Thing #24 - Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

One of my favorite exercises was the LiveBinders application. I felt like this is something I could really use to enhance my classroom and help my students learn. Having supplemental activities and web pages readily available to my student will help them succeed in their studies at home, which is probably where the most learning occurs. I also really enjoyed Twitter, and the other social networks, like LinkedIn. Although I haven't really delved into it too deep I think it will benefit both my personal and professional life.

I don't think my lifelong learning goals have really changed too much. However, I definitely have a renewed appreciation for technology and its use in the classroom. Truth be told, I think I learned more from this program than I expected to. I guess I already thought I knew most everything about using technology in the classroom and now I know that I was wrong. For example, I had no idea Creative Commons, LiveBinders, Delicious, or Animoto even existed.

Some of the "things" assigned as part of the program seem a bit tedious. For example, I think I would eliminate #6, #9, and #14 and replace them with other, more constructive "things", that would help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. 

These exercises changed the way I think about technology in the classroom. There are numerous methods for me to share ideas, websites, and videos online with my students. There are also applications that will help me stay better organized, which I definitely need. I plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0 by subscribing to different news feeds that circulate around the changing scenery in web 2.0 interfaces.

Thing #23 - Creative Commons

Regarding evidence for 23 Things being based off someone else's work, there is a tab on the side bar that reads "credits". This is where you will find credit given to previous creators of 23 Things' ideologies. Additionally, on the homepage of the 23 Things Project there is a note at the bottom that cites this project is loosely based off of the website 43 Things and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

Creative Commons is a great place to make your educational discoveries and work freely accessible to others. Conversely, Creative Commons enables you to find educational content that is free to use in your own classroom.  I will definitely use this licensing platform for certifying my work (lesson plans, activities, professional development plans, etc.) and helping other teachers make their classrooms more effective for learning.  That's what it's all about right?  We want to help each become better educators so why not share content and ideas?

Thing #22 - LiveBinders

The titles of my binders are Biology II - Evolution, Biology II - Natural Selection, and Biology II - Speciation. LiveBinders are very useful for categorizing webpages, articles, and videos I find that can be used as supplemental material for my students. Additionally, I could always use my LiveBinder files as a back-up in case my original lesson plan doesn't pan out like I want. It's always a good idea for teachers to have a Plan B in case instruction needs to be changed up. I could even use LiveBinders to assign homework to students; each student would be required to find one supplemental resource on the topic we are covering and download it to the class LiveBinder.

  

Biology II - Natural Selection Binder

Thing #21 - Animoto

"Light"

Animator is a very interesting and useful application. It took a while for me to figure out how to get it embedded into my blog, but once I did I was pleasantly surprised. For my video I used photos from my France's Flickr account. She took these photos in her photography class at Austin Peay to represent different forms of light. I like how easy Animoto makes it to create videos.  Also, it's only $5 per month to create full length videos.  I could make short clips of activities going on in my classroom and post them onto my Twitter or blog for my students and parents to view. I could even use this in my classroom and have students make introductory videos of themselves.

Thing #20 - Beyond YouTube

I embedded a YouTube video below of Bill Gates addressing what America needs to do to make their teachers great. I thought this video was interesting because its coming from a non-educator viewpoint and it's relevant to my career. I liked YouTube's ease of use and the fact that you can subscribe to certain video authors. The one thing I didn't like was the fact that most of the videos on YouTube aren't worth viewing. It would be interesting to have my students create videos to explain various concepts from my class and see what sort of feedback they get from their peers and the public. My classroom website would definitely have an archive of YouTube videos that compliment the curriculum we are going over in class. Students can use these videos as a resource for doing homework and studying for tests.

One of the new tools I visited was Vine. Vine is a platform for people to make short videos (up to 6 seconds) that are to be shared with others. I could have my students use Vine to make a short clip of them introducing themselves or stating what they want to learn about this year in my class. I could then compile the videos into one large file and show the class their creation.

Thing #19 - Beyond Facebook: Other Social Networks

The best uses of social networking are keeping up with peers, developing professionally, joining interest groups, relaying messages to students, and being available for contact almost 24/7. I'm not a member of any online communities, period (aside from my made-up Twitter account). However, having done a little bit of research on the benefits of social networks for teachers, I think I will start to use Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter will help me communicate with others in my academic community and LinkedIn will help me develop my professional portfolio and network. Additionally, I liked the idea of joining a book network, such as Shelfari or GoodReads, because I like to read a lot of fiction novels.

