Friday, June 28, 2013
Chapter 5: Using Tools to Support Connected Learning
I will be out of town on the 30th, so I am posting this one early. Feel free to start now...or wait until the 30th.
The beginning of this chapter gives us a lot to think about. I highlighted 2 lines from Sheryl "I am a project- problem-, passion-based teacher who believes students need both hands-on and visceral learning." "However, I feel it is a disservice to children when educators become so enthralled with the tools that they lose sight of what is most important --- the learning." We need to focus on thinking and not thinging when we look at tools. We also have to balance our study and PLN with the time we have, so please do not feel that you have to sign up for everything.
We all have tools we use in the classroom and in our PLN. Now, let's investigate some new tools that can be used to connect to others or use in our classroom. Choose one of the following tools (or suggest one of your own), investigate it and then report back to the group. Add instructions, links, articles...anything that might be useful to help the group understand the new tool. (you may be asked to share a tool that you already use later but right now try something new).
To start...please sign up for the tool you will report on, then investigate and post your findings.
Diigo
Delicious
Twitter/ Twitter Chat /Hootsuite
Blog (ex. Blogster or Edublogs)
Wikispaces
Flickr
Podcast
Skype
VoiceThread
PadLet
Ning
Evernote
My Big Campus social networks. Sue...will you do this one as a "visiting scholar"
Simplek12 social network
Pinterest. Angy will do this one
Suggest your own:
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I will do flipboard
ReplyDeleteHi all, I realized this morning that I didn't follow the rules. I already use Twitter, so it isn't new to me. So...I am changing my choice to Pinterest. It is time for me to learn about this one.
ReplyDeleteIf you have never used Twitter, feel free to investigate it and share with the group.
When I said I would do flipboard, I am not sure if this qualifies. Flipboard is an app that allows you to organize your PLN in one place. Please let me know if I should move forward. Otherwise I will pick another.
ReplyDeleteMary Rose. If this is something that can be used on any device, I think you will be ok. Since we all use different devices, let's all try to look at tools that are cross platform.
ReplyDeleteAngy I am going to do Delicious. I know that Flipboard is only available to iPad and iPhone even though they are getting ready to launch for Microsoft. So Delicous it is, that is if no one else has chosen it.
ReplyDeleteAngy, I am going to do Padlet.
ReplyDeleteMaryRose posted this one. It doesn't seem to be showing up on the blog...so I thought I would try myself.
ReplyDeleteI decided to change my assignment to Delicious. The site describes itself as, “Delicious is an easy, free tool to save, organize and remember the links you find interesting on the web. Never lose a link again, easily organize your links, and search painlessly.”
Below are the steps I took to setting up my account and my reflection on it.
• www.delicious.com
• Setting up the account was easy. I used my work email as I plan to use this professionally.
• These are the instructions I was given. It is the profile page. Welcome to Delicious! Add links from anywhere on the web by installing our bookmarklet. Just drag the blue “Add to Delicious” button on the left to your bookmarks bar (or “favorites” bar for Internet Explorer).Connect your Facebook or Twitter accountto import everything you’ve shared there.If you find something you love on the Discover page, add it to your profile by using the + button next to each link.
• Once I set up my profile page I decided to begin exploring.
• I found that a google translation bar popped up and it hid my navigation bar around Delicious. Once I exited from it then I was able to explore better.
• After 30 minutes I found it not very user friendly. I began to get discouraged. I tried to add connections from Facebook and Twitter. It said I had no mutual “friends.” So I visited Delicious on Facebook and everyone there talked about how great it is. I AM MISSING SOMETHING.
• AS I continued to explore I found that I could import my favorites to Delicious. On the left it listed places I could connect to such as Facebook and Twitter, then it said export and import.
• I then went to my favorites on my computer and made a file named Delicious. I then dragged the links I wanted to export to this file. I also had files established that I drug to this central file. I then went to file, export and chose to put it on the desktop.
• Once this was completed I chose import from the Delicious
• I was given the option to make public or private. I chose private to begin with because I wanted to be able to edit it before I made it public.
