My Feedly
I consider myself somewhat technologically savvy, but I honestly do not think I have ever encountered or seen RSS or newsreaders. It makes perfect sense that something such as this would exist because in today's society, we have so many sites that we check on a daily basis so why not have them all combined in one spot.
Although I do not really think that this is something that would benefit me in my personal life, only because I do not visit very many websites, but I do think this would be wonderful in the classroom. As a teacher, you want to always find new and fun ways to explore standards with you kids. RSS and newsreaders allow you to save your favorite sites and blogs to one location and scroll through all the different posts and updates to save you time and effort. That way you are not spending hours a night going from website to website trying to find a new lessons and activities.
This can also be used in a school since usually grade levels are usually grouped into "teams", which is where all teachers from that grade keep up with communications and plans with one another. The teams can maybe host their own blog each day or week where they share stories or issues with standards that they are having. Then, the teachers are then able to place all the additional teacher blog on their RSS and see an updated list daily and respond in an effective manner.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Thing 9
This was a lot of fun and most of the sites were easy to access and work. I chose two that I thought could really be used in the classroom. The first one I chose was Comic Generator , where I was able to go in and place one of my own pictures. Then I was able to choose what I wanted it to say in the word bubble and what the actual word bubble was shaped like. I chose another picture of my dog, because well, she's awesome. She is pulling "The Most Interesting Dog in the World" pose while I was trying to complete some homework. This would be so much fun in the classroom. There are an endless about of projects you could use this for. You could have a different kid each week who maybe did an exceptional job or did something nice for someone else and put what they did in the bubble with their picture to be displayed in the classroom. Or just have silly animals or characters with thought bubbles about activities for the week or maybe to display the homework or morning work each day.
The next image creator I chose to use was the ID Card- Image Chef . I was able to upload a photo of myself (I try not to take myself too seriously if I can help it), and place it in a business card and edit the top and bottom section to my specifications. I was also able to add a little emblem beside my name. Of course, if I were using this in the classroom seriously, I would put a more professional picture of myself but for this, I decided just to have a little fun. This would be a lot of fun to do with kids. You could have them place their picture, name, and grade inside and even print them out for them to wear around for the first week or so of school so you can get to know them better and they can know each other better as well.
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The next image creator I chose to use was the ID Card- Image Chef . I was able to upload a photo of myself (I try not to take myself too seriously if I can help it), and place it in a business card and edit the top and bottom section to my specifications. I was also able to add a little emblem beside my name. Of course, if I were using this in the classroom seriously, I would put a more professional picture of myself but for this, I decided just to have a little fun. This would be a lot of fun to do with kids. You could have them place their picture, name, and grade inside and even print them out for them to wear around for the first week or so of school so you can get to know them better and they can know each other better as well.
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Thing 8
Holy cow! Since I have never used Flickr, I never knew about all these mashup tools that you can use to explore and create. It is actually really cool. I chose the word "Special" because I think every child in education needs to know that they are special and wonderful. I also explored the Colr Pickr which was really neat. You choose a color from a color wheel and it selects about 11 pictures from Flickr that are that color or have that color in it. Then you are able to click on each picture individually and see the Flickr in which it comes from.
This would be a fun tool for kids to use because you could create a project where they have to spell out their names or each child is given a color and they have to find and source where they got all the pictures from. It seems as thought there are endless activities for nearly every subject that you could use these tools. As a teacher, you can use these tools as a neat way to decorate documents or even your classroom.
I touch on the photo sharing topic in my previous post but I believe that as long as you as an individual have nothing to hide and stay appropriate, sharing photos online can be fun and create a wonderful sense of community. You can find others who love and appreciate that same things you do, like movies, art, or food. Then share your experiences through photos. However, people often do not know where to draw the line and as teachers, we need to stay professional and respectable.
Thing 7
I loved the idea of sharing pictures with my classmates and I knew exactly which two. As I have mentioned before, my husband and I are nerds. We enjoy comic books and television shows about traveling through time and space. It is something we share and really have fun with together. My husband works with computers and travels quite a bit but when he is home, he is also an artist. He is really very talented and our house is filled with his wonderful paintings. He does a lot of beautiful pieces but he also does some really fun ones. Lately, he has been working on a series of Star Wars back stage shots that are super cool.
The other picture that I wanted to share was of our dog. I am a huge animal lover and we used to have two dogs and a cat. My dog passed away last year so now we just have our welsh corgi and cat. My cat is awesome (don't get me wrong) but our dog is some kind of special. Her name is River and she is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. My husband had her as a puppy before I met him so I really got lucky with her. She is the most affectionate, loving, hilarious dog I have ever met and I am just so proud to be her owner. It seems silly to some to put so much love into their animals but mine are truly special. When my husband travels, they keep me company and make sure I don't get too lonely or sad. I am just very thankful.
