Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --Leonardo da Vinci
Google Reader is an essential tool for decluttering your online workspace. I now have 35 subscriptions in Google Reader, most of which are related to my Masters degree, with a few personal interest blogs thrown in there for good measure.
This post on Gigaom highlights a few ways to get the most out of using Google Reader. I tried out the suggested keyboard shortcuts. These are a few that I like:
Shift+? = a list of shortcuts
j = move to next item
k = move to previous item
space bar = page down
f = full screen mode
v = view original post
Because I am in the habit of saving useful blog posts to Diigo, I haven't been using the star (press s) function. However, I may try it out to highlight posts that need a more careful read.
I also checked out my "Trends" for the first time. Very interesting. Free Technology for Teachers is my "most read" blog, along with the blogs of my classmates. Blue Skunk and Cool Cat Teacher also rate up there. What else is getting my attention? Cute overload. I can't seem to help myself.
References
Foster, D. (2010, September 10). 5 tips for getting the most out of Google reader [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-google-reader/
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Current Events #6: Apps for Autism
I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them. --Mark Haddon, Author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Specialized apps for the iPad are changing the way students with Autism are able to communicate. This clip from 60 minutes, which was embedded in a post on Free Technology for Teachers, is a must-see for educators.
It is particularly inspiring to see the way that language apps are providing a conduit for expression. Up until now, I've focused on the iPad for personal or regular classroom use, but this post and video has broadened its implications for learning.
References
Byrne, R. (2011, October 24). Apps for autism -- a 60 minutes story [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/apps-for-autism-60-minutes-story.html
Sughrue, K. (Producer). (2011, October 23). Apps for Autism. 60 Minutes [Television broadcast]. Washington, DC: CBS News.
Specialized apps for the iPad are changing the way students with Autism are able to communicate. This clip from 60 minutes, which was embedded in a post on Free Technology for Teachers, is a must-see for educators.
It is particularly inspiring to see the way that language apps are providing a conduit for expression. Up until now, I've focused on the iPad for personal or regular classroom use, but this post and video has broadened its implications for learning.
References
Byrne, R. (2011, October 24). Apps for autism -- a 60 minutes story [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/apps-for-autism-60-minutes-story.html
Sughrue, K. (Producer). (2011, October 23). Apps for Autism. 60 Minutes [Television broadcast]. Washington, DC: CBS News.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Screencasting...Bruised, but not Beaten
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. --Louisa May Alcott
I sat down this morning to create my first 5 minute screencast using Jing. I figured it would take me a couple hours to get it done and blog about it. Four hours later, I finally have something to show for myself.
Screencasting seems simple enough. Jing captures a video of your screen as you talk through using a web tool. I wanted to show my English 12 students how to set up a wiki using pbworks.com for their independent novel study. How hard can it be?
Well, the tool is easy to use, but screencasting is not, at least not the first time you do it. First, everything has to run smoothly on your computer. For example, I was setting up a demo account, so the activation email had to arrive immediately, and if it didn't, I had to start again. If you misspeak, you have to start again. If you click on the wrong buttons, you have to start again. If you run out of time, you have to start again. And finally, after you finally get it right, if you hit cancel instead of stop, you will pull out your hair, and have to start again.
I discovered five minutes go by really quickly. I had to break my screencast in two in order to show the kids what they needed to know.
This first screencast took about ten attempts:
I am very relieved to report that the second screencast only took me two attempts:
My screencasts are now safely embedded in Moodle for the Grade 12s and I think I need to go have a coffee!
P.S. If you place your mouse over the screencast as it is running, you can click on the tiny yellow computer screen icon at the bottom far right corner, and it will go to full screen mode so you can see it more clearly.
I sat down this morning to create my first 5 minute screencast using Jing. I figured it would take me a couple hours to get it done and blog about it. Four hours later, I finally have something to show for myself.
Screencasting seems simple enough. Jing captures a video of your screen as you talk through using a web tool. I wanted to show my English 12 students how to set up a wiki using pbworks.com for their independent novel study. How hard can it be?
Well, the tool is easy to use, but screencasting is not, at least not the first time you do it. First, everything has to run smoothly on your computer. For example, I was setting up a demo account, so the activation email had to arrive immediately, and if it didn't, I had to start again. If you misspeak, you have to start again. If you click on the wrong buttons, you have to start again. If you run out of time, you have to start again. And finally, after you finally get it right, if you hit cancel instead of stop, you will pull out your hair, and have to start again.
I discovered five minutes go by really quickly. I had to break my screencast in two in order to show the kids what they needed to know.
