It's confession time. I created a MySpace account a few years ago with the sole purpose of keeping tabs on a family member's page. I sent her a friend request and she accepted me without knowing who I was. I never lied to her or tried to deceive her in my identity. Eventually she asked who I was and I told her my identity. The things I learned about her online life were shocking. I couldn't believe the things she posted. After about six months, she blocked me but by then I had shared enough of what she was posting with her parents that they couldn't ignore it anymore. Her parents didn't believe me when I told them about the dangers of unsupervised MySpace access for a girl her age (13) and they thought I was exaggerating or reading too much into it, blah blah blah. I finally started printing out different postings and gave them to her parents, along with copies of photos she had posted of herself, etc. Suddenly, it was very very serious. I was really concerned about her getting herself in serious danger and was really frustrated with my relatives, her parents for not wanting to believe that their daughter could really be that naive. I don't want to go into a lot of detail but a lot of changes in that house took place. There was a loss of trust between that girl and I because she felt I had betrayed her. I'm slowly rebuilding that connection because as she gets older, she realizes that I was trying to protect her but it's not the same as it was. I think I need to stop posting about this now. It's starting to get to me.
Took a little break and am feeling better now. I did create a Facebook account but am thinking I'm going to remove that. I just don't want my information out there. It would be fun to try to find old classmates but a lot of my students are also out there and frankly, I don't want them to "friend" me. We had a staff member who really got in hot water for doing that with students. It blurs the adult/child - teacher/student line. I've had friends from college who I found on MySpace tell me that they had searched for me but couldn't find me on MySpace so I guess I have successfully hidden myself there. Facebook is a lot more out in the open and I'm uncomfortable with that.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Thing #19 Pick a Pack a Podcasting
I was introduced to podcasts last summer and was instantly hooked. I think I have subscriptions to about 30 right now and have loaded a few random episodes of others as well. I don't even want to think about how many hours I have to listen to. I'll never catch up but hate to delete any, just in case! It's cyber-packratting?
I subscribe to Grammar Girl, Stash and Burn, They Might Be Giants, and a bunch of literary ones. The best literary one would have to be Disney's Last Minute Book Reports. HILARIOUS! I used one podcast to play Romeo and Juliet for my class. I burned each scene separately on a CD which was really handy to lend to students who had been absent.
I have also taught some students how to make simple podcasts using Garageband - one program that wasn't listed on 23 Things. It's so simple, even my kids can do it. I also have used G Cast, which is very simple and only requires a phone.
I am helping our German teacher to create a walking tour of Germany podcast her students load onto their MP3 players before they take their trip to Germany this summer. Plus, I told her they can use G Cast to record their reactions throughout the trip.
I subscribe to Grammar Girl, Stash and Burn, They Might Be Giants, and a bunch of literary ones. The best literary one would have to be Disney's Last Minute Book Reports. HILARIOUS! I used one podcast to play Romeo and Juliet for my class. I burned each scene separately on a CD which was really handy to lend to students who had been absent.
I have also taught some students how to make simple podcasts using Garageband - one program that wasn't listed on 23 Things. It's so simple, even my kids can do it. I also have used G Cast, which is very simple and only requires a phone.
I am helping our German teacher to create a walking tour of Germany podcast her students load onto their MP3 players before they take their trip to Germany this summer. Plus, I told her they can use G Cast to record their reactions throughout the trip.
Thing #18 - I Tube, You Tube, We all Tube
This was too much fun! I found two animation shorts that I haven't seen in YEARS! One is The Cat Came Back - the song will get stuck in your head. The other is Vincent by Tim Burton, my all-time favorite director. I put that one on my blog so all can view it. I can't believe it's there!
I'm so grateful and yet, I feel a bit guilty about it. I didn't purchase it. I didn't get permission from Mr. Burton to post it on my blog and yet, simple as pie, it's there. We are getting farther and farther away from definitive copyright. I have had numerous discussions with students, friends and even family members about the need to purchase music and movies, etc. - not steal them off the internet. The artists, musicians, and film makers do this as their living so we need to legally, legitimately purchase their works in order to encourage them to continue making more.
One family member, a teen, said that she never paid for the music she downloaded off the internet because first, if they didn't want it available, they would protect it better; second, the music industry is corrupted anyway so it served them right if people took the music; and third, they make way more money from concerts then music sales so who was it hurting. I told her that what she was doing was the same as shoplifting but that fell on deaf ears.
I have loaded all of my CDs into my iTunes and am using Handbrake to load my DVDs (something I wish iTunes would have as a feature). I do not view this in the same venue as this is material that I legally purchased and am simply converting it to a different format for viewing. Just like I believe that I can legally convert all of my VHS purchases to DVD. Am I wrong?
I'm so grateful and yet, I feel a bit guilty about it. I didn't purchase it. I didn't get permission from Mr. Burton to post it on my blog and yet, simple as pie, it's there. We are getting farther and farther away from definitive copyright. I have had numerous discussions with students, friends and even family members about the need to purchase music and movies, etc. - not steal them off the internet. The artists, musicians, and film makers do this as their living so we need to legally, legitimately purchase their works in order to encourage them to continue making more.
