The Conundrum. . .
November 12, 2011
November 10, 2011
I do not like to argue because I often get too passionate about the issue being debated and find myself short on facts. It is not a situation in which I am comfortable, and it can be a very frustrating experience. Generally, I state my opinions after carefully considering all sides and ensuring I can defend myself against opposing viewpoints. Occassionally, I find myself having formed an opinion that is weakly supported; once I have sorted through my misconceptions and misunderstandings, I am prepared to admit that I was wrong.
Well, it has happened. And publicly, right here on this blog. This post, this quote: "I have said before how insufferably boring I find podcasts."
It's time I made myself a podcast pie.
Or, an audiocast pie? Or a blogcast pie?
There is some discrepancy in the academic world as to the correct terminology. Richardson (2010) calls it podcasting, "the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple" (p. 112). Berger & Trexler (2010) agree partly: "in its simplest form, a podcast is an audio file recorded on a computer and later shared with others over the Internet" (p. 128), yet, then state that "podcasts come in three types: audio, screen, and video" (p. 128). Lee LeFever (2011) adds another definition in his video, "Podcasting: In Plain English":
This screenshot on the left is the end of a demonstration of the difference between "broadcasting" and "podcasting". The point being made is that podcasting allows for "personalized, time-shifted content for your consumption whenever you feel like" (Richardson, 2010, p. 113).
To minimize confusion, and to contribute to Apple's quest for world domination (for all you conspiracy theorists out there), this blog will use the term podcast for audio files created and shared.
Now, let me unpack my previous thoughts on podcasting, because I cannot ignore the fact that I labeled podcasts as "insufferably boring". Perhaps Richardson (2010) can help with this caveat: "Be prepared: This is not the highly polished professional radio you might be used to. Cracks and pops, obscure music, and "ums" and "ahs" are all a part of the podcast genre. . . .Try not to let production value overwhelm what might be really interesting content" (p. 113). I confess, I am rather judgmental. I have felt, at the end of some podcasts, that the knowledge I gathered from them could have been better delivered, and more quickly delivered, via the written word. I think it is time I lightened up a little and lowered my expectations. After all, I have yet to make a podcast. . .
I'll take a scoop of vanilla ice cream with my podcast pie.
References
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Common Craft, LLC (Producer). (2008). Podcasting in Plain English [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/video/podcasting
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
November 9, 2011
Improving on the past
In the real world it is not possible to go back in time and change the outcome of a certain event; as my husband says when playing Hearts, "a card laid is a card played".
In the blogging world it is far too easy to edit posts that have already been published.
In my previous post you will have learned I am missing elements of the criteria for this blogging assignment. I could go back and revise my published posts so that they better reflect the assignment requirements, but that is cheating. Blogging is a social media tool, and to be true to my readers (all three of you - thanks Pam, Joanne, and Jenn) and to be true to me, I am not going to cheat. I am going to try to publicly (granted to a small, safe audience) fix the problem.
Watch for the supplementary pages titled, *Web 2.0 tool* - The Missing Pieces.
In the real world it is not possible to go back in time and change the outcome of a certain event; as my husband says when playing Hearts, "a card laid is a card played".
In the blogging world it is far too easy to edit posts that have already been published.
In my previous post you will have learned I am missing elements of the criteria for this blogging assignment. I could go back and revise my published posts so that they better reflect the assignment requirements, but that is cheating. Blogging is a social media tool, and to be true to my readers (all three of you - thanks Pam, Joanne, and Jenn) and to be true to me, I am not going to cheat. I am going to try to publicly (granted to a small, safe audience) fix the problem.
Watch for the supplementary pages titled, *Web 2.0 tool* - The Missing Pieces.
November 6, 2011
Reflecting . . . and a bit of ranting (just a bit)
I am at the halfway point in my blogging project. On Friday, I received informal feedback from my professor on my blog to date. It was not great, but I am not surprised. I have deliberately neglected including certain aspects of the overall assignment criteria in this blog. Not because I am a rebel, although I can join a good cause in a heartbeat, but because I am struggling to find a space in my blog for the very things I do not like reading in others' blogs.
