The Giving of the Thanks

Four classes down, Eight to go. Whew. It is the giving of the thanks that I am doing right about now. I'm a third of the way done, and I'm finishing this puppy come Hell or high water. Keeping in mind that I don't believe in the Hell. But I do believe in the high water, especially after seeing so much of it last year. My, my but that Iowa River can rise up when it wants to. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Anyway, we gave of the thanks, we made of the dinner. It was lovely. My son is here, my daugher-in-law, and my grandson. Plus my mom, my brother, my nephew, and of course my dog, Mabel. I actually wish there were more of us, but I shouldn't be greedy. So I'm grateful for those that I had here, and for those that had afar for we are all of good health this year, and of good cheer, and I know that is quite a lot.

Now for other things, not to drag on and on, but I'm on to my newest class which is of a Zen nature, ish, and one of my assignments is to develop a survey for a project I'm working on. The project involves programming a DynaVox speech box for a young man that is non-verbal. It is a rather heavy box that has a programmable touch screen that allows me to put "buttons" on it with pictures that once touched will say anything I program them to say. I know. Pretty heady stuff that. But I try to think like an 18 year old male. HEY, clean it up. He's a nice 18 year old male. I try to think like him, and give him buttons that are appropriate for school. So my survey is very broadly concerned with that. Please consider taking it, it's located at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEozVnBYQmtzeTRPVFBLSlhHMy1SS0E6MA

BP16_2009113_Video#2_SketchfuIsFun

(2009, November 15). Retrieved from http://sketchfu.com

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BP12_2009113_Web2.0FinalPersonalChoice_SketchfuRocksLikeEtchASketch

This is my last foray into searching for Web 2.0 Tools as an assignment on my own. I looked under the category of "fun" for a change, and lo and behold, there was Sketchfu! I must warn you, it's hiding it's light under a bushel, because this sweet little tool is not merely fun, but it can be used for much, much more.

Stop and think for a moment about all the times when you've been trying to describe something to someone over the telephone with absolutely no luck. You come at it from every angle you can think of, and still no success.

"It's about four feet tall, but it gets narrower towards the top, and it's kind of a kelly green, but not quite, then near the top there's this sort of a blueish trim that goes all the way around..." We've all been there. The person on the other end might as well put the phone down and make a sandwich, take a walk around the block and come back when we're done for all the good that description does.

Cell phones with cameras did a little bit towards saving that fiasco, but not everyone is favorable towards allowing pictures to be taken. So we were back to the descriptions. Now, you can draw a picture, and either direct your description-receiver to it, or send the picture directly to them! It's amazing, you can dispense with all of the confusion (assuming you can draw anything remotely like what you were describing, and if you can't, I"m sure there's a Web 2.0 Tool out there somewhere to help you, but that's another blog, my friend) and get right to the point!

And for uses in the classroom, kids can come right back to the classroom and draw what they've seen on a walk, or a field trip and email it home so the parents who were unable to make the trip can appreciate it as well. The drawings can also be printed out and used in portfolios or to decorate the class, they can be copied and pasted into reports as well. Best of all, as usual Sketchfu, found at http://sketchfu.com/ is FREE. Give it a whirl my friends.

BP11_2009112_Delicious_ILoveBookmarks

Social bookmarking is a pretty brilliant idea, and uniquely usable for classroom teachers, especially secondary and higher. When trying to make it possible to reach all of the students that a secondary or post-secondary instructor would teach in a single day, the mind fairly boggles. But the idea of using social bookmarking makes it much easier. Using a common naming technique, making it available to all students and then updating it as necessary, and all of the students would be able to keep up with the class information.

Many instructors require students to do research online, especially in high school and post-secondary studies, this is an excellent way to keep students linked in with information. Rodd Lucier has an appreciation for this on the Clever Sheep website as he outlines with a link to an excellent video by Common Craft, and then explains in very simple terms that even the most frightened luddite will understand.

In "The Role of Delicious in Education" we have the history of Delicious, chapter and verse, as well as the psychological meanings behind every move made on the site. It might be a little more in depth than most people need, but it certainly explains very clearly how the site works, and why. I appreciated some of the candor and humor that Dr. Grosseck used when discussing the ways people use the Internet, and bookmarking. She did a remarkably thorough job of explaining Delicious.