Flickr could be a wonderful tool in the classroom. You are able to find pictures on nearly everything and it may even be fun to do some sort of photo scavenger hunt with the kids to help their searching techniques. The program I am going into is Special Education, and I would love to work with the severe and profound, which may not allow me to work with Flickr as much as other classrooms. It would be great to work with for personal photos or just photo searching in general. Like most photo hosting websites, you can usually find some pretty amazing photography. I used to use Photobucket when I was younger to hold my photos in one online, safe place. However, I haven't used that in a very long time. Now the only photo sharing websites I use are Pinterest and Instagram.
Pinterest is where you can pin photos you find on your page and sort them into boards. You are also able to upload you own photos that can be placed in a category for others to explore and search. Pinterest is very much like Flickr except the set up different and a little more organized and structured, which I enjoy. Instagram is a photo sharing social network that allows you to post pictures of anything you would like to (expect inappropriate post) so your friends can see them.
I have a few different views on having my photos in a public place. My Instagram account is usually public because there is nothing that I place on there that is inappropriate or incriminating. It is usually just pictures of my animals doing funny things or me or my friends and family. However, I do understand that more and more, companies and schools are looking at social networking sites (especially Facebook) to see if their employees or applicants are posting inappropriate things that can be seen by others, including parents or students. It is an interesting dynamic to today's society but it is clear that people need to watch what they put on the internet. It seems to be getting people in more and more trouble.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Thing 6
The site I chose to explore on Go2Web2.0 was called Path. Path is a new brand of social networking site that is ad-free and if focused around sharing moments in your life and experiences with your closest friends and family. It has options for private messaging, sharing photos, music, and videos. the application focuses more on your private and personal life rather than the overly public life of some social networks like Facebook.
Many of the aspects of Path are the same of other social networking sites, like you can choose who sees your posts, posts moments in your life and filter your feed to just your family and friends. But there are several other interesting factors to Path. You can message your friends and family with text, voice, or stickers. It allows for so many expressive and creative ways to communicate with those you love while expressing yourself and your individuality. Below, I placed a picture of what the front page of my Path app looks like. It seems very user-friendly as well.
I love the expressive and private nature to Path. I think it allows for communication on a much smaller network with fun features that provide expressive creativity. However, the one aspect I don't like right off the bat is that they have a store where you have to purchase all the stickers and even filters for your photos. As an avid user of Instagram, the idea of purchasing filters is absurd to me. They should offer a start pack of stickers and filters like several apps do so users don't HAVE to purchase them in order to see how to use them. Other than that, the app seems really wonderful and creative.
Although it seems this application may not be useful in a school or library setting, I believe there are many ways it can be used. Teachers can use Path to directly communicate within smalls groups, message each others, share videos and pictures of maybe their classrooms set-ups for ideas. They can ask questions to each other and share stories and ideas online when they aren't able to speak in person. It could even create a stronger bond between teachers.
Many of the aspects of Path are the same of other social networking sites, like you can choose who sees your posts, posts moments in your life and filter your feed to just your family and friends. But there are several other interesting factors to Path. You can message your friends and family with text, voice, or stickers. It allows for so many expressive and creative ways to communicate with those you love while expressing yourself and your individuality. Below, I placed a picture of what the front page of my Path app looks like. It seems very user-friendly as well.
I love the expressive and private nature to Path. I think it allows for communication on a much smaller network with fun features that provide expressive creativity. However, the one aspect I don't like right off the bat is that they have a store where you have to purchase all the stickers and even filters for your photos. As an avid user of Instagram, the idea of purchasing filters is absurd to me. They should offer a start pack of stickers and filters like several apps do so users don't HAVE to purchase them in order to see how to use them. Other than that, the app seems really wonderful and creative.
Although it seems this application may not be useful in a school or library setting, I believe there are many ways it can be used. Teachers can use Path to directly communicate within smalls groups, message each others, share videos and pictures of maybe their classrooms set-ups for ideas. They can ask questions to each other and share stories and ideas online when they aren't able to speak in person. It could even create a stronger bond between teachers.
Thing 5
School 2.0 appears to be the inevitable development of education and technology. As a society, we are advancing further and further into the age of technology that education was clearly next. In classrooms, we already use so much technology, like smart boards, laptops for power points, and computers for student activities and projects. School 2.0, to me, means that we are about to embark on a new and adventurous form of teaching that will takes us to places we have yet to explore, and it will bring new benefits to both teachers and students.
School 2.0 is going to explode in the future and many of the articles represent some of the new aspects to teaching that this program will offer. This includes distance learning programs, free and open source software, and video conferencing. Since School 2.0 is basically a combination of home, school, and community, there are other tools offered through several websites that combine these areas. They have community tools which will enable teachers and students to communicate, share their work, and collaborate on programs and assignments. They have mobile tools for pod-casting, blogs, media sharing, and even quizzes or tests.
