Thing 10 of 23 Things: Set Up an RSS Reader and Add Feeds

I actually began using Google Reader when we were assigned to follow a blog in our LiveText assignment. I found several blogs that I wanted to follow and heard from a friend that Google Reader can help organize your reading of these blogs. I really like that you can read a snippet of the new entries without leaving Google. You do have the option, however, to go to the blog website by clicking on the title of the post and read the full thing. The downside, though, for the blogger, is that they would have to write an attention grabbing line within the first few characters of the post in order to guarantee your traffic on their blog for that entry.

I love that the creators of Google have a sense of humor!The View Settings of the feeds crack me up! They're listed as sort by newest, by oldest, or by magic.

I plan on using Google Reader to keep up with current events in the news and to follow my favorite teacher blogs (so far) for good advice and fun ideas on classroom management and lesson plans. I'll be an art teacher when I grow up, so I'm not sure how I would have my students use this service in an elementary school setting. I'd probably just use it as a teaching aide if the content correlates to the lesson I'll be teaching that day.

Thing 9 of 23 Things: Online Image Generators

Online Image generators are a lot of fun. These would be great printouts for creating signs to help students remember class rules or to label activity/supply stations around the art room!

Image Chef has neat animated text generators. I chose to make this Flower Text Generator a still image, however, so I could  use it to print out a small poster if I ever taught art on a cart. This generator works best with one or two words. If you use more than that, they need to be 1-3 letters long or else it becomes hard to read them.

 

I thought this iPod Playlist Generator was pretty cute. I listed my class rules as the songs on the play list and plan to use "Good Behavior is Music to My Ears" or something like that as the caption!

I thought it would be cute to hang famous art works with inspirational quotes for the art classroom. So far I've found the Mona Lisa!

Thing 8 of 23 Things: Flickr Mashups

Of all of the Mashups I explored, I really like Splashr, the tool for presenting Flickr photos in a cool way. For the photo selections I just chose a tag keyword which would pull photos with the same tag from all of the users. You could also choose a single user I.D. to pull the photos. I kept it at the default of 25 photos to be displayed. The presentation style is "desktop".

I think it would be neat to display students' artwork with this tool online on a teacher/school website. It will give parents and the community a chance to see what is being created in your classroom.

I believe photo-sharing is great as long as it is not being abused. It can keep people informed and in touch. Privacy should be respected, however, so in the school setting, the most hassle-free system of displaying student work involves no photos of children's faces and first names or just initials only.

Here is my mashup:

Thing 7 of 23 Things: Explore Flickr

I wanted to search for optical illusions on Flickr, so I did a search for....Optical Illusions! Rather than clicking on each photo that came up in the search, I chose to view them in Slideshow Mode. It was pretty entertaining. I had difficulty in finding the photo's URL that included the .jpg extension, but I found a way! My way may be backwards, but it worked for me. I "grabbed" the HTML/BBCode, but only kept the photo URL. Here are a few optical illusions I found interesting (sorry, I couldn't choose just one image!):

This one is titled, Optical Illusions, by Jeff Hester, on Flickr.

This one is titled, "Optical Illusion I" by mudflap, on Flickr.

This is "Optical Illusion" by kate bygrave, on Flickr.

 

This clarinet is in New Orleans...well at least it was when I visited in 1998. It was painted in realistic colors; the photo is in black and white. The shadows are even painted on! I have a photo of the full length...it's pretty impressive! This is titled "Giant Clarinet Painted on a Building" by Adam O, on Flickr.

Thing 6 of 23 Things: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

The Web 2.0 Tool that explored was Pinterest. This such a cool site; I only wish it was  part of Google. I suppose I could add it as a bookmark... Pinterest is a virtual pinboard to "pin" images which "interest" you the most. You can even create boards for different themes. While you're waiting for your membership to be approved, you can browse all of the other pinned images for cool ideas. Once approved, you can upload your own images or "repin" images that others have uploaded. You can also leave comments on the pinned images. I plan to have a board for classroom management ideas and home decor inspiration. I'm still waiting for my membership to be approved, but I love the idea of pinning all of your images in one place. If only I could use this for things I see in Hobby Lobby that I'd like to make. Oh wait! I can! I'll just have to take photos and upload them. So excited to get started! Approve me already!

UPDATE: I finally have a Pinterest account and I love it! You can pin images from anywhere online and it will link it back to the original source. It's kind of like a visual bookmarking tool. My only "complaint" is that there should be a warning label when you sign up that lets you know that Pinterest is addictive!!!

