Thing 16 - ("saisprezece" - ROMANIAN)

Where was this when I was in college? In my nature, I am a bit of a procrastinator. I have slowly learned how to overcome that challenge. Usually, that late night working on a project the day before it was due was a reminder enough to change my ways. I checked out the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator. Both seemed to offer the same thing. I sort of had some disagreement with the layout of time. From experience, I do not like to finish the project 1-2 days before the due date. I try to have the project finished before the 1-2 days it is due (we'll see with 23 Things On a Stick). I typed in different time spans and sometimes the suggestion would be to write the first draft the 1 day before it was due. The finishing touches would be on the due date. The minimum of days I gave were 7. 7! Sometimes I felt the research and organization of the project were given too many days. Some 3 days went by in the suggestion before any writing. Now, I might be completely wrong in disagreeing with that, but I do.

This is very useful, though. I think something like this provides an outline and a foundation for all students (young and old) to start from. Then, individually people can adjust for their work styles. The content and links under each step were the most helpful. Those details give knowledge I wish I had when I was younger.

Students are given projects to finish as young as kindergarten. Sure, the project might include a lot of gluing and cutting, but it is still a large project that needs someone to accomplish steps to finish. I see these websites providing a visual and a map of where to begin. Its structure is clear and easy to use. I look forward to playing with it with some school projects next year.

Thing 15 - ("tizenot" - HUNGARIAN)

I am now angry. Angry that Thing 15 exposed me to Puzzle Pirates because it revealed I need a life. I played that darn, stupid game for well over an hour. I did every puzzle trying to help my pirate self-esteem of being a "novice" and "able" to being at least "respected" in that world. I joined up with two crews and kicked some major cartoon pirate "booty". I order a hat, boots, and a jacket so I would not look like a home less, wandering hobo (that took all of my pieces of gold that I earned). I even was disappointed some captain made me walk the plank because during our sword fight against another crew we lost. I was like "what the", but then I left my body and looked down at it from the heavens. It was a sad sight.

I yelled, "GET UP AND GO OUTSIDE! IT IS BEAUTIFUL OUT THERE!"

I love video games. I quickly learned after my Sega in high school that I could easily pump in the hours on these gaming systems. I then promised myself to not own one in college. The game systems came out and I stayed away. I did have chances to play the Playstations and other new and advanced boxes of entertainment, but I never owned one in my home. My skills did drop. My friends enjoyed shooting me over and over again in Bond 007, the scores for Madden were like 63 to 6 with me being the 6, and they would laugh that once I figured out one combo move in any fighting game...well, that would be my only move again and again and again and again. Computer games would slip onto my Apple in college. I would play for hours sometimes when everyone was asleep in the dorm with no class in the morning. Thank goodness they were really old games like Populous and Galacixa that never kept my interest.

Now, I am an adult. Matured and wiser. And I am still frickin' addicted to playing video games......aye, ya matey. There are many online games, free or at a cost, that have caught the world...children and adults of both genders. One thing that I noticed about some of these games is their format to keep players playing. Having the players collect things and gather levels to be a greater character. Making this possible, but not too easy and not too impossible. Also, giving the player the ability to have some ownership over the character's image and look. This is just to keep them playing....keep me playing.

To be preachy, I do not blame the games out there for the list of negatives people come up with about gaming. It comes down to us as people to be in control of ourselves. To self-evaluate and act on good judgment. This is not a natural progression, though. I strongly feel that the youth out there needs exposure and practice at balancing this sort of entertainment. They need guidance and an opportunity to have some decision power in how they fill their day. "They will play all day, Jon!!" Then, they need to build a greater concept of who they are. As adults, we often dictate and order when children do things. Eventually they will rebel from this. We need....we, as adults, need to do what the games are doing with our youth. Give them the ownership of creating their character, give them opportunities to collect knowledge and experience, but make it not too easy or too difficult to gather, and let them enjoy playing the best game out there.....life.

