Thing 23 Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
The practical reflection happened in my Thing 22 entry. These thoughts are of a more esoteric nature. The need for all our students to be highly literate in a world that is plunging into Web 2.0. is imperative. What an opportunity we have to work with young people who navigate and learn together across boundaries of every kind. Our job is so important to help them reach depth and clarity of thought, knowledge, and values in their collaboration, innovation, and communication. ICCCAR is as important as ever and merging Web 2.0. with Service Learning will help our students transform the world - I hope.

Thing 22 What Did I Learn Today?

I learned that:

I knew more than I thought I did and had incorporated many aspects of Web 2.0. into my life before this class. That was an eye opener and a confidence booster for this digital immigrant.

No fear and confident tenacity are good. Additional tools and networking will simply, complicate, and enhance my life.

That I need to have the same patience with myself that I have with students and colleagues.

I pledge to continue new tool use especially Del.icio.us, photo play sites, and blogging. I'll share/teach some of the tools in gratitude for what I have learned,to go deeper into the experience and have a face to face network to learn with. Additionally I'll expand my current use of podcasts, RSS feeds, and organizational tools.

I hope DMTS will be able to continue to support us with these learning opportunities as Web 2.0. changes and evolves on a daily basis. This class has been a rich learning experience. We can learn alone but learn so much more and better together. Thank you.

Thing 21 Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Joined the 23 Things on A Stick social network in Ning and left our media specialist from South View a message.

The whole idea at Ning of starting your own network seems to be Web 2.0. at it's finest - communicate and connect.

Yelp for reviews was intriguing especially in it's randomness. After entering the word garden, everything from nursery locations, Lake Harriet Rose Garden and Bill's Imports (who deliver to a restaurant with garden in the name) showed up in the final list.

I belong to Angie's List which is it's own way is a social network and it's really helped to find good services and companies. Now after Thing 20 and 21 I belong to two more social networks.

Thing 20 Libraries and Social Networks

Well as the car talk guys say, "You've wasted another perfectly good hour." In this case it would be more like two hours. I see why the kids like MySpace and why adults prefer Facebook based on the visual presentation of the page alone. This isn't the first time I've ambled through these sites and it won't be my last as I joined up and have some friends!

Thing 19 Exploring Podcasts

Podcasts have been part of my life for a while as I like to listen to them when I am doing tasks that don't take a huge amount of concentration. They fascinate me because they like other Web 2.0 tools they range from somewhat inarticulate discussions to polished productions. The authenticity of the more informal podcasts is often fun and the sophistication of podcasts from sites such as MPR is so valued. Both expose me to thoughts, ideas and beliefs that enrich and challenge my life. The multitasking aspect of podcasts is a definite plus to their use over viewing and reading which require for me more focus to stay engaged. My husband surprised me with an iPod last night so it's going to be great to listen to more podcasts.

In Thing 15 I talked about listening to "YALSA Podcast #20 - Teens on TSL In this podcast Kelly Czarnecki and Linda Braun talk with two teens about Teen Second Life." so it only made sense to share it. The other podcast which I added to my Bloglines is from EPN The Education Podcast Network, ADHD is A Gift How You Can Appreciate The Gifts of ADHD.

Thing 18 YouTube

YouTube is a like a good magazine you just keep reading/viewing from article to article and voila before you know it hours have gone by.

I chose this video DIGITAL LITERACY IN GOOGLE because it's a good example of students using YouTube for a class assignment and then posting for a wider audience.

YouTube is not new to me but posting to the blog, the links to 7 Things Things You Should Know About YouTube, and EDUCAUSE all expanded my understanding of the site and applications.

Thing 17 ELM Productivity Tools

Well live and learn! This incredible sight is both humbling and invigorating to learn about. Searching professional information was daunting with out tight parameters. The RSS feed conundrum is interesting. It's great to know we have media folks to guide us and the reference I found for kids really opened my eyes up to new search possibilities. Use of this site would be a great DMTS Media class for teachers.

Thing 16 Student 2.0 Tools

University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator is a tool I wish I had access to in graduate school. This sample was created for a virtual class in Education. The on-the-spot tutorial in QuickStudy Library Research Guide gives the students exactly the support they need on the day they need it. Then to link directly to Student Writing Support is just plain awesome. If we can teach our students self advocacy and a sense of self efficacy tools like this can add the support that students need to succeed. After getting so pumped up about this it makes sense that it is limited to students at the U of M however it also is nice to see that Edina students can use the Research Project Calculator and that it covers video, essay, and slide planning.

