Struthers Blogging Toboggan

When I think back to the day when Coach Sullivan reached out by e-mail and asked the staff of Shawsheen to participate in this new type of computer technology learning class, I was exited. I work in the Graphic Communications shop teaching offset press, binding and finishing and I thought that this would be good for me to learn. I don’t spend much time on computers. To get the opportunity to experience new technology seemed perfect. Once the class started I was hooked. All this new information was awesome to see and explore. What amazed me most was all the people already using this new technology, well maybe I shouldn’t use the word new, for I am not to sure how long this technology has been around. First I signed up to blog at Weebly.com and within minutes I was part of the blogging world. This was all new to me. Blogging, what is blogging? Now all I hear about is blogging. I blog every day. When we were told that Weebly would no longer be used for the class and that we were changing over to Edublogs I was a little nervous about starting over, but it was easy, they all seem to work together on the same type of interface. It was shocking to see all the different blogging sites, so many and to be able to link pages so easy was enticing to keep going on, what’s next was the question I kept asking myself. Well I liked the opportunity to learn new materials and express my opinion for the class to read. Pretty cool.

Then came Google. Now I thought Google was to get information and answers to questions, but once we started to experience Google Reader I was once again amazed. My family got tired of hearing me talk about it. I wanted everyone to try it. Why not, all this information and all you have to do is subscribe to it, Wow.

Now the Wiki. Wow to have your own web page and to be able to add videos and pictures and voice threads was also pretty cool. I wanted to be creative with my wiki. The thing is once we started to get the hang of it we moved on to something else. I will definitely go back and use it more.

Creative commons was interesting. All these people sharing there work. Pictures, music, stories, movies, anything and everything. I never heard of creative commons before this class. I will continue to use it more and more with the students. Creating the slide show using pictures from Flickr and placing them on Animoto was fun, once again amazed at all the other companies out there to use. And it’s free…

Tool of choice was different, I liked beFunky. Like I stated in my blog, It’s like photoshop. I used it to manipulate my photo for my facebook account. Quick and easy.

One more of my favorites was Delicious. At first I thought, whats the reason behind this. Now any time I bookmark anything I am sure to tag it. Having the ability to pull up all your bookmarks from any computer is so usefull. I’m sure once I get back to school I will be using it more. I will have to learn more about tag management, and only bookmarking the ones I really want. But I’m sure I will get that under control.

Being able to have all this stuff on one page is amazing. Maybe I should stop using that word, but to me it really is. This is were Pageflakes comes in. I also came across TweetDeck, it does take time to get the hang of it and at the present time I do need more practice. One day I will get it under control.

Finally there is Podcasting. That is pretty cool. recording your voice and using Vocaroo and a free podcast host at Gcast makes it so easy. Another thing that I will need to explore more. So many possibilities to use this in my shop. The question is where do I start.

To summarize, I really enjoyed this class. I learned so much new stuff and hopefully I will continue to stay on the classroom 2.0 road. I will recommend this class to everyone. It does take time, patience and a desire to want to learn. But once you get going the class flies by. I need to thank coach Sullivan for inviting me into this technology world and for Shelley Paul for initiating it.

That was interesting. I would of finished allot faster if I watched the help videos first but I thought I would just try to figure it out myself. It took a while but I have to say it was worth it. I created my first podcast with help from google and Web Definitions. I read out there definitions. So I take it that when you are about to create a podcast you must do your homework and have it all written out before hand. I can see how it would be possible for me to use this application. I can make an instructional podcast for each piece of machinery, or I could can have the students make them. I can start with machine safety and continue with step by step instructions. Students can watch and listen from home if need be. Well I hope you don’t judge my first podcast on the definition of Graphic Communications to harshly, I’m sure to get better.

