Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Thing 11: Coding Cool Tools 2014-2015

Cool Tools 2014 -2015

Thing 11: Coding

I really want to work on new things, so I was waiting for Track 3.  In the meantime, so that I can be sure I am registered according to my local BOCES, I am going to talk about Coding.

Last year I went through the lesson on coding (there is a previous blog post on it), but I hadn't used it with students.  Recently I had the opportunity to us it with a group of 8 students in an afterschool computer discovery session.  It really was the perfect opportunity to use Hour of Code.  Since it was not anticipated, I did not create accounts for the kids, which was unfortunate.  Without it, they had difficulty saving where they were in the lessons, but some students learned that they could move themselves forward in the lessons by clicking on the dots at the top.  This proved to be a problem because they skipped ahead without doing all of the lessons and missed how some of the blocks worked. 

Another difficulty we ran into was with the videos.  I don't know why, but the help videos did not work on our computers.  Although I tried to show them all the slide tutorials that you could read through, many of the students did not have the patience to read their way through all of the slides.  That meant that they again were unprepared for how some of the blocks worked.

Still, several of the students earned their certificate and all of the students had a good time and learned a little about programming.  Several expressed interest in doing more coding in the future. 

Unfortunately, probably due to our district's filter, some of the other links to continue learning about coding did not work in our school.  I did send all of the students off with information on how to get on the site from home and I am sure that some of them will.  I feel bad for our students who do not have internet access at home.  (Broadband access is sketchy and expensive at best in these rural areas.)

If I had it to do over again,  I would stress how to do the tutorial appropriately.  I would try to keep a sharper eye out for students that were trying to skip ahead and make them start again.  I would also try to check with our IT person to investigate why the videos did not work for us. 

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Thing 18: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship AND some final thoughts

Okay so this is my last "thing."  I think I will explore more of the resources during the summer.
For now, I tried to look at the videos, but had trouble seeing the embedded one.  I did watch the vimeo one.  I think I might show that to my students next year.
I had previously explored Spokeo, Pipl, SocialMention, and 123People.  I find it really scary how much info these sites have on us.  Even my 84 year old father is on them!  I am not a big social media person.  I use GoodReads because it is related to my job.  I have tried Twitter, but was not impressed.  I have a Pinterest account, but it is more for the ability to store links than for the Social part.  I really want to keep my personal and professional lives separate for the most part.  I guess it is really because I am an introvert, although most people say that you wouldn't guess it when I'm with the kids.   Even in my small rural school, there have been several incidents where Social Media has gotten teachers into trouble, not so much teacher-student issues as teacher-parent issues.  I check my school e-mail regularly, so I am fully accessible.

Perhaps because of being a small rural school, we are fairly conservative in our work with students.  The older elementary students are given e-mail accounts, but they have historically been local only, not gmail accounts.  We are exploring Chromebooks, so that might change.  Our primary students have logins, but no email accounts.

I read the article about the CO Teacher Librarian who uses Digital Passport.  I use Digital Passport with our students, too, but in a different manner.  Our library catalog has a social media aspect -students can make friends, recommend books, comment back and forth, and review books.  I don't let them access those features until they complete the Digital Passport.  Many students start the process, but not all complete it.  Perhaps if I start it at a lower grade, I can attract more kids to finish it.  Another option is to try to get it adopted as part of their computer lab training, but that is difficult since Common Core sets typing speed expectations and SO many of our students don't type at home at all.  Although they practice in the lab regularly, there is still a lot of hunting and pecking going on.  I actually recently had to ask the Computer Lab to have the students power off the machines when I had some lessons with the laptop cart and, despite my instructions to go to Start and choose Shut Down, I caught the students just hitting the Power button.  I also caught some kids coming in for recess to use the desktops who were just hitting the Power button.  Sometimes there seems like there is so much to teach and so little time to teach it!

I had previously ordered the Netcetera OnGuardOnline materials and while I still put them out for parents, since the "student" book covers sexting and we are a fairly conservative rural school, I am not handing it out!  I will look into more of the links from this thing to see if there is anything more appropriate.

 In other final thoughts...
I really love these CoolTools lessons.  I keep copies of them to refer back to when I want to learn (or relearn) something or when I want to look for a new tool for a project.

