Okay, it is approaching zero hour and I had trouble with signing up for You Tube and then Blogger went down for a half hour, so I am going to do this in pieces, to get it done.
I picked the video the Element Song by Tom Lehrer. I have been using an animated version that just basically flashes the names of the elements, this one shows a lot of pictures of the elements (gases are hard because can you see gas? But they show a balloon for helium, so it is cute.) See if you can spot why I can't use this with students.
If you didn't catch it, see Thing 21's reflection.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thing 21 - Online Video
I'll start with the last question and yes, you tube is banned in my building. I think it is so banned I couldn't even join with my school email. I never got the confirming email. I used my personal account, and snap, it was there so I was able to comment on "the element song tom lehrer". It was fairly cool until the silicon element was a pair of huge, almost fully exposed breasts. Sighhh, so much for showing my students that video. But see the next thing, because I am going to use it there.
There were some neat things I did learn though by exploring You Tube. I guess there is a new commercial out that uses the theme song from Eddie's Father. I, being the TV junkie I am, remembered this when my daughter's friend started talking about the commercial and the song. I was able to find the song fairly easily in You Tube. I also found out that, apparently, the TV show was based on a movie that starred Glen Ford. I didn't know that.
But as everyone has probably pointed out, it will not get unblocked. And I don't want it to, I don't like being the Internet police. There are enough legitimate educational websites out there that you could find what you want somewhere else.
Even the Teacher Tube had some very poorly produced videos there. I thought I would try to find a multiplication one for my son, an 7th grader, who basically failed math and is seeing a summer school tutor, might benefit from a video. But I couldn't find one after watching about five poor ones, I gave up.
Obviously, RESA has managed to find some good videos and even posted some of yours there as well, but for now, it will be a tool to have fun with not to use for educational purposes.
There were some neat things I did learn though by exploring You Tube. I guess there is a new commercial out that uses the theme song from Eddie's Father. I, being the TV junkie I am, remembered this when my daughter's friend started talking about the commercial and the song. I was able to find the song fairly easily in You Tube. I also found out that, apparently, the TV show was based on a movie that starred Glen Ford. I didn't know that.
But as everyone has probably pointed out, it will not get unblocked. And I don't want it to, I don't like being the Internet police. There are enough legitimate educational websites out there that you could find what you want somewhere else.
Even the Teacher Tube had some very poorly produced videos there. I thought I would try to find a multiplication one for my son, an 7th grader, who basically failed math and is seeing a summer school tutor, might benefit from a video. But I couldn't find one after watching about five poor ones, I gave up.
Obviously, RESA has managed to find some good videos and even posted some of yours there as well, but for now, it will be a tool to have fun with not to use for educational purposes.
Thing 20 - RSS Revisited
Now that I have done my delicious account the use of bloglines seems to make more sense. I can view bloblines from any computer. I have that RSS feed button on my computer and thought that was easier to subscribe to the feeds. But that limits it to that computer. Seems like a big duhhhhh! but that's my epiphany for the day. New benefits? Not really other than I like subscribing to the news (since I never watch it and go through life not knowing what is going on.) Am I checking regularly? Are you crazy? I can't get my things done because when I turn on my computer I automatically check my emails. And by the time I do that, I've wasted a half hour that I should have been working on my things. Once upon a time, when I had AOL, news popped up every time you logged in, and that was good in a way, that I saw the news then, but again it is something that distracts you from your main goal. So NO checking blogs or my RSS feeds are not a habit, nor is a habit I really want to develop. I like going through life not knowing what others are thinking.
Okay, only three more to go, but I must go stretch my legs. Now, I just hope I will come back in a few hours.
Okay, only three more to go, but I must go stretch my legs. Now, I just hope I will come back in a few hours.
Thing 19 - Set up delicious
My user name is the beginning of my email address : schultn.
I guess I was an overachieving, procrastinator because I imported my favorites, because that's really how I wanted to use this. Okay suggestion for when you run the class again. Do this as one of the first things. Like Thing 2 we created a blog that we have been using throughout the whole project, but this Thing 19 we could have been using the whole class as well. So for the ten sites to add to delicious I went back and added all the sites that I didn't already have bookmarked (which just happened to be 10) and most of those were from Thing 16, but either way, I think delicious would have been a good tool to help us organize the class.
