Diigo or Delicious

After looking at both of the sites, I would take Diigo over Delicious.  I liked some of the tagging and sharing simplicities od Delicious, but for overall tools, like hightlighting and boxing, and the android ability, I would pick Diigo.  With the highlighting tool, boxing tool, and text/ comments tool, it would make it better for school.  You could share the links with your class and point out specific material that you would the students to focus on within the website..  I mentioned this in someone elses blog, but if anyone knows of a way to do a mass dump from your PC favorites, to Diigo, let me know.  That in itself would be a days work going one at a time.. 

Not a Second Life fan

I's sorry, but it's just not there for me. I just spent an hour looking around and really got nowhere. I know that there is a lot to SL and I'm sure that some people can get some good out of it, but if I owned a company, and one of my employees suggested SL to me to meet for a buisness gathering, I would be a bit upset at the time spent to bring people together in this virtual world and to talk with them. Same thing could happen in a video conference. And I certainly wouldn't want to me with other buisness owners in this fashion. First, I would want to hear their voice and see what they REALLY looked like. Not some avatar. I know ther's voice, but you still have to have everybody on.
NASA was interesting. It was one of the few places I could look around and get information relitively easy. I did get stuck in the observatory. That was one of many places I stuggled to get in and out of.
I also searched around looking for places in California, like Yosemite and Hollywood. Found a place that was selling SEX LOUNGE FURNITURE. What's that? And if anyone answers, I'm gonna wonder??? :)

SmartPhones and their uses

First off, I just changed over to a smartphone about a month ago, and I LOVE IT.  I can’t believe how much can be done with one.   Oh, I had a good idea and that’s why I wanted to change over, but I never realized how much I could put into it.  I want to incorporate as much of my regular day and school day affairs into my smartphone. 

Will it replace my PC, not a chance, because my PC has more of everything that my smartphone.  Better graphics, bigger hard drive, more RAM, better sound, and the list goes on.  I can do a lot of things with my smartphone, but I see it more as a valuable extension to my PC. 

The smartphones have a lot of great features, but it is still limited as far as its processing and storage goes.  My smartphone, sorry, ANY smartphone out on the market right now is still more powerful than my first real PC.  It was a Magnavox with a 386 processor, 40 megs of hard drive, and 1 meg of ram.  Smartphones are a lot bigger than that. With that, smartphones are expected to do a lot more than my old computer.  One of the biggest limitations I have found with my smartphone is battery power.  As much as it can do, it really eats up the juice.  There are apps out the that help you conserve power, but I still find myself plugging it in once or twice a day, but I REALLY use it.  Another limitation is being able to type out documents.  Sure it can be done, but face it, it’s a lot easier using a full keyboard. 

Comparing the smartphone to a net book, I would take the smartphone first.  The smartphone has many more uses like having a phone, better portability, and I believe has more applications.  There only advantage I can see to a net book is bigger keyboard, bigger view (than a smartphone), and you can plug in a flash drive.  My answer to that is Dropbox.  I can put whatever I want in Dropbox and transfer it over.

I have found a number of apps to use in the classroom.  Here’s the list.

·        50 States

·        Formula Lite

·        Math Attack

·        My Favorite  -- Student Clicker

·        Multi Lang Dictionary/Translator

·        Flashcard Helpers

Here are some places to find more:

·        Android Community

·        Android Apps You’ll Love

I have let some of the kids try out some of the apps.  50 States is a basic quiz of the states plus information about each one.  Math Attack is more complicated than what you would think.  The problems can be set to be harder than your basic math problems.  Flashcard Helpers is just what it says.  You enter a question, then on the other side you have the answer. 

I would really like to try out the Student Clicker.  I just don’t have enough kids to try it on.  I think it would work just as well as the clickers we have in our classrooms’ now.

Moodle or BlackBoard

I chose Moodle based on costs. I hope I'm right, but doesn't BlackBoard have a fee, while Moodle is free. I would love to get our admin onboard and try going totally free apps for the year. I wonder how much could be saved. I could be wrong on that. If money were no object, then probably BlackBoard. Everything seemed to be on the left side navigation bar and could easily be found. You had to do some searching to find what you wanted in Moodle to match what was on Blackboard. And I thought Moodle did grade the assignments also.
Instead of comparing the two, I couldn't help comparing them to our current system, SISK12. It has a number of problems. Like I posted earlier, I have to go back and recheck the gradebook to see if the scores entered. That gets frustrating, and we pay for it.
I didn't fiddle with the two very much. I didn't want to mess up what was in them. I took the math quiz in Moodle. Seemed easy enough, and the feedback was immediate. The Blogs, announcements, and disscussions seemed pretty much the same.
I went back and looked at the test formatting in BB. It does have a lot to offer. It would take a while to figure which question to use, but once you got it down, it would work pretty good. And you can upload questions from a file you have.
Still, since money seems to be the key driver at this time, I would have to go with Moodle, if it can integrate with admin and all.

