Okay, my results on YouTube cracked me up. What amazed me is how much video commentary, and highly creative video commentary at that, there is to be found. I found this little plug for a summer library reading program:
There was also this college kid who was just having fun creating, which I put on my blog for kicks. You have to watch for a bit, but the video does have a point (although I really couldn't use it at school). The point that I see is that this generation is much more open to using accessible technology, to taking the ball and running with it:
On TeacherTube, I found this rockin' little marimba ensemble:
It is great to have so many resources available, and there are so many interesting and creative videos to capture the students' attention, and in the case of TeacherTube, opportunities to inspire them by other student performances and creations. The drawback would be that you still have to cull through quite a bit to find what you want, tags only get you so far, and the quality of many of the videos is not impressive. For instance, there were tons of music-related videos, but I didn't find anything when searching for opera or operatic singing. I had to search for "music" or "singing" and then the number of videos was to huge to search. I couldn't find the right keyword for what I wanted.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thing #19- Web 2.0 Awards
This is a ton of information! The useful thing about this site is that it provides resources that are deemed to be the top resources in different categories. I was pleased (not really surprised, though) that so many of the sites were tools that we have already explored.
The first place I looked was Last , which allowed me to enjoy listening to a mix of 80s music while I was exploring other places. Very enjoyable, and pretty fun to type in different band names to get a selection of music of the same genre. I had looked at Pandora a couple of years ago, and at the time, there was not a good selection of classical music, and Last seems to have a decent selection. Might be something that I could use in my music classroom, particularly since the sight offers biographical information on different artist, and some video. It would be something that I would have to use as a resource if I was looking for something in particular, and I could stumble upon something that I hadn't thought of that I could use.
MyGeneology was interesting, and I like that you could create your family tree, but it isn't really something that I could currently use professionally, I don't think. Same with Upcoming, which gave a list of upcoming events in the city. Very useful for me, but not something that I would use in class. I suppose that if we were studying something, and a performance was coming up, I could let the students know about it, but I am not sure that it would have that much impact with a lot of them (or with their parents...my students are in elementary school). Then again, you never know.
I had heard a lot about Twitter, so I checked that out, and understand now what it is about. Nice way to keep informed about friends daily lives. Could be fun. Just an aside...the CommonCraft videos have probably been the most informative, helpful, and easy-to-understand explanations that I have seen during the 23 Things exploration. Those guys are great!
The things that will be most helpful to me in my classroom are actually things that we have already explored, at least from the proficiency level that I currently have attained: Google Docs, Flickr, Del.icio.us, PBWiki, WetPaint, YouTube, and Google Maps and such, either as resources, organizational tools, or communication and collaboration tools, both personally, professionally, and with regards to the education of my students.
I am bookmarking this site at Del.icio.us so that I can explore it more thoroughly and take advantage of the information it offers.
The first place I looked was Last , which allowed me to enjoy listening to a mix of 80s music while I was exploring other places. Very enjoyable, and pretty fun to type in different band names to get a selection of music of the same genre. I had looked at Pandora a couple of years ago, and at the time, there was not a good selection of classical music, and Last seems to have a decent selection. Might be something that I could use in my music classroom, particularly since the sight offers biographical information on different artist, and some video. It would be something that I would have to use as a resource if I was looking for something in particular, and I could stumble upon something that I hadn't thought of that I could use.
MyGeneology was interesting, and I like that you could create your family tree, but it isn't really something that I could currently use professionally, I don't think. Same with Upcoming, which gave a list of upcoming events in the city. Very useful for me, but not something that I would use in class. I suppose that if we were studying something, and a performance was coming up, I could let the students know about it, but I am not sure that it would have that much impact with a lot of them (or with their parents...my students are in elementary school). Then again, you never know.
I had heard a lot about Twitter, so I checked that out, and understand now what it is about. Nice way to keep informed about friends daily lives. Could be fun. Just an aside...the CommonCraft videos have probably been the most informative, helpful, and easy-to-understand explanations that I have seen during the 23 Things exploration. Those guys are great!
The things that will be most helpful to me in my classroom are actually things that we have already explored, at least from the proficiency level that I currently have attained: Google Docs, Flickr, Del.icio.us, PBWiki, WetPaint, YouTube, and Google Maps and such, either as resources, organizational tools, or communication and collaboration tools, both personally, professionally, and with regards to the education of my students.
I am bookmarking this site at Del.icio.us so that I can explore it more thoroughly and take advantage of the information it offers.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thrills and Flutters- Just an aside
I have enjoyed looking at Barry Bishop's Shared Items, and I must say, it is strangely thrilling when you see that one of your posts has been shared. Equally flutter-making is when someone comments on one of your posts on your blog. Wow.
I still can't seem to connect the pieces to become part of a "conversation". If I post to someone's blog, how do I know if they, or someone else, responds in kind, and if I respond to a comment that they have made, how do they know. Is that all in subscribing and checking the Google Reader? Perhaps that warrants more investigation on my part, but I could use some advice.
