Integrate Web Application

I really like voicethread. The purpose of the web application is for students to make a comment on an image or video in four different ways (audio, written, video, and doodling or drawing). This is a great way to collaborate and showcase their work. In my science classes I can see students sharing their lab reports, presentations, and understanding of a science concept by displaying an image or a video clip which others can asynchronously make comments. Our school is performance-based, so in order for a student to receive an advanced in a standard they have to be able to teach the standard. This would be a great medium for students to share their knowledge with other students, allowing those that have not learned the standard to get an initial understanding. This will also solve the problem of the open enrollment issue in our school. Students can start at any time, but they may miss presentations or a concept that the whole class worked on earlier in the year. Using voicethread a student can view what was worked on previously. They can add comments or further their understanding by adding a more to their comment, based on what they learned. I think of it as a hyper-discussion board with four different ways of communicating. Our school also has technology standards that have students create multimedia projects for public presentation using advanced audio-visual techniques. Personally, I am so sick of PowerPoint presentations that I am looking forward to something new. Voicethread will offer a new opportunity for students in my class to present.

At this point, I do not know if we will not be able to use voicethread. However, if I have to plead my case to get the use granted I would use the information and demonstrations on ed.voicethread. I will stress that although the content is available to everyone there is a private and public realm, but only people specifically invited are allowed to make comments. Students cannot view content that was not created by a vetted or verified vociethread member. Students cannot add, or send an invitation to anyone other that an ed.voicethread member. So, these members are monitored my ed.voicethread educator. The educator also moderates content before it is posted. The bottom line is appropriate behavior needs to maintained and moderated by the teacher. This is the information that our director of information services needs to know.

Widgets/Gadgets

I installed four widgets on my dashboard they include: a mail widget, tide widget, sunrise/sunset widget, and guitar chord widget. All of these widgets were downloaded from Apple dashboard downloads. The one I like the best is the Mail Widget, which checks your Apple Mail account every time Dashboard is activated without having Apple Mail running all the time. It actually opens Apple Mail faster than you opening it. The tide widget is called iTide (http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/information/itide.html) and was the only tide widget I could set to Homer. GuitarChords is just that, a type in the chord and it illustrates it for you. Sol 1.2.3 is sunrise and sunset widget that also shows dusk and dawn times on a clock face, great for any traveler or outdoors folk. All these widgets will give any fisherperson a bit more information before they head out and if you decide to stay home then you can play the guitar.

I have two Firefox gadgets that I mentioned in an earlier post. Both have worked out great. Smart Bookmarks Bar 1.4.1, which allows you to have icons and shows the names when you scroll over them allowing for more bookmarks. TextMarker! 0.3.2 that allows to you to highlight copy your clipping or fragment, copy the link, and bookmark the link or fragment. I have been using this a lot for these posts. Both of these were easy to download, install, and intuitive. Firefox has a lot of add-ons that are worth checking out.

Cheers

Mashups

Mashup: uses data from different web application into a single web tool.

Back to the earth science theme, I found a program called Earthquakes. This widget displays concentric circles around the world showing the relative power and reach of earthquakes as they happen. This another great tool to use for earth science classrooms. Rivers of the World is an interesting mashup that combines an interactive map about rivers. You can find a river and click on it for pictures. It is slow to respond and does not have a lot of information yet. However, I could see something like this being of use to river rafters, kayakers, and geographers. The final mashup was Searchbay. This is a search mashup for comparison-shopping that combines eBay, uBid, Amazon and Overstock results. I will definitely use this in the future to comparison shop.

Adobe Air

When I first downloaded Adobe Air clicked on a program for finding guitar chords, but it said that there was an error in Adobe Air. So, I download it again and had the same problem. I then decided to download Quakeshake. Quake Shakes shows you recent worldwide earthquake activity and displays them on a map with info on location, date, time and size. This is a great site for any earth science class. It starts on a given time then shows all earthquakes that occur until present. Very cool. The next download was a wikipedia widget that lets you search Wikipedia topics from your desktop. I use it more than going to Firefox. It is very quick and easy to use. Both of these applications were easy to use and install.

A Week of Web Applications

After a week I have not used many of the new web applications, I have been using many mashups, widgets, and gadgets. More on that later.

Instead, I have found myself finding and reading more great blogs that are about education policy and reform or politics in general. One site I found last night was about teachers creating international-collaboration projects on a small budgets. This article has great ideas for global sharing education programs. It has several links to web apps, some free, for video uploading, podcasting, and videoconferencing with schools across the globe. Check it out.

Web Application Exploration

Whoa, I spent way too much time on this experience. You can really get sucked in and the day is gone. In the end, I had problems with http://www.go2web20.net/ it was not responding, something about a script in a movie causing Adobe Flash to run slowly. In the Webware 100 Best applications I already use many of these apps: Flickr, Skype, and Pandora to name a few. I looked at VoiceThread. I spent a lot of time at this site and highly recommend it for educators and webcreators. I experimented with a photo of my nephew and myself. I added audio comments and sent them to my sister, who will add her and my nephew’s audio to the photo. This is a great way for developing stories at any language arts grade level and for science I could see using it for developing process skills of observation, interpretation, and much more. Not only can use a photo, but movie clips and animation work as well. The next site I looked at is Twitter. Twitter only allows you to use 140 characters to stay in touch with people; it is texting on the web. I thought this would be interesting to check out for professional reasons, but I am leaning towards the personal. I am experimenting with my family at present.

Next, I looked at the http://www.philb.com/iwantto.htm site and got completely lost viewing different apps. I did pull down a great FireFox add-in that allows icons instead of text on the bookmark tool bar, great organizational tool. Another add-on tool I found was a text marker that you can highlight text in URL's , then save and share. Again, this was easy to load and use. I could see students using this with science articles for summarizing concept and working on reports .