Camtasia Wins

I didn't seem to have as much trouble as other folks with getting CamStudio to run, but as far as working with the two, Camtasia was far better.  I liked the way Camtasia broke down each unit of audio, video, and all.  I did have a little problem with converting to HD, but it worked out.  Camtasia was slower at building the video when done.  Even with that, Camtasia was much easier to use and more fun to work with.
  I combined three apps into one video.  Yola was really easy to make a website.  Simply drop whatever you wanted into the site and it would upload and go.  When you were don, the URL was right there.  Another app was TinyURL.  This app would convert those long URL strings into something nice and short.  The last one was just for fun.   It was QR Generator.  It would create a QR code for your smartphone bar code reader to read then you could open the site from your smartphone.  You can send messages, URL's, text, about anyhting, but pics.  Haven't found one for that.  Try it.  It's fun. We are looking at it for a scavenger hunt..

Professional Development/ Training, and Fun

Just thought I would share this with you.  I'm open to any inputs or thoughts you may have on this.  A fellow teacher and I have been trying to find ways to get our middle school teachers together to have a kind of get together.  At one time, we used to all get together and go to the Middle School Conference at the Lake of the Ozarks.  It was a great stress reliever and it truly brought our group of teachers together.  We all went out the night before the conference and had a good time, then the next day we would go to workshops and learn new ways to teach our kids.
The last one we went to was three years ago.  Budget cuts and all kind of stopped us from going anymore. 
This year this teacher and I have decided to create our own Middle School Retreat.  The name is "Peace, Love, and Professional Development".  We're going with a 60's theme with tie dye shirts and lava lamps and all.  Our focus is going to be on how technology has changed our way of teaching from the 60's to today.  Our focus will be on using technology in the classrooms. 
We've talked in this class about who could and does teach those who are not so technologically inclined and shy away from it.  Our retreat will give us a chance to actually work with these people and show them show to use these tools. 
So far, things have been moving along quite well.  Our tech department obtained permission for us to get the lab carts for the weekeend, our teachers are excited about getting away (and learning), and our administration has even OK'd it as part of our school's professional development time.
Our initial thoughts about the whole thing was to just get our teachers back together again.  Some bonding time.  As things progressed along, we thought "Why not make it a learning experience?"  My plans for my part is to introduce a bunch of the web 2.0 applications that we have talked about to the group.  Give them a little taste of 10 to 15 apps, and then let them decide what they want to play around with.  I'll have them YOUTUBE the app and then go around and help persons' individually. 
We are hoping that it will be a hit and that it will continue.  If anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears.  We want this to be something they want to continue into the future.  We've even talked about drawing other schools into it, if it goes well.  Wish us luck!!!

Web 2.0 and Education

  Wow.  I just found this sight that shows so many uses for using Web 2.0 in the education field.  Discovery Education has a link where it gives you a variety of Web 2.0 applications to use for education.  REALLY guys, you need to look at this and watch the video presentations on the different uses. 
  I've always wanted to try to figure out some way to get cell phones involved in education.  Check out Poll Everywhere.  This tool allows the teacher to give the students a question, and then they can text their response and have it sent to a place to be recorded.  You can also poll an audience or ask multiple choice questions.   It has a variety of uses.  And if a student doesn't have a cell, they can respond from a computer the same way. 
  Dicovery Education has brought an assortment of web 2.0 applications to our fingertips.  By adding the video clips and actually showing how the applications can be used definately helps.  There are so many great web tools out there waiting to be used, but we just don't know how to apply them.  Well, it done here.
  Collaboration appears to be the key point Discovery is trying to make when showing these tools.  Also the idea that these tools are readily accessible, easy to use, and ready for us to get started.  It was very motivating for me. The idea of everyone working together in the same medium, on the same project sounds great..

