Thing 23

I think that going through 23 Things has helped me to refocus and reenergize my quest to incorporate more technology into my teaching and to use the technology so that I can get the most out of it. When I started with Thing 1, I was ready to learn more about these technologies. Now that I'm at Thing 23, I think that I have not only learned about the different technologies and resources, but I have also been challenged to use these technologies and try to incorporate them into my teaching and use them to improve my teaching.

I think that this program has really encouraged me to start expanding my view of education. I think that I have mostly experienced an education as a delivery service for papers and information. In my own teaching, I have tried to expand on that model to include technology, collaboration, research, etc... But, it is hard, time-consuming, and I didn't know a lot of different ways to do that. But I think that going through all the different Things has really opened my eyes to the different ways that I can easily incorporate technology into my teaching.

The big plan that I have for incorporating technology into my teaching is to have a Moodle site for my classes next year. I really liked the features of Moodle when I took a training course this past spring. But I hope to be able to use some of the 23 Things within that course. A few things that I plan on using:

1. Podcasting: I have found a number of podcasts that I can have students use both for projects that we do as a part of class and if they are interested in getting more information
2. RSS feeds: I will use this both for me to stay on top of the latest scientific news, but also have my students subscribe and revitalize my "Science in the News" projects. I have also found a number of feeds that interest me personally, and I am getting better at checking my reader more often.
3. Blogs: I'm not sure how much blogging I will do as a part of my class, but I have definitely embraced blogging on a personal level. I started a blog where I have been posting updates and pictures (mostly of my little girls) for my parents and in-laws to see as my in-laws live several hours away and my parents are out of the country until Christmas.
4. Flickr: I think that I might use this both personally as a way to share photos and in my teaching as a place to get images and have students share images. My students will be doing a "Plot Study" project again this fall, and a number of the assignments involve taking and sharing photos. This would be a great way to do that!
5. Online Video: This would be a great oppportunity for students to make videos (of lab activities, as a part of their "Plot Study," extra credit assignments, etc...
6. Delicious: I really like the idea of having my favorites accessible whereever I go. So I will continue to try to add sites and tags to make this a useful resource to use.
7. Wikis: I can think of several activities right away that wikis could be very useful. For example, there are several actitivites in the anatomy & physiology course I teach where students are given a "patient" and several options of conditions the patient may be suffering from. They need to research the condition, collaborate as a group, and decide what condition the "patient" has. I think wikis would be a great format for that. In addition, this might solve some of the problems I run into when students are absent on the day they are supposed to be sharing their information.

Overall, I think 23 Things has really encouraged me to embrace technology and has made me excited about learning more! Is there a 23 More Things?

Thing 22

My wiki can be found at: Honors Biology Wiki

I think ther are certain times and situations where using a wiki would be very helpful. But, I can also see times where using a blog would be more appropriate. I was a little frustrated with the formatting on the wiki. I really like to have things formatted in a certain way, and even things like changing font size, alignment, etc... were harder to do on the wiki. But it would be great for assignments were I want students to colaborate and share their work.

I think that I blog is a format like a buffet...you come, take what you want, and consume it when and where you want. If you like it, you might return for more. A wiki seems more like a potluck. You need to have multiple people participating (otherwise it is just a blog). And those people probably need to participate at particular times in order to finish a project or meet a deadline.

There are definitely times where one or the other is more appropriate. And it would be advantageous to learn when to use which ones so that you didn't repeat content in too many places (not necessarily a bad thing all the time, but would be very time consuming...).

Thing 21

I got a little overwhelmed when looking at the Wikis. It just seems like it would be a lot of work to try to develop a project where students could really use a wiki in a meaningful way. I guess I should start small. There are smaller projects where students collaborate and work together. If I start small, my students and I can learn together. I am not aware of other teachers at my school using wikis, so I'm sure that along with learning the content of the wiki, students would also need to learn how to use a wiki (and how to use it appropriately). I think that it is probably worth the fight. Often, issues regarding technology seem to be too large, but technology is going to keep advancing. So we should try to keep up!

Personally, I think that I will try to create a wiki for planning events with friends. And maybe also one for one of my cooking groups. I found a recipe page on the International Academy Wiki (http://iatoday.pbworks.com/) which I think was supposed to be part of staff development. But that idea would be a great way for my cooking group to share, save, and access recipes. The example of the camping wiki from the video is exactly what I thought of as a personal application for a wiki!! Some of our friends and us go camping every year, and it can become overwhelming to try to plan and then to keep track of all the e-mails. I am definitely going to set up a wiki for that next time! Other tools that could help us plan would be a calendar like 30 Blocks (to pick a date) or a program like Google Docs. There are so many options!

Thing 20

I know that I have subscribed to some podcasts at school before. But I'm not exactly sure where they are...Maybe they are on iTunes on my school computer? Maybe saved on my drive on the school server? I don't know. I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing when I subscribed to them last year. But now that I have a better idea, maybe I can figure out if I still have them saved on my computer. If not, I can figure out how to subscribe to other podcasts in the future. And now that I know how to use them and access them, I can use them in my classroom.

