One Last Thing...

I often felt that many of these activities were redundant and tedious, though I did learn a few interesting things I did not enjoy this program too much. I fear I am too much of an old soul to want to use all of this technology for my classroom, especially since I am teaching art and art is all about the physical, tactile expression of making. I do however know what things I will want to utilize to my best abilities and with how the world is progressing now, if I don't understand a program I can always look it up on YouTube or Google! Though I was disappointed that we didn't spend more time discussing how to actually use the physical technology of the classroom, I was very pleased with the organizational tools like iGoogle, which I am now using as my homepage and the use of a wikipage to provide information to my students. Maybe one day I'll get a liking for blogging, but as of right now with so many other things to be worrying about other than posting my discoveries on the web about the web, I'll be placing blogging as a teacher on the back burner. The experience was interesting overall however, so please do not take my negative take personally! Everyone is different after all. I do know that I will be using some of these tools as I progress through my residencies, such as the live binders and maybe animoto to make a fun introduction video of myself : )

Thing #23--Creative Commons

Creative commons is a topic that was gone over this class, watched a video and made a PowerPoint example on how we would teach it to our selected grade level/audience. I also watched a video about creative commons and copyright in my electronic imaging class three years ago. In the art world especially, knowing from who and where you are pulling your ideas from is very important so the proper credit goes to that person and no toes are stepped on in the process. You also have to make sure that it is legal to use the photos/videos or other media associated with someone; also known as getting their permission. This is a problem rampant on many art sharing websites of today... so one website, deviantART began to offer a creative commons license to place underneath a work after it was uploaded. The artist could then choose how a work could be used, or how if it could be used at all. The website also offered a "watermark" or light mark (usually the deviantART logo) that runs across the entire picture so that if it is stolen, that mark will remain on it no matter what and everyone who sees the image will know it was taken from that person on deviantART.

I will definitely be teaching my students about appropriation of things found online, and stressing the importance of copyright as they create their own work; most especially if we are creating digital images. Their English teachers will already be telling them about plagiarism so hopefully it will be easy for them to connect those ideas.

Thing #22--Live Binders

Well there is much to do with this webtool! It's definitely something very cool that I plan to use in the future. Akin to diigo but with a lot more bells and whistles! I plan to use these two sites together to organize my thoughts as I go on hunts for lesson plans and ideas.

Thing #21--Animoto

This was very quick and easy to do! Very fun and would make for a fun surprise for your classroom to play a video about them : ) OR if they are old enough to do the work on their own, it would make for a super fun project for them to have to create a 30 second video showcasing whatever topic it is you are going over currently. It makes it more relatable to the students because it uses technology and they would have a blast doing it.

Here's my video using the song "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper, showcasing some photos from my camping trip to the Grand Tetons over the summer.


Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Thing #20--YouTube

YouTube's lack of a filter can be quite alarming, as I was giving a presentation and went to search for a video about the color wheel but a porn star popped up instead. I was beyond embarrassed but luckily my professor has good humor and laughed it off saying "We're all adults in here it's ok, just double check your work next time." But my first video about the primary colors showed up just fine without any incident! Here it is below, and remember to send yourself a link that you KNOW works before openly searching in YouTube's search bar! That's my advice! But other than that I really enjoy the website, there are so so many awesome instructional videos made by teachers and hobbyists alike!

Thing #19--Teacher Pop

I am waiting for approval from Teacher Pop for now, so I will publish this not so finished entry so my "things" don't get out of order.

Thing #18--Facebook

The pitfalls of having a facebook is that it can be public and if you're not smart your students will use the things that you post against you, as well as your peers. You must always be professional, or attempt to be, keep your facebook private and watch what you say/post at all times! Even if you're not friends with someone, people can see your page so long as they know a person that is commenting on something on your timeline. Happens to me all the time; my mom always sees the things I post to my friends, because on facebook you can "subscribe" to people and see their every move! The only good use facebook could have in a classroom is by using a "group" to keep your class updated on assignments, group projects, homework, presentations, school functions/meetings, etc. With groups now you know who has read your post and who hasn't. You as a teacher can also monitor the students in this "secure" space and even invite parents/guardians to the group so that they can participate with the class and give their input. Creating a group for the PTA would be very helpful I think, especially with the way facebook seems to have taken over so many social aspects of our culture now.

