BP15_2009102_Media_Asset - TeacherTube

Here is a one minute video on the Web 2.0 tool - TeacherTube.

BP14_2009103_Web 2.0 Comment to another blog

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009

BP10_2009102_Flickr

Flatbobby

When I discovered this activity, I’m not certain which rush came first, being excited about the potential project or impressed by the simplicity of the idea. Flatbobby (http://flatbobby.blogspot.com/) combines two web 2.0 tools, blogger.com and flickr.com.

Flatbobby is reminiscent of “Where’s Waldo?” in that there is a character, Flatbobby, who is found in a variety of scenes and places. The genius and twist of the project is made possible by the interactive nature of web 2.0 tools. Flatbobby, originally mailed from place to place and host to host can now be “cloned” or printed and posed for pictures complete with stories of adventures and comments from around the globe. The pictures are posted on flickr.com by Flatbobby’s hosts and are collectively brought together into a blogger account so that everyone can see, share, and comment on the travels and adventures of Flatbobby. Did I mention this project was done by a K-8 student?

BP13_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools - TeacherTube

BP13_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools

TeacherTube

TeacherTube is a video hosting site, similar to YouTube. The videos and files art designed to be used for educational purposes. Creating an account was very easy and straightforward. Once created, there is some basic user information that needs to be added, and then you can begin uploading videos when ready.
Uploaded videos may also be stored in personal Video Albums, which would be very handy to categorize items uploaded at TeacherTube. The categories could be either by date, subject area, class, whatever you desire. Once you have selected or created a category, videos may be uploaded. TeacherTube allows a variety of video types, and states that there is no maximum length or file size. It does point out that if there is difficulty uploading a large file, that it may be better to split it and put it into two or more separate video files and then try the upload. When an attempt was made to upload, it did show a 100MB limit on file size.
I have used TeacherTube in the past as a viewer to present things at school, and decided to signup and try a download. For this testing purpose, I created a category, chose a one minute video that I had previously created that was a 5.5 MB mp4 video that was 60 seconds in length.
The file uploaded quite quickly and without any problem. When the video had finished uploading, a message popped up stating that it had completed and would be available shortly. The video did not show up on my site for quite some time. Two hours later it was still not showing that it was available. So I tried a .mov file for upload. The Estimated Time Left had little meaning as it show less than one minute for at least three minues, and the seconds could not be read as they flashed around. It took about 3-4 minutes to upload a 32 MB video. The message is “Successfully uploaded! Your video will be reviewed by the TeacherTube staff and displayed within a couple of minutes.”
I had the file set as private. There is a section to invite people to view videos, and to save trusted users for the private videos. I tried viewing the files after it had processed the video, and did a search to find the video.
TeacherTube may also be followed in Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and by email.
Overall, the process worked quite well, the website did seem just a little sluggish in terms of speed, but not bad enough to prevent one from using the site.

BP12_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools - Classtools.net

BP12_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools
Classtools.net

Classtools.net is a website that lets users create a variety of applications all from the classtools.net website. Once the application has been created, you may save the application to your local hard drive. From there, the application may be added to a personal website, blog, or other Internet area where the user has control to add content to the page. Classtools.net does not host any of the applications that are created, but they will host and have available templates that are created.

There are a variety of applications that are created and can be modified including:
• Arcade games
• Countdown timer
• Random number selection
• Post it
• Venn diagrams
• Timelines
• Target diagrams
• Jigsaw diagrams
• Living graphs
The tools found here seem more as a method of creating applications to be used, rather than any form of direct collaboration. Once the application has been created, then they may be shared via blog sites, web sites, or even RSS feeds built into either type of site.
There are many sample lesson plans available in each area; many have multiple examples for a variety of subject areas. In the ‘Maths’ section, yes it does appear that the English used may be a little off; there are seven sample lessons. Using the sample lessons could give the user an example of what can be created with each of the templates that are available.
All of the templates are created in Flash, which should keep the file size relatively small, and should allow most sites the ability to handle each activity created without running into problems with file size.
A couple of confusing aspects are when you save, it does create an html document that is directly downloaded into the downloads folder, but when looking at the file, it seems that it links directly back to the classtools.net website with a coded web page. So I can see that if this tool were to be used, there would have to be much more investigative time spent to fully utilize the applications created here. Overall, I would say that it has some good ideas behind it, but it is not quite ready for the average user.

