Mr. Marabeas' Place

Thing 23

2012-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, the second round of 23 Things was certainly less shocking than the first time around. I know what all of the teachers who are doing this for the first time are going through. I remember well all of the new tools and websites that were out there and how overwhelmed I was. I incorporated much of what I learned into my daily schedule and use many of the tools with my class on a regular basis.

Going back and doing this for a second time has been a great experience. Of the Things that I did not incorporate, I now see uses for in my classroom. Of the Things that I have used but since stopped using, I have been reinvigorated to use them again. Of the Things I use on a daily basis, I now see some different uses for. It is always good to go back and revisit things we have learned. Experience and knowledge shed new light on topics we thought we were experts on. The Google Docs video was eye-opening. I use Docs daily with my classes. However, the video showed me new ways to use this tool that I hadn't thought of before. I know I was limited with not having students accounts, but once we get them, the possibilities will be fantastic.

Reading other blogs and being a moderator for my peers has given me a different perspective. CB said it very well. When you write something that you know will be published and be read by virtually anyone that cares to read it makes you more careful about things like spelling and punctuation and grammar. When responding to blog posts and giving critical feedback and suggestions has taught me to be more thoughtful in my responses and review my responses to make sure they will make sense to the people reading them. Sometimes we write like we talk and that can lead to miscommunication.

Overall, this has been a great experience. I may be posting again as the project is only about 1/2 way done and other teachers will be starting the project and other insights may come to mind. I have learned that life is a continuous learning process and we should all go back and revisit things we have learned before as we are sure to learn new things the second time around.

Thing 22

2012-01-07T09:44:00.000-08:00

I still have reservations about using Wikis. I can see using them for special projects, but on a wide scale, I see limited use for them. I created a Wiki below for gathering Web 2.0 information on specific subject areas from our teachers.

http://subjectareausefullinks.wikispaces.com/

Wikis are more versitile than blogs in that others can have full editing rights, not just adding comments. It is more of a collaborative tool than a blog, which is more conversational. Blogs would make more sense if you were wanting responses from students regarding a topic or a question. Wikis are more for editing and creating sites on a topic.

Thing 21

2012-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

The Adams News Wiki was a neat idea for creating a website to inform people about the happenings at their school. While it looked like the site has not been updated in a while (Halloween pictures are the latest on the site), I think it would serve as a great launching ground for a digital school newspaper. Laura McMaster and I have discussed creating a digital newspaper rather than a print version. This would both reduce the cost and increase turn-around time in publishing. We discussed using a blog format, website, and a wiki. I think the wiki would be the best option as students would be allowed to edit certain pages and have them approved prior to publishing. On a small scale, the hurdles would be minimal, as only a few students are in the newspaper club, so giving rights would not be a problem. If this were on a larger scale, having a lot of editors would mean for a lot of checking of content prior to allowing that work to be published. I think having a team of editors would be an option to overcome this. A few top students who could be trusted to edit with care and then report to the teacher would be a solution to this problem.

Thing 20

2012-01-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

I have subscribe to podcasts before and they were great. It was kind of like RSS feeds where I over-did it at first and became overwhelmed. I eventually cut back and got down to what really mattered. This time I looked at a PhotoShop Elements podcast that had some nice tips on creating depth-of-field effects in pictures. I can use these podcasts to help in my photo editing portion of the 8th grade computer class. Also, even though I teach the same thing in class, hearing another voice and seeing different examples will help students learn the material better.

iTunes U is a great site for podcasts. I use that regularly. It's easy and has a wide variety of topics. Although the other sites are not as familiar, they are all easy to use and have a great depth of topics. EPN seemed to be having some difficulty. Not sure if they are in the process of updating their site, but I could not find podcasts there. I personally use YouTube a lot for educational video demonstrations. It's quick and easy and I like that it demonstrates to students that YouTube is not just for music videos and watching "Charlie bit my finger".

