Since I teach 9th grade, I commented on 'Ideas for High School students' on Dr. Wilson's Wiki. Specifically I said the following:
"Julie B. - One tool that I really like to use in my World Geography class for research is Delicious. I think that this is a great social bookmarking tool that can be used for research based projects. I like that I am able to monitor the websites that my 9th graders are on by already giving them pictures, videos and websites that have all of the information that they need in one centralized location. Students love working with our mobile laptops and this allows them to be both engaged, while also making sure that they are learning for creditable websites. Also, students can access Delicious both in and out of school."
I have used Delicious before and love it! I think it was helpful being able to see other teacher's ideas for technology use in the classroom from Dr. Wilson's Wiki. There are some technology ideas that were mentioned that I have either not heard of or would never have thought of using.
Again, I don't love Wikis, so I doubt I would ever use one in my personal or professional life, but I could understand why people like them and use them.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Thing 8: Wikis
After looking at a few Wikis, I like the setup for a lot of the pages, especially the Educational Wikis. I thought it was really convenient having a plethora of Wikis at one location which would give teachers a lot of resources. Also, I liked how the Educational Wikis were Wikis from all over the world and not just from our country. I think it is important to see what other countries are teaching and to have access to those ideas. It was also interesting to me that some of the Wikis you had to request access to as opposed to being a public website. I think that limits the amount of people that you are going to have accessing your Wiki, but at the same time I'm sure some of these Wikis (like the Bull Run Library) has a specific reason for only allowing members to enter the site.
The one thing that I do not like about Wikis is that they are editable. I think that this makes the Wikis less credible, which would make me cautious about allowing my students to use information that they found on a Wiki. I think that depending on the specific Wiki will depend on how credible the source can be, but again with Wikis being editable you can have incorrect information on them. I would only trust a Wiki source that was not editable, or that had a moderator who was approving the edits before they posted.
Overall, I don't use Wikis in my classroom as I don't always trust them and would like to have more credible sources used by both myself and my students.
The one thing that I do not like about Wikis is that they are editable. I think that this makes the Wikis less credible, which would make me cautious about allowing my students to use information that they found on a Wiki. I think that depending on the specific Wiki will depend on how credible the source can be, but again with Wikis being editable you can have incorrect information on them. I would only trust a Wiki source that was not editable, or that had a moderator who was approving the edits before they posted.
Overall, I don't use Wikis in my classroom as I don't always trust them and would like to have more credible sources used by both myself and my students.
Thing 7: Image Generators
The first image generator that I explored was Tagxedo. I really liked Tagxedo and think that this would be a really great way to introduce a new unit in class. You can use the major vocabulary words of that particular unit to create a Tagxedo to engage the students. I think this would be very beneficial in ELA and Social Studies classes. I also liked how you can change the background shape of the image. I used Lincoln's Gettysburg Address speech, so it was really awesome to be able to use the United States as the backdrop for my Tagxedo. The only thing that I did not like was that I was not able to change the font or the colors schemes.
The second image generator that I looked at was WordSift. I did not like WordSift as much as I liked Tagxedo. Again, I think that this could be used for introducing a new unit through vocabulary practice. The hot links would not only give students the definitions for the words, but also probably visuals to help them associate the words with. I think this would also be good for ELA or Social Studies if you are learning a famous speech, about a famous document, or with Poetry and Sonnets. I think students would like the fact that they have links which would give them additional information.
Overall I like Image Generators and I think that they could be beneficial when teaching. Plus, I think students would enjoy being able to create something creative!
Thing 6: RSS and Newsreaders
For this activity we were supposed to create an account with Netvibes. Until now, I had heard of RSS feeds and have been a subscriber to a few of them, but had never heard of newsreaders or Netvibes for that matter. I like newsreaders because they allow you to access so many different resources in one convenient location. I can access my personal email, facebook and twitter accounts on Newsvibe while also being connected to news outlets and my other interests. Some of the feeds that I subscribed to included Cooking Light, Bible Gateway's verse of the day, Edublogs and Urbanspoon.
I think that newsreaders could be extremely helpful in the classroom by allowing students to access a plethora of resources in one location. This would be extremely helpful with researching for projects or papers and I especially liked how you could link your Delicious account to Netvibes. I could see myself creating a public page and having my students access it both in school and at home for their information. We have two research papers that our 9th graders write, so this could be a great resource for the students to use with credible resources.
At home, Netvibes would be easy to use as it allows me to have everything in one central location. Realistically though, I will not use Netvibes at home as I do not like having all of my accounts linked to each other. I do see why people are attracted to newsreaders, but again I do not think that I would use it in a personal setting.
