ugly". Some of these pictures have more than a million hits. As you might imagine, the answers range from obscene to evil.

Although not late breaking news stories, they really started me thinking. What do we as educators, as parents, as members of society do to stop this negative effect of the new media age?

Some ideas for good citizenship are noted in this article from Mind Shift.  Also, I recommend the website, Define the Line, by researchers at McGill University; a site which, according to Mind Shift, "was recently awarded a digital citizenship grant by Facebook to help further its work in creating materials to open dialogue about finding the line where joking crosses into negative or criminal behavior. The site includes videos and scenarios designed to enhance discussion of real-world digital topics."

(both news segments were on CKNW News 1130)

Tweet Tweet

On News1130 (Lower Mainland news radio station - February 3, 2012), a study was referenced about the increase in teen use of twittering.

It stated that with everybody, including Grandma, on facebook, teens were looking for new social media outlets. Some of the positive aspects of twitter from a teen perspective is the ability to have multiple accounts and the anonymity of the accounts. They also enjoy the limit of characters per tweet.

Esther was also thinking about tweeting and had this to say "Both Richardson and Maiers in our class texts discuss how to blog effectively for academic purposes. I think this is a discussion we need to have regarding tweeting. I remember being really turned off of tweeting when I was reading personal things about TL's I was following that I cared absolutely nothing about, like a leak in their roof or how tired they felt. Like the study suggests, I definitely prefer reading about relevant new information or being engaged in a dialogue." (see links for article)

My thoughts: Thank you Esther for the great lead in because, I can see a large amount of the teen population tweeting about bad hair days and nothing good to watch on tv...trivial things. Mind you if they are just tweeting with their friends then the subjects might not seem so trivial.

Now, I quite obviously (from my lack of knowledge) don't tweet so perhaps I am off the mark but, is it basically the same thing as a text message other than being sent to followers? If so, will texting become outdated?

Will facebook go the way of myspace? Did myspace go away?

Little Bloggers

In Richardson's book, he sites the NetDay News fact that "the fastest-growing age group for using the Internet is 2 to 5 year olds." (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 2010, p. 7) For me this statistic was thought provoking. I can not decide if this is positive for society or not. I see many benefits to technology and negatives as well. How does this affect the traditional development patterns of children? Will their socialization suffer? Will some skills develop earlier and some later? What will it mean for Kindergarten students in the next few years entering the public school system? In the classroom I see that technology can be a true equalizer, allowing student to demonstrate their abilities in so many forms; I am really curious about the implications of this in society and education.

In his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001), Mark Prensky offers and amusing, insightful account of today's children.

Since technology is here to stay, join the evolution with some of these recommended apps for kids.

My son is in kindergarten and he has been using the iphone or itouch since he was about 2 1/2.  Some of his early favourites were matching games and tracing letters.  He then moved on to variuos puzzles and math games.  Now, he explores ipads with a buddy class once a week.  Some of the apps they have been using are: Teach me kindergarten (general), Alphabet tracing (proper letter forms), Bugs and Buttons (patterns and sorting), and, my son's favourite, Math Ninja.

So simple most of us would never even consider it

How do you teach students to "google" effectively (because, like it or not, they all "google")?

Check out this link.  It offers a simple strategy that is very usable for elementary students.

Rolling Along

My blog is actually starting to resemble something aesthetically pleasing. I am getting the hang of the features, or gadgets and streamlined the appearance of some of the blogs I am following. I also managed to import my feed subscriptions (I knew there would be a way) and add the link to my autobiography (I wonder if I could embed the movie...hmmm). 

Like I said, signing up for Google Reader, breezy, actually following it, not so much. I have actually avoided it like the plague because the thought of reading 66 posts was a bit too much too handle, needless to say, when it reached 91, I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Some of the best advice I have been given on this journey (Thank you, Joanne) was to mark them as unread and start fresh. 

I literally gave a sign of relief when I did this, I feel so light and giddy now...I actually look forward to reading some posts when they come in.  I am mastering the art of skimming for interest or relevance and have found a few things of interest. I have also come to the realization that there are probably some blogs on there that I would not choose to follow so I will do some tweaking; and I still need to add some that interest me.
If you love random facts (I do) Stephen Abram's posted a great video on his blog Stephen's Lighthouse debunking 10 myths; worth the 4 minutes to watch it.

Say Cheese

In keeping up with my investigation of 2.0 tools, I have downloaded from CNET photoscape software to begin editing photographs. This is a very new endeavour for me.  Other than rotating an image, and to be honest, usually I just tilt my head to the side for viewing, I had never used photoediting software but, I think I have found my new hobby! I have been exploring the software quite regularly (a great procrastination tool) and have printed many and even framed one of the photos I edited.  I also updated my profile photo with a picture of me in Arizona (which I enhanced and cropped). That's one item off my to do list.  Even with no knowledge of the different terms used in photography, I was able to easily manipulate my photographs, starting with trial and error and progressing to ease and some proficiency. 

This is my first attempt:

In addition to editing individual photos, photoscape offers a myriad of other tools.

Using Animated Gif I made a little Western movie.

It was as easy as clicking on animated gif, dragging and dropping images from my computer and setting the time for each picture to display.