Thing #18 - Exploring Social Networking

I created a twitter page with the username of BorderCollieLover because I love that breed of dog and I wanted to remain anonymous. I use to have a twitter account but I deactivated it about a year ago because I never used it. I feel like having a classroom would be a good opportunity for me to bring twitter back into my life. Teachers need to understand social networking so they can better understand their audience (students) and enjoy their personal lives. I never really got into the whole hashtag frenzy, but now I see why it's so popular. It's like a shortcut to finding the feeds that are relevant to you. I liked the vast amount of information I was exposed to upon my hashtag search, but I didn't like some of the jargon that came along with it. As a teacher I could have a twitter feed that updates students on school news and assignments for my class. By having my own account I could tweet at the school's homepage as well.

Thing #17 - Tagging and Social Bookmarking with Delicious

Delicious is a very creative and useful tool. I, personally, had no idea sites like this even existed. It makes sense to be able to categorize your bookmarks with tags and share them with others, but I guess it just never really occurred to me that I would need a system like that. I can use the 'public' feature of delicious to share sites regarding class content that I find useful with my students. I can even categorize the sites by subject area with tags so my students can easily find relevant sources for their studies. It's not just students that can benefit from delicious either. Teachers can use the site to share resources they have found on instructional methods, course content, professional development, and many many other things.

Thing #16 - Getting Organized with Web 2.0 Tools

I created my start page through www.netvibes.com because I liked the layout of the site and it had many different options for me to customize my page. I really like the newsfeed app and how the site already has very common apps available to you for download. If I were to invest a little more time into it I could probably make it a pretty cool and productive home page.

I produced an online calendar through 30boxes.com. It's really useful for scheduling important dates, getting stuff done and remembering birthdays among many other things. Regarding school, I could use this site to make a calendar for my class that I would be able to share with my students online.

One of the tools that I found most useful and would recommend to others is the PDF Converter. This useful tool converts images and documents into PDFs, which are more commonly used in the professional world.

Thing #15 - Wikis

After watching the video on wikis and editing a part of the RSS feed portion of the APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki, I have come to a better understanding of how wikis work. I can use wikis in class as an organizational tool to plan anything from field trips to in-class group activities. By opening up a wiki page to my students I am allowing them to give their input on class subjects and activities. I could also use a wiki page as a platform for answering questions from students. Additionally, my students could resume their group work, which began in school, at home by collaborating on a wiki space.

The possibilities are endless. I find the concept of wiki pages to be somewhat revolutionary. I guess it takes a little bit of trust in one another to open up a wiki page for all to edit and save content to. However, that is the way students learn best, by sharing ideas and working with one another, not necessarily for the teacher.

Thing #14 - Mapping My Mind and Figuring Out the Flow

For the flowchart application I chose www.gliffy.com because it was the most user friendly of the two (I didn't have to wait up to a day for permission to use it). I might use this tool to create graphic organizers that help my students better understand biological concepts. Additionally, this application would be especially useful for having students create food webs or energy diagrams in class.

For the mind map activity I used www.mindmeister.com because the thumbnail for it looked like a brain, and for some reason that resonates with me. Anyway, I would use Mind Meister for my personal use as a to-do list. My brain kind of goes in all different directions sometimes so I thought this application would be fitting. Within my classroom students could use this tool to brainstorm and organize their ideas. This would benefit the students in their writing as well as in problem solving scenarios.

Thing #13 - Google Drive

Here is a link to my Google Drive Document!

My students will be able to use Google Drive as a collaborative tool because it is so easy to share information and ideas on this platform. One of the major applications students can use this tool for is drafting group projects. They can share their progress with one another and add to each other's work until they come up with a finished product.

Zoho and Google Drive are very similar in the fact that they allow users to create word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations among many other things. However, I feel as though Google Drive is more user friendly, but Zoho has more to offer businesses. I'd prefer Google Drive just because it's more universally known and I don't intend on using it for business purposes. I even designed a cute drawing of my dream pet (below) in Google Drive. What's not to love?

Dog Drawing

Thing #12 - Exploring Google

Google scholar was the first tool I explored. This tool allowed me to search for peer-reviewed scholarly articles with ease. I could simply type in a subject of interest to me and any research studies that had been performed and written about in a professional journal were available to me. Google even noticed that I was an Austin Peay student so that any journal article available through APSU's library were now available to me online through a link next to the article. Another unique feature was that you could cite articles in many different formats just by clicking cite underneath the article header. I could implement this tool in my class whenever my students are writing a research paper for me or whenever I need to freshen up my own content knowledge in the sciences.

