Thing Twelve

Thing Twelve

I am getting more comfortable with the idea of embedding code; that doesn’t necessarily mean I am completely comfortable with the actual task of embedding it. I’m sure it’s something that will come with time and the ease of having accomplished this over several hundred episodes of usage. J

Do you belong to other online communities? Yes, and no. I joined Facebook a bit ago (probably about a year ago) when one of my daughters sent me something, wanting me to do this. I set up the initial page, revisited it once or twice over the next few months. I even added some pictures one of those two times. Then, of course, I couldn’t remember my password, and the powers that be at Facebook locked me out. I haven’t been able to find anyone to contact for help, so I am just locked out – although, they keep sending me notifications about all the friends I have who have this or that happening. Hmmmm  I’m not sure if relationships online can be as meaningful as face-to-face ones. There is not the same empathy in play through technology, and that is huge in relationships. Then again, people are often more open if they don’t have to face the person with whom they are speaking, so maybe there is a positive there.

Thing Eleven

Something I like about leaving comments on someone’s blog is that I am able to make what I might believe to be a valid addition to the conversation concerning the topic being discussed. It can certainly be a continuing conversation among people or communities, and that is something that I do like.

Something I dislike is that nearly anyone can comment on your blog, unless you’ve placed safeguards that allow you to determine what comments are posted/not posted. Some of these comments, posted or not, could potentially be inappropriate, which could be upsetting, and in the viewing of children, more than that.

I think this has become more important for online communities because more of what we do is via online communities rather than face-to-face. It used to be that we would go to the university and sit through hours of classes, but we now will most likely complete those classes through an online experience, making the communities an important interactive experience. This will also hold true, as time goes on, for our students, as they share their writings interactively in online communities.

Thing Ten

This video I selected because, first of all, I thought it was a very captivating video to watch. It gives us information about how our world’s population is changing every second, whether we think about it or not.

I also chose this one because I could actually use it in my classroom as we talk about population during our class curriculum. I had previously pulled up the population clock from the internet, which showed the students numerical data, and they were captivated, but this would give them a much more visually impressive portrayal of what the population changes really mean.

Also able to download a video?

Thing Nine

YouTube seems to be one of those never ending fountains of resources. There is information about nearly every topic you might want or need – and then there is information about just about every topic you might not.  That could be considered a like and a dislike. There, again, are so many options that you could be looking for quite some time before you notice how long you’ve been there. A downside I found was wading through the inappropriate material.

There is much that could be useful for school. In fact, our entire building is showing the same YouTube video about bullying tomorrow. Our district does have restrictions on YouTube, so things like this have to be “reconfigured” in order to be used.

Thing Eight

In completing Thing Eight, I was very interested to see some of the options available when I began to explore them. I spent some time with Flickr Color Pickr and Flickr montage, as well as played a little Flickr Memry.  I was totally psyched to find a link that would get me to all things purple ~ and then it wouldn’t cooperate to allow me to do anything with it beyond clicking on the colors. I thought the mantage would be fun to use for family photos, for the dogs pictures, and even for pictures of concepts we are using in class, tying those together in one place for the students. Again, no success. I thought the Memry game would be great for the grandkids; they would get a kick out of playing a game like this with pictures of themselves in it. 

So, I played with these and played with them and…. I was excited about what I had found. This was at the first. I spent several hours, over two days (because I put it away and went to bed, thinking that would help) and was still left frustrated because I couldn’t accomplish what I set out to do. Even admitting that is difficult because I always finish what I begin. This will be an exception. It is one of those times in which I say that I need to move on.

Thing Seven

I think one of the biggest ways I might use Flikr in the classroom is to upload pictures of student work or students during classroom activities. These could then be placed into newsletters, blogs, websites, etc. for parents, communities, or any interested parties to view.

I think it could also be a good way of my posting pictures for students to view and respond for assignments, whether written or blogs. The possibilities are almost endless.

Issues I might face? I could find it difficult to come across photos in the area I want to use that are not copyrighted. That is partly what I ran up against with the time element in Thing Six; I was looking for something specific, and most of what I wanted was under the head of "Rights Reserved." Time is certainly not an element of which I have an overabundance.

Thing Six

I think it is an exceptionally easy thing to sit looking through pictures, or any information, on an internet site for hours if we let ourselves do this. The topic I chose, puppy dogs, I could look at for hours as I have this incredible weakness for animals. I would save every one of them if I could.

This is one of the many photos I found that resemble our dog in many ways. She is an unusual breed around here; I usually get one of those double-takes when I tell people what kind of dog she is.