11 Tools Reflection

I have enjoyed the self-training part, with the help of the people from Common Craft and their paper-people explanations, of course. As a teacher, I appreciate the way they explain and teach technology concepts that may be a bit hard to fully grasp if you're not immersed in current technology. A highlight has been reading everyone's blog and watching the digital stories. Impressive.
Besides Common Craft, which I will definitely revisit when I need to understand technology stuff better, I will continue to explore TeacherFirst Edge: Safe Web 2.0 in the Classroom . I like the way they present their information by highlighting the name of a program or site followed by the words 'reviewed here,' where you can read other teachers' opinions and experiences with that particualr program or site. They link blogs and videos, etc. Love the site!
I am excited to have discovered GoogleDocs (our team used it for planning today!), and Jing, a very practical tool that I know will come in handy later. Another program I absolutely enjoyed playing with is PhotoStory. I felt successful with it (very important so I dare try further...) and I can't wait to use it and teach it in the classroom.
When I started with Tool #1, I tried not to think of the 10 others...and I admit that by Tool #8, I totally felt on tech-overload. But perseverance pays off...now I have several questions that are fueling my interest to go further, and I see this blog as sort of my 'notebook.' Here, I have a record of my learning, a place to refer back to if I forget how to use a particular tech-tool, links to tutorials, samples of the technology I was able to use (yes!), and a support system made up of teachers who navigated through the same tasks and can help each other. It was not easy for me to complete the tasks, but absolutely wouldn't have it any other way!

Tool #11

There is no question that as teachers, we have wide access to multiple tools to create a rich technological environment in the classroom, and absolutely no question that this generation of kids is wired to keep up  with the ever changing technology.  It is the nature of technology that makes it essential that our students learn to make the choices that will help them operate safely in the technological world. It isn't enough to be tech savvy, but it is also important to be safety savvy.
Digital citizenship refers to the digital community, and communities have norms that define membership. After reading several sites about what it means to be a responsible digital citizen, several themes stand out in my mind regarding responsibility to self and to others: access and trusworthy resources, copyright law/infringement, etiquette, personal privacy/identity, and security. 
So, along those lines, it's important that together with technology skills, we teach our students safety skills. They need to temper the excitement with caution. They need to: understand that the internet is not a private place,  be selective of who can be an 'online friend,' not give away personal information or passwords, report cyberbullying, be selective of which resources to trust and why, obtain permission before using someone else's work and protect their own work by using appropriate measures. So, understanding and applying safety is one more tool we need to deliberately teach.
I love the BrainPop page on digital citizenship issues: http://www.brainpop.com/technology/digitalcitizenship/

Tool #10

I browsed through the iPod and iPhone education related apps and there were many that would benefit the students: Dictionary.com, Tangrampuzzle pro, Google Earth, Planet, Sove24, BrainPop, etc. With such a wide number of choices, as a teacher, I need to familiarize myself with as many apps as possible and choose what would be educationally beneficial to my students. Access, user-friendlyness and convenience are not the deciding criteria, but relevance to instruction and learning like any other tool, whether it be iPods, iTouches, manipulatives, the computer, active board, workstations, etc.  I look forward to exploring these apps in the classroom and getting ideas and feedback from my grade level on tried and true apps that will add to the classroom. Here, I think, a balanced diet is the key.

Tool #9

I downloaded Jing and went through this short tutorial:  http://www.screencast.com/t/M2RhNDE2
to learn how to use the basic capture feature. The Jing Help Center tutorials show you how to capture and image and how to capture a video with a 5 minute time-limit.
I tried Jing out and recorded myself trying to retrace the steps I used on PhotoStory to create my California Christmas story  for Tool #7. Then I saved the movie on Screencast, retrieved the file number and posted it here...hope it worked.
 http://www.screencast.com/users/GenaOlson/folders/Default/media/883a1e00-e80d-42da-8a8e-301b77df7a43
I have not used Skype yet, but we will  in the near future to keep in touch with friends who are moving away. I can see the benefit of using Skype to connect to other learning communities in other districts in Houston and across the state or the country to share results on studies about  common topics. This would benefit all students.

Tool #8

I tried inserting the video of 'What do we do' but Explorer kept giving me an error message and wouldn't upload it, so I linked it and also, just in case, I added it as an HTML gadget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AvZ5ulVyLc&feature=player_embedded  I thought, 21st Century Skills: What do we do?, from the Wikispaces site, was very thought provoking. It challenges teachers with the reality of the educational gap evident in high school graduates, and it shows the results of a survey of 431 employers indicating that high school graduates are underprepared for the workforce, and deficient in the areas of: critical thinking, problem solving, written communication, professionalism and work ethic. It raises the question: How are we preparing our future graduates for a world where they have to be 'masters WITH content,' not 'masters OF content,' and it proposes changes high school curriculum. Very, very interesting.
My absolute favorite site is http://www.commoncraft.com/about/who. Several of their tutorial videos appear on our 11 Tools Blog to teach various tech concepts and applications (the guys with the paper drawings). Have you seen their main webpage? It says, 'our product is EXPLANATION.' They are brillirant! From a teacher's perspective, the way they 'teach' is just what we need in order to understand the fast-pased, non-stop evolving technology engine. Simple and clear explanations. Love those guys!

