Web 2.0 Awards List
As a math teacher currently teaching Data Analysis, one of the websites I found really intriguing was swivel.com . Swivel allows you to upload data and create charts based on the information your provided. You can then share your charts/data with others, and see theirs. From a teaching perspective its a wealth of examples to show my students how these graphs can be used every day. Unfortunately many of the websites were blocked by our firewall/security so I will have to investigate more later from another computer.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Thing # 18
Online Productivity Tools
Open Office looks interesting to me, but unfortunately I can't download and save anything to my school computer. However, I do have experience with google docs, and similar programs (specifically one offered by yahoo). I find Google Docs to be a great way to share information, and in fact use it frequently in Grad School for group projects. Its the easiest way to share documents without having to send huge emails that fill up servers with attachments. Luckily at school we have a common drive that everyone can access, so this is not necessarily a tool we would need, but if that weren't the case it would be awesome to use to share lessons.
Open Office looks interesting to me, but unfortunately I can't download and save anything to my school computer. However, I do have experience with google docs, and similar programs (specifically one offered by yahoo). I find Google Docs to be a great way to share information, and in fact use it frequently in Grad School for group projects. Its the easiest way to share documents without having to send huge emails that fill up servers with attachments. Luckily at school we have a common drive that everyone can access, so this is not necessarily a tool we would need, but if that weren't the case it would be awesome to use to share lessons.
Thing # 17
Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki
There are some AWESOME ideas in the sandbox. As a math teacher one of my favorites was the idea of posting the Problem of the Week in a wiki and having the students contribute information and their thoughts to it throughout the week. I think that wiki's could be an awesome tool in effective communication with my students, but I think we would need access to more computers before it would become a reality.
There are some AWESOME ideas in the sandbox. As a math teacher one of my favorites was the idea of posting the Problem of the Week in a wiki and having the students contribute information and their thoughts to it throughout the week. I think that wiki's could be an awesome tool in effective communication with my students, but I think we would need access to more computers before it would become a reality.
Thing # 16
Wikis
I was excited to get to this "thing" because I think Wikis are incredibly useful and I use them frequently. The thing I love most about Wikis is the feature that allows multiple authors to contribute. It's a great way to facilitate communication within a class and between teachers and students. I think starting a wiki on a topic and having students search for and add information is a great way to introduce a topic and have students contribute their preknowledge. Also, on a sidenote, I recently just started using a wikispace to keep up with a group from my church that meets every Sunday night at my house and its been an incredible way to efficiently disseminate information throughout the group and provide a space for discussion.
I was excited to get to this "thing" because I think Wikis are incredibly useful and I use them frequently. The thing I love most about Wikis is the feature that allows multiple authors to contribute. It's a great way to facilitate communication within a class and between teachers and students. I think starting a wiki on a topic and having students search for and add information is a great way to introduce a topic and have students contribute their preknowledge. Also, on a sidenote, I recently just started using a wikispace to keep up with a group from my church that meets every Sunday night at my house and its been an incredible way to efficiently disseminate information throughout the group and provide a space for discussion.
Thing # 15
Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & The Future....
Disclaimer: I am not a librarian.
However, from what I read in several of the articles I am catching on to Library/Web 2.0 and the technology. From my understanding its addressing the ever increasing need to bring Libraries into the technology age. Librarians are at a point where collections of books are becoming less important and access to technology is becoming a necessity. Gone are the days where research is done in book stacks and here are the days where a research paper can be created solely from sources found in internet searches. To address these needs librarians need to become masters of the web based tools that can help their patrons access these collections of digital information. Which is why 23 things is so awesome. We are all getting a chance to see a side of the internet that you dont encounter on a daily basis, and discover tools that will help us as we address the needs of our time.
Disclaimer: I am not a librarian.
However, from what I read in several of the articles I am catching on to Library/Web 2.0 and the technology. From my understanding its addressing the ever increasing need to bring Libraries into the technology age. Librarians are at a point where collections of books are becoming less important and access to technology is becoming a necessity. Gone are the days where research is done in book stacks and here are the days where a research paper can be created solely from sources found in internet searches. To address these needs librarians need to become masters of the web based tools that can help their patrons access these collections of digital information. Which is why 23 things is so awesome. We are all getting a chance to see a side of the internet that you dont encounter on a daily basis, and discover tools that will help us as we address the needs of our time.
Thing # 14
Technorati
Thing #9 was the first time I encountered Technorati, and now here I am again. I searched "School Library Learning 2.0" in the blog posts, tags and Blog directory. When I looked it up in Posts, i got, Surprise! a lot of posts contained in 23 things blogs! It was kind of fun actually to see that people across the US are doing this same exercise. When I performed the same search in blogs I found alot of blogs specifically related to the topic, School Library Learning 2.0. Doing the same search on del.icio.us I found mainly tutorial pdf files related to Library Learning 2.0. Exploring the popular blog searches and tags page I found that the majority of them were technology related, which makes me think that this tagging tool is mostly used by people who are very advanced in their computer/technology skill, and frequently use these simple tools, that seem less useful to me.