The other tool I investigated was the alert system. This tool sends an alert to your email whenever a feed is made regarding your subject of interest. I made an alert to send any important information regarding "Cystic Fibrosis Kalydeco" to my email as it happens. This will allow me to stay on top of this information immediately as it becomes available. I thought this was a very useful tool for the classroom because I could have my students set up an alert system for any feeds that pop up on my classroom blog.

Thing #11 - Finding Good Feeds

All of the methods for finding feeds were relatively easy to navigate, but if I had to choose I would use the Google Blog search. It's as easy as typing in your topic of interest in the toolbar and clicking search. Immediately, a list of the premier blogs related to your search pop up. I also liked using blog search engine because it had thumbnails next to the different blogs. Technorati was easily the most confusing. First, you had to choose between a post or blog search. Secondly, the blogs weren't an any particular order of importance or popularity from what I could see. Lastly, half of the links I clicked on for blogs I wanted to visit didn't even work.

I found a few useful feeds. One such feed was about high school girls soccer in TN. I was particularly interested in this feed because I coach high school girls soccer. Another feed I decided to follow was regarding eating a completely raw diet. I thought this blog was very interesting and unique. I found it was very hard to eat a completely raw diet but the author found marvelous benefits from the change in lifestyle.

One method I found for finding newsfeeds was to look at what other bloggers were using. To add to my newsfeed I would simply just look for the universal orange icon or subscription logo.

Thing #10 - RSS Feeds

I really like the convenience of RSS readers. It was very easy to create my Feedly account and subscribe to various blogs and sites. I subscribed to things I was interested in for the most part, such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Sports Illustrated, Science journal, and CNN. I found it much easier just to get on my Feedly account and check out all the new feeds from my sites rather than visit each one individually.

I can use this technology in my class by having my students subscribe to my podcasts. In this way, they can review a topic we discussed in class right at home. This would be especially helpful for students who miss class time. Another way to use RSS would be to have my students blog their homework to me. I can use an RSS interface to check if they have completed their work and even give them immediate feedback on their progress. Personally, I can use RSS to keep on top of news that's relevant to me. RSS is a simple way to save a few minutes in my hectic day.

Teachers can also use RSS as a method for professional development. Teachers can follow different feeds through an RSS platform and discuss what they have found with their colleagues. RSS helps fuel collaboration which fosters an environment for effective teaching.

Thing #9 - Image Generator

The image generator that I used was called the Warning Sign Generator. The site is very easy to find. I simply typed into google "image generators" and it was one of the first sites to pop up. The site is also easy to navigate. First you pick a template, then you pick an image, and finally you insert text. Here are a few of my creations below:

This application can definitely be used in the classroom as well. Teachers can easily use the application to make signs to decorate their classrooms with. Students may use this platform to make creative works of art regarding almost any subject.  As an assessment tool, this also assumes students have an enduring understanding of the material in order to transform it into a content-related, abstract graphic design. Image generators are very useful and can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Personally, I don't think I would use an image generator outside of my classroom.

Thing #8 - Mashups

To make my image (as seen below) I used the jigsaw creator on the BigHugeLabs mashup application. I took this photo in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the fall of 2012. My fiance and I climbed up to the tallest point on the mountain overlooking Brewer's Bay. I guess I could use mashups in my personal life if I wanted to get more creative with my photography but I don't really see myself delving too deep into the different applications. I'm not very artsy; however, I do think these applications could be used in the classroom.

One application I saw tracked photos that you took on a map, which I thought was pretty neat. This application could even be used in a biology classroom. Students could take pictures of the different flora and fauna in a particular area and map the different species using this application. It would be a great investigation exercise for the students.

In general, I think photo sharing is perfectly fine as long as it is used appropriately. Since regulating the traffic of photos across the web is impossible parents and teachers both have to be mindful of what children may be exposed to on the internet. The internet is a great resource, for better or for worse.

                                 

Thing #7 - Exploring Flickr

Flickr is a very interesting site. I didn't sign up for Flickr because I don't plan on making any albums myself, however, I do see how this site could be useful for sharing photos with friends, family, students, and parents. As I explored Flickr I noticed there are pictures on just about any topic you could ever want to talk about with students. In this way, teachers can use Flickr as a platform for discussion. Flickr is a great visual resource for students and teachers alike.

This is the photo (found below) I selected from Flickr. I typed in Clarksville and this photograph popped up. I really liked this photo because it caught nature in the act. I'm a pretty big fan of mother earth (being a science teacher candidate) and so I like photographs that reflect her power and beauty. The photograph was taken by Thanh Lay.

