#EduFave Digging Through Favorites

I was thinking about going through my Favorites list in Twitter. As the school year starts, I want to see what gems I thought were going to be useful. Sometimes when I'm on my not-Smartphone, I favorite things that won't open in the cell phone browser to look at later. I never seem to get back to things.

Shall We Play a Game?

I've decided that once a quarter I'll send a tweet asking my followers to look through their Favorites and find something they added over a month ago. Just tag it EduFave. We'll all find something we may have added to favorites a long time ago and forgot about. It will force us to look at our favorites.

My Way Back Machine Favorite

From August 26, 2008 Allanah King shared how to turn your Delicious bookmarks into a clickable HTML file.

What is one of your #EduFave tweets?

Simplifying Incoming Information

In my new mode of trying to simplify how I work with my very prolific network, I have come to use a new-to-me service. It's called Pipes: Twitter link monitor. I have seen references to "pipes" on and off for a while now, but never looked into it. It was pointed out to me in a comment to my last post by Sue Waters.

Getting Started
The set up is simple. Type your Twitter id into the input box, click the Run Pipe button, and get your results. I was surprised that I was able to run the utility with my Twitter ID since I have it set up as a protected account.

The important extra step is to click on the drop down list on the right side of the results window next to the orange RSS icon that says "More options". It is here that you will be able to choose "Get as RSS".

Copy the URL from the top of the screen into your reader and you will now receive a stream of links from those you are following in Twitter in your reader.

Isn't This More Information Overload?
While it may seem like I'm just adding more on my plate, it really is streamlining the process of the learning I accomplish over on Twitter. I have found a couple of items that would have passed me by otherwise.

Here's an Example
Last night, I was getting ready to prepare my last Kindergarten lesson of the year. I wanted to discuss the importance of going places safely online which is a Cybersmart lesson for the K-1 crowd. Usually I walk the students through two of the suggested websites, but I wanted something different.

I tweet popped up from @mscofino: Elementary/Primary teachers check this out: http://lookybook.com/ Interactive e-books for free! Thanks to @jmedved for the tip!

The URL sounded interesting. I was curious and clicked on over. It's a wonderful site full of books that can be clicked on and read online. The children enjoyed the website. I think it gave a better example website than the others I used to go to. I would have missed a great site without the RSS feed.

So What?
I've said on several occasions that I can't be on Twitter all the time, or worried about missing things that come down the river of information. This still holds true, but now I will be more likely to come across websites that may give me an improved lesson plan.

From my last post about my oversubscribed reader, I learned that there are plenty of people out there who want to stay informed and are trying to simplify life. This is worth the five minutes it takes to set up. You might want to give it a try. After all, you can always unsubscribe the item from your reader if it doesn't work for you.

Part IV - New Tools

I intended to complete a write up of my time with teachers in the local alternate route program immediately following those training days. Life got in the way.

I always felt very confident in my preparation for the class starting with the survey, moving into wikis, and continuing onto online professional development. In my original plan, I was going to do a jigsaw activity to introduce blogs (both by teachers and in classrooms), online videos via YouTube and TeacherTube, Voicethreads, Podcasts, Google tools (such as Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Earth), and so on.

Overall, as time passed, I realized I faced two obstacles: time and understanding. All three nights went differently in the order in which the information was presented. I tried to keep my handout in mind at this point in the night.

I wanted to do a little show and tell with technology tools. I tied into the idea of using a cell phone from both the wiki work we did earlier in the night, the video, and the reference to the Cellphones presentation from the K12 online conference. The way I did this was pointing out the tool called Gabcast. I gave some ideas from recording students reading in earlier grades or interviewing them about their day to taking the cell phone along on a class trip for reflections. These ideas have been garnered through reading blogs. I gave it a test a week before the class and had a sample sound file on the wiki at the bottom of the page.

I recently purchased an iTalk device for my iPod and recorded my Kindergarten students singing our song at the beginning of class. At this point in class, I played the mp3 file and spoke about the iRiver and other mp3 recorders.

Another tool I mentioned was the FlipVideo camera. I do not have one, but it is a tool that I want to explore with our technology dollars next year.

During that week, we also happened to have a student visiting from Argentina. The student was in my class for one 42 minute period. I took the opportunity to deviate from our class plan to use Google Earth for the first time. I was great because I was able to show the teachers the pin he added to the map to show where he lives. My seventh graders were so excited, everyone wanted to come up and show where they lived. I was also able to talk about how I recently used Google Earth to show my first graders where their email buddies went to school.

Google Earth leads into Google in general. I wanted to give the teachers a short, quick, useful tip or two. In January, I listened to a podcast recorded by Bob Sprankle at the Christa McAullife conference. In the presentation, If You Knew Google, Susan Adams mentioned the use of the Advanced Search to find PDF files and flash animations. I just followed her lead and used water cycle as the example. We compared typing water cycle vs. “water cycle” and discussed the results. I never really used the PDF and flash advanced search feature until I heard the podcast, so it tied Google and listening to podcasts together nicely.

