summer learning

I hope my voicethread worked.  My little icon doesn’t appear around the side of the slide–but it shows at the bottom of the frame.  I hope that means it is going directly to me–as it were–and that others will see my icon and be able to hear my recording.

I failed to mention in my discussion of what I use that I have used the Writeboard every time.  I have had to switch between 5 or 6 computers over the summer–a lap top, one at grandma’s house, my classroom, my home computer and several times in the lab–and I found it easier to keep up with everything on Writeboard.  I also–following Duane’s tip–put all the links on my delicious page–so then I didn’t have to remember all the passwords.  I will spend some time changing all the passwords! to the same thing.  I used different ones as I added them bit by bit–but will try to get everything under the same password–not just ones for the summer course.  I hope to use these things during the year!

I feel like I learned a lot.  I feel like I could spend hours and hours more.  I also know that what I learned now will be “old” in a matter of months.  Just when I learn how to use something –like Nicenet–there are other options and attractions out there.  I still have a bit of frustration from having mastered blackboard and creating materials/links/etc. for that and then having to move to edline and I want to be sure that what I decide to use will be there for me in the future.

So, I hope everything got posted, listed, linked, you can hear it, etc.  I really liked being able to work on these things over the summer –doing nothing some weeks and catching up or moving ahead others.  This is my second online course and it was much “clearer” in the directions/requirements/ideas than my first (which wasn’t a technology course–a economics one.)

I found a book forum discussing summer reading and another for recommended books for children.  My personal interests would lead me to the book discussions. The discussion thread on Wikinomics (sp?) linked to a YouTube video with a presentation/discussion by the author.  That was great to listen to. There was also an interesting discussion on Quotes–but the first 5 postings were done by the same person. However, it went on for 8 pages, so I guess others participated.
I had to search more in the groups to find something interesting–but the “Five Minds” looked interesting and I may follow up and read the book.
In Tags I found information on Games in History and it had a link to a page of Games–these I will explore later–but I bookmarked it and added it to delicious for my dept.  I like to have the students go to the lab once or twice a year and just do lots of interesting games/activities to help them realize that it all doesn’t have to be research/writing, etc.
Why are all these members joining at 11 or 12 at night?  Obviously finishing up summer classwork–maybe?  The Video section had a few

YouTube video’s of what it is like to be a student in the world today–contrasted with 30 or 50 years ago.  I feel old.  I also need to show these to my students to get them motivated.  And I am going to ask David what guidelines we have for teacher’s expecting students to have access to technology–only at school?  at home?
I left the Ning in Education to check out Woodward!
Woodward Academy had two Nings–one still being set up and one I had to be invited to see/join.  I did see lots of school pages and one unofficial Jonas brothers Ning.  I think at this point in the class I am just overwhelmed by all the options I have and it will take time for me to sort through everything.  I clicked on Ning in Middle school–and found people had concerns.  It may be I just need to be walked through this more.

I really like the ability to listen to edtech talk while I check e-mail or surf the web for news.  A recent one asked what web tech should teachers know–and most of the things we have covered in the class made the top 5.  There was some discussion of delicious vs diigo and problems with younger students having e-mail addresses.  I suppose Woodward’s student e-mail addresses solves this problem.  They also mentioned something  called slideshare that I want to check out.  My favorite Freakonomics had a blog with a link about what things are getting cheaper.  I printed up the graphic that was linked to this.  Computers are down 90% in the last 10 years.  T.V.’s down 76%.  Cell phone service –except in the Scott household–down 32%.  Earnings are up about 38%.  Not bad–but not the way it seems.
NPR had an article about staycations–staying at home or close to home and taking advantage of what is local and inexpensive.  We did that this year–more because of scheduling conflicts and vacation money was invested in camps/school for children.  We simply went to a friends lake house with two other couples and ate out, grilled, took the boat around the lake and played board games.  It was great!  We also hit all the Shakespeare plays at Ga. Shakespeare.  It was nice to know we weren’t the only ones.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92933203&ft=1&f=1057

Pageflakes is something I will definitely use. I played around with it as much as my computer would let me. I am on my school computer and access to the K12 learning template and a few other things I tried –was denied. Woodward doesn’t trust me. I hope my e-mail to the system administrator will take care of this. But I think I got a few things loaded that I would like to keep. I’m not sure about the podcast from the NY times–or if the audio things will work. I clicked on pageflake central and it brought up stuff–I clicked on the topics I liked and asked it to change my page–but then I found it removed some of the things I had created (tasks and the calendar). Don’t know where they went. I will come back to this in a few days and see if I have been given more access to stuff. http://www.pageflakes.com/janet.fraysse.scott/

I think I would like to create a central page for my econ class –but I might start off with something about the election that could be shared with all classes.  I need to explore more and figure out what will provide enough information and interest and not overwhelm.  I also like the idea of the tasks and calendar–and plan to use these more.  What I really need to know at this point in time is what is going to be available on edline and where I want to put my time and energy for informing/updating students.

Because pageflakes can have limited participants–I would like to see smaller groups of students work together on individual projects–country studies or specific issues.  Pageflakes has a nice ability to have the students quickly see the most current information.  I really like that–and for more than the stockmarket numbers!

