Using the Things

Today I took my fifth graders to the computer lab and had them go to stripgenerator. Because Flash hadn't been updated in the lab we were a little slow getting started, but once everyone was able to use the application they had a ball. Each student was asked to create one comic strip that had something to do with our studies of American history--most chose the Boston Tea Party or one of the tax acts--and then a strip of their choosing. They printed their creations and gave me one, which I trimmed and posted on our classroom bulletin board. My students were very proud of their work (and had never been more focused in computer class) and other students who saw the work were suitably impressed.

Thing 23 I Made It

We have covered a lot of material in a relatively short time. Some of it I cannot see myself using, partially because I couldn't see a meaningful use for it (Twitter), and some because other tools seem better.
Now the time comes for choices. If I want my elementary age students to do research using sites I know are reputable and age appropriate, will I set up a wiki with links and explanations, or should I set up a class delicious account? Should I change from doing a daily blog, as I do at present, to a classroom wiki page? Should I plan to have students present their research projects next year as slideshows that can be uploaded to whatever type of website I decide upon? Will I really enter most of my library into Librarything? Would that site be more useful if I just joined a group, or read reviews? Do I want to remain a member of two Ning groups, or would it be more efficient to stay with just one, but be more active in it?

Of some things I am certain. I am certain that my students' brief time in the computer lab each week will be more profitably spent. I am certain that my students will be posting examples of their work to a website next school year. I am certain that I will make better use of the resources available to educators on the web, so that I can better integrate technology into my classroom.

I am also certain that I will be frustrated with the limited amount of time my students can be on-line during the school day, with the lack of Internet access in my students' homes, and with the limitations of our aging hardware.

As far as how I will continue to learn about web 2.0 tools? I suppose someone will explain them on plainenglish, or someone will make a post about a great new tool on a blog that I've subscribed to, or maybe someone will even Tweet about it and I might listen in.

Even if each of us decides to become adept at just one or two of these "things" we will be making progress. I have a feeling though, that becoming skilled at one web 2.0 application will actually just serve to whet our appetites for the next new development.

Thing 22 On Line Video

I have watched YouTube once in awhile in the past. I get a monthly newsletter from a book designer and she posts how-to videos to YouTube. When I taught high school students, they were always suggesting videos that I "really ought to see." Though I had heard of teachertube, I hadn't really looked closely at it before.

Our school does let us access both teachertube and schooltube, though we cannot go to YouTube. I looked at several videos on both those sites and some of them could be used in my classroom. The visual quality of some of the videos left much to be desired, but the brevity of the films was definitely a plus. The videos on schooltube appeared to be primarily student/teacher made, but some of the videos on teachertube are more professional in appearance. Since I am attending a TAH grant workshop that AIHE is partially presenting, I was particularly interested in the videos they have on teachertube. Certainly many of these videos could be used to introduce or reinforce information in the classroom. They might also be inspiration to students to produce their own films, or at least slideshows, of content material.

I watched a couple presentations on TED and though they wouldn't be useful in my elementary classroom, they are great thought provokers for those of us who need to escape the world of ten year olds on occasion.

Thing 21 Twitter

At least I knew roughly what Twitter was--for the tv ad that says a certain percentage of people don't. I looked at the links and videos and tried doing searches on Twitter, but I think I need more convincing on this web 2.0 application. Most of the twits (tweets) that showed up on my searches made little sense to me and seemed to consist of links to other short posts or other websites. Maybe this is something that one just has to plunge into to appreciate.

I suppose keeping up a running commentary with someone with whom one was working on a project would make sense, though I'm not sure the immediacy seems that vital--wouldn't email or blogs work. This first look at Twitter just struck me as a lot of people who either felt their every move was so important that they had to broadcast it to the world, or that they were so lonely they were trying to reach out to anyone who would listen.

There have been reports on the news of employers who check the Twitter posts of potential employees as part of their selection process which would suggest to me that one should be a bit cautious about what they decide to share with the virtual world, implying that perhaps taking a little bit of time to consider how one might be perceived based on their cyberspace persona would be prudent.

Maybe in time I will appreciate this application more, but this introduction to it has not convinced me that it is anything that I really need to focus upon.