Next, I wanted the teachers to have some hands on time again, so I brought up TeacherTube. I explained that they might have more success accessing TeacherTube in class than YouTube. To add a little levity to the class, I started with a video that I found funny: Walkthroughs and Learning Objectives. They laughed, so it was fine. I showed how to type physics in the search box, then gave them five minutes to explore. During the five minutes, I saw at least one teacher watching Did You Know/Shift Happens. I also mentioned that they could find the Pay Attention video at TeacherTube.

I love Voicethreads as a tool. It was blocked on the laptops at the school I was visiting, but I was able to access them from my personal laptop. I showed the entire Voicethread my fifth graders created for our introduction to our partner schools. It was great because Sharon Betts added a couple of comments. I also showed two slides from my seventh grader’s Fair Use Voicethread. It shows that you can use photos or drawings and gave an example in the older grades. I gave them a little look at Wes Fryer’s Shanghai Cricket Market Voicethread to show them how I was drawn into the tool. We looked at about three images. Finally, I showed the images of objects on a scale that my sixth grade students took for math class. First the sixth grade took the photos, then I uploaded them to Voicethread and added comparison questions, finally the sixth grade added their answers. I had placed the Voicethread on the math class blog. It gave a demonstration of typing and drawing comments.

I took a few minutes to start up iTunes and point out iTunes U. I explained how I am able to find a lot of free information. For example, when I was getting ready to work with the seventh and eighth grade on copyright, I watched a talk at a major university. I gave them a list of some podcasts to start with on the wiki.

All these things happened differently each night, but we touched on them all. To finish off the night, I had them complete an exercise called 3-2-1. I set up each participant a workspace to reflect on the night. The first night, the wiki would not let them in. I think it was because I was planning on having them use a template and it just didn’t work. The second and third night, I got some nice feedback.

I was invited back to do it again next year and I’m sure I’ll tweak it again and again. On the last night, I had one participant who noticed the word Twitter on the K12 Online Conference. I gave a quick demonstration to him. I’d like to give a great big thanks to all the folks who jumped in to say hi. He was wow’d with the quick response. I think he’s comfortable with online connections already, but it might have been too much for everyone else. I think he was also surprised at the diversity of the locations responding. Thanks: @paulhami, @mrichme, @techicebreaker, @alicebarr, @JackieB, @kjarrett, @jepcke, @jeffwhipple, @kdumont, @langwitches, @ddraper, @cathyjo, @mrmosesdotorg, @mjmontagne, @mkforbus, @LParisi, and @derrallg. It gave a nice response to one interested teacher and the principal who hired me looking over our shoulders. The principals comment: “Wow, it looks like you could be online 24 hours a day”.

We could, couldn’t we?

How One Teacher Was Inspired

I'm modifying the model of those I am reading through Google Reader (although Bloglines now has my attention - thank you Clay).

This has been a year of changes in the way I conduct business in the classroom. I've always been happy with the way I approach computer curriculum. I add new things every year, starting with what the school owns and expanding.

Wikispaces - I started my first Wikispace around March. It was also the first "contact" I made with the world of online educators. I found room17math and sent a note to charbeck1.

I am a computer/middle school math teacher in New Jersey. I am feeling my way through making my first wikis with kids. I have to spend a lot more time at your site. If you have a chance, what are the top two or three things that have made this a success for you? What do you wish you knew when you started? Did you ask parents permission for the kids to get wiki accounts? I'm hoping to get started over the next month. Thanks for any insights!

His response opened up a whole new world to me. It was ALL new information. In part it read:

I was lucky enough to take a course with Vicki Davis "coolcatteacher.blogspot.com" during the k12online conference...A great place to start is at Women of Web 2.0 They have a chat every tuesday at 9:00 est on worldbriges (worldbridges.net) They are an excellent source of knowledge.

Now I had to know: who was Vicki Davis/ what is coolcatteacher.blogspot.com, what is the k12online conference and where is it held, what is Women of the Web 2.0, what does this person mean a chat every Tuesday night, and what is all 2.0 stuff?

Anyone who is capable of using Google can find the answers pretty quickly. I started reading Vicki's blog, was disappointed I missed the conference, and decided I didn't have time to get into all this right now. I was in the middle of taking a certification course every Tuesday night and while it isn't the same as taking a college course load like some people are - it was enough.

All I needed to become inspired was information. I kept poking around when I had time and really chose to wait to immerse myself until vacation rolled around in June. Even then, I decided I wouldn't start until I was back from my two week driving vacation at the end of July.

I can't believe I've only been talking with online educators since August. Even at that, I really barely started the conversation. Thanks to Lisa, Cathy, and MrsDurff's welcoming attitude I began to realize that it was up to me to become part of the conversation. Mrs Durff gave me such a friendly welcome in the chat room of Women of the Web, Lisa invited me to add her to Twitter, and Cathy is always so giving in her comments to my blog posts.