I want to follow up on Productivity.  I still have Evernote on my phone and at home, but I decided that I wasn't sure it was the best tool for school.  Again I like to keep my personal and professional lives separate and I was worried that others might see my Evernote notes as I am always logged into one of the computers at the circ desk.  I decided to explore the Groupwise Calendar, tasks, and notes more.  It syncs with my phone.  And that is working fairly well.  I have a calendar to carry with me as well as to-do lists.  The only problems with it is that you seem to have to set the notification every time you add an event or a task and if I check off a task at work on my desktop (after signing into Groupwise), I still have to check it off on the phone.   Annoying!  Still, for now it beats the methods I have been using.

Another new site that seems really great is Quizlet.  Did you mention that in one of the Things and I missed it?  I learned about it in a magazine article.  I used it to make flashcards, games, and quizzes to help our students remember some important vocabulary words.  Then I shared those lessons and the site with the teachers.  People seem pretty excited about it.  I know that there have to be other sites like that, but I haven't found them yet.  I am also looking for a way to make games/quizzes like HyperStudio used to have where if they answered wrong, it was recorded, but you could make the stacks so that it told them they were wrong with an explanation and had them try again to learn the correct answer.  There seem to be a lot of ways to make it so that they get points for being correct, but not so much the teaching why they were wrong.  Maybe there is something I just don't get.  PowerPoint works great for me teaching a whole class, but it really does not lend itself to individual viewing.  A Google form is great for a quiz, but not for teaching.  Quizlet is good practice, but still has limitations.

Well, thanks for the lessons!  I hope that we do this again next year!  I have learned a lot!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thing 10: Productivity Tools

So I decided to look at these Productivity Tools.  One thing that really caught my eye was ifttt – If This Then That.  I think that I will definitely download the app and join.  I LOVE that I will be able to automatically mute my phone when I get to work and unmute after I am gone.  I certainly will look into getting updates on new free books.  As I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, logging the supposed  wi-fi connections and disconnections could come in handy.  I do wish that it worked with IKeepBookmarks.com though.  I know that everyone seems to have abandoned it for diigo and, especially, delicious, but I have found it to be really very simple to use and I don't want to go through all of the work of restoring the links to the new tool.

Along those lines I explored delicious a little.  The thing is that I am not into Facebook and Twitter.  I want to share relevant content with my students and teachers I am collaborating with, but I am NOT interested in the social end.  It looks like LiveBinders might work for me.  I can embed the shelves on my website when I want to share.

I already use Lookout on this phone and the previous one.  It has always worked great!   I also have a Dropbox account, but I don't use it much right now.  I think as with GoogleDrive, I am just going to have to make a decision on which way I want to go.  Right now, Dropbox seems more useable because I tend to use Microsoft Office, but if the district really ends up going with Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, it might send me in the GoogleDrive direction.  We have been passing a Chromebook around to try out.  The tech guy and I had a long talk today about the issues we may have with Chromebooks.  The switch to GoogleDocs is obvious, but I think that we could make it.  He is looking into a Virtual Desktop to expand the usability.  At the elementary level, though, I think that we really need to find a solution for printing.  I know that the push is paperless, but it is hard to tell a 7-year-old that he/she cannot get a copy to take home.

Clearly looks like it will be quite useful.  I have Evernote on my new phone and I really need to explore it more.  I think that it could be an awesome tool for me, though the transition is tough because I have been such a paper-based person organization-wise. I use PrintWhatYouLike alot when I print from Webpages, but knowing that there is an alternative for viewing them is great.

I have explored Zotero previously.  I thought that it would be great for my students, but frankly all of these browser add-ons in whatever format are problematic.  First there is the fact that we can't download them all ourselves at school because of the security.  Then there is how much they slow down the browsers.  Given the fact that we already have such old computers at school, anything that slows them more is a real problem.  Scrible has a similar problem. 

Well that is it for now.  I hope do more with Evernote and to create LiveBinders for our sixth-graders research project in particular. 

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Thing 16: You Pick!