Thing 15 Online Games

I don't really know what the place for gaming is in public libraries but do believe that gaming is a way to improve educational motivation and application of learning in students. I chose to play/wander around in Second Life.
After creating an account, I meandered around in rooms, lists of sales, etc. While online tonight there were 54,000 plus other people in the site. Pretty incredible. I found the site hard to use and need more time learning how to integrate it in a cohesive way. At this point it doesn't hold a lot of appeal to me except to understand what it offers and to understand better why it is attractive to so many people. I made my character as old as I am so will be interested to see if I'm invited to be friends with anyone. The most interesting room I found was the Shakespeare Reading Room. It looked like it was created by an 'oldster'. Lots of the rooms and scenes reminded me of Japanese popular culture and images.

Gaming Myths was interesting; I didn't know that females now outnumber males in gaming.

The concepts in the article were especially strong coming from a PBS site which has always been innovative and focused on the well being of children and other patrons. This article could easily be a focus for parent/teacher groups to discuss because it offers a strong argument that many of the fears adults have about the negative effects of gaming are false.

In the YALSA podcast the students were really into Second Life and it was fun to listen as I searched and started this blog entry. The new vocabulary involved in Second Life is interesting. The kids really took on challenges to themselves in creating the actual graphics. Since my husband is a computer graphics specialist it is interesting to me to see how far all this has evolved from the beginning graphics he worked on in the 1970's to now. The incredible thing for me was that the students reported being on Second Life from four to fifteen hours a day. The kids on the show lived in New York and the UK. They liked that they were making friends 'across the pond'.

Thing 14 LibraryThing

When I read about LibraryThing I wasn't sure but playing in this site was so rewarding and when I got in the social networking part found it to be very motivating. Whoo Hooo! I'll continue to add books as I read them and wonder about the possiblity of entering the elementary leveled libraries at each school.

Thing 13 Online Productivity Tools

Our home web page is set; I think my favorite checking flights, weather, and ordering prescriptions on line. FAST!

Created by OnePlusYou

It took 1 minute to create my license plate.

MyStickies is a site that I just signed up for but it's PC based so I'll see if I can utilize it at work.

Online calendar and task manager are interwoven throughout each day and I would be lost without them.It was reinforcing to read the Productivity tips and see how many are helping my life. Closer to digital native status on this one!

Thing 12 Do you Digg?

Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Mixx are changing how the networks and major news organizations market and edit and changing how the news consumer interacts with the news. After listening to the video, tours and poking around in the "Who are We" tabs, it's clear that most of these sites are the work of folks experienced in traditional news. These sites are linked to specific news outlets and have their own culture. I get much of my news from traditional sources such as the StarTrib, local TV 10 o'clock news, National Public Radio, PBS, and CBC Radio (Canada) and the BBC daily. In email I get newsletters and websites from organizations that I support which direct me to news sources. An example is ASCD News Briefs, which is skimmed/read each day, and filters education news primarily from newspapers. One of the reasons I consume so much news is that I like to hear, read, and see varied aspects and perspectives of the news and try as much as possible to sample sources.

Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Mixx are relatively new (2006 onward). I couldn't locate the demographics of who uses each site and what groups/categories tend to lean toward each such as business, political parties, elected officials, union members etc. That interests me because the participants who in turn will attract others and shape the focus of what will be read. (This whole discussion makes me want to teach social studies.) Currently from my foray into these sites it appears most are balanced by a wide range of participants.

After reading "Gonzales Aides Broke Laws in Hiring, Report Concludes" in the NY Times, I posted it Mixx. What happened next was interesting. A similar story had been posted from CNN so a box came up asking me to vote for the CNN post rather than post the Times story. It explained about not overloading the site. I went ahead and posted the Times story, looked up the CNN story and then tried to get both by use of tags. It was a good exercise in seeing how this works.

Depending on who reads these sites political messages of groups could rise to the top as most popular but can also be refuted by others. VERY INTERESTING for citizen participation in a democracy.

Thing 11 Tagging and Del.icio.us

Tagging is great for organizing what you save.

It's the process of tagging what you post that is fascinating. It means you think you have something to share that others want to know. The web collaboration relies on the belief that we have information, insights, knowledge and perspectives that someone outside of our inner circle might want to know. Little children assume others want to know what they know. They yell "Watch me!" "Do you know what?" "I have a ... and it ...." They endlessly share their amazement with the world. Some adults continue to have that childlike quality. Actors, artists, musicians and writers share as a way of life. Specialists tag because they are experts and we want to know what they have to offer. The web offers the opportunity for everyone to share and the tags in a way say "Hey look over here. Look at me and what I have to say."