CoBoCards using Jing

Wow!  Time flies when your trying to get all your information out in five minutes.  I thought Jing was a pretty good program.  Even the free version had enough to offer that you could do something. 
As far a the presentation went, I found that I had a hard time trying to point things out and talk at the same time.  I'm a NooB at this.  It was my first one.  Definately need to do it a few times to get the hang of it.  Unless I was REALLY good at something, I would want to create some flash cards and point out some cues to move from one point to another.  Trial and error.  Its free, so it's okay. 
  I chose CoboCards because I like using flashcards to study with.  And the idea of being able to do it with somebody online was really great.  Launching the program was a bit slow, but after you got in, it was easy.

Three other programs:

Storybird - Lets people share art and pictures for creating your own story.  This would be great for elementary and middle school.  Its like an electric flipcart/storyboard that can also be posted to links.

Online-Convert - How many times have we had a good audio or video we want to play, but its in the wrong format.  This takes care of it.  Plus you can d_load URLs and convert to the format you want.  Much like ZAMZAR

Google News Timeline - Want current events for a history project, Check out Google News Timeline.  It organizes things in a calendar format.  Bad thing is that it only goes back to 2005.     

Cloud Computing and/or Web2.0

Is there a difference between the two?  From what I can tell there is no major difference.  In the video, Peter O’Rielly interchanged the two phases many times in his comments.

The way I see Cloud Computing is a means by which people can exchange information with one another.  When I say information, I am talking all aspects of information.  From exchanging comments in a chat to exchanging, sharing and using other peoples applications to run a computer.

Dave McClure explained it as “A city in the sky”(8:03).  Cloud Computing would be this big city where all the computers go to obtain data and deposit data for everyone to use. 

I found some other videos that helped clear things up.  They are embedded below.  These videos more or less explain not only the what of cloud computing, but the function of cloud computing.  I hope you have time to check them out.

Oh, I have to let you guys know this one.   The videos were REALLY BIG.  When I pasted them into the blog, I went back to the “edit HTML” and changed the size of the videos so they would look better.  Just a little info for those who might want to know.

Animoto vs PhotoStory___Harding

Well, it took a while, but I finally figured ouy what I was doing wrong in Animoto.  It was changing the type of format at the very beginning.  What a knuclehead.  Anyway, I liked Animoto's style with the picture transitions and all, but PhotoStory was much easier for me.  I also liked the way I could make changes as I go with PhotoStory.  Animoto might have been easier to just throw photos in, but for doing anything else, PhotoStory was easier to use.
  I also liked the ability to zoom in and out of specific areas.  Transitions seemed to be smoother for my instructional video. 
The one thing I did have problems with was getting voice in with the music.  Never worked for me.  I could use Audacity to mix, but that would have made it harder than it should be. 
Overall, PhotoStory was a good tool and something I would use in the future for instructional purpose.  I would go with Animoto if I were putting some pics together for family, friends, or fun....

PODCAST e2020__Harding2nd try

OK.  Just finished the Podcast..  Actually Audacity wasn't as bad as I had remembered.  It would be nice if you could export to easier.  My podcast is an intro into the e2020 credit recovery program.  I created this podcast with the idea that either 1) I might not be there if they need the info, and 2) maybe we will be allowed to go remote with our credit recovery program, and this would be a good clip to throw in my webpage for the students to refer to. 

Background music provided by Royalty Free Music.

Copyright__Harding

  There is a lot to say about copyright and copyright infringement.  After reading the twelve pages on copyright from the government copyright office, I still have some questions to ask.  First it list a number of ways in which a copy is recorded.  On page 3 of the document it states ““Copies” are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm.”  Not once did I read in the document that or a piece of work secured through data storage was legitimate or not.  I know that it can be secured by the means, but with the use of technology, and the way artists use it, you would think that this article would be amended to specifically read that securing through data storage is accepted.  Microfilm is listed, and how much is that used today?

  Another question that pops up when defining the laws of copyright is what is considered “Fair Use”.  Wikipedia, which is not considered a reliable source, but best states who does and does not fall under the “Fair Use” policy.  “Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.”  What about people, instructors, who teach others that are not “licensed” teachers?  Do they fall under the same category as a teacher?   Here’s an example; you have a nurse that is in charge of instruction at the hospital she/he works at.  They want some instruction on the latest procedure on removing cancer in a localized area.  The nurse researches the procedure and finds material from other hospitals and surgeons on the internet.  They use pictures and videos to describe the procedure.  The nurse uses the material in his/her PowerPoint for the instruction.  She cites the work and all that.  Does she fall under the teaching guidelines of “Fair Use”?  All the places I looked states “teaching” not instructor or for instructional use.

