Week 5 - Wow!

This week’s exploration can be summarized by blurry eyes and a head ready to explode!  With many of the photo applications (Flikr, Animoto, Dumpr), I found it difficult at first, to stay focused on educational applications.  I figured the best way to experiment was to use personal photos as I don’t have any classroom or student photos.  Also, the fact that I have an adorable one-month old grandniece gave me lots of material to play with.  I think my own daughter was a little jealous.  Having said that, reading Richards gives lots of great ideas and examples of how these applications could be used with images already existing on the web, and how I could offer instruction and examples to classroom teachers.  In addition to creating new, innovative and fun lessons for students, these tools offer so much opportunity for collaboration.  Whether it is sharing information with parents, showcasing assignments to the community, or working with other students virtually, these applications have so much to offer. 

Flikr seemed to me to be the starting point for any applications involving photos.  When it came time to start uploading my photos,  I think I bit off more than I could chew.  I decided to organize an entire Boy Scout Troop worth of photos and quickly reached my limit.  I plan to pare down the batch and continue to tag and annotate to realize the organization potential.  Lesson learned is that I probably shouldn’t have uploaded all 200 photos at once. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59729093@N04/

GOOGLEDOCS

Googledocs continues to amaze me.  Of all the applications, this one seems to me one that should definitely be part of a Professional Development curriculum.  Whether used for student projects or for  teacher sharing and tracking, it is something every educator should be taking advantage of.

FREE VS. FEE

Although many of the applications offer advanced features, there seems to be enough free features without subscribing.  Since some of the applications have overlapping features, there is a competitive market growing.  One example of this is in calendar applications. 

THE BIG PICTURE

One thing I struggled with is how all the applications fit together in the big picture.  What belongs to Google?  What belongs to Yahoo?  I believe I mistakenly opened two Flikr accounts one through Google and one through Yahoo.  I plan to make some kind of visual chart so I can get them all straight—and also a method of organizing all my passwords, screen names etc.  I use a somewhat consistent naming convention but there is still enough variance to make a central list important. 

All-in-all, lots of great information this week.  On a side note, I loved the Richardson book.  It is easy to understand, and provides lots of examples.  I  can see keeping it by my side quite a bit. 

Library Thing

After playing around with options, Library Thing was my favorite.  Of course then I struggled to think of what titles to add.   I will have to go back and "review my reviews" from other sources and combine them all to this new tool!

http://www.librarything.com/home/SusanA48

Social Organization-Part Deux

So the deadline for last week has come and gone and I just realized that I have to provide links to all the new tools I played with last week.  Some are still being worked on well beyond the due date but it's just one of those weeks where life got in the way of school!

Here's my delicious site:
http://www.delicious.com/bookmom4865

Organizational Tools

I agree with Richardson that RSS is the new ‘Killer App’…..cuz it’s killing me!  This is the one tool I just can’t  seem to grasp.  I understand  the value of reversing the flow of  information , however the mechanics involved seem to be eluding me.   I will keep slugging away.  

Delicious is well…delicious.  I had already opened an account but was essentially using it as a favorites list with no organization.  This week’s exploration introduced me to the concept of tags, and also to the concept of how this tool  can be used as a sharing tool.

This week's discussion board has offered so many rich examples of how these tools are being used in the classroom.  The possibilities are endless!

My Wiki Assignment

One of the most difficult parts of this week's assignment to design a Wiki was deciding what type of Wiki to create.  Suffice it to say I was overwhelmed with the potential of this tool and did not know where to start!  I wanted to create a Wiki that I could actually use.  I decided to create a Wiki which I hope will add value to the planning and organization of an annual school/community event I have been involved with--Stuff-A-Bus.  I have been involved with this effort for the past three years and although there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in being involved in such an important effort, there have been administrative/clerical frustrations along the way.  Constant e-mails back and forth, "I thought I told you that" types of scenarios.  The collaboration value of Wikis really hit home with me during this week's exploration and I hope the Stuff-A-Bus wikki will add value to the planning process.  It's definately a work-in-progress but I hope other committee members will accept and contribute to help make our project even greater!

The Wonderful World of Wikis

Although I have played around with Wikis for a previous LBS class, this week’s exploration into everything wiki  really expanded my understanding of this powerful tool.   I especially liked Barbara Schroeder’s 10 Best Practices for Using Wikis in Education.   

http://itcboisestate.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/10-best-practices-for-using-wikis-in-education/

My biggest moment of wiki enlightenment was embracing the “collaborative environment” that wikis create.  Wikis are more than just a flashy new technology; they can be a means to an end of teaching students how to work with others, or as Richardson writes “how to operate in a world  where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort.”

I began my exploration with the award winners:

http://itcboisestate.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/10-best-practices-for-using-wikis-in-education/

It really is amazing to see all the creative uses for Wikis.   As with most of my explorations in technology, I found time flying by as I leapt from wiki to wiki.  Thankfully, Mother Nature provided an excellent excuse to sit by the fire and wiki away. 

My biggest frustration at this point is not having any professional outlet for this expanding balloon of new technology in my head!  For a previous class, I had created a very basic wiki to potentially be used in the library I was temporarily working in. ( libraryshare.wikispaces.com )    Although I am always eager to share my creations with library staff members I haven’t had any takers yet for actually using them.   Someday!

My head is spinning with possibilities for creating a wiki for this week’s assignment.   Time to leap from exploration to implementation!  (And then back for more exploration)