Stop #22: LiveBinders

For the LiveBinders assignment, I chose to create my binders as if I were already teaching high school courses.  My binders are named "Sophomore English," "Creative Writing," and "My Teaching Stuff."  The first two are for lesson plans and resources for the classes I "am teaching" and the third is a place for me to gather information to improve my approach in the classroom.  I chose to embed my Sophomore English Binder.  It includes a document with a game board I made for pronoun bingo and a lesson about pronouns as well as passages my students can use for proofreading.  This site would be useful both for me as a teacher and for my students.  They could actually use LiveBinders instead of keeping a 3-ring binder (which no one likes after all).  It could really cut down on paper waste, and it would make it easier for my students to maintain organization throughout a semester.

Stop #21: Animoto

RIP Grimace

Using Animoto was actually very easy.  There were really only three steps and you can choose photos from social networking sites, flickr, or your own computer.  I chose to make a video with pictures of my cat who passed away last month.  The video turned out really nice and I am glad I was introduced to this website for a chance to memorialize him.

While Animoto is excellent for personal endeavors, it also has a place in the classroom.  Rather than make photo collages on poster board for presenting, students could create 30 second Animoto clips that would catch the attention of their fellow students much more than a tri-fold would.  It would also be cool to use for clubs or teams to recap an event or game.

Stop #20: Video Sharing!

To begin, I love YouTube and access it nearly every day.  The video I chose is about choosing a type of school and a recruiter for teaching in Korea.  Teaching English in Korea is something I would love to experience, so I spend a lot of time researching my options.  This video is a little silly, but is full of great information.  In fact, eatyourkimche (the creators of this video) make many helpful guides for working in schools in Korea.

Another video creating/sharing site I explored was Powtoon.  While this is not necessarily a video site like we most often expect, it would be an excellent resource in the classroom.  I could use it to create unique, fun lessons or assign a project to my students in which they use Powtoon to create a presentation of their own.  I think the students would enjoy putting their lessons to work in such a creative way.

Stop #19: Other Social Networking

My feelings about most social networking are aligned with my feelings about Twitter.  I use Facebook to keep my mother up to date on myself and the family and to keep up with my old friends, but I just can hardly see the use for it in the workplace.  Sites like Classroom 2.0 make sense for teachers because they can share ideas and tactics, but the layout was very busy and hard to read.  I just don't see what these sites can offer that my RSS feed and blog cannot.

Stop #18: Twitter

To be honest, I have never seen really any point in Twitter.  Even after this discovery activity I don't see any reason for it in education.  I gather that it makes it simple to keep up with people and news in education, but I can easily do that on the blogosphere I follow.  Maybe this has to do with my initial reluctance to join twitter when it first came out, but it just seems like a pointless website for teen girls to keep up with the Kardashians.

Stop #17: Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking has many uses in the classroom.  The first of these is organizing classroom resources for my students into one simple location using tags and links to put websites I want on my dashboard.  Using social bookmarking in such a way will enable my students to access any website I reference in my course.  These sites are also useful for organizing online applications for use in my own learning process.  We even used a bookmarking website in class as a method for student presentations.  I liked that concept and can see myself using that in my own classroom in the future.

Stop #16: Organize Schmorganized - Get your act together

For this discovery activity, I chose Symbaloo as my customized start page to explore.  I decided on this one because of the simplicity of the tiles and the navigation.  Netvibes and uStart both looked useful, but they seemed too involved for a quick-access homepage.  Symbaloo even had a ready-made template with tiles for almost all of the websites I already use daily, and adding new tiles is extremely easy.  The concept reminds me a bit of an iPad which makes it more recognizable and usable.  Because of the simplicity, I would definitely consider using it as my permanent homepage.  It is easier to operate than browser bookmarks and even comes with a Google search widget right in the middle.  Since Google search is my current homepage, Symbaloo can give me what I already have and even more.

For an online calendar, I explored all the options, but again had to stick with my Google Calendar.  While 30 Boxes is very customizable and easy to use, there is no way to access it from my phone save through a web browse.  With upto, I had the opposite problem.  The calender is accessible only via mobile apps and not through a browser.  Google calendar is available on both mediums and can easily be shared using most applications (like upto).  The only requirement for a Google calendar is a gmail account which most people have.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Google because it conveniently put all of your most necessary only applications in one place (Blogger, Drive, Calendar, email, social networking, etc. etc.).  The internet could not possibly get much easier than that.

