Sunday, August 9, 2009

Thing #11.5 Evaluation

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I REALLY enjoyed Bookr and Glogster. I've become almost addicted to Facebook. Slideshare will also be useful!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

11.5 things has forced me to look at new web apps that are available, many of them interesting, some useful, and a few that are too cumbersome to use, or not what I want to spend time working on. But, the new cool stuff is waaay cool, and I want to show students and teachers some of the great and awesome things they can do with these applications.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Slideshare, Glogster, and Bookr were some things that I had not heard of. I also enjoyed exploring the videos. I think that the students will really like Glogster and Bookr. I think that the teachers will like Slideshare and Bookr.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I think that you all did a great job of getting this going and encouraging so many educators to become more aware of "bleeding edge" technology and applications. Thanks for all of your hard work!!!

Thing #11 Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is something that all students need to learn. However, students need to learn this in incremental stages apropriate for their development - especially in elementary settings.

I liked the post: Digital literacy and the classroom. I especially like the thoughts expressed in this graphic:


For the student, all 4 areas of literacy, safety, learning strategies and etiquette are balanced and important.

I thought that I-Safe Factsheet was helpful in describing what would be appropriate to teach diferent ages of students about safety.

I found this .pdf file about "Cyber-Savvy Teens: Making responsible choices online." I thought that the information presented gave a good overview of what might go into each lesson.

One of the ideas stated on the Kenton, KY school website was that September was the month they focused on digital citizenship and internet safety. I think that we in SBISD would be wise to consider this also as we prepare for the upcoming year.


Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship - from the Digital Citizenship website.


1. Digital Etiquette - electronic standards of conduct or procedure

2. Digital Communication - electronic exchange of information

3. Digital Literacy - process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology

4. Digital Access - full electronic participation in society

5. Digital Commerce - electronic buying and selling of goods

6. Digital Law - electronic responsibility for actions and deeds

7. Digital Rights & Responsibilities - those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world

8. Digital Health & Wellness - physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world

9. Digital Security (self-protection) - electronic precautions to guarantee safety.

I'm not sure where this actually originated, but I found it at the Kenton, KY website:
Understanding Digital Citizenship
"A citizen both works for and benefits from a larger society."

It is vital that our students understand that they are part of a bigger picture, and if they do not value and use their digital rights, then they will be relegated to a lower class, with fewer options in multiple areas of their life, than those who are able to use the power of technology to their advantage.

Thing #10 Virtual Worlds

Hello, I'm Sherri Madrigal in Second Life. I found this to be quite frustrating and not quite sure how this has an educational application. Yes, I know that it's good to know what students & others are doing.....

Although... A discussion about copyright regarding Frank Lloyd Wright and a museum that was created was interesting.

So.... I've been reading other beach combers & certified diver's blogs. I read I "Heart" Bibliophiles sbl blog about this thing, and realized that what I probably need is someone to sit with me and help guide me along in this part of the adventure and I'll do a lot better. I've read other's blogs that say similar things. The Tsunami and Hurricane adventures in SL sound interesting and would be very educational. So... I guess I've learned something more about what SL has to offer. Now, I just need to keep exploring it and learning more about it......

Thing #9 Slideshare

How Cool is this??? Being able to share your powerpoints?? Both Slideshare and Authorstream seem realy cool. I like that Authorstream has the ability to be downloaded as a video.

I can see how this could be easily used by grade level teachers to share what they have created so that others don't have to "reinvent the wheel."

I was looking at slideshare and wanted to search to see if anything was already uploaded that would be educationally useful. Just typed in "dinosaur" and came across a cute set of dinosaur printables that my Kinder teachers could use with their kids during this unit.

I can see teachers and students using this in so many ways. I am eager to explore this!!!

Thing #8 - Screen Capture

As I started learning about Screen Capture, I thought of lots of ways to use this. And, when I told my husband about this and explained it to him a little, he was also intrigued. [I suggested that he make a screen capture video explaining how to do a very technical part of his job.]

After reading comments, I tried downloading Jing on my home computer. That was a somewhat cumbersome process that may have had more to do with home issues than with Jing issues.

I frequently advise teachers "How to clean-up their computers" so that they will run faster. So, I attempted to make a screen-cast of how to do this using Jing and upload it to screencast.com. I was successful at the video part, but the sound on my home computer's microphone wasn't working, but I think that if you watch it, you can still figure out what to do.
Here it is:



I can see lots of possibilities with this!!!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Thing #7 Video Resources

The fair use video & FAQs were helpful, but it took me a little while to digest this. (Could be that I'm not back in my librarian brain after being on vacation & away for quite a while,) I think that teachers and students may be confused somewhat about how this works legally, but I will use these resources to try to explain it to them, though it might be helpful to have a book...

