Week 6, Thing 14

VoiceThreads were really a great sharing tool. Students could really have opportunities to share their opinions and create a fun product to share with other classes, younger or older students, or as a way for small groups to present to their own classes.

Week 5, Things 12 and 13

Creating Wikis seems fun and easy. I can see the biggest drawback being only one person can edit at a time. The opportunities for collaboration are amazing. I think a wiki for RtI interventions would be one idea. If teachers could share intervention strategies in that format, it might seem easier to choose an appropriate and effective method.

Week 4 Thing 11

O.K. Wordle seems like lots of fun. I think the tutorial on using Wordle helped a lot with this exercise. The use of TagCrowd was not as much fun and did not produce clouds that I liked as well.
This is my Wordle of Google news for today. I liked that I could put it in alphabetical order and vary the text direction. I think students would find this a cool classroom discussion starter. Also, you could have students create Wordles from different sources and look for the common words and find out what they have in common or if it is a totally different meaning!

Week 4 Thing 10

I think the delicious bookmarking would be really great with online classes. Having the links to resources and reading all on your computer while participating in the class. It would be valuable for assembling approved sites for student research in any class. Also, I do lots of work on my home computer so favorites sites are not available at work. With this tool, I can be anywhere and access whatever sites I have been using. This is also a problem for students who need to work on projects at home and on school computers. This would be very helpful

Week 3 Thing 8

I posted on a blog from our Web 2.0 class. I liked the picture and the info about a display at her library. Getting teens to read literature can be a challenge, but making it edgy is a great idea.
I wanted her to know that I thought it was inspired.

Week 3 Thing 7

PLNs seem to be a great opportunity to share ideas with other educators. Many of the blogs seemed to be very political. There seem to be factions that are growing in support of more technology and at the same time for the status quo. Also, there seems to be those who are concerned that because the use of these tools is accompanied by 8-page responsible use documents, students will not only not get their full benefit, but also will want to stay away from these tools because of their potential for causing them trouble. It seems that as much as information is a good thing, not every blog can be considered valuable. The sifting of the wheat from the chaff may keep many from attempting to join in the fray.

The Flickr site has lots of potential for sharing. The chance of finding friends by logging in and searching for them seems small. I think its utility is more about using groups to share photos and videos with others who are interested in sharing similar subjects or photographic styles.
This is a photo from interesting things on February 25th 2009 - My 50th birthday. It also has the hot air balloons that have captured by attention lately.
There are hundreds of pictures for any day you choose.

In honor of the Colorado Springs balloon glow, I found this picture that gave me the rights to use as I wanted.

It seems that the internet and the creation of social networks, Youtube, Wikipedia, etc. has created the need for a whole new area for lawyers to find employment. I am not sure that this is such a good thing! The need to respect the creations of others is a good thing, though - so I think I will have to accept the growth of the legal profession.

It really brings home the idea of the responsibility for teachers working with these tools with students. Keeping everything ethical and within the rules for copyright and fair use laws, will make the teacher's job that much more complex. The access we have to so much content that is copyrighted has made this an area where teachers will be teaching not only the skills to use technology, but also the ethics and legal aspects of having access to an almost infinite supply of text, video, and audio product that "belongs" to others.

It was a beautiful Colorado day today.

My Inaugural Post

This is the beginning of a new technology journey. I will be posting to my blog on a regular basis to meet the requirements of a school district class.