Well, for my Thing 16, I decided to do two things:

  1. Try out the Chromebook that the technology team is supposed to work on.
  2. Learn more about Google docs, Google drive, and, especially, Google Forms!
So I logged on to my Google drive which I had for my library website.  I watched a video about Google forms and started to create one.  I decided to use it to check on my first graders progress toward the SLO goals.  I made a form with text and multiple choice questions that I will send to a spreadsheet ultimately.  I wonder if there is a way that the state would accept Google Forms as an SLO test because it certainly would be easier to "grade."  If not, I wonder if they would accept a Moodle test.  I doubt it though since there would be no paper copy for the administration to save.  Still it is a good question for me to forward to the superintendent on my return to school.

I found the process of making the Google form surprisingly easy.  In the midst of it, I had to make a Google Doc.  At this point, I plan to print the doc and give the students a copy, but In wonder if there is a way to refer to the Doc in the form so that students could go back and forth.

Another question I still have to investigate is whether there is a way to change the font size on the Google form.  It seemed very small.  Fine for older students with good eyes, but a problem for younger students who are used to larger print and for those who have a visual impairment.

I am not sure why I never bothered to learn about Google Docs and Google forms before.  I guess I just assumed that I could learn them easily when the time came.  I think that they will come in very handy when I do reading inventories in advance of booktalks.  It will be very easy to summarize results, not like the paper copies I have done.

In my investigation of the Chromebook, I found it easy to use, but I don't much like being signed into Google all of the time.  I feel like I am being tracked, which, of course, I am.  Since I was using my school account to make the form, but I wanted to add this blog post which is on another account, it was just that much more confusing.  When exploring some of the apps that were added for the students to use, I found them surprisingly lame.  They didn't give immediate feedback, either.  Telling a student at the end when their score is on the screen and "fireworks" are shooting off in the background that they got some questions wrong and why is worthless.  I doubt 2 out of 100 kids would really study what questions they got wrong.  Students need more immediate feedback.

So much for Thing 16.  Now I won't be hesitant to make a Google Form.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Thing 17: Coding

Okay, so I spent several hours on this Thing today.  (Personal day, hooray!)

I should say that I really understand the concept of coding because before my current career as a library media specialist, I got my Bachelors (and worked 1 1/2 years toward an MS) in Chemical Engineering.  I have done a fair amount of programming, albeit 25-35 years ago.  Back in the days of BASIC and FORTRAN.  In fact, my first computer was a Commodore VIC-20 that I spent all summer working at McDonalds to buy.  I was in the computer club in Middle School and I took programming course in HS and college.

With that said, I delved into the Hour of Code site first after watching the videos.  I earned my certificate.  :) And I would probably personally go back to do more as it is fun.

I am interested in having kids try the Hour of Code, but I will have to see what I can pull off.  I don't usually get students for an hour.  I know that they can sign in to save their progress, but our kids don't have an e-mail address until 5th grade and even then it doesn't connect to the outside world.  It is only an internal e-mail address.  I can think of a few 5th grade boys who would LOVE it, if they haven't already done it.

I did take a look at the Blockly site itself, too.  While it is doable, it doesn't lay things out in an easy to understand way like Hour of Code does.

I also read several of the Libraries & Coding posts/links.  I also animated my name. http://www.codecademy.com/ajaxSolver16877/codebits/Ns3TPO#.UzXF0X7_K2k.email
Then, I went to Mozilla Thimble Webmaker and worked on the Keep Calm and Carry On poster. https://thimble.webmaker.org/project/44448/edit
I was disappointed that I couldn't print out my poster when I was done.  I know that there must be places where you can because people are making different posters.  (Our art teacher has Keep Calm and Crayon.)

So these coding lessons are really cool.  I will have to work to see if I can do it in school.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Thing 5: Digital Storytelling & Presentation Tools


I took a look at Thing 5: Digital Storytelling & Presentation Tools to see what I didn't know about there.  I looked at the Don't Let the Pigeon be the Principal   story.  It is very cute and I'm sure that the kids had a ball, but what was the rest of the class doing when one kid was narrating and (maybe) one was filming with a third moving the pigeon?  I just have a hard time thinking that this is the best use of our limited time with students.  Maybe it is because I don't see the same students every day and what with assemblies and testing and such, I am lucky to see any given class 25 times a year.

