Thing 11 - ("goma sha daya" - HAUSA)

Tagging is something I have not consistently participated in. I have seen the opportunities to do this in previous blogs and other posts, but I did not want to take the time to complete that step. After learning more about Web 2.0 and what it has to offer for today's users, I realized how vital tagging can be in connecting me and/or my work with others. Without tagging, it might be hard for someone to locate a post by me, a picture by me, or even a website by me. I did take time to tag much of my content on this blog. I will also tag more often when I add things to the web.

I have learned to use del.icio.us in a previous workshop. I admit that I do not use it religiously. I have my habits still when I am online. I do see the benefits of this tool. When researching, especially in a group situation, del.icio.us makes sharing your resources a whole lot easier. Instead of emailing links or creating a huge list of bookmarks, the toolbar from del.icio.us would be quite useful for multiple people working on the same project.

It would be interesting if elementary students could tag and search those tags in a controlled environment at school. There will be that given percentage of students who will type in inappropriate tags in searches. Avoiding that would be difficult. If students can search tags created by their classmates or peers, well, that is a more ideal situation and could help develop the students' skills in creating tags and learning how they can help you and others.

Del.icio.us at the elementary level would be useful, because students love going back to their favorite sites. I do not know if students have access due to our system securities. Which is the give and take of working in our computer labs. The students can only do so much for their safety.

Thing 10 - ("desat" - SLOVAK)

When I learned more about Wiki's this year at our school district's year kickoff workshops, I was pumped to used them more often in my life. I first suggested to my teammates that we should try to use a Wiki to form grade level groups (a practice we use sometimes). I then created one for my personal life. My girlfriend is a scheduler. I am a spontaneous planner going day-by-day. A Wiki was our great compromise on figuring out our schedules together. It has been a joy. I used pbwiki to create both Wikis. The ability for others to add information for a group or another person to see without running an official website is terrific. Wikis can reach even the layman internet users.

I disagree with banning Wikipedia as a resource. I read this blog entry as I researched the accuracy of Wikipedia. I agree with Andrew Gent's post from Feb. 1, 2008. A specific quote I'd like to point out is the following:

"Unfortunately, people quickly start to refine or replace these rudimentary definitions with descriptions of how they believe these goals should be achieved. So knowledge management is no longer managing knowledge, it is specific approaches to managing certain types of knowledge: facilitating communities, selecting and promoting best practices, using story telling to capture implicit knowledge... And quickly the war begins the proponents and detractors of various methodologies." - Andrew Gent, 2/01/2008

I think the conflict he is talking about is in the world of educators leading to these bans and arguments against Wikipedia. I am not going to make my argument, but I strongly believe in my role as a teacher. I hope my teaching practices DOES NOT lead to a student who believes everything they see in words. I hope my teaching practices DOES lead to a student who can resource a diverse collection of information, personally evaluate that information to gain knowledge, and apply that new knowledge in their life.

I edited the 23 Things On a Stick Wiki at pbwiki.com. Go check it out! If you like Calvin and Hobbes, you might enjoy my edit.

Thing 9 ("tisa" - SWAHILI)

Well, Thing 9 seems to require permission (Google Docs) to edit the Declaration of Independence. I requested a little while ago and again today. To me, it looks like I can interact immediately on the screen with the posted document after having permission. That is quite cool. I can see how group writing projects in my classroom can be done from the home of the student. Partner writes and even editing partners could use this tool. Its application seems easy enough. What I still have to deal with are appropriateness in edits and students not doing too much work for another student. 8 and 9 year olds sit on a huge spectrum of how they react to criticism. So, the challenge for me isn't necessarily using this tool in the classroom. Anyone can do that. The challenge will be to use this tool to add to their learning without it being a negative influence for the students I work with.

The second part of Thing 9 has us working with Zoho Writer. In order to interact with the link, you needed to email the given address and wait for permission. I haven't received a reply as of the date of this post. My assumption is that this tool offers the same function as Google Docs, but has an added feature of being able to add posts at the bottom of the page for comments. Again, I can see how this tool can be used in the classroom. It actually works like a Wiki, but it is in a form of a document.

