Thing # 16- Wikis

Wikis seem to be one way to engage students in their own learning by making their education relevant to them. I see that lots of rules for use will be necessary, to maintain the integrity of the work the students do. But I also think that some students may be more inclined to participate. That being said, not all students are as attunted to the internet as we may think and some may even be resistant. I know, I just contradicted myself, but we have to be aware of the fact that students learn in different ways, and at different speeds. That doesn't mean I don't think we should'nt take advantage of using wikis, just be prepared for challenges that appear. Maybe this is my view because the wiki concept is so new to me. But I am willing to forge ahead.

Okay, I just read the assignment again, and I think I got off track. My experience in posting a comment on the Sandbox was at first confusing. I posted three times. I know that one appeared, although I am not sure it is in the right location.

Thing # 15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

Nothing has raised my consciousness more about the challenges facing libraries now and in the future, than reading these blogs. In fact I'm not sure it was even in my consciousness. It is exciting and daunting at the same time. Probably the most revealing aspect to me is that we really can't conceive of what technology will be in use in say, my grandchildren's daily life and education, and they aren't that old now. And because the discussion of such a topic is open world-wide, the possibilities could be endless.

I thought Rick Anderson's perspective that there should be less time spent with search interfaces and more time reading and learning was interesting. But the public, especially new users to the web, have to be trained to use the services. Perhaps time will eventually take care of that as we begin to learn from the crib how to navigate the internet and it becomes second nature to us.

Thing # 14 Technorati and How Tags Work

This is my most challenging posting....so far. I believe I have a good understanding of tags and their use. I have less understanding of how to locate them, though I have managed to do so, maybe by accident. It seemed so simple at the outset. To me it was easier to navigate in Technorati, but then I am almost afraid to venture very far. In one search the blogs could be sorted by relevance. How in the world would that work? Maybe I missunderstood. For someone with poor organizational skills, tagging is great and hopefully will reduce the amount of time( which seems to disappear in enourmous chunks) searching. I have just begun to find out what pinging is and what widgets are. Surely as time goes on these will become clearer, whether I use them or not. For school, tagging would be essential to find relevant material in a hurry, and also get input from fellow teachers.

Thing # 13 Tagging and discover delicious

It amazes me that we are constantly creating accounts. But then I'm new to this. Is there a device to keep track of all the different user names and passwords for each account? I did successfully register with delicious and without help. Using it is something different. I see the possiblities for working with co-teachers and/or team members. How neat to be seated in a meeting planning a unit and all be able to access the same articles at the same time because of the social bookmarking and make comments with immediate feedback.

Thing # 12: Creating Community through commenting

All the information relayed in the readings regarding leaving comments was very useful and thought provoking. I felt as a new blogger that coolcatteacher's blog encouraging newbies not to be afraid to leave a comment very supportive. And from the 10 commandments of Blog commenting, the very first commandment seems to me to be the most important, and that is to read before you write. How many times have I opened my big mouth before I really understood a situation fully?

After 15 tries, I finally managed to actually leave my first comment on someone's blog. At least I'm persistent. And thanks to my new best friend vwb!
Just made my second comment, both have been outside the SBISD family. I was drawn to both blogs by my interests in gardening and the teaching of special ed.
I have also completed commenting on 6 learn2play blogs. Now to see if I get any replys.

Thing # 11 Library thing

For some reason I am not able to sign in. I don't know what user name and password to put in. All combinations I have tried do not work!!!!!!

Update: Somehow I manged to log in, thanks to Vaughn my kickball captin. It should have been very simple but wasn't, however I listed some books and with all the professional reading regarding teaching strategies, special ed and specific content related information, this will help me to keep track of just what I have read, seeing as how my memory often fails me.

Thing # 10: Online Image Generator

Well this is fun, and very, very time consuming. I have to stop or I'll never get to the other "things"! Using http://www.signgenerator.org/ and http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ one can find cartoons with some relevance to play with, that students can relate to. I made a couple to illustrate not only vocabulary for a particular science unit, but one to help understand the formula for force. My favorite was the pocket albums in BigHugeLabs. This is a great way to get across the scientific method and students can make their own so it has more meaning to them.