Google Reader Update (thing # 5)

I read lots of interesting tidbits but only clicked to read the full story a few times. An interesting story about the origin of Veteran’s Day caught my eye. One man from Kansas started the push for Armistice Day (end of WWI) to become Veteran’s Day. Cool.

I also read a rather disturbing, bleak comparison of education to the penitentiary system on the Education Innovation blog.  While much of this is true, I dislike focusing on the problem. It makes it hard to continue teaching with any enthusiasm. What to do?

Online Tools Exploration (Thing # 14)

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. I thought of many creative ideas having nothing to do with school! But hey, I’ve got Christmas presents and cards in the works. I even scored some points with the in-laws by forwarding on LetterPop which will make their Christmas newsletter look much fancier!

I found an interactive timeline which I’ll assign my students to use for the causes of the Civil War this week. I also liked Toondoo which allows you to create your own comic strips. This activity would be great for students to show a particular point of view in history or government.

I’m going to keep looking!

Reflections about online conferencing (thing # 13)

I chose to watch the conference Kick it up a Notch: Film School for Podcasters. I chose it because I am interested in having my students demonstrate their learning visually. After all, the most powerful way to teach history is through images.

This conference taught me quite a bit about video technique. There were many great ideas presented for film students. Unfortunately, I don’ think I was the target audience. I didn’t choose too wisely. I am looking for more guidance with sites like www.rockyou.com. I need to learn more and work with Internet based images so students can access them from anywhere and don’t need particular digital equipment. While this conference was worthwhile to those pursuing filmmaking; I think I’ll continue to play around with Creative Commons and rockyou.

I do enjoy online delivery of content. PJs and pups in bed and I’m in class. Seriously though, especially for someone who has taught in the developing world and doesn’t have access to lots of materials online conferencing/classes/videos etc.  are essential

Love it!

Thing # 12 embedding images…….

Though my blog right now looks very raw or amateurish, I’ve worked through most of my technical glitches! I can now appreciate how darn cool this application is!
I can imagine MUCH more interesting ways to grab students attention. Oh, the possibilities………..

Flickr Images Continued……..

My first image collection was on the concept of Freedom. Unfortunately, all of the photos were protected so I couldn’t share (ironic, eh?) My new set of photos is on the concept of imperialism

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lo_/107286908/

by Subcomandanta

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25499318@N08

by Save Tibet

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22955235@N00/582447761/

By Ambrett

Reflections on Flickr, Thing # 11

I’ve just had a frustrating hour trying to upload my selected photos from Flickr. I followed the instructional video exactly! It shouldn’t be so hard.

Well, I’ll have to find an easy solution in order for me to incorporate Flickr (or other Creative Commons images) into my teaching.

I did enjoy browsing through images. I chose freedom as my concept. Here I linked it to our class wiki.

Creative Commons, Thing # 10

Wow, I’ve already explored Open Educational Resources and love it! I 100% agree with sharing teaching materials. Teaching is not a competition. We should all want our great ideas and materials used widely. We’re reaching more students that way. I’ve started scanning in all of my materials I only have in hard copy. I share quite often with teachers at my school. I put ppts/notes on my blog for my students. However, I don’t have a place on the web where they would be accessible to everyone. I definitely need to make that a goal.

I’ve never noticed CC before. It could be I’m not that observant. More likely, I get into a pretty stale routine of accessing the same old sites. This course has reminded me time and time again of all that’s out there. The challenge is to sift through and make the unbelievable amount of information manageable and usable.

I do use digital images and streaming video quite often in class. CC can make these kinds of assignments much more interesting. More importantly, I see CC playing a role more in independent student projects. The only down side could potentially be students relying less on their own creativity and more on that of others. I understand that taking an idea and making it new is creativity. However, at times the most creative type of learning can come from a blank canvas.

Stretch on wikis (thing # 8)

I searched Ecuador on wikipedia. I lived there for a while and wanted to check out this entry.

I had never noticed the history page on wikipedia! It was quite lengthy and dealt with some typical issues. There was discussion about the Peruvian/Ecuadorian war. There were also some interesting comments about the role tourism plays in the Ecuadorian economy.

I actually thought the history page was more interesting than the entry itself. It highlighted some grey area issues whereas the entry defines everything simply in black and white.

As a side note, I know wikipedia is a fact of life for our students these days. However, I still discourage them from relying on it. I will not accept it as a legitimate source on any type of research.  I haven’t changed my opinion. I may have them search the history page on a controversial topic. That could stimulate an interesting class discussion.

Reflection on wikis (thing # 8)

Wikis were brand new to me. I didn’t even know wikipedia was a wiki! Sad. Thank goodness I found Welker’s Wikinomics. I’m teaching IB economics for the first time this January and I need HELP.  I found a great resource page that I know will be useful next semester.

Speaking of economics, I’ve started compiling some blogs on my reader that will be of use. I’ll need anything I can get!

I was duly impressed with the Flat Classroom Project! I love these kinds of projects because they can open the kids world in ways we couldn’t do otherwise. I taught overseas  and actually recognized a kid from my Ecuador days in the Dhaka picture! The teachers were kind enough to leave lesson plans on their wiki so I can use their model and adapt it for my class. Campbell already has a relationship with a school in Kenya.

Another wiki I checked out was fhswolvesden. Many of their links were dead or blank. I don’t think I would organize my wiki this way, but it was good to see what high school history teachers are doing.

Overall, I do think I could incorporate wikis quite easily into my class. I like the idea of online collaboration for things like test reviews or paper outlines. Coolio.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Building a Reading Habit (Thing # 7)

I had fun with this assignment! It was fairly easy as I already have a modified Google reader as my homepage.  I’ll have to admit that I do have People and NYT crossword puzzle on my reader. Not so professional!

My new Google reader is A+ professional.  I think it’ll take some time to tweak it depending on which sites/blogs I end up truly using.

I did find myself vascillating between feeling optimistic & motivated to implement some new ideas and completely disheartened that we (in a typical public school) have been left behind.

On the positive side I found some great blogs from U.S. History teachers. Those blogs led me down many different paths. I ended up forgetting what I was originally searching! For example, while searching for History I found a video for my government class on the electoral college. I did finally come back around to a great post referring to the Jeffersonian Era in American History which we’re starting in class next week. Overall, surfing these blogs reinforced for me how much great, accessible information is out there for us to use. I’ve got some great ideas forming for my own class blog.

Unfortunately, I did read some entries which made us feel we are slipping behind. It feels the gap is widening between generations at such a furious pace that teachers have been left behind. For example, I read this post about innovation on student 2.0. How is a huge bureaucracy such as the public school system to stay afloat in this environment? We’re busy here worrying about the students passing basic Algebra, motivating them to pass the GHGST and breaking up fights.

I’m lucky as I teach in a magnet program (IB) so I truly can teach (though yesterday we did a webquest and I only had 9 functioning computers for a class of 30).

What’s the logical conclusion here for public education? Will we survive the “revolution”? How can I be a part of the movement? I’ve been giving this so much consideration and sadly I’m not sure the answer lies within public education.