Ah... 23 Things, come and gone. We had some good times, the Things and I. Sure, there were some rough patches - nothing's ever easy all the time - but we got through it. To paraphrase an excellent and admirable hobbit, I don't know half the Things half as well as I would like, and I like less than half of them half as well as they deserve.
Alright, so that last part didn't make a whole lot of sense. Whatever. Bilbo is awesome.
Feedback: I mentioned over and over again that I'm not 100% on board with the idea of "learning 2.0" or whatever, and most of the Things seemed to involve something either entirely frivolous or of questionable educational value. I do think it's important for teachers to be more or less up to speed with technology in general, so the 23 Things assignment works on that level, but I have a lot of trouble picturing MOST of the Web 2.0 technology presented therein as being useful in an educational setting. I also think the presentation of certain Things could be reorganized - for instance, Thing 16 repeats much of the same information as Thing 12, depending on which Google tools a student chooses for Thing 12. If Thing 16 happened first, then in Thing 12 a student could just choose different tools to avoid redundancy.
Where do I go from here? Lunch. I'm starving. After that, though, it will be time to consider what I may or may not do with this blog in the future. If I see a use for it in my classroom a couple of years from now, I may revive it, but for now I believe I'm content to let it lie while I go back to doing the things I was already doing. At this point in my life, a teaching blog is just one more thing to keep up with, and since I'm not going to be teaching for some time (or ever, if APSU continues to schedule classes the way they do), I don't see much point.
Did I learn some stuff? Yeah, I suppose. I was certainly exposed to some things I haven't been interested in checking out on my own. Have my technological horizons been broadened by this assignment? Not really, but then I was pretty comfortable with technology to begin with. Am I going to change my tune about cutting-edge technology in teaching? Not likely - at least not until society and economy catch up with technology. When I can be reasonably sure that all my students can access the web at home, then I'll worry about web-based assignments. When I can have unfettered access to computers for my students in the classroom, then I'll worry about using computers in class. Until then, I suppose I'll just keep an eye on the horizons of technology and think of what I might possibly be able to do one day, if the stars align properly.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thing 23: Creative Common Sense
Since I am required to find an attribution in the 23 Things assignment, let's get that out of the way first:
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things. That program is based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers, Technology Director at the Charlotte Mecklenburg County Public Library system, with the support and assitance of several staff. Helene's program was loosely based upon Stephen Abram's article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006) and the website 43Things.
That's from the "About" page of the assignment.
Anyway, Creative Commons does offer a more sensible alternative to standard copyrights, but I don't see that it solves the problem of major corporate copyright holders. The copyright holder, after all, has to CHOOSE to put things under a Creative Commons license instead of a normal copyright, so it's hardly a panacea for all a teacher's copyright woes. I think a wise and prudent teacher would also be well-served by becoming familiar with the ins and outs of Fair Use doctrine as well as looking for Creative Commons material.
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things. That program is based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers, Technology Director at the Charlotte Mecklenburg County Public Library system, with the support and assitance of several staff. Helene's program was loosely based upon Stephen Abram's article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006) and the website 43Things.
That's from the "About" page of the assignment.
Anyway, Creative Commons does offer a more sensible alternative to standard copyrights, but I don't see that it solves the problem of major corporate copyright holders. The copyright holder, after all, has to CHOOSE to put things under a Creative Commons license instead of a normal copyright, so it's hardly a panacea for all a teacher's copyright woes. I think a wise and prudent teacher would also be well-served by becoming familiar with the ins and outs of Fair Use doctrine as well as looking for Creative Commons material.
Thing 22: Invasion of the Podcast People
For this Thing, I listened to the most recent few episodes of Onion Radio News. I found it on iTunes, which was my directory of choice because I'm already an iTunes user, and then subscribed to it, so now the new episodes will automatically download to my iTunes Library as they become available. For those who are interested, the most recent episode is embedded below. It's short, but the mid-week episodes of ORN are. The Sunday episodes are a little over two minutes and cover more than one "story."
I don't see myself doing much, if any, podcasting in the future, for reasons I've mentioned before - primarily unreliable accessibility for my students outside the classroom (or even inside the classroom, depending on where I teach).
I don't see myself doing much, if any, podcasting in the future, for reasons I've mentioned before - primarily unreliable accessibility for my students outside the classroom (or even inside the classroom, depending on where I teach).
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thing 21: Animoto
I tried for like ten minutes to come up with a clever title for this one, and just couldn't do it. I blame Sudafed, personally. Anyway, here's the music video I made:
I think Animoto falls into that Web 2.0 category I've been complaining about: "toys." It's neat technology, but I don't see much point in it, especially with regard to education. You have no control over HOW the video turns out, so it's really like putting a slideshow on autopilot, with a soundtrack. I don't see myself ever using this again.
I think Animoto falls into that Web 2.0 category I've been complaining about: "toys." It's neat technology, but I don't see much point in it, especially with regard to education. You have no control over HOW the video turns out, so it's really like putting a slideshow on autopilot, with a soundtrack. I don't see myself ever using this again.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Thing 20: People called Romanes they go the house?