I came across the site for Classroom 2.0 when I first started this class. I searched through the site and registered to receive updates on new information. All this information about new technology being used in education was awesome to see. I read a little about Steve Hargadon and how he set up this site using something called Ning. The best part was that I could set up my own site. So many ideas past through my head on what type of information to put on there. Should I do one for work, family, golf, so many possibilities. Now with classroom 2.0 there are so many members from all over the world willing to learn new techiques to help make there classrooms better for there students. I thought wow, all this information from this class is new to me and all these people have been using it for years, I have allot of catching up to do. I thought to myself is this going to be the new way to teach? Set up a Wiki site and upload all your information for the students to see and use. Allowing parent to log on and see the projects for there kids, because we all know how kids loose there papers from school or miss understand there assignments. This is so benifitial to everyone. The internet is changing so many things for all of us. Social networking is being done all the time by so many different people. I signed up for Facebook at the beginning of this class and I am amazed at the friend request that come into my mail box. If it wasn’t for this type of social networking I would be missing out on whats going on with friends and family. Classroom 2.0 is made to help out others by sharing ideas and information. I have searched and found many interesting sites. Some sites go on and on but I’m sure all this information will become even more easier to navigate in the future.

Google reader is a wonderful site that makes it easy to choose the stories that interest you most. I do have to admit, once I began to learn about something else in the class my desire to go back and read my subscriptions has some what diminished. I have gone back and found my subscritions with 100 unread messages. I have tried to find some that have to do with my trade of Graphic Communications. But to complete the task at hand, I would choose “How Stuff Works” as my favorite reader. It is filled with many different bits of information. All this information will be good for conversation with my new incoming freshman students.

Interesting site. I explored the various templates and came to realize that they seem to all resemble your home page for either yahoo, google, and others. I like the idea of the different features that you can add for students to access for homework assignments and class information. So many possibilities to explore. I added a few different flakes to my page. I like the idea of having all of them on one page.

I liked the idea of being able to save, edit and share on the web. It is like having a free server to use. I wish I was able to copy entire folders over instead of having to upload one file at a time. I currently have all my curriculum saved to my hard drive and a few flash drives incase of emergencies. Hopefully with a little more time I will become more savy with the use of Docs. In the mean time I will continue to bring more of my work into google docs, create more folders and eventually I will start to share it with whomever would like to use it.

I am very familiar with youtube. Having kids at home I have come across this many times and found myself using it to research many things. I have imbedded a youtube video into my Wiki Tom’s Trek a few weeks back that had to do with Graphic Communications. I have also explored youtube to help me understand a few things with this class. Viewing all the different videos can be addicting. I do find that it is very easy to find anything that you want, good or bad. Check out my new addition of an Evian commercial.

Interesting information for anyone who likes to sit and listen. It was like listening to talk radio with the exception of choosing your own topic of discussion. I can see how Podcasting in the classroom can be benifitial to an educator. I went on to the Education Network and chose one on the History of Photography. It was interesting. I will most likely check to see if there is a podcast now instead of just googling for the information. It is exciting to see how this professor was able to have his class work through this type of media. Not only was he able to have the information by means of a video, but was also able to have all his handouts and links on his web page. It is very interesting stuff…..

Well I have to say the Library thing was not my thing. I searched and once again signed up to become a member. I began to explore. If I was looking to research new and interesting readings for myself and others it would be ideal. I am amazed at all the different groups and all the members that review the many titles that are out there to pick from. Seems like the use of tags once again. I hope I don’t sound negative, it’s just that when I hear of a good story I just go out to the public library and pick it up. I enjoy my local library for the reason of looking around and seeing all the different books and most of all not having to pay for them. It’s a wonderful thing. I will admit after researching the Library thing I will head out to the library tomorrow and find myself a good story. Maybee an autobiography, or maybee something from John Grisham.

This is going to take me a while to figure out what bookmarks I actually want to save and retrieve for later. I do like looking over the most popular bookmarks to see what is going on in the tech world, but every time I do I find myself signing up for another site. The amazing part to me is how they all seem to link together, whether to Twitter, Facebook or Diigo. Bookmarking on the web is the key to retrival and sharing with your peers. But there sure is plenty of information out there to choose from. I have started a few bookmarks on Delicious, check them out, I’m sure they will soon grow once I find what i’m looking for.