Google Company

THE DAILY DISH BY ANDREW SULLIVAN
In Google We Trust?
JAN 29, 2009 09:55P.M.
Felix Salmon wonders what would happen if Google ran aground:
Google is too big to fail. If Google went down tomorrow, the
loss of $100 billion in stock-market value would only be the
tip of the iceberg in terms of the total economic loss
associated with such an event. Between AdSense and
AdWords, Gmail and Blogger, Google Docs and Google News,
the company has built itself into an indispensable
counterparty which would take many years and hundreds of
billions of dollars to replace.

Facebook / Animoto

So I finally heard back from my stepdaughter about Facebook, and I am actually surprised that for such a young person (14) she is pretty intellingent about what she should and should not put on her profile. She mentioned how it is great to keep in touch with friends, but some parents should monitor what their kids are doing so that they don't talk to people they don't know. She also made a comment about not putting on personal information for all to see.

I think animoto is pretty cool. I haven't quite figured out how I would use it in science class, but as a coach I think it is great for an end of season banquet.

Teens and Facebook

I was able to pick the brains of my homerooom class today about Facebook. Most of my students actually preferred MySpace to Facebook. The students that preferred Facebook said that it is because the other students haven't figured it out yet (it's newer). I think they may be right. The points that were made about Facebook:

• organized
• professional looking
• "less pedophiles"
• feel safer/easier to block things and make it private
• parent prefers facebook...less virus to the computer. (again, newer???)

They use their myspace and facebook for talking to friends, using it like a pen pal, for family far away, etc. and they use it EVERY day!

They were really excited about the topic....they could have had a debate right then and there! Funny really!

I personally do not know that I would use this site in a classroom....I cannot think of a way to do that. I also do not really see the point of having a Facebook account in the first place. I guess to find friends that I haven't seen in awhile, but that would be about it....

RSS feeds, smilebox, voicethread, and animoto

I have found some great things on my google reader so far. I have not had a chance to go through many of the articles but from what I have gone through so far I am impressed. I have subscribed to the Highlights magazine just for teachers feed. This feed provides great lesson ideas. Some go along with a theme such as an upcoming holiday or like great lessons to go along with Black History Month. I also like that I can view the blogs that I am following in the Google reader. It is easier for me to read them because of the format.

I would definitely use Smilebox, Voicethread, and Animoto in my classroom. Smilebox and Animoto would provide great ways for students to document things that happen throughout the year. I could see using voicethread for a variety of subjects and projects. It would be great for students who have problems getting up in front of the class to give a presentation. It would also be a great tool to incorporate into guided reading lessons.

Animoto and Voice Thread

I'm pretty excited to start using voice thread in my classroom. I think this would be a great way for students to showcase some of their writing and have other students be able to respond verbally in a meaningful way. Digital Storytelling is something I have wanted to do in my classroom for a long time and I think by using voice thread it could be possible.

Animoto is great. In the near future I plan to use it for my wedding video. Some photographers want you to spend hundreds of dollars...why would I do that when I can have animoto do it for me for free!

I've learned a lot in this class; many things I will put to use in my classroom but also my personal life. Thanks for everything Chris and Deb!

Animoto

I really enjoyed working with animoto. As a coach this could be an ideal tool to use to video tape the athletes and have them evaluate themselves. Every athlete loves listening to music, what better way to keep them interested. Also, at the end of the year banquet I will show a video of the whole season and the parents would have an opportunity to see their son working hard. What better way to end a season.

Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VoiceThread, Smilebox, and Animoto

Voice thread seems very advanced. However after seeing how it was used with younger students, I am convinced it is possible. NOW I just have to figure out how I would use it in my class! I am thinking it might be possible to offer the use of voice thread as an option for a project. When students do bulletins or posters as options, I could add in voicethread as another alternative (of course I would have to work up a rubric and figure out how to introduce the concept in gereral too...not sure how yet).

Animoto is cool! I like the idea of using it when I introduce new topics. Maybe get them interested by creating one myself and showing it to start off a unit. OR they could create one to review...quiz each other if there are topics that incorporate picutures (i.e. learning the different tools we use in science, processes for mitosis, Newtons laws in practice, etc.). Still vague on how I would incorporate it and have everyone involved.....

I will definitely utilize this tool myself!

Smilebox! I can see how this could also be used to create projects. When students are asked to create collages on Newton's laws....smilebox instead of cut and paste????

Voice Thread & Facebook

Well...Facebook. I'm not down at all. Kids tell me too much information already due to my character, I try to stay clear of it. I've had students and still have students who have told me personally that if I was on faceboard and I quote, "oooo it would be bad." My lady friend uses Facebook and believes that it is nice to reunite with some people, but doesn't really want to know everyone's actions. After all, all your friends in Facebook are usually already in your email contacts. To each his own.
Voicethread. I imagine students completing a Great Depression portfolio and speaking about the pictures. They could pretend they FDR's presenting a "fireside chat" on voicethread, a first person account of a farmer moving West, or a business owner resorting to breadlines. The possibilities are endless. During black history month, which is now.. you could collect pictures of famous civil rights leaders. Very unique and high interest, big time.

Animoto

Facebook, A Great Personal Tool

Facebook is an excellent tool for personal use. I don't if it could be used in the classroom though. If anyone has any ideas on how to use this in the classroom please let me know.

Most teens use facebook to keep in touch with their friends and to share their emotions and feelings. Most of the teens like to use it for chat as well!

Paul Welch

Animoto, Voice Thread, Smilebox

Animoto would be cool to use to display field trips, compose an end of the year footage of events,and personal usage (ie weddings, children, etc). Voice Thread I really didn't get to play around with and honestly put off if it costs something. Smilebox is fun to make e-cards and lets you know when someone viewed it. In the classroom you could use the postcard setting and use pictures to show beginning of the year photo and end of the year photo for "before and after" or showing an experiment. They also have a slide show setting you could use for the same ideas in animoto. Fun tools to play around with:)

Farewell........

I really thought the Animoto idea is cool, and once I practice uploading pictures, this is definitely something I would like to master. Again, should I ever get my own classroom, having kids make animotos to enhance the theme of a novel, show characterization, and things like that - with them using their own pictures - would show some real understanding and application of skills. Voicethread is awesome, too, and that could be used in the same context.

Thanks for sharing all your ideas. Interesting how so many different people can come up with so many different ideas for these Web 2.o tools!

diigo vs. delicious

I liked diigo better because of the ability to highlight. Delicious was a little overwhelming.

Oh Happy Day...at least for now!

happy day
Originally uploaded by Special_K15

So I thought I knew a lot about different web apps, but it's nice to learn even more. I must be getting old because sometimes it scares me a little knowing things are out there for anyone to see!

I used picnic for this, but admit that I really like fotoflexor better

Animoto and Smilebox

I was able to get both a smilebox and animoto done tonight. I want to spend more time on them before I decide how I'll use it in my classroom.

I wish to thank both Deb & CHris for their instruction and good luck everyone with the new semester.

