Thing 23 cont.

It seems that the layout of my blog is different than it should be. What happened?? All of my widgets are in the text field and I see that my podcast does not seem to be display...just the code.

Thing 23

Well, well...I can't believe that I completed each Thing. I am not good at working with technology and I didn't think I would ever do something like post a video on YouTube. The program was fantastic in design and provided great how to videos. Thank you.

What I see this meaning for me is a way to utilize tools that are out to create a more engaging educational experience for my students. It means that I have moved into the 21st century and that I can hopefully reach more students inside the walls of my classroom and outside our school space. That I think is the best part of all of this. I finally feel like I may be able to get the majority of students doing 'work' outside of class without it being an activity handout. I'm very excited about that!

I plan to seek out video (I've found some already) and podcasts that I can use in class. I also plan to have my fourth year students participate in blogging with me. It will probably only be during second semester, but I would like to get a feel for how this can work with students and I think they will be a good test group. I am also going to make at least one slideshare for each semester. That is really all I'm going to commit to at this point and it will probably be plenty as I get started.

I've already spoken with one of the tech support teachers in our building and I plan to work with her at least once a month. I would like to share with her what I've learned and see if she can add any thing else to it or just discuss possibilities in classroom. Working more closely with our tech supports and our media specialist are two ways I plan to continue learning 2.o tools, but mostly I plan to just keep exploring. I hope to be able to participate in blogs that will share information about 2.o tools and become more involved in the educational community that I have entered this summer.

Again, THANKS!

Thing 22

My Wiki is . Now that is http://profemad.wikispaces.com/ (I'm not sure if I did the link correctly. I didn't understand how to make a link earlier today, but I think I have it kind of figured out now that I've done it correctly on my Wiki:)

I see the main difference between blogs and wikis as being that a wiki is meant as a space for collaborative work that needs regular updating. A blog seems more to me like a space for conversation. I know that there are many uses for each that I don't understand fully or may not even be aware at this point, but that is how I am distinguishing between them for now. I would determine which is appropriate by what it is that I want to accomplish. If I simply want to hear comments from students in my classroom and maintain a dialogue with them outside of class I think the blog would be appropriate. However, if I want them to develop content for our class I would choose the wiki.

The wiki takes time to set up and I as I stated in Thing 21, I really need to have a better idea of how I would use the wiki for my classroom. I've only started the wiki and it needs structure. Of course, I'm not entirely sure about the structure because I don't have a real plan for its use. Also, when I'm looking at the saved product I see all this text that was there to get started, will that always be there? And I have ads on the right side of my wiki and I thought the video said that I indicated it was educational use, it wouldn't have ads. Well, I plan to play with my wiki more tonight.

Thing 21

I found a wiki called Mohawkspanish at wikispaces. This is a wiki for a Spanish language high school class. There was a listing of the classes and instructions for registering at the site. It appeared that the teacher must send the students an invitation to join this site. I saw documents on a project they must have been doing on Costa Rica. I'm not sure if the teacher posted these or if there was some kind of collaboration with the students when making them or if the students developed them. I have to admit, after watching the video and reading the article I feel like I understand the wiki, but when looking at the wikis that are out there, I'm not sure how they become what they are exactly.

I would like to use a wiki in my classes for things like lesson summaries, study guides or vocabulary study. I think it would be great if the students had to prepare and edit this content for themselves to use.

The first hurdle I think of considering setting up a wiki for my classes is I need to know more about what I'm doing and I need to define my role on the wiki. Then I need to better understand how the students could benefit from this what they can actually do on it. Also, I would really need to think about what their role is too. I also think that how the wiki should be structured is an important piece because if you create something that isn't easy to navegate, then it would be pretty useless. I don't know at this point if you could change the structure as you go or if it needs to be in place initially. Obviously, I would also be concerned about the editing that could happen on a wiki.

The main hurdles here seem to be my lack of knowledge. I don't how much this would really help my students or what our real use could be for a wiki. Therefore I don't know if it is really worth it for me to take the time to put this into action for my students. Also, I don't have a real idea of how much time would be spent monitoring the wiki for the open editing it allows. For now, I will try to make a wiki and sleep on it.

Thing 20

I liked searching in Podcast Alley a little more than in EPN. I liked the set up of the pages and felt like I had a better idea of what I was looking at. Although I wasn't able to subscribe through iTunes, I did search on iTunes for podcasts and become familiar with searching there. This was very easy because I do use iTunes for music so I understand their page layouts well. How do you go about finding podcasts that are not listed at these sites?