I discovered how long it can take to get anything done when there are distractions. I needed to add the information on my birthplace to the spreadsheet created for the class and I had to google information about my birthplace, famous person and fact. Since I left Germany at 6 months, I didn’t have any information and it took 4 or 5 minutes to identify the spelling of the place and then more time to get any information (other than weather.) Things seem to be easy—but not so much.
I created a practice document—pulled stuff off the budget and made up questions and a chart. I will have to work on finding out how to record/tabulate responses—just will take more time to look at other’s stuff.
I would use the spreadsheets to have my academic students keep up with assignments—much like we do. I think they would feel “rewarded” when they check off something as completed. I would like to use the presentations for basics on how to study—use what we have and create something for the department to share with all students. I also would like to create set “exam” review materials for all classes to reference—so it wouldn’t matter what teacher the student is assigned.
I would start with my Honors government students and let them edit a basic presentation.
Finally I would like to work up—with the department—something related to editorial cartoons and how to pull meaning from them. Each could select and add a favorite cartoon and guide the students through the analysis.

This is a video of the spread of Wal-Mart Stores across the U.S. I had this last year and saved it for my class computer–but now I will add it to the resource material for my students. YouTube has a lot of material for Wal-Mart (some interesting SouthPark) but much of it is negative and vulgar. I’d love to find something in the comedy area that doesn’t have so many forbidden words.
I also found a very nice video of the Beijing Olympics song. I will probably use this as an opening conversation starter for my World cultures class this fall. Who saw the Olympics? why controversy? what is your opinion of China now?
I then looked for the video of making a doggie diaper from a baby diaper (a current concern in our house.) This made me try a lot of different word combinations in the search box. I knew the video was out there because I had seen it at home–but I wondered how long it would take to find it on YouTube. It took about 4 minutes. winning combination –dog diapers using baby diapers. It showed how to put on the diaper–but referenced the video of how to make the diapers. Unfortunately, this is a how to video I might have to use in the very near future.
My for fun video was a search of what is out there for “1776″ a musical that I show to my Government classes. I saw clips from the movie and there were two very popular things to do with it. One was to set scenes from the movie to different music –christian rock, The Devil Came Down to Georgia, etc. and also there were video’s of students acting out the dialogue (songs) of the movie–not in costume really–but with props. This might be something I would have my students do to just get them interested in both the music and what message(s) the lyrics convey.

I couldn’t resist this one from TeacherTube–Supply and Demand review –but also government terms. I will definately use this one! And it does seem like something I could set up for my students to create for exam review. I think it is The Avengers music.  I’m not sure why it isn’t showing up on the blog.  I have posted it two ways–the HTML  code, the Teacher Tube directions to add it as code–but here is the link.

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=30937b99c0d247e9c383

This wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be—however—I had to crawl under the desk to get to the back of the computer and figure out where to plug in the microphone and the headphones. (No mike plug in on the flat screen that I could find.) But, I did and I made the podcast. Now just have to embed it and move on. Before I did my podcast, I listened to Mendy’s, Ed’s and Linda’s—plus a few more. I will listen to more for other ideas as they get added. I may even try to add a voice comment.)

I finally got back on my room computer (AP classes in my room) and then spent about 15 minutes trying to get the computer to play the sound for the SS Children New Media MP3. It wants to go to real player and I will have to spend more time figuring out how to have it go to iTunes. I listened to some of this last week in the lab and had no difficulty—so obviously there is something more I need to do to my computer. The information was interesting. Under the English section, I went to Mugglecast and heard a discussion of the press photo releases for the new movie and how they revealed information about the movie. There was also discussion of the movie trailers that are to be released.
I listened to NPR (subscribed to it) on Homework: Overcoming Fear—I thought it would be about homework—but it was about how people learned to overcome their fears—swimming, etc.
I could incorporate this into the class—but will have to think about what I want in terms of information and having the students work with something without me there to explain. I also like to use lessons from one year to the next—and yet keep things timely/current.
I do use some things on iTunes—for example: “Please Hello” from Pacific Overtures” is about foreigners coming to Japan and trying to impose Western trade on the people. I have the lyrics in front of the students—but they get to see the video and hear the song. This is something that I do in class—but they could do it on their own also. I think I might like to create something for a general overview of religion—and students new to the “Bible” would be able to get some background for history and literature.

Thing 16 Library Thing

I will enjoy this. I created an account and entered in mostly young adult literature and a few things related to American History or the current global economic situation. I think I will have to learn to not keep reading comments and reviews and suggestions and spending time on this site! Obviously the information I can now access for the economics books will help in the classroom–for me personally. I also think this would be a useful for a book group or for students that really like to share reading lists. I see this as something more for me than for my students.

Thing 15 Delicious
I had already set up a delicious account in a previous course, so I elected to not open one with the gmail address. I added a few things. I had been looking for a list of sayings or phrases from the Bible to have my World Cultures students learn or at least read through once. I believe it will help them with literature later on, as well as World Cultures. All computers at home have died—and my classroom at school is being used for AP Biology. So I decided I would simply work in the middle school second floor lab. Mozilla is not on these computers. I came up to the third floor lab—and found that the podcasts would not open on the student computers. I googled the podcast and found that I could view the creative commons one through teacher share. So, I have spent the morning learning how to get around all the obstacles. I then had issues opening my writeboard (I type everything there first and then put it into the blog) and had to get the e-mail password. (I had the correct address but for some reason it now has 123 in front of it. Oh well.) I also had to get delicious to send me how to change the delicious account password—cause what I thought was the password wasn’t working. Of course, it is in my classroom in my desk—but I couldn’t get in. So, now to delicious. I do use it and I do like the shared materials from my department. I need to get better at tagging things, but I suppose that comes with time. I have leared how to delete an item and retag it and did spend more time browsing. http://del.icio.us/janet.scott