I think libraries could take advantage of RSS and newsreaders for research purposes as well. As technology begins to be used more frequently in the classroom, I can see libraries using these resources more than having paper copies of books, research materials, etc. It would be extremely beneficial because you could also access the RSS and newsreaders outside of a library setting.
Unfortunately I did not realize how to make my Netvibes account public until after I had already created my page and bookmarked quite a few feeds, so I can't add the url to my account. If I have time though, I will create another page so you can see my Netvibes account.
I think that newsreaders could be extremely helpful in the classroom by allowing students to access a plethora of resources in one location. This would be extremely helpful with researching for projects or papers and I especially liked how you could link your Delicious account to Netvibes. I could see myself creating a public page and having my students access it both in school and at home for their information. We have two research papers that our 9th graders write, so this could be a great resource for the students to use with credible resources.
At home, Netvibes would be easy to use as it allows me to have everything in one central location. Realistically though, I will not use Netvibes at home as I do not like having all of my accounts linked to each other. I do see why people are attracted to newsreaders, but again I do not think that I would use it in a personal setting.
I think libraries could take advantage of RSS and newsreaders for research purposes as well. As technology begins to be used more frequently in the classroom, I can see libraries using these resources more than having paper copies of books, research materials, etc. It would be extremely beneficial because you could also access the RSS and newsreaders outside of a library setting.
Unfortunately I did not realize how to make my Netvibes account public until after I had already created my page and bookmarked quite a few feeds, so I can't add the url to my account. If I have time though, I will create another page so you can see my Netvibes account.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Thing 5: Flickr Montager
One of the Flickr Mashup sites that I visited was Flickr Montager. It was a really interesting sight where you search a tag within Flickr and then it will bring up other pictures that have that same tag as well as create a 'collage' of pictures that look like the original one. I probably search 30 different tags from dogs to Texas to football, before I finally found my favorite collage which was from a search I did of 'water'. The original picture that was shown was of the sun setting over water and the 'collage' looked identical to it!
Apart from searching different tags, you can also upload your own pictures which you can tag and they will be added to the database of pictures. I did not upload any of my own pictures, I just searched other people's instead. Again, Flickr Montager was a really neat website that allowed you to search thousands of pictures based on Flickr tags. This is definitely something that could consume a lot of my time!
Apart from searching different tags, you can also upload your own pictures which you can tag and they will be added to the database of pictures. I did not upload any of my own pictures, I just searched other people's instead. Again, Flickr Montager was a really neat website that allowed you to search thousands of pictures based on Flickr tags. This is definitely something that could consume a lot of my time!
Thing 4: Flickr
I am somewhat familiar with Flickr as I have used it in another grad school class this past spring. I have never used it for my own personal pictures, but I can see why people would use Flickr for their pictures.
Instead of creating my own Flickr account, I looked at some of the pictures that other people had posted. One of my favorite pictures that I came across is a picture of Eastern Sierra that shows a road lined with trees during Autumn. I love this picture because fall is my favorite season and I enjoy seeing the fall foliage even though we don't really have fall in Houston. I thought this picture was gorgeous looking, especially the contrast of the rainy day with the bright orange leaves in the trees. Again, fall foliage is one of my favorite things and I love taking pictures of it as well as seeing pictures of the foliage. I wish that I lived somewhere where I had access to fall foliage.
There were quite a few other pictures that I liked as well, but again the above picture was my favorite! Hopefully you will enjoy it too!
Instead of creating my own Flickr account, I looked at some of the pictures that other people had posted. One of my favorite pictures that I came across is a picture of Eastern Sierra that shows a road lined with trees during Autumn. I love this picture because fall is my favorite season and I enjoy seeing the fall foliage even though we don't really have fall in Houston. I thought this picture was gorgeous looking, especially the contrast of the rainy day with the bright orange leaves in the trees. Again, fall foliage is one of my favorite things and I love taking pictures of it as well as seeing pictures of the foliage. I wish that I lived somewhere where I had access to fall foliage.
There were quite a few other pictures that I liked as well, but again the above picture was my favorite! Hopefully you will enjoy it too!
Thing 3: Photos and Images
I used to be a lot better at taking pictures every time that I was doing something, but over the last few years, I have not been as diligent in my picture taking. Usually I just take pictures now if I go on vacation or it is a holiday or some other special occasion.
This summer my Mom and I went on our annual 'Mother-Daughter Trip' and we spent a week in Virginia seeing all the historical sights. As a World Geography teacher, I love history and especially visiting all of the historical sights in the New England area.
