Thing 19

This was fun. I loved looking at all the examples of how this could be used in the classroom. I looked for Promethean activities and found several examples of lines and angles that I think I could use next year. It is such a simple way of getting students involved in their own learning. I also liked the Voicethread that showed how to turn a Keynote into a ActVote lesson. Again, something different to show teachers that is beyond PowerPoint. The examples of the ABC books were great. Any project that we can use as examples tend to give the teachers a feeling that it is possible and it looks so easy.
I found several of examples that liked, but I decided to be "stretchier" and try one on my own. Pretty easy and lots of fun.

Thing 18

I spent hours on YouTube yesterday. I found so many fascinating, funny, educational, and informative videos that I could have watched for days. I found things that were very useful and that I will go back to watch again. I also found some things that I thought, first, "Why would anyone video that?" and second, "Why would they post it for someone else to watch?" However all those videos had hundreds of hits. Go figure!
I did watch a couple of videos featuring the Promethean board, one of which I will use in a Staff Development that I am presenting next week. I re-watched a video about how to make an infrared controller for the Promethean using a Wii remote. If you could have seen our office last spring, you'd know that it was one video we took to heart as we tried it ourselves (with was more or less of a success). I also watched some videos of s some funny dogs doing strange and unusual things. YouTube is very easy to search with the results being clearing defined with a snippet of the picture next to it.
TeacherTube was a little more difficult to get a good understanding of exactly what you were looking for. I also noticed that many of the TeacherTube videos were much longer that YouTube. They seemed to be more for a longer Staff Development or training session. I compared the types of videos on Promethean from TeacherTube and YouTube. Some were the same video posted on both sites, but many of the videos on TeacherTube were posted by Promethean as a part of a training modlue. Some of these are actually posted on the Promethean Website.
I wanted to attach a video of a talking dog, but the file was too big. So I settled for a Promethean example.

Thing 17

I listened to several podcasts that I found in the Educational Podcast Network. One thing that I discovered was that many of the podcasts on GEEK!ED! ran 30 min to an hour. While I was interested in what was being said, I wasn't willing to spend the time to listen that carefully. I'm not sure teachers will be able to invest that kind of time either. The podcasts that really caught my attention were the ones that were short and to the point. I especially liked three in particular: Radio WillowWeb, Grammar Girl, and 60 Second Science. These podcasts were very informative, fun to listen to and short enough to keep my attention.
I also subscribed to Promethean Planet-ActivTips from iTunes. These tips are, again, short and in my case very pertinent to my job. Anyone using a Promethean board would find a lot of information in this podcasts.
I have done quite a bit of podcasting and taught podcasting to several elementary classes. We have done Book Reviews, Readers Theater, Math Facts, and Poems and Stories. Some have been audio podcasts while others have incorporated student drawn pictures. The two common experiences have been how much the kids and teachers love doing these and how easy they are to complete. Podcasting is just plain fun.

Thing 16

I've used Library Thing before. Like a lot of other tools in this class, I am rediscovering its usefulness. I have a huge personal reading list and I am one of those people that like to read books in a series. Not only in a series, but in the order in which they were written (I need to be able to form a timeline of events within the novels). Library Thing is the perfect place to keep track of which books I read, which book is next, and to find other books I might enjoy. Professionally it would be a great place for keeping lists of literature that will enhance a lesson or topic.

Thing 15

I've always loved the beach and playing in the Sandbox was the next best thing. Well, not really, but close. I did love the ease of creating in the wiki. I also liked the fact that there were lots of examples to look at as I was creating. The only thing that was a little frustrating for me was following the directions at the top of the page when I was at the bottom of the page. I realize that printing the directions would have been easier, but our printer was not happy, so I was stuck with navigating back and forth. The Voki was so much fun. There did seem to be a little delay in recording the speech. I had to play with it several times to make it work. I'm not sure if there is a better way to record. The Wiki was easy to edit and the pop-up directions seemed simple to understand. I can hardly wait to create one by myself.

Mousing_Around

Thing 14-Stretch

I looked up dachshund in Wikipedia. I've had dachshunds for many years and as I read the article I learned several new facts. I enjoyed reading the article and looking at the images of the cutest dogs ever. (I may be a little biased here) I've used Wikipedia a lot and yet never looked at the discussion or history tabs. I was surprised at how interactive it is. In the discussions, bits and pieces were talked about and even deleted from the original article. The history showed how many times changes had been made. And all this time, I just thought of it as an online encyclopedia with updated entries.

Thing 14

I thought Wiki Wiki Teaching was amazing. It is exciting to me how one teacher can have an idea that impacts the entire school. Those kids took that idea and literally ran with it. I'm sure that even the teacher did not see the far-reaching influence that the wiki would have. It was also very impressive that the other teachers in the building were so ready to jump on board. That must be a very technology oriented building. The fact that a wiki is a collaborative, living document is one of the most exciting things about it. Teachers across the district or grade level can collaborate on ideas, lesson, or reviews all to guide their students learning. This is a very powerful tool.

One wiki that I especially liked was Primary Math. I loved their use of YouTube videos to enhance their learning. Almost every one of their lessons had some video attached. One classroom shared questions with partner school in South Korea. The kids were so excited to see their buddies on the internet. What a cool way of learning. This did not have a lot of comments but an impressive amount of reads.

Another wiki I liked was Schools of the Past. Even though there was not a lot of kid typing, I think the information gathered was fascinating. The children certainly would have learned a great deal from this kind of questioning skills. An authentic, first-hand interview shows those students the value of primary sources.

I also enjoyed reading Go West, a wiki about the Oregon Trail. The information seems to be well researched and well presented. I especially like the navigation tabs along the left that allowed you to jump from one topic to another. The students obviously learned a lot not just about the Oregon Trail but about online creating and presenting. Their sources were cited as well as the citation for their images.

Yes, I think there is definitely a wiki in my future. I already have a very basic, very limited one started that contains recipes from my family. It is a great storehouse for memories. Now if I can only get my sister to contribute!