My favorite discovery was Zoho writer. Now I'm anxious to learn more about the other applications to see if they are as easy to use and as full-featured as the writer. Like many of us, my workday is so busy that I appreciate not having to spend an enormous amount of time just learning how to save more time. I don't think that I would have tried all these things if they we're required for this course, but I'm so glad that I did because the experience has given me the confidence to connect with the digital natives in my high school.
I managed to complete everything on time, but I did think that the pace was a little fast. I would've been happier investigating fewer technologies in depth rather than just touching on 23. And I'm quite disappointed in the grad credit option from Fresno Pacific, even though I'll be finishing up with that this week too. (I hope.) It would've been much more effective if students had been able to sign up at the beginning of our discoveries so that we could've used that forum to post our thoughts.
An overworked, yet appropriate one word summation of this experience? AWESOME!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Thing # 23 (Week 9) Copyright & Creative Commons
I found this passage on the School Library Learning 2.0 homepage, attributing the idea for this course to its original creator:
"Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."
Our Thing #19 was LibraryThing. In the original version it was "Select any site from the Web 2.0 list and play with it."
One thing that I wish our version had kept was the incentives and prizes - for completing all 23 things, they got an MP3 player. If they completed them early, they were also entered in a drawing for a PDA! Better yet, there was a final drawing for a laptop!
"Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."
Our Thing #19 was LibraryThing. In the original version it was "Select any site from the Web 2.0 list and play with it."
One thing that I wish our version had kept was the incentives and prizes - for completing all 23 things, they got an MP3 player. If they completed them early, they were also entered in a drawing for a PDA! Better yet, there was a final drawing for a laptop!
Thing # 22 (Week 9) eBooks & Audio eBooks
My only exposure to audio books has been with the purchase of a small starter collection of Playaways for my school. The students who have checked them out have been very enthusiastic and I'll be buying more in the future, even though they are quite expensive. I like them because it can be used without any other equipment, but can also be plugged into a boombox for classroom use.
I haven't ventured into the realm of eBooks for my library, even though they are available from various vendors. And I certainly couldn't advertise free downloads since teachers and students are prohibited from downloading anything to school computers and would have to do so elsewhere.
I own a Palm E2 that I use for inventory and it also has the capability of downloading eBooks, but I seldom use it as such. I prefer to read on a larger screen than 3"x 4" ! Has anyone seen or used the new Kindle ? I'm curious to see if that will take off better than the older eBook readers.
I haven't ventured into the realm of eBooks for my library, even though they are available from various vendors. And I certainly couldn't advertise free downloads since teachers and students are prohibited from downloading anything to school computers and would have to do so elsewhere.
I own a Palm E2 that I use for inventory and it also has the capability of downloading eBooks, but I seldom use it as such. I prefer to read on a larger screen than 3"x 4" ! Has anyone seen or used the new Kindle ? I'm curious to see if that will take off better than the older eBook readers.
Thing # 21 (Week 9) Podcasts
I wasn't really sure I'd benefit much from this exercise because we can't view or create podcasts in school, but I did find a series of videos that a vocational school in Illinois recorded that might convince our technology coordinator to allow selected classrooms to use them for educational purposes. I've posted the podcast of an electricity and robotics class that I'm sure our electricity instructors could use. I wasn't able to embed it into this posting, even though I tried to follow the directions. I'm also adding the link to this slideshow that goes along with the podcast.
I had a considerable amount of difficulty viewing podcasts for this section. The tutorial from Yahoo wasn't available and Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts took too long to load or kept hanging up my computer. I had better luck with the Educational Podcast Directory, but there were also quite a few links there that I couldn't seem to view.
I had a considerable amount of difficulty viewing podcasts for this section. The tutorial from Yahoo wasn't available and Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts took too long to load or kept hanging up my computer. I had better luck with the Educational Podcast Directory, but there were also quite a few links there that I couldn't seem to view.
Thing # 20 (Week 9) Discover YouTube
I found this video from the Alliance Library Sytem on YouTube that I'm going to try to share with you. Hope it works! I found it when I searched for libraries on second life.
This is a great example of using second life for educational purposes. Is this how American history will be taught in the future?
This is a great example of using second life for educational purposes. Is this how American history will be taught in the future?
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