The two tools I chose were Google Translate and Google Trends. Google Translate is a great tool for trying to have a polite conversation with someone who speaks a little of your own language. My wife has friends from Ecuador who came to visit and neither of them spoke much English. We had a great time TRYING to communicate with Google Translate, and for the most part the translations were good enough that after some thought we could figure out what the other was trying to say. However, I would caution anyone using it for anything other than fun or ordering Chinese food. The translations are not true to the meaning of many words and phrases we take for granted.
Good Trends is fun because it allows you to see search trends over time. If you type in a celebrity name you can see exactly when they became popular because the search counts skyrocket. Its funny to see which countries are most interested in certain topics, and maybe a little disconcerting for others. Try typing in funny and weird things into google trends, you might be surprised who's been searching for it!
Uses for google translate would be few and far between, but google trends could be used to demonstrate to students how to extrapolate data from a graph. We may not have an exact date given to when Steve Jobs died, for example, but we can very clearly predict from the graph a rough time period in which that occurred.
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Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Thing 11
In my search for new Education blogs, I first tried Google Blog Search with the expectation that it would be the best. After all, it's Google! I got an absolute truckload of non-blogs I had to weed through and quickly gave that up. Google Blog was pretty bad.
Next, I tried Blogsearchengine.org and was able to find several good blog sites, such as:
http://www.speechtechie.com/
http://www.seomraranga.com/
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
After finding those, I tried out Technorati. I didn't end up finding any blogs because I got too distracted with the articles they link to their site. It seems like a good tech news site, but I think I'll stick with Blogsearchengine.org to find blogs.
The three blogs I found are neat because they give teachers a more technology focused perspective and try to find affordable ways in which teachers can implement technology in their classrooms, rather than championing multi-thousand dollar pieces of equipment like smart-boards.
Next, I tried Blogsearchengine.org and was able to find several good blog sites, such as:
http://www.speechtechie.com/
http://www.seomraranga.com/
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
After finding those, I tried out Technorati. I didn't end up finding any blogs because I got too distracted with the articles they link to their site. It seems like a good tech news site, but I think I'll stick with Blogsearchengine.org to find blogs.
The three blogs I found are neat because they give teachers a more technology focused perspective and try to find affordable ways in which teachers can implement technology in their classrooms, rather than championing multi-thousand dollar pieces of equipment like smart-boards.
Thing 10
The thing I like about RSS Readers is they enable you to consolidate all your news/daily reading sources into one big pile so that jumping between them is easy and seamless. I can imagine using this in my normal life for sure.
As a math teacher, I'm not sure its immediately useful, but as a physics teacher I could use it to quickly show students cool tech/physics news as it unfolds. I could also imagine history teachers liking it if they want to talk about current events.
Thing 9
I decided to make a couple of items using Image Chef. The other provided tools weren't quite as straight forward to use, and I just couldn't get the Smiley one to work at all. Here's what I made:
Neither of these really seem that useful in and of themselves, though you might make a case for at least making your classroom rules or something along those lines more fun to look at. You just have to be careful and make sure it isnt a distraction during class time!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Thing 8
I think Flickr is a really cool site, but I have yet to figure out a way to filter out the "All Rights Reserved" copyrighted material. I started to make a cool mosaic, but finding uncopyrighted images that fit what I needed was too much of a pain in the you know what.
If anyone knows how to filter the Recent Photos section, let me know!
Honestly, I don't see a whole lot of use in these tools unless I decide to write a ransom note sometime far in the future. Mosaics look cool, but I'm not an art teacher. I can imagine these tools being fun in an art or digital media class, though. As a math teacher, I personally have no need for image mashups.
As for sharing photos online, I absolutely do not do that. Personal photos I would NEVER share, but even photos of random things I keep for myself. I'm not really a "share everything with the world" kind of person. I share photos with people I know, and that's about it.
Thing 7
My quest through Flickr was much more satisfying than my quest through Go2Web2.0. I saw a lot of really cool pictures. I didn't really have any particular things I wanted to search for, so I decided to peruse the "Recent Photos" gallery. A lot of very talented photographers and photo editors post really cool pictures to Flickr very often. I couldn't believe the level of work available right in front of me. Much of it was copyrighted, however, which was a little frustrating. Every time I found a cool picture I found that I couldn't share it. Virtually all of the landscape pictures were like that.