Thing 19

2012-01-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have looked at several podcasts that are intended for viewing by teachers, students, and the community. I chose state school superintendent Mike Flanigan's podcasts as an example because we, as educators, should always be looking for ways to improve. We ask our students to learn new things to better themselves. We should lead by example and continue learning ourselves. The podcasts are relatively short and offer simple insights and reminders as to how we can best serve our community.

As a computer teacher, I have students creating all sorts of digital media. One thing we do not do enough is publish what we create. As a result of this program, I am going to start having students create a weekly podcast, or vodcast, highlighting the week's events at Riverside. It will basically be a summary of the daily announcements. I will work with our web gurus and have them post it on Riverside's website.

Thing 18

2012-01-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

Video Creation In The Classroom

I chose this show because of the usefulness in my video class. It already has the process for creating videos laid out for me. It also has some online tools for creating videos that I was not aware of, so there are more options available for students.

I kind of forgot about Slideshare, but having the ability to search for presentations on topics that I teach is a great tool. I will definitely begin to use this tool once again. Also, any presentations that I have created will also be shared on this website. (This re-affirms that I am glad I am going through this program again, by re-discovering tools that I was exposed to earlier, but never really used to their full extent)

View more presentations from Richard Byrne

Thing 17

2012-01-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

It's really amazing how many tools are out there in the digital world. There are way too many to keep up with, but when someone suggests one, I'll take a look at it. Many times it will be really cool and fun to use, which is great. But there may not be any practical side to the tool for the classroom. Not that these tools ALL have to have educational value. I tend to be critical of the ones that have no obvious use in the classroom because that is what I always seem to be looking for. I have made attempts to be more open-minded and show students online tools that are "just plain cool" so they will learn to search for, and use, online tools. Many students today use the Internet for music, videos, and gaming. If they can find other uses for the Internet, then that will be a good thing.

Some of the tools that were given as examples have a Google counterpart and I have been using them. There are some others that are very simple, yet ingenious. Bubbl.us is one such example. The brainstorming site is really simple to use and I have used it with my classes when developing video ideas. When I find useful links, I post them on my website so students (and myself) can find them more easily.

Thing 16

2012-01-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

OK, so Google Docs is a part of my life and has been since the beginning of Google Docs. At first, I used it minimally and for school only. Now I use it for EVERYTHING!! It is a part of my coaching, hobbies, homelife, kid's life. You name it. I love Google Docs.

The video of how teachers and administrators are using Google Docs was informative. Our school's challenge going forward, will be to incorporate Google Docs into the daily life of both teachers and students. First, teachers will have to get comfortable with this program enough to be able to use it with students--and be able to answer questions about it. Many students already have, and use, either Google Docs or Windows' Skydrive. This will make the transition easier. We will just have to make sure they use their newly-created school account rather than their personal account.

I think this will be a great thing for our district.

Thing 15

2011-12-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

Checking my Google Reader account has become a habit since I'm doing this as a moderator for the 23 Things. I really enjoy reading the posts that people are writing. I like giving my insight and hope that it will help others become more knowledgable about Web 2.0. As far as subscribing to other RSS feeds, I'll see how this turns out. The one feed outside of the 23 Things that I subscribed to has new posts daily. I keep up with them to a degree, but am not reading every post they put up.

I subscribed to the Free Press Spartans RSS feed and to the delicious tag of 'computers'. I imaging that will bring in a lot of links. I'm not sure how useful this will be in my classroom, so I'll have to think more about this one.

Thing 14

2011-12-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

I really like how they have added the "Stacks" feature to Delicious. It looks like an easy way to share a collection of websites with students. The ability to do this from anywhere is a great flexibility tool as well. With our school going to Google, I currently have the ability to do this very thing on my website. I have all the links where I want them and have them categorized as well. I don't see me using this for students.

I will continue to use Delicious for myself as a quick and dirty way to save websites, but I will then transfer the information over to my website when I get the chance.

Thing 13

2011-12-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

The first time I went through this program I got into the whole social bookmarking thing. I bookmarked everything as a way to organize the sites I go to most often. It worked well. Then I got away from it. As I see websites that I feel would be most interesting and useful for my class, I came up with a different way of dealing with this. I set up a page on my website called "Useful Links". On this page I put up any site I feel my class may be interested in or would find useful or fun. This has become a habit and it's how I do things now.