This first screencast took about ten attempts:
I am very relieved to report that the second screencast only took me two attempts:
My screencasts are now safely embedded in Moodle for the Grade 12s and I think I need to go have a coffee!
P.S. If you place your mouse over the screencast as it is running, you can click on the tiny yellow computer screen icon at the bottom far right corner, and it will go to full screen mode so you can see it more clearly.
Saturday, 22 October 2011
What the Tweet?
Exchange is creation. --Muriel Rukeyser
When I asked my sister what a hashtag was, she said she thought it had something to do with Charlie Sheen. I understand her confusion on the topic; up until a couple months ago, I would have thought it had something to do with breakfast.
My professors
in the Teacher-Librarian program strongly encouraged us to use Twitter to build personal learning networks. Will Richardson (2010) writes that Twitter is a "powerful professional development and communications tool" that has become a "running river of conversation and ideas" (p. 86). So, I resurrected my long-ago abandoned Twitter account, downloaded TweetDeck and started learning about Twitter in earnest. At first, I added a short list of recommended people to follow, and this got me up and started. But, it wasn't until I started following hashtags that I really started to understand how Twitter can connect you with a broad base of enthusiastic and tech savvy educators.
A hashtag is basically a way to search and label tweets according to topic. By using hashtags, you don't need to find who to follow first. Instead, you can follow the hashtag stream, and occasionally select tweeters to follow whose interests match your own. Here is an article that I found useful in terms of understanding and finding education hashtags to follow. The hashtags I am regularly checking are: #edchat, #edtech, #engchat and, of course, #tldl and #edes501.
Needless to say, to really get the most out of Twitter, you need to start doing some of your own tweeting, not just following others. In the past few weeks, I have taken the plunge. At first, I tentatively tweeted messages to people in my course, then I added hashtags to my tweets and, this week, I started tweeting out links to my blog posts using hashtags. This morning when I looked in my Direct Mention column in TweetDeck, I saw that my blog link tweets had been retweeted several times by twitter-ites in the twitter-verse. Wow! I'm sharing ideas with teachers all over the world - one retweet even came from Burundi. A new sense of collegiality is forming and it's being powered by Web 2.0.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin.
When I asked my sister what a hashtag was, she said she thought it had something to do with Charlie Sheen. I understand her confusion on the topic; up until a couple months ago, I would have thought it had something to do with breakfast.
My professors
in the Teacher-Librarian program strongly encouraged us to use Twitter to build personal learning networks. Will Richardson (2010) writes that Twitter is a "powerful professional development and communications tool" that has become a "running river of conversation and ideas" (p. 86). So, I resurrected my long-ago abandoned Twitter account, downloaded TweetDeck and started learning about Twitter in earnest. At first, I added a short list of recommended people to follow, and this got me up and started. But, it wasn't until I started following hashtags that I really started to understand how Twitter can connect you with a broad base of enthusiastic and tech savvy educators.A hashtag is basically a way to search and label tweets according to topic. By using hashtags, you don't need to find who to follow first. Instead, you can follow the hashtag stream, and occasionally select tweeters to follow whose interests match your own. Here is an article that I found useful in terms of understanding and finding education hashtags to follow. The hashtags I am regularly checking are: #edchat, #edtech, #engchat and, of course, #tldl and #edes501.
Needless to say, to really get the most out of Twitter, you need to start doing some of your own tweeting, not just following others. In the past few weeks, I have taken the plunge. At first, I tentatively tweeted messages to people in my course, then I added hashtags to my tweets and, this week, I started tweeting out links to my blog posts using hashtags. This morning when I looked in my Direct Mention column in TweetDeck, I saw that my blog link tweets had been retweeted several times by twitter-ites in the twitter-verse. Wow! I'm sharing ideas with teachers all over the world - one retweet even came from Burundi. A new sense of collegiality is forming and it's being powered by Web 2.0.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin.
The A-Z Dictionary of Educational Twitter Hashtags. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2011/10/twitter-hashtag-dictionary/
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Six Ways to Use Goodreads in the Classroom
We read to know we are not alone. --C.S. Lewis
Here are six ways you might use Goodreads in the Classroom:
1. Use the student group feature. There are well over 3000 student groups underway at Goodreads! Teachers can use the group feature to post topics or extend classroom discussion. Students could use also use this feature to post their progress with independent novel choices or to post reader response journals. Separate lit circle groups could be established to keep the in-class discussions going. Student groups would be an excellent option for extra-curricular book clubs at your school.
2. Research reading selections. Students can use the overviews and user reviews to select potential novels and add them to their to-read bookshelf.
