Thing 20

Video Insertion time:

I liked this video about changing the education paradigm. It will be a cold day in hell before this actually happens, I think, but its nice to think about.

I'd say that pretty much everyone who has ever touched a computer is probably already familiar with Youtube. I've used Youtube several times in my physics class so that my students can observe demos that we do not have the equipment to perform.

My chosen link: http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=GoAnimate

GoAnimate is animation software that could feasibly be used to create a video in which your students learn something. I could imagine it being used to liven up physics problems and to help kids break them down into simpler terms. I've toyed with the idea of creating animations that explain physics problems, and maybe I will act on that when time permits.

Thing 19

For this Thing, I explored classroom20.com and was already familiar with Yelp and IMDB. I found that classroom20.com was much more focused on education, as one might expect, and that made things much easier when it came to looking for topics that were actually useful. There is a lot of advice for new teachers, as well as a significant amount of encouragement. Finding material that is relevant isn't too difficult at classroom20.
I never really thought of Yelp as a social networking site, but after thinking about it, it really is. It enables people to view the opinions of others about particular businesses. Its sort of like Twitter, but focused on individual businesses rather than individual people.
I don't really know if I'd consider IMDB to be a social networking site because of the nature of the site. Sure, people can comment, but the focus of the site is really the movies themselves and maintaining a database of the movie and its content/actors.

As for the actual assignment:

Classroom20 is a good resource for advice from real teachers who experience what you experience.

I'm not a member of ANY online communities, including facebook and twitter, and I will be keeping it that way. I have an Edmodo account in order to upload tutorials/examples for my students, but its nothing more than a drop box and I do not use it for anything social.

I will not be joining any online communities.

I am not interested in any of them either. While classroom20 might be a good resource, I can just as easily ask my co-workers and get similar answers from people who actually know me.

Thing 18

I have avoided Twitter and Facebook because I do not believe in what they stand for. Being connected to so many people at once is just not my idea of a good time. However, in the spirit of doing the assignment, my Twitter account is as follows:

https://twitter.com/Sec_NotSure

I, of course, did not use my real name.

In searching key words like "Physics" and "Math" I found a lot of garbage and a few things worth looking at. A significant portion was, for lack of a better term, crap. Psychologists making claims they couldn't possibly understand about quantum physics and students complaining about their math and/or physics homework were abound; the occasional item worth reading did turn up, though these were severely outnumbered.

Twitter itself is not important for educators. What is important, however, is understanding what Twitter is and how it can be used and abused. Twitter is simply a way for people to socialize instantly with anyone who is willing to listen, but it can also be used to VERY quickly spread rumors or defame a student or teacher. Understanding the Twitter dynamic could perhaps help curb such behavior, however, I can't imagine using it myself for any productive reason. Social media leaves a bad taste in my mouth in general, though.

Thing 17

After perusing Delicious for a while, I was able to shape an opinion on the site itself. Firstly, I'm not a fan of toolbars. That isn't to say that they are useful, my preference is to just keep all parts of the browsing experience separate. However, I can see the benefits of sites like Delicious. I use Edmodo with my students, and its easy for me to share links with my students, but only my students can see those links, and only if they have an account. A site like Delicious enables other people to benefit from the sites I've bookmarked for myself, such as Khan Academy. I did find a couple of cool resources from Delicious, but found that it was easier to just Google what I was looking for, for the most part. However, for those who are not good with key words, I could imagine that Delicious would be a good way for communities of people, like teachers, to share bookmarks relevant to their interests. Plus, having bookmarks online means you can access them from any computer, which is nice if you can't remember the URLs.

Thing 16

If I ever actually used homepages, the Start page might be useful. Personally, I just type my search into the URL bar, which defaults to a Google search for my chosen browser, Chrome.

I messed around with the NetVibes start page for a while and found a few useful devices to put on my page, like a to-do list and a calendar. However, the only other thing I found useful to place on the page was websites. I can make a favorites list without having to load an entire webpage, so that feature is pretty much useless. The tiny box of text is displays for each website is nigh useless for each of them. However, if you are the type that likes to go to Google.com to type your search into the search bar itself, I could imagine one of these tools being useful. I'll not be using any of these start pages.

However, I can imagine how a person with many devices might be a little more enthusiastic about these online devices. Your favorites list doesn't follow you around unless you've memorized it; which I have. The calendar and favorite sites are saved online, as opposed to your computer and so you can access it from anywhere on any device.

Personally, these tools are not useful for me because I already have them in some form or another. However, I could imagine my grandmother or wife using them, as they seem to appeal to "one stop shoppers" (my wife) or people who are less technically inclined (my grandmother).

Thing 15

Wiki's are an incredibly useful tool for a variety of reasons. Both publicly editable wikis and wikis that are have a limited user base have an important function for spreading information to the masses. Wikis are not subject to massive amounts of review prior to being published, so the information on wikis is often very cutting edge and updated quickly. Simultaneously, it is more likely for wikis to contain inaccuracies because of that lack of review...or so one would think. It turns out that, when one is looking at scientific material, Wikipedia is actually pretty reliable. A study done in Nature, a journal, found that Wikipedia was just as accurate in scientific information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Because of the massive user base, inaccuracies on Wikipedia are caught and repaired quickly. Closed wiki pages that can only be edited by those that are registered are also useful because organizations can quickly and easily introduce new material, such as those linked in the 23 things article.

Overall, wikis are a great way to both transmit and receive information to and from the new web-based knowledge pool.

Thing 14

The two Web 2.0 apps I chose for this Thing were Gliffy and MindMeister. I found that MindMeister was much easier to use, as connecting new bubbles was automatic, whereas in Gliffy you had to make the connections manually. However, this makes send as a mind map generally just shows a relation to a central idea. Flowcharts don't center on an idea per se, but instead show a flow of logic between two points or a multitude of points.

If I were to use one of them, I would most likely choose MindMeister, because of its ease of use. It would be a useful tool to map out certain ideas, like how to write a good scientific paper. A flow chart could also be used this way, but Gliffy just requires more work to connect the pieces.

Thing 13

This document details my opinions on Google Drive and the associated tools that come with it.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/16AaseW0LVphgGVlcEIrf9zmf7bgq9ZST4g9w_WQIRrs/pub

This is just a quick drawing I made to demonstrate how publishing to a webspace works using HTML:


Students could use Google Drive to collaborate by sharing files, for example, research they've done. They will all have access to the same files and can edit them for everyone else to see. All students will have access to the same version and no one will have to worry about being out of the loop. The program is similar to dropbox in that regard, though its not quite as automatic and familiar as just dragging and dropping files.

In comparison with Zoho, Google Drive and its associated applications are less robust initially, although much of that can be overcome with other downloadable Google applications. Zoho seems to have a more business oriented outlook, and the website is less simple and more difficult to navigate than Google Drive. Zoho offers services like "Live Support," which enables business owners to connect with and support customers through Zoho. They basically make running a website/business easier by being the primary go-to for web-based solutions.