BP11_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools - EDU 2.0

BP11_2009103_Web 2.0 Tools

EDU 2.0

EDU 2.0 is a Web 2.0 school, teacher, classroom, and student management system. This system is free to use at this time, and allows creation of an umbrella site that is calls a school, where creation of administrators, teachers, classes, students, and parent access can be created and controlled.
When first setting up the site, it was easy to select a school name, and create a unique URL for the school site. The new URL will be created as yourschool.edu20.org as the main URL that is used to access the site.
Creating accounts was a little confusing at first. There is an option of using a form to create these accounts, but you must type in how many users you plan on creating at that time. I left the default value of five (5) there, and created a single account for myself, and then pressed the Save button. My account was created easily and quickly, however it also filled in the other four accounts with the same name as the first account. It also can create a unique password for each account. I found it necessary to go in and delete the four accounts I did not want.
Another area of confusion is the fact that while doing this initial setup you are logged in as a Demo User. I had to logout, then login with my user name created above, and then delete the demo teacher account. Once your teacher account is created, I would recommend also setting up an Administrator account(s) that would be able to control the other areas of the site.
Once a class is created, there are suggested options including:
• Add syllabus
• Set schedule
• Add resources
• Add lessons
• Create assignments
• Enroll students
In the resources section, teachers are allowed to add materials to any created classes. These resources can include web resources, files that include word documents, PowerPoint, and multimedia files. The multimedia files will allow video files up to 10 MB, so there can be no longer, or higher quality videos directly loaded. It will allow the use of YouTube videos to be embedded, so that is an option for longer videos. The resource section also allows text and html to be added, along with any files kept in a list of favorites.
The Edu 2.0 site may be a good option to start using the Web in classrooms that provide a low-cost (free) option to get started in online Web 2.0 tools to be used in any classroom that wants to expand what they are currently doing.

BP10_2009102_Media_Asset - LucidChart Video

This video is a one minute pitch of why we need Web 2.0 tools like LucidChart in our schools today.

BP9_2009102_Flickr

When teaching Web Design or Digital Multimedia classes, students often need photographs to use in the projects we complete in the classroom. By having students sign up for and creating a Flickr account, it would be an easy process for students to do a couple of things in these classes:

1. They would have an easy method to have access to personal photos that could be used in these projects.
2. A Flickr group would allow me as a teacher to allow students access to starting photos that are used in many projects.

By using Flickr along with google docs, much of the class material would allow students access to many of the in-class projects to work on outside of the school.

An example of this is combing photographs to create a montage of photos of a related subject. If students put the majority of their personal photos on Flickr, they could determine which ones to use in the class by adding the photos to the group created for the class.

BP8_2009102_Response to other posts

Even though I have followed others blogs, there really is not much to look at right now. I will come back on Monday to look over other's blog posts to find a post to comment on.

BP7_2009102_LearnHub Web 2.0 Tool

The third Web 2.0 tool I looked at was called LearnHub and is found at learnhub.com. This site is a social network focusing on education and learning. It provides a set of tools “...that make learning online fun and engaging, and teaching online easy and effective” (learnhub, 2009).

I have looked over many things that are offered at LearnHub for Educators but I have not looked at all areas of LearnHub in the detail I would like to. It appears that there are Web 2.0 tools available for use at the secondary school level that could bring the Web 2.0 concept easily into the classroom. There are authoring tools available that allow teachers to create material. To do this there are tools including a lesson editor that allows teachers to share videos, pages including PDF files, and presentations.

There are also tools, many of which I have not looked at in as much detail as I would like to in the future, that will allow to create tests and also follow student’s progress and grades with a built in report generator.

One benefit that I am going to look at further is the course creation area. This area allows the teacher to combine all of their assets including tests, videos, and instruction pages, into an area that can be set up as a restricted course area. In doing this the teacher can control those that have access to the site.

Another area that I did not test yet is the live video, voice, whiteboard and document sharing that is available to the students. This could provide a great avenue of collaboration from not only the classroom but from those that have Internet access at home.

It also appears that one of the best things about learnhub is the price. At this point in time it is free to use. It looks like in the future they may charge for the service.

This may be a site that everyone may want to checkout.

References:

learnhub (2009), About learnhub. Retrieved October 11, 2009 http://learnhub.com/about.

BP6_2009102 Web 2.0 Tools – FreeScreenCasts.com

The first tool I reviewed, TypingWeb, was something I could use easily with little implementation overhead, and could be used immediately. The second tool I evaluated was FreeScreenCast from freescreencast.com.

This tool is both a web sharing service, like many that are available, but also is a software solution to interface and provide an easy method of sharing recorded screen casts both to students and individuals that may benefit from the screen cast.

