Thing 11

I chose to do a slide show to accompany an article about the changing leaves in autumn.

Photo Sources
Chlorophyll Roo Reynolds
ambivalent tree/ By summervillain
Leaf By deserttrumpet
Chlorophyll? By pberry
Dying from the outside in By Dru!
Phases By jah~

Thing 5a

I've never been very good at skimming. I either read it fully or my eyes just move down the page and I get nothing. I've been trying, though, to just look for highlights in the things I see in Google Reader. The problem is, though, that I want to read everything that sounds interesting and there just isn't time for that!
In Free Technology for Teachers, I thought the Specra search engine tool might be a good thing to investigate for student use when searching for information. They really don't know how to decide what is valid information, and they always wonder why they need to keep reading when "everything says the same thing." With all they need to know about how to research, how to give credit and cite sources, how to recognize good sources, this search engine tool that ranks results across major search engines could be very useful.

Thing 10

I was amazed how many images I could find, even under Creative Commons, for all the words I searched. I mostly searched biology words; I thought something generic like "babies" or "animals" would give me so many images I wouldn't be able to choose... and it would take me forever to look at them. (I have to see everything just to make sure I don't miss the one I really want!). I finally chose "chlorophyll" and only got over 600 images instead of in the tens of thousands. Wow, that's a lot about chlorophyll! I was thinking about an article I have my students read about the changing autumn leaves due to the loss of chlorophyll, and thought some images of autumn leaves would make an interesting slide presentation with the article. The image shown here, by RooReynolds, is an amazing close up of a leaf. I thought it would be a good starting place to show the green from the chlorophyll.

Thing 9

Creative Commons is an exciting new idea to me. I hadn't heard of it (or noticed the logo anywhere!), but I'm delighted to learn about the new laws for educators and the sources for finding allowable materials for me and my students to use. I use things in the classroom and post material on my website, but I can't always post exactly what I use in class because of copyright issues. I've tried to follow them, but it certainly does get confusing. It seems we grew up with the idea that, as long as you're not making a profit from it or taking credit for it, it was okay. I think that might still be a common misconception. But the proliferation of technology and the internet has made us rethink copyright. As an educator, I can't afford to pay everyone for everything I'd like to use- I don't make that much money! But, if it means exposing hundreds of students to a particular work by allowing its free use or not allowing it unless a fee is paid, it seems reasonable that creators would want to share what they've done, if only to develop a following who would continue to support their work financially!
I took some classes in graphic design recently and, naturally, copyright was a big part of the coursework. Of course, it was more in the interests of the creators, but even there the instructors made it clear that images could be used for learning in our classes. We also learned where and how to find royalty free stock images and even some fee-free royalty free images. I plan to explore and use extensively the Creative Commons to ensure that I use materials appropriately and teach my students how to use them, too. Learning that there are ways to let consumers know how they can use your materials in a copyright was great- if I get the chance to create things (using what I learned in graphic arts...) I would like to let people know they can use them, so I'm glad to find out where to go for that step.
The new laws from 2008 seem more reasonable for educators. I thought it was odd that we could only keep copies of an article for a year- I only use it once a year, after all- but then I could go back to the magazine's website, download it again, print it again... talk about a lot of paper. I suppose I should pay for a class set of copies to keep, but that becomes cost prohibitive. After all, I want to provide the best for my students as well as set a good example in how to use materials. I believe the new laws make more sense with how we use things and with the availability made possible through the internet.

Thing 7

I thought the kindergarten Count to 100 page was a neat idea. Nothing was explained, but presumably students could gather items to count and photograph to post. A few numbers were missing, but it was a neat idea. I'd like to try the activity (without the posting) with my son. Since I don't teach kindergarten (far from it!), I don't know if this wiki is simply a twist on an in-class project, but it was a great way to get the kids involved and able to see what they did on a website so they could show their parents.
The Codeblue wiki showed some amazing creativity and writing skills for the students. Some groups had done an excellent job compiling information, but it appeared that some might have spent more time creating their persona that they lost sight of the project. Either that, or links to their work are missing- always a possibility if you forget to add a link!
I was curious about the chemistry wiki, since I also teach science. It looks like it has some considerable resources and work contributed by students, as well as useful course information for students (syllabus, notes, answer to problems). I found it difficult to navigate or figure out what was going on, though. To be useful, at least to someone not in the class that made the wiki, it needs some work to clarify what's available.
The wikis I looked at seemed to be most useful to those involved in creating them- it wasn't very clear what was happening or where to find things. But then, they weren't necessarily created to demonstrate to others what the assignment or project was for, like a lesson plan or lab instructions that might be found a web page. Of course, you wouldn't necessarily want to use a wiki, that could be edited, for lesson plans or lab instructions (unless it was protected).
Using a wiki as a means of collaboration, especially outside the classroom, could be very useful. I like the ideas for students to put together their own study guides, to get them involved in discussions about what's going on in class instead of just memorizing facts to get through the test. I would like to find out if pages could be protected from some users and not others so that a group can add to their page, but another group can't make any changes to it, to prevent sabotage. I started using a wiki with my astronomy classes, but since it was still new to me, I wasn't able to use it for much more than posting assignments. We had some issues with adding student users because students couldn't access their emails to activate their accounts, and a few students didn't have email addresses. I would like to find ways around that, as well. Can I add my students as users, assign passwords, and then they can change their passwords? More things to investigate...

Thing 6

I've heard of the social bookmarking sites, but haven't really had a chance to figure them out. It's a welcome opportunity to get started, though. I laughed when I read the part in the lesson about emailing links to yourself. I do that all the time!! To add links, for now, I just started down my favorites list- I hope to experiment with importing later. I ran into a few problems on sites that use frames; Diigo's drop down box was hidden and I couldn't figure out how to get it on top. I was able to find, though, how to add bookmarks on Diigo's site, so that worked. I like the box better, though, because it suggests tags I have used as I start to type, so I don't have to do it myself. Unfortunately, I misspelled one of my tags initially, so I've figured out how to edit that. Yeeha. I tried inviting some friends, but I'm not sure if it went through with the verification part, so I did it the old fashioned (?) way and added email addresses in an invitation.
Check out what I've started! (http://www.diigo.com/profile/ananshoes)
I hope to make appropriate links available to my students. Can the links be made available at different levels of privacy? Such as, my friends outside school could see everything, but my students would only see content related stuff? Have to check that out....
We have a lot of webquests in my Astronomy class, so this will be a useful way for students to find the assignments I have for them, plus a great way for them to add to it with sites they find, as well.

Thing 3

I had fun scrolling down the page and watching the number of new items change as they were marked read. I noticed one from Langwitches that was in Spanish (?)- had to go back to look at that one.
The snippet I found most interesting was from Free Tech 4 Teachers about Why? This was particularly interesting to me because my 4 year old is definitely at that stage, so much so that he will ask it automatically, now! I want to forward it to my husband- he's home with the kids, so he gets to hear the Why?s a lot.
If you're interested, check out why hippos don't get sunburned.