Thing 23

Wow this post was a long time coming. When I saw the email about the course, I thought to myself, that sounds fun but I was a little apprehensive about committing the time needed to do the course justice. Dennis Horne took me right off the fence when he asked me to do the class with him so that we could keep each other on track.

Thanks Dennis.

It will take me a while to actually let all of the information sink in, but the best part is that when I have a task at hand, I will remember all of the great resources I have explored and be fearless in exploring the use of new free tools on the internet. This course blows away any technology classes I have had in the past, and further developed my level of comfort with technology. Reading instructions, and following directions seems to be a lost art-form these days, but completing this course will put you right back in the saddle. If you can make a cake, you can accomplish all of these tasks.

I highly recommend this class for many reasons.
No driving, unless you can not follow directions.
Self paced. I like to work at a deligent pace, and sometimes get frustrated with the pace of a group.
You can complete your tasks anywhere you can get on line.
All of the task leave you with a functional product.
Completing the tasks gives you a sence of accomplishment.
Many of the tasks were fun, and easy.


My eyes are open, and I am ready to move forward.

Thing 22

By memoore | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

I created this cartoon with the use of Toondoo It wasn't very hard, and was kind of fun. I could see starting on a little project like this, and looking up after a couple of hours had passed. I put it out there for public view, and viewed several others as well. There is an opportunity with this site for sharing, and getting ideas from other people.

I also made a quick todo list at Ta-da lists It was really easy, and I could see myself using it on a daily basis. I could use this every day to get my day organized, help plan practices, and set up timing, and tasks that I would like to accomplish with my daily lessons.

I perused several other sites, and plan on keeping the list as a reference. I tried a few sites, but was unable to use several of them on my school computer because they required a newer version of a flash player, or some other upgrade that is blocked by the school. I get frustrated when I find something I might use, and just can't do it.

Going through these lists, and reviewing items from my Google reader have lead me to realize that I need to stay active on the web. There is so much happening at such a rapid rate, that I have to play with new tools on a regular basis, just to find tools that I can really use.

Thing 21

I scored a massive 41 on my Responsible Digital Citizen test. I was surprised at how low I scored.
I think that parents should have a heavy hand and be highly involved with teaching their children digital etiquette. More than likely the responsibility will fall on educators in the near future. We do not have any social skills classes in the college track curriculum, and I don't see any coming in the near future. It will be extremely difficult to teach someone Nettequitte if they have not already attained a level of proficiency with standard manners. The social skills are a dying art form in my opinion. You would be shocked to know the number of times I hear the F-Bomb dropped in casual conversation. While I am monitoring the hall I can easily overhear conversations, but the students don't even bother to look around to see who might hear them. We do have a set of writing standards at our school which includes the lack of Internet/text style abbreviations. It is a small step in the right direction, but did you notice in the description it implies that those abbreviations are alright on the Internet or in texts. OMG ;)
If we are going to work on Internet security, it needs to start in early elementary grades. With security I think the parents have to be on the front line. Students should know how dangerous it is to post personal information on the Internet.
When it comes to your digital footprint students need to understand that once something is on the Internet it is out there for good. posting information about yourself, or others can come back to haunt you at every turn. Again I think that most of these moral decisions have to come from the home. We as teachers can tell a story about the cheerleader who was kicked off the team for inappropriate pictures on myspace, or the Teacher that was asked to resign over pictures used on Facebook, but I think this will have to be established at a much younger age.
Bottom line, if they already have these bad habits when they get to High School they will be much harder to break than if they never develop these habits at all.

Thing 20 Organization.

Getting organized is the task at hand. I choose to use Simplebox
I found it very easy to use simplebox to take quick screen shots of some of my favorite sites. I liked how easy it was to move things around, delete items, rename items, and it only took me a few minutes to figure out how to find the embed code for the box I created. After reading the descriptions of the three choices for organization, I thought I would be most likely to use simplebox, and it was the third choice which will make it seem as if I read all three(just kidding).
I went to some of my favorite sites, boxed them, renamed my box, figured out how to embed it in my wiki page, and made the big toolbar into a small character. Wow, that sounds like I did a lot of work, but it was easy.
I could see myself using this tool in the future to help keep my web searches organized. I think I will use it more than Diggo for getting organized. I like the way the finished product looks better than the way Diggo looked
I did have a little trouble figuring out how to embed my Box to my wiki space, but when I stopped looking at the help menu, and just started helping myself, the problem was solved with a few clicks of the mouse.

5d the cash cab

I enjoy watching TV quiz shows like jeopardy, but my favorite might just be the Cash Cab Show on the Discovery Channel. While I was perusing my Google Reader i discovered that now you can play the cash cab quizzes right from your computer. The beauty of the show for those of you that have not watched it is that someone hails a cab in NY city, and are picked up by the host of the show in a minivan style taxi loaded with hidden cameras. They are asked if they want to participate, and then it is on. They answer questions all the way to their destination, and earn money for correct responses. If they miss three questions they are kicked out wherever they are. There is also a double or nothing bonus question when they arrive at their destination. I have taken some of the quizzes myself, and read some of them to my class. My students enjoy the challenge of the quizzes, and I often get some good teachable moments to discuss the trivia in greater detail. You might want to try it with your class.