Thing 20 Continued

Del.icio.us really works! I uploaded all my favorites from home very easily--didn't even have to do the export step--and tagged them on Monday. Yesterday I was able to upload my bookmarks from school! It was very easy even though I used the export-import method for the second group. Once I have tagged the school set my life should be much easier.

Thing 20 Bookmarking with del.icio.us

Under the user name of rebeccast I uploaded all 100 or so favorites from my home computer to the del.icio.us site and edited each to add a tag, deleting some that are no longer of use to me. I then added a few sites that I had not bookmarked before, but could not do so automatically even though the buttons appear on my toolbar. Maybe after I have logged off and then back on again they will be fully functional. I used the copy and paste method to add the last few sites.

Now instead of scrolling through the mishmash of favorites I can choose one of the many tags I used to find the site(s) I want.

It was interesting to see that some of my favorites were already bookmarked by thousands of people and others by none or just a few. Unlike the information in the tutorial, my imported sites were all private until I unchecked a box in the editing window.

This would be a great way to collaborate with other teachers. All the teachers attending the TAH grant workshop that I am in could set up a single account for the group to use to add useful websites we have found. In our own schools we could set up accounts by subject matter or grade. I think having one account for several of us to share would be simpler than sharing user names or searching all the bookmarks in del.icio.us. Since it is so easy to add sites and to add descriptions, sharing resources by using this social bookmarking would be as easy as bookmarking for my own use, and more accessible because of the tags. Groups setting up accounts could agree to certain tags they would use, adding others as needed. I could see suggesting to one of the learning networks that I joined that we set up a del.icio.us account for the group to use.

Why does it seem that these later tools are more useful than some of the earlier ones? Does that mean we're learning?

Thing 19 Social Bookmarking

Adobe Bridge has allowed users to tag photos for quite awhile, and though I haven't used that feature, I often regret that I haven't. Tagging websites though seems like a fabulous idea. I have a list of favorites at school and a list at home and invariably the site I need is listed on the other computer. Add to that the frustration of wading through the disorganized list of phrases that comprises my favorites list, looking for the one I vaguely remember, and using tags for social bookmarking looks better and better.

The feature that allows tags to be sorted with a + sign would allow me to refine my search of marked websites to separate the photography tutorials from the photography stores, and the social studies sites for teachers from the ones for students to visit.

As long as I overlap the tag lists of others at least some of the time, I can benefit from the research done by others and hopefully avoid some of the dead end, useless sites that come up in a search. I don't know yet how much of the description of the site will show, but it looks like there would be enough to let me know if someone else's photography or social studies site would be useful to me without actually visiting it first. Since the tag names can be edited, I should be able to make my list more useful to others and at the same time make other lists more accessible to me. This really looks like it could be extremely useful.

The only drawbacks I can wonder about are the possibility of someone tagging obscene material with innocuous tags, or some telemarketer somehow targeting people who tag sites in particular ways. I don't know if the second is possible, but some of those programmers seem to be able to do just about anything, and more junk mail is not what I want.

Thing 18 Professional Learning Networks

When I first checked out the links on the task page for Thing 18 I became quite confused. Many of the networks listed on the sites were by invitation only, so I couldn't see what was being done, but persistence paid off.

Signing on to Ning, I was able to search around and found two groups dealing with teaching social studies. One was the National Council for Social Studies and the other was I Teach Social Studies. Both were open to new members, so after looking around a bit, I signed up for both and even posted a comment on one. Each gives a number of links to helpful resources and both appear to be good places to bounce ideas off peers.

This type of network would seem to be very useful on a district or intermediate district level. Since we are all trying to teach the same curriculum content within the state, groups that could share their approaches, successes, and failures would certainly be pertinent to all involved in the same subject/ same grade level. We could notify each other of conferences, classes, workshops, and other resources. We could recommend various print and digital resources. We could explain techniques that worked and ask advice for ones that didn't. We could certainly vent our frustrations and celebrate our successes.

Within districts, this type of network could be used for coordinating planning of events, getting advice from peers, sharing information and resources, and notifying staff of professional development opportunities. Comments posted by members could assist planners in evaluating these events, resources, and techniques. This could be very useful for planning and keeping in touch during the summer as well.

Thing 17: LULU

I started out scrolling through the list of the top 20 Web 2.0 sites and looking through several of them. I was interested in the photo sites, but we have already used Flicker and Picasa. I checked out one of the spreadsheet sites, but decided I still had little use for spreadsheets, and eventually moved on to Lulu.