Thing #6 - Web 2.0 Tools

I selected Kickresume as my site/tool from the list of Go2Web2.0 tools. This website helps users create an original CV that will help them land that dream job.  I really liked the layout of this website, it was easy to read and navigate. I really appreciated the "contact us" section where they genuinely explain their ideas and goals for the website. They also readily accept criticism and ideas from their users to enhance the site; now that is a sign of a good business. I also liked that they linked their site to facebook. This makes creating a profile easier and it's a way of showing your friends a cool resource you found. The only drawback to the site that I found was it is currently running in BETA version, which I guess, from what I gathered, is a slower platform with a few hiccups.

Kickresume.com is a simple website but one of the cool features is that you can save your CV on the site and come back and edit it whenever you need to. You can also save your original CV as a PDF file to your personal computer.

Kickresume could truly benefit students in high school who will soon be going out into the "real world" and looking for jobs. Integrating Kickresume into business class curriculum would be easy. However, it could also be added to any upper level ELA class as a business writing assignment.

Thing #5 - Perspectives on Web 2.0

Regarding Steve Hargadon's Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education, his viewpoint is dreamy but I don't think it will work. According to Mr. Hargadon, Web 2.0 is considered the read/write interface of the internet. This includes blogs, wikis, social networks, podcasting, and video/photo sharing sites. The basis of Web 2.0 is on social integration and collaboration, which I'm a big fan of. However, I don't think this technology classroom is doable with the current platform for our public education system. There is a grave disparity between resources available to high and low achieving schools and transforming the school systems to be completely reliant on technological immersion would only exasperate those issues. I also feel as though relying completely on technology takes away the human element of learning through dialogue and real social interaction. Communication isn't just what you say; it's facial expressions, body language, voice inflections, and tone. All these nuances of communication are lost in the cyber world. Lastly, it's utterly frightening that my own children may be plugged into this technologically dependent society. No society should be wholly dependent on their creations. Rather, humans should depend on their minds and stick to their roots regarding social interaction. To sum it up, use the technology and information to help students learn but don't let it consume you.

I believe School 2.0 means entering students into a cyber education program. Ironically, progressing into the future with technology-based education (School 2.0) means we would be regressing in society. Educating students doesn't stop with gaining knowledge. Children gain wisdom and build character through the hidden curriculum ingrained through the present-day public education system.

In the sense of making schools completely technological, administrators and teachers across the nation are going to be pressured even more to perform.  There will be new technological standards that may not be able to be met due to a lack of resources.  Overall, School 2.0 would be producing technological zombies and wizards rather than competent young adults.

Thing #4 - Commenting and Community

Commenting on other blogs helps create a sense of community through dialogue.  People learn, share, and grow through dialogue and collaboration.  People post blogs about what they are interested in and hearing other people respond to their interests fosters a sense of community and acceptance.  This online interaction is crucial to sustaining a blog.  You want to know people are hearing what you have to say and you want to hear what people have to say about your blog.

One interesting point on commenting I found was this: "Are you listening to the voice of your readers?"  A great blogger will respond to their followers comments.  Another interesting point to commenting I found was that there is a proper way to comment.  You should never be demeaning or use sarcasm.  Also, never attack the blogger.  Words are a powerful and should be used with care.

5 Classmate Blogs: 

I selected the blogs of my classmates (listed below) somewhat superficially.  Mr. Braem's 23 Things was on the top of the sidebar list.  Prufrock and Roll seemed very creative and interesting.  23 Things from Mrs. Cruise had gotten pretty far along in her blog of 23 Things.  23 Things had a great naked avatar.  Last but not least, I am friends with the author of KHS Chemistry 23 Things.  

Mr. Braem's 23 Things: http://mrbs23things.blogspot.com/: I commented on the fact we both had "play" as our easiest habit for lifelong learning.

KHS Chemistry 23 Things: http://khschemistry23things.blogspot.com/: I commented on her avatar.  I liked the fact that it was simple like she claimed to be.

Prufrock and Roll - 23 Things: http://prufrockandroll23things.blogspot.com/: I shared my support for her idea that technology won't and shouldn't take over the classroom.

23 Things from Mrs. Cruise: http://cruise23things.blogspot.com/: I made a comment relating to some pictures she made through Image Chef because they resonated with me.