Tool #7

My favorite yet...this was fun. I used some of the pictures of our family Christmas trip to California and made a 'picture book' for my 1st gr. class.  My microphone is not up to par, so the sound didn't come out that great. Need to work on that one. I'll play with the music settings later. I was surprised how user-friendly PhotoStory is. I can't wait to use it enough to pick speed so it won't take too long to put projects together in the classroom. We can make digital storybooks that include family themes, a how-to, a record of an investigation and its results, a biography of someone of great interest to the class, ways to use math manipulatives, a picture dictionary of landforms, etc. 

Tool #6

I looked at some of the educational Wikis on Wikispaces and I found such a variety of uses and ideas for the classroom! One classroom started a survey about favorite food to complete a graph, and they ended up having responses from every state in the US, and from all the way around the world, New Zealand! Other Wiki pages were a combination of text and graphics or video, but all had the social learning element as the key. Whether Wikispaces, Googlesites, or Google Docs, the media is just a vehicle, but problem solving, collaboration and work ethic are the real point. I can see using one of those tools during science to record observations during an on-going investigation; in math, to explain a concept with demonstrations or examples generated through group work; in reading, presenting a story through reader's theatre scripted by the students, etc. Comments posted on Googlesites seem to indicate that it's an easy tool to use for students. I'll have to compare and decide which one is easiest to use in my classroom.

Tool #5

I searched Delicious for terrariums and it was so much easier and faster to find a whole lot of information especific to my search key word. It is as practical as Google Reader in terms of bookmarking, but it gives you more immediate results specific to the search. One of the sites that I found very interesting was http://www.stormthecastle.com/terrarium/. It had a wide variety of information and tips, from how-to, to types of terrariums, maintenance, etc. Another one that I found interesting was on classroom cheers. http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2006/11_Nov/pg03.html  It had a section entitled, 30+ Classroom cheers. That was fun.  It didn't take long before my list of tags grew, so my next step will be to create bundles, as soon as I add a few more related to the terrariums and maintenance.

Tool #4

Google Reader seems to be a quick way to follow blogs and access updated information posted on sites that discuss topics of current interest to you. It feels like a very personalized 'favorites list.' Instead of going through endless pull-down menus to get to where I need, it's all in one place. Nice. So, when my interests shift to another topic, I can make an updated collection. This looks like a good way to create a collection of sites where both teachers and students can contribute their favorites to jumpstart research or a project. About Google Docs, in order to see how it works right away, I invited my two children to work with me on a science vocabulary Word document I had saved on my desktop. I uploaded it and then shared it with them. We all worked on changes simultaneously, which made my college age daughter rethink her flashdrive for some of the group work she'll have to do next semester. Then I created a Google Docs folder and saved the document the same way I do in Word. The only down side was, and I'm not sure whether this is a laptop issue or a server issue, but Google Docs ran very slow for some reason. There are more features I want to explore.

Tool #3

Flickr says that it "largely depends on the community to police itself for copyright violations, and [that]opportunities for libel or invasions of privacy abound."  This made me think about how easily a great student-generated piece of work can be used without the student's knowledge or permission. It's very important to access and utilize safeguards and options provided by websites that address that issue.
I enjoyed playing with WordItOut to make a list of the many ways to say, SAID! I think it's a fun way to get the kids thinking about their writing and finding alternate ways to say words like: said, happy, and sad.

Tool #2

I look forward to participating in an online education community, starting with my grade level team at my school. Can't wait for the exchange, not only in technology-I have so much to learn!, but when we start our first unit of study in science.
I really liked the comments by Cool Cat: How to Comment on this Blog. Her tip #7: Remember the Power of Words hit home as the newbie that I am...I know there are Darth Commenters out there...very visible all over YouTube for example, but it's great to see how YouTubers have an unspoken agreement to 'keep it friendly,' and they reflect this by responding with comments to that effect. It's important to educate our students about the 'power of words' to retain the purpose of blogging at school: learning communities.
So far, I've posted comments on Mrs. Alvarado's blog, Tool #2 PLN, and on Virginia Canac's thing #19, Web 2.0. I'll keep reading...everyone has such great thoughts to share!

Tool #1

I can't wait to receive comments  on another blog I've started to collect advise on maintaining my terrarium habitat. So far, I've been able to get tips via email from GEMS and AIMS, but it will be interesting to hear from other people about how they've dealt with the same terrarium issues. So, this made me think of one way to use blogging in the classroom, for example in science, to communicate with other learning communities about their findings and experiences with hands-on investigations. This is a different way of journaling information that adds to what we do in class. I also enjoyed creating the Avatar, but I think I had more fun with my kids' Wii Avatar because it gives you more choices. Not having enough time to explore the other tabs on the blogging site is a bit frustrating because there are still 10 other tools to cover!...so later on maybe. I'm not teckky, so in order to get a good handle on new technology, I need enough time to dive-in.