Thing 14 - ("quattuordecim" - LATIN)

Librarything.com was cool. I can see how I can create a library for students and parents and post this on my website for people to access. Students creating their own login and libraries would be great. It is so easy to setup an account, I can see this happening next year.

I added some popular books to my library (i.e. Harry Potter series). There were some conversations that I read. I think elementary students might actually enjoy this feature. I am unsure if my students could start this right away, but later in the year would be a sweet opportunity for them to look at chapter books in a different way. The different way being instead of reading a chapter book, doing a book report, or just doing it for personal enjoyment, the student could place that book in their own library, see who else did or did not enjoy the book, add comments on their books, and create a library they can share with others. I am sure there is more that I missed, but the more I use the site the more I am sure I will learn.

I did place a randomizer of my library on my blog. Check it out!

Thing 13 - ("treze" - PORTUGUESE)

Thing 13 was definitely cool to look through and find things. I have been using My Yahoo for some time now (like 5 years). It has been constantly changing and trying to improve. I have always been a Yahoo supporter over the Google hoopla. Looking and using Google for these things have made me a believer in Google. It just is better. iGoogle was sweet because of the user friendly applications and tools. Yahoo is trying, but it is just not as easy as Google. I will keep using My Yahoo because of my personal email, but I may change to Google soon. My start page is still my Google reader because I need to practice using that tech. I still do not use it very well, but it being there every time I open up the internet is a good thing.

I think the online calendars are useful, especially planning with a significant other. Currently, my girlfriend and I use a Wiki, but I think, after seeing these calendars, we are going to go use Google Calendar from now on. The interface is simple and so is getting an account for adding more people. This is definitely better than setting up a table on a Wiki.

I did check out Ta-da Lists, but I want to talk more about Backpack (looks like provided through the same company). That looked really cool. I think teams of teachers could use this to much benefit. Microsoft Office just doesn't seem like it is at that level of cooperation. I know some people use the Microsoft Outlook calendars. I used it for a year. I didn't like it very much because it seemed so isolated. I know you can look at other people's calendars and suggest an appointment, but it seems just a busy step that is replacing communicating verbally with people. Backpack looks like a place where teachers could place their agendas and plans seamlessly. TOO BAD IT COSTS MONEY (I know there is a free trial, but come on). I wonder if our school district would pay for it for some of its teachers? Hmmmm...

The other calendars, organizers, sticky notes, and converters seemed good. I think the converters are incredible, because I still remember the day a PC document couldn't be read on an Apple and vice versa. What progress we have made.

Thing 12 - ("divpadsmit" - LATVIAN)

I decided to mix it up with Mixx.com after looking at all of the other sites. What I like about Mixx is that, to me, the layout is easier to read and follow being a newbie to this. I went to Startribune.com and shared an article on teen driving and using a device that could report the speed of the car. It is being developed at the University of Minnesota. I rewrote the description and put in a few tags.

This was all interesting, but I don't see the whole, big picture, yet. I watched all of those videos. I understood how to use the sites and what they are offering in service, but I kept asking myself "Why?" I don't know if I was just being stubborn or close minded, but it seemed to me like a popularity contest of news. That is just weird to me. I noticed similar features and tools like this on other sites. The Startribune website has a most popular and most emailed tool about stories. I guess it does give you an insight on what everyone else is interested in. For me, I can only ask questions.

Should I conform with what everyone else is interested in and read those stories? (I did just finish watching the movie Into the Wild....maybe that is why I asked these questions....great movie, though)
Is this how I want to receive information?
Does my sharing an article say something about me? Is that fair?
How does my participation add to my life?

I know I sound like an old mushroom growing on a pile of pooh, but I am just being honest.

Back to being professional (smile). I do see how this can be applied in the classroom. Students could look at these sites for current events and interact with them either directly or indirectly. Students could be involved on the site (direct) or write essays about what they find on the site for classroom work (indirect). Students could even blog their opinions and viewpoints and share it on the sites (both).

Photo from Flickr.com from Madonnica and Brian's photostream and edited by me using picnik.com.

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.