Design Principles in Ancient Manuscripts

I really enjoyed looking at the ancient manuscripts from the British library for my introduction to Graphic design homework. I looked at the Lisbon Hebrew Bible and the Sherborne Missal. I can’t imagine how many hours and how many artists must have been used to create such intricate and precise manuscripts. Each used repetition of various colors such as gold and red to provide a common theme through the manuscript. I thought it interesting that even though I can’t read Hebrew, by noticing the artist’s use of contrast and repetition in the Lisbon Bible, I was able to determine when a new chapter or book began. In the Sherborn Misal, I was struck by the pages that contained the word for the Christmas Mass. They were the most decorated pages of the book. The grouping of so many intricate pictures helped the artist emphasize how important he felt these pages were. It is also interesting that the way that the artist used alignment in his design was to frame the pages and to create decorative dividers to create two distinct columns on each page.

Post Production Ramblings

• As a part of our digital multimedia course we were asked to work collaboratively to create PSA videos. The experience was overall a good one, even though there were some frustrations on the way. The pre-production went very smoothly. Early on we created a group wiki for the project. It turned out to be a great tool for brainstorming. We were able to build off each others' ideas, add relevant links and videos and basically come to a consensus as to what our project should be about.
• We then divided up the work, however, even then we worked as a group. For example, Jason wrote the script, but we each went through and revised it and made suggestions until we had the final version created. We even added the pre-production document to t he wiki so that we could all help in filling it out. The production process took us a little longer to figure out how best to accomplish it as a group. We ended up adding a page to our wiki so that we could all add the videos, pictures and audio files that we were each responsible for.
• One great tool that i used was google docs. I hadn't realized before that you can upload image and video files and then provide other people with a link so they can download the files as well. This was much easier than using emails and filling up everyone's email boxes. I did the initial editing and I used animoto to put together the pictures and videos that we had each contributed.
• Kristen then took that video and edited it further, removing shots that were too dark or unfocused and adding in the audio files that Kimberly had created. She sent us the proof and we all made suggestions as to how it could be cut down to the 60 second limit and what copyright info should be added. Finally, Kristen uploaded the final video to Youtube. The great thing about Youtube is that it is easy to upload files to it and it provided a simple embed code that can allow you to add the video to your blog or wiki.
• I am happy with how the PSA turned out. If we had more time I would probably redo the narration to make it a little louder, but other than that, I think it is very solid.
• Most of the footage we used in our video was taken by us, however we did get a few pictures from Flickr that had creative commons licenses. They were: Party Picture #1 by Flickr User Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos Party Picture #2 Creative Commons License by Flickr User The "Your fired" picture was from leighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com

P.S. On the right hand side of this page, you will see a label entitled Multimedia Video Technology Posts. If you click that link, you will see all of the required blog posts for this class. In addition, here is the link for my Ed Tech Google Site as well.

Post Production Ramblings

I have rewritten this post three times and I can't get it to keep the paragraph formatting. I will keep working on it, but if you see one big paragraph, know that it isn't on purpose. As a part of our digital multimedia course we were asked to work collaboratively to create PSA videos. The experience was overall a good one, even though there were some frustrations on the way. The pre-production went very smoothly. Early on we created a group wiki for the project. It turned out to be a great tool for brainstorming. We were able to build off each others' ideas, add relevant links and videos and basically come to a consensus as to what our project should be about. We then divided up the work, however, even then we worked as a group. For example, Jason wrote the script, but we each went through and revised it and made suggestions until we had the final version created. We even added the pre-production document to t he wiki so that we could all help in filling it out. The production process took us a little longer to figure out how best to accomplish it as a group. We ended up adding a page to our wiki so that we could all add the videos, pictures and audio files that we were each responsible for. One great tool that i used was google docs. I hadn't realized before that you can upload image and video files and then provide other people with a link so they can download the files as well. This was much easier than using emails and filling up everyone's email boxes. I did the initial editing and I used animoto to put together the pictures and videos that we had each contributed. Kristen then took that video and edited it further, removing shots that were too dark or unfocused and adding in the audio files that Kimberly had created. She sent us the proof and we all made suggestions as to how it could be cut down to the 60 second limit and what copyright info should be added. Finally, Kristen uploaded the final video to Youtube. The great thing about Youtube is that it is easy to upload files to it and it provided a simple embed code that can allow you to add the video to your blog or wiki. I am happy with how the PSA turned out. If we had more time I would probably redo the narration to make it a little louder, but other than that, I think it is very solid. Most of the footage we used in our video was taken by us, however we did get a few pictures from Flickr that had creative commons licenses. They were: Party Picture #1 by Flickr User Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos Party Picture #2 Creative Commons License by Flickr User The "Your fired" picture was from leighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com

