My Last Reflection is #23

The picture says it all, there is a world of possibilities. I have discovered what 23 of those possibilities are. I can see how these 23Things can be valuable and powerful tools in education. I can see them being more applicable in some subjects and more difficult to implement in others. I have learned that I am not as technologically savvy as I thought I was, but I can not see myself pushing myself to become so, but I will be come more adept at some of the tools discovered here. I have really enjoyed learning about the 23Things and the world of possibilities they provide.

Like every technology there is the good and the bad. The good is a allows a positive experience for all parties involved. Students and teachers could meet, in cyberspace, peers and share their feelings, discoveries, misconceptions, and other opinions on a myriad of subjects. This interaction would give us all a better understanding of the people who share our planet. The people sharing their knowledge could be as close as the next high school or as far away as the exact opposite side of the world. We would become cyber-classmates and learn much from each other and about each other. The limitations are the bad; accessibility being the foremost limitation. How do we include teachers and students without access to the Internet? There are countries that do not have the resources to expand their on-line infrastructure, should they are excluded? Access to the Internet is not available to everyone even in technologically advanced countries. There are students in my classroom who do not have Internet access at home, do we exclude them as well? I also question to what extent are these tools used in, or eventually as, a classroom? If we make it too much of the classroom do we create a generation of "connected isolationists"? I see many students now who are connected to many different things in cyberspace, but are physically alone. That worries me; I believe students are not learning socially correct etiquette because they are being involved in fewer and fewer social situations. In moderation and proper situations I can see all of the 23Things being combined to be used as a powerful educational tool. I will use some of these new tools in my classroom in the future.

Looking back on the 23Things and their possible future in my classroom.

Blogs: I can not see the day when I subscribe and follow blogs on a daily basis, but I can see it as a way to keep students up-to-date on things going on in the classroom.
RSS feeds: I can see these being used everyday in Government, Social Studies, and several other courses on a daily basis. As a math teacher, I can not see it as a practical way to use in my classroom. I can see me using it as a way to monitor changes in education. I have found myself checking my RSS button to see if some one has posted anything new at the feeds I have marked.
Photo and Video Sharing: I can see me using these as a part of a geometry project in the future. I can also see me using it as a way to make math fun. Showing math related images and videos that educate and amuse would help hold the students interest.
Widgets: would fit into the same idea as photo and video sharing. Make it fun, keep them interested.
Social Bookmarking and Delicious: Just different flavors of search engines. I am confident in my searching skills and I do not see me using these in the future.
Google Docs and other Productivity Software: I can see these coming in handy in many different ways in a classroom for both me and my students.
Podcasting: Interesting from the fact of some of my subliminal misconceptions, but I do not see my self using podcasts in my classroom. I can see it being used as a way to improve my teaching skills.
Wikis: I would like to see how it could be used as a collaboration center for a group of math teachers.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey. I will watch as my fellow 23Thingers work their way through the 23things. The insights and questions asked so far have made me rethink some of my ideas and concepts about the 23Things and their use in the classroom. I am looking forward to learning how they feel about their journey through the 23Things. I wonder if they will feel like it has opened up a world of possibilities to them.

I am a Wikier...Wikiest...Wikifier? Reflection #22

I have created a wiki and I don't know what to call my self. My wiki is at https://bloggenstein.wikispaces.com/Math+and+Bloggenstein. I was fun and easy. I did find it weird to edit some one's page without their permission. All I did was add a link to the Math Forum, but I feel like I intruded a bit. I think wikis can be fun and productive in so many different ways. I am curious to see if my wiki gets added to and how it will make me feel. Will the person who edits it be helpful and try to improve my site or a prankster like I have heard occurs at Wikipedia? I do not know if a wiki, a blog or a web page would be the best way to post classroom information on line. Any or all of them could be effective. I guess you could use a combination of the three, it all depends on what your plans are.

The difference I see between a blog and a wiki is the intent of its use. A blog is used to share or relate thoughts and information. A wiki is used to build information and create a shared document. I can see the two of them being used together as a strong classroom tool, especially if collaborative projects are to be done. A wiki is used to build the project so there is just one working model, while a blog would be the discussion of the plans and the project should come together.