3. Have your students join the Reading Challenge, set their targets and record their progress.
4. Use the fan feature for active goodread authors and follow their updates and posts. This would be a great option if you chose a recently published novel for your class and were lucky enough to establish contact with the author ahead of time. Perhaps the author would be willing to answer a few questions the class comes up with.
5. Discuss the public rating and review features of the site to have your students generate the criteria for creating meaningful book reviews. Your students could then write and post reviews based on that criteria. Those reviews could be shared, "liked" and commented on by classmates.
6. Use the public discussion feature to have you students post to threads about the novel they are reading. A little diligence would be required here to select threads that are active and worthwhile.
Could you use Goodreads in the classroom? What features appeal to you?
Here are six ways you might use Goodreads in the Classroom:
1. Use the student group feature. There are well over 3000 student groups underway at Goodreads! Teachers can use the group feature to post topics or extend classroom discussion. Students could use also use this feature to post their progress with independent novel choices or to post reader response journals. Separate lit circle groups could be established to keep the in-class discussions going. Student groups would be an excellent option for extra-curricular book clubs at your school.
2. Research reading selections. Students can use the overviews and user reviews to select potential novels and add them to their to-read bookshelf.
3. Have your students join the Reading Challenge, set their targets and record their progress.
4. Use the fan feature for active goodread authors and follow their updates and posts. This would be a great option if you chose a recently published novel for your class and were lucky enough to establish contact with the author ahead of time. Perhaps the author would be willing to answer a few questions the class comes up with.
5. Discuss the public rating and review features of the site to have your students generate the criteria for creating meaningful book reviews. Your students could then write and post reviews based on that criteria. Those reviews could be shared, "liked" and commented on by classmates.
6. Use the public discussion feature to have you students post to threads about the novel they are reading. A little diligence would be required here to select threads that are active and worthwhile.
Could you use Goodreads in the classroom? What features appeal to you?
Current Events #5: Will you Hangout with Me?
I think Google should be like a Swiss Army knife: clean, simple, the tool you want to take everywhere. --Marissa Mayer, Vice-President at Google
The Zite personalized magazine app on my iPad is turning out fantastic articles and blog posts under "Education", and "ELearning".
Today's gold nugget is an article from Learning Solutions Magazine entitled "Google+ Hangouts: Six Practical Uses for Online Education." The ability to share your screen to show a student how to use a web tool is one highlight. Another key feature is the ability to open a shared Google document. For my online students, this means I could meet a student in the hangout, pull up their paper and discuss it in real time.
Another tool to add to my to-do list!
References
Vest, J. (2011, October 19). Google+ hangouts: six practical uses for online education. Learning Solutions Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/772/google-hangouts-six-practical-uses-for-online-education.
The Zite personalized magazine app on my iPad is turning out fantastic articles and blog posts under "Education", and "ELearning".
Today's gold nugget is an article from Learning Solutions Magazine entitled "Google+ Hangouts: Six Practical Uses for Online Education." The ability to share your screen to show a student how to use a web tool is one highlight. Another key feature is the ability to open a shared Google document. For my online students, this means I could meet a student in the hangout, pull up their paper and discuss it in real time.
Another tool to add to my to-do list!References
Vest, J. (2011, October 19). Google+ hangouts: six practical uses for online education. Learning Solutions Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/772/google-hangouts-six-practical-uses-for-online-education.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Getting up to Speed with Goodreads
I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street. --Virginia Woolf
And sometimes, there seems to be an inability to find them online!
A small confession to begin: in order to obtain the screenshots for this post, I cheated a little. I started using a web tool I'm not officially planning to explore until later in the project. Jing. Yes, I downloaded Jing and within five minutes was doing screen captures and editing them. Oh, so simple. And surprisingly fun!
However, to return to the topic of this post, I've had a very productive 'play-date' with Goodreads today. I started out by adding and rating twenty books for my bookshelf so I could check out the recommendation system. The r
esults are so-so. By sifting through the results, I did find a few suggestions to put on my to-read list, including some interesting educational titles. However, if you rate the occasional book that isn't your standard reading-fare, it will throw the recommendations off and you will find yourself checking lists of books that would never appeal to you. I suspect finding books to read would be more easily and accurately done by following or friending a person with similar tastes to you.
One very positive feature I discovered today is that there are many authors who seem to be actively using the site and you can become a "fan" and follow their activity, such as updates, blog posts and the books they review. You can even send them messages. I discovered this when I noticed, in a long list of reviews by users, a review by a name I recognized: Greg Mortensen, the co-author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones to Schools. I was quite interested to see that he is rating and reviewing books just like the rest of us! As a result of this discovery, I've "fanned" two authors I like and I will see where this leads over the next few weeks.