Looking back to the delicious website and looking at Technorati, I can see the value in tagging websites. I'll have to look again at this and see how it can be useful to my class.

Thing 12

2011-12-28T21:06:00.000-08:00

I chose Voki as I think this would be a cool tool to use with the class. I could leave specific instructions when they start a project or if I am absent, or just to add a little 'spice' to the class.

I keep widgets on my desktop that I project onto the screen for the class. I have a calendar and a clock, so that is always visible to the class during the day. I also have occasional 'countdowns' on my website to specific events. I have added 'quote of the day' by Steve Jobs to my site as well. They are useful to keep things fresh on the site. I like the ones that change daily. It gives the kids something to look for when the come into class.

I personally think digital media is taking away from the closeness we once had with our friends. There is a certain bonding that takes place when you 'experience' something together that cannot happen online. Digital media is so temporary. I tend to forget when I have posted on someones status and when I see them at work, it's almost as if it never happened. On the other hand, digital media is a great way to stay in contact with people you don't normally see.

Thing 11

2011-12-28T20:44:00.001-08:00

Being a moderator to this project, my job is to comment on other blogs, so I have attempted to make insightful comments regarding what a person posted. I always make my best effort to make the person feel as if they are making positive gains in what they are learning. I want them to be able to see the connection to what they are learning to the classroom. If a teacher used personal experiences in their blog, I would ask them to think about how they could get this to be useful in their classroom.

It's exciting to read someone's opinion on what I have written. I have been on many discussion boards and forums and have had my comments ignored, bashed, and otherwise commented on. The worst feeling is when there is no response. I would rather have someone bash my comments than ignore them. At least I have invoked an opinion. Facebook is great for that. I'll comment on people's status just to show that I have taken the time to read their post. Even a "like" is better than nothing. I like getting 'likes'. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy!

Thing 10

2011-12-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

I embedded this video because of the message about the use of keyboarding in the life of what kids would be needing keyboarding skills for, namely gaming and chatting online.

For downloading videos, I generally use Zamzar because of it's reliability. I've tried other sites and they are either blocked at school or are unreliable. I tried the PWNYoutube site and it worked perfectly. The only thing I don't know about is if it will work at school with our filters.

I use videos all the time to show students concepts and other tech-related information. I generally embed the videos in my website rather than download them.

Thing 9

2011-12-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've been using YouTube more and more lately. Not only am I posting student works on my channel, tennisbum123, but have put videos that I have created for students to see as a part of the class. I'll also post videos that will be otherwise private. I post these videos as a storage space and then I'll link to them via my website. That way, only people who I want to see the video will actually see the video. I've also begun to use Google Video more and uploaded videos to Google Docs in order to share on my website. By far, the easiest medium is YouTube. There is a link from iMovie to share projects directly to YouTube. This is awesome for my class. They create a video, and after it is approved by me, I upload it directly to my channel for them to see. If they want, I allow them to post to their own channel.

I watched the anthropological presentation and it was really interesting. I've seen his Web 2.0 explained video and thought it was great. His class also created the "A Vision of Students Today" video, which is really interesting. After watching this presentation, I have a different view of YouTube now. The social impact that it is having, the freedom of speech concept in a whole new light. I'm going to have to reflect on this a lot more. It was a lot to take in during the short presentation. I'll get back to you on this one.....

Thing 8

2011-12-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

I had to try the Spell With Flicker program. It's amazing how the technology can pick up the letters and crop them to show only that letter in the image. And it is so fast. It reminds me of the photo program on a Mac that will recognize individual faces and crop them so you can use each individual face if you want.

I can see using Flickr mash ups for a variety of class projects. Here's one for robotics. I picked a picture of one of the team members and then added the tag "robotics" and the program generated a mosaic of pictures of robotics competitions (not all mine) to create the picture.
http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php?image=6572203027

The map making program would be great for social studies class. Make a map based on certain criterial. I made a map of the countries I have visited.