I also looked at the example, Science Time.  Although it was pretty lame in itself, I decided to explore the ZimmerTwins tool.  It seemed pretty intuitive and had a nice intro movie on How to make a Movie.  I liked that joining was free and that kids needed parental permission to join as the password is sent to the e-mail address for mom and dad (if the kid doesn't lie).  However, the fact that you can't edit after you save is very disappointing.  Also, you need a VIP membership (which costs $$) share your movie.  Too bad as it had so many possibilities.  I'd love to know of a similar tool that let you edit and doesn't cost $$.  I could see teaching that to a class, perhaps as part of a lesson on writing instructions/how-to nonfiction.

The ToonDoo tool seemed interesting, especially after I saw the Lifecycles examples.  It seems easy to use, but it is limited.  They only let you make such short cartoons.  Four panels is the max.  That is the same as some of the other cartoon creators I have tried, like Makebeliefscomix .

Then, the links for "I'm Thankful for Teachers" and "The First Book I've Ever Liked" jumped out at me.  While I get that the glogs are booktalks, I don't think that they prove that the kids read the books.  A simple google search for a book's title would easily give you enough information to complete a glog like this.  I guess it depends on what you are grading.  The ability to create the glog or the completion, comprehension, and connection to a book.  I also have to say that this is another have/have not assignment.  My library doesn't have enough computers for every student to have their own to work on.  Many of my students don't have broadband or Fios or even real access to a computer at home.  I can imagine that this would work great in many suburban schools, though I'm still not sure what I would be grading.  I get that the blogger, Sarah Ludwig, would like to let the kids create these glogs or trailers just to encourage reading, but as a teacher tied to APPR and who works hard to support the curricular goals, I totally understand that the teachers need to have a purpose for their time usage.  Perhaps Ms. Ludwig should create a club for students who want to work on projects to encourage reading.  I'm sure that there are students who would join.

I appreciated seeing the list of CC image search tools and music.  I love StoryCorps.  So many people love Prezi, but I guess it is my engineer, left-brain personality, but Prezi drives me NUTS!  Just like people who use PowerPoint and change the background, the font, the colors, and the transitions all of the time.  Yes, I get it.  You were playing, but come on, don't do it when you are presenting to your peers.  I expect that from children, but not adults!  I tend to use SMART Notebook because I have a SMARTboard in my room, but I can easily use PowerPoint. 


In other ideas...
I want to get into using Audacity.  I hoped to get the time during this vacation, but it didn't happen.  


I also think that I will take a look again at
Thing 6: Curation Tools.  But maybe I will save that for another time.  I finally signed up for Pinterest this year, but I have almost nothing pinned.  Maybe I will use this idea in case I don't like on of the next few "Things."  I've done enough for today I think.  I believe I am all caught up!



Thing 15: App-palooza!

Okay, apps...  I have devices, but the problem is that at this point, the school does not.  Many (if not most) of our students don't either.  Still I will take a look.  I do know that WorldBook online has an app that I have let our students know about, as do many of the eBook options (OverDrive, FollettShelf, etc.) and our Library Catalog, DestinyQuest.  (Does anyone listen when I go over these things?  Does anyone read about them at home?)  I do like the GoogleDoc idea with the QR codes.  (Not that I've really delved into the whole QR code thing because they seem more difficult on my Android device than other people's iPhones.  Maybe when I get my new device they will be easier?!)  I could link it off my website.  I also got the link to Shannon McClintock Miller's elementary website.  I like to get ideas and links by looking at other people's.

I was glad to see that Kathy Schrocks Bloomin’ Apps were not just limited to iDevice or Android apps, but included Web 2.0 sites.  I also think that looking at the apps she classifies for the different taxonomies might help me with defining how my lessons address the different skills as well.  Sometimes I am not sure what to classify something as.  Maybe it is just because I didn't go through the "normal" process to become a teacher, but lesson/project creation seems easy while writing a lesson plan is painful.  Of course, this list will be also helpful as a reference of sites.

I was surprised not to see Google Apps for Education.  I know that our Technology Committee is getting at least one tablet with it to take a look.  Our elementary school has no tablets at this point.  We will be playing with it to try to decide a direction to take.