I've looked at Ms. Frazzled blog on this topic, and enjoyed the interview videos she posted about Tomie DePaola and Mo Willems. (I couldn't embed the videos either...) I want to share these with students & I think they will really like them! What a cool way to be able to bring in a author!

In Hulu, I found the Biography channel, and upon exploring it, found a video about Amelia Earhart. I think that when 2nd grade is learning about various heroes, including Earhart, that this would be fun to show them so that they can see her as a "live" person, not just someone who is another dead person they have to learn about.
http://www.biography.com/video.do?name=historicalfigures&bcpid=1740031454&bclid=1745181015&bctid=1718499309
(I tried to embed this and couldn't remember how. Hmmmm, I'll try to work on remembering this.... LATER: I watched the YouTube video on embedding videos, and biography.com does not seem to permit this. You can link to it, but not embed it, so... here it is.)

I really liked Joy Valenza's list of video sources, especially NeoK12 with it's categories of videos that have been screened to be appropriate for school settings.
One of the videos that caught my eye was one on the water cycle. I know that several teachers will enjoy using this. (I'm trying to remember which grade level works with this, and I think that it's 3rd grade.)




I explored DotSub a little. I will let our Spanish langauge teachers know about it's existence, but it didn't seem to have very many educational videos. (Maybe I'm not looking in the right place....)

Totol was interesting - seemed appropriate for PK - 1st grade. When my son was much younger he would have enjoyed all of the train videos.....

At TeacherTube, after some searching, I found a video that would be appropriate for upper elementary grades studying magnets.



All in all, this was a fun way to spend the day, and I look forward to doing more of this!!!!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Thing #6 iTouch Apps

Since my husband is addicted to his I-Phone, I am fairly familiar with what an I-Phone can do with the various apps he he frequently showing me.
What I've learned over the last week or so of playing around with this project is some of the things that other educators are doing with I-phones/I-touches. I still think that the management of these will be somewhat challenging, but I am less skeptical about their use in the education setting.

One of the most useful websites I discovered was the appism webstore so that you can search for I-touch apps on an actual computer. Just for fun I downloaded pictaslide since I always enjoyed sliding the little boxes around to complete a picture. On John's I-Phone is several ed apps that our kids already use, like the math flash cards that my daughter loves to use to "play" at learning addition/subtraction facts, and my son will use to work on multiplication facts.

Since my son is enrolled at Cornerstone this year and his teacher is one that is getting new I-touches for their class (among other things), it will be interesting to see what/how his class is using and managing them.

I've read several of the articles and watched the I-School video that was really exciting. I really liked the articles, 100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better, and the ACU ConnectED Summit 2009, as well as Chris Webb'space article Why an iPod Touch in education? I'm looking forward to using these cool devices in helping students learn.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Thing #5 Microblogging

Easy enough to sign into Twitter. I can see how this could get addictive - reading losts of different posts. It was interesting to look at some of my favorites - Astros, President Obama, etc. But, I think that it would also be fun to follow other friends and colleagues. So, school use? Not sure how that would work exactly. Although, there could be uses for this - current events, etc. As I was wondering about this, I went back to the SBISD webpage describing the assignment and noticed
Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter. I find that I can agree with many of the ideas presented there. So, it can be a great way to expand your knowledge base and keep up with friends.

I experienced using back-channeling using Today's Meet at a GT workshop in early June. It was an awesome way to communicate without disrupting the session. I can see many ways that this would be helpful for students to post questions without fearing that they would be embarassed by expressing their ignorance about a topic.

Next, I'll look at Facebook. I've wanted to join, now I have a reason!

Added to this post: 7/31/09
I've been able to setup my Facebook account and requested quite a few friends. This was fairly easy because my husband is friends with sooooo many people, so I just looked over his friends list. Plus, I do have other friends as well and they were easy to locate and add. I'm looking forward to being part of this. Looks fun! The idea about using the book club app with older students for reading groups sounds interesting. I'll need to investigate more, but I'm doubtful that this will appropriate for elementary, mainly because of the age requirements.

Ta, Ta for now!

Thing #4 Video Hosting (YouTube)

I am currently working on my laptop at a public library in a small town in Oklahoma and YouTube is blocked. So, on to #5 - if possible.

Latest update July 9, 2009:
I have signed up for YouTube and am attempting to upload a video of my daughter and her friends performing a VBS program at church.

OH DRATS! "This video has been removed because it is too long. Regular YouTube videos must be 10 minutes or less. " [Details, details, details.....]

