Thing 8

In the same post in which you placed your creation, briefly describe your experience completing Thing 8. Which of these tools intrigues you and why? Was it easy, frustrating, time-consuming, fun? Share some of your ideas for using the images you can create.

There are a lot of amazing (and free) tools out on the web! I had fun with the Spell with Flickr tool. I couldn't figure out though how to save the whole thing and post it here. I was amazed at how powerful it was and how fun it could be. My students would love to play around with that (wonder if my school's web surfer will allow it...hmmm).

The magazine cover of course was very fun as well. They are all fun and exciting but at the same time very, very time consuming! You could play around with each of these tools for hours to produce some interesting and fun mash-ups. The games especially I think would appeal to my students. They love doing anything on the computer as long as there is a game involved.

I can see this as a "Sponge" activity in my classroom. An activity that they do once they are done with their work that "soaks up" the time while they are waiting for the others in class to finish. Having a computer with wifi in front of them is too tempting sometimes. Directing them to these sites could let them explore their creative side and have fun at the same time.

For myself, I find the sites to be amusing but don't see that I would use them that much. I am so short on time as it is that I cannot image spending too much time playing around with these things.

Thing 7

Think of ways you may be able to use Flickr in your classroom and share your ideas. What issues might you face?

Currently, my students are putting together the first issue of the school newspaper. We only have 5 cameras and it has been a real hassle having 140 students taking pictures and having them available for them to put with their articles. Flickr could be a wonderful time saving tool. The students could post the images into a single Flickr account and then access them when they need to. In addition, if they use their own cameras they could post the pics from home so that they wouldn't have to transport them with a Flash drive or with email.

I can be such a pessimist but I see lots of potential issues with using Flickr in the classroom. If students are posting pictures of themselves or others on the web there needs to be parental permission. I know that I have 6 students who cannot have their images posted online. That does not include other students in my building who are not to have their images published on the web. This could create a potential legal issue. Also, having students leave comments on a picture could be disastrous. All there needs to be is a few students (who might not even be in the class) to post a few crude comments. Of course, comments could be closed, or the group could be private but that again has the problem of every student needing an email account to access the site. Sigh, wish the kids had school email accounts. This all could be so much easier!

* Side note: our students are not allowed to "right-click" an image so putting them on flickr for them to insert into their papers wouldn't work anyways.

Thing 6

Create a post on your blog about one of the photos you downloaded. Why did you choose a particular photo? What is it about the photo that you found interesting? Be sure to include the image in your post. Use Blogger's photo upload feature to do this.

For 10 years I have been a French teacher. This year I entered a brave new world of technology to begin teaching Media Literacy. Sometimes I feel like I am a first year teacher all over again. Many days I am missing teaching French. I miss knowing from day to day what I am teaching and messing with technology has many more pitfalls than teaching a foreign language.

Tonight a friend of mine suggested that we go to Paris over Christmas break. It was very tempting. But I have 2 young children (1 and 4), am single, and have plenty of bills to pay so Paris isn't likely. But just thinking about going there again is a dream that my husband and I shared. So, I found many beautiful images of the Eiffel Tower and it reminded me of the plans the two us had shared of returned there one day.

Thing 5

RSS can be a difficult concept for some to grasp right away - what questions do you have? What didn't work or doesn't make sense? How might you use RSS in your personal or professional life? Find anything in your searching that you'd recommend to others?

I think RSS is very logical and isn't difficult to grasp at all. Of course I am biased because I have used it before.

One thing did not work with the demonstration. When I tried to subscribe to 2cents, I was not offered the script. Instead it offered me a Windows feed. Instead of using the script I just used the Sub with Bloglines method instead.

I think I will use RSS for my professional life rather than my personal life. I enjoy visiting my personal blogs on a daily basis and do not want to streamline that process. But subscribing to feeds of professional blogs will help me keep track of the ones I want to visit. So far, all of the sites I have found are ones that I was already aware of.

Thing 4

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of blogs out there - how do you handle information overload and how do you think RSS might help with that?

I do suffer for information overload. I have such good intentions but find that there just simply isn't enough hours in the day to read and do all that I have planned (which is why I am doing Thing 4 on November 30th!). I agree that RSS could help me to organize the information on the blogs I enjoy reading. Usually though, it is not the blogs that overwhelm me with information. I choose to visit a blog when I have the time and it is very simple to scroll through the posts I have missed.

Most information overload I suffer from is when I am simply doing a websearch. I come across great resources and have all intentions of coming back to them but never do, or forget them, or lose the link, etc....

Thing 3

How might you use a blog with students? How might they respond to a blog assignment? What concerns about blogging with students do you have? How might you use a blog for other educational purposes (other than with students)?

I can see that there are many, many ways that a blog can be used with students. One way that I am currently using a blog is for the daily announcements. Each day the staff of my building email their announcements to me. I compile the announcements and they are posted on podbean. My students then record the announcements and we post the MP3 file as well. Currently I do not let the students post to the blog.

I think my students would LOVE to have a blog assignment. Unfortunately I am hitting a roadblock with the logistics of it. A lot of blog sites are blocked in my school district. If I want the students to set up their own blogs then they will need an email address. Most students have email addresses but some do not. I wanted to give my students gmail student accounts but right now the administration is a bit weary of that approach. So right now I am just waiting.

I have many concerns about students and blogging. The biggest concern though is drama related to putting publication rights into the hand of Middle School students. I am afraid of them posting negative comments on each other's blogs or having flaming wars, etc....

A neat blog to have that would be for teachers (but not students) would be a place to link great teacher created lessons for Media Literacy. This is my first year teaching the subject and I feel like I am floundering. If there was someone out there compiling resources on the topic I would LOVE it.