• To get to the links, I went to “remember”
• I then went to Discover and searched for education. Once you find a link that you are interested in you can add it. To the right you will find others who have added this. You can then search their sites and decide whether or not to add them to your network..
Reflection: I’ve spent several hours this summer exploring the different resources available to us presented in the book. I found this one to be less user- friendly. However, I did go to the help tab found from the drop down menu by my name and went through the frequently asked questions This helped somewhat but I am not sure if I will use this resource. If anyone has used it before I would love to know how you feel about it. Below are review I looked up on google. Some comments say that it is not working like it used to.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/10/3864010/delicious-completely-redesigned-social-bookmarking-service
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/delicious-bookmarks/reviews/
http://webtrends.about.com/od/delicious/gr/delicious_r.htm
I am going to investigate Evernote.
ReplyDeleteEvernote
ReplyDelete• organizational tool that saves and synchronizes your digital life across all devices
• go to this page to see a list of videos on the different ways you can use Evernote : https://evernote.com/video/
• it organizes everything that you do online and even things in the real world all into one space
• you can type notes, store documents, record audio, capture photos
• search by keyword, tags, and even handwritten documents stored in Evernote
• share documents and collaborate with others
• I found this blog on 10 tips for teachers using Evernote in the classroom: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/01/13/10-tips-for-teachers-using-evernote-education-series/
• I found this article to be very interesting since I am the binder and worksheet queen. It talks about using Evernote to create digital binders or portfolios so that you can start to go paperless. This is something I really want to explore more. http://www.appeducation.com/2012/07/18/lose-the-binder-use-evernote-in-your-classroom/
I just downloaded Evernote and will explore it some and come back with more information once I have had time to play around with it.
Hi all. I put my Pinterest notes in a google document. It is too big to post in the blog. So..please go to the document at http://goo.gl/Gsu78 You should be able to access it without logging in. Please let me know if you have problems.
ReplyDeleteI a still learning about Pinterest. I will do a follow-up post later. (I think this will be a weekly assignment for all of us later in the month - I will let you know).
I am going to do blogs.
ReplyDeleteI will be exploring Skype - stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteI set up a Skype account a while ago with the goal of talking to a former exchange student from Italy who now lives in Poland. I have not yet connected with him through Skype, but want to talk to him soon, since he and his wife are expecting a baby in September (this will make me a long-distance grandma, I think)! I have not had time to set up a Skype with him yet, and I wanted to try it out with someone in the US, with an option of calling if things went wrong, so I tried out Skype as an interview with a colleague at Madison HS. He needed to interview three people for a paper he has to write for his summer course, so he emailed me his screen name before the scheduled Skype, so I would be able to find him.
ReplyDeleteOn my PC, which has Windows 8. there is a Skype tile in start menu, but no obvious way to get things started. I played around with clicking on the few icons showing on my screen, and finally found a way to add a contact by right-clicking and getting a bar at the bottom to come up with a button for “Add contact.” From there, it was easy to search for the person I was supposed to Skype. I clicked on the screen name of the correct contact, and had to send a request to add him to my contacts.
I was trying to figure out which icon to clink on to actually connect at the appointed time, when he accepted my request and initiated the connection. It rang like a phone and showed me who was trying to connect. Again, the icons had no words, so I had to guess which icon to click to accept the connection. The first thing I clicked on muted my mic. After a clicked again to turn the mic back on, I clicked again on an icon and turned off the camera. I turned that back on, then finally clicked on the right icon to accept the connection. After that, there were no problems with the connection. I was able to use the webcam and the internal mic on my laptop and didn’t need to plug in headphone/mic to communicate.
Although the initial experiment went fairly well, I don’t know if the issues with the screen setup of Skype (the difficulty of finding which button did what) are specific to Skype or if they are due to the tile system and presentation of Windows 8. I hope to try Skype again on another computer to see if non-Windows8 makes it less confusing.
I found this tool on twitter this morning: http://www.nearpod.com/ looks like it is just available for ipad right now but other devices are coming soon. Have any of you used to yet?
ReplyDelete