Thing 9- Stretch

Here's my voki!!!



It's also on my wiki!!

Thing 9

My wiki on our "sandbox" page is JandMEchols. Well, I first started playing with Wikispace for another class that I am taking. I very quickly became frustrated and overwhelmed, and mad at myself for struggling with creating a page. I consider myself to be somewhat savvy, but this had me down for the count. After reading your instructions and creating my page, it was like a breath of fresh air, so much more easy. After creating my wiki, I found myself wanting to go back and change my URL, because I thought it wasn't "creative" enough. Oh well, it is what it is, right!!?? I really enjoyed being able to create the page about me, and getting to see those that others created! I especially enjoyed creating my banner for the top of my page. I also loved learning how to create a Table of Contents on our page. It is so useful. This one "thing" created so many "ah ha" moments for me, it was like the proverbial light turned on. :)

Thing 8- Stretch

I chose to look up the term "softball" on Wikipedia. I originally had searched the term "blogging" which led me to "blog". Though I thought, this information would be interesting and useful to this course, I was upset that there was no discussion. So then I tried searching "softball" this response included information that seems very factual, and is written with very good grammar. However, when looking at the discussion tabs, I only found 2. These provided wikis that you can link to, as well as a post stating that this page was nominated for "good article", and one stating that it did not win. Once, again I felt let down. I think many viewers may be like me, without this class, I was "uninformed". I had no idea what a wiki was, nor that Wikipedia was interactive, especially that you could discuss topics on it. I had heard people talk about how you couldn't trust all of the information, that anyone could change it, but I did not know how. Unit Now!!!! When looking at the history, I learned that this page was created on April 17, 2007 and has not been updated since February 3, 2009.

Thing #8

Wiki teaching seems to be a very useful tool. I love the opportunity that they provide for collaboration in the classroom. While exploring, I visited Go West, a wiki in which the students were broken up into groups, I'm assuming, and the students each reported on different aspects of the Oregon Trail. Some of the information included on the pages I explored were; time lines, explorers, hardships, luxuries, and women. I found this a much more meaningful way to explore the Oregon Trail versus the game I remember playing in the computer lab as an Elementary School student. :) I also visited the Thousands Project. This site was a bit confusing to me, but had such an awesome concept. The teacher/class authoring the Thousands Project posts a new topic of discussion each month. Their goal is to receive 1,000 responses by the end of the month. This would be a good tool to foster communication amongst students and set a basis for acceptance and a gain in knowledge of other cultures. It seems to me however, that this wiki is not maintained quite how it should be, the content seems scattered and incomplete. I'd love to see what the teacher does with the responses, to give the last bit of "meaning" the "why" to why they are doing the projects. Lastly, I chose to visit 1001 Flat World Tales. This wiki provided the opportunity to "share" a writing project. It's an ongoing story/stories, that are edited constantly by different people. I love the premise behind this, however I found the wiki a bit confusing to navigate through. In the Intel class that I am currently taking I created a "sample" wiki that would be a student example of work that would be expected. The process was very eye-opening for me, and I think our students could really benefit from the shared experiences.

Thing #?? and Then Some

I received a feed today from TechLearning that discusses Wii's being used in music classes. I was a amazed, TALK ABOUT EDUCATION 2.0. It's a short, but interesting read, just thought I'd share.

Thing #7

I'm partially biased when it comes to commenting. I have to admit I was pulled into the "Myspace" craze and created one of my own a few years back. My experiences there, correlate with the Ten Commandments of Commenting so well!!

It makes sense that we would need Read what's going on before we write to it. Number three reminds us that we need to smile. I think that I would be the most guilty of overusing this one. :) I smile often! I find Commandment 4 very difficult for me, as much as I love to have comments, and feel sad if I don't, I do not do a very good idea of commenting to others. I need to work on this! I agree, I think it's awesome to be funny, when people take themselves too seriously, I find it hard to take them seriously!! Commandment Ten tells us that we should visit frequently, this is something that I can definitely do!! I'm an internet addict! :P

I also really enjoyed the Blue Skunk article called Your Comments? This made me ah-ha. Our comments aren't really our comments. These are for the benefit of our poster, our readers, and then finally ourselves. These articles helped me to realize how important it is to comment on others blogs etc., and to make sure that it's meaningful and contributes to the "conversation."

Happy commenting............ : 0 )

Thing #6

I heart Google Reader, I'm addicted!!! :) Like I said in my last post, I've been feeding my Reader since day 1. I've been Reading quite a bit about Children's books, and it's been very informative in working towards my Master's degree. I'm working towards a Library Information Sciences Degree. This feed keeps me up-to-date on what books are coming out, what reviews are saying, and what books are receiving awards etc. I've also been Reading from Braingle quite often. Braingle updates several times daily. Every day I get a Brain Teaser, a Trivia Question, a Vocabulary Word, A Creativity post and A Memory post. I've gotten the most benefit so far from the Creativity and Memory posts. I've found so many ideas that I have been able to take and find ways to adapt to my classroom!! I'm so excited, they work as good fillers and morning work/bell ringers! For example, on February 1st, and at several times prior to that, they gave the idea of working on familiar family words. It states that we should come up with 26 words (one for each letter of the alphabet) for each of a certain category. Ex. Animals (Ant, Bear, Cat, ....) Jobs (Artist, Baker, ...). I already make an "ABC" book at the end of the year, over what we've learned. But, it's was a refreshing reminder that I can do it quickly, with a small time frame, and a familiar topic as a motivator, or a transition etc. Another, of MANY, idea that I liked was called Superhero. In Superhero, it's all about creativity! You are supossed to pretend that you are in charge of comingup with a new superhero for a comic book. You give the student 5 minutes and come up with as many unique creative names as you can for this superhero. Then tell what their super-power is. The goal is to see who can come up with the most, truly unique. I have also been receiving daily posts about quotations. I love using quotations as inspirational techniques in my classroom, as anecdotes to awkward situations, and as transitions. I've found lots of quotes that I like, but not so many that I can use in my classroom. Rotten Tomatoes has been sending my daily updates, however I'm not too sure if I will be keeping this "feed". Even though, I enjoy my information on movies etc., I've been finding some of what they have to say somewhat annoying. Not the last of my feeds, but the last for today is a feed from Google News that I specified to my "needs". My father's cousin, Dana Rohrabacher, is a representative for the state of California. I subscribed to this feed so that I can stay up to date on what's going on in his life, and give me a better excuse to stay up-to-date on political news. I usually tend to fall behind on what's going on. ........... More to come later!