Lesley 6008 - Wikipedia

I  looked up three topics on both Wikipedia (English and Simple English) and Britannica: First Lego League, Golden Gate Bridge, and Hay Springs, NE.

Only one of the three showed up in all three, Golden Gate Bridge.  The Wikipedia-English article had the most information. I also looked Golden Gate Bridge up in the WorldBookOnline (Advanced, Student, Kids).  WorldBookOnline had a separate article in the first two, but in the Kids version only mentioned the bridge in an article on bridges.  Most of the factual information was the same.  The biggest difference was a large section in Wikipedia (a couple sentences in Simple English) about the suicides from the bridge.

I attempted to add a notable citizen to the Hay Springs, NE article and link it to another article in Wikipedia.  It was removed several hours later.  I didn't have an account and wonder if the effect would be different if I had an account. I read about posting new information.  Personal knowledge isn't enough.  There has to be a printed source to verify the information.

Lesley 6008 - Wiki

I like using a wiki for class comments on a topic.  Students are more willing to write on a wiki that a piece of paper to turn it.  It is also easy to get comments back to them and ask questions.  With an online format there is no "I didn't get it." or "I lost it."

I used this with Journey North-Mystery Sites for students to keep track of their findings and clues over a period of several months.  Besides all the comments being in one place the students' personalities came out in the font and color they used.
 I can also see using this with the Robotics group to keep track of ideas and share them with each other.  They can access it at home and put the ideas up when they think about it rather than wait until the next meeting and possibly forgetting it.

A wiki could be used when reading a novel as a group.  Students could give comments on a chapter or a topic, debate issues, connect to their lives.  Students can  use initials to show who posted what.

Lesley 6008 - Google Docs

This program would be better for group projects than Windows powerpoint.  It has fewer bells and whistles so students could concentrate on content more that background and other extras.  Also since it is created all at the same time and in the same template there is not problems putting each student's part into the whole.
 Any project that can be done in powerpoint can be done collaboratively using this program.  I have done a class book with kindergarten and first using MSWord and a starting template.  Google docs would work just as well and has the added benefit of being available to family and friends just by giving them the link.  Grandparents living far away would love it.
The information in Wikipedia was about the same as the other sources I found.  Wikipedia is a good general reference, especially for factual material, e.g. country or state background information or biography of an historical person.   The photo in the Wikipedia entry is in the Library of Congress collection of images.

Lesley 6008 - Tech Issues

The Good:  We have a great tech person on site.  He is there when we need him and answers all our dumb questions.  Students are starting to work with computers in Kindergarten, not just for drawing and word processing but creating, using learning tools, communicating.  Teachers  have laptops, which is great for me when I switch between my desk and the computer lab.  We are half way to having SmartBoards in all classroom.  I have one in my library computer lab.  We also have Distance Learning both in a DL classroom and mobile carts.  These are not only used by high school for DL classes, but also have been used for virtual field trips.

The Bad: Trying to figure which applications and programs to teach which students.  The cost of some programs can make some things unavailable to our very small school. Waiting for the WiFi to kick in when I change locations.  Keeping track of everything and giving information to staff and students when they need it not just at a beginning of school tech talk.

The Ugly: When everything shuts down for no apparent reason just when class is ready to start.

One down ten to go AND a trip to St. Louis

I had about given up on Lesley University's Masters in Education, Technology in Education cohort group ever getting started, but if finally did.  I have made it through the first class - Computers, Technology and Education.  The first weekend was a little stressful.  Getting back into student mode and on top of that the girls' basketball team state championship game started at the same time the first class started.

I sent everything in, submitted it to the right site (with some help from friends) and await the final grade.  This is looking to be a great program.  I have already passed on ideas or websites to teachers from the classes.

The Trip
We started to panic a bit this weekend when the tornado hit St. Louis.  I am traveling on Wednesday morning with a group to the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE World Festival.  We were selected to go to the festival out of several new teams in Nebraska.  The students are getting excited about the trip.  A few have never been on a plane.  We plan to use the St. Louis metro service - another new experience.  They have also looked at the other teams coming and decided who they want to meet.

Then it is just three weeks until school is over.  Will I be ready for the end?

There's no excuse not to learn. . .

Keyboarding skills: I have used Dance Mat with elementary students.  The middle school keyboarding teacher and I both used Sense-Lang this year.  I like the online keyboarding skill sites because the students can go to them at home as well as school.

I just laughed to myself when I saw the first topic for the Google search because I had recently decided to knit some socks.  I hadn't knit in years and thought I knew what I was doing, but I forgot how to purl.  A brief look at a video was all that was needed to refresh my memory.  Handy thing to have when my aunt, who taught me to knit, isn't available.

I watched a variety of videos on  all three sites.  I liked the slide shows on Instructable for something that I would need to go at a slower pace and check back on a prior step.  e.g. fixing a faucet.  MonkeySee had a video on making Pumpkin Cranberry Nut bread.  I didn't want the entire video, just enough to get the recipe and I had to back track twice to get that.  If I were a beginning cook and didn't have a clue what was in the recipe I probably would have had to go back five or six times.

On Graspr I watched several videos on origami or at least parts of some.  As with most things the quality varied with the producer of the video.  One I really didn't like was subtitled and played music.  The only way I could have watched the entire thing was to mute the music.  One showing how to make a Halloween cat on a broomstick was very well done.  The folder stopped at points to show what the shape should look like.  It was done by ActivityV out of the UK.

I am going to pass the URL of Khan Academy on to the teachers at school.  I think there are many ways they could use them.

My thoughts:
Video how-to sites and How- to books each have their place.  If you only have a desktop computer it would be difficult to follow along on a video that showed how to change your spark plug wires.  Also if the project you are working on requires frequent referral back to the video, a book or the PDF printouts from Instructable might be handier.
I would see people using the videos for learning activities that could be done at the computer or a quick refresher like my purl stitch.

#40 Funky Photos - Pixlr

original

black and white

This Thing got me excited. I have worked with Photoshop for 8-10 years and spend way too much time experimenting. I wondered if the effects I have done with Photoshop could be done with the online editors. I found the tools in Pixlr very familiar to me and I easily found what I wanted. I began with a yellow hat flower picture I found on Flickr. (original by EssjayNZ)

kaleidoscope

My first funky isn't really funky, but is a version I have made before.  I made a duplicate layer. Then lowered the hue and saturation to make the  top layer black and white.  I then erased the flower parts on the black and white to expose the color in the layer underneath.
You see this effect on cards, posters, etc.  I made a set of four to put in my bathroom using four different yellow flowers.  I also added the name of the flower.

Second funky.  I used the kaleidoscope filter.  Adjusted the  sizing to a larger number. This photo is green and yellow but the effect is still very interesting.  I will have to try it with a photo having more colors.

Third funky.  I used the emboss filter on this one, then used the vignette to tighten the focus on the flower.

vignette

I had more problems getting the pictures to the blog and aligning them the way I wanted than I did creating the different images.