Bloggers lose my attention when their posts are lengthy and when they descend into the how tos of a task, with those awful "and then, and then, and then" that I tried to beat out of my Grade 6 and 7 students when I was a classroom teacher. (Not beat in a violent sense, more in a repeated reminder sense.)
If I want "how to" instruction, I'll watch a step by step video on YouTube: I do not like to wade through written instructions. I would even suffer through a podcast, although I have said before how insufferably boring I find podcasts.
Herein, lies my problem: I do not want to produce something which I would not like to read.
I am not a technical writer. I prefer to teach by demonstrating. I am not the kind of teacher who provides her students with reams of notes to "learn" from. My lessons are mostly of the "demonstrate and apply" format, followed by an assessment of the application.
Yet. . .
This blog is for an assignment. I want to do well on this assignment, and I want to conclude this project in December having met the following four goals set in my proposal:
But. . .
Can my professors assess what they infer? I do not think so. To date I have demonstrated proficiency in Diigo, Jing, and VoiceThread. I believe I am becoming a resource for teachers at my school, and I have provided some evidence of this in these blog posts. But my posts have yet to be places "of critical thinking, analytical writing, and reflection", nor have I explained much of the deep learning that I have experienced.
Hmmm. . .
So. . .
My challenge from this point forward is:
P.S. The rant: I HAVE SHINGLES! According to The U.S. National Library of Medicine, when you have had chicken pox as a child the virus lives on forever in your body. And for about 20% really fortunate people (sarcastic tone necessary) it can reactivate during a time of lowered immunity. Say, when your husband is away with the senior boys soccer team and you are single parenting and trying to stay abreast of your Master's level coursework. . .ARGHHHH!
For further information on shingles, refer to this page. Caveat: the images are disgusting!
I am at the halfway point in my blogging project. On Friday, I received informal feedback from my professor on my blog to date. It was not great, but I am not surprised. I have deliberately neglected including certain aspects of the overall assignment criteria in this blog. Not because I am a rebel, although I can join a good cause in a heartbeat, but because I am struggling to find a space in my blog for the very things I do not like reading in others' blogs.
Bloggers lose my attention when their posts are lengthy and when they descend into the how tos of a task, with those awful "and then, and then, and then" that I tried to beat out of my Grade 6 and 7 students when I was a classroom teacher. (Not beat in a violent sense, more in a repeated reminder sense.)
If I want "how to" instruction, I'll watch a step by step video on YouTube: I do not like to wade through written instructions. I would even suffer through a podcast, although I have said before how insufferably boring I find podcasts.
Herein, lies my problem: I do not want to produce something which I would not like to read.
I am not a technical writer. I prefer to teach by demonstrating. I am not the kind of teacher who provides her students with reams of notes to "learn" from. My lessons are mostly of the "demonstrate and apply" format, followed by an assessment of the application.
Yet. . .
This blog is for an assignment. I want to do well on this assignment, and I want to conclude this project in December having met the following four goals set in my proposal:
- to achieve the level of "proficiency" in all six tools
- that my future Web 2.0 experiences, through self-regulation, will be rich with deep learning
- that each post will be a place “of critical thinking, analytical writing and reflection”
- to become a resource for teachers and students in my school (See my full proposal for further explanation of these goals, including references for some of the language appropriated here in quotations.)
But. . .
Can my professors assess what they infer? I do not think so. To date I have demonstrated proficiency in Diigo, Jing, and VoiceThread. I believe I am becoming a resource for teachers at my school, and I have provided some evidence of this in these blog posts. But my posts have yet to be places "of critical thinking, analytical writing, and reflection", nor have I explained much of the deep learning that I have experienced.
Hmmm. . .
So. . .
