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

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

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.

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.