I subscribed to SpanishPod101.com. The couple of lessons I listened to were conversations between several people and then a translation of the dialogue in parts. I liked the speaking and clarity of the cast. I was not able to use iTunes because I am not on my computer and I don't know how to access my iTunes from another computer. I used Google Reader and I think this might be better for reviewing the feeds because I have more things in my Google account and will go there more often. I suppose if I want to work with at school, it won't be a problem either because I can access Google Reader there, but not iTunes.

Well, I think there are a lot of possibilities here for impoving my teaching and providing more quality content to my classroom. However, how in the world are you suppose to search and monitor all of these podcasts, blogs, and newsfeeds? I feel more confident in my abilities with technology that is out there, but I also feel more overwhelmed than ever thinking about how I will become proficient in these tools on top of keeping up with it all.

Thing 19

Podcasts I found interesting:

NPR: Cuba Holds Allure as US Tourist Destination
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=111784037&m=112014763

English Idioms and Slang: Cut to the chase
http://cdn1.libsyn.com/diemrob/Lesson155.mp3?nvb=20090828224133&nva=20090829225133&t=0a5822730c19ea639b70d

Mike Flanagan: Reform from the Classroom Level
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-37818_45256-216470--,00.html

The podcasts from NPR could certainly be a tool in working with current events with my students. I have worked with articles before to some degree of success, but I do think that students would be more interested in short podcasts that can lead us into discussion rather than reading an article all the time. I also would like to receive those feeds because then I can keep myself up on current events!

The other podcasts I found interesting do not necessarily work for me in the classroom, but Mike Flanagan's podcasts might allow me to go to staff meetings and Association meetings better informed and with more perspective. This I think is important if I am going to be a channel of positive change that is greatly needed in our school.

Searching for podcasts that will work for me and my students in the classroom is something I need some practice with. I also would love to come up with ways that my students can make podcasts as a way of presenting learned language. A question I have is what is the difference between a YouTube video and a podcast??? They seem like the same thing to me.

Thing 18 cont.

I am having some problems viewing my blog after embedding the Slideshare to it. I don't if it came out or not...my feeling is not. I also can't post comments on the Thing 18 page.

Thing 18

This is the presentation I chose to embed:

Todos Juntos

View more presentations from

27 agosto 2009

Thing 15

I think RSS is becoming a little easier for me to understand. I was able to accomplish all of the tasks in this Thing without too many problems. I did have a few problems with the Delicious tag feed because like others I was unable to locate some things pointed out in the video. The comments made on the Thing 15 page really helped me out. Thanks! One question I have is, why is the RSS symbol in my tool bar for Delicious? Can I just click that when I am on a site and get my feeds?

I think the advantages of using RSS are that I can find the blogs and news feeds that I want to read quickly and in one spot. I also think I will be able to made aware of new information that may be out there without having to go searching on the internet.

I don't check my feeds regularly...it is certainly not a habit. I'm not sure if it is wise for it to be a habit due to the amount of time I can spend when I do check the feeds. I have gotten better at not thinking I need to read every post that is making through the feed, but I do find myself reading a lot when I'm checking.

26 agosto 2009

Thing 14

Username: neddamful


I enjoyed using Delicious and I have several bookmarks to date and I know I will be back on it soon. It's a great way to save time with searches using this online source. I think it will be really helpful to me in organizing my online sources. The use of the tags is great! I'm really getting used to using the tags and that I think is really important for managing the source once it is added. I certainly want to use tags that can take me to specific websites for student activities.

I do think that Delicious will enhance productivity, however it is has so much to view and consider that I will have to monitor how much time I spend searching and how I can refine my search methods.

I did have some problems bookmarking on Delicious. I was able to copy/paste URL in order to save and I was able to save bookmarks from Delicious search results. I was not able to save bookmarks using the Tag button on the tool bar I installed when I registered. I do want to use the Tag button so if you have any suggestions on what the problem/solution could be I would appreciate it:)

25 agosto 2009

Thing 13

I would like to continue working with social bookmarking because I find myself taking too much time during my planning hour looking for a source I had seen or used before. I have gotten good at remembering to add a website to my Favorites if it has something I might need, but it does get disorganized fast. I can see how tagging digital resources can really save you some time.

Choosing the correct or most useful tags seems to be the difficult piece here and I suspect I will need to practice this more to really make it a time saving technique. I liked the 13 Tips provided, I will certainly be reviewing that when working with Delicious. Thanks!