Okay, I just learned how to make QR codes.  I will definitely make one of these "Library in My Pocket" pages for my school.  I'm going to try to make posters and handouts for Open House, too.  I have successfully made QR codes for the district homepage and for my library website.  Here is my websites:
I like that the goo.gl page saves the shortened URLs and QR codes you make.  The only disappointment is that you can't put a name on it.  You have to read the long url to make sense of the shortened one.

As far as using apps goes, I look forward to getting my new phone.  (Maybe Tuesday, cross your fingers!)  My current droid is so old that it is not supported by many apps now.  I'm also hoping that my circulation app will actually scan barcodes soon.  iPhone users have been able to use the FollettDestiny app to check out books, but Android users have not.  Hopefully the update will come soon.

Too bad the Apps for Education blog is all about iPad apps.  iPads are SO expensive.  As I said, it is likely our school will go Android if we jump in at all.  The AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2013 list would be more useful if it were separated by or searchable by platform, too.  Anyone know of an Android list?  I found a list at http://www.teachthought.com/technology/the-best-education-apps-for-android/, but it is not organized by subject or grade or anything, limiting its usefulness.  Another list is at http://www.androidauthority.com/best-android-apps-teachers-tutors-teaching-88110/.  It also is not organized in any way, though I didn't know about some of the apps that were listed.

That is all for now...



Thing 14: Social Reading & Book Stuff

So, now looking at Social Reading...  

I am a fan of GoodReads.  I have an account.  I am also a member of several groups, including the Capital Region BOCE Elementary Book Group and the Capital Region BOCES YA Book Group (just in case I get moved, so I can try to stay up-to-date).  I am moderator for the Schoharie Central Professional Book Group, which we use mostly to keep track of what we've read.  The thing about GoodReads is that it can be time-consuming.  I use it in fits and spurts, entering lots of books in a short time, not daily.  I do like the recommendations feature and I follow several other librarians entries.  Too often, though, people are hesitant to say that a book is bad.  There are lots of reviews saying how wonderful books are, but not so many saying they stink!  

I must say that I still don't understand the "customize the “get a copy” section on your own account with links to your local libraries" feature.  I can't find any of my local libraries, but when I try to "If your library isn’t already listed, you can add it," I am adding a link for one particular book.  I don't have time to add a link for every book I read individually!  Maybe for the books I want to read someday I could do that.  Maybe there is something I just don't understand.

Then, there are eBooks.  I have used a number of them on different devices -my phone, a tablet and a kindle.  (I actually borrowed a BOCES kindle for one summer to get a good feel for what it is like.)  I  just don't really like them for personal use.  I think I am one of those people who are really affected by the blue light spectrum.  Being on any electronic device before bed, revs me up so I can't sleep.  IF only there were a way to change their displays to be more in the red range, like some of the new LED lightbulbs are beginning to do.  

With that said, I have done a lot of exploring for school.  Our SLS has an OverDrive account (as does our local public library).  I try to market those to the students and their parents.  I looked into setting up our own school OverDrive collection, but it was both prohibitively expensive and surprisingly disappointing.  Although I know there are a lot of eBooks out there, you can't really go into building a collection by knowing what titles you would like to have;  many just aren't available.  It seems to be better to know a subject or a genre you want to add.  By the way, people should know that they will presumably need a variety of Bookseller apps to access all of the available OverDrive books (some only in Kindle format, Nook, etc.)

I ended up choosing to start a FollettShelf collection with books for each grade based on their curriculum.  One of the advantages is that some of the books can be purchased as multi-user, not just individual copies.  Another plus is that it gives the teacher's something to show on their interactive projectors.  I try to market the FollettShelf collection to the parents and students as well.  Follett does have apps for their product, too.  Earlier this year, Mackin sent me an e-mail about getting free MackinVIA books, too.  I quickly signed us up.  In some ways, I think that their product may be more intuitive from a user standpoint, but it doesn't seem to have as nice of a search feature.

I looked into Freebooksy briefly.  Interesting how in addition to free eBooks, they have raffles for physical book giveaways.  Since I don't really like reading eBooks, it isn't really for me.  I look forward to hearing if anyone knows of any great sources for kids.