The uses of online calendars are extensive.  As a teacher, I could use them to organize my classes and update due dates or other information in an instant.  If I were in charge of any clubs or organizations, I could keep the club calendar on Google for my students to access.  In my personal life, I already use it to keep my family calendar in one place.  Once I share my calendar, my family members can add their own schedules so that we have a comprehensive schedule in one place that is more easily editable and way less messy than a paper calendar or a dry erase board.

Another online organizational tool I investigated was Remember the Milk.  I am notorious for creating to-do lists and then promptly losing them.  About a year ago, I began using an app called EverNote that I am obsessed with and use daily.  What caught my eye about Remember the Milk is that I can sync my lists to my EverNote account.  Now my to-do lists will be wherever I am and immediately accessible.  Another bonus (and a given) is that I can link Remember the Milk to my gmail account.  I will definitely be using this application frequently from here on out.

Although it was not in the discovery activity, EverNote is an organizational application available on both the web and on mobile devices that I swear by.  You can create several "notebooks" and you can share them individually with different people.  I can have a family recipe book that my aunts, grandmothers, cousins, and siblings can add to; a work notebook that keeps my colleagues up to date on the goings-on in the work place; a personal notebook where I save webpages for later reading using the WebClipper add-on for my browser; anything you dream up, EverNote can do. I honestly cannot think of a situation where EverNote would not be useful.  I urge everyone to give it a chance because it is life-changing.

Stop #15: Wiki-wiki-whaaaattt?

Wikis had never been on my radar much before taking this educational tech class, so the concept is pretty new to me.  It is a pretty neat idea, and although I have used my fair share of Wikipedia, I never gave much thought to how it was created.  Creating a website that anyone at all could edit and revise means that the website could be exceptionally thorough, since everyone can bring different expertise to the plate.  The problem I see with wikis is that someone could easily fudge everything up by being silly or rude.

I could see myself using a wiki as a classroom project, where students build their own class' website based on things we accomplish in the course.  Students are often proud when the create things, especially when they can be viewed by a large audience, so a published wiki could be a motivating and creative project that would involve everyone.  I look forward to finding new ways to use wikis, as there is so much left to explore.

Stop #14: Flowcharts and Mindmaps

For this activity, I chose to try Gliffy (flowchart) and Bubbl.us (mindmap).  I chose these because I have used MindMeister before and wanted to try something different for a mindmap, and I think it is silly to have to request an invitation to use an application (looking at you, flowchart.com).  Between the two, I prefer using the mindmap on Bubbl.us.  The controls and connections are much more intuitive than the Gliffy flowchart.  The flowchart would be easier for organizing ideas that have already been brainstormed.

In my future classroom, I could use these applications for students to organize thoughts for papers or projects or as presentations.  The mindmap would be best for organizing the projects and the flowcharts would work well for presenting timelines or relationships between cause and effect.  I remember being assigned handwritten flowcharts when I was in school, and the concept was very helpful for understanding.  Now that there are easier ways to accomplish the same task, I will be sure to implement them in my future classroom.

Stop #13: Google Drive

GoogleDoc Blog Post



Students can easily collaborate via Google Drive for group projects.  In high school, my whole class would groan when the teacher assigned group projects because it is so hard to find a time and place to get everyone together to make a plan or work on parts of the assignment.  With Google Drive, students can edit documents together, negating issues with schedules or timing.

After comparing Drive to Zoho, I have decided I much prefer Drive.  The applications are so similar to Microsoft Office that navigating them is almost second nature.  It is also easier to use because nearly everyone nowadays has a gmail account and that is the only requirement for access.  I am a huge proponent of Google and all it has to offer.

Stop #12: 1,000 ways to Google

As the most popular search engine on the Web, it is hardly surprising that Google is not a one-trick pony.  It seems that the list of things you can accomplish on Google increases everyday, and I would not be surprised if that was their goal! As an avid user of Google Translate, to help me with Spanish, and Google Drive, to help me collaborate on group projects, I was really excited about this Thing.  There are some parts of Google that I find myself to be pretty savvy on, but there are several that I didn't even know existed before this assignment.