I love YouTube. I could spend hours there just watching videos and clicking through to related videos. Sure, there's a lot of garbage, but there's also a ton of really good stuff. Like that clip up there from Monty Python's Life of Brian, for example. YouTube is sort of a video microcosm of the internet as a whole, which is to say that if you know where to look, you can probably find anything. I mostly use it for entertainment, but there's no reason you couldn't also use it for education. If you do it right, you could probably use it for both at the same time.
Thing 19: POP goes the Teacher.
Alright, so now I've got this TeacherPOP thing up and running. I really doubt I'll use it much, though. Frankly, I am already being pushed to the very limit of my social threshold, and I am pretty selective about with whom I will socially network. A site where I have no control over who is in my "circle" just doesn't appeal to me at all. Still, I joined, and I have commented, and I have placed my little TeacherPOP badge on this blog.
Even on the internet, I am something of an introvert. This is less apparent than in real life, where I am extremely introverted, but it is still true. As I discussed above and in my post regarding Facebook and MySpace, the idea of being part of a gigantic group of people all just chattering away doesn't appeal to me. So no, I don't belong to any other social networks, nor do I want to. I have a badly-neglected LiveJournal account and I belong to several message boards, but these are examples of older, more structured technologies that better suit my temperament.
Just to be clear: I have no problem with new technology. Social networking, however, is not for me. Not the way most people seem to do it, and certainly not in settings where I cannot control whose chatter I receive. The signal-to-noise ratio is just entirely too low for my liking.
Even on the internet, I am something of an introvert. This is less apparent than in real life, where I am extremely introverted, but it is still true. As I discussed above and in my post regarding Facebook and MySpace, the idea of being part of a gigantic group of people all just chattering away doesn't appeal to me. So no, I don't belong to any other social networks, nor do I want to. I have a badly-neglected LiveJournal account and I belong to several message boards, but these are examples of older, more structured technologies that better suit my temperament.
Just to be clear: I have no problem with new technology. Social networking, however, is not for me. Not the way most people seem to do it, and certainly not in settings where I cannot control whose chatter I receive. The signal-to-noise ratio is just entirely too low for my liking.
Thing 18: FaceSpace!
Social networking has taken the industrialized world by storm. It's a tremendous waste of time, if you ask me, so it is only natural that I've got a MySpace page (no, you can't see it) and a Facebook profile. ;)
I'm not what you'd call a power-user of these sites, though. For example, my girlfriend has 360-something friends on Facebook, and I know Morgan just broke 420. I've got something like 130, and it feels like too many. I guess I'm just not a terribly social person, but I don't like to "network" with people to whom I don't actually have some connection beyond simple common interests. Almost all of my FB friends, for example, are people I have known personally, and the ones I've never physically met are almost all "colleagues" of a sort in the Privateer Press Gang.
That said, it's neat, this social networking phenomenon. It allows people to form and maintain connections (of an incredibly superficial, limited sort) with pretty much anybody in the world. Facebook also allows people to become Fans or Supporters as well as Friends, so companies and organizations can also become part of the social networks. MySpace has some sort of similar functionality, but MySpace is such a train wreck (thanks to near-limitless "customizability") these days that I never bother with it any more.
Educators need to be aware of social networking for one simple reason: students ARE using it. If Law & Order - the origin of the fictional social networking site "FaceSpace" - and other police shows are to be believed, they're all doing something sinister with it, but I think we can safely take a less frightening view and just acknowledge that students are comfortable with the technology. We educators don't necessarily need to jump in the middle of their business, but it is always useful to know what they're up to.
Honestly, because of the extremely public nature of social networking, I don't think that MySpace or Facebook has much instructional value. Something more limited, like Facebook was at its inception (i.e. limited to one school or a small group of them), might have some use to instructors, but I think we're probably better off leaving the social networks for socializing - such as it is on the internet.
I'm not what you'd call a power-user of these sites, though. For example, my girlfriend has 360-something friends on Facebook, and I know Morgan just broke 420. I've got something like 130, and it feels like too many. I guess I'm just not a terribly social person, but I don't like to "network" with people to whom I don't actually have some connection beyond simple common interests. Almost all of my FB friends, for example, are people I have known personally, and the ones I've never physically met are almost all "colleagues" of a sort in the Privateer Press Gang.
That said, it's neat, this social networking phenomenon. It allows people to form and maintain connections (of an incredibly superficial, limited sort) with pretty much anybody in the world. Facebook also allows people to become Fans or Supporters as well as Friends, so companies and organizations can also become part of the social networks. MySpace has some sort of similar functionality, but MySpace is such a train wreck (thanks to near-limitless "customizability") these days that I never bother with it any more.
Educators need to be aware of social networking for one simple reason: students ARE using it. If Law & Order - the origin of the fictional social networking site "FaceSpace" - and other police shows are to be believed, they're all doing something sinister with it, but I think we can safely take a less frightening view and just acknowledge that students are comfortable with the technology. We educators don't necessarily need to jump in the middle of their business, but it is always useful to know what they're up to.
Honestly, because of the extremely public nature of social networking, I don't think that MySpace or Facebook has much instructional value. Something more limited, like Facebook was at its inception (i.e. limited to one school or a small group of them), might have some use to instructors, but I think we're probably better off leaving the social networks for socializing - such as it is on the internet.
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