My challenge from this point forward is:
- to include the "how tos" in a critical, analytic, and reflective style that will hold my readers' attention; and,
- to provide evidence of my deep learning through connections to academic literature
P.S. The rant: I HAVE SHINGLES! According to The U.S. National Library of Medicine, when you have had chicken pox as a child the virus lives on forever in your body. And for about 20% really fortunate people (sarcastic tone necessary) it can reactivate during a time of lowered immunity. Say, when your husband is away with the senior boys soccer team and you are single parenting and trying to stay abreast of your Master's level coursework. . .ARGHHHH!
For further information on shingles, refer to this page. Caveat: the images are disgusting!
November 2, 2011
Outcomes tbd
When composing posts for my blog, I uphold the belief that it is "crucially important to be able to express oneself in writing using words" (Richardson, 2010, p. 153). Yet in my previous post I told a story with audio and digital photographs. The written word was secondary, even tertiary, to the story of my daughters' foray into sisterhood. In fact, if you ignore the captions, there were no words in the VoiceThread until my friend Bruce added some written commentary and I responded. (Thanks, Bruce!) Was the VoiceThread expressive? I would argue yes. Was it emotive? Judging by the feedback I received from my Mum and Dad and a couple of friends, who would not (could not?) comment directly on the VoiceThread - yes, it was. The digital story is an entirely separate entity from the written content of the post. The written segment sets up the expectation that a digital story is going to be told, but the digital story does not need the written introduction to exist - it tells its own tale.
So. . .
Is it equally important to be able to express oneself in a medium other than writing using words?
In British Columbia, the Ministry of Education Language Arts Integrated Resource Package (IRP) hints at a form of expression that differs from the written word in Grade Four. One of the prescribed learning outcomes states, "It is expected that students will create meaningful visual representations that communicate personal response, information, and ideas relevant to the topic" (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 70). However, a few pages later the features and conventions expected in said visual representations are listed, containing key words and phrases like: simple and compound sentences, paragraphs, noun-pronoun agreement, tenses, capitalization, commas, spelling, legible writing, spacing words (p. 72). That sounds like writing to me.
Richardson (2010) argues, one of the big shifts we, as educators, have to make in how we teach content and curriculum is that "writing is no longer limited to text" (p. 153). If this is true, then the BC Ministry of Education appears to be holding us back. Fortunately, by Grade Eight the expected features are far more open-ended: "It is expected that students will use and experiment with elements of form in writing and representing [emphasis added], appropriate to purpose and audience, to enhance meaning and artistry, including – organization of ideas and information – text features and visual/artistic devices" [emphasis added] (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 53).
Teachers cannot wait for the Ministry to catch curriculum up with Web 2.0 developments. Our Kindergarten students should be publishing their own VoiceThreads! I just might have to write up my own learning outcomes for digital story telling. . .
References
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2007). English Language Arts 8 to 12: Integrated Resource Package 2007. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2007ela_812.pdf
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2006). English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package 2006. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2006ela_k7.pdf
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
When composing posts for my blog, I uphold the belief that it is "crucially important to be able to express oneself in writing using words" (Richardson, 2010, p. 153). Yet in my previous post I told a story with audio and digital photographs. The written word was secondary, even tertiary, to the story of my daughters' foray into sisterhood. In fact, if you ignore the captions, there were no words in the VoiceThread until my friend Bruce added some written commentary and I responded. (Thanks, Bruce!) Was the VoiceThread expressive? I would argue yes. Was it emotive? Judging by the feedback I received from my Mum and Dad and a couple of friends, who would not (could not?) comment directly on the VoiceThread - yes, it was. The digital story is an entirely separate entity from the written content of the post. The written segment sets up the expectation that a digital story is going to be told, but the digital story does not need the written introduction to exist - it tells its own tale.
So. . .
Is it equally important to be able to express oneself in a medium other than writing using words?