Overall, I can see the benefits of tagging (as I said before), but I do not think its something that I will do (at least not consistently - although I do love how tags work on Flickr!)
Thing #9 was the first time I encountered Technorati, and now here I am again. I searched "School Library Learning 2.0" in the blog posts, tags and Blog directory. When I looked it up in Posts, i got, Surprise! a lot of posts contained in 23 things blogs! It was kind of fun actually to see that people across the US are doing this same exercise. When I performed the same search in blogs I found alot of blogs specifically related to the topic, School Library Learning 2.0. Doing the same search on del.icio.us I found mainly tutorial pdf files related to Library Learning 2.0. Exploring the popular blog searches and tags page I found that the majority of them were technology related, which makes me think that this tagging tool is mostly used by people who are very advanced in their computer/technology skill, and frequently use these simple tools, that seem less useful to me.
Overall, I can see the benefits of tagging (as I said before), but I do not think its something that I will do (at least not consistently - although I do love how tags work on Flickr!)
Thing # 13
del.icio.us
Interesting idea, however I found it a little overwhelming. Since anyone can use Tags without discretion del.icio.us just provides endless lists containing the tags to sift through. It was fun to see what other people thought related to some categories and I really liked the del.icio.us homepage which allowed me to see what's being viewed alot on the "hotlist". I just bought an iPhone this week and was immediately drawn to some of the tags related to apple/iPhone, and actually got directed to some pretty useful sites that I'll be visiting more as I learn to use the crazy thing! Overall though I don 't see myself really seeing the need to start tagging my internet postings, and I find normal searches a little more useful than tag searches. However, I could see that it might be a good place to start for students looking for a variety of sources and not knowing where to start. However, I think as a teacher I would be very wary of using this type of search because some of the tags are not at all related to the topic, and unfortunately could misdirect students to an inappropriate page.
Interesting idea, however I found it a little overwhelming. Since anyone can use Tags without discretion del.icio.us just provides endless lists containing the tags to sift through. It was fun to see what other people thought related to some categories and I really liked the del.icio.us homepage which allowed me to see what's being viewed alot on the "hotlist". I just bought an iPhone this week and was immediately drawn to some of the tags related to apple/iPhone, and actually got directed to some pretty useful sites that I'll be visiting more as I learn to use the crazy thing! Overall though I don 't see myself really seeing the need to start tagging my internet postings, and I find normal searches a little more useful than tag searches. However, I could see that it might be a good place to start for students looking for a variety of sources and not knowing where to start. However, I think as a teacher I would be very wary of using this type of search because some of the tags are not at all related to the topic, and unfortunately could misdirect students to an inappropriate page.
Thing # 12
Rollyo
So, I see the point of Rollyo, and understand how it could be useful if you are performing lots of searches. However, for me, I find it a little useless. The whole reason i do searches is to find new sources, I really dont have sites that I frequent enough that I am searching for information. So when it came time to set up my Rollyo account, I went blank. I couldnt think of any sites that I frequent enough that would relate to information i might be searching for. I did think it was good that you could see other people's searchrolls and use them, or use other previously created ones, but overall I dont think Rollyo is for me. I find that I am pretty good at using google and filtering my search results for legitimacy, so Rollyo is not an app that I find handy for my current situation.
So, I see the point of Rollyo, and understand how it could be useful if you are performing lots of searches. However, for me, I find it a little useless. The whole reason i do searches is to find new sources, I really dont have sites that I frequent enough that I am searching for information. So when it came time to set up my Rollyo account, I went blank. I couldnt think of any sites that I frequent enough that would relate to information i might be searching for. I did think it was good that you could see other people's searchrolls and use them, or use other previously created ones, but overall I dont think Rollyo is for me. I find that I am pretty good at using google and filtering my search results for legitimacy, so Rollyo is not an app that I find handy for my current situation.
Thing #11
LibraryThing
Ok, well first things first, I am not a librarian. So I won't even pretend like I can compete in the volume of books category. However, I do LOVE to read and have quite a collection at home. I must say, LibraryThing is awesome. I am thinking about just adding all my books that I have at home just to keep up with them. Also, I love that you can see how many other people have that book tagged and look at other peoples lists. My sister in laws and mother in law and I all share books frequently, but we all live far apart from eachother. Sharing our LibraryThing lists and creating a group would be a great way to find books we havent read and figure out exchanging them. I love seeing how many people are on LibraryThing posting messages trying to find new good reads and the groups are fun. I love Harry Potter so I checked out some Harry Potter groups and wish I had known about them when the last book came out so I would have a fun group to discuss with as I read. As far as in class I dont know how I can use this for math...but I'll keep thinking!