I did find a really cool picture of a spider about to munch on a tasty bug it just wrapped in silk, though!
photo by Wanderin Weeta; pulled from Flickr.
I mainly chose this picture because I like nature. Sometimes I just want to walk around and photograph cool bugs and plants. Unfortunately, I do not have a camera of this quality, so that's not really possible for me at the moment. My wife's dad does have a camera like this though, and he does take pictures like this every once in a while and they're always really cool. I'm always excited to see his latest photographs when we go visit them!
Thing 6
After spending an inordinate amount of time trying to find a Web 2.0 tool that both worked AND didn't require me to install anything or create an account, I finally decided that web tools just are not the way to go. I'd prefer to just find a program made to do the task I want, such as the program I use to teach in class: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. This program was developed by software professionals and is a very useful program with a lot of great features. All of the Web 2.0 programs I tried to use were virtually useless, OR they required me to sign in with facebook (which I do not use) or make an account and give them my personal email (which I refuse to do).
Honestly, I'd rather just buy or download free software that does what its supposed to do. Gnumeric is a fantastic spreadsheet program. I don't need to log onto the internet to use it. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is a fantastic drawing program, and again I don't need an internet connection for it.
Web 2.0 is great for communication, such as blogs and photo sharing. It's just not good for productivity!
Honestly, I'd rather just buy or download free software that does what its supposed to do. Gnumeric is a fantastic spreadsheet program. I don't need to log onto the internet to use it. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is a fantastic drawing program, and again I don't need an internet connection for it.
Web 2.0 is great for communication, such as blogs and photo sharing. It's just not good for productivity!
Thing 5
As I perused the plethora of web 2.0 apps for teachers, I began to realize a couple of things.
1. Web 2.0 is useful in preparation of materials for the classroom, however, I've yet to find any truly good apps that I think would be good INSIDE the classroom. Doing math and physics homework on a computer is just frustrating and I've never witnessed any student doing online homework and enjoying it.
2. While I wouldn't use any web 2.0 tools inside my classroom, I do recognize the capacity for supplemental material outside the classroom. Blogs enable teachers to communicate with students outside of class, places like Khan Academy allow students to find supplemental material to help them when they are having difficulty, and tools like dropbox might allow me to distribute a file to students, such as lecture notes, that they might otherwise never be able to see.
"School 2.0" will never occur, at least no in my classroom. There is something to be said for keeping the internet away from a bunch of kids with little self control. However, I will most certainly be taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools in order to supplement my instruction.
Question Responses:
School 2.0 implies, to me, that kids in a classroom will have their faces buried in a computer while the teacher is relegated to a baby sitting job. I realize this is probably not truly the idea, but I have a feeling that is how it will end up happening in the long run.
I hope it doesn't mean much at all. I've seen the result of online credit recovery programs. Students go in with an F and no knowledge, and they come out with an A and no knowledge. The internet completely takes away any responsibility of learning because they can just look up all the answers. Even if they don't, they get infinite tries to make a good grade. Its kinda silly, to be perfectly honest.
1. Web 2.0 is useful in preparation of materials for the classroom, however, I've yet to find any truly good apps that I think would be good INSIDE the classroom. Doing math and physics homework on a computer is just frustrating and I've never witnessed any student doing online homework and enjoying it.
2. While I wouldn't use any web 2.0 tools inside my classroom, I do recognize the capacity for supplemental material outside the classroom. Blogs enable teachers to communicate with students outside of class, places like Khan Academy allow students to find supplemental material to help them when they are having difficulty, and tools like dropbox might allow me to distribute a file to students, such as lecture notes, that they might otherwise never be able to see.
"School 2.0" will never occur, at least no in my classroom. There is something to be said for keeping the internet away from a bunch of kids with little self control. However, I will most certainly be taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools in order to supplement my instruction.
Question Responses:
School 2.0 implies, to me, that kids in a classroom will have their faces buried in a computer while the teacher is relegated to a baby sitting job. I realize this is probably not truly the idea, but I have a feeling that is how it will end up happening in the long run.
I hope it doesn't mean much at all. I've seen the result of online credit recovery programs. Students go in with an F and no knowledge, and they come out with an A and no knowledge. The internet completely takes away any responsibility of learning because they can just look up all the answers. Even if they don't, they get infinite tries to make a good grade. Its kinda silly, to be perfectly honest.