I will add another post or update this post once I receive the proper permissions.

Thing 8 ("ewalu" - HAWAIIAN)

Thing 8 for 23 Things from Jon

From: JonZetah, 3 minutes ago

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Wow, Thing 8 had a lot of things to look at! Almost too much to absorb it all. I will comment on each thing I looked at, and I will point out the things I created on this blog.

Create and Share Slideshows - Thumbstacks and ZoHo Show did not work very well with my Apple computer. The websites' applications seemed compatible with PC formatted browsers or maybe something more was needed on my computer. I tried, but to no prevail could not get the websites working. I did read the what the sites had and they did seem pretty comparable to the ones I could use. Slide was okay. Nothing special, in my opinion. I spent most of my time with Slideshow because it had the most flexibility with what the final product would look like. The other sites had features and effects, but not comparable to what Microsoft PowerPoint has. My finished product is with this post. I noticed that most of these sites allow you to immediately post it on another site with the given permissions. That is slick. So, what I could take from this part was that you could share a slideshow in a simple view format instead of sharing the entire file. You do lose the animations with slideshow, but it gives you a close enough product. Would I use this? Maybe. If I wanted to use a slideshow, I would like the slideshow to be impressive and an enhancement to my presentation. No, just a little video on a website. Although, if I wanted a slideshow on my website, these are quite useful.

Share Your Photos - Picture Trail was sweet. It is a great way to share your photos. I added the product I created at the bottom of my blog using the images I used for this blog. I could see me using this in my professional life (teacher webpage) and in my personal life (personal blog or website). This was a highlight of Thing 8.

Databases - I could not get this one going on Lazybase. I thought it would generate a database based on the information I entered. I tried about 10 times and only got a blank database where I could located items one at a time and enter them into my new database. That would be a pain! I will try again. If you have any suggestions for me, please post a comment. I could be doing it wrong.

It's All About eFolio Minnesota - I read through this, but I did not take the time to complete a eFolio (already spent over 3 hours just on Thing 8). I do not think I would use this. I could see how this is a resourceful tool to offer to people. eFolios also seem like the next step away from the PowerPoint electronic portfolios that started a few years back. Possibly, when I have more time, I will come back to this part of Thing 8.

Challenge for Thing 7

I joined the Google Group for 23 Things On a Stick, Meebo, and Twitter. The interesting thing about this challenge is that it is quite interactive. I have to use these more to get a feel for their use and if I even like them. I placed the Meebo and Twitter widgets on this blog. We'll see how it goes. If you want to join and become my friend (that sounds really pathetic), let me know.

I changed my home page on my internet service to my Google Reader. It is definitely forcing me to use it more. I caught myself bookmarking to my weather link this morning. Habit, habit, habit. I have added a lot of RSS to my Google Reader. The Google Group is on their now. I saw that Master Michael Walker is part of that group as well.

I will just sit back and see how this challenge goes.

Thing 7 ("sju" - NORWEGIAN)

I currently have my business email and two personal emails. One personal email is my real account. The other email is my junk mail account. I give out my second personal email to businesses and registrations that require an email. I discovered that often times I would receive garbage SPAM and got sick of using the filters in the email programs. I found that having two personal emails worked out great. I read the productivity hints and it made sense. I am sometimes too wordy.

In college, I use to chat often with friends in the good old chat rooms. IMing isn't new to me, but I do not use it as part of my daily communication. A lot of my friends and family just don't do it, so who would I talk to? I setup the web-based Google Talk on my blog. Hopefully I can practice using it with some of you! My username is JonZetah. Feel free to invite me.

Text messaging is cool, and I am becoming better at it. I still don't know all of the lingo. I usually type out all of my words with few abbreviations. Sad, I know. My friends, family, and even my students have engaged in texting before. I do give out my cellphone to my students during the year. They call me with questions about their homework or share something that is going on. Guidelines and expectations are clearly covered in the beginning of the year with the parents. The age level I work with makes this possible. If I worked with older students, I would have to think about if I would give out my cellphone.

Web Conferencing is something I have not done, yet. I will definitely checkout one of the OPAL opportunities to watch using their master schedule. It is something really new to me, so I am interested to see how it goes.