Step One

Well, here it is, the first Sunday in February and what have I accomplished.  I explored blogger a bit and found lots of fun features.  By choosing design, and then add a gadget, the options for enhancing a blog are bountiful.

I added the blogs for my group members and a little heading above them. 

I have a Google Reader account just like Richardson (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 2010) said I would.  Will (hopefully he doesn't mind me calling him that) actually walked me through the whole process (p. 73 - 75) and it was pretty easy.

My "how-to" manual

I am excited to think that finding information may not be like panning for gold anymore. I put in a few test search phrases and then got really off track reading various blogs and websites. 

But, I reeled myself back in (not wanting to be up all night outweighed my desire to wander) I subscribed to the recommended list and even made a folder. The tough part will be actually following them.

The Harsh Reality

I am a novice! I am a bit ashamed; I really thought myself more technically literate than that.  After reading Kist's The Socially Networked Classroom (2010), I really thought I was ready to "walk the walk".  With my feathers plumped, I dove into Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (Richardson, 2010) even though I am so computer savvy I really didn't need to; wow...I can't even "talk the talk"!

Reading Richardson, made me realize that I truly am a beginner.  I do not have the foundation I need to pull off a web enriched classroom.  The list of things I don't have any idea how to do is so vast, it honestly gives me a bit of anxiety.

I was ready to embark on this amazing journey and I feel like I am on the train ready to go but, the wheels fell off and I am sitting in the mud (well, at least there are no other trains coming down my imaginary track, yet).

I realize now that I am computer literate, in that I can make programs work for me through trial and error, but I am not at all web literate.  Creating my autobiography of a technology user started to put this in perspective for me, I truly have no basic knowledge of how to manipulate and use the amazing resources available to me in a powerful, meaningful way.  I was able to create a movie which is exciting and I am proud of it, but I couldn't work the camera angle feature to maximize the visual effect.  

When I viewed the prezis (and glogs) made by others and it knocked my socks off.  It really highlighted for me my shortcomings.  I couldn't even figure out how to make some of the features play, let alone create them.  Yet, I purposely didn't choose this format because I had created one in the past.  Now I see that what I made was a very basic sampling of what a prezi can do, not a showcase of the interactive, powerful presentation tool it truly is.  I have a lot to learn!

So, I shall shed my sheep's clothing and show myself for who I really am; time to stop pretending I am an intermediate user and become one!

In the Beginning

Well, I dusted off my old Blogger account (I haven't used it since my last course assignment requiring a blog) and it wasn't really as easy as I expected. The first problem was remembering which tool I had actually used to create my blog.  After checking a few websites I decided that Blogger looked the most familiar and blogspot sounded right, I was off to the races...except I couldn't remember my user name, or password...

I think I would have called myself an intermediate web 2.0 user, if it weren't for these obviously novice mistakes.  I guess that lands me somewhere in between novice and intermediate.  I like technology and I love using it in my class but it is really my quest to become a Teacher Librarian that has propelled me to actually use it instead of just talking the talk.

On the personal side of my life, email, the odd skype with my Mom, and a bit of online shopping are the extent of my technology adventures oh and I love to text - only because it means I don't have to answer the phone.  Professionally, I am somewhat more connected to this century.  I have developed a website for my class and we are blogging about a book we are reading.  This is a big step for me as I hadn't even read a blog until I began my diploma...it was a course requirement.  My students are very starry eyed about this learning platform but, I need to pull up my socks a bit - I haven't even looked at the website this week!

I guess it would be fair to say that my course assignments spur my web 2.0 adventures.  It is wonderful because I have successfully created a prezi, an animated movie, a wiki I just remembered (of course I don't remember where it is) and a few blogs but, I do not know how to use some of the most basic tools available.

I guess there is no time like the present to learn those tools; let the adventure begin!

Inquiry Proposal

Originally, I had planned a combination of tools designed for advanced and intermediate users for my Web 2.0 Inquiry.  Now, seeing myself for the novice I am, I stopped focusing on the cool tools I could use and looked instead to my goals for this adventure*.

#1 - I want to create a multimodal presentation. 

I want it to have interactive images, video and my voice.  My Dad always said "anything worth doing is worth doing well" and though annoying to hear as a child, it is really true.  I realize now that some of my past creations were not this.  I want to show myself that I can create a presentation to be proud of. 

#2 - I want to be a more efficient user of the Web.

I want to be Web literate.  To me, this means being able to access information easily and effectively; and then, to actually use the information. 

#3 - I want to edit photos.  

I love taking pictures but I have never used a photo editor it is something I really want to learn how to do.

#4 - I want to build a strong foundation of knowledge that I can use as a platform for learning and teaching Web 2.0 tools. 

With my goals as the cornerstone, I looked for tools which would help me reach them.

#1 - Photoediting and Photosharing
#2 - Voicethread
#3 - Social Bookmarking
#4 - RSS and Blog Aggregators (i.e. Google Reader)
#5 - Blogging
#6 - Glogster

I tried to organize my time effectively, giving one to two weeks to explore a specific tool, especially during times where there is overlap or other commitments.  During my set exploration weeks, my weekly blog postings will serve as evidence of the trials and triumphs of my adventures.

*Technically it is an assignment but, to have value to me, I consider it an adventure I am choosing to embark on.