One family member, a teen, said that she never paid for the music she downloaded off the internet because first, if they didn't want it available, they would protect it better; second, the music industry is corrupted anyway so it served them right if people took the music; and third, they make way more money from concerts then music sales so who was it hurting. I told her that what she was doing was the same as shoplifting but that fell on deaf ears.
I have loaded all of my CDs into my iTunes and am using Handbrake to load my DVDs (something I wish iTunes would have as a feature). I do not view this in the same venue as this is material that I legally purchased and am simply converting it to a different format for viewing. Just like I believe that I can legally convert all of my VHS purchases to DVD. Am I wrong?
Thing #17 Searching for . . . answers
I had a lot of difficulty with doing the tasks for this Thing. I couldn't get the quicktime movies to work. I couldn't get the RSS feed to work. I couldn't figure out how to do the tasks we were asked to do. I'm pretty techno-savy but maybe I just didn't explore enough. I have some experience in this area though so don't feel too bad about just pushing ahead. I have used a number of tools like this for my masters classes and have taught my students how to use these search tools. We have many of them linked on our school media center webpage and encourage the use of ELM versus "googling" everything. I haven't connected searches to bloglines before since I hadn't used bloglines or other RSS feeds before so that was one thing I was looking forward to getting more experience with. I may go back and revisit that at a later date but for today, I'm calling this Thing done.
Thing #16 Research Tools
This is the answer to a prayer! I have been working with another teacher about teaching researching in the digital age. She and I have been struggling with how to explain why it is necessary to check your sources to make sure they are legitimate, how to use search engines, plus the general mechanics of organizing a research paper. This is a whole new ballgame for us. This is not the way we wrote papers when we were in school and I'm not that old! :-)
As I was typing this, I got a phone call from a friend (also a teacher) and coincidentally, she was wondering about this exact thing! So, I told her about the whole 23 Things project and emailed the website to her. She was going to check it out this afternoon. Talk about timely information!
Thanks 23 Things Organizers!!
As I was typing this, I got a phone call from a friend (also a teacher) and coincidentally, she was wondering about this exact thing! So, I told her about the whole 23 Things project and emailed the website to her. She was going to check it out this afternoon. Talk about timely information!
Thanks 23 Things Organizers!!
Thing #15 Get a Second Life
I spent some time exploring Second Life. I can see where it would appeal to some people. I read through all of the FAQs and was absolutely astonished to read about the millions of people and millions of dollars, real dollars, being spent in a virtual world. Crazy! I have no frame of reference for that. I have friend who spend hours on My Space and Facebook so can believe that people really do immerse themselves in an online world. Therefore the need for different services would be apparent - like virtual libraries. As with most of the other Things I've been experimenting with, it won't be something our school will be taking advantage of do to our filtering, monitoring, etc. of student activities. Our students aren't even allowed to access their email at school so I really don't think they'll be establishing second lives at school. Most have a hard enough time dealing with their actual lives. Isn't there a line in a song about being much cooler online? I think we're heading down a slippery slope of not being able to conduct ourselves in actual real settings. It's much easier to be the person you'd like to be in the semi-anonymous online world.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thing #14 LibraryThing
We recently upgraded our Alexandria system to allow us to include accessing the system through our school website. This will allow our patrons to search and reserve what they want to read. I don't think that LibraryThing is right for our library. I create bulletin boards of "Did you like [insert book title here] - then you'll love ...." lists. Once they come off the bulletin board, they are posted around the library. Master lists are kept behind the desk, available for request by patrons. I also plan to add those lists to our school website.
I did create an account and started to add some books but realized that it would be a HUGE time commitment for me to do all of the books I own. We have a veritable library in our home. I don't think this is a Thing that I'm going to use right now.
I did create an account and started to add some books but realized that it would be a HUGE time commitment for me to do all of the books I own. We have a veritable library in our home. I don't think this is a Thing that I'm going to use right now.
Thing #13 Making Time
I LOVE THIS THING! I have spent too much time playing with all of these great tools. I added a counter to the vacation planning wiki I created. I created a calendar in 30 Boxes that I now share with my husband so he has no excuse for "double-booking" our weekends. I chose 30 Boxes because it said I could sync with iCal but it wouldn't accept my subscription? I have created a fun iGoogle page. I added the penguins - which are just too much fun, as well as the ladybugs that the penguins will chase. Don't know what I'm talking about - check it out when you create your iGoogle, choose add stuff and find the penguins and ladybugs.
I have shared the information about these tools with a number of co-workers and even a couple of students! It's fun to be the resident online expert - thanks Things!
I have shared the information about these tools with a number of co-workers and even a couple of students! It's fun to be the resident online expert - thanks Things!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thing #12 Digging for information
I spent some time looking at these sites, mind you not an extensive amount of time but the intention of this whole Thing exploration was to quickly go through all of the things. But I digress. Using these sites would be an interesting way to plow through the vast array of websites generating news. But I just don't think it's a big time saver. Maybe if I spent a lot of time each day pouring over online news, it would be an aid but I really don't. I listen to the news on the radio as I'm getting ready for work. I scan the headlines when I change the newspapers in the media center. I watch the evening news. That's pretty much it.