Digital Footprints PSA

Wordles in the classroom

So I am going to have my students create wordles today and place them on their blogs. Unfortunately, I can't get the embed option to work so I found a work around. The directions are below, and here is a link to a screencast I made to teach them how to add their wordles to their blogs. "After you have created your wordle, press the "Open in Window" button. Press and hold Alt and "print screen." Open up Paint and paste the image onto the program. Then save the image in your network folder or flash drive as a jpeg file. Finally, go to your blog and place your wordle into a new blog post."

Value of Web Conferences in Online Education

I have not been able to attend a web conference yet during this course, but I have attended them for past courses. I have also watched one of the recorded conferences to gain some clarity on our week 2 assignment. I am glad that we have web conferences because as an online class, we would have absolutely no communications with our professors without them. This is critical because I have found that one of the weaknesses of taking my degree online is the amount of miscommuncation that can occur. I have found through the several courses I have taken that professors will often feel that they are giving clear simple directions, but many of my classmates as well as myself are very confused as to what to do. I think that comes from the fact that there is no face to face contact with our professors, so it is harder to get quick feedback for clarification. I communicate with many of my classmates through facebook and wikis and we are constantly trying to figure out what is expected of us in the program. Sometimes the technical difficulties are frustrating, but that is to be expected with technology.

Windows Movie Maker... it's no iMovie

My group decided to look at Windows Movie Maker and iMovie partly they seem to be the most used video editing applications in education and partly because one of our readings this week specifically mentioned them as being two of the best free video editing options available. Since I have already used iMovie many times, I decided to review and evaluate Movie Maker so that I could get exposed to a different program. Windows Movie Maker comes free with PC’s that use Microsoft Windows XP or Vista or can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website. It cannot be used with Windows 7 that comes with its own video editor called Windows Live MovieMaker . For a free video editing software, Windows Movie Maker has some great basic functions, however, its “bells and whistles” are few and there are some drawbacks to the interface that it uses. Importing Options for importing are video straight from your video camera, video from a file on your computer, pictures or audio. Video formats that can be imported are limited to .asf, .avi, .dvr-ms, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv. This means that MP4s and .mov files will need to be converted before they can be used in the software. Editing Once you have added your media to your project, adding clips to your movie is as easy as dragging and dropping. Clips can be viewed in the preview screen at the right as they are edited. Movie Maker has several effects and transitions that you can add to customize your video. The one drawback that I found as I was adding effects to my video is that they are added to entire clips. The only way to use an effect for only part of a clip requires splitting the clip into two clips. The same is true for cutting a clip. You can cut the beginning or end of a clip, but to cut material from the middle of a clip you need to split the clip. This can get cumbersome if you have several internal clips to make. You can also add titles and credits to your video as well. For each addition you can choose the font, color and effect of your title. You can also add music or audio files to your movie as well. However, you can only control volume for the entire length of the audio or music file. There is a fade in or fade out option, but other than that, you are stuck with one level of sound for the entire selection. Unlike programs like iMovie, however there are no royalty free music or sound effect options included in the software. Publishing There are four publishing options with Windows Movie Maker. Publishing to your computer, recording to a recordable CD, sending it in an email or sending it to your digital video camera. There is no way to record a DVD in the software. A separate program will need to be used to create a DVD. You have two formats that you can publish your file in, AVI and WMV. Overall, considering that students can easily obtain it for free and that it has all of the basic editing tools needed for most student projects, Movie Maker is a good choice for classroom use. However, I would recommend that if iMovie is available at your school that it be considered. It is a program that I have used extensively in my classes. It has all of the features of Movie Maker but it also includes an easier interface for trimming and editing clips, as well as more title choices and royalty free music and sound effects. We are luck at our school to have access to both PCs and a mac laptop lab so I think that if I have my students make their own videos, I am going to use iMovie myself. Microsoft. (2010, 09 05). Create home movies with windows movie maker. Retrieved 09 05, 2010, from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx

Adding Sound Effects to iMovie tutorial

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Telling My Story

The process of coming up with my personal digital story this week was not an easy one. Beyond the fact that it was the first week back at school, and that it took awhile to find group members to work with, trying to find the story I wanted to tell was difficult for me. Reading the Digital Story Cookbook by Joe Lambert helped me the most in the process. That was the point when I really started to come up with some ideas. It was when I read his list of ideas for stories that I decided to tell a Memorial story about my Dad. Now, my Dad isn't dead, but I still believe that the person he is deserves to be honored. Next, I needed to find pictures to illustrate my story. I used the creative commons search through Flickr to find the ones that I didn't take myself. It was easy to give credit to the photographers by adding credits to the end of my movie. I used iMovie to create my digital story. I have used this software several times before, so I feel comfortable using it. I decided not to use any music because I didn't it to feel overly processed. In the end I had to cut out about a minute of material because it was too long for the assignment.

My Story

Connecting wth students through modern media.

I'm always trying to find ways to connect economics with the every day lives of my students. With that in mind I made this video to show the first day of class that uses commercials, tv show clips and movie clips to introduce some of the basic points of economics. To make this video I used imovie.

My own thing

Since I hope to continue this blog, I thought I might as well start right away. Here is the Prezi I created to use with my first econ lecture. I'm still revising and adding, but I think it looks pretty good so far.

Economics Made Simple on Prezi

One more Thing

Even though I knew about many of the "things" in this class, I appreciated the time to really explore them to see how I could use them in my classes. For example, I set up a basic google reader account awhile ago, but I never added many feeds beyond a few of my friends blogs. Now, I love going on Google reader to see the cool blog posts delivered straight to me. I've even begun using instapaper to deliver the posts I want to read to my Kindle. This is one "thing" that I think has become a permanent part of my routine. Flickr and creative commons were also very significant things to learn about. I have already begun using flickr more often and have found it so easy to search for creative common photos and then to attribute them when I use them in a post or lecture. Hopefully, I will be using Web 2.0 weekly in my classroom. Most of this will be accomplished through my Moodle, but I also plan on using quizlet, voicethread and flickr, just to name a few. I would also like to keep up this blog as a place to record my experiences using technology in the classroom this year. This might help other people who are going through the same process, plus I can use it as evidence in my next PDA evaluation.

Thing 23: NIng

In exploring the classroom 2.0 network on Ning, I found that it was nice to have such a large community of like minded educators. As I began to explore I really liked the subgroups that were more specific within the network. I found groups that were focused on using cellphones in the classroom, those that discussed the use of Google Apps, etc. I think that pretty much every technology application for the classroom was covered. I definitely see myself going back to this site when I need help with web 2.0 in my classroom. I would love to have a Mesquite HS Ning network. Each class could have a group set up and students could communicate with each other about classes and assignments. Too bad we can't have something similar set up with Moodle. I would live for them to have a common landing page that showed all the classes they were in and combined all the calendars into one.

Thing 22: Facebook and MySpace

My Facebook profile Why should we know how social networking works? Just read this: "In India, a study conducted by job search engine provider CareerBuilder India found that more than seven out of every 10 (73 per cent) employers used social networking sites to research candidates’ backgrounds. Another 15 per cent planned to start using social networking sites for screening." link to article Our students need to know that they are creating a digital footprint that cannot be erased. It is important that they learn how to behave responsibly. The article I linked to above that states that 73% of employers use social networking sites to screen candidates wasn't the only one that said that. That number seems high considering the short amount of time these sites have existed, but when I think about it, I do the same time. I google pretty much anyone I do business with. I do see ways that social networking could be used in an educational way. For example, I know of an AP Macroeconomics teacher who has formed a AP Macroeconomics study page on facebook. For 24 hours before the exam, he and other teachers answers students' macroeconomics questions in real-time.