Organization, a variety of available sources, and less time wasted are clearly advantages of the use of tags on social bookmarking sites. Also, much like blogs, it seems like you can begin to follow users that you trust and identify with when identifying useful classroom sources. The ability to access bookmarks on different computers is also a huge advantage and will help me save time at work.

I certainly think it is important to choose tags carefully for this to truly benefit the user. I will certainly be looking at how I can best identify sources for myself and other users. Are other users able to change tags you have given? And/or can other users add on tags to sources you tag? It also seems that there is still some sorting necessary and this just always seems to be the time consuming piece which is a disadvantage throughout the year. However, it seems that social bookmarking offers many possibilities and will be a useful tool when navegating the internet.

23 agosto 2009

Thing 12

I added a couple of widgets through Blogger when I first I began this blog. While working on this Thing I also added a couple more widgets to my blog utilizing the Blogger icon provided at the Google Gadgets. I didn't have a lot of success navegating Polldaddy. I tried making characters on Voki, but I had some difficulty saving a character. I decided to embed this gadget from Googel Gadgets to my blog. It provides information about Spanish fútbol (individual players and match reviews). I feel comfortable embedding items to my blog. I also feel comfortable utilizing icons.




I belong to Facebook and this summer I really began to use Facebook. I joined Facebook almost three years ago and it took me a long time to start using it. I do think that Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites can be the biggest time suckers out there. I generally only visit my Facebook site once a day because I find myself doing a lot of unnecessary activities. Sometimes I'm tempted to take a quiz, post pics or videos (now), update my GoodReads and Cities I've Traveled to, etc. I do find it relaxing to take about 30 minutes and 'play' on my page, see what's new, and comment or send messages. I do like the aspect of being able to keep up with large numbers of people.

I believe that relationships formed face-to-face are more meaningful than those formed on social networking sites. Although there are many ways to express yourself to others and you are getting feedback from them I think there is something more human in the natural volley of face to face conversation. I think facial expressions are better than emocons. (I'm not sure if that is the right word, but, you know those smiley face things.) However, I know that I'm better able to maintain the relationships that I formed before Facebook on Facebook.

I think social networking sites are very popular with students today because it is essentially like talking on the phone and teenagers like to talk on the phone. Of course all the 'apps' out there lead them to 'playing' on these sites (just like me). I do become disturbed when I see students sitting in a classroom after school just texting and not interacting with those present at all. That really strikes me as odd and disappointing because I do think there are many missed opportunities for face to face dialogue that our students are missing because they spend so much time social networking.

22 agosto 2009

Thing 11

There's really a variety of blogs out there with some really great ideas.

The articles given were good. It seems a lot like common sense, but certainly helpful to have to review at times. I really liked getting a couple of comments on my blog. It made me feel like there was more purpose in what I'm doing here. It also confirmed that you really can develop a community of learners this way. I'm really starting to see more possibilities for using a blog with my students. I am still not entirely comfortable leaving comments on someone else's blog, but I don't dislike it. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but this Thing reminds me of a couple of people I know that follow a blog and they all speak of specific people that follow that blog too. It does seem like you build quite a following if you develop your commenting skills.

One way that I would like to use a blog with students in my class would be to provide more opportunities to become familiar with cultural elements in the Spanish-speaking world. Getting them to comment appropriately would certainly open up the possibilty for a conversation that many times we don't have in the classroom.

21 agosto 2009

My video on YouTube

Here is a video taken in Cusco, Peru June 2009. It is the parade for Corpus Christi beginning in the Plaza de Armas.



I like this video thing!

20 agosto 2009

Thing 10

Here is the video I have chosen to embed:




Now to continue on with Thing 10.

I still haven't gotten a complete video from YouTube downloaded. I keep getting the sound, but not the video. I don't really understand why this happening. PWN didn't work at all for me. Well, I'll keep trying this one.

I chose this video for my blog because I want to learn how to play La Bamba on the guitar. This video had some other features that others did not, but there were a lot of them. The number of instructional videos out there is really amazing.

Well, I'm saying that I'm done with this Thing, but I'll be working on the download.

Thing 9

I just posted my first video on YouTube! This is the biggest time sucker I've come across yet, but it certainly is fun. So, yes, I like YouTube, but my dislike would be that there are so many clips out there that it seems hard to really get at what you want. Perhaps getting to know some of the regular users and posters would help me have a better idea if something is worth watching or not. It makes me think back to an experience I recently had with blogs. My sister follows a couple of blogs and on one of them she really only looks for the comments of certain individuals. She feels that they consistently give the best advice and make the most valuable comments. Again, maybe applying that kind of logic here could help with sorting through the videos.