Thing #17--Delicious

Social bookmarking is an interesting tool, I do find it useful in the way that I can bookmark things on one computer then pull it up on another one later. I can only see practical use for it in the classroom if I use it for a similar purpose as we do in this class; website of the day. I could ask the students to find appropriate websites for the topic we're discussing, or artworks related to the artist/movement we're learning about.

Thing #16--Getting organized

So a few of the applications that caught my eye were no longer in use because of iPad applications that took over their function. So I chose to stick with my first choice, iGoogle. I recently have created a gmail account while working on my 23 Things and I use it to keep track of videos on YouTube that are both entertaining and educational. I will most likely use this email as a more professional one than my current yahoo mail. Ever since I had to sign up with RSS feeds I've been gravitating toward Google apps, so using iGoogle was only natural! It took literally 10 seconds to set up, and only a few minutes more to organize it into something fun and useful for me to use. These calendars and to-do-lists can be very helpful to me once I make iGoogle my homepage, so that everytime I turn on the internet--which is often--I will see my priorities laid out in front of me. This way I won't forget things, or I'll be reminded of things that need to be done or prepared for. I would definitely recommend it to others!

Thing #15--Wikis

Well I could not get the sandbox to work for me, therefore I opted to do the optional assignment. I keep getting angry at the blogging/page technology, so why not learn to like it by playing with it and making it truly useful? I spent a little too much time exploring the wiki page, and through much trial and error I was able to translate a timeline assignment from my art education methods class into a viewable webpage. It was pretty cool I must admit! And I'm most likely going to use this as my own website once I am a full-fledged teacher; it's just so cool and very useful! I can store all sorts of information about history movements, artists, class assignments and everything inbetween on this wiki page for my students to view. This assignment was very fun and turned out to be an eye-opener for me. I hope everyone makes their own wiki page!

Also, here's a link to my wiki page, it's still under construction so any critiques or advice someone has for it would be greatly appreciated : )


Ms. Parker's wikipage

Thing #14--Flow/Mind charts

I honestly have not used a brainstorming web chart thing since I was in middle school and that was quite some time ago. When I brainstorm, I sketch, I do not make bubble charts or anything else, therefore this process was very, very difficult for me. I had a hard time coming up with a thought to brainstorm, as silly and redundant as that sounds. Although I am no good at figuring out where to start with something unless a pen or pencil is in my hand, the program bubbl.us was really fun to work with! It's very organized and after a few trial and error clicks I figured out how to connect thoughts, add onto a "parent" bubble as well as a "child" and "sibling" bubble. The other program I used, gliffy was nicely organized as well and really easy to use. I can't quite find a good use for it just yet as I am not good at brainstorming on the computer!

Thing #13--Web-based Applications

     For this assignment we had to create a free account at Zoho.com and test out the application's features by creating a document. I wrote something kind of random, just so I could have a sample document there. It's a very well organized site, and I like the set-up; just about the same as Microsoft Word. But seeing as most computers have Microsoft Word I don't see any practical use of this program unless you have no access what-so-ever to Word and need to get something done asap. Sharing files online is useful however, simpler than email most likely.

With google I decided to make a drawing. Sadly I did not have access to a tablet, so I had to draw on my mouse pad. It was very difficult, but it was pretty cool. The line that you are currently drawing will glow until you let go of the mouse, or click it, therefore if you're overlapping it's easy to tell what line you're drawing at the moment. It can get confusing sometimes! Very fun program.

The only practical use I can think of for the classroom is that the students can share work if they are working on a group project. It would be more organized and easier than using email.