Thing 5 of 23 Things: Some Perspectives on Web 2.0/School 2.0 and the Future of Education

I think Web 2.0 are things that a teacher should bring into the classroom. We are growing more and more as a visually and technologically advanced culture, so why not modify our teaching style to better communicate and relate to this culture? It will give them the tools to compete successfully and survive in an advancing world. I believe that technology in the classroom, School 2.0, has opened more doors to educational opportunities than even before. More multicultural experiences can be gained through worldwide interactions on the web. Students who have special needs have the added benefit of assistive/adaptive technology to receive a quality education. The students who would not benefit, however, are those school districts whose funds are severely limited and cannot afford computers and internet access. Hopefully, though, this will be remedied soon, because the affordability of Web 2.0 Tools is so amazing that most of them are FREE. Also, schools who cannot afford to go on field trips will be able to take virtual tours of museums, etc. Multiple learning styles can also be accommodated by School 2.0 Tools.

The schools of the future will be even more advanced as they are now. Technology is advancing at rapid speeds and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Because reflection is encouraged, improvements are then undertaken, and new tools of technology are invented to out-perform the previous version. We can hope that it's all for the best!

Thing 4 of 23 Things: Why Commenting is Important

I think commenting is very important to blogs. When a comment is left, it's like someone is acknowledging your post, whether they agree with you or not. Bloggers want to know they are being heard by someone. Just as the blogger appreciates comments, the comment-leaving reader appreciates a response as well. Sometimes, though, people do not always agree with each other in these posts, but it is important to respect, or tolerate, another's views. If the comment that is left is causing extreme conflicts between other commenters, then it can simply be deleted. Throughout this semester, I will be updating this blog entry with my experiences of commenting on other blogs. So..I shall leave this post as "to be continued..."

Thing 3 of 23 Things: Register Your Blog

I have registered my blog! Now that I have one, what shall I use it for in my teacher education program (other than to complete the 23 Things assignment) or my future classroom? Anne Davis has some really good suggestions in her blog, Edublog Insights. I like her suggestions for using it as a reflective journal:

• reflect on your teaching experiences.  
• keep a log of teacher-training experiences.
• write a description of a specific teaching unit.
• describe what worked for you in the classroom or what didn’t work. 
• provide some teaching tips for other teachers.
• write about something you learned from another teacher.
• explain teaching insights you gain from what happens in your classes.
• share ideas for teaching activities or language games to use in the classroom. 
• provide some how-to’s on using specific technology in the class, describing how you used this technology in your own class.
• explore important teaching and learning issues.

I could see myself posting each of these suggestions. To keep my blog organized, I'd be sure to tag each post for quick references down the road.

Thing 2 of 23 Things: Create a Blog, Add a Post, and an Avatar

The 2nd activity in our list of 23 is to create a blog and begin to use it to record our reflections on our usage of Web 2.0 tools. Because my husband teases me for looking at the dessert menu first, he'd probably say that this activity should have been listed as #1. (I like to know what desserts are available so that I can decide whether or not I should save room for them!)

Creating this blog was super easy. The navigation of Blogger is user-friendly. I chose to include the main theme of the blog in the title to make it simple. I chose to keep my user name, MHillenberg, simple also.  Designing an avatar through DoppleMe was silly fun. I'm a runner, so I chose to make it look like an athlete. I wish I could have modified the hair coloring to make it resemble even more like my own. My only other blogging experience was several years ago through LiveJournal, which I kept up for about a year, I believe. It was like writing in a diary in which you would write in "code" what you did not want others to fully know about. I called it cryptic venting. I've been debating whether or not to begin another blog and well... this assignment has made the decision for me! :) Here's to an insightful semester!

Thing 1 of 23 Things: Lifelong Learning

As students in EDUC 3040 at APSU, we are assigned activities, better known as 23 Things, to gain better knowledge and experiences of the internet and Web 2.0 tools. For Thing 1, we are to read the tutorial, 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, and write down which habit we find to be the easiest for ourselves and which we find to be the most difficult.

The habits discussed are:
1) Begin with the end in mind.
2) Accept responsibility for your own learning.
3) View problems as challenges.
4) Have confidence in yourself as a competent and effective learner.
5) Create your own learning toolbox.
6)Use technology to your advantage.
7) Teach and mentor others.
7.5) Play!

I find that it is easy to (#1) create goals for myself. I make to-do lists daily. I become unmotivated and without direction if I don't. The tutorial suggests making goals with the end in sight. We should  make goals realistic enough to accomplish them in the amount of time given to do so.

Possibly the most difficult habit for me to keep is to (#3) understand that life may not always go the way I have planned. I went to school with a girl whose father has said that if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. The tutorial suggests that we should look at problems, not as roadblocks, but as challenges that allow us to learn a new way to accomplish something.

Learning begins in the womb and ceases when we retire from life. While the habits for successful lifelong learning listed in the tutorial are not super-secrets that have been revealed, it is motivating to see them listed in one piece of writing. It allows us to see which of the habits we need to work harder to keep.