In British Columbia, the Ministry of Education Language Arts Integrated Resource Package (IRP) hints at a form of expression that differs from the written word in Grade Four. One of the prescribed learning outcomes states, "It is expected that students will create meaningful visual representations that communicate personal response, information, and ideas relevant to the topic" (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 70). However, a few pages later the features and conventions expected in said visual representations are listed, containing key words and phrases like: simple and compound sentences, paragraphs, noun-pronoun agreement, tenses, capitalization, commas, spelling, legible writing, spacing words (p. 72). That sounds like writing to me.
Richardson (2010) argues, one of the big shifts we, as educators, have to make in how we teach content and curriculum is that "writing is no longer limited to text" (p. 153). If this is true, then the BC Ministry of Education appears to be holding us back. Fortunately, by Grade Eight the expected features are far more open-ended: "It is expected that students will use and experiment with elements of form in writing and representing [emphasis added], appropriate to purpose and audience, to enhance meaning and artistry, including – organization of ideas and information – text features and visual/artistic devices" [emphasis added] (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 53).
Teachers cannot wait for the Ministry to catch curriculum up with Web 2.0 developments. Our Kindergarten students should be publishing their own VoiceThreads! I just might have to write up my own learning outcomes for digital story telling. . .
References
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2007). English Language Arts 8 to 12: Integrated Resource Package 2007. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2007ela_812.pdf
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2006). English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package 2006. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2006ela_k7.pdf
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
November 1, 2011
A little bird told me about VoiceThread
I played around with the digital story telling tool, Little Bird Tales last spring and shared it with the Grade One teacher in my school. With the support of the IT teacher, these two colleagues then collaborated in the true spirit of innovative education to create a classful of student narrated tales. Although the end products were enjoyed by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and peers, my colleagues' experience was plagued with disappearing images, voices that existed digitally on Monday yet not on Tuesday, and some basic login issues.
Four months later, I expected this tool to have either flown the coop and fallen off of digital storytelling radar, or to have molted and left its chick-like technology quirks behind. Sadly, it exists, and still in its infancy stage. Multiple login attempts left me frustrated. A password forgotten led to the creation of another account, which requested a school code, which, having been created and forgotten last school year was eventually deemed irretrievable.
Did I call it quits? Throw in the towel? Snort in frustration over the idiots at LBT mission control?
Yep.
Time slows for no woman! I have an evening in which to play with a digital story telling tool and blog about my experience before I single-parent the next three nights as my husband heads off to the provincials in Kamloops with the senior boys soccer team. (Go Titans, go!)
Two hours later. . .
I am in love, again. Jessica Levitt, Grad Student, Narcissist, falls for yet another Web 2.0 tool. I can't wait to share VoiceThread with the Grade One teacher in my school. It leaves the fledgling LBT behind in the nest.
Please, add your voice or video to the VoiceThread.
I played around with the digital story telling tool, Little Bird Tales last spring and shared it with the Grade One teacher in my school. With the support of the IT teacher, these two colleagues then collaborated in the true spirit of innovative education to create a classful of student narrated tales. Although the end products were enjoyed by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and peers, my colleagues' experience was plagued with disappearing images, voices that existed digitally on Monday yet not on Tuesday, and some basic login issues.
Four months later, I expected this tool to have either flown the coop and fallen off of digital storytelling radar, or to have molted and left its chick-like technology quirks behind. Sadly, it exists, and still in its infancy stage. Multiple login attempts left me frustrated. A password forgotten led to the creation of another account, which requested a school code, which, having been created and forgotten last school year was eventually deemed irretrievable.
Did I call it quits? Throw in the towel? Snort in frustration over the idiots at LBT mission control?
Yep.
Time slows for no woman! I have an evening in which to play with a digital story telling tool and blog about my experience before I single-parent the next three nights as my husband heads off to the provincials in Kamloops with the senior boys soccer team. (Go Titans, go!)
Two hours later. . .