So, since uploading to YouTube isn't working... I'll try to post it here!

Well... That didn't work either. So, I tried editing the length in Windows MovieMaker, and I can't seem to get that to work to split the video and create just a clip of the entire movie, so, I'm really bummed that it isn't working. I know that my husband works on videos sometimes, so, I may see if he has any great ideas...

Thing #3 Like Skype

I read quite a few of the articles about conferencing. I liked Kathy Schrock's post: Tools for Schools: Live Online Conferencing Dim.Dim sounded very interesting - much like the video conferencing that I did eons ago when I worked on my Master's degree.

I tried working with Skype some, but didn't have a lot of success. However, I think that if I played with it more extensively, it could be very useful. I have a friend who uses Skype 3-4 times per day to communicate with her husband as he travels extensively.

So, the question is, how could Skype be used in the classroom or library? I saw many suggestions about being able to communicate with other classrooms from all over the world, I liked the many suggestions at the Teaching Degree.Org Blog: 50 Awesome Ways to use Skype in the Classroom:
For my school The MIXXER: A language exchange community for everyone seems like it would be a new way to get English Language Learners to work on their language skills.
Setting up conferencing with authors when classes are studying particular writers could also be a lot of fun.
There are many ways to do use this technology, the key is to find an opportunity and do it.

11.5 Things - Thing 2: Image Generators 2 - Update

VWB asked me to post samples of some of the things I've done to my blog.
Here is the animoto my daughter created for father's day: To Daddy.

While I have worked with Wordle, I don't have a specific example saved.

PS: Thanks for checking my Wordle link (.net vs .com makes a big difference!)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

11.5 Things - Thing 2: Image Generators 2

GLOGSTER - Wow! This is pretty darn cool! I can think of many ways to incorporate this into student learning.



It has taken quite a while to finish my glog, but here it is:

http://soelibrarian.glogster.com/Saturn-Glog/

I wanted to work on one so that I had an idea of how long it would take to put one together. I can see quite a few uses for glogster, especially in upper elementary, and up. I think that students would enjoy working on this project. In order to do a good job, they would need to think about content, perhaps a bit more - rather than just searching for the first picture that they find (either in print or online). With the ability to embed video and audio, it certainly adds a whole new level of information to the "poster project."



I am fairly familiar with wordle and my daughter (who will be in 2nd grade) did an animoto for father's day, that is TOOOOO cute.



Wordsift is cool. I like the ability to pull words into the visual thesaurus. I think that could be very helpful for some of our bilingual students. (Although it could be somewhat confusing also.....Hmmmm.)


Bookr : I wasn't sure quite what to do with Bookr when I opened it. But after a few minutes, it seemed fairly intuitive and simple. I love that you can pull images from Flickr. Being able to add text and more pages is really a cool feature to this simple website. I can see nearly all ages of computer users being able to do this, even kinder and first graders, and they would be sooo proud of themselves! This is also a cool way to present information. I looked a a few of the other bookr projects. I'm guessing that one of the people who did a project that I looked at was another person doing an 11.5 things type of project, because it was about the boy with the talking tooth. It was a cute presentation, but a little fiction story. So, students could write and illustrate their stories on here as well. Fun, fun, and more fun!
[When I did the bookr project on Butterflys I was not aware that you could adjust the picture up or down a little. Knowing this would have resulted in a better positioning of the text over the picture. Live & learn!]

On to more fun!

11.5 Things - Thing 1: Registration & Video Reflection

Wow, more web 2.0 things to learn about!

I've really enjoyed watching the The Networked Student - The Movie video on You-Tube. I've watched it a couple of times so that I could think about and ponder what was being introduced.

I think that librarians can definitely be in the role of the "teacher", or can assist and help the student with their project. I LOVE the tags near the end about the teacher being the LEARNING ARCHITECT and the LEARNING CONCIERGE. They sound soooo much more interesting than teacher.

I looked at a couple of other sbl postings. I posted a comment on L'l Bit of This & That's blog.
Mainly I agreed that her that students would love this, but teachers would need a lot of training, and for this to work full time and replace text books, students would need their own laptop, which would cost $$$$$. I have my doubts about the feasability of this working for elementary - especially primary grades. But, I do think that it might work when limited projects are given for elementary students.

Well, I'm off to learn more new cool things!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Taking Notes using Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft Word – Part 2

Taking Notes using Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft Word – Part 2

Login to the computer using YOUR lunch number
User Name: 999999 example
STUDENT’S ID (Lunch) NUMBER
Password: soe (lower case)
Log on to: SBS

Look to see if your shortcut to your folder is there on your desktop! If not, find it @ MY COMPUTER – NORWAY, then make a shortcut to the desktop.