Google Alerts for instance.  This is a highly useful tool that I really wish I had discovered sooner.  Keeping up with the Government Shutdown is way easier with email alerts about the most current stories, granted there is an excessive amount of them at the moment.  However, this tool is essential for keeping up with current events that are important to you.

Another tool that I never really used is Google Calendar.  This tool would be great to use in the classroom to keep my classroom schedules in one place.  I can also share those schedules with my students if I create it with a school-only email address.  This would ensure that all of my students have access to the most up-to-date schedule, and have no reason to miss a deadline because they "forgot" or "didn't know it was due."

The tool that I most plan to use in my classroom is Google Scholar.  Many high schools do not get the funding to have access to massive online databases like colleges can, so few high school students learn how to conduct online searches for scholarly sources.  It is important to be acclimated with the uses of such sources, so I would like to be able to teach my students how to use Google Scholar when they write research papers in my class.

Stop #11: Finding new blogs

In order to fill up my new RSS feed, I needed to do some internet exploring.  There are many places to search for cool blogs to follow, but I started at Google Blogs.  Not surprisingly, this yielded expansive useful results.  I also tried blogsearchengine.org and Technorati, but I found that Google blogs was certainly the most easy to use.  Technorati was a bit confusing because the homepage was so busy to start out with that I could barely find where to search.  I also used the Feedly search engine which was the most convenient method.  One really cool feed that I found using this method by searching "educational technologies" was freetech4teachers.com which is a site about emerging technologies that cost nothing and can be used to enhance the classroom experience.  There are a lot of unusual feeds that come up when you only use the search term "education" because most times political blogs will come up.  These blogs have mentioned education before, perhaps, but are not dedicated to the topic.  The search for sites to include in my feed will probably last a long time, but at least I now have some useful tools with which I can conduct these searches.

Stop #10: RSS feeds?

What? What is that? Random Silly Stuff? Ridiculously Slap-happy Seals? No, RSS is this cool thing that puts all of your favorite websites in ONE PLACE.  Crazy right? I never really knew what it was until I took this Educational Technologies class and now I feel like I have been out of the loop!  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  And that's it.  So simple.  All you have to do is sign up for a Web Syndication site and start adding your favorite sites.  They will pop up in your feed and you can access all of the web content you personally want to see in one click.

I love everything about this, so I really wish I had known about it earlier!  There are so many websites that I really want to keep up with, but they get lost in the riptide and I never see them again.  With my new RSS feed, I can instantly add any sites that interest me to my feed and access them when I feel like it.  I can also categorize them so I don't have my DIYs mingling with my Educational Technology's.

This technology is also great for the classroom.  If I require that my students make blogs, I can easily keep up with their progress by adding them to my feed.  I can also have my students make a feed to keep up on current events or follow educational blogs or websites.  Oh the possibilities.....

Teachers can use this tool to keep up with technology in the classroom and educational policies in government.  By tracking certain news sites or edublogs, teachers can stay informed and increase their opportunities for implementing new things in the classroom.

RSS feeds are my new future.

Stop #9: I saw the sign

Creating silly or informative signs is an easy way to make lessons a bit more interesting.  

The first sign I made is a warning sign; the link is included in the caption.  This generator allows you to choose many headings like BEWARE!, notice, CAUTION, etc.  You then get to choose a photo to display on the left that is meant to display the danger.  After choosing that, you can input any text you want on the right.  This is the warning descriptor.  Here is my silly outcome:

It's possible.

For my second sign, I used a website that happened to be in German.  In spite of the language barrier, I was able to easily navigate the site and create this lovely depiction of my feelings about Monday.  There were several templates for the smileys holding the sign and you can customize the text, text color, and background color.    

Oh, how I detest them.

This is a generator that I think would be pretty cool for students to use when doing a project on another country.  There were a ridiculous amount of countries to choose from, and you can customize the face on the smiley and the text.  The website was high contrast, so that wasn't my favorite, but the generator was pretty awesome.