Judy

Animoto, Voicethread, Smilebox

Looking and using all of these sites, they are all pretty nice. I think it depends on what you want to do with them. They are different, but could all be used in some way in the classroom. I think I will use animoto to introduce some social studies lessons. What a great tool!

Paul Welch

Dimdim...Imagine the Possibilities!

Web meetings, or web classes! I think Dimdim has huge possibilities. It would be so cool if I would set up my SMART board with Dimdim, and have a friend at another school do the same in his classroom. We could essentially team-teach a class in two classrooms in different locations collaborating everyone--teachers and students. WOW! I need to try this now!

Fotoflexer changes

I really like fotoflexer. I loved that fact that I could change the image of a picture and in this case, I turned a picture into animation. I think my students will love changing and recreating photos.

Facebook

I did not like facebook, it would not let me invite people. This is what it said, "The invitations below were not sent due to errors."

OK...........I set up a Facebook...kind of....I did a Smilebox.....but it is WEIRD!

Follow Discovery Streaming

In December, I took the Discovery Streaming class and loved it! I have used it in my classroom and the students have really enjoyed it. So I decided to follow two blogs from the DE site. Check them out:

http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FAssessment
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/assessment

http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FDEN-digitalpassports
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/digital_passports

Check these out for DE streaming ideas and more!

Paul Welch

Animoto

I made an Animoto blip and as an athletic director, it would be a great tool to reflect on teams and their season. It would really be great for coaches to set up have this feature for end of the season banquet. Many times parents email me photos and I can rearrange the photos in a sequence with music. Coaches and student-athletes can reflect on games, practices or events while a theme song or song of choice is going on.

Katie's Smilebox

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Katie's Smilebox

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Hale Track at State

Make a Smilebox greeting

Smilebox was alot of fun. The problem is not when the students are in class, what are they doing at home without supervision. Trouble, trouble, trouble.

My head is spinning trying to figure out everything

Cathy"s Smile Box creation

Make a Smilebox greeting

last class

Facebook is very interesting. I connected with a grade school friend of my brothers who lives in france as well as high school aquaintences. I am surprised how many people have lots of pictures of them selves and their families posted. I think this is TMI. I get emails letting me know who wants to be a friend. This is very distracting and eerily enticing. Not a thing to be doing at work. I can see how this would suck a huge amount of time from your day. I am excited about the connnections that I made, though.

I would like to have a classroom blog for student to reflect upon what they are learning and need to clarify.

Flickr locked up on me.

Many teens I talked to did not like Facebook. They did it for a while and then said it was dumb. Others really like myspace instead. Many said their parents don't let them.

Delicious Rocks!

For years I have been struggling with how to coordinate bookmarks on several of the PCs I use. I usually export the bookmarks from Firefox on one computer, and then import them into the browser on another computer. What a hassle! Those days are gone. Delicious takes all that away by simply importing them, tagging them, and using them. The Delicious Add-on for Firefox was a breeze to install and use. I have found a super easy way to keep track of all my sites. I have not yet made my bookmarks public. I'm not sure I want to. Maybe later.

Facebook

The student I spoke to said he uses as a way to invite friends to parties (trouble) and also just keeping up to all the gossip in school ( Isn't high school so much fun). I personally like the ability tag all your friends and share it with other people.

Smilebox 2

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Facebook

In talking to students about their use of Facebook it turns out that most of them use it for purely social reasons. I think some of the most interesting uses are to connect with individuals with like interests. Through MySpace I became aware of the Hip Hop Chess Federation.

http://hiphopchessfederation.org/

This group of promotes cultural understanding by bringing together individuals who are interested in chess, martial arts and hip hop music. Prior to linking to individuals in MySpace I would never have guessed that such a group might exist. Once you find an individual with an interest you can easily find others who have the same interests. Your connections to individuals can expand very quickly.

Powerful yet scary.

Jeff

Facebook "Interview with a Teen"

The following conversation is from a facebook chat that happened moments ago with a former student who is a college freshman:

4:35pmMike
i like the facebook chat feature that allows me to talk to you like this
4:36pmBill
cool
I didn't know anybody uses this feature.
It's a lot like the old AIM
4:37pmMike
haha yes it is!
4:37pmBill
Do you chat with lots of other folks or just write on their walls?
Mike
I use this chat a lot more often than writing on other peoples' walls
I usually only write on the wall if someone writes on mine first
Or if it is someone's birthday
as I see yours is on
Thursday
4:39pmBill
What about the What are you doing right now? part...use it much? It seems like it's very similar to Twitter.
4:40pmMike
yeah i use that sometimes
a lot of people use that
4:43pmBill
for sure!
So this chat thing...can you include more people if you want to?
4:44pmMike
you could talk to more people if you wanted, but say if you, me, and mrs were all on we would not be able to have a 3 way conversation
4:45pmBill
So you have to have separate chats for each person.
4:45pmMike
Yes
4:45pmBill
ok...too bad
4:45pmMike
it is pretty much the facebook version of aim
Bill
sounds like AIM was a bit more advanced
4:46pmMike
think so?
4:46pmBill
I remember that we could have 4 or 5 different people altogether in a chat with AIM
Mike
o yeah thats right
i forgot all about that
4:47pmBill
Great talking wtih you. I should get back to class. I'm actually doing my homework right now in class, but now I have something to blog about!
Thanks for responding so quickly!

RSS

RSS is a very useful tool that I have not been aware. While I do not spend a lot of time surfing the net there are a few sites that I go to often. To have the information come to me instead of going to the various sites is a great time saver.

The sites that are most helpful are the ones where there are not a large number of changes. If a change occurs only once a week or intermitently RSS saves logging by notifying you when there has been a change.

Jeff

I would like to create a smile box with photos from Franklin and then post it for the kids to view.
I think showing the kids during their computer time might get them to our web page and hopefully to selected links from each teacher.

We also had the building spelling bee and I hope to make a wordle for the student who is advancing to the district level.

Facebook doesn't interest me. I rather be face to face and have emotion as part of the conversation. My kids find that they need to be careful with what is posted and who is looking.

Social Bookmarking & iGoogle Apps

After talking with some of my colleagues, it seems as though Diigo is a better site for what I would use it for. I like the highlight feature of diigo. It was also noted that post its could be applied, but I am still trying to figure out how to do that.

I can't belived how many different iGoogle applications there are. It seemed as though if there was something I was looking for, there it was. A tool that I can use and apply to my classes is a moles/atoms converter. This would help me see very quickly if an answer to a problem is correct or incorrect

Skype

Skype is essentially internet communication tool that can transmit audio, video and text in the form of messages and or messaging.

The educaitonal uses could allow for a Web 2.0 pen pal. Cultural exchange with others from across the state, country or the world. It could be used to allow an individual to log in from a remote location so that they could participate from a distance in a lesson when they could not otherwise be present.