23 Things: http://spinnock.blogspot.com/: I tried to give advice on how to correctly upload her avatar to her blog.

2 Alternative Blogs:

The two alternative blogs I chose (listed below) talk about things I am interested in.  One is a blog of a guy who has Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and the other is a blog about running.  I made one comment on the CF blog to encourage the man going through such a tough ordeal. 

http://runsickboyrun.blogspot.com/: I made one comment on the CF blog to encourage the man going through such a tough ordeal. 

http://naturalrunningcenter.com/:  I made a comment regarding a book I'd read about barefoot running.

Thing #3 - Using Blogs in My Classroom

Blogging is a great tool for communicating with my students as well as parents and colleagues.  By creating a classroom blog I can always keep students up to date on assignments, classroom updates, and any reading material I find of interest to them.  I could post questions daily about the current topic in class that students can comment on and, consequently, comment on each other's work as well.  Keeping a classroom blog will also help students who may have been absent find out what homework they may have.  Another way to use blogging in my class would be to have the students create a digital portfolio, posting their best work for the parents and peers to view and comment on.  This feedback is a great opportunity for students to develop. A student portfolio would provide a record the student could look back on for the entire year.

As many other teaching professionals have done, I can also create a blog for professional development purposes.  I can post about books I've read, lessons I've taught, and classroom management practices I've used among many other things.  Additionally, I can post ideas that I have for addressing common core principles and share these with my team at school.  Other teachers can post on my blog to foster an atmosphere of teacher collaboration.

A more creative way to use blogging would be to share a blog with students, peers, and colleagues as a platform for various interest groups related to science.  Blogging about relevant science issues, debates, and findings would not only help inform my students and the public on what's actually going on in the scientific community but it would help me to, per se, stay on top of my game.  Additionally, if some of my students are very passionate about a particular topic of interest I could allow them to edit and add posts to a blog reflecting their enthusiasm for the subject.

Thing #2 - Creation of My Avatar and Blog

Before Thing #1 I hadn't had any experience writing blogs and only minimal experience with reading blogs. The blog reading I did partake in was very irregular and consisted primarily of looking over the shoulder of my fiance as she perused through our old college friends' blogs. So basically, I know what they are and I know the premise for their writing.

My posting name is "Wes Mc". This still identifies me enough for people with whom I want to share in my blog experience but it leaves a level of anonymity for people I don't know whom just happen to stumble upon my site. The name of my blog is "Mr. M's 23 Things". I thought this was simple and to the point and again makes me semi-anonymous to random viewers.

Creating my blog was a rather easy process. Although it did take a little bit of time to get set up in the system with a new gmail.com account and get acclimated to the blogspot.com template, I thought it was a relatively quick procedure for integration into the blogosphere. I'll put it like this, blogging is definitely something I feel comfortable carrying into the future with me as a learning tool now that I've done it once before.

My avatar was created to look like me and reflect my personality. I wanted to create a real life representation of myself because I don't see any reason to pretend I'm somebody I'm not. My avatar has soccer gear on because coaching soccer is when I'm most in my element. I love coaching and so does my avatar. My avatar is has an almost ridiculous smile because I like to laugh, a lot. I try to find joy in my life and make others laugh in the process. The only problem with the avatar program could find was that I couldn't change the skin color for some reason. I am Caucasian so the stock "white" avatar wasn't a major problem, but I definitely don't suffer from albinism. Needless to say, I probably need to spend a little more time on building my avatar.

Thing #1 - Life Long Learner

The lifelong learning habit that is hardest for me is to "begin with the end in mind".  Truth be told, my mom always says I like to fly by the seat of my pants.  Obviously, I'm not a very effective planner (never have been) and I know that is something I'm going to have to really work on in order to reach my full potential as a teacher.  I need to practice making goals, both short term and long term, and finding the means to reach those goals in a structured manner.  I know I have great ideas and aspirations, but they would probably come to fruition much quicker with a little bit of foresight.

The easiest lifelong learning habit for me is to "play".  Matter of fact, I'm probably too good at this habit.  Now don't get me wrong, I am a hard worker.  However, it's not hard for me to unwind and relax a bit.  I love kids, which clearly bodes well for my career path, and I think the reason I get along with kids so well is the fact that I can still be one.  I am an adult with all the responsibilities of an adult but I still have that playful sense of a child.  In fact, my intuitive, child-like nature is mostly to blame for what drives my lifelong learning.

This first post went rather smoothly.  I haven't ever blogged before so this is all new to me, but I'm pretty apt when it comes to technology so I haven't really had any trouble so far.  I look forward to using Web 2.0 tools and seeing how they can benefit my classroom.  I know teenagers love technology and the more comfortable I am with different technological interfaces the more I can relate to my students.