  Copyright is a law that protects work that is created by a person or a group of people from being copied unfairly by someone else.  A person cannot copy, distribute, or display another person’s work with giving that person credit for it.  Work would be defined as a video, audio, or written expression.  Work could also include architectural design.  The current law states that a person’s work is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years.

  Fair Use is one exception to the copyright law.  Fair Use allows the public to use portions of a person/s work under certain stipulations.  Commentaries, news reporting, research, teaching, and library archiving and scholarship allows for the limited use of another person’s or people’s work. 

  Public Use is granted to material that is openly used by the public for any reason.  Usually these are works created before 1923.  They also include works in which the copyright law has expired and not been renewed.

 

Creative Commons copyright allows the creator to obtain a copyright license for their work, but the work is freely allowed to be copied, in part or in whole, and used by others without obtaining permission.

There are a number of videos that I viewed concerning copyright and the law.  Here are a few.  Most of the ones I chose would help a classroom teacher explain copyright to their students.  Also I would like to reference Kim’s blog for more really good information.

·         A "Cut and Paste" Guide to Copyright in School

·         Copyright and Fair Use

·         How To Copyright An Idea

·         What is copyright law?

RSS FEEDS__Harding again___

RSS Feeds

I have never used the RSS feeds before.  I found that they were quite useful for what I do on the internet and could see them used in a variety of ways schools and in the workplace.  In schools teachers could pick specific sites for students to collect information.  It could be used for research, current events, latest science news and many more.  Professionally, a teacher could run feeds to professional development sites and current news on their profession.  For the business person, they could do the same, keying in on the latest news and developments and their profession.

At home, a person could run RSS feeds to news, sports, or whatever their interest may be.  Having an interest in the stock market, I have put in a number of my favorite websites concerning the stock market.  I also have weather, sports and some computer websites plugged into my feed.

The two RSS feeders I chose were Google Reader and FeedDemon.  I found that Google Reader was much easier to use, especially when it came to adding websites.  If there was no RSS icon posted, I could simply highlight the URL and paste it into the Google Reader.  From there Google Reader would access the site and post it with the other RSS feeds.

FeedDemon was a little harder to set up as far as collecting websites.  I did not find a place where you could copy and paste the URL.  However, I liked the features that FeedDemon had to offer better than Google Reader.  I found that FeedDemon was better because it was easier to read and access specific information.  FeedDemon also has the ability to collect the information from other readers, like Google Reader, so that you only have to go to FeedDemon to get all of your information.

Setup Google Reader was easier than FeedDemon.  With Google Reader, all I had to do was click the button and since I already had an account with Google, Google Reader did the rest.  I simply had to supply Google Reader with the RSS feeds that I wanted.

With FeedDemon, I first had to find the software on the internet.  After that, I downloaded the software and loaded it just like any other software.  So, the installation was a little harder that with Google Reader.  However, once FeedDemon was installed, it asked me if I wanted to link to my Google Reader and have those feeds added to FeedDemon.  All I had to do was click a button and FeedDemon added my Google Reader feeds to its list.

I can see using RSS feeds as an advantage for teachers and students.  The initial phases and implementation of RSS feeds could be difficult.  First you would need to get your technology staff onboard.  They would need to check firewalls and securities through the server.  That in itself could cause a number of teachers to throw in the towel.  Then you would need to plan for training for the teachers and time for them to get used to it.  Training would take at least a half a day of in-service, giving teachers time to set up and find good resources to use themselves and share with students.  Students would need to be taught on how to use RSS feeds. “Overall, it seems that it was useful and helpful to integrate blogs and RSS feeds into our pre-service course. However, through our experience, we noticed several barriers that need to be resolved before the students are able to effectively use the tools.” (West, R., Wright, G., Gabbitas, B., & Graham, C., 2006)  If this could be done as a technology lesson in the technology class, then there could be time saved in that.  In the case of middle school, it would need to be added in the 6th grade year so that students could take advantage of it throughout the middle school years and on.  

For student, RSS feeds would have to constantly updated and monitored to ensure they had feeds concerning the topics they were covering.  It would be a waste to have materials concerning a sixth grade class when you’re working on an eighth grade topic.  There would also be the concern of students not having the same abilities to use RSS feeds at home.  Everything would have to be in-class.