Jeff

Science Blog

For the science nerds out there ~ come on, you know you are at least a little bit! This site is pretty helpful with science at all levels. Not only are there great things on the blog, but a search of the site will result in lots of great information you can use in the classroom.
http://www.stevespangler.com/

Skype and DimDim

Both Skype and DimDim would be interesting to have a book talk with another school or group of kids. Maybe it could even work with a higher reading group. They could skype with another group of students, reading the same book, in a different school (even in the district).

This is also something I am going to try using personally. This would be great for communicating with grandparents who live far away. This beats the random webcam while talking on the phone combination. Anthony, my son, would love this! We just got a new laptop with a built-in mic and webcam. A great toy for trying all of this.

Paul Welch

I set up a Delicious account for bookmarking, but I'm not sure if I did it correctly. It says I have things in it, but I haven't been able to retreive them..........techno idiot strikes again........I think this would be a valuable personal and professional tool - it would be very helpful for me since I have to visit several sites for our yearbook, and I have listed sites that I found helpful if I need to search for last minute activities when a teacher I'm subbing for has left no plans! I have earmarked sites at home on my computer under "My Favorites", but I sure can see that a bookmarking site would help me access this stuff anytime, anywhere...you never know when you might need to see what last minute vacations are out there that you can't afford!! :) I didn't like Diigo.


Facebook. I do NOT want to set up an account. All the kids I've talked to use this for their social lives, and that's fine for them. Some use it to find parties, and some admitted that it's a way to find out if alcohol will be available, or if no parents will be on site. I did try to make that a teaching moment, but most of the kids thought I was hopelessly outdated. As someone else said on this blog, sometimes some things are better left for a particular generation, and I think this is one of them. Anything in my social or personal life I will share with those who I want to know it, and preferably through contact with the human voice on a telephone.

I did try to use Smilebox, but I don't think that worked, either, so at this time I can't comment on it, although it would be a fun thing to use to send special occasion greetings to my yearbook staff.

Thoughts on Facebook

I have gone back in forth in my head over to Facebook or not to Facebook. Here is what I have come to conclude. I think that Facebook has great networking possibilities for educators. It has great features and a lot of the other web 2.0 sites that we have learned about in class are easily compatible. I was also impressed with the security choices that it offers.

I do believe that this is a good tool to use in the classroom, however. Many of the students may already have an account at home but I believe that no matter how well a teacher teaches students how to appropriately use social networking tool there will always be students who misuse them, especially if there is not adequate parental supervision at home. I think that it would be different if the students were only able to use it at school.

My other issue is that most of my friends from high school and college are avid Facebook users and many are still in the "college mindset". Facebook can be great for catching up with old friends but I would rather separate my personal and professional networking.

After talking to a teen about how he uses Facebook I have learned that there are a few features that he likes. The thing that he likes the most is being able to keep in touch with his friends even if he know that they are not able to be reached via cell phone. He can post to someone's wall and know that they will check it and get back to him. He also likes that he can share pictures with his friends and keep up with what is going on at the school. When asked if that meant the school "gossip" he replied,"I don't gossip. That is for all of the crazy girls. I just "catch up" with my friends." (To me it is still gossip no matter what you call it ;)) I asked how long he typically spends a day on Facebook and I was surprised to hear that he only spends about an hour or less. I guess he is just quick at "catching up".

Delicious is easy to use

I have been using Delicious as my social bookmark site.

I have found that it is easy enough to use but not sure how practical it is for me. I do not spend a great deal of time surfing the net and typically only have a few sites I visit. If I had many more it might be very useful for organizing.

I will need to explore the use of other peoples sites. It might be a good resorce for finding books and authors that might be topical and of interest.

Jeff

EduBlog

Hey all, you might want to check out http://gastondigital.edublogs.org

This blog has a variety of educational oriented Web 2.0 and educational blogs.

Good Luck

Jeff

Smilebox

It worked.

Make a Smilebox postcard

This was a night from HE double hockey sticks. I thought no way can (4) 7 year olds be a problem for sleeping over. Well it was a problem. Once they fell asleep at 1:00AM it was peaceful until 6:00AM. Once 10:00AM came around and the other 3 left, naps were inforced for all household members.

Smilebox

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Smilebox Birthday Greeting

Make a Smilebox postcard

Here's my Smilebox birthday greeting going out to my brother-in-law who lives in Anchorage. We both share a birthday on Thursday.

I'm not a big fan of Smilebox for several reasons. I had to download an .exe file in order to use Smilebox. I really have an aversion for downloading software like this. I also could not send my Smilebox project without the ads surrounding it unless I purchase a subscription to Smilebox. I don't think I'll use Smilebox for personal or educational reasons.

Great blogs to follow

It took my a while to search for blogs to follow because there were so many good ones. I have found three that I think are awesome and worth checking out for yourself.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com

21st Century Learning
http://21centurylearning.typepad.com/blog
*This blog has great ideas for how to incorporate technology and 21st century skills into your classroom.

Urban Science Adventures
http://urban-science.blogspot.com
*This blog includes great ways to incorporate environmental issues and lessons into your classroom. (Great for all grade levels.)

I really like the options that all of the photo sites offer. I did find that flickr is a little hard to use but I think that after I explore more of the site I may like it more. I really like picnik for photo editing. I used to use a program called PhotoDraw for all of my editing but it is not compatible with the Vista software on my new computer. Picnik does mostly the same things as PhotoDraw and I can use it where ever I go. I have edited two photos using Picnik which I have included below.

I am working on my smilebox project at the moment and I really like the projects that the site offers. It would be a great way for students to present projects or to create classroom photo projects. The one thing that I did not like was that the program automatically accessed my iPhoto and iTunes libraries and all of my photos popped up along the side of my screen before I knew what was happening. There was no prompt for me to accept or reject this so I was a little upset. I am not sure if this is something that is just set up for Mac computers but it is something to watch out for.

Hi Everyone! This is my enhanced photo of our frizzle chicken, Zsa Zsa. The original photo had my daughter in it too, so I cropped her out and enhanced the picture by intensifying colors and shading so now she doesn't look so washed. She is a pretty chicken but the "diva" of our flock. She came to us from the Dane Co. Humane Soc. in December. She was a stray, you can have chickens in your backyard in Madison, and was found outside of Madison West H. S. No one claimed her so she joins 2 other chickens we got from DCHS where our daughter works; Helen came to us in May as a 8 week old chick and only has one functioning leg and Carol came to us right before Christmas and she was a stray and was found at the DeForest truck stop. They think she fell off a chicken truck on her way to slaughter since she was debeaked. She is very sweet and it's nice no one told them that they are not supposed to lay in winter!

Facebook

I did not know what I was doing when I signed up. I clicked on my entire address book to be my friend and all these people were emailing me back with many different comments about facebook. Some were laughing at me for being a part of facebook and some were adding me to their facebook friends. I think it will be nice to share pictures of my family and stay in touch with friends. My teenage stepson doesn't use facebook he likes my space better because his friends use my space.