For my third site, I chose http://wiki.classroom20.com/social+bookmarking#toc3. It's not authored by anyone in particular as far as I can tell, but it's chock full of links and other information about bookmarking that are useful. It also gives a great bulleted abbreviated list about why social bookmarking is a good thing for education. I like things that are short, sweet, and to the point. Most teachers do because we don't have time to wade through paragraphs of junk for someone to make their point. Lists are better. This site does an admirable job of making its point.

As is often the case for teachers, we find ourselves defending various aspects of education. If any of the teachers reading this ever find the need to defend social bookmarking, any one of these three websites would do an absolute bang up job of it for you. Just direct people to them.

Grosseck, G. (2008, March 29). The Role of delicious in education. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2413801/The-Role-of- Delicious- in-Education

Lucier, R. (2008, January 8). Social bookmarking in the classroom. Retrieved from http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/01/social- bookmarking-in-classroom.html

http://wiki.classroom20.com/social+bookmarking#toc3

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BP8_2009112_Web2.03_DoILikeToArgueOrDebate

I enjoy a good debate as much as anyone. But I hate to argue. There is a difference. Arguing is pretty emotional stuff. People tend to do it either with their hearts, or an uncontrolled temper. Neither of those will lead to an ending that will leave all people satisfied.

I usually won't debate religion. I won't debate with people I consider zealots on any subject at all. If people are going to cry, or yell or throw things, probably better not to debate it to begin with. Those are some pretty basic rules that keep my life pretty calm. I like calm, well, calm meaning not angry. I am all in favor of excitement, happy, and joyful, all of the good things.

I do love to debate a topic with an intelligent person who is not emotionally invested in the topic. Now that can be a lot of fun, especially if both parties know a fair amount about their sides of the debate and are prepared to listen to the opposing side. It makes for a lively encounter, and people can actually learn from each other.

To this end, I have found a Web 2.0 Tool that has actually surprised me more than any other. amap.org.uk is the website where you can find this amazing little tool/widget. I guess I'm amazed because I didn't expect Great Britain to be the birthplace of a tool of argument. I think of England and I think of rational, calm, Harry Potter, Queen Elizabeth. Not people arguing, and throwing punches, which is not necessarily what this tool is for, but I think you know what I mean.

aMap is designed for you to be able to choose your topic and put it out there the invitation to choose up sides. It is possible to buy already created aMaps, or even to sell your aMaps. There are great areas for teachers to find low cost aMaps with critical thinking teacher's packs, and even explanations about logic and reasoning. It's a very creative way to get students to think about current or historical events, and come up with sound and logical explanations for their way of thinking. It is one method for them to begin to understand the world for themselves.

I appreciate the idea behind this tool, but it took me a few minutes to get there. When I first looked at it, I was a little disgusted. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to encourage people to argue more, when it seems like there are so many arguments already. But after looking over the site and reading about the education program, and seeing some of the arguments, I have to say I think it's a brilliant idea. No one is forced to argue or debate, and I think it's good for people to consider ideas contrary to their own sometimes. It can be a learning process for us all, even me.

BP7_2009112_Web2.02_IAmBabblingLikeCrazy

I've taken 8 years of Spanish over the course of my education. But I never had much need for it in the great Northeast which is where I spent the majority of my formative years. Then, when I did need it, as a teacher in L.A., it was so rusty my students could have gotten tetanus from it. I did remember all of the bad words, go figure, and that did come in handy. But I would really like to be fluent in Spanish. Or really any other language besides English, or maybe in English at this point. It depends on who you talk to.

I have noticed that the world has begun using more and more of a melange of languages, and it is beneficial to have a background of more than one language. I've also noticed that many languages sound at least a little bit like another language which can be helpful sometimes. Other times not so much. There are times when nothing helps at all, and you are left sitting there with no idea what's going on because someone else is speaking a foreign language to you. Or perhaps they have only used a foreign phrase. Sometimes you might just run across a foreign word or phrase in a book or online.

If you are in a school setting, it might not be a problem. You could confer with one of the foreign language teachers. But that's assuming you or the teacher knows from what language the word or phrase originates. Or perhaps you could check in the library and find a translation book. Those are some of the possibilities.

Fear not faithful reader, I have a spiffy new solution for you in the form of a Web 2.0 tool called Babylon Translation Box! It is a widget offering you a translation in over 20 languages through the use of an online dictionary and thesaurus! Best of all, it's free, available from the labpixies at labpixies.com! This is a very small tool that can be places on your website or in your tool bar, and can save you hours of aggravation if you are the type of person who likes to surf internationally flavored sites. Check it out today, and see what you have literally been missing.