Thing 6 ("ingodwaaswi" - OJIBWE) Continued

I read some comments on Thing 6's directions and found the blog generatorblog.blogspot.com which has tons of third party software. I decided to see what celebrities I'd match with. Thinking about posting this on my blog, I decided to do a slideshow on iPhoto of my matches. Publishing a slideshow on a blog is a first for me. I can't believe how much I am learning. I am realizing I have all of the tools at my fingertips, and I just need to use them.

Students might get a kick of seeing who their parents would look like. I am worried that child images may come up with some creepy looking celebrities that look like kids (smile).

Thing 6 ("ingodwaaswi" - OJIBWE)

Here are the trading cards I created using Big Huge Labs. I believe the students would get a kick out of using this. Many of them at this age level have played card games like Pokeman and Yu-Gi-Oh. They would really enjoy having the ability to create their own. The writing, mathematics, and reading involved to create their own trading card game would be worth the effort and time. I look forward to seeing which students would be wanting to take on that challenge.

I also created a card showing symmetry. In many of our curriculums there are card inserts for students to use in small groups or individual tasks. This could be a way to individualize it towards any lesson or mini-lesson that I do not have a card for. I could see myself using this tool in stations which would give directions to students, added enrichment for student homework, and even with staff sharing what each of us are doing in our classrooms.

This is very novel, but can be used effectively.

A Vision of Students Today

Sure does make you think as an educator. This is from Michael Wesch. Master Michael Walker had me watch The Machine Is Us/ing Us and that lead me to this video. I've used YouTube before in a casual way, but I just linked YouTube to my blog. I can now post video content, like this one, straight to my Blog....a first for me.

Thing 5 ("cinq" - FRENCH)

I can see how I can use these mashups in the classroom. Creating a magazine cover for students' accomplishments or for a student news press would impress the students and parents. Having them create their own would just emphasize the power of ownership. The motivational poster mashup would not only allow me to make it more specific to my school building and classroom, but I could include student images in those posters (not for public viewing) and print those out. This was a photo I took during the year. I believe I could even download them into a digital picture viewer (that would be cool). These mashups add even more potential to the applications in an elementary classroom. I will need to take more time to discover and play.

The mashup Big Huge Labs allowed me to instantly upload to my flickr.com account. After making the magazine cover, I realized that if I did this, it would be public. I knew I could go change the setting to private, but it would still be on my flickr.com account. I didn't want this. So, I saved it to my computer. Posting it on my Blog for all to see just doesn't feel the same as having it on my flickr. com account even in the private setting. This is again my digital immigrant side coming up. I believe I have the understanding, but I have no natural comfort zone for some concepts (photo sharing).

Challenge for Thing 4

Fallen Tree Next to Home picnik version, originally uploaded by thedexterzero.

I thought picnik and flickr working together was really fun. This is where I could see students having some fun at the third grade level. They could take photos as backgrounds and then edit in their characters or details for their own narratives or reports. This sort of instant impact leading to a finalized product is pretty amazing. The ability to immediately post it, too, is something we digital immigrants are amazed at. We also sometimes argue the risks. I don't know if that is a self-esteem thing to make ourselves feel better or if that knowledge replaces the lack of knowledge we sometimes feel. For example, I could see how some cyberbullying could come from the power of picnik and flickr. You could really be cruel with someone's image.

Inappropriateness would be the only con I would foresee with this site. I think it is cool and fun. Students would think the same, too. It is easy to use and with permissions being given to all the sites life is easy when you want to upload the image.

I did go to Picasa and Smugmug. First, Smugmug only has a 14 day trial. I hate that. I rarely even try those because I don't like doing all of the login work to give my the abilities to do things and then see those abilities gone in two weeks. Not worth my time. So, I only looked at the page and didn't see anything that stuck out. Picasa is a Google product and it took me through the steps of making all of my Google products one. That was impressive. Then, it also allowed me to download an Updater that would work with my computer (I am an Apple user) and iPhoto. It was cool, but nothing different. Maybe I was still being influenced by my positive experience with picnik.