On the personal side I found Music Map. This app allows you pick a music artist and creates a musical map of artist that is similar. This led me to several professional apps. Such as Literature Map, which is the same as Music Map only with literature. It pretty much sticks to the classics. On this venue I looked at ConnectViaBooks , which connects you with others books that they have read. ChainReading lets you know what you and reading and sharing it with others. Lastly, What Should I Read Next , which looks at what other readers who have read your book are reading. All these apps would be great for students that are allowed what they want to read in school and want new ideas for reading. All of the apps were easy to use. ChainReading and ConnectViaBooks are sign in apps, but the later you can still use without registering.

The last app for professional interest is Google Custom Search Engine, which is search engines built by educators; they can help students find reliable information by restricting a search to trusted sources of the educators' choosing. This was very straightforward and will be helpful when teaching earth science and limiting your searching just to education related sites.

Social Networking

I have struggled with the social networking assignment. I tend to search a lot for something that would interest me. Most of the times the network was created, but never used. In other instances you have to be invited to join. Finally, I found something on non-violent communication, but I was more interested in how non-violent communication is used in institutions. This Ning site is more politically oriented, but I subscribed to it to check it out for a while. I also ask for an invitation to a network that is based on fly fishing in Alaska.

A concern I am starting to have is the amount of information I giving about myself. I also started to think about why do I need a social network via Web2.0. I already have many local social networks. So, how will this exercise help me teach students and make the world a better place?

Jeff

Classroom2.0 Newsworthy Notes

Today I explored Classroom2.0 and found Global Science Experiment (http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A146211). This site provides an idea were teachers and students share science experiments. This is a great idea, but I think that other ideas are better, such as Bering Straits Open Content Initiative wiki (http://wiki.bssd.org/index.php/Science) on performance-based science standards. This is the best idea I have seen yet of using a wiki for education. If you click on a standard you get readings and experiments that are tried to the standard. Another Classroom2.0 member had a post on RSS Feeds for Students (http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A80379). This is a great idea for reading in the content area, but I think district security blockers may prevent you from using blogs. Students cannot view blogs in the Kenai Peninsula School District. However, we do have an in-house blog running that the district is trying out.

Good Looking Social Networks

I found this article social network design quality and purpose. http://mashable.com/2007/07/09/beautiful-social-networks/

I signed-up for Pownce, but may try another that does not limit you to 140 characters. When I searched for other drummers I only found other.

When I looked at Classroom2.0 I was able to locate another KPBSD teacher and ED 693 students. However, I have yet to find a forum that appeals to me. I will continue to explore for something newsworthy.

Jeff

Social Bookmarking and Syndication

Social Bookmarking Service

I choose del.icio.us for my social bookmarking service for two reasons. First, it has been around longer than Diigo and would have fewer quirks; I just wanted to keep it simple for now. Second, I watched a demo video by the Common Craft and that was enough. I found the social bookmarking better than the either blog search programs. I actually found a great blog site called 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner | College@Home that has great tools for different learning styles – great for differentiated instruction in a performance-based school. This system seems to be streamlined and less cumbersome that the blog search tools as well.

Home Page Syndication

I choose Google Reader for my syndication aggregator, because I have my blog with Google. I also wanted to try something different from Bloglines, which I am using presently. At this point I like Google better. It has a "mark as all read" feature that I like to use. I also like the discover feature which is like an Amazon recommendations feature based on your current blog subscription. The settings are intuitive and easy to work. Setting up folders will allow me to easily manage all of the subscriptions. The brevity of XML really allows me to sift through a lot of reading for salient information that will better keep me abreast of technology and information.

Jeff Szarzi

Teachers Be In or Be Out

A great blog post from TonNet about teachers jumping on board and learning Web 2.0 from students. "Get rid of top down, expert driven instruction methods and nurture self-directed discovery- both your own and theirs. Turn your passions into classroom curriculum." Obviously much can be learned in collaborative process. "Sylvia Martinez says we are trying to solve this 21st C PD issue in schools with 6% of the population (teachers) when 94% of the population (kids) are better positioned to help us learn what we need to know to be successful." Does anyone think this is a valid statement? I am glad I keep this blog in my reader.

Jeff

Blog and Wiki Assignment

I have been searching Blogs on education reform and policy. I have read some interesting Blog postings. I choose eduwonk.com because of the discussions about NCLB's growth model provision and it's overall discourse on policy. The second blog is Education and Tech which I choose because of relevance to this class and a short piece about current graduation rates in the United States. I am sure I will continue to use eduwonk.com because of it overall discussion about federal and state policies. As for Education and Tech the vote is not in yet. I will have to look at it after another post.

As for my wiki experience I checked out both WetPaint and Wikia and found both of interest. But, I found a great wiki on water in Wikia. This is the kind of work I would like to have my students create using Angel in my biology class. Specifically, I would like my students to create wiki on water quatliy, water sheds, and salmon. The edit I created was to input a new link and add some text on the Copper River. I am sure I will use this wiki in the future as tool to show students how to create their own wiki. I believe that this is a great tool for the students to show what they have learned and create a repository of knowledge that others can use and build upon in the future.

Elluminate is a very familiar education tool. I like the ability to use the text area to ask questions. Some times it takes a while for me to think about how to best ask a question. Over time I have found that it is important for an instructor to ask for understanding often to ensure participation; other wise people can loose the concept being taught. This is best done with the smiley face button. This would be especially true with high school students. The other thing about this synchronous technology that I find appealing is the ability to have the instructor and students spread out over the country while conducting a class. Another application similar to Elluminate is Wimba. Angel also has the Wimba application. In the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and many other districts that are spread out geographically, I believe that some professional development can be accomplished using these either of these programs, especially with the increasing cost in fuel.