Ok, well first things first, I am not a librarian. So I won't even pretend like I can compete in the volume of books category. However, I do LOVE to read and have quite a collection at home. I must say, LibraryThing is awesome. I am thinking about just adding all my books that I have at home just to keep up with them. Also, I love that you can see how many other people have that book tagged and look at other peoples lists. My sister in laws and mother in law and I all share books frequently, but we all live far apart from eachother. Sharing our LibraryThing lists and creating a group would be a great way to find books we havent read and figure out exchanging them. I love seeing how many people are on LibraryThing posting messages trying to find new good reads and the groups are fun. I love Harry Potter so I checked out some Harry Potter groups and wish I had known about them when the last book came out so I would have a fun group to discuss with as I read. As far as in class I dont know how I can use this for math...but I'll keep thinking!
Thing #10
Online Image Generator
Well apparently security is pretty high around here b/c I wasn't able to access several of the image generators (at least not fully). In any case though I finally got to play with ImageChef (http://www.imagechef.com/) and had alot of fun doing it (see my sidebar). I found it very easy to use, they have tons of premade (and animated!!!) backgrounds and all I had to do was type in some text! I love putting quotes up in my room, and so I took one my classes favorite quotes (by Thom Yorke) and made it into a fortune cookie for my blog. I love it! I think this would be a great way to creatively put instructions or reminders on an assignment or notes and it may even be fun to have kids create their own (on the sites where they can use their own images) as an assignment. Very cool tool overall. One of my favorites.
Well apparently security is pretty high around here b/c I wasn't able to access several of the image generators (at least not fully). In any case though I finally got to play with ImageChef (http://www.imagechef.com/) and had alot of fun doing it (see my sidebar). I found it very easy to use, they have tons of premade (and animated!!!) backgrounds and all I had to do was type in some text! I love putting quotes up in my room, and so I took one my classes favorite quotes (by Thom Yorke) and made it into a fortune cookie for my blog. I love it! I think this would be a great way to creatively put instructions or reminders on an assignment or notes and it may even be fun to have kids create their own (on the sites where they can use their own images) as an assignment. Very cool tool overall. One of my favorites.
Thing #9
RSS Continued: Useful Blogs and News Feeds
I personally like the google blog search the easiest to use and one of the best ways to find feeds. However, I also have just gone to some of my favorite websites (i.e. CNN.com) and looked at the blogs some of their writers follow and or contribute to. The one thing I really liked about Technorati was being able to see the articles/blogs that are "rising" or being viewed and tagged frequently. I really didn't like the Syndic8 site. The layout of the search results was not very useful and you had to click through to each blog to even get an idea what it was like, no summaries or anything like that are available on the search results page. I found some really useful Math/Education feeds. I think my favorite is Nick's Mathematical Puzzles - it has great problems/brainteasers to use with my GT group. As far as unusual ones...well, there seems to be a blog about EVERYTHING. I am not kidding. There are some eccentric people out there blogging about everything from their latest bodily function to their cat's travels.....
I personally like the google blog search the easiest to use and one of the best ways to find feeds. However, I also have just gone to some of my favorite websites (i.e. CNN.com) and looked at the blogs some of their writers follow and or contribute to. The one thing I really liked about Technorati was being able to see the articles/blogs that are "rising" or being viewed and tagged frequently. I really didn't like the Syndic8 site. The layout of the search results was not very useful and you had to click through to each blog to even get an idea what it was like, no summaries or anything like that are available on the search results page. I found some really useful Math/Education feeds. I think my favorite is Nick's Mathematical Puzzles - it has great problems/brainteasers to use with my GT group. As far as unusual ones...well, there seems to be a blog about EVERYTHING. I am not kidding. There are some eccentric people out there blogging about everything from their latest bodily function to their cat's travels.....
Thing #8
RSS
I have heard about RSS feeds for a while, but have avoided creating one because I wasn't convinced it would make life any easier. However, after checking into my google reader account and adding some of my favorite news sources, blogs and some new math blogs I found I must say I think it's awesome! What a great way to compile a ton of information in one local place and easily skim for new information of interest. I think for school its great b/c as I add more and more education blogs I will be able to quickly get ideas and math problems from other educators around the world. I think as a librarian this would be a dream application because you could set up a reader based on a certain subject so that when students came to research you would already have several sources all feeding into one localized place that all the students can access and view. Incredible!
I have heard about RSS feeds for a while, but have avoided creating one because I wasn't convinced it would make life any easier. However, after checking into my google reader account and adding some of my favorite news sources, blogs and some new math blogs I found I must say I think it's awesome! What a great way to compile a ton of information in one local place and easily skim for new information of interest. I think for school its great b/c as I add more and more education blogs I will be able to quickly get ideas and math problems from other educators around the world. I think as a librarian this would be a dream application because you could set up a reader based on a certain subject so that when students came to research you would already have several sources all feeding into one localized place that all the students can access and view. Incredible!