Thing 7B: More Words of Wisdom from Google Reader

I found a great quick post on the Free Technology for Teachers website. It was a short video post about creating videos instead of written sub notes. What a great idea! I could so easily do that on my Mac with photobooth. As Bryne explains, when you make a video like this, the kids can't say that the sub "forgot" to tell them to turn something in or to do part of the assignment. He even posted a sample video a few days later.

Thing 21: More Google

The first tool I played around with wast the custom Google search engine. I created a search engine that my students can use on their monetary policy projects. I think it will be great to limit their results so that they aren't overwhelmed with the volume of information out there.

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I also created a personal calendar. I like that you can set up different calendars with different settings. I think I would like to create one with my classes and then invite them through their Google Apps accounts. It would be a great way to keep them updated with due dates. The link to the personal calendar I created is here.

Thing 20: Google Docs

To be fair, this wasn't my first introduction to Google Docs. I found it myself about a year ago because I was trying to find a free alternative to Microsoft Word. Then I took a tech class though MISD and learned that Google Docs is more than just a free alternative to Microsoft Word. The collaborative aspect of Google Doc is what reallly makes it special. There are a million ways to use Google Docs in the classroom. One idea is to upload assignments so that students can never say the dog ate their homework again. Another is to have them work together on group presentations using the presentation tool. If I were still an English teacher I would especially be using it for peer revision and writer workshops. I can also see using the form tool to create quizzes and as a way to get student feedback.

Thing 19: VoiceThread

My first impression of voice thread is that its is another really cool web2.0 tool but I wasn't completely sold on using it professionally pr privately. Then I started exploring it more and I became more and more impressed and I am now thinking of more ways I could use it in class and in my private life. I loved the sample voicethread of the old family picture and having everyone talk about their memories of what was going on. I would love to have my extended family do something like that. Once I found out that it is possible for a small fee to download a movie of a voice thread, I became even more interested in that possibility. Although, I have no idea if my older relatives could grasp the concept. I am considering using it in my classroom as well, however, I feel like I am adding so many new tools to my curriculum, I may quickly overwhelm my students. Plus, who knows how many days I'll actually be able to reserve in the computer lab this year. I really wish I had even 3-4 computers in the classroom. Then I could have students take turns at the beginning of class for a week or so to comment on a voicethread. Then we could watch the final result as a class. I guess I could have them work on it at home. I'll have to think on that some more.

Thing 18: You Tube

It was nice to have an official purpose and excuse for browsing through YouTube. I found lots of random, funny and helpful videos. TeacherTube wasn't nearly as much fun, but I guess that is to be expected. I have used YouTube in the past for my classes. You can often find short clips to emphasis certain economic principles. Sometimes I have used zamzar.com to convert the videos so I don't have to worry about the internet going down at school and ruining my lesson plan. This year I also plan to upload a few tutorials I have made to YouTube so that i can embed them in my Moodle site. Students won't be able to see them from school computers but they will be able to see them at home. PS Let me go on a tangent for a moment and say that I hope that at some point Mesquite ISD will decide to unblock certain sites like YouTube at the high school level. I know that there is a lot of inappropriate content on youtube, but students can access youtube on their internet enabled smartphones anyway. In the same way students have consequences for bringing a inappropriate magazine to school, there should be consequences for accessing an inappropriate video from school whether it is on an iphone or a school computer. The truth us, we can't block every bad thing on the internet. It changes too fast. By the time they are in high school, we need to be teaching these students how to appropriately use the internet in a school or work environment.