Open your 2008-2009 Folder.
Open your MARTIN LUTHER KING.DOC
Minimize it.

Open INTERNET EXPLORER

Go to the LIBRARY RESOURCES PAGE
Go to #9: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
You may select the English version of
Britannica Elementary, or the
Enciclopedia Juvenil en español

Click on the Search Bar and type in
MARTIN LUTHER KING
Then click GO (or press ENTER)

Click on the encyclopedia article and read it.
As you find things that you think are important, you will take notes in MICROSOFT WORD. To Click back and forth between your screens, use the tabs at the bottom of your page. You may [Edit] copy & paste only key words & phrases.

Type a brief description of him OR
The year he was born & the year he died:Born – Died OR Born: 19xx – Died: 19xx

SAVE your WORD document to your folder.
(Click SAVE)
Space down a few lines.

Write 3 to 5 key facts about Dr. King in WORD.
Write them using upper and lower case letters. You may write in phrases.
Find out: 1 fact each about:
His life,
His education,
His achievements.

Type BY: YOUR NAME and Teacher
SAVE your WORD document to your folder.

Taking Notes using Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft Word

Taking Notes using Encyclopedia Britannica and Microsoft Word

Login to the computer using YOUR lunch number
User Name: 999999 example
STUDENT’S ID (Lunch) NUMBER
Password: soe (lower case)
Log on to: SBS

Look to see if your shortcut to your folder is there on your desktop! If not, find it @ MY COMPUTER – NORWAY, then make a shortcut to the desktop.

Open INTERNET EXPLORER

Go to the LIBRARY RESOURCES PAGE
Go to #9: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
You may select the English version of
Britannica Elementary, or the
Enciclopedia Juvenil en español

Click on the Search Bar and type in
MARTIN LUTHER KING
Then click GO (or press ENTER)

Click on the article and read it.

As you find things that you think are important, you will take notes in MICROSOFT WORD. To Click back and forth between your screens, use the tabs at the bottom of your page.

Minimize your Internet screen, then click on the WORD icon.

Type the title of your report:
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(You may add an adjective or two to this line.)
SAVE your WORD document to your folder.
Space down a few lines.

Type a brief description of him OR
The year he was born & the year he died:1929 – 1968 OR Born 1929 – Died 1968

SAVE your WORD document to your folder.
(Click SAVE)
Space down a few lines.

Write 3 to 5 key facts about Dr. King in WORD.
Write them using upper and lower case letters in sentences.
Type BY: YOUR NAME and Teacher
SAVE your WORD document to your folder.

SAVING PICTURES

SAVING PICTURES

Login to the computer using YOUR lunch number
User Name: 999999 example
STUDENT’S ID (Lunch) NUMBER
Password: soe (lower case)
Log on to: SBS

Look to see if your shortcut to your folder is there on your desktop!
If it is not, you will have to do a few more steps to save your pictures.

Open INTERNET EXPLORER

Go to the LIBRARY RESOURCES PAGE
Go to #9: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA

Search for MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., click GO

Over on the right side of the screen, find MULTIMEDIA & go down

Double Click MORE MULTIMEDIA

Find a picture you like.

Save the picture to your folder.

If you position your mouse on the picture, often a toolbar will appear in the left corner.
Click SAVE.
OR --- use the right click button on the mouse and go down to SAVE PICTURE AS


If your shortcut is on your desktop:
On the LEFT side of the “Save Picture” box, select DESKTOP.
Double click your 2008-2009 folder to open it.
At FILE NAME give your image a name, ex: Martin Luther King Standing [tell who or what it is]
(Make sure it saves it as a .jpeg file!)
Click SAVE.

If your shortcut is NOT on your desktop:
On the LEFT side of the “Save Picture” box, select MY COMPUTER.
Select the NORWAY (H:)
Find your graduation year & open that folder
Find and open your folder
Open the 2008-2009 folder
At FILE NAME give your image a name, ex: Martin Luther King Standing [tell who or what it is]
(Make sure it saves it as a .jpeg file!)
Click SAVE.


You may do more than 1 picture – if time permits.

Be sure to START – LOG OFF when finished!



For fast typers:
Add a shortcut to my blog to your desktop and folder:

Open the Internet:
Type in:
http://librarian-n-mom.blogspot.com/
Go to FILE – SEND—SHORTCUT TO DESKTOP
Minimize your internet window.
Using your mouse RIGHT CLICK and COPY
Open your 2008-2009 FOLDER.
Click FILE --PASTE SHORTCUT

Ta DAA!