Google reader

It is great because you can get all your favorite reading in one place. I have my triathlon, running, and coaching articles in one handy place.

blog

I found this blog using google reader, and I am constantly searching for new and interesting activities to do with the smart board, so this just narrows down my search time and really makes life easier. I can see, in the future, how much time this will save me on my computer searches. Time wasted is one of my problems with a computer and this tool I feel will be really helpful.

cool tools

Last year, I lost all of my favorites, and when I came back to school in August I was very upset. It took me a long time to find great sites that I felt comfortable using and then they were gone. It takes me ages to navigate on line which is why I was so angry that everything I really liked was gone. Delicious however is going to take the fear out of ending the school year. I think that this site is important for all educators to access. It's so important that Katie did a demonstration of Delicious today at our staff meeting. The teachers were every excited and I was excited too, because I felt that I knew how to use it, because of the class. My problem with learning new "technology" is the fact that I process very slow and I need to do something multiple times before I feel comfortable with it. Also, I am feeling more comfortable with my iGoogle page. I have maps and weather on this page that I frequently have checked out in the past few weeks. I have to admit that my students were quite impressed with me, as I showed them how to change the page and add different application to it. That is one of the most fun things about this class for me, being able to share my new learning with my students.

other fun tools

I presented delicious today to our staff. With the reimaging last summer everyone lost their favorites and this is a life saver! I prefer delicious over diigo just because I don't feel the need to highlight or make comments on various sites.

Smilebox is really nice for kids to make collages of various classroom activities. Learning about these web 2.0 tools that are out there for use with digital pictures makes me wish I could hire a photographer full time in my classroom to capture all of the great moments. I may even consider using it for a wedding photos with my upcoming wedding.

As for Facebook, I am part of the Facebook generation. It was first 'out' my last year of college so I have been on it ever since. I think it is the greatest thing. I keep in contact with more people than I would have ever imagined and get to see some of their greatest lifes moments when they upload pictures. I agree that at a certain age Facebook may not be for you. Facebook would not be something that I would use with elementary students. For personal purposes though I love it!

Google and Blogging

I have fallen in love with google. I never realized that there was more to offer than just the search engine! On my google home page I enjoy getting a new recipe everyday and the weather watch that I have up is nice too.

Google reader has become so addicting and so helpful. I have a smartboard in my classroom and have found numerous great blogs to follow with ideas and great websites to use with the smartboard. I'm not ashamed to say I also am a subscriber now to US weekly and get the lastest gossip news...I don't really even need the magazine anymore!

http://smartboards.typepad.com/ This is the smarboard blog I've been following and have had a lot of great ideas everyday to use. Almost too many to keep up with!

Google Reader, Animoto and Facebook

I chose mostly educational blogs on my Google Reader page. We have talked about how to keep up with technology and blogs are a great place to do this. I also am a news junkie, so it is nice to have an RSS feed for the New York Times. I have been using Animoto this year on our school's front page of our webpage. I try to have a new Animoto up every 6 weeks on a school event. We are planning to have the 5th graders use Animoto to create their 5th grade graduation video this year. This has been a project done by 5th grade teachers in the past and we are going to turn it over to the students this year. Smilebox is a fun way to put together pictures from a field trip or school event. It was faster to use than Animoto. I am not convinced that Facebook is for me. I know the power of it for younger people. I have two college age daughters and I know how much of their social life happens on Facebook. They like it to invite friends to events, to write quick messages on people's walls and to keep up on gossip with friends they don't see regularly. They both told me they would not friend me. It is like giving your mother you diary to read. I just read an article in the newspaper about whether you can be too old for a Facebook and I agree with the author that some things need to be left for younger people. I like working with photos on the sites like Fotoflexer and have included a photo of my daughters that I turned into a cartoon.

Animoto Clip

Animoto is very fun. I wish I could make a full length piece! Visit my classroom blog and scroll to the very bottom to see it: http://stjacobi5.blogspot.com/. I can see students using Animoto to create video clips for presentations. I signed up for the Animoto for Education account, so I'll be very excited to get that underway.

Voki 2

Maybe now it will work http://www.voki.com/mywebsite.php

Voki

I was able to finish a voki at home. It did not work for me at school. I hope it works. http://www.voki.com/create.php This is the first time I have copied and pasted anything that has worked for me. I believe it will work.

The wonderful world of web 2.0

After sitting down and playing with all the tools in web 2.0 today, I can see how nobody would want to leave their chair. There is so much information I do not know how people actually have the time. With work and sleep = 16/24 hours is web 2.0 part of socializing with friends??? Maybe doing hobbies??? Education on the web??? Since January 6th, I have slowly put my hands on my head to keep it from spinning and I feel I can use these web tools in my home, work and socail time. Thanks Chris and Deb for the class, I am sure I will blog you in the future.

delicious or diigo

Once I played with both of them I found delicious to be user friendly. I could not find how to save as a favorite like diigo, but it seemed to be better for me.

Picnik

I really liked using Picnik. Fotoflexer is very similar but I've used Picnik in the past and have just become more accustomed to using it. I think it would be great to use this with students. They could take pictures from a fieldtrip and each be assigned one to edit and then we could compose a classroom book of the fieldtrip.

VoiceThread

I made a VoiceThread showing some of the effects of FotoFlexer, the "World's Most Online Photo Editor". You can view the VoiceThread and add your own comments at http://voicethread.com/share/324373/. Please check it out!

social bookmarking account

I know I made a social bookmarking account, but I do not know how to retrieve it. Is there some sort of icon, logo, or ??? to retrieve it. I need to keep up with the wonderful world of pro sports. Can anyone help me?

lava flow

lava flow
Originally uploaded by crmax

This is my first attempt at blogging from flickr...hope it works....we'll see! Anyway this is a picture from a bus tour I took in Hawaii in 2007. The lava flows were right up to the road as you can see from the photo. I was truly amazed and awstruck.

I have edited this picture to enhance the color....too cool. I used flickr and then picnik to edit.

Pandora

I finally went to all the 6 music sites and I really like Pandora the best. It keeps track of all my stations and it was user friendly.

Voice Thread - Colorado Style

http://voicethread.com/share/324315/

Skype

I think it might be neat to incorporate Skype into a science classroom by having students around the country collect data of some sort. For example if students are testing water around the country they could compile their data for an even more plentiful analysis....might be neat!

Guiter Heros

It took me forever to figure out magmypic, but I had 2 rockers to help out.

Google Reader

Cool again! One of the articles that I read from my Google Reader I was able to bookmark AND automatically twitter about....starting to fall into place. Here is the website for the rubrics
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php. Maybe some of you were already aware of it, but thought I'd share anyway.

blogger and google reader

Cool! Google Reader automatically follows the blog for class! I didn't even have to subscribe....

Good Night

Good Night
Originally uploaded by swanny09

I feel like this when it comes to playing around with these tools. (By the way this is my daughter Madelyn) Some of its fun like manipulating pics and finding people on facebook that you haven't seen since high school but than trying to embed or upload things are not so easy. I tried to get a wigit for my profile pic but I think its floating out in space because it didn't work. I like the fact that you have control of who visits your facebook but scary you can say just about anything. How to use in the classroom, I DON'T know. I used SmileBox for sending out Christmas e-cards with my daughter's picture, it was easy and cute! I also checked out streaming.discoveryeducation.com but it requires a districts code to get into anything, any suggestions? Some of it was available while most wasn't updated.