Mr. Marabeas' Travels

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Thing 7

2011-12-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

Flickr is great for sharing photos. I uploaded a bunch of pictures from a past Christmas and let my family know about them. I gave them the link to find them and they were able to download the ones they wanted. No more messing with flash drives or giving your memory card from your camera to someone so they can copy the pictures onto their computer. In class, I can see the students creating a picture album of their school activities or sports or hobbies and sharing them. With the higher Internet speeds available these days, downloading high quality pictures is really no big deal. The only issue I can think of regarding the classroom is privacy. If the kids post their pictures on the web for a class project, there would have to be some release signed before that can happen.

Thing 6

2011-12-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

Flickr is one of those sites that I forgot about after playing with it for a while. Now that I look at it again, I can definitely see using this in my class. I always have the kids look for images using Google Images. It gets the job done, but you always get the 'canned' picture of a famous site. Just for fun, I did a search for Eiffel Tower to see what popped up. There are certainly more interesting pictures of the famous landmark than what you typically see. I'm going to have my class use Flickr as a mandatory resource for future image searches on projects.

Thing 5

2011-12-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

As I stated in the last post, the first time I went through this program, I subscribed to so many RSS feeds that I definitely was on "information overload" with all the posts that were being dumped into my account. My suggestion to others, and one I will take myself, is to start off with just one feed. See how it works. See what comes in. See if you are really interested in what is actually being sent to you. If it is, and it's not overwhelming, add another. If it's not, unsubscribe and move on to another one.

As for myself, right now, I'm subscribing to the blogs of the people who are completing the 23 Things for Riverside. This will make my job easier as I am monitoring progress and offering words of encouragement, reflections, and guidance. I don't have to go to their posts. Their posts come to me!

Thing 4

2011-12-14T19:36:00.000-08:00

The first time I went through this program, I subscribed to so many different things that it became overwhelming. Everyday I would log in to my service and it would be packed with new stories. I get that I didn't have to search for them-that the stories came to me--but I subscribed to too many things that I guess were not that important to me, because I wound up canceling my subscriptions. If I do this again, I'll have to moderate what I subscribe to and keep the topics to what I REALLY want to know on a daily basis.

Thing 3

2011-12-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Blogs are one of those things that I get fired up about and work on and design and make all cool. Then I forget about them. I guess I've never been able to find a niche in my teaching for a blog. When you teach a technology class, it is easy to get distracted by "everything else" technology related. I spend a lot of time developing my website for my students that I don't give time to using a blog.

I think once the kids get Google accounts next year, there will be the opportunity to have them create their own blog and post things there for assignments.

Perhaps creating a blog to just keep current with what is going on in class would be a good idea. Even though I keep my presentations up to date, a narrative may be a good idea on what is going on.

Things 1 & 2

2011-12-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

OK. Looks like I'm the first to be posting here on the RESA 23 Things. I hope others will continue and not get discouraged as they go through this. I am going through the program for the second time so I can keep up with the ever-changing technology that is out there. As educators, we all know that the more exposure a student gets to a topic, the better their retention, and thus success, will be. Constant exposure to new ideas is helpful, but revisiting things we have already learned will allow us to give insight to different perspectives.

I hope that by going through this with all of the Riverside people will not only encourage them, but serve as a role model. I remember the articles and topics we are going through, but I look at them differently now. I know I will learn more and get new ideas from the process.

About the articles and videos: Our kids are digitally-minded. If we can tap into that power, I know they will be more engaged. As long and we emphasize the learning aspect and keep the focus on the topic, they will get a lot out of this type of learning. As I'm re-vamping my computer lessons again this year, I'm attempting to stress the core concepts as they create digital projects. For example, we are creating a "How To" video in our video production class. I am emphasizing the WRITING of the script and the attention to detail as they write the directions to narrate their video. There is no reason that a LA teacher cannot do the same thing with what they are teaching. I know Laura B. is doing this with her 8th grade classes and I think that is great!!

I will be commenting on some of your posts, so keep 'em coming!