Reflection #21 on Wki-mania

Wiki's are very interesting. I have used Wikipedia to help point me in the right direction on some of my papers in college, but I did not use it as a source. I used it to find more information than I knew on a subject, but I never trusted it. I was never sure who was writing the article and whether or not I could trust it. Just as I tell my students after they tell me Joe helped me get the wrong answer, "you need to check your sources". I did find a few of wikis that caught my eye. Ms. Schmitz seems to have it all set on her wiki. She has homework listed, homework answers, links to activities, and many other things she uses in her Honors Geometry class. There was also a site, which I can't relocate at the moment, that was started by some math teachers and they were sharing worksheets. I can see why the worksheet sharing would be a wiki, but I wonder why Ms Schmitz uses a wiki and not a web page? She would not allow her students to alter most of the documents and pages on her site. I wonder if it is easier for her to maintain a wiki compared to a web page?

I can see many different possibilities for collaboration between classrooms world wide using wikis. The problems are many and I think they maybe worth the fight if we use them properly. If we use them to introduce children to each other in a world wide setting them it may help raise tolerance amongst the adults of the future. The project possibilities are almost endless. You could compare and contrast climates, histories, stats (student driven surveys), science projects in different locations, and so on. The problems include access to all students, organizing collaborations, setting up projects, introducing teachers to each other, and monitoring input are just a few of the problems that could occur while using wikis.

Which podcasts are best for me and Reflection #20

I looked and I looked, but I could not find any podcast that caught my eye. I listened to a few and none of them made me want to listen to them again. The only podcast that was at all interesting to me was this Live At Gotham podcast from Comedy Central (EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING!). It is not all crude, but there could be some blue comedians found here. The stand-up is not censored at all. I added Live at Gotham and another Comedy Central podcast to my RSS feed so I will be informed when the new content is posted.

I also joined podcast.som and I am looking around there for more possibilities. It seems to me podcasts are more about entertainment than education. I can see the use of posting recording podcasts for my students to make up on missed lectures.

There's no 'i' in podcast, but there is in Reflection #19

Once again an obvious thing slips through my grasp. I had never really thought about podcasts until this thing came along. I knew that they were downloads of taped (ooooops showing my age) or recorded material. I never thought about getting on because I don't have an ipod. It's not that I really thought I needed an ipod to down load them, its just that I had never heard of one I wanted to download before. If I had I know me, I would have looked into it and discovered I didn't need to have an ipod. I listen to a lot of sports talk radio and they almost always have the "entire interview" on podcast at their web site. I am not that interested in what I perceive as the typical pod cast; news, sports, gossip, interviews, and etc. That being said... A fellow math teacher asked me if I would change rooms next year because of the smart board in her current room. I know little or nothing about them but I did find a podcast at EPN.com that I will use as I try to get familiar with it. The podcast is at

http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=2024&openpod=7#anchor7

I have only quickly previewed a limited part of the episodes, but I can see it being a big help.

I did not find a second podcast. I will look again while working on thing #20.

Sharing Reflection #18 is slip sliding away

SlideShare was interesting. I found some presentations I could use, if the district does not block the content or it is considered streaming and it would not be allowed either. Some of these presentations can be downloaded and some can not. Some of the presentations have slides specific to a text or class and would have to be edited before use.

I found a slide show showing math tricks so I added it here because I could not download it. I also added it to my Delicious account with the Delicious button at the bottom of the presentation. I found out since my original post that, if you choose to download a presentation it will not happen as a lot of downloads do, the presentation is emailed to you and you save it from there.

Amazing Math Trick

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I gave this presentation in college. I have always been interested in the history of military aircraft particularly WWII aircraft. Having viewed this PowerPoint on-line I am disappointed that my animation or "movement" can not be seen; every time there is a slide with planes and a scale the planes had flown in from off screen to that position. In the on-line version there is no animation, but according to SlideShare the animations will be there if my PowerPoint is downloaded.

Improvement of Military Planes From War to War

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