My favorite search tool was on iTunes. It was very easy to search for and subscribe to podcasts. I did try out PodCast Alley. I found the MayoClinic Medical Edge Radio podcast there, copied the URL, and figured out how to add that to my iTunes account. I also used The Education Podcast Network to find, download, and add to my iTunes account a show called, "Science on the Wild Side." Overall, iTunes was definitely my favorite. But I'm glad to know how to use the others in the future.

I subscribed to several podcasts from NPR using the iTunes directory: This American Life, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, and A Prairie Home Companion's News from Lake Wobegon.
I also subscribed to NPR: Hummm...Krulwich on Science and NOVA ScienceNOW. I have used a number of the ScienceNOW episodes in my class in the past. I really like them, and love the idea of being able to access them easily and listen to them on the go (on my iPod). And Robert Krulwich used to host ScienceNOW, and I love listening to him on NPR now. So, I subscribed to that podcast as well.

Although it's not a podcast you can subscribe to (since it it too old), here is one of my most favorite This American Life stories: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=61 I couldn't download it for free, but here is a link. Act 1 of Fiasco! is just so funny!! My husband and I heard this originally as we were driving. We could hardly contain ourselves...we laughed for hours afterwards!

Thing 19

I really like the idea of podcasts and being able to find them, subscribe to them, and listen whenever you want.

I liked the links to the special interest podcasts. I discovered how to use podcasts with my classes last spring. During our unit on viruses & bacteria, I had an assignment where students needed to listen to a podcast from NPR's Science Friday about bacteria that live in your gut: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200811214 As a part of this assignment, students also had to visit several websites that talked about bacteria, watch a short video clip that I had saved for them on the school server (which I now know I could figure out how to post on a blog so they could complete the assignment away from school), and listen to some public service announcements about the E. coli and peanut butter issue. I really liked the assignment, and I'm excited to be able to create more of them. I think that it will be very helpful now that I know a little more about podcasts and putting other multimedia and technology resources on a blog or other digital platform. I think that I would like to subscribe to the Science Friday podcast since I often am not able to listen when it is broadcast, but I love listening. If I had them on my computer or iPod, I could listen whenever.

Another interesting podcast that I found was the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. Here is the link to today's word, dernier cri: dernier cri. Although I don't teach English, I think this might be an interesting podcast to subscribe to on a personal level. I like learning new vocabulary. Maybe I could figure out how to subscribe to the podcast, put them on my iPod, and play them in the car on the way to work. Humm...

Thing 18

I really liked Slideshare!

Here is a presentation that I think that students will really enjoy when we talk about genetics and cloning. I ALWAYS get questions like, "What will happen if we cross animal x with animal y?" So this will add a little humor to our discussion :)

Clone Animals In Next Century

View more presentations from Dinisha .

I also like the fact that students would be able to view this presentation without being able to open, access, and print it like they would if I just posted the PowerPoint file. I know that might not sound good, but I have too many students that want to print everything. And then some students who don't know how to adjust print settings, so they end up coming to class with a pile of papers where they have printed one slide per page. And it's a presentation that they did not need to print--they should have viewed the presentation and taken notes (or something in that format) on the main topics. I want them to learn how to take information from a presentation, not how to take the entire presentation with them :)

I also joined SlideShare and uploaded a presentation. Well, I think I uploaded a presentation. It didn't work on my first few attempts, although it said it was working on it for about 45 minutes. Then I went and created a 2-slide presentation and saved it on my desktop. It uploaded it right away and said that it is working on publishing it. I'm sure that I could figure it out with a little more "tinkering." I like the fact that you can change the privacy settings. I'm still, even after learning about all this technology, a little wary about just posting whatever out there on the internet. But overall, I really liked this site!

Thing 17

I used bubbl.us to try to make a concept map. I was not impressed with this site/tool. It lets you create "bubbles" and arrange them so that it looks like a concept map, but you can't add any words to the connecting lines. They way that I most frequently use concept mapping (and am starting to use it with my dissertation work this week) requires that there are connecting words, phrases, quotes, etc... on the connecting lines. Inspiration lets you use this. But, I guess if you just need a quick visual with some bubbles and connections, this isn't bad. And after a little fiddling, I figured out how to save it. (I tried to use embedded code, but Blogger said there was something wrong with it and wouldn't let me publish it.)

I also spent time with 30 Boxes. This might also be a great way to organize!! I tried to embed it here, but had some problems. I did figure out how to embed it on the side bar, but it was too wide to fit. (I did try to adjust the width, but then only several letters would show up in each box.) So I ended up adding it to my links on the side which I probably like better anyways since it doesn't clutter the blog.

I also tried Knowtes. I didn't like the fact that I needed to request an invitation. It just seemed like I was putting my e-mail out there for anyone to see and send stuff to. But, I did request an invitation, and hopefully I will get a response...