Thing 17: Podcasting

Since I have been listening to podcasts on my Ipod for several years, this activity wasn't much of a stretch for me. I have several podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis, including This American Life, Car Talk, and the Jay and Jack Lost podcast (before Lost went off the air). In my classes, I have brought in several NPR podcasts for my students to listen to. I have also begun recording some of my AP lectures as podcasts so that when students are absent, they still hear what I covered in class. I hope to eventually have all of my lectures recorded. I haven't had my students make podcasts yet but I plan to do that next year.

Thing 16: The Library Thing

I did spend some time exploring The Library Thing, but I have been a member of a similar site, Goodreads for a while, and I think I like that site a little better. It may just be because I already am connected with friends on Goodreads, but I also think that Goodreads is a little more user friendly. It connects me to all my Facebook friends who are on the site. It also had all the social aspects that Library Thing has such as groups, recommendations, discussions, etc. I probably won't use either site in the classroom for my class, although if I still taught English, I could see some great uses for the site.

Thing 15: Delicious Bookmarking

I have several computers that I work on regularly, desktop at school, desktop at home, my laptop, etc. On every computer, even on various browsers on each computer, I have different sites bookmarked. I often find myself trying to google sites because I can't find a bookmark that I know I have "somewhere." I had heard of delicious and other social bookmarking sites, but I thought it would be cumbersome. I thought I would have to do to the delicious site and sign in every time I wanted to bookmark something or to find a bookmark. After playing around with Delicious, I find that it has a plugin that is built into the browser, and that adding and finding links couldn't be simpler. Professionally, I can see using links to share with colleagues, and I can see adding an RSS feed for a specific tag to my Moodle site. I will have to play around with the possibilities. My delicious bookmarks are here if you want to check them out.

Thing 7A: More yummy feeds from Google Reader

I found a great tip on the Free Technology for Teachers website. It is about how to make in-classroom video viewing better. Basically, the teacher sets up a back channel discussion on Todays Meet and has the student post their ideas and questions as the video is playing. Of course, without computers in the classroom, I won't be able to do this anytime soon, but maybe there is a way to use the class response clickers to work in a similar way.

Thing 14: Quizlet

I tried out Quizlet, which is a great tool for creating flashcards to learn vocabulary. Beyond the simple flashcard tool, there are some great features that Quizlet offers beyond the 3 by 5 index cards I grew up using. First, as you create the cards, you are given a choice to use dictionary or user created definitions to just write in your own. I made a quick sample set for my economics class and was able to use the provided definitions almost every time. It was a great time saver. One your card are made, there are some even better features. First, you can study by reviewing the cards, then you can even test yourself or play games with the words. You can do this on the site, embed the cards onto your own website, link to them through your twitter or facebook account or even use them with several iphone apps. You can also find cards others have made, join groups, and comment on sets. It is this social aspect that really takes vocab to the next level.

Thing 13: Mashed!

As you can see from my last few posts, I've been having fun doing the mashup/ generator thing. I think it is so much fun! The Spell with Flickr site is easy to use. All I had to do is enter the text I wanted spelled out and then copy the embed code for my site. I could even click on individual letters if I wanted something different. Image Chef had a lot to choose from, I can see myself going back there to come up with cool graphics for my presentations. I think my favorite, however, was Talking Photo. It is pretty much similar to Blabberize, but it has prerecorded sound. I can see having a lot of fun with this in class. The only drawback is that the kids would get so into making cool images that they might lose track of what ever the assignment is. But if I could give them a time limit, it might work.

Bond... James Bond

Created with PQ Talking Photo photo by Erik Veland

If asking nicely doesn't work...

created by Image Chef

Economics in one sentence

Created with Spell with Flickr

Thing 12: Online Slideshows

Photo credits: Top Japanese 10,000 note by Ivan Walsh Money! by TracyO Money Money Money Moooooney by Ahmed Rabea Euros by Will Spaetzel I chose to create a quick slide show of various currencies from around the world. I liked how easy it was to create a slide show at slide.com. IT was especially nice that they have legal options for including music.