I'll Try Again

Had just finished my blog entries and wouldn't you know it - my computer froze! So here I go again.

I prefer Pandora over the other music sites because I feel it's easier to use. I plan to try using it as background music with my new general music students that I am getting this week. I really like my iGoogle page because I can personalize it. I enjoy having my calendar, weather and clock and also the inspirational quote and horse photos to greet me everytime I open the page. I read the following wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guitar&action=edit about the history of the guitar and will use it for my next general muic class. I like Delicious better than Diigo - again personal preference in that it was easier for me. I asked one of my students about facebook and was told she normally uses to keep in touch with friends at school and elsewhere and share what they're doing and to share photos.

An update for those who asked; the well is working! It took our well company 2 calls, but so far so good!

See you Tuesday!
Judy

My Voki

Get a Voki now!

Catch Up Work

Used fotoflexer to create a memory of a blowout Packer victory over da Bears.
While investigating DimDim, I learned that this service offers an alternative option to the traditional classroom. This could be effective for a student who needs an alternative placement to obtain an education. A neutral site placement teacher could use this type of interactivity for a core curricular class. I wonder what places like WIVA and the WI IQ ACADEMY use as their interactive software? Similar I would guess. DimDim's features seem endless. The lazer and zoom functions are clutch, the locking feature reminds me of SMARTBoard technologies, and the powerpoint and whiteboard would be used constantly.
Cool stuff on Google Reader. Easy access to blog sites and wikis. Fresh topics daily on your interests. For anyone that needs a fair computer IT guy follow P Thomas on google reader. He is a friend so we have been sharing information on Reader for about a year. Some others to mention are ReadWriteWeb, Webblogged, Mashable! I learned that Gmail chat has a new feature. You can add a video link in a chat message and a preview of the video plays. Then a full version with a click. Dynamite.

Smilebox Project

This is a Smilebox of a family trip to Ireland in 2006. We are glad we went before our retirement money disappeared.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Devils Tower

Devils Tower
Originally uploaded by lonnie_heller

You have to see it to believe it!!

Checklist of assignments for students taking class for credit

Hi Everyone!

Debbie and I just wanted to be sure that all of you know what we are looking at when we are grading you. I am including the checklist that we will be using.

Checklist for Web 2.0 Tools:

Attendance

Blog Entries (This is including the required info that Debbie posted in our blog last week)

Registered for a Favorite Music Site

Design personal iGoogle Page with Gadgets

Google Notebook with Usernames and Passwords for various accounts registered for

Google Calendar with dates of classes included

Name of Wiki or Blog that you have chosen to follow

Delicious or Diigo? Which one do you like using best?

Create one Voki

Create one Wordle

Create a Twitter Account and a send one Tweet

Set Up Google Reader and have at least one subscription

Create Flickr account with 3 photos

Add an edited photo on blog

VoiceThread - We will do a group VoiceThread together in class on Tuesday. This will count as the one for your grade. If you've already done one, or choose to do another in class on Tuesday, that's great, but the one we do together will be all you need.

Animoto - We will do a group Animoto together in class on Tuesday. This will count as the one for your grade. If you've already done one, or choose to do another in class on Tuesday, that's great, but the one we do together will be all you need.

Create a Facebook Account

Give a 3 - 4 Minute presentation to class about how you plan to use one of the Web 2.0 ideas in a lesson

If you have any other questions about this or anything else we are doing in class, please be sure to ask. Have a great weekend!

Chris

maddy 6 mo

maddy 6 mo
Originally uploaded by swanny09

Brain overload

I really do feel like I am on brain overload. To be very frank, I don't enjoy computers, and while it is really interesting to see what's out there and get at least a taste of things in Web 2.0, in my "free" time, I'd so much rather read a book or work on my hobbies! But I do know this is the way of the world, so I am making the best attempts I can, and I have found some things I do like. As a high school building sub, a lot of these things aren't too applicable in my day to day jobs, as I follow the directions teachers give me, but then again, things like the music sites could easily be utilized.

In those sites I've looked at, I preferred Pandora because it seemed to me to be the easiest one to work with. I could see playing some music to enhance a lesson, or use it as a reward after a lesson is completed or as soft background music during a readng time (but MY choice of music - ha ha ha!)

With my certification and past experience in English, I did find a blog that I have enjoyed, Two Writing Teachers. There have been many useful ideas and creative efforts that I have tucked away for the future, should I be lucky enough to get another long term English sub job like I had first quarter. If you do writing with your kids, check it out. Many of the ideas presented are easily adaptable to different grade levels. How cool it would be to set up a classroom blog!

At this point in time, I really have no use for Skype or DimDim either personally or professionally. Now should my daughter really move to Florida like she's thinking, I think that will be revisited!

Google reader is interesting, and I plan on making use of that. The blog I mentioned earlier feeds into it, so I'm always up to date with those writing ideas without having to actually search the blog to see the latest entries. What I REALLY like is the stream of new recipes that are coming in from Taste of Home. I love to bake and cook, and that is cool. I'm going to be putting in several more sites like that. What's neat is that I can only get recipes in certain categories, so I'm not being overwhelmed with a zillion things I don't really want. Other things of personal and professional interest will be finding their way in, as well. If I worked with the same students on a daily basis, I'd encourage them to find things appealing to them and set up such an account for their own use; however, what a valuable tool that could be if they were working on research papers or projects, instead of trying to sift through 119,700,561,432 hits on a subject on the Internet!

It was fun to design the iGoogle page. I have a joke of the day for a laugh, a Bible verse for inspiration, recipes (of course) for contemplation, a virtual aquarium for relaxation, to name some. And since it's relatively easy to get rid of and add new apps, that is a definite bonus. I don't know - it makes cyberspace a little more personal.

One thing I really don't care for is Twitter. As I said, I'm not a computer person, and while I surely can see its value, I'm not the kind of person who checks the computer several times a day (at home, if I turn it on three times a week, it's a lot). But again, I'm glad to know it's there.

Probably one of the most valuable things (thanks again for all your help, Deb) was getting the idea of downloading pix to Flickr, and then having fun with altering them (see my blog entry photo). I don't own a digital camera, but since I am the school's yearbook adviser, I have used our camera to take digital photos, but when it came to putting them on the computer, one of my editors always does it. My pleas for them to teach me how to do that and how to move pix into files, etc., falls on deaf ears, since we're always under deadline pressure. At least now I have somewhat of a clue, so I'll be brave and experiment at school.

I puttered around with Smilebox and the boookmarking sites, but haven't gotten far enough yet to report success. Next week. And I won't tell you yet about my varied opinions of Facebook. I'm not ready to be "out there"...................