There are advantages to using RSS feeds in the classroom for teachers, as well as students.  Teachers can have access to a number of their favorite sites at the click of a button.  They would be getting the latest information posted to them without having to go out and look at each website over and over.  As for student, it is a skill that needs to be learned anyway.  Many colleges and universities are already incorporating RSS feeds into their classes as a means for research.  Purdue conducted a study on the use of RSS feeds and found the following. “This study found that including a RSS feed as part of the course created opportunities for further
research into the effective use of RSS feeds in education.” (Lee, M. W., Miller, C., & Newnham, L., 2008).
    There are a number of websites available for a person that would want to pursue the use of RSS feeds into their profession or as part of their instruction.  These sites can give you the basic ideas of the advantages and disadvantages of using RSS feeds and information on using technology as a means of instruction in the work place and in the classroom.
Pros and Cons of RSS Feeds
Feed for All
Tech & Learning

References

West, R., Wright, G., Gabbitas, B., & Graham, C. (2006). Reflections from the Introduction of Blogs and RSS Feeds into a Preservice Instructional Technology Course. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 50(4), 54-60. doi:10.1007/s11528-006-0054-9

Lee, M. W., Miller, C., & Newnham, L. (2008). RSS and content syndication in higher education: subscribing to a new model of teaching and learning. Educational Media International, 45(4), 311-322. doi:10.1080/09523980802573255

Harding___RSS

RSS feeds could have a place in the education system.  Depending on how they're used.  I think a teacher would have to carefully monitor what students were getting.  Teachers and admin could benefit on a variety of news, especially with knowing what is going on in their profession. 
One thing I noticed from Google Reader vs FeedDemon is that no matter what computer I'm on, Google Reader is there.  Doesn't work with the one I d_loaded.
  I read the other two posts and didn't see the URL for their paper.  Did I goof on this or not see it?   Someone, will you email or message me on FB if I'm wrong. 

Here's my URL for my paper..

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1B5nETFQvB_fCYDduNtvAWm4cYYz7CaUZs9KwjIgmOjk

Have a Great week..

OS cont.__ Harding

Also .. VLC is a great video player.. Plays about everything.  Haven't found a video yet that it won't play.

Just a note..

Open Source ____Harding

Okay..  Here is my understanding of Open Source.   It is not exactly FREEWARE, but it is software that that can be modified and then put out as freeware.  some of the Open Source site that I like are GIMP, Mozilla, and VLC.

GIMP is a photo editing software much like Photoshop.  I use both and find that there are very few functions that Photoshop offers that you can't get with GIMP.  Any person wanting to do photo editing can use this software and save tons of money and still get pretty much the same effects.  And like all the others, there are tons of videos online to show you how to use it.  GIMP has recently added some new features, but I haven't looked at them yet.. 

Mozilla is another OS that I use.  I was first introduced to it at school because in tended to be faster than its counterpart Internet Explorer.  Mozilla also offers a bunch of apps that you can use with Mozilla.  One of my favorites is the Video Download helper.  Instead of ZAMZAR, another OS, you just click and it records the video.  There's a new app now called PRISM.  I just YOUTUBED it.  Looks pretty good.

Linux ..  Don't know much about it yet, but I have a bunch of parts from my last rebuild and might make a comuter that is totally OS..  LINUX is an OS operating system that runs your preograms, like Windows except its free.  Don't know much about the pros vs cons of the system, but thought I might give it a try to see how far I can go.  I use Windows because I have it..  For Now..

Anyway..  Going to the right places and using OS's can save lots of money (that I, personally, don't have).

First Blog

It Thursday  (1-13-11)..  Been out of school for 3 days now because of snow..  Good thing I have my computer games and Edenpure heater.
  A little about me.  I'm Ken.  Been married for going on 28 years.  I have two kids.  One is out of college and is getting married this June and the other is in her 3rd year at MSSU (Dental Hygiene).  So we are in the boom-a-rang effect with kids, they keep coming home about every weekend to eat and do their laundry, then take off again.  Sometimes they make off with a little cash or gas.
  I'm on my second career as a teacher.  My first career was with the Coast Guard.
  I really like the outdoors.  My favorite hobby is fishing and hunting.  After that, about anything that is on or in the water.  Can't wait for the warm weather to come back. 
  I also enjoy playing around on the computer.  I like playing strategy games.  The big one right now is Starcraft II.  Sounds kind of wierd, but there has been a bunch of us that have played the game for years.  Since we live in different states now, we keep in touch through the game.
  The latest book I finished was "Payback Time" by Phil Town.  It's an investment book.  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=payback+time
I read the first book and followed his strategies, and have done pretty good. 21% return over 3 years.