PLN

Google Reader and igoogle are the first tools I share with others when I'm discussing some of the topics/tools covered in the current grad class I'm taking. I explain that these tools are the way to stay connected with so many topics in the area of education or any other area of interest. I explain how RSS Feeds are the great tool that give us the capability to follow blogs and wikis on any given topic. All the blogs and wikis of interest are pushed into our Google Reader, along with our gmail account, which can all be accessed from igoogle, which also has a great search engine.

Wikis are a tool I find beneficial for class purposes. I think it's great for everyone to have input on a given topic. I know that wikis are not a reliable source for research on the web and it is frustrating when searching for something and several wikis pop up. I'm happy that we as educators have made our student population aware of the use of wikis.

Blogs are great tools for many reasons. It is beneficial and therapeutic to share your knowledgeable point of view on a topic. It is beneficial to others to reads, view, and comment on your point of view. I feel blogs can be a disservice when they are for ranting and raving on a hot topic that people don't know enough about to comment on.

Del.ici.ous is one of the best tools I had the pleasure of exploring. It is great to have all your favorites at your fingertips as well as the appropriately tagged favorites of others. The one down fall is, I couldn't install the toolbar on my school computer, but I can still navigate my way to my del.ici.ous.

Google apps are a great way to work collaboratively on a written project or presentation. I know other polling sites like Survey Monkey have many of the same perks, but I think the fact that google has set the apps up to be at your fingertips from your igoogle account is a great plus.

Google Earth has great capabilities in general, but still limited capabilities at my school as well as many others. It's sad that all students can't access every part of this informational tool.

Twitter is amazing. The number of tweets coming into my account daily is phenomenal. I love knowing what's happening, everywhere. This is the tool that gives me this capability.

All the collaborative whiteboard tools are easy to navigate and share. They are by far the easiest tool to use to collaborate with others who are not in the same room with you. They are great for brainstorming topics out of the classroom and in.

Elluminate is a great tool, but is best used with microphone capability, which everyone doesn't always have. I have done a few web workshops using Elluminate and was happy with the results.

All in all, I've enjoyed learning about all the tools we've been introduced to. Knowledge is power and this case is no different. Staying in the dark and lacking awareness and use of these great web 2.0 tools would only hurt my students progress and my own in the end.

Twitter

I bought a new Blackberry on Sunday. I had a Blackberry before and I gave it up because I didn't feel that I utilized all the cool apps and gadgets that came with the Blackberry. Recently, I had been missing my Blackberry. As soon as I left the store I downloaded the Twitter app to my phone. My little red alert light is blinking nonstop. Someone always has something to say. Ryan Seacrest is telling me what is happening on Idol. The Ranting Teacher is trying to sound optimistic about his/her day. I'm learning how the Badgers are performing in their latest competition. People magazine is telling me the latest celebrity gossip. The Mayo Clinic is telling me how to tell if I've had a stroke. Travel Wisconsin is telling me what's happening around the state this weekend. Education.com is informing me of new happenings in the world of education. Obviously, the amount of information tweeted to a person depends on the number of people they follow. I think the greatest aspect of Twitter is when a person I follow suggests some other people to check out on Twitter. A person could truly find the information for anything they need on any given topic. It's a great tool. Personally, I don't have any friends who are on Twitter, for me it is a professional tool and a way for me to keep up on current events of all sorts.

Del.ici.ous description and reflection

There are several websites that my classmates found valuable that I want to save to my own list. I added several throughout the last few weeks that were mentioned in the wiki activities and blog posts. I think the beauty of the delicious bookmarks are that I don't have to add them to my own list, I can search the lists of others using simple tags.

My own list of tags has grown rather large, surprisingly large. I was happy to see that my tag cloud showed similarities to the tags of others. I tried to keep my tags simple and descriptive. I didn't try to vary them a great deal, but obviously would depending on the subject matter I was interested in saving. I used the same tags to save to our class network list, and I think the web2.0 descriptor tag is a useful one for others who are researching effective tools to use with students. If I were to teach tagging to students ( I think delicious bookmarks are a worthwhile tool to implement in schools, but can't at my current school)I would teach simplicity. I think using a variety of synonyms has downfalls, keeping it simple, common language is to the benefit of everyone.

I did not bundle tags together. If I had more bookmarks saved, as I save more, this will be a feature I will use. It will help to stay more organized in the use of my bookmarks. It will be great to bundle the tags of common topics together.

Of course, in creating my bookmarks, the class tags were used most often. In addition, I tagged google and google earth activities the most. I did find lots of useful information relating to google applications in my research for google earth.

I did not add any annotations at this time. As I become more savvy with delicious and add more bookmarks, i will use annotations to make searching for my necessary bookmarks easier for me. The greatest benefit of using this tool is the ability to access favorite bookmarks from any location for a long time! It will be to my advantage to take the time now to be descriptive to minimize my search time in the future.

In order to use del.ici.ous to connect with other interested in the same topic you simply have to type a search term in the box. Scroll over the results and the results display the person who tagged the bookmark. You can follow other tags of this person as well. I searched for google tags and found Eric and A.Delgado, among other who share similar tags.