I am in love, again. Jessica Levitt, Grad Student, Narcissist, falls for yet another Web 2.0 tool. I can't wait to share VoiceThread with the Grade One teacher in my school. It leaves the fledgling LBT behind in the nest.
Please, add your voice or video to the VoiceThread.
October 27, 2011
My fling with Jing
According to the timeline I developed for this inquiry project in Web 2.0 tool exploration I should have completed my time with Flikr and Picassa. Astute readers of this blog (ummm, hi Joanne and Jennifer) will notice I have deviated from my timeline proposal significantly. It was only natural to overlap Diigo with Jing; really, it just happened. When I initially planned out my time with Diigo I intended it to be exclusive on-on-one time, but no one seems to have gotten hurt by my shared affection. Time flies though, so now that I have to leave Jing in the upper right hand corner of my screen, rather than actively open on my desktop, I should get back on track and return to Flikr and Picassa. But I can't. Storytelling seems to flow so nicely from Jing. So I'm off to visit Little Bird Tales and Voicethread. But first, the Jing affair...
Before I ventured into the screencast world I thought, as I always do, that it was something super techie and it was really going to stretch my capabilities. Was I wrong! It is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, as my daughter's teacher says. . . . except for those hours of my life I will never get back trying to figure out where my clipboard lives on my Macbook Pro. . . .
You see, TechSmith, the company that developed Jing, shared this little tidbit with me on their Jing tutorial page: "Now that you have your new Screencast.com button, you are ready to capture images or videos as usual, and click the button you just made to have embed code copied to your clipboard" (TechSmith, 2011). So I dutifully searched for my clipboard. I remember PMD (Pre-Mac Days) when my clipboard could be called up in a word processing program, but this simple process seemed to elude me on the Mac. After several frustrating searches in the Finder and then on the Screencast.com page looking for this bloody html code that was supposed to be ON MY CLIPBOARD, I finally, accidentally, figured out that it was hiding, where I could not see it, on my clipboard. Make sense? Yeah, not for me either, but when I hit "command + V" the embed code appeared in my draft post. Thanks be to the tech gods!
After this slight glitch Jing swept me off my feet. I captured a screencast for the Grade Five students to help with their inquiry project on diseases,
and one for the Grade Nine students as an at home refresher for an introductory lesson on Diigo.
All of these are hosted on my school library wiki where I have posted my Jing experiments for real time use.
Jing, you were just what I needed.
Carina Olsen (Kat's Photography)
References
TechSmith Corporation. (2011). "Embed Jing content using Screencast.com." TechSmith. Retrieved from http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-jing-embed-content-using-screencastcom.html?requestsource=productredirect&redirlang=enu&redirproduct=jing&redirver=2.0.0
According to the timeline I developed for this inquiry project in Web 2.0 tool exploration I should have completed my time with Flikr and Picassa. Astute readers of this blog (ummm, hi Joanne and Jennifer) will notice I have deviated from my timeline proposal significantly. It was only natural to overlap Diigo with Jing; really, it just happened. When I initially planned out my time with Diigo I intended it to be exclusive on-on-one time, but no one seems to have gotten hurt by my shared affection. Time flies though, so now that I have to leave Jing in the upper right hand corner of my screen, rather than actively open on my desktop, I should get back on track and return to Flikr and Picassa. But I can't. Storytelling seems to flow so nicely from Jing. So I'm off to visit Little Bird Tales and Voicethread. But first, the Jing affair...
Before I ventured into the screencast world I thought, as I always do, that it was something super techie and it was really going to stretch my capabilities. Was I wrong! It is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, as my daughter's teacher says. . . . except for those hours of my life I will never get back trying to figure out where my clipboard lives on my Macbook Pro. . . .