One down side of this social cataloguing site so far is that I'm finding it hard to connect with anyone. (Sadly, I still have no friends.). I tried the Facebook "friend search" method again, and this time disabled Goodreads' ability to post on my behalf. I did find one Facebook acquaintance using Goodreads and I sent her a "please be my friend" message. Then I sent pleading emails to two "real-life" friends who are avid readers to please join the site. After all, if you don't have any friends, who is going to read your reviews? Whose bookshelves are you going to check out? Goodreads, without any friends, is a lonely place!
To finish off this week's web journey, my bookshelves are now populated and three reviews are complete. During this coming week, I'll investigate discussions and groups, as well as Goodreads in the classroom.
And sometimes, there seems to be an inability to find them online!
A small confession to begin: in order to obtain the screenshots for this post, I cheated a little. I started using a web tool I'm not officially planning to explore until later in the project. Jing. Yes, I downloaded Jing and within five minutes was doing screen captures and editing them. Oh, so simple. And surprisingly fun!
However, to return to the topic of this post, I've had a very productive 'play-date' with Goodreads today. I started out by adding and rating twenty books for my bookshelf so I could check out the recommendation system. The r
esults are so-so. By sifting through the results, I did find a few suggestions to put on my to-read list, including some interesting educational titles. However, if you rate the occasional book that isn't your standard reading-fare, it will throw the recommendations off and you will find yourself checking lists of books that would never appeal to you. I suspect finding books to read would be more easily and accurately done by following or friending a person with similar tastes to you.One very positive feature I discovered today is that there are many authors who seem to be actively using the site and you can become a "fan" and follow their activity, such as updates, blog posts and the books they review. You can even send them messages. I discovered this when I noticed, in a long list of reviews by users, a review by a name I recognized: Greg Mortensen, the co-author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones to Schools. I was quite interested to see that he is rating and reviewing books just like the rest of us! As a result of this discovery, I've "fanned" two authors I like and I will see where this leads over the next few weeks.
One down side of this social cataloguing site so far is that I'm finding it hard to connect with anyone. (Sadly, I still have no friends.). I tried the Facebook "friend search" method again, and this time disabled Goodreads' ability to post on my behalf. I did find one Facebook acquaintance using Goodreads and I sent her a "please be my friend" message. Then I sent pleading emails to two "real-life" friends who are avid readers to please join the site. After all, if you don't have any friends, who is going to read your reviews? Whose bookshelves are you going to check out? Goodreads, without any friends, is a lonely place!
To finish off this week's web journey, my bookshelves are now populated and three reviews are complete. During this coming week, I'll investigate discussions and groups, as well as Goodreads in the classroom.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Getting to Know Goodreads
I can't tell you how scary it can be walking onto a movie and suddenly joining this family, it's like going to somebody else's Christmas dinner, everyone knows everyone, and you're there and you're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing. --John Cleese
Yes, learning a new web tool is somewhat like arriving to a fancy Christmas Dinner late. The food is enticing, the guests are friendly, but you somehow you feel awkward and displaced. And besides, what is that dish, anyways?
One of the first steps Goodreads asks you to complete is to "find friends" via Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and some other options. I opted not to do this step at all when I noticed Goodreads wanted to search my contact list at Gmail (which seemed a little dubious), and also and more alarmingly, post to Facebook and Twitter 'on my behalf'. I feel very uncomfortable letting anybody but me post to my accounts. So, I guess I don't have any friends for the time being, and it raised some interesting questions for me about internet privacy and security.
Not wanting to feel defeated, I ventured further and started setting up my bookshelf. One of the first books I added was "One D
ay" by David Nicholls--a book with which I have a love/hate relationship. It asked immediately for a review, which I wasn't yet prepared to write. However, I was very impressed when I noticed how many people had rated and reviewed the book. Over 30,000 ratings and 7,000 reviews! This site is certainly generating a lot of traffic. I added a few more books and and simple ratings to my bookshelf before going on edit my profile. There is plenty to add in the profile, including places to list favourite authors and to vote on favourite books on Listopia. I also added a widget to my blog to show books I have read and rated. There is even an option to automatically post your book reviews to your blog, but I decided not to do that.