Adding others of similar interests to your network is a two way street. My bookmarks will benefit them and vice verse. We will enjoy or copacetic relationship and learn from the tools we each find. Del.ici.ous bookmarks would be great to use for a collaborative project. A network of users researching a common topic would be able to better collaborate to create a finished project more efficiently. It would save time in doubling the research as well. In this case, tag bundles would help to keep all network members organized.

There are several examples of exemplary web 2.0 tools that will help convince my administrator to allow great resources like these in our school. they are:

Google Earth Across the Curriculum (to help demonstrate the wide variety of activities/subjects google earth can enrich)

Websites and Web2.0 Applications (to show the options and have the ability to demonstrate which tools would be useful for what)

Cyberbullying Research Center (to show that awareness and wise use on teaching with the tools is better that avoidance)

Tweet Ideas (to show the possible uses for collaboration and team building involving a web 2.0 tool)

The best and easiest way to show the value is to ask them to use them as I have. Using and practicing is the only way to learn the importance and usefulness of a new tool.

Twitter Education

Twitter is a great place to find information about organizations that could become community partners for service learning projects. It's a great place to discover a need for service learning as well.

Twitter is a great communication tool to use with parents. A Twitter account can be activated to share daily information with parents about the events and homework of the day. I think this is a simple way to communicate with the folks who have access.

The article "Twenty-nine Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom" gave some astounding ideas. English/Written Language is a difficult subject to get students motivated about. I love the clever assessment idea involving 140 characters or less to write a Twitter story. The ideas for asking for location of other Twitterers to examine the Earth using Google Earth seems simple enough, if others Tweet back. I Tweeted about a field trip to Madison and asked for information to share about rocks and mineral with my class. I didn't receive a response. I was provoked to try, and I realize they could be limiting topics.

I think the idea of Twitter for educational use could be valuable with monitoring. It is a tool that could be easily abused. Students can text quickly, I'm sure Tweeting could be lightning fast!

Twitter personally

Twitter has been an interesting tool to use this past week. I have found, much like the RSS Feeds and Google Reader, there is too much of a good thing. Too much information is over whelming. It is absolutely amazing what famous people from all back grounds and what companies and organizations, one can follow on Twitter. Personally, I find it enjoyable to hear from Bon Jovi and Kenny Chesney periodically. I like to know what is going on in their lives. I follow Weight Watchers and as member and an employee, I've benefited from the motivational and support topics that have been tweeted to me.

When distinguishing between Twitter and Facebook at this point, I personally enjoy Facebook more. I can get a lot of the same information it seems, and true personal friends are my friends on Facebook and not on Twitter. Twitter seems to be the rage, but not in my social circle, yet.

Tools of the Trade

I had fun exploring some of the web 2.0 tools investigated by my classmates. Thanks classmates, for sharing. Your wiki posts were interesting and well researched.

I enjoyed learning more about social networking. I'm familiar with Facebook and am becoming more so with Twitter this week. Sarah shared information about The Daily Mile and Twiducate. As an educator, I appreciate that Sarah used The Daily Mile to motivate the athletes that she coaches. It reminds me of a curriculum meeting that I attended a few years back at a neighboring school. I remember sitting with a young P.E. teacher who could not understand what was meant by integrating curriculum. The example we were using involved integrating math concepts in gym class, by weighing and measuring, yourself and a distance. This guy did not get it. Sarah you have shared a great tool that I would love to share with him. I have found it motivating for myself as well. Twiducate is a great, school friendly tool to share class activities, etc. with families. I'm considering this tool for next year, rather than a class note.

Collaborative drawing tools are wonderful. I played with dabbleboard, Scriblink, and imaginationcubed. I feel Scriblink was the easiest to share and navigate. I liked the ease of use. The tools have great possibilities for differentiating instruction. The tools make it easy to share brainstorming sessions with those you are collaborating with, as a teacher or a student. Scriblink is a user friendly way to create a class mind map, much easier to use than Inspiration.

I also explored the use of Immersive Environments in schools. I can appreciate the examples given for use in school. I can see the importance and validity in role playing scenarios with the older students involving history, economics, and citizenship. I feel that tools like Whyville and Dizzywood have to be closely monitored by an adult supervisor. They give the sense that video game playing is occurring during the school day. Again, I do see the value of these tools for select students involving real life topics and situations. I do agree that everyone learns differently and we usually learn more when we are enjoying ourselves.

Four things every student should learn....

I believe Alan November has a good start here. The four things he has named have significant validity in today's society, but in my opinion they are not the only important skills/awareness we should instill in our students.

Global empathy as Mr. November said is important for future employment. An understanding of differences and other cultures will take students far. They definitely can not learn all languages in the world, but a few would help also.

Social and ethical responsibility on the web is very important if we wish for our young people to grow up to be well adjusted adults. I agree schools are taking the easy way out by blocking websites, most homes have Internet access and the students are aware.

The permanence of what is posted online is eye opening. It is difficult for the school to compete with home in this respect. I know of parents who post stunts that their kids are doing to you tube. I don't see the sense in it, but how can we beat that?

Critical thinking is a must. Students at my school are being introduced to relevant sites on the web. they know wiki can be changed by others, so don't go there.

In addition to these four things, I think students need to know the art of collaboration. Civic literacy is also important. Everyone can have their own opinion on which of the 21st Century Skills should be focused on the most, but everyone has their own perceptions.