Thing 4
Commenting on others posts does a couple of things; it shows them that you actually took the time to read their post, and it allows you to input on the conversation. Whether or not that input is constructive or not is up to you, but simply taking the time out of your day to write a few sentences about another's post is often greatly appreciated. Additionally, your comment could spark future discussions, so commenting on bits you are interested in is...well...in your best interest!
The important bits I pulled from the readings were that comments need to add to the conversation and be constructive and meaningful. Otherwise, why bother wasting your time commenting? Your comment doesn't have to inspire happiness and butterflies. It can inspire rage and frustration; that's okay so long as you're adding to the conversation!
I selected the following bloggers to read and comment on:
Nicole Petrik
Candace Small
Whitney Butts
Tyler Imhoff
Rachel Hannabass
I basically just chose 5 random people within the class to read about, then read through a few of their Things until I found a post I was interested in, then commented on it!
I didn't bother with finding the two external sources because the Thing implied that part was optional by saying "If you are familiar with... do this". So I assumed I'd be doing it during thing 10 or 11.
The comments I made were mostly either identifying with the poster personally, making some type of suggestion for them to think about, or just letting them know that I found their post interesting and was able to take something of value from it.
The important bits I pulled from the readings were that comments need to add to the conversation and be constructive and meaningful. Otherwise, why bother wasting your time commenting? Your comment doesn't have to inspire happiness and butterflies. It can inspire rage and frustration; that's okay so long as you're adding to the conversation!
I selected the following bloggers to read and comment on:
Nicole Petrik
Candace Small
Whitney Butts
Tyler Imhoff
Rachel Hannabass
I basically just chose 5 random people within the class to read about, then read through a few of their Things until I found a post I was interested in, then commented on it!
I didn't bother with finding the two external sources because the Thing implied that part was optional by saying "If you are familiar with... do this". So I assumed I'd be doing it during thing 10 or 11.
The comments I made were mostly either identifying with the poster personally, making some type of suggestion for them to think about, or just letting them know that I found their post interesting and was able to take something of value from it.
Thing 3
I've been toying with ideas on uses for a blog and only one has really stood out. I was planning to take advantage of an online classroom program (such as Khan Academy) in order to have a common rail for delivering content to my students, but I may instead use the blog in order to post notes from class and supplemental study work for struggling students. Since I work on a pen tablet using my projector, I can save my notes directly from class and upload them to the blog instantly. I'll probably post random surprise extra credit opportunities in order to get students to check the blog regularly.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Thing 2
Coming into this particular exercise I had no experience with blogs whatsoever. I've probably only visited a blog once or twice, and it was most likely on accident! I most certainly had never even considered creating one, mostly because I have no desire to share my thoughts with the world. However, I can see how it could be a useful tool for a teachers to relay information to their students.
My posting name was just my typical default. I have no creative bones in my body. The title of the blog is also a product of my zero creation brain. I just tried random combinations of "The 23 Things" until one worked.
Creating the blog was easy. I would consider myself an intermediate tech user, so even though I hadn't done it before, navigating the space wasn't challenging.
I generated a completely random avatar that has nothing to do with my personality whatsoever. Most likely because I have no desire to share my personal information with anyone on the internet, so the more I can distance myself from my avatar the better!
My posting name was just my typical default. I have no creative bones in my body. The title of the blog is also a product of my zero creation brain. I just tried random combinations of "The 23 Things" until one worked.
Creating the blog was easy. I would consider myself an intermediate tech user, so even though I hadn't done it before, navigating the space wasn't challenging.
I generated a completely random avatar that has nothing to do with my personality whatsoever. Most likely because I have no desire to share my personal information with anyone on the internet, so the more I can distance myself from my avatar the better!
Thing 1
As far as lifelong learning habits are concerned, of those they listed, the one I find easiest is taking control of my own learning. Throughout my undergraduate studies as a physics major, I had a pretty easy time until I got into the upper division classes. Suddenly, things stopped making intuitive sense as the realm of differential equations and quantum mechanics took over. I realized I had to take charge of my own learning and study hard if I was to have any chance of survival, and it paid off in the end.
The most difficult lifelong learning habit for me is beginning with the end in mind. I NEVER have the end in mind, right until it is looming. This makes it hard for me to wrap things up sometimes, but alas, my brain just doesn't think in those terms. I start at the beginning and I end at the end.
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