Thing Ninteen

Thing Nineteen

I have seen details about podcasts to be presented but never really looked much into them. I know school district administrators forward some of these podcasts on to us to watch if they find them important to their agendas. As I watched the information being presented, I found there were several of the podcasts mentioned that were very helpful to the students I teach every day. There are many of these podcasts that I would like to use and probably many more than I will ever possibly be able to use.

“National Geographic Podcasts” looks like a terrific place to send students for global connections. It even has a spot where you may choose a photo that turns the photo into a jigsaw puzzle. My mother is a puzzler and would even love these!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day – I really like how this adds to vocabulary. It’s a boost for anyone’s vocab background to add a new word each day.

 iZoofari Audio Tours from the San Diego Zoo – This one allows some great on-site experiences at this terrific zoo. This, and “Storynory,” are podcast connections I would recommend for my grandchildren for fun-filled, educational experiences.

<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_12989237"> <strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pistachio/whither-twitter-12989237" title="Whither Twitter?" target="_blank">Whither Twitter?</a></strong> <iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/12989237?rel=0" width="425" height="355" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px"> View more presentations from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pistachio" target="_blank">Laura "@pistachio" Fitton</a> </div> </div>

Thing Eighteen

What I liked about this presentation was that it applied to something we had recently discussed in one of our "Things." We had been asked to explore Twitter and sign up for this. While Twitter is still something of a mystery of sorts (since I really won't have a lot of time to play around with it a lot until school is over), this is just one more piece to add to the collection, helping to explain it a bit.

Slideshare could be used, I think, in much the same way that I use United Streaming, if I understand what I am reading correctly. My understanding is that as long as you have signed up for Slideshare, you are able to borrow any of the presentations, as well as add your own to the collections. This might help add to the ideas you already have, adding to your arsenal. Out of the classroom, I think you could post home movies of your grandkids or your pets. Everyone, of course, would want to see those!

What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might Slideshare be useful in the classroom? out of the classroom?

Thing Seventeen  

We have actually been asked to use Livebinders at work recently. I am part of a group of team leaders who met a month or so ago, and we were shown this just a bit and asked to begin using this so we could share files and communicate with one another concerning curriculum. It’s one of those things that I have been putting off until the summer so that I can really have time to explore it the way I really want to, to know the ins and outs of how to work the program.

Thing Sixteen

Professionally, I have already begun to use this tool. I used the spreadsheet function in constructing the awards lists required for the year-end broo-ha-ha in the building. I needed to put the list together, and I had just read about using the Google Docs tools; I thought, “Well, why not? “ It would work or not…  It seems to have worked just fine. Go figure. J

Thing Fifteen

I am really excited about the epals opportunity that I found during this Thing. I would be able to locate classrooms from all over the world, and then my students and/or I could communicate with them via e-mail. Since we study cultures across the globe, that is a very exciting prospect!

T hing Fourteen

Down into our reading, it said that many people were beginning to use Diigo rather than Delicious, so that is the option I chose to register in. My name there is daholmes. That being said, for the time being, I am simply registered without anything tagged for a lot of reasons. This is something that I will come back to at a time when I have more time or when I truly have a need to tag items for using them for school.

I do think this could be useful as I find sites that I am using for school information. I am always finding things then either forgetting them or adding them to my favorites. As the video said, that gets a little messy after a while. This looks like it may help clean this up a bit, which, in turn, does enhance productivity.

Thing Thirteen

Of the applications I encountered in Thing Thirteen, Facebook is probably the one that interests me the most. My family, here and away, uses it as a tool, and this makes it a tool that would help me stay connected with them a little more or a little differently.

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post or a response to someone else’s that I had a Facebook page set up at one other time, but I couldn’t remember the password, or I thought I knew it – and still think I did  :-)  - and they locked me out of the system. I had tried all of the routes they suggested, and none worked to retrieve information. The frustrating thing to me there was that there was no “customer service” to speak of to straighten it all out; you were just stuck.  Setting up this new page makes for a new opportunity to contact others across the miles since so many I know are distances away.

I think that social networking sites are so popular with the kids for a lot of reasons. When they are younger, they cannot drive. This allows them the opportunity to connect with their friends in a way that doesn’t require a car or a driver’s license. As they get older, it does the same, but it can expand those connections.

Students must always be aware of predators out there as they are taking on this technological world. They cannot assume they can put out all sorts of personal information and it won’t ever be seen by anyone but the one person to whom it is specifically being sent. The “networking” part of social networking doesn’t work that way. They must protect themselves and be careful about what they put out there for others to see.

They also need to be careful of the kinds of things they say to others or about others in networking. Things can easily get out of hand and even lead to violence because of one flip comment. Good friends can be lost forever because of one silly posting. Charges of cyber bullying may be filed because of words tossed about unthinkingly.

Social networking is a tool. It could be useful; it could be a valuable tool. It could be fun. It could be all of these, if it is used wisely.