You see, TechSmith, the company that developed Jing, shared this little tidbit with me on their Jing tutorial page: "Now that you have your new Screencast.com button, you are ready to capture images or videos as usual, and click the button you just made to have embed code copied to your clipboard" (TechSmith, 2011). So I dutifully searched for my clipboard. I remember PMD (Pre-Mac Days) when my clipboard could be called up in a word processing program, but this simple process seemed to elude me on the Mac. After several frustrating searches in the Finder and then on the Screencast.com page looking for this bloody html code that was supposed to be ON MY CLIPBOARD, I finally, accidentally, figured out that it was hiding, where I could not see it, on my clipboard. Make sense? Yeah, not for me either, but when I hit "command + V" the embed code appeared in my draft post. Thanks be to the tech gods!
After this slight glitch Jing swept me off my feet. I captured a screencast for the Grade Five students to help with their inquiry project on diseases,
and one for the Grade Nine students as an at home refresher for an introductory lesson on Diigo.
All of these are hosted on my school library wiki where I have posted my Jing experiments for real time use.
Jing, you were just what I needed.
Carina Olsen (Kat's Photography)
References
TechSmith Corporation. (2011). "Embed Jing content using Screencast.com." TechSmith. Retrieved from http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-jing-embed-content-using-screencastcom.html?requestsource=productredirect&redirlang=enu&redirproduct=jing&redirver=2.0.0
October 23, 2011
I've been cheating on Diigo
I feel like I have developed a good relationship with Diigo, but I need to tell you, it is not exclusive. You see, in order to demonstrate my learning I've had to master the art of the screenshot, and in so doing I have kind of fallen for another Web 2.0 tool.
Hard.
Actually, to be completely honest, I am in love with this new tool. Is it because I get to hear my voice in video captures? Or because I can precisely set the crosshairs to capture the exact portion of the screen? I'm not sure at what point I started pushing Diigo to the back burner, but it's happened, despite my best intentions to give it my all.
We'll still be friends, I promise.
Next post: My new love and I go public.
I feel like I have developed a good relationship with Diigo, but I need to tell you, it is not exclusive. You see, in order to demonstrate my learning I've had to master the art of the screenshot, and in so doing I have kind of fallen for another Web 2.0 tool.
Hard.
Actually, to be completely honest, I am in love with this new tool. Is it because I get to hear my voice in video captures? Or because I can precisely set the crosshairs to capture the exact portion of the screen? I'm not sure at what point I started pushing Diigo to the back burner, but it's happened, despite my best intentions to give it my all.
We'll still be friends, I promise.
Next post: My new love and I go public.
Why does online success surprise me?
I celebrate every digital achievement: from publishing a post on my blog to manipulating html code to shrink a screen capture, and now this . . .
Diigo will send bookmarks directly to my blog for publication!
I celebrate every digital achievement: from publishing a post on my blog to manipulating html code to shrink a screen capture, and now this . . .
Diigo will send bookmarks directly to my blog for publication!
Explanation of the Irish Epic "Tain Bo Cuailnge".
I continue to be amazed by what I am capable of in the online world. It may be small potatoes to some, but it is epic to me, in that cheesy, teenage slang use of the word. To culminate my experience with Diigo, and to ensure that I do not lose track of the progress the grade nine students are making in Diigo, I have added a widget to the right hand side of this blog, right underneath my Blog Archive. I can follow the new content they add to their own Diigo Group, thanks to the Teacher Console which allowed me to set up protected student accounts. With this introduction to Diigo, in a safe and controlled environment, it is my wish that they continue to use this practical Web 2.0 tool.
Richardson (2010) worries that "it's not technology that's causing a decline in critical thinking, it's our lack of understanding of how to use technology well" (p. 94). I have taken on the responsibility to ensure that I understand how to use certain technologies, and that I teach and share this knowledge as widely as possible. Thanks for the play, Diigo! Until next time . . .
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web 2.0 tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Richardson (2010) worries that "it's not technology that's causing a decline in critical thinking, it's our lack of understanding of how to use technology well" (p. 94). I have taken on the responsibility to ensure that I understand how to use certain technologies, and that I teach and share this knowledge as widely as possible. Thanks for the play, Diigo! Until next time . . .