Trading card project at Shadow Oaks

Trading card project @ Shadow Oaks

Week 1:
(Logging in to Network, Norway and Creating a folder)
Log in with Lunch number & password.
Go to My Computer – Norway – Graduation class folder – locate name/folder
(Was the first time for many to realize WHEN they would graduate from High School!)
Create folder for this year’s work (2008-2009)
Create a shortcut on the desktop of the computer they were working on. (This is their computer station for this project.)
Hint: Make seating charts for your classes!

Week 2:
(Saving a picture to their folder)
Log in with Lunch number & password.
Verify they have their shortcut to their Norway folder on their desktop of their computer.
Open Internet – #9 Encyclopedia Britannica
Search Britannica for Martin Luther King (spelling!)
Scroll down to MORE MULTIMEDIA
Find a picture they like click save (discuss ways to save a picture e [Toolbar on picture & right click )
In the SAVE PICTURE box, Name the picture appropriately.
Locate their Norway folder using their desktop shortcut, and Save picture.

Week 3:
(Working with multiple screens, copy & paste, undo)
Log in with Lunch number & password.
Verify they have their shortcut to their Norway folder on their desktop of their computer.
Open Microsoft Word, then minimize it.
Open Internet – #9 Encyclopedia Britannica (using an appropriate language edition)
Search Britannica for Martin Luther King (spelling!)
Copy name Martin Luther King in Britannica
Use the tab at the bottom of the page and Paste his name in MS Word.
(Show different ways to COPY & PASTE, as well as demonstrate UNDO)
Save the MS Word file
In the SAVE box locate their Norway folder using their desktop shortcut,
Verify that the name of the file is appropriate and Save


Week 4 & 5:
Use Encyclopedia Britannica for information to locate 3 facts about MLK.
Open their word document; type his birth & death years as the sub-heading, and type 3 -5 facts about him.
Type their name for the bottom of the card.

Week 6:
Open the trading card website @ http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Put it all together, save it.
Then, print it!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Websites for projects

Free Clip-Art websites:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm? (Requires SBISD Login)

Free Music websites:
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

http://freeplaymusic.com/index.php

http://www.soundzabound.com/

Stuff to do:
Trading card maker http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Magazine cover
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

Load pictures and add music. Could add your own audacity audio file. http://animoto.com/

PhotoStory * Create movies with pictures & audio
Audacity * Create Audio files
*Requires program loaded on computer

Other Games, etc.:
Create word clouds: http://www.Wordle.net

STATERIS: http://www.mapmsg.com/games/statetris/usa/

Comic strip generator: http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/maker.asp

Kid friendly signs: http://www.customizemagnets.com/ecards/childrens.asp

Signs: http://www.glassgiant.com/make_pictures.php

Build a wild animal of yourself: http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Mr. Picasso Head: http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html

Vocabulary game to help others: www.freerice.com

Creating a student folder assignment

This week I have been working with students to create folders on our network.
Here is the worksheet:

How to Login to a Student’s Folder

User Name: 999999 example
STUDENT’S ID NUMBER
Password: soe (lower case)
Log on to: SBS

When your screen loads...
Double Click on MY COMPUTER.

Double Click on NORWAY-- (H:)

Using the chart below, find the YEAR
You Graduate from High School

Year you are in Year you
school now. graduate
(2008-2009)
12th grade 2009
11th grade 2010
10th grade 2011
9th grade 2012
8th grade 2013
7th grade 2014
6th grade 2015
5th grade 2016
4th grade 2017
3rd grade 2018
2nd grade 2019
1st grade 2020
Kinder 2021

Double Click on your graduation year folder

Click: VIEW -- LIST
Type the First 3 letters of your last name quickly.

Locate & open your folder.

Create a new folder for this school year:
Click FILE – NEW – FOLDER

Name the folder 2008 – 2009

Next, click FILE –
Select SEND TO-- DESKTOP (create shortcut)
This will put a shortcut on your login page so that when you are saving pictures you only have to put it in your 2008-2009 Folder on your desktop. Note: Each time you login, you may have to do this little step of creating the shortcut to the desktop.

This 2008-2009 folder is where you will save pictures, music and projects.

How to Actually Save:
1st way: Select the item, or file and
If you have the shortcut to your folder on your desktop, click SAVE AS. Pull down the menu to select DESKTOP, select Your 2008—2009 FOLDER.

2nd way: Select the item, or file and
Select MY COMPUTER (on left side of box)
Select NORWAY (H: ), Find your 2008-2009 folder (as above) and Save in Your 2008—2009 FOLDER.