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

View more presentations from simone su.

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

View more presentations from Todd Roberts.

Reflection #17 is being productive on-line

I tried some of the tools listed and I did not care for them. They were slow and did not respond the way I wanted them to. I do not care for mind maps, I never got the hang of them and my mind is so jumbled I can't follow them. I use my yahoo calendar for daily reminders and things far in the future, so I would not use "remember the milk". With "LibraryThing" I can see it being used as a classroom discussion tool, but I can see students using it to steal other people's ideas and thoughts making it so they dont' have to read the book themselves (maybe I am too pessamistic on some these applications). The "LibraryThing" could be used if you are an avid reader to review books before you by them. If you find some fellow readers who seem to share you point of view you could limit the number of "bad" books you buy. I did use ZOHO to make a small presentation and I have decided that I prefer my PowerPoint program. If I did not have Microsoft Office or if my work computer did not have it I would spend more time, because it is slower and I am unfamiliar with it, learning ZOHO to make me more productive with it. Once again I wonder if these applications are blocked at school? If they are sluggish on my home computer, how sluggish would the be on our school system?

Work together while being apart or Reflection #16

I learned about Google Docs last year while in a football pool. I using my dad's computer because mine was in for repair. He did not have Microsoft Office so I could not open the spread sheet he was sending out with updates. I used Google Docs to open the spreadsheet so I could read it. Google Docs can be used to open and read documents, spreadsheets, and other files created by different applications. All I had to do was save the new updates to my computer and then use Google Docs to open it, it was easy and it worked well for the situation I was in. I had forgotten about it until I opened my Google Doc account and I saw the spreadsheets there. As I am doing this at home I wonder if we have access at school, I ask this because some sites and applications are blocked. I can see this as a powerful tool if yoou are working on group projects. It allows everyone to work on the project from where ever they are with out having many different copies floating around. You can track who made what updates, this would allow a teacher to see who did what on any given project.

Reflection #15

I have cleaned up my feeds, there where hundreds of unread feeds. I can see it as a useful tool, but I can not picture myself checking it on a daily basis. My home page has feeds that I use to check the news I am interested in. I am not the type of person who really follows the news so following the feeds does not really interest me. If I see a headline on my home page that I am interested in I will will the story other than that I have no real interest. As a new teacher I probably should follow current events closer as a way to help keep my students up-to-date, but I have not made that step yet. If my class relied on current news stories I could see how subscribing and checking these feeds daily would be an excellent way to stay on top of current events.

Reflection #14 is Delicious

Choices choices choices again there are so many choices. I looked at many different math tags, lesson tags, education tags, and other tags. There are so many different sites. While Delicious helps you find what other people have found useful it still is just a search engine. I opened many sites that where for elementary and middle school classes, but I am a high school teacher so these were really no help. I am a new poor teacher that was directed to many sites that charged you for lessons or to join. After some amount of time I did find my 10 sites, I am bloggenstein so you can look for me to see what I thought was useful to a high school math teacher. I do beleive this site can help you find some things to help teachers find lesson plans and classroom ideas. I still beleive that there has to be a better way, but I have not figured it out yet.

Happy Holidays to all!!!!

Have I been tagged or Reflection #13

I wonder, will I ever be tagged? What will it feel like? Will I know it? Social Bookmarking just another search engine. It just uses users tags to sort the web sites into catagories. I see no real difference between google and Del.icio.us other than the users do the sorting. I found the best way to search through tags was to use the "search tags" option where I was able to type in the words I wanted. It lead to a few dead ends, but it was a more of a self driven search other than the generic search box at the top of the site. I equate to a reverse game of 21 questions, instead of asking questions to solve what the object is you tell it word by word what you are searching for. Which leads to the question on who is tagging what? I am curious what the tagging options are for web sites. I guess I will learn that in #14!

Reflection # 12: Widgets Galore

Quote of the day



Word of the day

Reflecting on your Reflections or Reflection #11

I left comments for 23ThingsforNichole and Blogging Along with Elizabeth. I feel good leaving positive comments about another person's thoughts and concerns. I can see blogging as a way to feel like a good Samaritan by being positive with others. Many blogging communities, such as this one, are built by professionals looking for positive influences on our careers. We use it to share ideas about education and technology. Other blogs are started by people with strong opinions about hot button topics; i.e. religion, politics, and racism to mention a few. I (we) will not agree with all of their opinions and biases. Does the sense of anonymity add to some people's bravado. Can it lead to blogging as a way to be rude, offensive, and disparaging to others. Do people search for blogs that they blatantly disagree with and visit them and show them their disdain for blogs ideas of others. Will students feel more freedom to post things on a web site that they would never say in class or will the students knowing they still have to face each other in class keep it "civilized"?

