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..."