Thing #7
Google Tools
As a teacher I think my favorite google tool is the notebook. I can find things online that relate to our curriculum and easily file them away to share with my team or come back to later. I also really like using the advanced search for .pdf files to find worksheets that are similar to ones we are using in class. While on the google tools I also used iGoogle to personalize my home page, and had lots of fun with Google earth. That tool is amazing!!!
As a teacher I think my favorite google tool is the notebook. I can find things online that relate to our curriculum and easily file them away to share with my team or come back to later. I also really like using the advanced search for .pdf files to find worksheets that are similar to ones we are using in class. While on the google tools I also used iGoogle to personalize my home page, and had lots of fun with Google earth. That tool is amazing!!!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thing #6
Mashups!
So far I think that Thing #6 has been the one I have had the most fun with! I consider myself a "technology native" (as opposed to a "technology immigrant
") and feel like I have seen alot of what is on the web. But Mashups are new to me and I had a blast playing with all that was out there. For my classroom I thought some of the sites would be great for making motivational posters and visual aids. But I must admit that I was most amused by the Color Fields Colr Pickr site - what an amazing way to see photographs!
So far I think that Thing #6 has been the one I have had the most fun with! I consider myself a "technology native" (as opposed to a "technology immigrant
") and feel like I have seen alot of what is on the web. But Mashups are new to me and I had a blast playing with all that was out there. For my classroom I thought some of the sites would be great for making motivational posters and visual aids. But I must admit that I was most amused by the Color Fields Colr Pickr site - what an amazing way to see photographs!
Thing #5
Flickr
Being a long time Yahoo.com user, Flickr is a website I have run across before. However, since I just returned from a trip to Colorado I figured it would be a good time to try out all of the features of Flickr with my new photos. So I uploaded my pics and tagged them all. It was interesting to look at other photos that shared the same tags as some of mine. I also set up a group so that all of the other couples that went to Colorado with us can share their pictures in a central location -- I love that feature. Now I just have to hope that they will all do it! In any case, Flickr is a great way to organize/share photos - but I think my favorite thing about it is being able to search through all of the AMAZING photographs that are on it! There are some amazing undiscovered photographers out there!
Being a long time Yahoo.com user, Flickr is a website I have run across before. However, since I just returned from a trip to Colorado I figured it would be a good time to try out all of the features of Flickr with my new photos. So I uploaded my pics and tagged them all. It was interesting to look at other photos that shared the same tags as some of mine. I also set up a group so that all of the other couples that went to Colorado with us can share their pictures in a central location -- I love that feature. Now I just have to hope that they will all do it! In any case, Flickr is a great way to organize/share photos - but I think my favorite thing about it is being able to search through all of the AMAZING photographs that are on it! There are some amazing undiscovered photographers out there!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thing #4
Ok! I am officially registered and ready to play! 19 more things to go! It's excited to look at all the others that are registered - I have to admit, I got the email about this opportunity from our awesome librarian (who is playing along as well) - and was a little afraid I would be the only crazy math teacher playing along! But it looks like I have lots of good company! What an awesome way to earn professional development hours - I cant wait to get a chance to look around some more - thank you all for sharing!
Thing #3
My blog! Well, this isn't officially my "First" post since I already blogged about thing #1 and thing #2, but I did get my blog all set up, and finally settled on an avatar that kind of represents me! I dont know who came up with all those avatars - but they all seem really thin and trendy! But I was very excited about the animated ski lodge background!
I think I still want to mess around with the template of this blog (colars and fonts) a little bit...but I am impressed at how professional these things can look with very minimal work on my part!!!
I think I still want to mess around with the template of this blog (colars and fonts) a little bit...but I am impressed at how professional these things can look with very minimal work on my part!!!
Thing #2
After watching the lifelong learner presentation, I have to say that I feel like I am already a lifelong learner. I love taking classes, reading, meeting new people, and travelling. In fact those things are almost addictions for me -- I thrive off learning and doing new things. I think the learning trait that I am a biggest proponent of is setting Goals - that is the trait that has continually made the difference in my achievements in my life. I think I struggle the most with leaving time to play. I very rarely say that all important word, "no" and I am constantly on to the next thing. I just go, go, go until I am stressed to the max and cant fit anything else in.
Thing #1
Here I am -- on the World Wide Web! What an awesome opportunity! I am very excited about using a Blog as a teaching (and in this case learning) tool. I am constantly encouraging my kids to be lifelong learners, and so it's great to be actively involved in my own learning activity. I can't wait to get started!
Happy Blogging to all!
Happy Blogging to all!
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