I came across one video (that is now a favorite) called Psychological Spanish Language Game. It was really interesting in regard to my classroom. He talked about the common mistakes made by non-native speakers and how they happen. I left a comment, but he does say in the video not to comment so he may delete it. I didn't give anything away which I think is what he was afraid of. I also rated this video as AWESOME. Maybe it wasn't so awesome, but I was so excited to using YouTube. I also rated some other videos, but I couldn't rate my own video:(

YouTube is blocked at my school, so working with this could be challenging. I think if there is some specific reason you need to use clips, you can request the block to be taken off but I'm not sure about that.

Well, this was fun. On to more Things and hopefully I'll finish by next week.

19 agosto 2009

Thing 8

Here's a photo with a caption and this is suppose to be a header for a blog...now how I get this header as part of my blog set up...???

I enjoyed Big Huge Labs. I didn't have any success with ImageGenerator. I made a couple of things with this generator. So my first question is, do you just create things here for your blog? Or, are these things that you would print out as a hard copy or for use in hard copy format? I seem to be developing some confusion in thinking that all of these Things are to be used in the same ways.

I need some practice with saving these things because I am saving them, but then having some trouble finding them. Not sure??

So this is fun! However it is time consuming and I think it is because this is new to me, but also because you can just spend a lot of time playing around with these things. I had some problems getting some of the operations to work. I did see some possibilities in making things in a hard copy form for display or use in my classroom. Like a personalized calendar, captioner, Jigsaw, or slide show would be good. I also still want to work on developing a web page for my classroom and I think there are several things here that would be good additions to that. Again, I am a little unsure as to how all of this translates to the blog, but I think I'm just confusing myself.

04 agosto 2009

Thing 7 cont.

I just placed a photo on the map! and I changed setting allowing others to use my photo!

Thing 7

So I've completed the Flickr account and added photos with 'tag' of RESA23, however when I searched RESA23 I did not see my photos. Maybe it takes a little time for them to be included?



I like that I'm having success with all the setting up of accounts, but it is getting a little confusing. I feel like I already have accounts all over the internet and with somethings on Google and others on Yahoo and some in other places I feel like I need a place online to organize all of my account, IDs, passwords, etc. My system at this point is not effective.



I think Flickr would be great in a foreign language classroom because I could use it for presentations. I'm not sure at this point if it would be a tool for organizing a presentation or if I can just make a presentation on it. I will be looking into that. I also think it is a tool to allow students to search for specific images I post or that others post. I think images can be used for students to study and then comment on cultural aspects that we have discussed in class. This is also a place that students could use to post images they have that relevance to our class. I don't know how interactive Flickr can be, but it would neat if students could make comments about images as a way of identifying them. I saw the mapping piece of Flickr and would like to use this as well as a way of organizing information for students.

I have taken pictures in many Spanish-speaking countries and it would be great to allow my students to use my images in their work. I think Flickr could be used in this capacity if students were creating projects specific to countries I visited. I also think it could be a way to students just to know a little more about me and interests that I have.

I saw that many people have brought up the issue of copyrights and this is a concern that I have for my students and myself. I spoke with our media specialist last year about providing some type of professional development on the issue. I feel like I need some direction on this when using material from online sources. I also have some concerns about the divide between my professional life and my personal life. I know that Flickr allows the option of choosing public or private when posting an image, but I never feel entirely confident in these settings. Not that I would post any photo that is questionable, but it is a concern I have whenever I go online. I also wonder about issues of posting photos of my classes for classroom use and using these settings.

Thing 6

This photo was taken in San Luis Potosi and I decided to choose this photo because the colors of the feathers made me think of many things in Mexico. It reminded me of the colors that may be seen in a market, colors that can be seen on costumes during fiesta days, or even just the colors that can be seen on handicrafts in Mexico. Of course, this photo is in the Creative Commons license so it was ok to use. There were A LOT of photos I came across that were amazing when I just 'explored', but all of them had rights reserved.

I thought the comments that followed this picture were very interesting because so many people were commenting on the colors and posting different pictures that captured the color spectrum or color composition. There were a lot of posts on the right side of the picture on Flickr that had a scrolling option and I don't understand how this feature works yet, but it looked interesting.