I think delicious will help my productivity because I have a computer in my office and one on my circulation desk that have different bookmarks and sometimes I find myself running back and forth between the two because I need the bookmark that is on the one I am not at. I am not sure how I would really use it in my teaching. I use Instructional Arcitect to organize web addresses for students and that has worked out well. see the main page at http://www.ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:4038
I guess I was an overachieving, procrastinator because I imported my favorites, because that's really how I wanted to use this. Okay suggestion for when you run the class again. Do this as one of the first things. Like Thing 2 we created a blog that we have been using throughout the whole project, but this Thing 19 we could have been using the whole class as well. So for the ten sites to add to delicious I went back and added all the sites that I didn't already have bookmarked (which just happened to be 10) and most of those were from Thing 16, but either way, I think delicious would have been a good tool to help us organize the class.
I think delicious will help my productivity because I have a computer in my office and one on my circulation desk that have different bookmarks and sometimes I find myself running back and forth between the two because I need the bookmark that is on the one I am not at. I am not sure how I would really use it in my teaching. I use Instructional Arcitect to organize web addresses for students and that has worked out well. see the main page at http://www.ia.usu.edu/viewproject.php?project=ia:4038
Thing 18 - Tagging
Social Bookmarking - Tagging. "Tag. You're it!" always comes to mind when we start talking about Tags. I am a librarian. I catalog. So I can relate to tags. The "social" thing, I'm not so sure I care about that, do you get the idea I'm not so concerned about what others are doing on the web? But I do like the idea of my favorites being all in one place, because between two work computers and my home computer, I have many of the same bookmarks but they are in different places on the different computers.
(Okay what were the questions again?) Are tags useful? I would say probably, since I have my financial links under a folder with that label, it would be easy to tag those websites as banking or financial. So, yes, tagging sounds useful. Advantages, might help my bookmarks be more organized, sometimes, I do have trouble finding them, disadvantages are the public aspect. So I would think you wouldn't want to tag a site that is a logged in site or one that is not generally public (it might make it easier to call it to someone's attention.)
okay, this one's done (in less than an hour, whoohoo!)
(Okay what were the questions again?) Are tags useful? I would say probably, since I have my financial links under a folder with that label, it would be easy to tag those websites as banking or financial. So, yes, tagging sounds useful. Advantages, might help my bookmarks be more organized, sometimes, I do have trouble finding them, disadvantages are the public aspect. So I would think you wouldn't want to tag a site that is a logged in site or one that is not generally public (it might make it easier to call it to someone's attention.)
okay, this one's done (in less than an hour, whoohoo!)
Thing 17 - update
Four Screams!! Now it failed to convert. So yet another thing I will need to play around with after I get the rest of the things done. It's 12 noon, and I have six more to go. What do you think my chances are that I will get these done today? Well, at least, my daughter is here now to hang out with the dog.
But to finish my reflection, I looked at a few just loaded and a few top hits, but didn't really look for any other than that. Again, as mentioned in my previous posts, this thing, as long as it is not blocked by school filters, may be a great tool for my students who are collaborating on projects. I like that it said you can mark it private, I just wonder if the old version of Powerpoint will load better than the new version. I will have to do quite a bit of testing of this before I try to introduce it to my students, but if I can get it to work, it should overcome problems that we currently have (namely that students don't have server space so they can only save to the computer they are currently using, it makes transferring files a pain.) Now I hadn't tried to download a ppt in Googledoc. I wonder if that would be better. But I will try that later, I have to move forward, not backward.
But to finish my reflection, I looked at a few just loaded and a few top hits, but didn't really look for any other than that. Again, as mentioned in my previous posts, this thing, as long as it is not blocked by school filters, may be a great tool for my students who are collaborating on projects. I like that it said you can mark it private, I just wonder if the old version of Powerpoint will load better than the new version. I will have to do quite a bit of testing of this before I try to introduce it to my students, but if I can get it to work, it should overcome problems that we currently have (namely that students don't have server space so they can only save to the computer they are currently using, it makes transferring files a pain.) Now I hadn't tried to download a ppt in Googledoc. I wonder if that would be better. But I will try that later, I have to move forward, not backward.