I signed up for NetGalley, but I have not been approved for any titles yet.  It will be interesting to see what I think of this site in the future.

The idea of Calibre is interesting, but my need would be mostly for school.  I would love it if it could be network-hosted so that it could assist the teachers in finding the eBooks that are physically on our network, but I don't see that the desktop is very workable in my professional setting.  

I had looked at WeGiveBooks before, but they now have a lot more books!  I think that I will try to use The Snowy Day with my HeadStart group on Monday!  I like all of my students to experience eBooks just in case they have access.  I think that they will probably find it exciting.  I want to tell the teachers at my school and the Capital Region BOCES Elementary Book Group, too.  I can see teachers using the WeGiveBooks books on an interactive projector to teach reading skills and/or to teach content.  I plan to add the link to my website, too.  

I have looked into the International Children's Digital Library before, but I decided to look again.  It does not seem to have nonfiction, so it is not as exciting to me.  Still, I think it is worthy of a link on my website.  The searching by cover color is weird though.  I try to tell my students NOT to choose books by how they look and here is a website encouraging it.  Very odd.

The DayByDay Family Literacy Calendar coming soon for New York looks like it might be exciting.  South Carolina has links and access to Tumblebooks on theirs!  Definitely worth remembering.



Thing 13: Media Skills

So, I have been looking at this topic.  I actually have learned a fair amount about media tools in the last year for some projects at school.  I have become good at modifying photos, using a green screen approach to add things into a photo.  I noticed that the free editor Paint.net was not included.  It was the best way that the IT guy and I could come up with to get me up and running fast and cheap.  Although it is not as intuitive as some of the commercial products, there is a big community using it, so it is fairly easy to get help.  I love that some of the functions, like cropping are SO simple to do.  Just select and hit the crop to selection!  I think that ClippingMagic is a good addition to my repertoire.  I had done the same thing the old-fashioned and fairly tedious way, so this is definitely a good tool to know!  I used it with Pixlr to create this photo.



I still think that Paint.net is easier to use than Pixlr, though.


Many of the media tools mentioned directly in the resources or in the resource links are browser add-ons.  This is very problematic at school.  Add-ons really slow down your browser for one.  We also cannot download without the IT guy's help because the computers are so tightly frozen.  Frankly, something has to be pretty important to go ahead and ask him to come so I can download it.  (The ability to "green-screen" images into Paint.net was that important, but I don't think Quozio, for example, is.

We have looked at Word Clouds at our school.  Wordle is fun and easy though not as visually appealing as Tagxedo.  Unfortunately, Tagxedo is blocked for our kids.  It is not blocked for teachers, so if the teacher is willing and the kids are trustworthy, they can use it on the teacher's account.  The problem is that Tagxedo is linked to Facebook, etc.  Our firewall blocks any site like that.  It is a good idea to ask your IT guy for the test account for your grade(s) to see if a specific website will work with the settings that your students' accounts have.

Under video, I was surprised that YouTube for Schools was not mentioned.  Our IT guy got the school into that so that teachers can easily use the "safe" content. Of course, that does not mean that all of the adds that pop up are safe.  I found this out while looking for intro videos for a fifth grade project.  That is why I have done some work with Windows MovieMaker of late.  I downloaded the videos that I could with KeepVid and linked them together.  It really worked pretty well. I understand the problems with downloading, but I don't intend to pass the work off as my own or to post it.  I just have it to show the class, so I am pretty sure that I am totally kosher with fair use.

While exploring this subject further, I went to the "12 Great Way to Download and Convert YouTube Videos for your Classroom" link.  I did explore one of the products mentioned, Clip Converter.  It was exciting to see that it has both audio and video converting ability.  From a comment at the bottom of the page, I linked to an Edutopia article on the subject which showed me some more video sources.  I was excited to learn about WatchKnowLearn which seems to have great kid-friendly videos for learning content.  You can spend an awful amount of time on You Tube or Google-searching for useful videos to introduce or reinforce a topic.  WatchKnowLearn organizes videos from the web into categories and age levels.  I saw some great videos there!  The Teaching Channel was interesting, too, but it seems, like EngageNY, to be more of a how-to teach it, than really a content source.