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web 2.0 tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
October 19, 2011
I introduce Tain Bo Cuailnge to Diigo
I set out last week to collect some appropriate websites for one of the senior English teachers in my school. She is beginning a study of epic works across the ages with her two grade nine classes. The classes have been divided into small groups and will be researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, Aeneid, Kundalakesi, Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Epic of King Gesar, and Chanson de Roland. I continue to live in awe of the breadth of literary knowledge my colleague possesses. Every time I work with her I learn alongside the students. I wanted to impress her with my diligence and determination in finding the best websites for her students to use.
The students researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, and Aeneid were the lucky ones; several Diigo users have publicly available bookmarks linking to excellent sites. Those looking for links to Tain Bo Cuailnge were not so lucky.
Now I have never done anything new in cyberworld. Never. I have always followed someone else's lead, mimicked something tried and true - I play it safe online. What I am about to reveal is not ground-breaking in a technological sense, but it is epic from my point of view: today, I introduced Tain Bo Cuailnge to Diigo. That's right, I did something that has never been done, online. I tagged two of my bookmarks with Tain Bo Cuailnge. I am a true pioneer.
I just have to add one more successful moment. In this post, blogger Steven Anderson stated: "Another feature I love is the ability to auto-post to my blog. If you look at the post previous to this one you will see 10 of my favorite saves from last week. I set that up through my preferences. I tell Diigo what saves I want to post (either everything I save or specific tags) and what time I want it to post. And presto! A fresh blog post of resources to share" (Anderson, 2011). Now, presto, in my next post you should get a list of my new Diigo resources. Cross your fingers. . .
References
Anderson, S. (2011, October 14). Why diigo rocks! [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-diigo-rocks.html
I set out last week to collect some appropriate websites for one of the senior English teachers in my school. She is beginning a study of epic works across the ages with her two grade nine classes. The classes have been divided into small groups and will be researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, Aeneid, Kundalakesi, Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Epic of King Gesar, and Chanson de Roland. I continue to live in awe of the breadth of literary knowledge my colleague possesses. Every time I work with her I learn alongside the students. I wanted to impress her with my diligence and determination in finding the best websites for her students to use.
The students researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, and Aeneid were the lucky ones; several Diigo users have publicly available bookmarks linking to excellent sites. Those looking for links to Tain Bo Cuailnge were not so lucky. Now I have never done anything new in cyberworld. Never. I have always followed someone else's lead, mimicked something tried and true - I play it safe online. What I am about to reveal is not ground-breaking in a technological sense, but it is epic from my point of view: today, I introduced Tain Bo Cuailnge to Diigo. That's right, I did something that has never been done, online. I tagged two of my bookmarks with Tain Bo Cuailnge. I am a true pioneer.
I just have to add one more successful moment. In this post, blogger Steven Anderson stated: "Another feature I love is the ability to auto-post to my blog. If you look at the post previous to this one you will see 10 of my favorite saves from last week. I set that up through my preferences. I tell Diigo what saves I want to post (either everything I save or specific tags) and what time I want it to post. And presto! A fresh blog post of resources to share" (Anderson, 2011). Now, presto, in my next post you should get a list of my new Diigo resources. Cross your fingers. . .
References
Anderson, S. (2011, October 14). Why diigo rocks! [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-diigo-rocks.html
October 16, 2011
Just like Brownies . . . (Girl Guides, not chocolate)
Today I got my first badge. I was approved to open a Diigo Educator Account, and to show their "sincere appreciation to those educators who are taking pioneering steps in getting their students and/or their peers started on collaborative research using Diigo’s powerful features" they have created nifty badges for educators to post on their websites (Diigo, 2011). I even got to choose a colour that matches my blog design!
I am now an official badge-carrying Diigo Education Pioneer. Acquiring my first badge led me to investigate the Web 2.0 badge phenomenon. For more information please have a read of this blog post.
