One Last Thing

What I really appreciated about this course was that it forced me to take the time to check out some tools that otherwise I might not have gotten around to looking at. I also know there is more out there than I will ever be able to know about. So, it was nice to have someone else pick out some of the more useful tools allowing me to spend my time learning them and not looking for them.

Probably the tool that has changed my daily routine the most is my Google Reader. I skim it almost every night and use information from it to give relevance to the content that students need to learn. Another tool that I have used is a wiki to help me collaboratively work on some curriculum projects.

I mainly keep up with new developments by word of mouth, through technology blogs and by just paying attention to some of the things newly graduated teachers are doing. If 23 Things Part II was offered, I would take it. Though, 12 Things might be more my speed.

I don't see myself keeping up with my blog because I don't really have an audience and writing to the void doesn't appeal to me. Though, I would be the first to argue that forcing yourself to write something down helps you to clarify your thoughts and internalize learning. I do however resolve to get a website of some kind up and running this year for the Science Resource Center.

I want to thank the whole Learning 2.0 Team for the work put into developing this course and for monitoring my progress. I also want to say thank you for all your patience with a student who needed more time to complete the task.

Now, that I have finally finished all 23 things I feel like I have really accomplished something.

Whoop!!

Thing #23 Beyond Facebook: Other Social Networks

In exploring the Ning, Classroom 2.0, I found several ways it could come in handy. There were videos explaining how to do something or showcasing new technologies like this one giving an overview about the planetarium software, Celesta. Besides presenting information for my learning, there were ways to use the Ning to directly enhance student learning. I liked the idea of posting student interviews about their science fair projects. Explaining the project forces the student to clarify his thinking and the Ning provides a potential audience so that the presentation has purpose.

I liked the tags that were organized by tool. That way I could quickly find ways teachers were using a tool that I was interested in like the links here to the collaborative concept maps tags.

I can see where Nings would be useful too if you needed to set up a communication tool for a new organization such as an athletic group or hobby group.

I checked out some other educational Nings and I really liked this one that organizes collaborative projects for students. I could see using that in our district curriculum.

Thing #22 Social Networking

It took a long time for friends to convince me to join a social network but I've been a heavy user now for about a year and a half. Or is it two and a half years? Of course when I did set up my Facebook page, I found out my father and great uncle had beat me to it. Sheesh...

Educators need to know how social networking functions so they can both utilize it for educational purposes and so they can help students avoid pitfalls. Students definitely need to be taught about the consequences that can occur if they aren't careful about what they post.

I first started my MySpace profile under duress so I could see my friend's profile. I was never really interested in it and haven't been on it in so long that I had to reset my password to get back in it tonight. I didn't like how anyone with a MySpace account could see my profile and it didn't easily connect me to friends. I did like how you could link a song to your profile and have it playing when it opened. Of course, you could only use music that had been uploaded to MySpace by the creators.

Facebook has been a very different experience. It was so easy to find current friends and old friends. I feel so much more connected to family and friends that I can't see often. Seeing the pictures and hearing about funny or even sad everyday events makes me feel like I'm part of their lives. I primarily use Facebook for posting and viewing updates and pictures. For awhile I was into games like Scrabble.

I used Facebook for an educational application last summer for a class I took. I took a 2 week field geology class through Texas A&M. Since the participants were located all over Texas, the professors used a Facebook Group to prepare us for the class. We had to meet each other and select roommates through Facebook. We also got assignments and other information from the Facebook Group. It was our main method of communication for the class and it worked very well. My only problem was that the building I was working in at the time blocked Facebook and I wasn't able to override the block at that time. Since I was going to be creating virtual geology field trips to use for work, I needed to do some work ahead of time from the office to coordinate the projects. Not being able to log in from work made this more difficult.

Thing #21 More Google

Even though Google is my middle name, there were still lots of things out there that I wasn't up on. I haven't played around on Google Earth in a while so I downloaded the latest version and discovered that you can do historical views now. That is very useful in teaching Earth Science. You can look at features such as barrier islands and see how they change over time. This really comes in handy for looking at areas before and after events like hurricanes and landslides. I looked at Bolivar Island before and after Hurricane Ike and saved some images.


Jan. 8, 2008 & Jan. 30, 2009

I also tried out Google Alerts. I set up a few alerts so I'll be getting emails now whenever lunar eclipses are in the news and if anything comes up on some medical conditions I'm researching.

I've had an iGoogle page for a couple of years but I played around with it and did some rearranging. I love my iGoogle home page. It has my Google Reader that I usually skim through every night. It also has a translator, moon phase calendar, Wikipedia gadget, weather, Places to See, Art of the Day and of course my hamster.

My boss uses Sketch Up all the time and has produced some pretty impressive graphics. I'll have to save that for another day but I do need to be able to use it. I frequently need graphics for science tests or activities and I either can't find what I need or there are copyright issues.

Thing #20 Google Docs

There are things I love about Google Docs and I use all the time and others that don't meet my needs. I love the forms and use the survey tool frequently to collect information. I used to send out email surveys and spend hours collating the responses into a spreadsheet. Now, I send out the survey and a spreadsheet is created automatically from the results. I can export that spreadsheet to Excel and also share the results with everyone or just a few people. For example, I used this form to collect science TAKS scores from other area districts.

I'm glad that Google provides a free online software for people to create documents and spreadsheets if they need that service. However, I already have software that has better functionality so using the Google software instead of Microsoft Word or Excel doesn't help me any. The first thing that happened when I went to create a table in a document was that I couldn't do what I needed to do. I almost always end up merging cells in a table and there isn't an easy way in the Google document to do that. I went to the help forum and thought it was funny that the inability to merge cells easily was the first thing that popped up.

Instead of using Google Docs for that purpose, I use Dropbox if I need to collaborate on anything. I can upload the document to be collaborated on and it can be accessed from anywhere by the people given permission to edit. Since I am collaborating with people who also have the Microsoft Suite, software isn't a problem. If you would like to use Dropbox, use this link to sign up. You can have up to 2 gigs of space for free.

I also tried out the Google Presentation Tool to create this presentation on Natural Resources. I won't be using it though because PowerPoint is much more powerful.