I have began using digital format for my pictures (like most people) and really like all the features that online organizers offer. I have some pictures on Picture Organizer, but then I got Picasa and I use that now. I recently posted an album from Picasa onto Google. Is the Google option similar to Flickr?? I recognized the term 'tag' from Facebook, but it seems that in Flickr you use this feature as part of the filing. I would like to practice with this feature because I take many pictures on trips and always want to label them for future use, but it can be an overwhelming process and maybe the 'tag' option on Flickr would be easier. Last year I took pictures from a trip and made a real photo album online using Snapfish. I love the book and would like to find some other services that have this. It looks like Flickr can do this too.

Well, I'm going to continue doing my Things.

08 julio 2009

Thing 5

I feel like I can grasp the concept of RSS, but I had a lot of difficulties working with it the ways described in the videos. I had to copy the URLs for both weblogg-ed.com and for the 2cents blog. When I follwed the directions in the video for the 2cents blog I never saw the 'coded' page. I do like the Bloglines bookmarklet. Going back to the RSS concept, are educators reading the numerous posts made on their favorite blogs daily? It seems impossible. I imagine they are just looking for the posts that most fit their needs and interests. Still seems like a lot of time that will be spent on blogs when very little time is left at the end of a school day.

The RSS does seem like it will be handy for keeping track of sites and blogs I look at in my personal life and for my professional development and use. I plan to take a few days to simply monitor the few sites I have subscribed to and continue looking for other blogs that might be of interest to me or to others.

Thing 4

There are so many blogs out there and I do feel overwhelmed! I feel overwhelmed looking for blogs that will be most useful and being that I do not experience with them I don't really have a clear idea of how I can best critique all that is out there.

RSS does seem like it can help in managing the information that can be coming into the blogs I will monitor and participate with, but I feel like it will be almost impossible to keep up with even one or two blogs. Are there filters for identifying posts that might be of the most interest to me? That is something I am going to look for Bloglines and on GoogleReader. Of course just being able to monitor blogs of interest in one place does seem like it can save a lot of time.

I still am having a difficult time defining what my blog will be for me.

Thing 3

I continue seeing how many ways blogs can be used in my classroom and this is exciting. I am now following several blogs...no notification of activity yet on those blogs and I'm not sure what following these blogs will mean for me. However, as I look at blogs and read about how blogs can be used, I feel very unsure of how I set up my blog to have these functions. Also, when I see things like 'use a blog to...' repeated several times, does that mean that you have several blogs for each purpose???



I can see using a blog to present images from Spanish-speaking countries to my students for their comments on cultural points. I also think a blog would allow for journaling opportunities for my students. I could also use the blog to continue dialogue with students on classwork outside of the classroom. These are just a few things I've thought of so far. I have also seen a lot of comments about using the blog for some basic classroom needs like homework, communication with parents, and due dates. I don't see me using it in this capacity so much because our grading/attendance program has many functions for classroom needs.

I've put some things on my blog to play around with some functions and it is fun! So as I continue through this I hope to try out some other functions.

Practice Activity

¿Cómo es el mercado?

04 julio 2009

Thing 1 and Thing 2

My participation in 23 Things was motivated by two things. First, I would like to gain more knowledge in the technology that is out there. I would like to be able to find new ways to convey information to my students and new ways for them to share information with me. Secondly, I do need continue getting credits for my certification. The media specialist at my school said that this would be a good avenue to at least become proficient at blogging, so here I am.

My goal here is not only learn how to use a blog, but to also generate some ideas to actually utilize it in my classroom. After watching the video and reading the article I've become interested in learning how to utilize wikis and podcasts in my classroom too. As I stated in my post after Thing 1 and 2, I really am not comfortable with technology at this point and I have very few ideas on how to incorporate technology into my classroom, but I am excited to learn.

After watching the video and reading the article in Thing 1, I began thinking about how exciting a working environment could be in my school. I have to admit though, that after the excitement came thoughts of all the reasons why I might not see this perfect world in my school. There clearly has to be a staff and administration interested in increasing technology use for students and themselves. We also need some serious support. But, I'm not going to let those thoughts hold me back at this point.

I have to say I am NOT comfortable writing on a blog with the thought that anyone can read it. I I guess I'm still not comfortable with even having a Facebook page and that is only for friends. I think this experience will certainly help me gap the bridge between my students openness with the world and my preference to not be 'out there'.

One question about writing on the blog, how do you get characters needed for foreign language?? If I intend to utilize this in my classroom, I will need to be able to write using accent marks, upside down exclamation and question marks.

Ready to start Thing 3.

01 julio 2009

Late Start

So I've gotten off to a bit of a late start. Luckily, I have an excellent reason...I was in Peru with 13 students. What an adventure.

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