Thing 17 - Slideshare or Drive me crazy
I am writing this while I am waiting for my slide show to convert. finally! Okay, here is the story. Last fall, I made a slide show presentation using Power Point (on my husband's new computer complete with Vista - I hate Vista) and emailed it to my self to use at school. I thought I also put it on my old computer. Anyway, I had to download Powerpoint viewer to get it to play on my school's old computers, even though they have Powerpoint on them, it would not run the new version (which had to change the look so drastically it is hard to get used to). Well, after perserverance on my end, I got the power point to run and set it up outside the MRC so people walking by, changing classes could see it. (People at my school are not used to someone promoting the library.) I went and played parent and came back at the end of open house unsure if anyone even viewed it. But I didn't care, I had at least made the effort.
What does this have to do with this Thing? Well, I thought that this Thing, slideshare, might help me solve that problem for next Fall (if I can get an internet connection to where I have it set up, or use a wireless laptop, but I digress.)
So, I thought, why not load my already made presentation to the Slide show, then quick, just like that I could have my thing done. Okay, have I mentioned I am working on a fairly new computer (with Vista, which I hate) because it looks so different it is hard to tell where you are storing files sometimes (plus my old computer and my computers at school all use the old stuff, so that is familiar). Okay, back to the point. I browsed my new computer sure that that presentation was stored here from my transfered files, but no I couldn't find it. It probably took me fifteen minutes of searching before I remembered that I had did the presentation on my husband's computer and may not have saved it on the old one, let alone transfered it to the new one. So I screamed (and remember I am working in a public place.) But then, Eureka! I had emailed it to myself (have I mentioned I love email! It saves the day) I find the attachment download it carefully to my new computer (so I know where it is), see that I can view it (do I have powerpoint downloaded on my new computer? I didn't know). But I save it and go back to Slideshare, and hit the upload, and browse, and I CAN'T FIND IT!! I scream again. My new computer won't show me the file extension and I begin to worry that it's the "viewer" version so it won't upload. I try the two different ways to upload in Slideshare and still nothing. I rename the file, I move it, I resave it and suddenly it opens in an editable view in my computer. Apparently, I do have Powerpoint downloaded on this model (still the new version, yuck,) But "Cool" I think, I can make the updates I need to get it ready for next year and upload that, that would be more helpful anyway. So I spend ten minutes making those changes, save it (where I know it is at), and make sure the file extension is ppt. I go back to Slideshare and all I can find is the renamed, saved presentation from the second time I opened it from the email. I screamed again, but hit UPLOAD anyway, because while I am a procrastinator I also never surrender. So know, while I have been writing all of this, the Slideshare converter was supposed to be converting the wrong presentation. I am going to go check. I'll end this post and try the embed thing if I did get it uploaded and converted correctly.
What does this have to do with this Thing? Well, I thought that this Thing, slideshare, might help me solve that problem for next Fall (if I can get an internet connection to where I have it set up, or use a wireless laptop, but I digress.)
So, I thought, why not load my already made presentation to the Slide show, then quick, just like that I could have my thing done. Okay, have I mentioned I am working on a fairly new computer (with Vista, which I hate) because it looks so different it is hard to tell where you are storing files sometimes (plus my old computer and my computers at school all use the old stuff, so that is familiar). Okay, back to the point. I browsed my new computer sure that that presentation was stored here from my transfered files, but no I couldn't find it. It probably took me fifteen minutes of searching before I remembered that I had did the presentation on my husband's computer and may not have saved it on the old one, let alone transfered it to the new one. So I screamed (and remember I am working in a public place.) But then, Eureka! I had emailed it to myself (have I mentioned I love email! It saves the day) I find the attachment download it carefully to my new computer (so I know where it is), see that I can view it (do I have powerpoint downloaded on my new computer? I didn't know). But I save it and go back to Slideshare, and hit the upload, and browse, and I CAN'T FIND IT!! I scream again. My new computer won't show me the file extension and I begin to worry that it's the "viewer" version so it won't upload. I try the two different ways to upload in Slideshare and still nothing. I rename the file, I move it, I resave it and suddenly it opens in an editable view in my computer. Apparently, I do have Powerpoint downloaded on this model (still the new version, yuck,) But "Cool" I think, I can make the updates I need to get it ready for next year and upload that, that would be more helpful anyway. So I spend ten minutes making those changes, save it (where I know it is at), and make sure the file extension is ppt. I go back to Slideshare and all I can find is the renamed, saved presentation from the second time I opened it from the email. I screamed again, but hit UPLOAD anyway, because while I am a procrastinator I also never surrender. So know, while I have been writing all of this, the Slideshare converter was supposed to be converting the wrong presentation. I am going to go check. I'll end this post and try the embed thing if I did get it uploaded and converted correctly.
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