Before I go into more details, I have to point out that this service is only for the Windows operating system at this time. The software that must be downloaded to provide both screen captures and the ability to upload will only run on Windows PC’s. That being said, this is still a very useful Web 2.0 tool.

The software works similar to most screen recording applications, in that you can choose the specific window to record, or record the entire screen. While recording, an attached microphone will allow audio captures to accompany the video of what is occurring on screen.

Once recording has been completed, you may save your recording to your local hard drive, and also upload the video to the freescreencast.com site. Before uploading, a descriptive title is attached to the file, and once uploaded, the uploaded FLV (Flash video) file is displayed on the freescreencast.com web page with the needed HTML code and URL needed to either bookmark for later viewing and sharing, or the code may be embedded in web pages or blog sites for embedded viewing of the movie.

A search, not available at this time, if it were available on the main web site would make finding videos specific to any subject area much easier. The library is not very massive at this time, but the site seems to be well laid out and easy to access and will certainly grow as the number of users increases.

The video below is an example of embedded video directly from the site.

BP5_2009102 Web 2.0 Tools - TypingWeb.com

(Photo from Microsoft Office Clipart)

There is such a variety of Web 2.0 applications, that it surely seems that there is something for just about anyone.

I chose to look at three tools that I could use in my current teaching assignment. First, I tried to find something that could be used right away with not much effort on my part, the student’s part, or by the technology staff. I decided to take a closer look at typingweb, at typingweb.com.

TypingWeb is both a program and a service. It has different programs available to use, some are free while others do have costs involved. I looked at the free tools available. The web site has a variety of practice lessons based on both your current typing skill level and also special interest areas like numeric keypad training and practice.

I could seen TypingWeb being used in my current situation as both an occasional change of pace for students once or twice a week for a few minutes, to a more formal use and have students that have little or no typing skills to start at beginning lessons and continue through the intermediate and advanced lessons as their skill improves.

It appears that there is more advanced options and recording score possibilities and further lesson options with the paid version. This might be a very viable option if a school was currently teaching keyboarding in the classroom or if the school was looking to add this instruction. This may be a much better solution than the traditional typing/keyboarding option of purchasing textbooks or traditional software packages.

This is also a tool that once introduced, students would be able to use not only in school but at home also. With more and more emphasis being placed on the use of computers and using the Internet as a important part of how education is developed, the ability to type is playing a more vital role in education than at any other time.

BP4_2009102 Educational Uses for Social Bookmarking

BP4_2009102 Educational Uses for Social Bookmarking

Using Web 2.0 sites like Delicious for social bookmarking wasn't something I had thought much about before this class. I actually had a Delicious account for quite a while, but I used is rarely and only as a way to grab a few bookmarks at home that I might want to use at school.

After reading the Web 2.0 book by Solomon and Shrum, and the possibilities of the expansive use of the Internet by reading Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody, I can see where this might be used in the educational setting.

As a teacher, I can see how areas of study could be looked at ahead of time, and bookmarks created for a variety of topic areas. Once this list is created, these sites can be shared by the teacher to the students and this could focus areas of studies by the students rather than practicing search skills. Students certainly need the ability to search on their own, but in a focused study this would be a very big benefit.

This can also provide students that are working on group projects and opportunity have multiple people research ideas and sites and bring that information together. Solomon and Shrum (2007) took the idea further and stated both the positive and possible drawback in stating that students can share what they’ve found online, find those sites that are most relevant, but also that students will need to determine and learn how to find valuable sites.

Even for those schools where some of the Web 2.0 sites may be blocked, there may be options. The export link allows you to save a copy of your del.icio.us bookmarks in format that can be accessed by most web browsers (Muir 2005).

Even though students could use the Delicious site, after more research, it was also pointed out “…but because there is no filter, it's more appropriate for educators than students. Still, it's the best first-step for an educator wanting to see what social bookmarks are all about.” (Jackson, 2009).

As the use of such sites in education keeps developing, there will be sites that adapt these ideas for a more education friendly format. I can see sites developed that take a popular idea, YouTube for example, and creates and educationally oriented similar site, like TeacherTube.

References

Muir, D. (2005). Del.icio.us social bookmarking or tagging for teaching. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://personal.strath.ac.uk/d.d.muir/Delicious1_2.pdf

Solomon, G., & Shrum L. (2007). Web 2.0 tools new tools new schools. Washington D.C.:International Society for Technology in Education.