In honor of the Shutdown.

I am crazy addicted to these now, thanks to this lesson and I can think of so many uses for me or my students.  I am already mentally decorating my classroom with grammar warning signs. :)

Stop #8: Getting those creative juices flowing

To create a mash-up for this activity, I chose to use Bookr, a Flickr user-created app using the Flickr API.  For this app, you can search Flickr tags or users and insert the photos from the search into a book.  There is a section on each page to place a caption and you can create up to a 36 page book!

This would be really cool in the classroom because my students could create books using photos that they upload or that are free to use.  The search within the app automatically searches for only Creative Commons content, so there is no fear of copyright infringement.  This is a really cool resource for projects.

Because of my love for Autumn weather, I chose to create a mash-up of Autumn pictures for this post.  Have a look!


My book about Autumn.

Stop #7: FLICKR!

Flickr is one of my favorite photo sharing websites!  Although I do not have a personal account, I spend a lot of time scrounging for photos that express what I am feeling for my computer background or for my Facebook cover photo.  The easiest way for me to find photos that I can use is to use the advanced search and click the "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" button.  This ensures that I can find any pictures that the creators want me to be able to use and share without having to type in weird search phrases.

One of the photos I found during the exploration of the site was under the search phrase "autumn."  Autumn is my favorite season, and since it is October, I figured it was appropriate.  Being from Illinois, I am used to long, distinct Autumns with crisp air and falling leaves (much unlike Tennessee).  I always get a little homesick when Autumn rolls around for that exact reason.  This photo makes me so very happy that I can almost forget the homesickness:

Photo by ClifB

When looking at this photo, I can smell the autumn air with the fresh, moist ground from a recent rain.  I can feel the chilly breeze blow through the holes in my sweater and whip my hair around my face.  I can imaging laying across the bench with an anthology of James Joyce and relaxing in the soft glow of the afternoon sun.  This photo exudes beauty and happiness to me.

I think I am going to keep browsing through the "autumn" tags. :)

Stop #6: Explorin'!

Go2Web20.net is a resource for finding Web 2.0 tools and apps.  During my exploration of the site, I found an amazing website called ZinePal which can be used to make PDFs or eBooks from information found on the web or information entered by hand.

I can think of a multitude of uses for this tool!  Personally, I can use it as an educator to create lesson books that students can access from a reader platform which can be installed on any smartphone or tablet device.  If I am not working with students who have access to those technologies, I can just as easily print the book or magazine to a PDF to hand out a paper copy.  This makes organizing lessons so much easier because all of the information I would want to give the students could be placed in one easy to read location.

I could also use this site as a project assignment for the students.  They could create magazines about a topic they research, and it can quickly be shared with parents as a progress report on what we are covering in class.

I am astounded by the versatility of this web application and look forward to using it in my own education as soon as possible!

Stop #5: "We have the technology..."

What does "School 2.0" mean to you?

What does it mean for schools of the future?

Based on the reading assigned for the 5th thing (23 Things - Thing 5), I've gained a new perspective on what learning means in the 21st century.  School 2.0 is a concept forged from the evolution of the Web into a vast creature nicknamed "Web 2.0" which is the new way of the internet; a collaborative experience versus a one-way street of information.  With the evolution of the web came new resources for the classroom that teachers can use to upgrade the experience.  Since more students have technological experience coming into school, it is important that educators cater to that experience and build upon it.  To me, this means integrating blogs, pod-casts, and online research into the classroom and teaching students what should and should not be shared on the Web.  School 2.0 should allow students to create and collaborate online, offering their experiences to other people and contributing to the flow of information.  It is so easy for students to excel at subjects that interest them using the internet, and they can quickly become a part of the ongoing conversation if they so choose.

For schools in the future, we can only anticipate further evolution of the beast that is the internet. There will be more opportunities for inclusion, collaboration, and creation than ever before. Classrooms will harness technology using SMARTboards, iPads, smart phones, etc, as well as new devices that aren't even available yet, and engage students with these mediums.  More jobs will require more technological experience, and it is the responsibility of the educators to make sure students are prepared for college and what lies beyond.  Educators and students alike will have to grow with the ever-changing World Wide Web, and schools will have to accommodate that growth.  Frequent educator training will be necessary for everyone to keep up-to-date with the endless changes.  Changes will need to be made on a state and federal level as well, but further comment on politics can stay out of the posts for now.  In general, it seems that the whole conglomerate that is education will be getting a makeover.