Thing 11: Photosharing with Flickr

Photo by Ahmed Rabea I had a fun time exploring Flickr for thing 11. I chose money as my theme and found lots of pictures of money from around the world. I love how easy it is to search through creative commons pictures and download them. I also used the spell with pictures app to create an economics banner for my moodle page. I have several projects planned for next year (assuming I can get into the computer lab) that involve the use of pictures. One project will be for my students to create Prezis and I think that Flickr will be a great resource them. I just need to make sure that I teach them how to attribute their sources.

Thing 10: "Share, Remix, Reuse-- Legally"

This Video:

Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning

View more presentations from Renee Hobbs. was a revelation! I am so glad it was shared on the 23 things site. I really did use to think that there is some sort of magic number of pages that you are allowed to copy as a teacher, or a certain number of minutes you were allowed to show of a video. I'm glad to know that Fair Use is more subtle than that and can be adjusted to fit various situations. Learning more about Creative Commons has been eye opening as well. I have heard the term and had a general idea of what it is about, but I had no idea about its origins. I am hoping that teaching my students about CC and having them use items that are CC in their presentations will allow my students to have access to the various mediums they need for their projects without breaking the law and putting themselves at risk for litigation.

Thing 9: Playing in the wiki sandbox

Here is my super cool wiki I played around with today. The cool thing about a wiki is that if you can create a document in a word processor, you can create a wiki. Wikispaces has a very simple editor that has lots of great features. I really liked the widgets that allow you to add embedded videos, rss feeds, TOC, etc. I am thinking that my students might have fun creating study guide wikis complete with video tutorials. I love how you can see what changes are made and who makes them. It totally does away with the common problem of one person doing all the work, but everyone getting equal credit.

Thing 7: Comments from a lurker

I'm a lurker. Not in real life, of course, but on the web, I lurk. I do this even though I am constantly thinking of how I would like to respond to the various posts I read each day. Sometimes, I even start writing a response, only to delete it instead of submitting it. For some reason I am more nervous to share my opinion in writing that I would be to share it verbally. However, at the same time, I do believe that commenting is what make blogs dynamic and relevant.

It took me a while to find blog posts to comment on. I almost posted on one post, but I would have been the first commenter and that made me nervous for some reason. Eventually, the blog that I commented on for this assignment was a post on Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson entitled You've got problems, so solve them. I think I will challenged myself to continue commenting on at least a few of the blogs that I read. I think that will help me feel more of a sense of belonging with the edublog community.

Thing 8: WIki Wiki

It seems like educational wikis can be as varied as the teachers who use them. Some are used as a way to have students collaborate on creating study guides like Welker's Wikinomics or the wikispaces study hall site Vicky Davis started with her students. Others are used to coordinate projects like the 1001 Flat World Tales. I can see myself using wikis for either purpose. One of the best parts of a wiki, in my opinion, is that you can see that actual contributions of each person.

My favorite of the wikis I looked at is definitely the Welker's Wikinomics site. I really like how he has set up a course outline with major topics and then has each topic linked to a wiki site that his students can edit.

Thing 6: The future of Web 2.0

I had to control myself to keep from adding too many feeds to my reader. I don't want to overwhelm myself, but there are a lot of great educator blogs out there. I notices that several of them have been posting about the ISTE conference that is going on in Colorado. I am jealous! It looks to be like a great event. Next year it is in Philly and I am already thinking about going.

One blog I have discovered is called The Thinking Stick. JEff Utecht is the blogger and he wrote a post today about a conference session titled Are Wikis Dying? The idea is that with the development of Google Apps and Google Wave, etc., maybe they will replace wikis as the collaborative tools of the future. The answer to the question is unclear, but I think there is a greater lesson to be learned. As educators, we can't be too focused on teaching students specific tools, because the tools are constantly changing. Instead we need to focus on the thought process that goes into learning any new web 2.0 tool. That way they will be prepared for anything the web can throw at them.