It seems like this whole topic is a mine field with regard to copyright.  I know that there are Creative Commons photos, etc. out there which do not violate copyright, but it is so hard to find what you want the kids to see in Creative Commons.  I went looking for good photos of different habitats around the world and didn't find good photos in Creative Commons.  I know that I can use other photos in my lessons (so long as I give credit where it us due), but that means that I can't put the lessons on my website, which is a bummer!  I wish there was a WatchKnowLearn for Creative Commons photos!

I was glad to see the Screenshots resource list as this is such an important skill!  I couldn't believe it when I found out how few people in my school know about and use this feature.  I constantly use printscreen when I am making new presentations.  I paste the printscreens into Paint or Paint.net and crop or add text, etc.  Screen shots are absolutely essential for my SMARTboard presentations.

I have also used Picasaweb recently to add photo slideshows to my library website, https://sites.google.com/a/schoharie.k12.ny.us/schoharie-elementary-school-library/.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Thing 12: Social Learning & Learning Management Systems

      I have had a little experience with Edmodo, but not much. Like many of these systems, they seem better for secondary than elementary and better in affluent areas than in high-poverty, rural areas where many kids don’t have high-speed internet access. I had taken a short (2 hour) course in Moodle about 5 years ago when we first added Moodle in our district. At that point I had created a Moodle “course” for a project that one sixth-grade teacher was doing, but I haven’t maintained it and she hasn’t asked any more about it.
        I decided to revisit Moodle for this Cool Tools project. (I will be looking into Edmodo again as well). I like that Moodle is free, has always been free, and is on our server, so even if future versions go commercial, we should be able to use the current version for years. One of the difficulties that put me off of Moodle in the past was that each update seems significantly different from the previous. I know that the same capabilities have to be there, but they are not in the same place and I have to search them out. It takes a little time to find accurate documentation for the specific version that you have at that moment.
       I also find that the enrolling students feature is more difficult than it needs to be. They have to “sign in” to Moodle before they can be enrolled in a class. It makes using it in a school a little more difficult. There is a way to enroll with a CSV file, but I haven’t fully explored that. Still another problem is that the students do need an e-mail address, though since the Moodle software is housed locally, the e-mail addresses do not need to be accessible by the public (like say to use GoogleDocs). In our case only fifth grade and up has e-mail addresses at this point, though the tech guy is willing to add them for younger kids AND he will add in “generic” Moodle accounts which could also get around the e-mail requirement.
       Moodle is not as visually appealing as some of the other learning management systems. To my knowledge, there are not apps for it yet. However, they have added “badges” like Edmodo and it is fully featured so that you can add documents, links, tests, quizzes, videos, etc.
       So far I have started to create 2 different “classes” in Moodle. One is for my sixth graders. When students have lessons, therapies, doctor appointments, or other absences, they come to me to try to make up the work. It is problematic to schedule with all of my other lessons for all of the other grades. They don’t have recess per se and my schedule varies by the day. I have started to set up my predictable lessons for their big sixth-grade research project in Moodle. Next year, I will enroll all of the sixth graders in September and show all of the students how to use it during our first lesson. Then, they should be able to take responsibility for making up their missed work. Cross your fingers that it really works that way! Also, some sixth-graders seem to manage to lose every paper they are given before they make it out of the room. By posting all of my hand-outs on Moodle, I can tell them to find it and print it instead of taking my prep-time to do it.
         The other “class” I have created is for Professional Development. Jan Tunison gave a talk about how she used Edmodo for PD with her teachers. A fellow teacher and I created a professional learning group at school about technology. Every month the group meets to discuss different programs/sites/etc. We also talk about problems people are having with using technology. I had been sending out a Word document that gave the minutes of our meetings with detailed instructions for different things we covered. I realized that Moodle might be a good place to store that information so that staff members can access it whenever they need to. Assuming it seems to be working with our group, I will reach out the the principal about presenting the Moodle site at a faculty meeting and enrolling all staff as “students” in the Moodle course. Then they can look at it when they want or need to.
