Learning Web2.0

I started following Stephen Rahn’s blog since Kris mentioned it in one of her postings… he is funny and has lots of great information and links to interesting and fun sites. I found a few sites from his blog that I will be sharing with my classes. He doesn’t just list amusing sites, but those were the ones I was in the mood for today.

Below are listed a few sites that I checked out:

Read the Words – upload a file or copy and paste words and this site will create an MP3 file.
Let Me Google That For You – a fun site to use to ask questions in Google. Sandi will like this!
Flip Title – your text is turned upside down… I know, why? It was just for fun.

¡¡unɟ sı ƃuıuɹɐǝl ǝuıluo

I decided to try one of the tools that I wasn’t familiar with… Mixbook. This is an online tool for creating books.  This could be used to create end of the year scrapbook for parents or scan student work to create a book.

I took several pictures of my neice to create an online book… very cute! It was so easy! Sandi created a book for her daughter last year as a high school graduation gift. It was such a great idea… I wanted to do the same thing for my neice. I have been sorting and collecting pictures of her all year to make her book special.

These books could be great gifts fot those hard to buy folks, like grandparents. I will be playing with this again.

The session I selected was Games in Education: Myths, Realities and Promise by Sylvia Martinez. I chose this session because I am currently teaching a Scratch class. This session talked about the difference of using games in the classroom or having students create their own games. She said 99% the typical games offered commercially are no different than giving students a worksheet. She went on to say that students will learn more from creating their own game by using programs like LOGO. Also mentioned was Scratch as program she recommends.

I learned that there several other games available for students to actually play, not where they are always creating, but playing too. One of the games mentioned is Ayit: The Cost of Life. This game offers real life problem solving issues, for example living the life of a poor family in Haiti where students have to make tough decisions such as, which child quits school to work to help with the family income.

The description was great for this session – kids don’t like school… kids like games. Not all kids hate school, but I believe that all kids like games! It was reported that 97% of teens are playing games and it is often a social experience for them. Therefore, it makes sense to bring these tools into the classroom. This is edutainment. I will definitely share these games with the teachers in my Scratch class.

I found so many great pictures for podcasting… who knew there were so many? Rock You was so easy, but I agree with Jerrie the music can be too much since it starts when the page is loaded and that is annoying.

1. Astro rey by Jorge Lizana – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jorgelizana/3049964995/
2. Pugcast 2 by Zoomar – http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoomar/2273124381/
3. Roscoe considers recording a podcast by Zoomar – http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoomar/2265202595
4. iPod Touch by Pablo Bigatti – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pablobigatti/3056499500/
5. Escape pod can’t froth milk by Les Howard – http://www.flickr.com/photos/leshoward/854185895
6. DSCN1219.JPG by Rusty Tanton – http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustytanton/1527935535
7. Podcasting by Graham Stanley – http://flickr.com/photos/grahamstanley/240866063

8. Podcasting is the American Dream by Martin Canchola – http://flickr.com/photos/25577119@N04/3007419566

9. Nokia Podcasting by Steve Garfield -

http://flickr.com/photos/stevegarfield/253865092/

I really got lost in Flickr! I love photography, so this task was a lot of fun. This task was also very time consuming because I kept going from one image to another. I have never used the groups search feature before and was surprised at what I found. I searched podcasting and wasn’t quite sure what I would find since podcasting is auditory. As you can see by my picture choice… there are some very funny and creative pictures to be found in Flickr. I thought the description David Jakes made in his outline of reasons to Communicating Visually in the 21st Century was great and I will definitely share it with teachers. He described the auditory nerve as dial-up vs. the optic nerve as broadband Internet connection. That’s the best description! I’m happy to say that we are encouraging our teachers to use images by offering Digital Storytelling and Web2.0 classes.

Photo Attribution: Zoomar

Fish Dinner by john11k’s photostream

Copyright laws can be confusing, but the videos were very helpful in explaining Copyright and Creative Commons. I will usually ask Esther or one of our Media Specialists whenever I have questions regarding copyright laws… it’s nice to have them to rely on with copyright questions. With so much information available to us on the web we need to be educating our students, not only about the legal ramifications, but the ethical and moral issues of using copyright material. We are role models for the students. I like this message I read on one of our presentations for copyright laws – “When in doubt, do without!”.

I checked out Vegetarian (not to be confused with Vegan) on Wikipedia… who knew there were so many different types and reasons? This topic was of interest to me because my husband is now a vegetarian. He decided to give up meat over a year ago for health reasons. I’ve checked out Wikipedia before, but this was the first time I checked out their organization of material. I definitely learned more than I expected on my topic of choice.

I believe wikis can be a very useful tool to incorporate into the classroom. There are so many wikis for teachers to read, use and get ideas from for use in their own classroom.

At first glance I did not take to Wikis, but I kept on trucking through Wiki World and began to see their value in the classroom. I wasn’t surprised that Vicki’s students were excited about this new tool. I hear it all the time from teachers when they introduce any of these new technologies to their students.

I also found a few cool things myself. Grazing for Digital Natives, was my favorite find and I also subscribed to her blog Cliotech. Her latest post to her Wiki listed several websites she found interesting and so did I! Simply Box is a new Web2.0 app worth checking out if you haven’t already. I also love the Voki .

I enjoyed Schools in the Past –it made me reflect on my elementary school days and how things have changed. I know that I would have loved computers and the Web2.0 world.

I also checked out 1001 Flat World Tales – this wiki was a little harder to navigate at first, but I found the stories posted by students and thought this was a great use of a wiki. There were some interesting stories written by students and good peer reviews.

I love all this exposure, but I am becoming an addict of the web… after 23 Things, I am going to need a 12 step program.

I believe I am getting the hang of this scanning and skimming of feeds in my reader. It is truly addictive and I find myself clicking on blog after blog, link after link. I have added more than 20 subscriptions to my Reader!

I found one blog about Web 2.0 of interest by Steve Hargadon, Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education and several replies to his blog including Daniel Willingham’s Why Web 2.0 Will Not be an Integral Part of K-12 Education: A Reply to Steve Hargadon. Their discussions really spoke of the need to train teachers how to use Web 2.0 and he lists several of the educational benefits of Web 2.0.

I love gathering feeds! However, having all that information staring at you when I opened my reader was quite daunting, so I closed it without reading anything. It’s another story now that I realize you don’t have to read everything. I actually enjoy scanning the headings until I find something that peaks my interest, and then I read on and on… it’s addicting. You were right about being overwhelmed by all the information that was accumulating.

In my search for new blogs I found one I could utilize in our SmartBoard training classes. Teachers Love SMART Boards is a great place to find creative ways to use the SmartBoard tools in the classroom to actively engage students. I learned a few new tricks to share with teachers too.