TCEA 2009

WOW !!!!
What a great conference to attend - I only wish ALL could attend. It was very energizing and full of GREAT ideas. Here are some of the major ideas that I internalized.

Nettrekker - has added a neTrekker Village Online Community where educators can connect and share ideas and best practices. http://nettrekkervillage.com

Twitter & Plurk - I heard these phrases being tossed around a lot - but did not get to attend a session on them.

Inspiration - Attended a few mini sessions in the vendor booths on Inspiration and Kidspiration. The products offered through Inspiration revolve around "The Power of Visual Learning". The various graphs, and graphic organizers created with this software are directly related to the TEKS for Language Arts, Reading, and Math. This software company has also added a collaborative network. Educators can join the learning community at www.inspiredlearningcommunity.com There are also complimentary professional development webcasts on www.inspiration.com/webcasts

Thinkfinity - This was one of the most popular sessions and booth to visit. I attended a mini session at this booth that was informative. This website offers FREE state of the art interactive, eduational websites. These websites have been filtered, filtered again and yet checked once more for content. Diana and Maggie will be training a few teachers on this site. This is a great way for teachers to have the most up to date material at their fingertips. The only drawback is that most educators DON'T know about this. Hopefully we can schedule more "train the trainers" workshops in our area - where tech contacts can attend. We brought back t-shirts for our 2 Thinkfinity Trainers (Diana and Maggie) to wear when they train their teachers.

SchoolBlog - ePals - This website offers free student emails and free teacher blog pages. The great thing about this site is that it allows the teacher to control what is going back and forth. It is very similar to Gaggle -- BUT FREE!!! Everyone loves free. This is a site that I would like to investigate further and offer training sessions for teachers. www.epals.com/schoolblog/.signup I think many of our teachers are at this point - where they would enjoy having an e-mail account for students - BUT are unsure of the safety issues involved. This allows our teachers to control the content and who e-mails who.

iGoogle - I attended a mini session by a very renowed presenter named "Tammy". Needless to say the lines were out the door. She taught us the various ways to use an iGoogle page and how that could help educators. Sylvia R. and I already played around with that and have started. I think that Norma has started as well. Again, this is a free resource that we need to tap into. http://www.tammyworcester.com/Tips/Tammys_Technology_Tips_for_Teachers.html
I was very excited to attend and meet this presenter. She offers her training materials online at her website.

GoogleEarth - Attended a mini session on using google Earth as a geography tool with students either as part of the focus, scavenger hunt etc. This was a very interesting session - Free resource for teachers filled with facts - and of course visually interesting.

Tech4Learning - attended a mini session on using Podcasting with Web blender by THE Angela Allen - former sales rep for our district. She's very energetic about the product and was very informative.

Neo2 - attended a mini session on how to integrate the Neo2 with AR quizes, Wordle, collaborative writing activities.

Ren Learn - attended a session highlighting the parent section of Ren Learn. This site is extremely informative for parents - Our school district already has this - It would be optimal for all parents to use this portion.

Thing #23 Week #9

I absolutely loved the video "a fairly use tale". That was a great example to use when speaking of copyright. I think that I will add the video to my next presentation on copyright and fair use. As far as copyright is concerned, it's a matter of educating teachers/ students on the info. Knowledge is power right? I am familiar with creative commons and enjoy working with them. This is something that we need to educate others on.

My thoughts on this course - I really enjoyed the 23 things and now that I'm done I wish there were more "things" to do. It's a bittersweet ending. The flexabilty of doing things on your own schedule is what has won me over. I am able to get a few "things" done between my busiest moments. I would take another course like this any time if the opportunity presented itself. My favorite discovery exercises were on : creating an avatar, image generators, creating a trading card, using backpack and Travel IQ.
During the course of this journey, I have come to appreciate technology even more. I realize that there is so much to learn on the web, and it can become quite addictive to play with all that's out there. Some of the "things that I'm already applying into my everyday life are del.icio.us, LibraryThing, Diggo, Wikis, googledocs, and Copyright law.

I can't wait to share what I have discovered with my coworkers and continue the learning journey. Thank you for this opportunity.

Thing #22 Week#9

I checked out the "fair" site and saw the endless list of books available. E-books are so interesting to me. People don't even have to step into a library to read a good book. I think that I would have liked this option in college.
I love e-books and audio e-books, and have been using these sorts of sites for a while. My favorite kind of e-books are the audio ones. Many of these are children's books, but I enjoy the sites for my sons. Tumble books is a great site (you need an account for it). The local library here has a subscription and as long as you log in through their site- you have access to audio books on line. The books are read aloud, and the book is shown page by page. Isn't that awesome! This brings the era of book on tape/cd to an end for me. If more teachers were aware of how easy it is to access e-books online, I think they would be more willing to try them.

Thing #21 Week #9

I have been playing around with Podcasting for a while. I enjoyed viewing the casts and subscribed to "NerdTV - PBS" with podcasts on the inventors of computer mice, spreadsheets etc. I thought that was interesting - I guess - I'm a nerd that way. There's a lot of information out there. It's hard to find it all, and looking for it is a bit addictive.

Thing #20 Week #9

I along with everyone else is very familiar with youtube. We enjoy this site a lot. I have an RSS feed from youtube on the "most commonly watched videos. I have never uploaded anything, but who knows - maybe one day...



This is a video of my husbands cousin. He came down a few weeks ago and was telling us how much he enjoys karate. He then told us that one of his matches was on youtube. It was interesting to be able and see his matches and have that connection with him. Imagine all that families who live far distances from each other could do?

A way to apply this site in class - teachers could record an activity in class and post for parents to view.

