One Last Thin

This has been an interesting journey. While I was already using some of the Web 2.0 tools we looked at on this journey (Goggle- Doc, Cal, Reader, Sketchup, and Facebook, Myspace, Creative Commons, etc.) this path has lead me a different way and allowed me to look at things from a different perspective.  It has forced me to examine them through the lens of an educator not just a user. This gave me a different perspective. While I not yet convinced that some of these apps are use full in an educational setting that reticence is more from a chicken or egg perspective. With out fully technology infusion the power of many of these in a educational environment is limited but at the same time if we do not use them we will never convince the holders of the purse strings that they are need.  Nor can we ignore them in school while the rest of the world moves into the era of social-net interaction lest we become a island of anarchism in a sea of change. 

I would recommend this SD to teachers and other educational professionals.  Even as we are busily plowing our furrow of instruction we must be reminded to raise our eyes to the horizon and member to look toward the future. 

Moikka (Goodbye in Finnish)

Joel

Thing #23

I like what I see on Ning and Classroom 2.o

It seems to me that these are the Web 2.o version of the 1990 internet users-groups and list serves that I was involved in. 

The college level physics community set up physnet in 1989 and physl in 1990 so that physics teacher around the country cold collaborate on teaching ideas. This was pre WWW days, no graphic interface. Every thing was text driven and there were not user friendly. In addition there was no spell checkers.  It was all about communication. 

This site takes this concepts to the next level. It adds a cooler interface and all of the social interaction tools such as grouping tagging in near context commenting. This is a great improvement over the users-groups and list serves that were a challenge to follow a discussion thread and did not have the capability of images. It was real challenging to discuss physics with no pictures.  

Physnet has come a long way since 1990 but physl (an e-mail list serve) had died. Physnet is not fully Web 2.0 but is making progress there. 

I can see a teacher setting up a social network site for their class so that students have a place to discuss the class and get input from the teacher on the learning. 

Thing #22

Here is my Facebook page Joel Palmer. I have a Myspace page but do not like it very much. It seemed to be more sleazy then Facebook.

I use this page to keep up with my children. My daughter is much more active than my sons but they post occasionally. It helps me keep up with what they are doing.

Educators should be aware of these sites but need to be careful about interacting with their students on the sites. As a teacher you need to know what interest your students but you need to keep the student teacher relationship intact. 

I have recently been able to get in contact with a large number of former students who have a alumni group on Face book. If has been great to hook up with students form 20 years ago. If you go to that group you can see some realy old pictures of me with a beard. 

I am not sure of any educational uses unless students used them to collaborate on home work. 

Thing #7c

I read an article to night about the Flue affecting Schools in Texas. 

This very interesting article from the New York Times gives a more global perspective on the possible pandemic that is starting in Mexico and quickly spreading to Texas. 

With out the RSS feed I would have only seen the local newspaper articles. 

Thing #21

Where to start. 

I have been using Google calendar for more than a year both personally and with my district calendar. 

I have google home page, G Mail account and use Google bookmarks.  

My favorite tools are Google earth which I see has many education uses and Google Sketchup.

In fact I am teaching a one day seminar for El Centro college this summer on using SketchUp.  If you check out my links on Delicious you will see one for 3D Warehouse. This is google site for storing and sharing models made in Sketchup.   One link is to my posted models. I have many more to post. 

Thing #20

We have been using Google Docs for months now. I recently used it as a cite for teachers to register for the Science Department dinner next Tuesday night. 

We are using it to collaborate on documents and collect data in spread sheets. We have not used it for presentations yet due to the limited features available. 

I definitely see it a s a way of collaborating on curriculum development projects. 

Thing #19

I think this is the coolest thing I have discovered on in this course. 

The implications for collaborative learning are astounding. I can imagine a group discussion on the periodic table in Chemistry or the differences between plant and animal cells. 

The problem I have is "Do we have sufficient technology resources to make effective uses of the program?"