BP6_2009112_Web2.0Tools1_WahooVocaroo

I love widgets. PC's have gadgets, and they are way less cool. Of course, PC's are way less cool, except for the card games. At any rate, Macs rule with the widgets. There are so many to choose from. First you have to select a category, and that alone can take you several minutes to half an hour. Then you truly do need to read about each widget, and consider how many people have tried them before you. It is a good indicator of what is popular and what works.

Vocaroo is a Web 2.0 tool that I found that also comes as a widget. It's the next step in email, leaving a voicemail. It's still in beta, which means they are still testing it, but it's a clever little program that is offered for free for now. On the home page, vocaroo.com, you are given the opportunity to record your own voice and play it back for yourself. Then you are offered the chance to rerecord a message and email it to anyone you know.

A number of improvements have been made to the little gizmo while it's been in beta, so now you can choose your colors, and download your messages to save on your computer. As always, one of my favorites is the people behind Vocaroo have a sense of humor. It's worth it just to go read what they will guarantee and what they won't. Don't miss their request for your first born child. It's a hoot.

I find that there are often situations where it would be very helpful for my daughter in particular to be able to record a message for me to hear. Specifically when my granddaughter who is almost 2 years old and as precocious as can be, lets one of her little pearls of wisdom drop from her tongue in Dallas, Texas, and I am 1500 miles away at work in Iowa. My daughter could record it, and I would not miss this miraculous moment at all, because anyone with anyone experience with babies would know that they do not perform on command, and that moment would not be replayed when I was available later in the day. It would be lovely to know that I could be there as it were. It's very hard to miss out on so much from so far away.

Perhaps the people at Vocaroo have grandchildren that live very far away too? Well done I say!

Go give Vocaroo a try today. It's a brilliant little widget, or a great toy to give your friends to play with on your web page. I'm getting ready to add it to mine. Stop by and give it a try.

BP5_2009112_FlickRLessonPlans_ILoveTheBigWords

I have always loved really big words. I love to use them as often as I can. Little did I know that this would come in really handy when it came time to take the GRE for graduate school. Prestidigitation means magic. Loquacious means you use 10 words when 1 would have sufficed. Or close to that. My kids also have a love of this and we used to challenge each other all the time, but I think my daughter Karen won a long time ago when she brought home floccinaucinihilipilification which means to describe something as worthless. I no longer have to put that in quotes because it has been a part of the family lexicon (vocabulary) for 20 years. In fact, I couldn't put it in quotes, or credit it to anyone because I can't even remember where she learned it way back then.

The point to all this was my latest assignment, which was to find a lesson plan that used flickr. Which I did indeed do. However, I found that the teacher's idea was somewhat flawed. She started with the idea that students could take new vocabulary words and look them up on flickr in order to see pictures that could give them clues to the definitions of the words. Great idea, but she didn't stop there. She rode it right off the rails by having the students go to other websites, which circled right back to flickr with several useless steps. She ended with a cute mini movie making session that seemed fun but pointless.

I liked her idea of using flickr to figure out definitions, but I'd like to stick with just that and take it further. I think it could be used at any grade level, regardless of the word. Obviously some words would not be found on flickr. For those words, the students could look them up in a real dictionary or thesaurus. In many cases, the resulting words would probably still be unfamiliar, then these words could be looked up on flickr, and so on. It could prove to be quite a challenging game. I think the student would enjoy it, and learn several things from it:

1. How to use flickr.

2. Improve dictionary skills.

3. Improve thesaurus skills.

4. Improve vocabulary.

No matter what students are going to do with their lives, they need to have language skills, but especially if they have any ambition at all, a rudimentary vocabulary is required. If they expect to achieve anything, then a more proficient vocabulary is expected, and this is one way they can acquire it. Students love competition, they love to play games, give them a list of words, a computer, the web address to flickr.com, a dictionary, a thesaurus (try to keep it a little old school) and let the games and learning begin!

BP3_2009111_ReaderChoices_WhatIChooseToRead

I'm in graduate school, I work full-time, I have a part-time job, and I have a family. I have a life. Therefore, when I decide to read something, it had better be worth reading, even if it's just a comic strip, I don't take my reading time lightly. I've been known to rip up books that disappointed me in the end. That was after a two day rant about the author's complete lack of concern for the faithful reader, otherwise known as "me."