I'm looking forward to trying a new feature at GoodReads, the recommendation system, which requires members to rate at least 20 books before it generates a list of novel suggestions. I found an interesting blog at the New Yorker in which writer Macy Halford (2011) gives the recommendation feature a mixed review, arguing that although it generates some good suggestions, it doesn't take into account that "[b]ooks are messy and the reasons humans like them are messier". I'll have to try it out for myself.
Halford, M. (2011, September 19). Getting good at Goodreads [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/09/getting-good-at-goodreads-1.html
Yes, learning a new web tool is somewhat like arriving to a fancy Christmas Dinner late. The food is enticing, the guests are friendly, but you somehow you feel awkward and displaced. And besides, what is that dish, anyways?
One of the first steps Goodreads asks you to complete is to "find friends" via Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and some other options. I opted not to do this step at all when I noticed Goodreads wanted to search my contact list at Gmail (which seemed a little dubious), and also and more alarmingly, post to Facebook and Twitter 'on my behalf'. I feel very uncomfortable letting anybody but me post to my accounts. So, I guess I don't have any friends for the time being, and it raised some interesting questions for me about internet privacy and security.
Not wanting to feel defeated, I ventured further and started setting up my bookshelf. One of the first books I added was "One D
ay" by David Nicholls--a book with which I have a love/hate relationship. It asked immediately for a review, which I wasn't yet prepared to write. However, I was very impressed when I noticed how many people had rated and reviewed the book. Over 30,000 ratings and 7,000 reviews! This site is certainly generating a lot of traffic. I added a few more books and and simple ratings to my bookshelf before going on edit my profile. There is plenty to add in the profile, including places to list favourite authors and to vote on favourite books on Listopia. I also added a widget to my blog to show books I have read and rated. There is even an option to automatically post your book reviews to your blog, but I decided not to do that.I'm looking forward to trying a new feature at GoodReads, the recommendation system, which requires members to rate at least 20 books before it generates a list of novel suggestions. I found an interesting blog at the New Yorker in which writer Macy Halford (2011) gives the recommendation feature a mixed review, arguing that although it generates some good suggestions, it doesn't take into account that "[b]ooks are messy and the reasons humans like them are messier". I'll have to try it out for myself.
Halford, M. (2011, September 19). Getting good at Goodreads [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/09/getting-good-at-goodreads-1.html
Goals for this Web 2.0 Adventure
"What remains?" cried Ivanhoe, "Glory, maiden, glory! which gilds our sepulchre and embalms our name." --Sir Walter Scott
What would I like to gain from this adventure?? Inquiry-based learning requires that students “identify what they already know, ask intriguing questions about what they do not know, investigate the answers, construct new understandings, and share those understandings” (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 11). While the first post in this proposal outlines my starting place, the questions below, in this final post, will create a framework for learning for the next two months.
Five Essential Questions:
1) Why should teachers and students use Web 2.0 tools?
2) How can Web 2.0 tools support the development of community and collaboration?
3) How can Web 2.0 tools assist teachers and students in sharing and delivering curriculum content?
4) Which web tools work well (alone or together) to increase efficiency and organization?
5) Where do I want to go next on this Web 2.0 journey?
I anticipate that the eight tools I have selected for investigation will increase my comfort and expedience with using Web 2.0 tools both at home and in the classroom. With each tool I investigate, I will be asking myself both ‘how can I use this?’ and ‘how could my students use this?’ I hope that each tool I have selected becomes a regular part of my learning, teaching and living routine.REFERENCES
Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Proposed Timeline
| WEEK | Ongoing | Focus |
| Oct 10-16 | Google Reader, art of blogging & Twitter | Initial exploration of Good Reads Sign Up, create bookshelf, contribute reviews |
| Oct 17-23 | Google Reader, art of blogging & Twitter | Explore Good Reads in more depth |
| Oct 24-30 | Google Reader, art of blogging & Twitter | Initial exploration of Jing Sign Up, tour, create screencast |
| Oct 31- Nov 6 | Google Reader, art of blogging & Twitter | Explore Jing in more depth Use Jing to create student feedback |
| Nov 7 - 13 | Google Reader, art of blogging & Twitter | Compare Evernote vs. Diigo Which tool is suited for which purpose? |
| Nov 14-20 | Summarize experience with Twitter ◊ | Explore Evernote in more depth Create a notebook of my travel dreams |
| Nov 21-27 | Summarize experience with Google Reader ◊ | Initial exploration of Prezi Sign Up, tour tutorials and start Prezi |
| Nov 28 – Dec 2* | Summarize experience with Blogging ◊ | Continue exploration of Prezi Complete Prezi |
◊ Approximate dates only
*indicates an abbreviated week due to other assignment deadlines.
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