Lulu is quite an extensive publishing site. For the casual user, it allows one to create calendars with their own pictures, photo books, pamphlets, fully bound books, poetry books, and textbooks. There are template to choose from and text can either be uploaded or typed in at the site. For the more serious publisher, books can be created with the help of editors and designers (for a fee), can be assigned an ISBN number (for a fee), and can be posted for sale. With this type of self publishing, the actual copy of the book is not printed until a buyer has requested it, then Lulu prints and ships the book and the author gets a portion of the sales.

Books and creations can be made public on the site and people can read and comment on them. Forums and blogs about books and writing are hosted at Lulu. Each author can set up a "storefront" with the name of their choosing to display all their creations.

The introductory video claims that there are hundreds of thousands of individuals who visit and use Lulu, which would make it a seem like a good jumping off place for the frustrated writer. It also makes the site good for the niche writer/reader since quantity of sales is not a concern. The opportunities for discussion and research seem very promising.

I have made photo books at Shutterfly and compared the Lulu options with that. In Shutterfly I had made a book featuring old family photos and was able to add text about the individuals in the photos. In Lulu, I could add captions to photos, but not quantities of text. Shutterfly also gave me more flexibility in layout and more editing capabilities. I could upload photos once to Shutterfly and then use them in a variety of ways. In Lulu, photos must be uploaded separately for each project in which they are going to be used--a drawback, but at least they upload very rapidly.

Several years ago I wrote a short book about American architecture and illustrated it with drawing done in Adobe Illustrator. I also had created a book in Quark. Unfortunately, none of those files can be uploaded into Lulu. I exported several of the Illustrator images as jpegs and could upload them then but that didn't solve my problems. A "book" in Lulu must have at least 100 pages. Less than that qualifies for a poetry book. The templates for pages in the poetry book have rigid frames for photos and text. There is no photo editing capability for pictures uploaded that are a different height and width ratio, and in order to upload a full page of text, I had to copy and paste sections onto several pages of the book. I think the site would work better if the requirements for the artwork and the limitations of text were clearly spelled out so that pages could be designed in other programs to fit the templates.

The calendar option is easy to use. Photos upload rapidly to the site and the creation process lets one add notations onto days on the calendar--holiday, birthdays, etc. Again, some clear directions about file size and ratio before uploading would be useful. I'm not sure this site is cost effective for someone wanting just a single copy of a calendar, but probably would be for someone who is hoping to sell copies of one.

Projects that are in progress can be saved and worked on at a later time, which is a very good feature.

Lulu appears to have a great range of uses. Some projects can be created very simply, others would definitely require a great deal of planning and preparation. The opportunity to interact with a large number of people interested in similar topics is also a great feature. Like some of the other web 2.0 tools, this is one that merits more investigation.

Thing 16: Teach Digital

I came away with mixed feelings about the three videos. The first and last both seemed accusatory and made me react defensively. In the first, the argument seemed to have been reduced to black and white, when it seems certain that there are plenty of grays in between. The university students were speaking as if all college classes are lectures that ask only for rote memorization of facts. I earned my BA an awfully long time ago, and even then I had classes that required me to think creatively, to perform experiments, to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways. Since then I have taken a number of on-line courses and hybrid courses as well as traditional in the classroom courses that have encouraged discussion among class members, creative thinking, and the use of technology. Certainly there are professors and teachers who are teaching in the lecture/regurgitate style, but I would contend that they are becoming more and more rare. If these students really felt that they had a better way of expressing their learning than the ones their professors required, what was stopping them from doing so? Did they feel that unless they were receiving a grade for their efforts, their time and talents were wasted? Would not a demonstration of alternate ways of documenting proficiency make a stronger argument for changing the education system than just complaining?