Jackson, L. (2009), Sites to see: Social bookmarking. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites080.shtml.

iGoogle ETC Snapshot

Here is my snapshot for my AR/CBL Page from iGoogle:

iGoogle AR/CBL Snapshot

Here is my snapshot for my AR/CBL Page from iGoogle:

iGoogle WGO Snapshot

Here is my snapshot from my iGoogle for my WGO Page:

BP2_2009101_Anti-Teaching_Post

Oh boy, where to start with this one. The author Michael Wesch makes many true statements in his article ?Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance? but some of his points just seem like opinion more than reliable information.
It is very difficult to get all students truly interested and involved in their education. I?m not so sure that things were that different even a few decades ago. Today?s information age has certainly brought the ability to obtain information easier, but it also has brought about the ability to have information overload. This may not directly involve significance from the viewpoint of the student, but many students seem that anything that they need or want may already be taken care of. Students may not have the option that many of us or our parents had of getting out of school, that is leaving school and walking into a factory with the opportunity to make a good wage and a very comfortable living.
It certainly is a different with the digital world around us. Everyone has access to almost unlimited information, the ability to connect with others literally at the touch of a button. Education must make adaptations to the information age. But to put the blame on current teaching methods is an easy direction to point one?s finger to place blame on the change of society as a whole in today?s world.
There are many things education can do to utilize technology as a tool to develop learning in today?s students. These tools are no more the total answer to what we observe today as throwing a hammer at a pile of boards to build a house. Educators will need to learn to use these digital tools to help the learners of today to learn what society expects from them If educators can provide a diverse learning environment to help stimulate a variety of students it will certainly make the education of today better than it currently is.
Like most other major shifts in history, many things will need to adapt. The mindset of ?I just need to sit here, feed me the information and maybe I?ll want to learn something? to ?I know I need to contribute to society in my life, please teach me the things I need so I too can succeed? is not going to be an easy process. We have learned many things in the EMDT master?s program that will allow us to take a little step closer each time we move closer to what the students have been growing up with all of their lives.

BP1_2009101 -Educational_Blogging

Even though I have little experience in writing blogs, I have been aware of them and have seen them primarily while searching for solutions to computer repair questions. At the time I saw no real advantage other than some interaction between people. The more I am exposed to blogging, the more potential I can see in its uses.
On the educational front, I can see potential uses both as a teacher looking for solutions or ideas on how to teach a particular objective, as a method to share things that have worked and not worked so well, and as a sounding board for many issues teachers face on a day to day basis.
There also seems to be some very valid uses for students to use in the classroom that would be very beneficial to their learning process, and the ability of a teacher to provide diverse instruction to students. If you can combine blogs with other Web 2.0 tools that promote interaction between students, I can finally see that there may be something to this ?blog thing?. From the students? viewpoint, blogging brings into the classroom concepts and procedures that many of them feel as a natural part of their culture. The Internet has been around since they were born; blogging and other similar Web 2.0 tools have been a part of their lives since they have been communicating on computers or even cell phones.
Blogging also gives them an opportunity to gather feedback and ideas from peers not just in their classroom or neighborhood, but also from peers and others around the world. Many times this offers more valid criticism to them than coming from the teacher in the classroom.
I think that if we begin to use blogs in the classroom, that the teachers and students must also be aware and taught a validation to not only their work, but be aware that the blogs of others may or may not be what they seem. There must be some validation methods that the students must learn in order to fully be ready to use blogs as a truly educational tool.

BP0_2009101 - Selected RSS Feeds

I have decided on using the following RSS feeds to follow in Google reader. Although some of these are not directly educational related feeds, they are feeds that I use at school on a regular basis.

RSS Feeds:

Edutopia-

Educational information feeds. I am hoping to get some Physics teaching info as I may be teaching Physics next trimester for the first time.

High School Golf –

You gain access to their program at absolutely no cost. The program includes:

Weekly Lessons

DVD Clips

Breakdown Sessions

Practice Drills

Assignments

Training Aid Evaluations

Stat Tracking

Ongoing Tips

…and More

New Freeware Releases-

Finding freeware to use at school in classes. Keep updated on current freeware available.

CNN Headlines

I am following CNN Headlines to help myself and the students be aware of the major news stories around the world as they are happening.

Giveaway of the Day-

Provides one commercial software program each day available that day only for free. As with the Freeware Releases, used to find material that may be useful at school.

I also plan on adding to this list as I research more feeds and sites.

Intro Blog

Well, I've got the blog all setup and the iGoogle site seems to be linked to it okay.
So that makes 1 less thing to do, and how many more to go?