Tool # 4 Moving Up To The Clouds

1.  Create at least one document in Google Docs and share it with a few others on your campus or within your department.  It could be a team member, a department colleague, or another teacher with whom you plan a collaboration.  Ask that person to comment or chat a real-time edit the document with you.

Create one form in Google Docs and send it via email to at least two other people and ask them to respond.

Briefly discuss how you can use the tools in Google Apps with your team or department.  How can you incorporate Google Apps as a tool in your classroom?  Which tools are you excited about using with students?

Well, this past year, I created a Google Docs to share with my class.  It was an American Hero Test.  I thought why not try something new and go "paperless".  The cool part of this was that it was quick and easy.  I didn't have to wait for the copier to be "free" or to have paper to run it.  The downfall was that it never dawned on me that my kids would access this at home and complete it there.  Once they discovered email, my world changed!  So, I became more aware of when I would share docs with them… sometimes waiting until 10 minutes before lab time or stations.  

Another document I shared was the criteria of our bird report.  This worked well but again, I had to make sure that the kids were only working on this at school.  So, I fibbed and told them that it date & time stamped the document and I'd know that if they did it at home, the grade wouldn't count!  They would have to redo it at school either before or after school.  That seemed to help!  I truly wish I could have better control of this.

Lastly, I used it as a way to motivate kids to try new technology at home.  I had the pleasure to sit in on a conference with Heidi Hayes Jacobs and learned about a very cool website called www.Zooburst.Com

So, I explained to my students that if they wanted some extra credit (for tickets not points), they could play around on this website and shared directions with them over Google Docs.  This helped me share access information - a subscription that I paid for so that my kids could create some super cool non-fiction pop up books with sound.  This, by the way, was a HIT!

Tool #3 Finding Online Video and Image Resources

1.  Visit several of the video hosting / streaming sites mentioned above.  Share with your readers which sites you found most useful for your content and why.

• Discovery Education:  This is a fantastic website / subscription that my district provides us access with.  It is generally safe because you can limit your searches to grade level appropriateness, content, subject matter, etc.  They also have short clips that are great for "openers" or the "hooks" that can get  a child turned on to content.  Although I have not placed any of these movies onto an iPod, I'm really going to learn how to do this next step as it would take kids to a higher level - reaching some of those learners who are visual and auditory!  What an excellent way to review for things too..
• SchoolTube is awesome too!  I have learned that this site is a safer place to upload videos that I want my class to look at - at another time / place.  I used to upload to YouTube, but then when they began to "run" advertisements, the content that was "instantly selected" by YouTube, wasn't always what I wanted my kids to view.  
• TeacherTube has some neat things / lessons on it for teachers.  I haven't used it but for my own knowledge.  However, I did find a recording of the popular mathematics book:  Greedy Triangle by Marlyn Burns, that I was able to share with the my class.
• iMovies have some neat ways to share content that is being taught.  For instance, if I were to teach lessons on the 7 Heroes that we cover in second grade, I may create an Animoto of the character traits, with pictures of the heroes.  Then, I'd download the movie as a .MP4 and upload it to my iTunes account.  Once I've done that, I can load it onto my iPod / iPhone and have kids (ESL in particular) go back and view the short clips n a learning station.  
• www.qwiki.com also has some very COOL ways to show a "snapshot" of what one might be teaching / learning.  I did this while we were learning about Rocks.  

2.  Using any of the video resources mentioned above, find and select two videos that may be useful resources in your classroom.  Embed them in your blog.  If they do not have embed capabilities, hot link them to your blog.

Here are a few links that show where I have linked content to my classroom blog:
Qwiki:  What is a Geode?
Local TV Station:  Amelia Earhart
Teacher Tube:  The Greedy Triangle
School Tube:  A New Type of Bird Call

3.  Articulate what you learned about copyright and fair use.  What was new to you?

Copyright and fair use is very important!  We need to make sure students, and teachers alike, give credit where credit is due!

• Music:  In most cases, a teacher can grab 20 seconds of music to use for education.  This was how I was able to place some neat music to a Mother's Day project….  In other words, I took the first 20 seconds of "Firefly" and kept repeating it.  It actually worked out well and I modeled the importance of keeping within the fair and acceptable use. There are some royalty free music - that offer a little selection.
• Digital Citizenship is also very important to teach!  Cyberbullies are a huge concern for me!  It is probably because I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and can't stand to feel left out of things!
• Photographs:  Flickr offers some photos that can be used - although it takes some "looking around" to find them.  In most cases, the ones that were "free" carried the .gif extension and created more problems when movie generators specifically call for .jpg.  Sometimes, if finding the photos become challenging,  it is best to let the child take pictures and use those.  I knew a grade level that did that with 3Dimensional Shapes & angles that they found around the school.  That activity made for an even more meaningful learning experience!

4.  Login to your Picasa Web Album through Google Apps.  Search for a few pictures.  Use the remix filter.  How could you use this in your classroom?