In the third video, I kept waiting for suggestions. I was told that the "future is ours, you have to give it to us", and "teach us to think," but again, the message seemed to be more criticism than critique. I did appreciate the plea for allowing students to try and try again. In the 1970's I had a summer job putting together slide trays for teaching special needs students how to work in nursing homes. The technique was called "programmed learning" and after each bit of instruction the student was asked a question. If they had understood the instruction and answered correctly, they would continue, if not, they would back up and repeat the section again until they did understand. Many years later, when preparing for the math MTTC, I used a programmed text in analytical geometry, which allowed me to try, try again until I got it right. I guess my point is that much of what these students are calling for, exists already, we just have to make better use of the techniques. We also have to figure out a way that all the curriculum we are expected to cover can be packaged and delivered efficiently and effectively so that there is time for exploration and experimentation in our schools. Certainly technology can assist with that, but technology is a tool, not a solution. As a graphic design professor once told our class, "there is no keyboard button marked creativity".

I was most impressed with the second video, perhaps because I didn't feel accused, so didn't become defensive. The call to acknowledge and develop the "richness of human capacity" is so Biblical in nature, yet so difficult in practice! The demand to let people be wrong also struck a chord with me. I have known so many whole classes of students who had already come to the conclusion that there is only one right answer and only one way to reach that answer, and that the teacher had a secret key to knowledge that trying to get them to hypothesize, imagine, experiment, role play, or otherwise deviate from a textbook has often been akin to pulling teeth.

Though I did not appreciate the way the messages were delivered by the students, I do agree that we educators must be willing to be much more flexible in how we teach and how we assess learning. Ideally we would be facilitators of learning, not repositories of information, doling out wisdom at a prescribed rate. Students must also realize that this puts a fair amount of responsibility on them as well. They must also realize that technology is a tool and no amount of glitz can make up for a lack of content--on either side. Much of the argument here goes back to the very first videos we watched about learning in this century and the need for both teachers and students to embrace technology and fill their toolboxes with the best tools for the job.

Thing 15 Using Podcasts

More research has revealed that there are some content worthy podcasts that could be useful in an elementary classroom. The Williamsburg site, which I have gone to for other types of information, does have a number of podcasts, both audio and video that explain aspects of Colonial life. I listened to one about spies during the Revolution and another about the role of women during Revolutionary times.

http://www.history.org/media/podcasts.cfm is a website that has primary source documents and advice for using them in the classroom. This would also be useful in my classroom.

Since my students are young, I would see us viewing podcasts in the computer lab or the classroom and possibly linking to them in my classroom blog. Links could be added to our wiki page as well and these could then be automatically updated. I have a number of special needs students for whom reading the text is difficult, so any podcast that I could find that would duplicate the material from the text would be very helpful to them.

I suppose, if I were to get a microphone, we could podcast students reading or explaining the text on the wiki or blog. Supplementing the reading with slides and graphics would also help those whose learning style does not conform to the standard, "read the text". This would be a project, valuable to at least my students, that could be done partially by students.

Thing 14: Podcasting

So, I watched all the tutorial videos and went to itunes, Podcast Alley, and EPN to see some examples. I can see that having students make podcasts would be a very high interest activity for them and one in which they would be motivated to research, pratice, and produce their best work. I can also see that they and their parents and friends would love to watch the podcasts. However, I didn't find the elementary class podcasts that I watched to be especially informative or valuable to anyone other than the students who produced them or to students who wanted to create their own. So that means elementary podcasts are helpful to other elementary students if those student also want to make podcasts? As with any part of the web, the ease with which a webpage, podcast, or other post can be made does not mean that it is of particular worth other than an exercise in using technology. Technology for technology's sake?

The professional development casts that I found dealt mostly with producing technology, not with enhancing content or disseminating content.

I did find a podcast with digital photography tips http://feeds.tipsfromthetopfloor.
com/tftf that might prove helpful--though the lengthy introduction was a bit much. The grammar girl casts could be useful too--students often find it easier to listen to someone other than me when it comes to grammar http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx. I downloaded several interviews with authors from itunes--ones that my fifth grade students might enjoy. Probably the podcast that would generate the most excitment in my class though, is the Harry Potter prognostication podcasts from http://www.hpprogs.com/ .

Several of the sites that were listed as having podcasts did not make the viewing of the cast at all simple. I clicked on icons, links, hot buttons, you name it and sometimes I got lucky and other times no sound or video appeared.

After this ramble, I would summarize by saying that I think there is potential for the production of high quality educational podcasts that could be used in the elementary classroom, and maybe even produced by the elementary classroom, but the emphasis needs to be placed on content rather than technology--the technology should be seen as the vehicle for delivering the information, not an end in itself.