There are so many benefits to School 2.0 because it makes work interactive and allows all students to participate. It also creates a huge tidal wave of information and endless amount of activities and assignments that can be offered. The only downside to School 2.0 that I can think of, is that there may be a disconnect with some students who do not translate their work through technology well, such a special education students. There would have to be seperate guidelines for special education classrooms to allow the students to complete work with the help of their teachers or parents, if they are not able to manipulate a computer well.
Other than that, I think School 2.0 is a wonderful way for students to get interactive with their work and great for parents to get involved with every aspect of their child's education, as well as keep track of their progress and work.
School 2.0 is going to explode in the future and many of the articles represent some of the new aspects to teaching that this program will offer. This includes distance learning programs, free and open source software, and video conferencing. Since School 2.0 is basically a combination of home, school, and community, there are other tools offered through several websites that combine these areas. They have community tools which will enable teachers and students to communicate, share their work, and collaborate on programs and assignments. They have mobile tools for pod-casting, blogs, media sharing, and even quizzes or tests.
There are so many benefits to School 2.0 because it makes work interactive and allows all students to participate. It also creates a huge tidal wave of information and endless amount of activities and assignments that can be offered. The only downside to School 2.0 that I can think of, is that there may be a disconnect with some students who do not translate their work through technology well, such a special education students. There would have to be seperate guidelines for special education classrooms to allow the students to complete work with the help of their teachers or parents, if they are not able to manipulate a computer well.
Other than that, I think School 2.0 is a wonderful way for students to get interactive with their work and great for parents to get involved with every aspect of their child's education, as well as keep track of their progress and work.
Thing 4
Commenting is such a crucial aspect to blogging because it is what connects each blogger to one another. They are able to discuss and relate to one another's posts and comments, all the while connecting with one another through their words.
The reading touched on two points that I thought were especially important. The first one was to write something meaningful. People tend to put their entire beings into their blogs and so when someone comments something simple, like "neat blog" or "I like this", with no real content to it, it can make the blogger feel that people aren't relating or understanding what they are writing about. It is important to write a comment that describes what you like about the blog or post and relate to the blogger on a personal level as much as possible.
The second point I thought was really important in the reading was to remember the power of your words. To me, this is the MOST important of all. As I said before, people put themselves and their lives into their blogs, so when people read them and then comment negative or hateful words, that can be extremely hurtful. Even when you do not agree with something written in someone's blog, remember that you don't have to read it if you don't like it, and nothing good comes from attacking someone's personal beliefs. The words you choose to express can have a profound effect on others, so we need to watch what we say.
I decided to choose to following these blogs:
Miss. Lorrie's 23 Things
Teddy's 23 Bearable Things
Miss I's 23 Things in Government
Mrs. K's 23 Things
Ms. Peterson's 23 Things About Teaching
Additional blogs:
Special Education Strategies and More...
Adventures in Tutoring and Special Education
The five blogs up top are created and managed by my classmates. The additional two blogs are both involving special education. The first blog is a teacher who posts about her experiences, as well as links to literacy and math games for the special education classroom. The second blog is a tutor who works directly with special education students. She also posts several fun and beneficial activities and art projects to do with the kids.
Since my classmates posts are on the same topics as mine, I just commented on the things I enjoyed reading about in their posts and commented on the similarities in mine. On the additional two blogs, I commented on their activities and expressed to them that I was working to get my special education degree and that their blogs are something that I can continue to follow and use throughout my profession and how much I admired their work.
The reading touched on two points that I thought were especially important. The first one was to write something meaningful. People tend to put their entire beings into their blogs and so when someone comments something simple, like "neat blog" or "I like this", with no real content to it, it can make the blogger feel that people aren't relating or understanding what they are writing about. It is important to write a comment that describes what you like about the blog or post and relate to the blogger on a personal level as much as possible.
The second point I thought was really important in the reading was to remember the power of your words. To me, this is the MOST important of all. As I said before, people put themselves and their lives into their blogs, so when people read them and then comment negative or hateful words, that can be extremely hurtful. Even when you do not agree with something written in someone's blog, remember that you don't have to read it if you don't like it, and nothing good comes from attacking someone's personal beliefs. The words you choose to express can have a profound effect on others, so we need to watch what we say.
I decided to choose to following these blogs:
Miss. Lorrie's 23 Things
Teddy's 23 Bearable Things
Miss I's 23 Things in Government
Mrs. K's 23 Things
Ms. Peterson's 23 Things About Teaching
Additional blogs:
Special Education Strategies and More...
Adventures in Tutoring and Special Education
The five blogs up top are created and managed by my classmates. The additional two blogs are both involving special education. The first blog is a teacher who posts about her experiences, as well as links to literacy and math games for the special education classroom. The second blog is a tutor who works directly with special education students. She also posts several fun and beneficial activities and art projects to do with the kids.
Since my classmates posts are on the same topics as mine, I just commented on the things I enjoyed reading about in their posts and commented on the similarities in mine. On the additional two blogs, I commented on their activities and expressed to them that I was working to get my special education degree and that their blogs are something that I can continue to follow and use throughout my profession and how much I admired their work.
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