My information digging is mainly on a subject to subject basis. I was hoping these sites would act more as a research gathering device. I was hoping I could type in a subject and pull articles about that subject but it didn't work that way. I did read a couple of articles that came up when I was messing around with each site but don't think I'll revisit these any time soon. I like my news from reliable, legitimate sources and I don't think John Q. Public needs to be a collaborator on everything. Somethings just need to be left to the experts.
My information digging is mainly on a subject to subject basis. I was hoping these sites would act more as a research gathering device. I was hoping I could type in a subject and pull articles about that subject but it didn't work that way. I did read a couple of articles that came up when I was messing around with each site but don't think I'll revisit these any time soon. I like my news from reliable, legitimate sources and I don't think John Q. Public needs to be a collaborator on everything. Somethings just need to be left to the experts.
Thing #9 Google Docs
Ok, I've been messing around with this Thing for a few days now and it was giving me trouble but now I think I've got it. I really like Goggle Docs. The contributions to the Declaration of Independence were really pretty funny. I would imagine that the same kind of "collaboration" would happen in my classroom of comedians. We'd have some fairly serious additions but then the goofballs would take over and it would fall apart. So, I won't be using this on in my classroom.
I would use it with co-workers though. I can see where it would be more efficient than emailing a document around. It could be a committee meeting without meeting. I've never been one to really enjoy committee work. Remember - a camel is a horse designed by committee. Plus, there's a lot of "get ready, get set . . . get set . . . get set . . ." but not a lot of go. Sharing documents, organizing information, collaboration on the fly are all steps in the right direction!
I'm definitely sharing this the rest of my department when we are working on policy and procedure.
I would use it with co-workers though. I can see where it would be more efficient than emailing a document around. It could be a committee meeting without meeting. I've never been one to really enjoy committee work. Remember - a camel is a horse designed by committee. Plus, there's a lot of "get ready, get set . . . get set . . . get set . . ." but not a lot of go. Sharing documents, organizing information, collaboration on the fly are all steps in the right direction!
I'm definitely sharing this the rest of my department when we are working on policy and procedure.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Thing 11: Tagging and Delicious
I am skipping Thing 9 for a little while. I started a Delicious account last summer and LOVE it. At the time, I didn't have my own computer so was computer hopping a lot. Having a delicious account was so nice. Keeping all my bookmarks and favorites together was really helpful. Now that I have my own computer, I was able to quickly access my delicious bookmarks to add to my new computer.
Working in a public school setting is a lot different from working in the general public sector. There are many of these tools that would be fun to use but aren't really appropriate in our school setting. Our administration is very particular about what we can and cannot use via the school's website and server. I don't think I'll be able to use many of these networking tools in my professional life but in my personal life, it's a lot of fun to think of the possibilities.
Working in a public school setting is a lot different from working in the general public sector. There are many of these tools that would be fun to use but aren't really appropriate in our school setting. Our administration is very particular about what we can and cannot use via the school's website and server. I don't think I'll be able to use many of these networking tools in my professional life but in my personal life, it's a lot of fun to think of the possibilities.
Thing #10: Wiki, wiki, woo!
I LOVE Common Craft videos. My son watched with me and he wants to make his own Star Wars wiki. He's 8 and quite sharp, if I do say so myself. I might let him try it. We also watched the Common Craft video on zombies - if you haven't seen it, definitely look it up. It's hysterical. But I digress. Back to wikis.
I find the concept of wikis to be really fun and interesting to be part of the collaborative common; however, as an educator, I do not allow wikis as a valid source for research. I have also educated my co-workers on wikis and advised them against allowing wikis. I explained that wikis allow both your brightest student and your most challenged student to post information with very little in the way of verification.
I would like to start a Book Talk wiki to which my library patrons could add their picks. I worry about having to constantly monitoring it for content. I don't think our administration would approve an unfiltered/ unmonitored wiki to be connected with our school webpage. I might look into that.
I added a post to the Library Success wiki, Best Graphic Novels for Teens section. I had just finished reading Plain Janes and added that to the wiki. When I get more time, I might add a couple more.
Now, I'm off to create a wiki for my girlfriends in our planning of the annual Girls Getaway Weekend.
I find the concept of wikis to be really fun and interesting to be part of the collaborative common; however, as an educator, I do not allow wikis as a valid source for research. I have also educated my co-workers on wikis and advised them against allowing wikis. I explained that wikis allow both your brightest student and your most challenged student to post information with very little in the way of verification.
I would like to start a Book Talk wiki to which my library patrons could add their picks. I worry about having to constantly monitoring it for content. I don't think our administration would approve an unfiltered/ unmonitored wiki to be connected with our school webpage. I might look into that.
I added a post to the Library Success wiki, Best Graphic Novels for Teens section. I had just finished reading Plain Janes and added that to the wiki. When I get more time, I might add a couple more.
Now, I'm off to create a wiki for my girlfriends in our planning of the annual Girls Getaway Weekend.
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