So when I decide to subscribe to a feed from the Google reader, you can be fairly certain it has some gravitas, or at the very least it tickles my funny bone. If it's for a task assigned by a professor, I will still take it seriously, because my reading time is very precious to me. I was given the assignment of finding 5 RSS's to subscribe to in the field of education. I actually found 6.

The first is Educational Technology. This one is a no-brainer because I'm getting an M.A. in Education, Media, & Technology. I'd like to keep up on what the world is doing while I'm in school for the very same thing.

Second is Education: News & Videos about Education - CNN.com, and I guess I'd have to say I chose this because I choose CNN to provide me with my news. They seem to have the scoop on everyone, so I trust they'll have the scoop on this.

Third is NPR Topics: Education, NPR has been my go to radio station for years, especially when I'm looking for the liberal, or off-beat stories, and sometimes that's where the best education stories are found.

In fourth place is NYT > Education. You can't beat the New York Times for news stories, and New York City is always a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to education, so this is a good place to look for stories on education as well.

My fifth choice is U.S. Department of Education, because big brother is always in charge of some of our monies, and it behooves us to pay attention to what he has to say.

My final selection, and the "also ran" is RTFM Education, because seriously, aren't there an awful lot of people in education that need to RTFM? And this one tickles my funny bone.

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These are my screen shots:

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Just today I started teaching a group of fourth graders in an after school program for academic enrichment. That might be a fancy way of saying these are kids that need a little extra help or could benefit from some one on one time with a teacher in a less hectic atmosphere than the daily classroom. One of the first things I like to do is to ask kids to tell me about themselves. The questions are never exactly the same but the gist is what's your favorite, what's your least favorite, what is your very best thing, and where do you come from?

It's important to know where you come from, because it might give you some answers about where you are going to. Family-Mingle is a Web 2.0 tool website that wants to help you figure that out. It's an extremely user friendly interface that will have you setting up a family tree in less than a minute. Students as young as my fourth graders should be able to use this site with no problems at all. It's point and click at its friendliest. The only setback would the need to have the names and dates of the people in your family and their births and/or deaths.

It would be extremely easy to make a very simple lesson plan for a 2 generation family tree, just including the parents and siblings of the student, but this in turn might spark an interest in the family to try and continue the tree once the see the ease of the program at home. The student could take home a printout and show the parents on the home computer how simple it is to add information. What easier way to convince an adult than watching a 9 year old manipulate the keyboard and mouse?

http://www.family-mingle.com/ really is worth trying for five minutes. I originally intended to spend five minutes, and twenty minutes later I was calling my mother for my grandparents birthdates. It can be very addictive, and educational as you learn about yourself and where you came from.

Plus...it's free!

BP1_2009111_BloggingEducationally_ToBlogOrNotToBlog

It really is the question, isn't it? There are so many blogs out there now, but the answer is a resounding Yes! Blogging is the long lost art form of letter writing. People bemoan the fact that the children of generation...what letter are we on now? I digress, that these children will never know the joy of letter writing, receiving mail, etc., yet they do know the joy of email, and now they know the joy of blogging. Post a blog, and wait for the comments. It's not unlike writing a letter to all of your friends at once, but on the very upside, no trees die, and everyone saves time and effort.

As for the benefits seen in education, teachers have found blogs to have an amazing impact in the classroom. Students are very enthusiastic about the idea of posting their thoughts online. It's used as an incentive, a reward, a sounding board, something of an outsource, where people in the community have an opportunity to work with students online sometimes, it just opens up a whole world of opportunities to a room that was previously limited by its four walls and a budget.

Not only are teachers using the blogs for their students advantages, but for their own as well. Teachers are forming communities with their blogs, and developing support systems that allows an exchange of information that was never possible before. Instead of being limited to what is available in the local supply store, or the latest education magazine, teachers are now able to bounce ideas off of each other within minutes, and spread the word instantly about what works, and more importantly what doesn't in the classroom. This has been a veritable godsend for the neophytes especially, but also those who have been teaching for a long time, and looking for new ways to freshen up their repertoire.

Blogs have opened up an exciting new frontier in the classroom. Teachers are pioneers in a brave new way, but they are more than meeting the challenge. This is an amazing time in education, and I am grateful that I am part of it. My grandchildren are being born right now, on the very cusp of what I think is the launch of technology's true take off in education. I can't wait to watch it happen for them.