In the picture above, we are at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. His home was so unique compared to some of the the other historical houses that I have toured. He was a true renaissance man who took an interest in science, cartography, and numerous other ventures aside from politics. This picture is on the back lawn of his house when I was being attacked by a cicada. If you can't tell by my face, I clearly don't like bugs.
Although we spent a week in Virgina, I can't wait to go back and see some more of the sights!
This summer my Mom and I went on our annual 'Mother-Daughter Trip' and we spent a week in Virginia seeing all the historical sights. As a World Geography teacher, I love history and especially visiting all of the historical sights in the New England area.
The picture above is of my mom and I at the Williamsburg Winery a few minutes from Colonial Williamsburg. We were able to tour the winery and taste test six red and white wines. The winery was really interesting and they had a cute restaurant attached to the winery with local, farm fresh food. This is definitely a place I want to go back to when I'm in the area again!
The picture above is from when my mom and I were visiting Jamestown. We were able to see what the original settlement looked like as well as tour replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. In this picture we are on one of the ship replicas!
In the picture above, we are at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. His home was so unique compared to some of the the other historical houses that I have toured. He was a true renaissance man who took an interest in science, cartography, and numerous other ventures aside from politics. This picture is on the back lawn of his house when I was being attacked by a cicada. If you can't tell by my face, I clearly don't like bugs.
Although we spent a week in Virgina, I can't wait to go back and see some more of the sights!
Thing 2: Blogging
I am a pretty confident Blogger as I have written blogs in the past. Two summers ago, I volunteered at an archaeological dig in Israel and blogged about my experiences while I was there (Confessions of a Makeshift Archaeologist). Also, I wrote a blog when I was living in New York, but I only wrote on that blog for about 6 months before I stopped blogging. I also subscribe to a few recipe blogs. I love cooking and there are two specific blogs (The Crepes of Wrath and Spoon, Fork, Pig) which I receive recipes from. It is interesting to read about the different foods that these two blogs are creating as well as here tidbits about their lives.
Although I have written a blog before, I think that there are always things that you can learn about blogging since technology is always changing. I think the hardest part of blogging is writing your actual posts. I am a perfectionist, so I am constantly re-reading and editing what I write until it sounds perfect which can be quite time consuming! As I have not blogged for a while it is helpful to read advice from professional bloggers about the dos and don'ts of blogging. I have written comments on blogs before as well as responded to comments on my own blogs. Having readers give feedback or ask questions definitely helps you become a better blogger. I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging this semester with my 16 Things blog!
Although I have written a blog before, I think that there are always things that you can learn about blogging since technology is always changing. I think the hardest part of blogging is writing your actual posts. I am a perfectionist, so I am constantly re-reading and editing what I write until it sounds perfect which can be quite time consuming! As I have not blogged for a while it is helpful to read advice from professional bloggers about the dos and don'ts of blogging. I have written comments on blogs before as well as responded to comments on my own blogs. Having readers give feedback or ask questions definitely helps you become a better blogger. I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging this semester with my 16 Things blog!
Thing 1: Lifelong Learning
Every person is a lifelong learner, whether they are learning in the workplace, an educational setting or through their peers. After looking through the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful People, the easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. If I did not value learning and realize that I am responsible for bettering myself, than I would not be in graduate school.
The hardest habits for me are being confident about myself as a competent, effective learner and creating my resource toolbox. I am very hard on myself when it comes to my grades and learning and I constantly doubt myself which is something that I need to stop doing. Also, I have so many resources at my disposal to create my toolbox yet I never seem to find the time to organize and utilize that toolbox to my full advantage both in and out of the classroom.
In my Learning Contract, I have outlined a plan to have confidence in my abilities as a learner and to implement the technology related tools that I have in my toolbox which I am not currently using. I am hoping that by the end of this semester I will start noticing a difference in my classroom by utilizing more of my tools.
The hardest habits for me are being confident about myself as a competent, effective learner and creating my resource toolbox. I am very hard on myself when it comes to my grades and learning and I constantly doubt myself which is something that I need to stop doing. Also, I have so many resources at my disposal to create my toolbox yet I never seem to find the time to organize and utilize that toolbox to my full advantage both in and out of the classroom.
In my Learning Contract, I have outlined a plan to have confidence in my abilities as a learner and to implement the technology related tools that I have in my toolbox which I am not currently using. I am hoping that by the end of this semester I will start noticing a difference in my classroom by utilizing more of my tools.
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