Thing #19 Week #9

What can I say, Library Thing is a WOW. I viewed the tour and played around with all the tabs and watched the youtube video. I created an account with Library Thing and loved it. I added 5 of my husbands "coffe table" books on super heroes. This is a great idea for my family because we are always buying books for each other, but never quite know exactly which books each of us has. With this in place, we could search the list and figure it out. It will make surprising my family with new books easier.
Also, as a teacher, I had lots of books for my students to read. (A whole library) If I had known about this, I would have been able to track my books better. I can see how anyone can use this (even if you're not a librarian). This is a great tool another "untapped source". Can't wait to share.

Thing #18 Week # 8

I created a Zoho account (I was able to link it to my Google Docs account). I have used google docs before and love it. We are using it at work. It has come in handy.
The features of Zoho are very similar in the sense that you can create documents online and share them with a group of people that you choose. I like that the users need to be invited to share the documents. You are able to upload just about anything and if you so choose - your invitees can make changes to the documents. The only downfall to this is that same old saying about "too many hands in the cookie jar". This is definately an untapped sourse of "empowerment" for teachers. When I was 1st introduced to it, the 1st thing that crossed my mind was "grade level meetings" where all the grade level could make changes to a document at their leisure.

Thing #17 Week #7

I poked around the California Curriculum Connections wiki and really liked it. I added it to my del.icio.us acct. for future reference. I have particularly enjoyed the image generators and creating the avatars in this course. So I researched it on the CCC wiki and found some great ideas. Here's one of my favs. because it can be applied to any grade level.
Idea #7: Students can create an avatar for a character in a book. They would need to explain (on their character's blog?) why the avatar looks as they do.
I think that wikis are a great way to get information out to others. I have enjoyed watching presenters use wikis as thier source for information. That would be something that I'd like to persue.

Thing #16 Week #7

Wikis- I discovered wikis last year and thought that the name was strange to say the least. I have a pbwiki account that I use periodically (but I prefer diigo) which allowes you to highlight items on a website.
I viewed a couple of the wiki spaces that were suggeseted :Library Bloggers Wiki, CSLA Conference 2007 wiki, Book Lovers Wiki, and SJCPL Subject Guides. They were all great for the purpose that they were created. I liked that some of them allowed you to subscribe to their RSS feed.
The thing that I like about wikis is that they are public so if you want to post information that you'd like to share with others it's easy. I have attended 2 conferences where the presenter did not print any papers out. They only presented off of their wiki and gave everyone the link. This is a grand idea in a world that is turning "green". What a way to save paper!
What I don't particularly care for is that anyone can change or add to a wiki. For the most part, I think everyone respects others wikis, but you never know. It's that unknown vulnerability that I don't like.

Thing #15 Week #6

I read the 5 views on the future of the library. I agree with them about how libraries need to reflect the changes of society. We live in an electronic print world. A world where Barnes and Noble has taken over - a place where you can text, read a book, surf wireless internet, and let's not forget drink coffee simultaneously. If our libraries can move to the B&N concept, then they won't have any problems keeping up with "patrons". I know I would be in heaven! I wonder if the person who created Barne's was a former librarian gone "wild"?

Thing #14 Week #6

Exploring Technorati was interesting to say the least. And I have to agree with Questing Beast, although this site is filled with info - it's hard to navigate. I searched for school library learning 2.0 and found lots of sites under the blog tab. The other tabs also gave me info on libraries, but not necessarily about the 2.0 course. I can't believe how many people have blogs! It's definately an untapped source of information.
As far as tagging your blog. It's just a way of alowing the site to categorize your blog and allow others to connect to you or your site. Since ther is not possible way that anyone can search all sites online - tagging is a time saver (and sometimes a frustration blocker). I did not tag my site - I'm really not ready to reach out to others in that sense.
I find it amazing that we as social beings need to get be behing an inadament object like a computer/ laptop in order to really "connect". Somehow it makes it "safe" reach out to others and ask for / seek information. go figure!

Thing #13 Week #6

I enjoyed the idea of del.icio.us - it will be so useful for classrooms. I thought about how this would have been so helpful in college and even if you are taking an online course (like this one). It's so simple to connect to others with the same interest groups. The fact that it is a mobile "favorites" is just an added plus.

I created an account as "delicious tech" and already "tagged" a couple of sites :
http://del.icio.us/SJLibraryLearning2 which obviously will be helpful for this class and future reference and -
http://www.befunky.com/ this one was listed in the tags to watch section. It was similar to imagechef in the sense that it is an image generator, but the user has a little more freedom. I enjoyed this site and can see lots of great uses for this in the classroom and beyond.
I have heard about del.icio.us before, but honestly had never set the time aside to play with it. I'm glad that this class is allowing me that freedom. I have already let others know about this site and am hoping that they too will create an account.

I also used the network badge section. It was very easy to use.

Pre - Thing #13 *Del.icio.us video

I just watched the youtube tutorial vidoes on del.icio.us. They were very informative. It's so interesting how "connected" you can become with others. I like the idea of having the account- because just like the video suggests, it is an online "favorites" list. At the same time, you are connected to what "others" are looking at (tagging). Seems very interesting. I'm excited to create an account and figure out how to connect to other educators' accounts. It's like having a free personal assistant to search the net for you. This is something that could easily be implemented in a High school setting. I have not completed "thing #12", but figured I would jot down my thoughts before I get side tracked by another fun thing.

Research Rollyo

Select Search Engine...School Library Learning TechnologySearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Thing #12 Week #5

I had a slow start with Rollyo, but I got some help from "Questing Beast". I was a little confused as to its purpose. Then, I realized that it was like Nettrekker. It's just a combination of safe sites to search. Now, on Nettrekker - the sites are predetermined, but on Rollyo you determine the sites that are safe. I can really see the Middle/High school students using this. I created the Rollyo account and set up a small rollyo research site. Hope it is helpful