I still can't seem to connect the pieces to become part of a "conversation". If I post to someone's blog, how do I know if they, or someone else, responds in kind, and if I respond to a comment that they have made, how do they know. Is that all in subscribing and checking the Google Reader? Perhaps that warrants more investigation on my part, but I could use some advice.
Thing #12 Revisited
Okay, I have now posted to two blogs of interest. We'll see what happens. I didn't die from doing it, and smoke did not come from the computer, so I think that it will be okay!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thing #18- Online Productivity Tools
Hmmm. How is it that anyone would offer something like OpenOffice for free? I don't see advertising or anything. I did see that they have contributors like Novell, IBM, and Google, and some others that I do not recognize.
Anyway, I didn't download OpenOffice, since I am not really sure how much room I can spare right now on my computer. I never said that I really knew what I was doing with this machine...food for thought and for self-improvement. I did look at the things that OpenOffice has to offer. It seems that it is a free version similar to Microsoft Office, and that you can even make your documents compatible to Office. What makes it different is that you "participate" by joining the community and suggesting things to make this product more tailored to suit what the users might want. Interesting that they call it both a "product" and a "project." Witness again this global pooling and contributing. I can see that it would be great for someone who did not want to spend the money for Microsoft Office, or for the student whose parents can only afford the bare bones, not the expensive software. A good way for more students to have access to Office type software and applications.
The more I think about and explore Google Documents, the more I like it. It occurs to me that not only can I create documents either to share or to make public, but I can store things that I am working on right there online, where they will be accessible from anywhere, at anytime, from any computer, without my little USB storage thing. Heck, I wouldn't even have to have my own computer with me. Ever since I have been able to make one of my documents link properly for access from a hot link on my blog, I have been sort of excited. Banner day at Blog a la Lundquist.
Anyway, I didn't download OpenOffice, since I am not really sure how much room I can spare right now on my computer. I never said that I really knew what I was doing with this machine...food for thought and for self-improvement. I did look at the things that OpenOffice has to offer. It seems that it is a free version similar to Microsoft Office, and that you can even make your documents compatible to Office. What makes it different is that you "participate" by joining the community and suggesting things to make this product more tailored to suit what the users might want. Interesting that they call it both a "product" and a "project." Witness again this global pooling and contributing. I can see that it would be great for someone who did not want to spend the money for Microsoft Office, or for the student whose parents can only afford the bare bones, not the expensive software. A good way for more students to have access to Office type software and applications.
The more I think about and explore Google Documents, the more I like it. It occurs to me that not only can I create documents either to share or to make public, but I can store things that I am working on right there online, where they will be accessible from anywhere, at anytime, from any computer, without my little USB storage thing. Heck, I wouldn't even have to have my own computer with me. Ever since I have been able to make one of my documents link properly for access from a hot link on my blog, I have been sort of excited. Banner day at Blog a la Lundquist.
Thing #17- Rollyo
This wasn't as much fun. I created my searchroll with no problem, I think, but my goodness, I now have so many different lists of things...googlereader, del.icio.us, etc. and I am not really all that enchanted, with having so many strings to have to pull. At least this one doesn't update automatically! Plus, I may have done something wrong (that's the problem; I don't know), in that I put the Searchroll symbol on my blog, and the link works, but my stuff is a little box on the lift, and then the list of all of the items that would have come up with the search dominate the entire rest of the page. Plus there are so many other distractions and ads on the page. Is this just the way it is, or have I set it up wrong? I'll admit that the tool is useful, and I do think that this would be a good way to select websites for students to use, I just don't really like the layout when you click on the link.
Here's a link to my Gilbert and Sullivan Rollyo.
Here's a link to my Gilbert and Sullivan Rollyo.
Thing #16- Wikis
There are so many possibilities with the wiki. I loved the different types that I looked at...wikis for resources, with pages to include links, booklists, curriculum ideas...the possibilities are endless. The Meredith Farkas article "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities" made an interesting point about wikis being "self-organizing group behavior in action." That is pretty cool.
I am thinking that in my music class a wiki might be useful to gather information on composers that we are studying, or to collect links to sites which might be useful, that I either recommend, or that the students have found and like.
I think that I posted to the Library 2.0 Sandbox. I posted to a Sandbox somewhere!
One thing that will be hard for me is the fact that someone could come in and change what I have written. I don't mind them adding on, but I am afraid that I will dislike having my actual words edited! I know, control freak, but a girl does take ownership of their writings. This is obviously a new concept that I will have to grapple with if I want to leap into the century with great abandon!
I am thinking that in my music class a wiki might be useful to gather information on composers that we are studying, or to collect links to sites which might be useful, that I either recommend, or that the students have found and like.
I think that I posted to the Library 2.0 Sandbox. I posted to a Sandbox somewhere!
One thing that will be hard for me is the fact that someone could come in and change what I have written. I don't mind them adding on, but I am afraid that I will dislike having my actual words edited! I know, control freak, but a girl does take ownership of their writings. This is obviously a new concept that I will have to grapple with if I want to leap into the century with great abandon!
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