Skype and DimDim

Kimberly and I were discussing Skype and/or DimDim being used for independent study/homebound situations. Science lab classes are not necessarily classes that can be taken via NovaNet or other online programs. Therefore, if a teacher could Skype and/or DimDim, the possibilities could be endless.

I am going to have to think some more about how I would use it with 30 students in a science classroom....I am struggling to see a way to use it and not feel as though I am wasting time when there are so many things to cover.

Diigo

Definitely like Diigo. I was able to tag a couple of websites that I currently use in my class. This will be nice to use. As I find sites I can add them. The difficult/tedious part will be putting in websites I already have so they are all in one place finally!

ONE question right now....what is the difference between a tag and a list? I read the blurb they provide to describe the difference and I am still confused.

Diigo HELP Canceled :)

I figured it out (I think)....no need to panic so quickly I guess :)

Diigo HELP

I opened an account for Diigo prior to our class on Tuesday (1/20). I did not realize at that time that I should put the tags at the top of my screen. How do I go back and do that now that I already have an account?

EduBlog

I found a blog site that seems pretty neat...
http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/check-out-these-class-blogs/#Back
You can look at/choose from different categories. I followed a site in Science (Ms. Scott's) and was able to see some ideas and how they Web 2.0 ideas might be used in class. I am still a bit overwhelmed and skeptical, but now that I see how a teacher is using it, I am starting see more and more possibilities every day. So if you are looking for some ideas or maybe just as skeptical as I am about actual application in the classroom, take a look at this site....

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park
Originally uploaded by lonnie_heller

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr vs. Picasa

At this point, I like working with Flickr instead of Picasa. Flickr I could download pictures and Picasa NO CLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey you have to start somewhere.

Aggregating News Stories by Keywords

These directions for using RSS with a specific news search come from Doug Johnson's blog, Blue Skunk:

1. Go to GoogleNews and do the search on your term.
2. When the results come back, look in the left column of the screen. You will find links to RSS and Atom.
3. Click on either (I use RSS), and a page will appear with a URL link that ends in “=rss” or “=atom”
4. Copy and paste that link into your GoogleReader “Add subscription” box.
5. Manage the subscription like you would one to a blog.

This method allows you to retrieve only articles on topics that you are researching.

Picasa surpasses Flickr

I've been using Picasa for nearly a year, so I thought I would give Flickr a try. It took me nearly an hour to upload nine full resolution pictures. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wscharf/) I can upload several hundred reduced resolution pix to my Picasa accounts in that same time. Another huge difference is that Picasa offers a one-click full control slide show to any visitors...not even an option for Flickr. I'm hooked on Picasa!

MagMyPic

I've found MagMyPic is an interesting place to visit. It was pretty easy to use. I'll have to give it some thought about how to integrate it into classroom use--possibly as a take-home project. Here's my MagMyPic. It's one of our cats, Lightning. Let me know what you think. :)

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Twitter search

Hi All,
Kevin Clark, a wonderful technician in the West Allis district, suggests search.twitter.com as a way of finding information on Twitter. Just search some keywords and this site will pull up all the recent tweets that include those words. Kevin is on Twitter too!

onmilwaukee

This is the twitter source for Milwaukee entertainment and dining info. Just do a search for onmilwaukee and you will be able to follow this feed of information.

Google reader

I found google reader to be very helpful with finding your favorite subjects in one area. I typed in running and triathlons in the box and it came up with all kinds of sites I could put in an envelope and bring up later.

Delicious social bookmarking

I am using delicious for bookmarking but I am having difficulty getting the buttons added to my tool bar. This site seems like it will help a great deal with bookmarking which I just learned how to do.

Blog

I found a blog I am interested in and the url is www.triathlontrainingblog.com. It was blocked by the school district but you could get on at home.

Igoogle apps

I like the calendar it seems to be very useful. I have the local weather on my home page along with a dictionary and a translator app which I use to learn Polish. There are so many great apps to choose from to put on your home page but I limited what is on my page.

An Edited Pic From Fotoflexer

This is a picture of my wife Kristen and my son Anthony. I used fotoflexer to do some editing to it. It worked great, I love this site because it works seemlessly with my facebook photos.

I also found diigo.com very easy to work with and have already made a number of lists. This has been very useful information.

Paul Welch

Facebook | Paul Welch

Facebook | Paul Welch

I hope this works!

Google Calendar has great potential for school. The ability to have several people add items to a calendar and then have that calendar available to families who view our website is worth further exploration.

I am wondering if the calendar will update itself when using the districts software?

Jeff B.

I am using Google document to share the basketball scheduling with others in the program.
It is working great! Skype and Dimdim are not anything I can use at this time but I have taken training using the ideas in these sites and it has worked really well.

The reader to may be something I can use in the future. I hope to do event planning with service learning as a basis and can use this site to gather information.

Success!

Wow, this has been great! Wordle has been the most useful in with my classes. I used it as an assessment for the New England Colonies and my students loved it! I have also used it to find the theme and characteristics of some speeches. This has been a great tool. I am having a little trouble figuring out how to use some of the other Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

I am very interested in learning about skype and DimDim.

This is great!

Paul

Web 2.0 Dim Dim

I don't know how to sign up for a meeting or invite people to a meeting. I could not get on twitter at my school.

Online Stopwatch

I used it today in therapy as a motoivational device. It was great, He work very hard until the timer went off and loved receiving his reward for great work!

Skype and Dim Dim

I work in an elementary school and don't see us using Dim Dim as part of the curriculum. It would be great to use for professional development and working with work groups where people might be all over the state. I can see how Skype could be used to connect with experts like scientists who are willing to work with elementary age students. If students have a relative in an exotic location, it would also be fun to talk with them as a class.

survey monkey and dimdim

survey monkey my church used to collect information about the goals for the next 5 years. I also do surveys through Quia.

DimDim would be nice for conferencing in an online course or with a collegue that you can't meet with. Dept meeting? Think of the travel saved!

Michelle

I would use the cue prompter for students giving presentations or needing dialogue for a video. Stop watch for timing groups or activities and screencast-o-matic for making traingin videos.
Skype would be fun to do with my brother and sister in TN and NC. I think it could also be used to communicate with a sister school.

Blog Checklist

Lots of the blogging requirements are in the assignment section of the syllabus. I thought I would do a checklist here so that everyone is sure they have covered the requirements!

• Research the music sites and blog about which one you will choose to use and why.
• Blog about any iGoogle apps that you are finding useful on your new iGoogle homepage.
• Find a wiki or blog to read and introduce it to the class. Be sure to include a link or the url.
• Comment in your blog about whether you are using Diigo or Delicious for your social bookmarking.
• Blog about ways you might use Skype and DimDim in your curriculum.
• Blog about interesting information you found through Google Reader and the rss feed.
• How might you use VoiceThread, Animoto or Smilebox in your classes.
• What are your thoughts about Facebook? What did a teen share with you regarding his/her use of Facebook?

Of course, you haven't done all your blogging yet but we are halfway through the class and want to be sure that you have the whole list of requirements in a format that you can easily check off.

See you in class today!

WOW!