        I have spoken to a friend who is a second-grade teacher about it. I can really see Moodle being a possibility for many different things for a classroom teacher. (At least if the teacher expects to be in that grade for multiple years.) You could set up reading class centers through Moodle. First the students complete this assignment, then read this, then go play this game to reinforce a skill, then take this quiz, etc. Just like with my sixth-grade project, I think it is a great way to set up a research project. All of those timelines and other handouts can be online. You can even have older students use the forum to collaborate or comment on each other’s work.
         All in all, I think learning management systems can be a valuable tool. They take a while to set up, so they should be well thought out ahead of time.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Okay, Thing 11: Mapping & Geolocation Tools I had already seen the Google Maps new interface video once before. It is not very inspiring to me as I don't use Google Maps to find restaurants, etc. I tried to follow the interface tour, but I somehow messed it up somehow. I did learn that when you jump browsers, Google does not follow you! Handy info since they seem to be able to track everything. (Just a reminder to those of you who are not as paranoid about internet snooping, unclick the "Stay signed in" box so that you are only signed in to google when you want to be.) I also just learned to create my post in Word and then paste it into Blogger, because Blogger started saying it couldn’t save my post. (Not that I was ready to publish, yet!) That was something Jan Tunison recommended at her presentation on using Edmodo at NERIC Technology Awareness day. It seems like a good idea to maybe save everything that seems important that you have on a free website as a Word doc, too. I have also learned that Google Maps says that Internet Explorer does not support all of the cool new things in Google Maps. They recommend Chrome of course, but I didn't get that message in Firefox so it must support the new interface. My tech guy, Dave Holmes, is always trying to get me to use Firefox or Chrome, but Firefox is too annoying for school since I can only have it up on one computer at a time. What with budget cuts, I am usually signed on to both circ desk computers at once so I can work on one and go over to check out books, look up things for teachers, put books on hold, etc. on the other when I don’t have any help in the library. Okay, I went into Chrome to take the new interface tour. Not an impressive tour to me. As I play around, I noticed that while Google has taken unbelievable street view photos of my neighborhood, most of the photos at the town I work in are clearly not Google in origin. They are still shots, not 360. It makes sense that no one wants the school in too much detail, (you can only see the bus garage), but I am surprised about the main road. I looked into Photosphere. Interesting that there is something easier with Android that with iPhones. I went with the Android phone, but sometimes feel left out if I am not near other techies. Still, with my students so young and not supposed to be using cell phones at school, I don’t see much use for it in an academic sense. Also, it seems more just a fun thing to do than a really curriculum relevant thing at the elementary level. I could see the Jr high which at times has field tripped to local history sites adding info via Photosphere as a project. I did add my favorite vacation spot to the collaborative map labelled "Wendy's favorite vacation spot." Very inventive title, no? I checked out History Pin, What Was There, and Sepia Town. Sepia Town does not seem to have anything local. History Pin has more. To me it seems like What Was There is the best for our area. I don’t see real curricular connections, but it would make a great Scouting project. In the past, before Common Core and all of the standardized testing, I think that teachers would have felt like they had the time to use this as a local history project. I could see people going to the relatives, local museums, public libraries, historians, etc. to get a photo to scan, identify the location, and upload. That would be cool. The My Histro site seems especially good. We had tried timerime with our Professional Technology Group, but that doesn’t seem as focused as My Histro does. I will definitely mention this to Tech Group. Library Thing Local is interesting, but not much use for school. GeoGuessr is similarly just amusing. I think that some of the Shepard Software geography games are much more appropriate for school use. Free iPad apps might be cool IF we had any tablets in the school building whatsoever, but we don’t! The QR code ideas might be cool, but they aren’t appropriate for a school where the kids are not supposed to be using cell phones at school AND we don’t have any tablets. Finally, I did take a Lit Trip course in the spring. I have a curricular connection for it, but I haven’t gotten back to it. This reminds me to do it and I hope I can get myself to take the time. Well, if I hope I get faster at working through future Things and more succinct at posting about them. Final thoughts... How do I get Blogger to let me have line breaks in my posts? All of my paragraphs ran together!
Okay, time to get to work. I joined Cool Tools with the hope of being as inspired as I was when Polly taught the CDLC course that necessitated this blog. However, the November start with the Holiday crazies at school, at home and in the community was just not feasible for me. I hope to catch up between this weekend and next.