I definitely feel like I have learned a lot in the past 40 min. Before I thought flickr.com was just a place to get images. Now, I am a participant in supplying those images, realized I could edit those images, and saw how I could connect between multiple sites. I am pretty excited.

Thing 4 ("quattro" - ITALIAN)

Fallen Tree Next to Home, originally uploaded by thedexterzero.

Okay, I just uploaded this photo I took from this year. My neighbor's tree almost crunched my little home. See the window right behind the tree trunk. That's where my bed is! It was a close call. Little damage to the both homes, but look at the poor little fence squished by the fallen tree.

I have used flickr.com before but not to this extent. I have never uploaded a picture on this page (it was easy to create an account since I already had a Yahoo account) and now I am instantly posting the picture on my blog from flickr.com. This is a first. I am use to saving the picture on my computer and then uploading it from my computer to the target site. I can see how this may save time and definitely save computer space. It is weird posting from this (flickr.com) site because I do not have all of the whistles and bells (hyperlinks, image uploads, and text manipulation. Although, I am pretty sure I can edit this post once it is on my Blogger Blog.

It was cool adding tags to the photo and putting in my own little description of the image. Adding this to flickr means anyone can use it. That is pretty sweet. I can see how some people may get a little addicted to posting images hoping people will use theirs. That sort of instant ownership is empowering for the takers and givers.

I do take tons of photos of the learning in my classroom each year. I create a video at the end of the year for the students to have. Security reasons limit my abilities to use those images on flickr. Students could use images from flickr.com for their reports or projects. I still need more time thinking about how flickr.com can offer more to students than just simple photo sharing, but maybe that is enough in itself.

Thing 3 ("ba" - VIETNAMESE)

Call it the "old way" like the video said, but it is "my way"! I tried using a newsreader before. I never used it. For some reason, I don't mind clicking through my bookmarks. With that said, I think I need to try to use it some more. I just spent the past 30 minutes setting up my Google Reader. It is cool and I can see how it would save me time, but we'll see (smile).

I do like that all of the sites I usually visit are right there on the reader. I also like that I can add other people's blogs, although I usually don't read other people's blogs (that might be changing). I think I can use this in the classroom by having the students select what would be interesting for current events which falls under our social studies expectations. Personally, like I mentioned before, this tool has not easily transitioned into my habits. That is something I am willing to battle.


Battle Wheels: Robot Vs. Ninja - Watch the top videos of the week here

My Voki Greeting to You

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Thing 2 ("zwei" - GERMAN)

After watching the video interview of Stephen Abram, my initial feeling was "Man, I am old." Then, remembering his words about having an excitement for learning...that made sense to me and washed away my reaction. It does come down to me just learning. Taking time to do that will not be much of a challenge. Not because I have no life, but because I feel it is that important. I am online routinely to check my email, weather, and news. During those times I will just purposely add some time to complete one of the "things" (like I am doing now). This experience of 23 Things On a Stick will hopefully propel me into the world I feel a little disconnected to. I have always been known as pretty savoy with technology. Although that consideration is only coming from my peers, who are often not that up on things. I am looking forward to growing a comfort level with the Web 2.0 tools and anything else that falls into my laptop.

In my third grade classroom I have tried to incorporate as much technology into the students' experiences that is appropriate. We have not only used, but the students became proficient in the following: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Think.com (blogging), Voki.com (messaging), uploading digital images, and using a variety of websites. This year, including the blogging experience was incredible to be a witness to and to be a part of it. Our school district provided training on blogging and I came about Think.com through discussions with colleagues there. After being shown the ropes I was the only teacher using blogging in my school building (around the elementary schools in our school district it was spreading fast). I shared and shared with my school building and the entire fourth grade decided to join Think.com as well. I look forward to taking whatever I can learn here back to my classroom and school building.

photo by maiks72 on flickr.com

Thing 1 ("uno" - SPANISH)

Welcome to my 23 Things! I am looking forward to improving (aka "messing around on the computer") my life skills. 23 Things On a Stick will improve my life skills. I am a "digital immigrant". In order to succeed in life, it is my responsibility to deepen and strengthen the opportunities 23 Things On a Stick offers.

I hope you enjoy my journey!

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