Prior to reading Thing 11 I'd added one tag. So I went back and added a few more but right now I would have to say that my 23 Things blog is so much about my own journey in learning that it doesn't offer a lot to others and that tags aren't warranted. Part of my travels in Web 2.0 will be to decide how the work I do could be tied to the collective web experience; right now none of the blogs I am in are open to the public.

Last year I wrote my DMTS class
I set up both a FURL and Del.cio.us account.
This is a great tool but I am struggling with it, which is why it has taken me so long to finish this assignment. Reading others comments in our forum helped. I am determined to get all my home links and work links combined, as it will be fantastic to have just one place to put them as I have hundreds organized in files in both locations. I REALLY LOVE just clicking on the toolbar and voila I have a window to save and organize in.

I located favorite sites and put them in del.cio.us in my personal file. I found it confusing as I use Firefox and OmniWeb as search engines at home and Explorer at work. I haven’t figured it all out but am determinedly trying to do so. The home applications have been easier to determine than the professional ones; there have been more tags in personal interest categories. I think as I learn to be more expansive in tagging I’ll find more professional connections.

Searching items of interest of others within FURL and delicious was interesting. Only 13 links to literacy coaches were created which tells me what I already suspected from searching for blogs and RSS feeds that we ‘book types’ need to get more into digital media. The interesting resources I found that I can relate to literacy and language arts are other professionals that had tagged reading, literacy, professional organizations, coaching, writing etc.

Thing 11 has helped me to decide to use Del.icio.us instead of Furl since going through this exercise has been so helpful. I don't need to get it all organized. Instead I've started and as I open sites in my bookmarks or find new sites I add them in. KISS! (Keep it simple sister.) Two of the terms that I LOVE, from Catherine Gilroy are "sources of topic authority" and the "magic middle". Anything to help address filtering and time efficiency is golden.

Our Metro Secondary Literacy Network should use this to recommend reading to each other instead of the deluge of emails with attachments and links. It’s going on the agenda this fall!

Thing 10 Wiki

Since we've been using wikis at work this was fun to go deeper. Got to love those Common Craft Guys! Those videos are so inter generational and that makes it easy to learn and review.

I looked at several of the links and especially enjoyed the Beekeeper site and MN 150.

Edited the 23 Things Wiki and agree that a template with a clearer reflection might have helped, though perhaps one was there and was edited out, so that now it is just one big bulletin board! This Thing helped me expand my concept of using a wiki beyond classroom and collegial applications to include personal uses.

One social aspect of wiki use that intrigues me is when a writer makes changes and then apologizes or explains why they have done so. I've also noticed that at times writers copy the first document and make their changes below and then the next person copies the whole text and makes their changes. The whole collaborative focus is lost. It seems that collaboration and changing how we view teaming is a lesson to learn. What I like about a wiki is that folks can and do improve on what we write or if the collective doesn't think the changes are improvements, it gives us the opportunity to have a discussion that we wouldn't have known needed to happen. Voila! Communication and cooperation the hallmarks of Web 2.0.

Thing 9 Online Collaboration Tools

This Thing is one I want to pursue this year as in the past Google Docs has been a challenge to get to work. Notable in this assignment, editing shared documents as a learning tool, the comments on the pages in both Google Docs and Zoho Writer are about the frustration of not being able to edit. Also notable is the enthusiastic from colleagues in their blogs about it's collaborative power. I'm a believer but would like to be a user!

Thing 8 Share your Creations

The photo options are ones I will be using for presentations, gifts, cards and more. This one could keep a person at the computer for hours. This wildflower mosaic in yellow and white is from the wilds of Cape Brenton, Nova Scotia.

This slideshow was created for a Reading Leadership Class at St. Thomas to share literacy information about the Edina Public Schools.

The database is quick and a nice way to share information and I'll get it to my dinner club after I play around and perhaps add some flags and maps.

The eFolio is interesting and will be use as a request arrived this week for an updated resume. First saw this at a technology conference two years ago and looks like it is greatly improved.

Reflection:
Now the Web Conferencing lack of visuals problem that I talked about in Thing 7 is clarified for me. All of these visual tools tutorials recommended them being paired with webinars and other teaming on line. For visual learners this pulls it all together.