Download a Video Reflection #10

I had to download an MP4 player before I could play a video that I downloaded, I have posted it here for educational purposes only. It was bit annoying to have to download the player, but it was from Apple so I trusted the sight. This contradicts my previous post. I would have to transfer video from site to my computer before I could show it to my class. I like some of the video lessons I have seen, but some of them I could do a better job on others.

embedding a video

Funny stuff

YouTube Reflection #9

I have been to YouTube before so I looked up some old favorites, Heywood Banks, OK GO, The Raconteurs, and some Bob and Tom songs. I searched for geometry and found some videos that I could show in school. There were also a bunch of algebra videos as well. I could down load some of them for free and some were listed as 79 cents apiece. I also found a series of lessons that a man is trying to sell. He has left samples of the video for people to view. Of the videos I could download I could use at school, but if I could not download it I could not show it at school because I can not stream video.

Reflection #5 better late than never

I would have sworn I commented on this thing, but apparently I didn't. (This raises a question to be addressed?) Once again choices bogged me down. I decided to follow some comic blogs and a few sports blogs. I picked blogs from "professional" bloggers: ESPN, Fox Sports, CBSportsline. I have no real interest in what Bob from Boise thinks about his Bobcats. The professionals give you a wider variety of blogs and topics.

The new question? What about miss placed "assignments"? How can we verify if a student really did turn in an assignment digitally? Any key stroke could send it into cyber-limbo. If a student insists that he did the work and posted it, but it is not there can we verify what he is saying? There are glitches in all systems and they could misplace a file very easily. Would it be redundant to require a hard copy of an assignment as well as a digital copy?

I made the cover of Life or Reflection #8

It was a life long dream of mine to be on the cover of Life Magazine! It is fun playing with some of the editors. Some of them are cheesy, but free graphic generators are what they are. I did find myself trying to be too perfect, with time I could get better, but for the gist of the thing I think it came out OK. Once again one of my problems was too many choices.

Reflection #7

I can see this being a tool in many other classes, but the possibilities in math may be limited. I once again ask the question about accessibility. Can I realistically make an assignment that requires on line work and not provide the time in class? I beleive that eventually this could be a reality, but until computers and the internet are provided for everyone making it apart of an assignment may not be fair. I posted a picture called "resa 23 things wsdmi"

Flickr Reflection #6

Moving along with my 23 things. I have always enjoyed pictures of lightening so that is what I found. There are many wonderful shots. Some of the "tangents" or similar searches brought back some curious results. I guess it all depends on who names the photos and how they want to label them.

Reflection #4

I know what I am interested in, but what blogs do I choose? How do I research the blogger to see if I can trust his opinion? Do I care if he has a valid background or am I just interested in what he has to say? How do I look for individual topics, i.e. I am a Chicago Bears fan, how do I search for blogs I would be interested in following. I am assuming that I would have to go from blog to blog to see which ones I like and dislike. Once again there are so many (maybe too many) options to choose from.

Reflection #3

The teachers are doing a great job of making their classes techno savy. I have to ask if they are giving time in class for all students to access their blogs. If not, then how do they assure that every student has the same access. The reality is not all students have access to the Internet outside of school.

Reflection #2

Setting up a blog is as hard as it is easy. The web site has made it very easy to create a blog using templates and predesigned HTML pages. This makes it so anyone can create a blog even with limited or no computer skills. The hardest part for me was coming up with a good blog name and URL address. I came up with a name that seems funny to me, but may not even raise a smirk from someone else. This doesn't matter because a blog is for the person who creates it. While they want people to read it, they are satisfied that they have created it and they are posting their thoughts and ideas for all to see.

Reflection #1

I can see how technology can really enhance classroom learning. It gives the students a way to access information in a new way. Odds are that many students would be more adept at this than the teachers. As a teacher I could use this as a way to connect with my students in a new way, I could ask them to teach me as I learn to use this new technology.

I do see some downsides to making a class completely reliant on technology. I can not make the assumption that every student has access; some students and their families are not connected to the Internet. It would be unfair to those students to expect them to participate in any on-line classes. I can see where some people would want to eliminate teachers and use strictly on-line classes. This brings up a whole new set of questions. "Who is doing the work or checking the work?" "What about the social part of school, where students learn to work and live in a society?"

Just as any technology is created we have to ask our selves how can we use it to the most of its capability in the fairest possible manner.