Stop #4 The Golden Rule

"Do unto others as you would have them do to you."  Everyone wants to be noticed, liked, and treated with respect.  The number one way to ensure those three behaviors happen on your blog is to do them "unto" the blog of someone else.
I have an extremely difficult time doing this and would be defined as a lurker by the blogosphere.  Commenting is scary! What if they don't like me? What if my comment is dumb?  What if I actually don't know what I'm talking about?  What if's are the key to lurking.  The more what if's you have, the easier it is to continue lurking.  But what if you're wrong?  When you comment on a blog, unless you personally insult the blogger's post or person, spam, or swear (in some cases), he or she will be glad you participated in the conversation.  After all, we don't write blogs for no one to care about.  The Blue Skunk said it best, if people didn't want their posts read or comment on, "they'd be writing in a spiral notebook - probably locked away in a garret."  Blogs are made to be responded to.
Now don't just carelessly throw words into the comment section and call it a day.  "With great power comes great responsibility" (RIP Uncle Ben).  To produce a worthwhile conversation, you must first produce a worthwhile comment; one that inspires the blogger and inspires a response.  It ought to be heartfelt and meaningful.
The blogs I chose to comment on for this section were chosen at random:

Christy Washington*
Davie Wallace*
Mrs. Foster-Johnson*
Laken Bowlin
MelissaMP*

* already commented.

The two outside blogs that I have chosen to comment on are learningismessy.com and thejosevilson.com.  The former is a blog about using technology in education whether it be blogs or social networking sites.  The latter is a blog by an inner city teacher name Jose Vilson.  This one is important to me because my goal after graduation is to work in inner-city Chicago.  It will be beneficial for me to follow a blogger who is already in the field I intend to enter.

Stop #3: Using blogs in the classroom

While using a blog is an awesome idea for a student, there are also ways I could utilize this technology as an educator.  While in classes that were both successful and unsuccessful, I have compiled a list of "DO's" and a list of "DO NOT's." One of the items on the list of "DO's" is to create a blog to keep my students up to date with assignments, lessons, and classroom happenings.  I have a vision that there will be a website that my students can log onto to read a review of that day's lesson, the homework assignment, and a list of resources for further study.  This vision makes it easier on students who miss a day because they were sick, students who may have been called out of class, and students who just need a little reminder every once in a while.  In a perfect world, a blog would eliminate the "we had homework?" excuse and the "I forgot to write down the assignment" excuse.  In a perfect world...

Depending on what field I end up teaching, math or English, I may also require my students to keep a blog.  This would be particularly useful as an English teacher.  The students could write responses to readings, comment on each others' posts, and produce narratives which will instantly update to their class blogs.  Student collaboration on projects and assignments would be much easier to enforce with blogs already in the picture.

Stop #2: The creation of this blog.

The experience of creating a new blog has been extremely enjoyable.  In my Sci-Fi Lit class last year, we were required to keep a blog about science fiction with many post themes suggested throughout the semester.  Prior to that, I ran a personal blog that had some success, but I deleted it.  I have a little experience with HTML coding and can create some pretty standard effects on the page.  There are also a few blogs that I keep up with from time to time. 

I am using my real name for posting because when I am applying for teaching jobs, I want to be able to use this blog as a part of my resumé or portfolio.  There is no sense in hiding who I am, since this blog is meant to be professional and an example of my workmanship.

The creation of this blog was quite easy since I do have experience in the matter.  I enjoy personalizing and editing web pages and using the small amount of HTML code that I know to really make something my own.

The avatar I created looks quite a bit like me, and but doesn't reflect my personality very much.  The avatar looks like a plain college girl who is addicted to Starbucks.  Although the Starbucks addiction is accurate, the rest is not.  I am by no means plain.  If I could, the avatar would have included my cat because I am a cat person to a crazy extreme.  My energy and attitude tend to lift others up when I am around.  I am an extrovert and an entertainer.  Making people happy makes me most happy in life.  It is pretty hard to put all of that into an avatar, though, so plain college girl will have to suffice for now.