With everything to look through I definitely have to look and then come back to reassess how they could be used both in the classroom and personally. Twitter seems like a great way to connect with friends and relatives, and if when I finally find some teachers closer to my content it would be great to follow what they were doing. I tried the link to see educators on twitter, but found it tedious going through them alphabetically. Is there any way to sort by content?
DimDim would also seem like a great application to either chat with other classes, or even laboratory professors for students to see what higher level science consists of. DimDim also seems like a great way for collaboration among colleagues.

I like and have used survey monkey in the past. It is easy to use, both taking and creating surveys. The stopwatch would be a great tool for lab clean up, group worktime, and switching lab stations.

The screencast-o-matic seems like a fantastic tool in the science room for demonstrations and lab work. I feel though I would need to work with this more in order to mast my skills with it. :)

I must admit with everything I have been looking into i haven't had much time to work with the aggregator. I have played with it a little bit and see great potential not only for resource article for my self, but for differentiated articles I could use in the classroom with students of different reading levels.

The new things we are being exposed to are amazing, while I can't wait to learn more, I must admit sometimes it is is hard not to become overwhelmed. Thats when I decide it's time to close the computer for a little bit.

Skype and DimDim

I just had a chance to play around with skype and dimdim. I have worked with dimdim before and I think that it is a great tool. I thought that it would be neat to use either dimdim or skype to connect with other classrooms. It would be a great way to get feedback on presentations or skits from other students outside the school without actually leaving the classroom. It would also be a great way to study other communities or to have guest speakers. We had a career day last year and many of the speakers ended up not being able to make it because of the travel time. Just think of all of the neat people who could share their information with the class.

Miscellaneous Tools

The CuePrompter would be great to use for presentations to coaches for annual meetings. I really liked the use of a screen rather than note cards. The Online Stopwatch is great for my household rather than work. If my kids do not get their chores done in a certain time, they have to try another chore. My home computer is old and I did not want to chance downloading JAVA to use Screencast-o-matic. And Surveymonkey that funky monkey would be a great tool if I could use it on my website. I did not spend alot of time on the site so if antone knows if it could be used on a different website, please let me know.

Ok, so I was able to set up a twitter acct. and add chris but not deb, I tried a few different ways with no luck. I like the idea of screencastomatic, I see me using it to help with directions for using some of our AT devices that I usually demo on.
Most of my and my Husband's families live in Texas, so I definitely see us trying the Skype.(it will also come in handy for our daughter who's at UWSP.)
Survey monkey might be a great tool for feedback on our inservices that the therapy dept. plans every year and invites outside therapists. The online stopwatch is going to be a great new tool for therapy sessions.

Finishing up week 1

Currently, I'm using StumbleUpon to share articles of interest with a few friends. This is the reason that I preferred to set up Delicious instead of Diigo. This site give you the ability to keep all your bookmarks as long as you have an internet connection. Teachers could literally share bookmarks with students by having them sign up. Probably useful for librarians as well. I've used it a couple times already to find "how to" home improvement projects. Secondly, I decided to sign up for NING because it is more geared towards educators. While browsing Ning in education, I signed up for http://www.classroom20.com There are 16,000 users interested in collaborative technologies and of course web tools 2.0. I've explored smartboards, virtual schools and classrooms, skyping in school, etc. This is an excellent site to stay current with technology. Lastly, all the miscellaneous tools can easily be implemented into the classroom. To me, the stopwatch function will be used more frequently. As a teacher, you can assign specific amounts of time for brainstorming, instruction, peer work, etc. to help your classroom function smoothly from task to task. Other ways may include: speeches, debates, journaling, presentations, etc.

Katie Voki

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Cathy/Voki

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access denied

Cathy and I are trying to create twitter accounts however from here at school access is denied. Any suggestions...besides trying from home of course?

week 2

I was concerned about missing week two of class, but I think I was able to catch up. There were some very interesting sites that I think that I will be able to use in my class, and surprisingly one that I already use. I currently use the Online Stopwatch as a behavior modification when my class is talking and I feel that they are wasting time. I have it saved to my desktop, so I am able to pull it up quickly on my smartboard and get it started. They see the stopwatch come up and instantly stop talking. I love this because I don't have to say a thing. I also use the stop watch during math, when we are time testing math facts. This one little tool as made my life much easier, and this students love using it. I was also really interested in Skype. The thought of communicating with students, on the computer, from around the world is very intriguing. We are teleconferencing this week with a school in India. The thought that the students can continue with this communication really excites me. The Dim Dim site seemed like something that could be used if I could not be in the classroom for an extended period of time. What a great tool to leave with a substitute teacher. Even if I was in the classroom, web conferencing could be fun to do to assess students while they are watching the screen. And lastly, with Dim Dim, if I needed to present at a staff meeting, this could be a very engaging way of communicating with teachers, not to mention the stress it would take off the presentation.

catching up

I missed last week since I was at the New Promise conference in Madison, gaining a lot of new information, but feel a little lost as to the new things we discussed. I tried my best to research the new tools so here's what I've come up with.

I currently use the online-stopwatch in my room for many various things. In particular, to time students for basic math games we do during the week. I also have used similar survey sites as Survey Monkey to gather data about student interest topics to guide my lessons for a particular day. Most recently I did a short lesson on bullying and wanted to get feedback from students on how big of an issue it was at our school. I love sites like survey monkey, something that does the data for you is great especially for someone like me who is starting action research.

As for skype and DimDim...I think these sites would be great for many different things. I think it is a great tool for educators to use during staff development or staff meetings. Wouldn't it be nice to do staff development from home? I also thought this would have been nice during my college years to keep in contact with grandparents or my parents who were very technology savvy. I hope this covers everything!

Delicious and other new tools

I had time to look at the new tools we discussed last week on our cold days. I have used Delicious before, but I like the way Diigo is laid out too. I have taught an 8th grade research class and had the students set up Delicious accounts the first week of the class. I don't use notecards with them, but had them track all of their Internet sources with Delicious. High School teachers have taken it a step farther and had students collaborate on gathering resources for a class project using Delicious. Many districts re-image their computers over the summer and Delicious is a safe place to store your bookmarks for anyplace, anytime access. The fifth grade teacher who is taking this class with me and I were very excited about using the Vokis as a graduation project. We are still working out the details, but we are planning to have 5th graders make them in May this year. I understand Twitter, but I would not find it useful. Last year at the WEMTA conference people were using Twitter to contact each other if they thought a presenter was boring and they would then leave the presentation for something better. That is just electronic rudeness.