Well, when thinking of a "remix" I have to go back to the days of Record Players and how we used to have songs that were played on the radio and then those that had been remixed for clubs and dancing...  So, I have to say that I was much of a ding-bat here because I couldn't figure out what it meant to remix right off the bat.  It seems to me, that if you type in a search like "butterfly", you can narrow the search to be more specific such as:
Any Type (faces, no faces)
All Aspect Ratios (landscape, portrait, panorama)
All Sizes (small, medium, large, extra large)
Any Camera (camera models, all licenses, creative commons, commercial use)
Remix Allowed
Order by Relevance (order by date)
So, if I was looking for pictures of butterflies, and needed only those that are:

• Landscape
• Medium
• Photos Only
• Taken With Any Camera
• Commercial Use
• Ordered By Relevance

This is what I'd get:

I think that this might be easier to use than FLICKR.  I like it in the fact that you can search for images that are allowed for Commercial Use.  Commercial Use means (at least to me) that you can in fact use it without getting into trouble.  However, I could be wrong...  
When I clicked on a specific butterfly, I looked on the right hand side of the sidebar and clicked on a tab called Photo Reuse, I clicked on the link that says:  Some Rights Reserved.  


There it explained that I could reuse this photo and edit it (remix it) to fit my needs.  That is pretty cool!  Really, this website might just become me next best friend to use with Big Huge Labs.

Tool # 2 Building Community in the Online Environment

1. Visit at least 5 blogs of fellow educators and comment to one of their posts.

http://iwonderbyluna.blogspot.com/2011/06/tool-2.html

http://alwayskeepingon.blogspot.com/2011/06/tool-1.html

http://keenlykleb.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-different-world.html

http://timmreckskclass.blogspot.com/  (Under the Humpty Dumpty Section)

http://brashers1stgrade.blogspot.com/2011/06/tool-3.html


2. After completing the above, share your thoughts about building and participating in an online community and participating in a PLN. What points stood out to you from the commenting advice?

Were you able to apply any of the advice in your comments?

How did you feel about sharing your thoughts publicly?

Sharing my thoughts has never been an issue. In fact, it is a strength of mine that sometimes gets me into trouble. Going public with my opinions felt odd at first. I was concerned about what others would say and scared that my ideas would not be good enough for the "whole world". I also worry about criticism as ideas are shared. I guess that is part of my personality too.

Was it different than when your'e sharing successes / challenges with your teammate?
I'm definitely more comfortable with the teammates (and those I have known for a while) because we have established "norms" and know each other on a personal level.

I can thank Facebook for helping me get over this anxiety… Now, I really concentrate on my "filters" and think to myself how others might perceive what I have posted. Another helpful tool is to create "folders" as to who can see the posts. It is realitvely easy to set that up and create safer environments!

3. Share the url or name of a website or social network that you plan to visit in the future. What does that site have to offer?
I and now branching my social life on Twitter. I have an account but that was only because I was curious about the the "tweets" with Arizona State University. They were supposed to "tweet" an Animoto movie that I had created that was part of a "Thank You" for their efforts in Vidyo Conferencing.

Tool # 1 Getting Started!

So what exactly is a blog? A blog is a webpage that is set up in a series of posts which are like entries in a journal. Blogs are a part of the online social networking world, and in the case of blogs used in schools, a part of the larger online educational networking world.

Voki
Voki is a website that generates personalized avatars. The main difference between this and the one that I have used with yahoo is there is less of a choice in creating a more personalized graphic. If my students were going to create one for a character analysis, I would imagine that Voki would fit perfectly with this task because it is easy to select the basic things to create a character!


I did find some things challenging. I was "hung - up" on specifics like hair color and skin color. As soon as I got past the "not being perfect" stage, I was good to go!

Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Notes w/ Webinar

http://www.curriculum21.com/home

What makes a great podcast or a blog?
CCP your podcast.
They are genuine.
Have a rubric.

What makes a quality use of that app?

www.podbean.com
Podcast hosting and social networking.

www.yola.com
Makes a free website.

www.typewithme.com
(Imagery) If we were looking at how we could set up the "tools" to a meeting, this would work the best.

www.todaysmeet.com

Phil Vinegratta (WIKIs)

WEB 2.0 Writers Workshop
Writing: http://web20writingworkshop.yolasite.com/

ZooBurst
Picnic
Lets make them confortable with our kids and then post our clearing house as a resouce bin. If she gets the faculty to work through this... get them to dive into one thing at a time and get some depth rather than quickly put something together.

www.wikispaces.com

Heidi Hayes Jacobs: Curriculum 21

EPals

A friend shared this website with me tonight at basketball practice. EPals help you contact people who have agreed to help teachers out using the internet. It contains SAFE contacts too!
This is phenomenal... it is going to change the world of teaching - opening new doors and online field trips! I'm going to give it a try!