Stop #1

This is a pretty hefty topic for a first stop: 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners.  I mean, "lifelong" is a pretty significant period of time...  And learning? During all of that?  I know many people who would shudder at the thought.  Thankfully I am not one of those people.  Learning, both formal and informal (classroom and out-of-classroom), is a vital part of my existence.  When I'm not in school, say for summer or winter break, I am bored out of my mind unless I can find something with which I can stimulate my brain.  Acquiring habits that will help me continue learning by whatever means possible is a necessity.  So there are 7 1/2 habits:

1. Begin with the end in mind.
        This one seems particularly difficult for me.  I like to start projects.  That is all.  I never have a set plan for completing things, I just want to do something new all the time.  This is the habit to form if there ever was one.  Many times I will choose to learn something just because it seems interesting or fun.  I rarely decide how long or to what extent I want to study a topic.
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning.
        Of all habits, this one is the easiest for me.  In all of my classes, I actually read the chapters that are assigned and even some that aren't.  I even read my math book.  Who does that??  If I am curious about something in my everyday life such as how things were invented or why particular processes are in place, I will research it.  Nobody will just decide to teach me things, I must investigate the world of my own accord.
3. View problems as challenges.
        I am pretty good at this as I really do enjoy a good challenge.  Rather than losing my head about something that seems unsolvable, I work my tail off to produce results.  Since failure is not an option, I have little choice but to turn those panic moments into an opportunity to use critical thinking.
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
        Being a competent, effective learner is something my mother has instilled in me since I was a toddler.  She began teaching my brother and I how to read and "reason" when we were nary one year old.  She gave us an arsenal of skills to help us keep up with our pre-k learning and those skills developed with us to create the confident, adept learners we are today.  I can hardly attribute this habit to myself; I got it from my mother.
5. Create your own learning toolbox.
        To me, this habit is a no brainer.  I have a vast library already of academic, how-to's, and self help books.  I have a youtube subscription just for how things work.  Many of my friends are in different fields of study, and I can come to them with any questions I have in those fields.  Once you know what information you want access to, you can build a toolbox quickly.
6. Use technology to your advantage.
        This habit is both easy and difficult.  Many technologies are already in my toolbox, like the web and youtube.  Other technologies are foreign to me.  I am not experienced in using video or voice recordings, and the thought of creating and using them intimidates me a bit.  Conveniently, this is a habit that will be improved upon in this course.
7. Teach/mentor others.
        As a future educator, this is the habit I find most important.  The easiest way to learn something is to try to instruct someone else.  When I am at work and someone is learning to do something new, after they train on the job, I suggest they try to train someone else.  The reversal of roles makes a huge impact on the amount of information the trainee absorbs.  Also, as every former, current, or future teacher knows, students teach you just as much if not more than you teach them.

   7.5.  Play.
                This habit is plenty easy.  Observing, testing, and manipulating the world around my is             one of my favorite things to do!  It is important to maintain a playful disposition as you grow           older in order to continue to learn in the most basic of ways.

While most of these habits are innately easy for me, some will require some work to achieve.  And you know what they say, "it takes 21 days to form a habit."  I had better get started.

Filling up the tank...

I am standing at the precipice of a semester-long journey ecstatic about what the future may hold for me.  This is my dream: entering the education field.  Now at long last I can begin cultivating the teacher inside me.  The Gen-Eds are over and the real, career-building, life-changing fun can begin.  This assignment has me excited in more ways than one. I don't really see it as work necessarily, at least not in the burdensome "I have so much homework to do" kind of way.  I think of it more as an opportunity to grow, both in my relationship with technology and in my relationship with my inner educator.  I am also excited to run a blog again.  I ran a fairly successful blog a couple years back (which has long since been deleted) and had to quit due to my lack of free time.  Now that running a blog is a required part of coursework, I will be able to re-assimilate this activity into my schedule and hopefully it will stay there.  Between jobs, family, and coursework, I anticipate this will be a bumpy road, but now that I'm fueled up, I'm ready to get going.  See you at Stop #1...