I have been using Diigo, a social bookmarking tool, since February of this year, but along with a few other Web 2.0 tools I enthusiastically signed up for in the same month (Symbaloo and Tumblr to name a couple), I have either ignored their existence or grossly underutilized their potential. Diigo falls into the grossly neglected category. I quickly learned how to create lists and downloaded the Diigo toolbar onto my desktop, and for the past seven months I have accumulated approximately 150 articles, blog posts, websites, slideshares, archived webinars, videos, and the like. It reminds me of my first few years of teaching when I photocopied entire teaching units with little thought given towards the usability of the stacks of paper I proudly labeled and filed. (And then recycled twelve years later in a massive purge that was initiated by a peculiar smell emanating from one corner of the garage. Several shredded box corners later we discovered what must have been small animal remains sloshing around inside a spare tire.)
And, here I am, back in that same rut, gathering more resources than I could ever need (digital resources, mind, but resources nonetheless), and flying solo on a social bookmarking site. So my goals are to: a) ease up on my hoarding tendencies; b) get connected with others on Diigo; and, c) discover the differences between this new Diigo Educator Account I have and my personal Diigo Account I originally acquired back in February.
Next post: Pioneering update.
References
Diigo V5.0 beta. (2011). "Wear your 'Diigo education pioneer badge' with pride :-)." Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com/teacher_entry/get_badge
Today I got my first badge. I was approved to open a Diigo Educator Account, and to show their "sincere appreciation to those educators who are taking pioneering steps in getting their students and/or their peers started on collaborative research using Diigo’s powerful features" they have created nifty badges for educators to post on their websites (Diigo, 2011). I even got to choose a colour that matches my blog design!
I have been using Diigo, a social bookmarking tool, since February of this year, but along with a few other Web 2.0 tools I enthusiastically signed up for in the same month (Symbaloo and Tumblr to name a couple), I have either ignored their existence or grossly underutilized their potential. Diigo falls into the grossly neglected category. I quickly learned how to create lists and downloaded the Diigo toolbar onto my desktop, and for the past seven months I have accumulated approximately 150 articles, blog posts, websites, slideshares, archived webinars, videos, and the like. It reminds me of my first few years of teaching when I photocopied entire teaching units with little thought given towards the usability of the stacks of paper I proudly labeled and filed. (And then recycled twelve years later in a massive purge that was initiated by a peculiar smell emanating from one corner of the garage. Several shredded box corners later we discovered what must have been small animal remains sloshing around inside a spare tire.)
And, here I am, back in that same rut, gathering more resources than I could ever need (digital resources, mind, but resources nonetheless), and flying solo on a social bookmarking site. So my goals are to: a) ease up on my hoarding tendencies; b) get connected with others on Diigo; and, c) discover the differences between this new Diigo Educator Account I have and my personal Diigo Account I originally acquired back in February.
Next post: Pioneering update.
References
Diigo V5.0 beta. (2011). "Wear your 'Diigo education pioneer badge' with pride :-)." Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com/teacher_entry/get_badge
October 15, 2011
Proposal Approved!
As you can see from the text below my photo, I am a part-time grad student at the University of Alberta in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program (TLDL). My full-time gig is as a Teacher-Librarian at a small, independent K-12 school just outside of Vancouver, BC, Canada.
I am enrolled in a course this semester which requires independent exploration of at least six Web 2.0 tools. My learning is to be documented through this blog. The design of my exploration was crafted in the form of a proposal which I submitted earlier this week. The feedback I received last night from my professor was very positive. My proposal is approved!
I intended to explore the following tools in this order:
1. Diigo
2. Flikr and Picassa
3. Video/Screen casting
4. Good Reads vs. Shelfari
5. Digital Storytelling
6. Google Apps
However, this week I was experimenting with the screencasting app, Jing, so the order of tool exploration may shuffle as this blog evolves. For a detailed look at my proposal, this link will take you to the document in the publc file of my Dropbox account.
Next post: Introducing Diigo
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