Exploration

I decided to sit down this afternoon and spend a good chunk of time exploring some of the sites that we have been talking about in class. There is a lot of neat stuff out there. My brain officially hurts.
Here are some of the conclusions that I have made after my multi-hour exploration into the world of web 2.0.
- I really like diigo as a bookmarking site. It reminds me of a program that I learned about last year that went with the smart board system. This site is awesome because it comes with a toolbar that highlights, adds sticky notes, and comments to any website. This would be great to use for instruction or for students to use when doing research. It would help them to learn how to sort through information and take notes on information that they need.
- I also really liked the online stopwatch and surveymonkey. Last year I did a project with my science students where they had to design a parachute using a variety of materials like wax paper, coffee filters, fabric, and plastic bags. Their goal was to make the parachute that stayed in the air the longest. It turned out to be a great project but because all of my stopwatches malfunctioned I was not able to complete the data analysis portion of the project. The online stopwatch would have been perfect for this project.
- Surveymonkey is awesome as well. I have created my own survey so I am waiting for the results before I explore the website more. This would be a great tool to teach kids about data collection and how to communicate the results. I would like to find out if/how the results could be downloaded into excel to create graphs. That would be a great way to combine a math and science into one lesson.

Cue Prompter and Online Stopwatch

Gosh I should have just waited to blog about all of the different sites at once, but this keeps my thoughts fresh in my mind :)

I do not see the purpose of the cue prompter. If I do presentations, I'm not sure how that would even be set up in my room. Additionally, while it sounds like a cool toy, I would like students NOT to read presentations.

In science there have been many times in which I have needed a stop watch! So glad to finally have found one. Thanks! Can I put that directly on my iGoogle page or somewhere else easy and quick to find?

Diigo and Delicious

I not going to lie....I do not really understand the purpose of either of these. Maybe it can be clarified in class.

pbwiki

I created a pbwiki and added some assignments to it. I can see that this might be better than using the student and staff share files. The students will have access at home. I like that. Additionally, it doesn't seem to cost anything unless you want upgrades of certain kinds? Is that correct? I like pbwiki because you can let only people you invite use it. It seems that when you add your invitees, you can select whether they have the right to edit or only read too.....yeah. If I am understanding it correctly, the students wouldn't be able to mess with the pages????

Blogging Blogging Everywhere

It's crazy how recently you hear about blogging and making money on the news and Today show and we're doing it!! I also heard though the increase in hackers with all this blogging and their advise: change up your passwords, more to remember.
So I too have been having trouble with my voki and the message "error on the page" so I can't do anything with it either. Also, tried dimdim. I created an account and wanted to conference with some friends about a play date but first it was running at a time I didn't say and didn't know what to do and my computer kept blocking me from doing anything. Needless to say it didn't work and later canceled the thing, help! I could find many uses for it though: conferencing with PTA members, school parents, college courses and projects, teachers on a committee, etc. Now I just need to know how to work it.
I twitted a few times too. I find it strange people want to follow people in doing everyday things.
Ideas for Cue prompter: giving class directions as they come in for the morning while your busy doing everything else, kids can use it for skits and speeches. Stopwatch ideas: transitions (ie bathroom break, getting out materials, talking in groups,games) times tests, speeches and/or demonstrations, silent reading, and minutes owed/time-outs. Screencast-o-matic ideas: kids can use for informative writing or demonstrations. Set up as a center or station in rotation for activities to either do or follow.
I look forward to learning more fun things
Stephanie Swanson

Success

Yeah it did work!!! My Voki is alive!!

Voki Frustrations

I love creating vokis but I have found though that when I log into the voki website I can no longer view or edit my existing vokis. Is this happening to anyone else?

I tried to put my voki on the blog but was unsuccessful. I tried going back in and editing my voki but the site won't allow me to. :(

Maybe if I try again later it will magically work. I doubt it, but I like to Be positive.



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BRRRRRRRRRR!!!

WOW - what weather! Our farm well decided to freeze up even though it has a heater on it 24/7, so we've been hauling buckets of water twice a day from the house to the barn for our 9 horses and chickens - NOT FUN! And it's depressing to think that school will probably be going another two days longer in June. But that's Wisconsin!

I was happy that I was able to create a Voki and embed it in the blog and I even emailed to my two children, ages 26 & 29, who know Mom's not too saavy on the computer. I have also experienced "Skyping" when we used Skype to contact my niece, who is teaching in Paris, on Thanksgiving Day. Her parents love it because it's better than just hearing her voice when they can see her too. I joined twitter today and entered my first tweet but could not locate friends because I kept getting the message, "Twitter is stressing out a bit right now, so this feature is temporarily disabled." So hopefully, I can try sometime soon and get through. Dim Dim could be useful for me when planning contest and we can't all be together in the same room. We have had some of our planning time cancelled this year because of the weather and this may be a way in the future that we can get together without worrying about the snow or cold.

Bob just came in and said the tractor has started! Yeah! But the well is still frozen, so I better go now since I have to go fill the buckets in the tub again.

Stay warm!
Judy

Dim Dim and Skype

Those are very interesting tools because of the possibilities. You could set-up a conference and videophone between classrooms in the same school and talk about different subject areas/ topics. Better yet, set them up with different schools all over the USA and other countries. Think about the ability to share information between students and teachers. You wouldn't have to have people come into your school to give presentations, not physically anyway. For example; if you were talking about interviewing for jobs. You could set-up a meeting with different employers and students could ask questions.

Cue Promptor

This would be an excellent tool to use in conjunction with a smartboard. Especially, for the student(s) who have a difficult time getting up in front of class when giving a speech. Turn the whole class away from the smartboard so they don't see what the speaker is reading. Talk of a great way of relieving stress.

My head was really spinning when I got home last night - so much so that after relaxing with finishing a "Star Wars" movie, my nighttime dreams consisted of a new "Star Wars" release where Vokis were fighting Wikis while they Twittered and Tweeted over Pandora, which was the new Death Star..........

I was pleased I was able to create a Voki, which I emailed to my dutifully impressed daughter, but then I couldn't find it again! There is SO much out there, but while I have some confidence on some levels, I am so overwhelmed by everything and feel very humbled by so many of you who know this and/or adapt to this so easily. I'm not looking to make excuses, but I do struggle with that math/technology side of the brain. I must say, though, that it makes me more sympathetic to students to have trouble absorbing thing - and all this exploring is making me see the real need to keep a notebook of user names and passwords!

Voki

I really enjoyed creating a voki last night and I think my French I's would have a lot of fun doing them. The only problem is I still can't get back into the website to see and edit what I made in class. Is anyone else having problems too?

Pam

This week's class 1/13/09

This was a lot of fun today! I compared Delicious and Diigo, and I liked Delicious better because it actually let me create an account. Diigo did not let me, there were some issues. Some these could be very useful in the classroom and some are not very useful for students. I love the fact that these are tools we can use in the classroom and at home!

I will be trying wordle tomorrow. I love it!

Paul Welch

Introduction

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Judy's Voki

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Voki

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My Voki

Who let the dog out

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voki

I spent about 45 min. in class and could not get on voki. So I waisted a lot of time. I am so stressed out.

Snowflakes

Here's a cute little Web 2.0 app that my students love to use on our SMART board: http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/

Michelle T - Voki

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My Voki

I embedded my voki on my classroom blog. You can check it out here.

Michelle

My Wordle

My Voki

This guy doesn't look anything like me, but this is pretty cool!





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Hey everybody from Web 2.0. Guess my background!


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