July 15th - first tweet
August 6th - second tweet
September 22nd - first tweet from someone Durff
October 16th - first tweet to a person cathyjo
Last week of October - the conversation begins in earnest

I look forward now to entering further into the conversation. Thanks to a post by Dean Shareski, I try to log all my comments into Cocomment. It's not the easiest system, but it works to show me the continued convesations where I leave comments. It's easier than remembering where I write. I also did not realize, at first, that I had to go back to posts where I left comments to see that others were responding back to what I said.

The moral of this story: You never know what you're going to write that will be the inspiration to the next teacher on their road of discovery!

Twitter and Familiarity

I've been using Twitter for a while now. I signed up mid-July, but didn't really start using it in earnest until mid-September.

It's like most people say, until you use it, you won't understand it. I was at a Women of the Web 2 talk and wrote in the chat window that I was uncertain how to start following people. It didn't seem quite right to just start following people - seemed stalkerish in a way.

A few people said, you don't ask to follow people, you just start following them. So I did and here I am a few months later. I have learned SO much through the various tweets that I see. One of them led me to a post by JenW - 140 Characters Does Not a Friend Make...

I was going to write a comment, but there is more floating around in my head than a would put in a comment.

I do like Twitter. I have said before that it is like being in a office full of people that you would want to work with personally. It also has, in many ways, a different feel than a blog. Since people post the little things (like holiday prep, recipes, and iguanas being stalked by cats) I get more of a sense of the person.

I know these connections are not friendships, but they help build a working online relationship. As I "see" the person, I feel more of a pull to help out commenting on someone else's students blogs, voicethread, and other work. They seem more like colleagues.

That said, after reading some of the comments to Jen's posts, I decided to remove myself as a follower of those who are not following me. As I read tweets, I forgot that all those that I follow do not follow me and are therefore not reading my tweets. If I respond to something someone writes, they will see me as more of a stranger than a colleague.

I enjoy the back and forth comments. I look forward to seeing who is running a race and who is traveling to do a presentation to other teachers. At least now I will be certain that I am responding to people who are getting to know me through my tweets.

This is such a new medium. Everyone is getting their feet wet at the same time and we are learning new limits. Recently, there was another post by Wesley Fryer - Deciding Who To Follow on Twitter.

There are a lot of things to consider. A lot of what we teach about Internet safety, privacy, and the difference between face to face interactions where you can read body language and vocal intonations is starting to come to the surface in Twitter.

Overall, I hope it will continue to flourish. I know it is an important part of my newly formed personal learning network. Thank you JenW for giving everyone food for thought.

Expanding My Student's View of the World

My students created podcasts about plagiarism. As they were working, they didn't seem too impressed that their work was on the Internet and should be the best it could be. They ended up recording their projects twice on my insistence.

Today I spent a fair amount of time uploading the podcasts to Podomatic, creating a survey in SurveyMonkey, adding a ClusterMap, and adding a Statcounter. I want the students to see and hear from a global audience.

To that end, I am taking the advice from The Thinking Stick's Jeff Utecht. In his K12 Online Presentation, Online Professional Development, he clearly showed how he uses his network. I absolutely loved the way he gave the presentation. It was like sitting at the desk with him.

I've been playing around with Twitter, Ning, and a variety of other tools since returning from vacation in August. I have started following what I would call the "big names". Some people have found me and added me to Twitter. Now it's my turn to find other people and build my network even more.

I am hoping to tweet about my student's podcasts and put a note up in a couple of nings in hopes of getting the students some response to their work. I want them to see other people are interested in their work and will evaluate what they see. I'm hopeful that I will be able to generate more than a couple of hits and a global audience. I have a tiny voice in the edublog world, but I am enjoying it greatly. I want the students to experience this with the school work in a different way than they do with their IMing and social networks.

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Image Citation:
Francis, Mark Norman. “My Audience.” cackhanded’s Photostream. 15 Dec 2005. 27 Oct 2007. <>.

Twitter

I'm so old as far as using computers go. I'm so new as far as web 2.0 tools go though. I ran into Wikispaces last winter and used it tentatively around March 2007. I go to Women of the Web 2.0 podcast tapings/ chats when it fits into my schedule with my boys homework, etc. on Tuesday nights.

I keep hearing how people are keeping up with so much via Twitter. So I started sorting through people I "know" through their blogs and various podcasts I've picked up and enjoyed. I must admit it feels a bit strange to just click on a person and start following them, but everyone says "just do it", so that's what I'm doing.

If I've started following you in Twitter, it's because I'm so impressed with what I see you write, or hear you contribute. I know that my interaction with you all is changing and improving both my K-8 computer classes and math classes.

I'm planning on teaching a group of about 300 new teachers about integrating technology into their classroom around early February. I hope that with all your help, I'll be giving them so much more than I got out of the same session last year.

Since I teach in a private school, I really wasn't required to get my state certification. I wanted to be prepared for anything I want to do in NJ so I completed the state certification last year. I was very complimented when the head of the program asked me to come on board and present this year.

So, I'm getting on board with Twitter. Thank you for helping me even if you don't know who I am!