Thing 7 Communicaton

1 Email
The email productivity tip of short answers seems obvious yet is a focused goal. District Leadership has begun formalizing and establishing protocols for Edina Public Schools to increase efficient, effective and concise communications.

2. Instant Messaging
This was very good for me to read because it's not a communication I'd chosen to use after initial dabbling with it six years ago. Tonight reading about this being the preferred mode of communication for many, I signed up in Twitter.

3. Text Messaging
This is one I've avoided because our cell plan charges more to text however thumb typing entered my life with the use of a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet.



4 Web Conferencing Software
Having participated in webinar seminars many times, it was interesting to listen to Tom Peters and his humor about the software. His insights into the live aspect adding authenticity in real time is true in my experiences. Predetermined end times are a plus, as is the opportunity for participants to converse with each other, which he said is most often not utilized. He is right though about the phone conferencing. Collaborating with colleagues in Education Minnesota's TALL project and Reading Team we phone conference instead of web conference because many schools don't have the technology to support web conferencing. As consumers and organizations work to reduce their carbon footprints, and as flight cost increases, most likely webinars will too.

Notable Web Junctions tips especially the caution to limit to 1 hour, build in some interaction between participants and add humor are take aways from that site.

As Tom Peters lead the discussion in OPAL, on the book of Man Hunters, several aspects struck me, especially the informality of Tom's speech and flow of thought. I was surprised that more people didn’t contribute to the discussion and that the web conference was primarily Tom talking. It was clear that this was not a "presentation" and that Tom was working to share and generate discussion. He openly admits he is not very knowledgeable on the history of Lincoln. He shared the "aha" moments for himself. I did find myself starting to drift during long pauses in his speech; and lack of visuals reduced comprehension as well.

Final Thoughts This Thing did expand my thinking about how much our culture has changed and what communication means to different generations. Last week at NUA they told us that in the classroom most communication is nonverbal and a small part is verbal and auditory. Makes me wonder about web conferencing as a learning tool and if the most effective use would be interactive problem solving.

Thing 6 Online Image Generator

Not much to write about trading card . The uses in classrooms are endless from obvious to games the students could make to share with each other.

Thing 5 More Flickr Fun

Check out Big Huge Labs and while you are there take a peek at an enlargement of the jigsaw puzzle below. (Nova Scotia bog waterlily) THING 5 is one that a person could make into a hobby. The mashups were always a mystery to me and now I can create them. FUN! FUN! FUN!

Thing 4 Flickr

Sometimes learning new technology creates a feeling of "jello brain" but Flickr is just plain fun and so easy to use as a shared resource as this photo by hurleygurley demonstrates. In the past Flickr has been helpful to add pictures to several blogs but I haven't loaded any photos into it yet. In the past we've posted photos to our password protected web page for friends to view and Flickr would be easier. Most friends who share photographs do it within Kodak Photo Sharing or one of the other commercial photo sharing and purchasing sites. I like the noncommercial aspect of Flickr and the ability to organize the photos with tags, create private and public files and to create sharing groups.

Pondering digital text has been a recent focus so I put those words into a tag search and digital produced some fun but copyrighted entries. The logos by Herman Jesus fit the creative concept of digital text with his great graphic of a computer with the screen being flipped like the pages of a book.

This summer I started a photo collection of wildflowers; it's time to put them in Flickr once I get done editing.

Thing 3 RSS Feeds

I've been using RSS feeds for a year now and like that I can trust that information I want is being directed to me. What I haven't figured out yet is how to find the time to read it all and keep up with the all the professional interests.

Reading how others in this class have used the feeds for students is interesting and Claude Sigmund's frustration made me wonder if the kids are having the same time issue I'm finding. When given the choice of social interaction many of us in our rushed intense world will default to that which makes us comfortable rather than that which informs or challenges us. With that in mind I gave myself permission to create some feeds for personal interests of a fun nature; I've spent the last hour looking for something that was worthwhile to link to and didn't find any. Did find some good websites though; hopefully as more people learn about RSS feeds they will add them to their sites. Perhaps nothing interested me because I am looking for information rather than social connections and most of the blogs in the areas I was looking in were trying to make social connections.

So I switched tactics and decided to add some of the social justice networks that I'm involved in activism work through. Interestingly enough most allowed me to sign up for newsletters by email, which I had already done, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center but didn't have RSS feeds to up date when they've added to their blog or website. Catholic Relief Services and the American Lung Association did get added to my Bloglines however.

Next job for me is to create the habit of adding Bloglines to my daily reading.