Thing 5: I love technology

Can I just say that I love technology? So does my husband. It's our greatest weakness as far as out budget goes. It is no different for me in the classroom. I love new technology that can help me better engage my students. For a while now, the piece of classroom technology that I have been lusting after the most is an interactive whiteboard. It is so cool! So when I was exploring my newly set up Google Reader for Thing 5, and I came across an entry on the Tech Learning blog called Erase Unnecessary Costs by Getting Smart about Interactive Whiteboards by Lisa Nielsen, I had to read it.

Lisa's basic premise is that while interactive whiteboards are cool, you can perform the same function with a projector and tablet combo that would save you over $3000. That amount of money could purchase 9 netbooks or ipod touches or a variety of other technology. As an economics teacher I know all about opportunity cost so I can really see her point. To be honest, I still want an interactive whiteboard in my classroom. It is just all kinds of awesome. However, I do think that we need to be efficient with our resources, so I will settle for a projector and tablet. Now I just gotta convince some one in charge to buy it for me!

Thing 4: Edublogging and Me

I've always felt lucky to have worked in schools where teachers are really working to collaborate and help each other become better teachers. As I read over several blogs in the "EduBlogosphere," I was struck by the fact that teacher collaboration really has no boundaries any more. Through blog posts, comments and links, one teacher's great idea can travel around the world in a very short amount of time. Although, it isn't just cool lesson plans that are spreading, but entire educational philosophies. I really enjoy reading the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Her post called Spies Like Us was not only fascinating but very insightful. It is true that I have 30 students in my class every period with technology in their hands and pockets that have incredible abilities. I have long though that we are fighting a losing battle with cellphones. Students are experts at stealth texting, chatting and surfing on their phones. I think we need to accept the reality that cellphones are ubiquitous and here to stay. Once we admit to the truth, we can revise our AUP to include cellphone and mobile internet devices. Then we can figure our how to use these cellphones to our advantage.

Thing 2: Web 2.0 and Me

Web 2.0 makes the future of education exciting, adventurous and even slightly dangerous. Web 2.0 isn’t static and controllable, It is dynamic and independent. I think that blogs, wikis, discussion boards, and even cell phones are all technologies that can be used in teaching to make it more engaging and rewarding to the students. As Marc Prensky writes in his article, Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives, today’s students are digital natives, and they aren’t going to be impressed by the PowerPoint technologies used by us digital immigrants. They don’t want to just consume content, they want to create it.

As for myself, I have been using Web2.0 technologies for a while and I didn't even realize it. I am on facebook, I have a personal blog, and I use the Google RSS reader. I haven't gotten into Twitter yet, but I think that is partly because the digital immigrant in me still doesn't get the point. However, I can see how social networking has really changed our society. I recently commented to my husband how odd it is to me to think that our daughter will grow up and never lose contact with her school friends. Sites like Facebook will always keep them connected. Fortunately, MISD has begun to give some great web 2.0 tools for us to use in our classrooms. I'm taking a Moodle class this summer so that I can easily use wikis, discussion boards, blogs and more in my classroom. I also plan to use google apps as well.

Thing 1: Lifelong Learning and Me

I have to say that I have always considered myself a natural lifelong learner. I even felt this way when I was young. I don't remember the age, but I remember my Dad and I somehow came into the possession of a chess board. Neither of us really knew more that the basic moves, but we liked playing together. Then my mom got the two of us an electronic chess game and we became obsessed with beating it. We went to the library,checked out books and began to learn about the strategies of playing chess. Eventually we got good enough that we could both beat the game. I lost interest as I got older, but the knowledge that I could learn anything I wanted to if I just took the time stayed with me. The 23 things course that iIam taking through the district definitely fits in my current lifelong learning path. I am currently working on my Educational Technology Leadership masters degree. I truly believe that incorporating technology in the classroom isn't just a nice idea, it is a necessity.

23 Things

As a brief FYI, I am starting this blog as a part of the 23 Things course I am taking through MISD. It is a course designed to teach us about emerging web 2.0 technologies. As we explore the various technologies, we are supposed to blog about our experiences. However, I am hoping that I will be able to keep up the habit and continue to post about my experiences using the technology in the classroom even after the course is over.