embedded voice thread

Cool applications

Check out Cool Cat's blog about her favorite applications. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/04/122-for-you-cool-cat-teachers-favorite.html

Thing 13

For thing 13, I have created a twitter "twibe". A twibe is a group of people with similar interests. I have called the twibe Monroe Co. Mi. Educators. Only after creating it, did I realize that the word "comie" is in the middle of the url. No, it's not a political statement, just the abbreviation of county and Michigan with the first letter of educators! Thank God we aren't back in the fifties, someone would surely be interrogating me!! I found out about twibes by following Vicki Davis a.k.a. Cool Cat Teacher on Twitter. I started following her blog after finding out about her at MACUL last March. In following her Blog through Bloglines, I commented on her blog and began to follow her on twitter also. When I learned about Twibes, I joined the Ed Tech twibe and had the idea to form the Monroe County Educators Twibe. I envisioned it as a forum where we could discuss education topics and share ideas.
In this final post, I am to reflect on my "things" experience. As you can see from the above statements, learning new "things" about web 2.0, leads to more things and more things... I really worry about the people who are still using dittos (yes, they are out there). My parents always taught me that to remain "young" you have to keep up on technology. My dad was a Professional Engineer and had one of the first Texas Instruments calculators (back in the 60's). I remember because it cost $125 which was a lot of money back then. You can buy the same thing now at the dollar store. Literally. Keeping up on technology and changes is extremely challenging. But at half a century, I email, text, skype, social bookmark, tweet, facebook, myspace, and blog. I am a member of a "flat classroom" group and two twibes. Wow, my parents would be proud.

Thing 12

When initially watching the diigo youtube video, I felt like I was watching the old ginsu knife commercial...just when you think you've heard all that the product can do...wait there's more!! I admit saying that diigo is delicious on steroids is an understatement!! By the time I was done watching the youtube video, my brain hurt...I actually had one of those thoughts "maybe I'm just getting too old for this..". But then I gathered my senior self together and tackled it. I dumped all my delicious bookmarks into diigo and added a few more. The feature that I am looking forward to the most is the sidebar "webslides" feature. With students I plan on attempting to use the hi-lighting feature for making reports (upper el students. I am not yet sure how I envision it for lower el students.

Thing 11

Being a special educator, I have had experience with UD before. I attended a conference session about universal design at MACUL last March. My notes are all at school but I do recall the presenter talking about the extensive podcast collection at the state level of high school text books. While I can't take advantage of that, maybe some of my colleagues could look into it, I'll blog the info as soon as I get back into work and look at my notes. I also have software that does much like the "read the words" site. I received this software as part of the STELA project through the Monroe ISD.The Dial2Do reminder that I emailed myself came out with a few missing words, but I like the fact that you could listen to it also.

Text to Speech Bonus!

Thing 10

This would be fantastic for using in the classroom!! My kids love to go to Google EArth and find the school, the local gas station...etc We could label their houses, the school, and things of importance to them. I can't wait to use this! (The maps would not be public, however) :-) I have used Google earth to "fly" to Mt. Vesuivus when we were reading about that, to Matinicus island when we were reading about that, and also showed the kids France, Italy and Egypt. They love google earth. I always have to wait unti just before lunch so I can actually get them out of my room!! They would stay all day and play with google earth.

My Google Map of London

View London in a larger map

Google Search Bar

Thing 8

I can honestly say that in the previous 23 things class as well as this 13 more things class I have never been as frustrated as I was with Jing. Loading it was a bit of a hassle, first my trend antivirus program didn't want to accept it, then I had to load some Microsoft software..but once I got it loaded I thought I was home free. I began to capture images on with the video only to find that once you started recording, you couldn't change the video capture window size. Then I went to plan B wherein I got everything the same size and did the video capture. Then I realized that you had to narrate as you were going along, not after like you can do with photostory...ok, start again. This time I couldn't get all of the pictures the same size and you can often see computer background that I didn't want there...you can redo narration like when I said "nest" instead of "next" and fumbled over my words a little. It's just not something that I am very proud and like the third attempt at a project...my first was singing accapella to some beautiful sunset photos...scrapped that idea...my next was narrating some old family photos...not all the same size so scrap that idea...my final attempt was a story from Project Read" teaching young children the sounds of the digraphs ch, sh, th, and wh.

Thing 7

Thing 6

Creating the cartoon was a blast! I can say that I will definitely use this site this year. My students will think it is great! I tried to get on the ToonDooSpaces but it said it wasn't ready yet. I like the extra security of that site. The site was very easy to navigate.

Thing 6

by ldishaw | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Thing 4 finally done...yea!

Well tonight I finally had a chance to complete thing three. I Skyped with Amy Brown. I had previously used Skype quite a bit but only with family members. Amy said she had used Skype but only with voice, not video. I used Skype with my daughter who lived in Kalamazoo and my grandson who lives in Wyandotte. I only had one Skpye conversation that I am reporting on, because the deadline for class is at hand! The quality of the connection was decent. I've had better and I've also had worse. Amy's camera must be better than the "cheap ones" because the picture clarity was far better than when skyping with my daughter on her $20 special. There was however, sometimes when I could hear my own voice echo, and sometimes it froze or there was a longer than usual lag. The freezing and lag I could see as potential problems when used in a classroom, aside from usual technology difficulties. I've explained how I have used it personally. Professionally I could see how students who had extended absences have found it beneficial to be able to skype. Amy and I had a good discussion about summer school tonight (she's teaching it and has some of my former students), so I can see how two teachers could share student information, ideas, etc.

Thing 5

I could think of all kinds of ways to use voice thread. I have used Photostory to do some of these. It is very motivating for students to hear their own voice. Voicethread can be used to comment on book reviews, narrate photographs, or as a project such as the fourth grade class project that I embedded. I imagine all sorts of ways that I could use it and I am hoping through my flat classrooms membership, maybe, possibly, I can find a classroom similar to mine somewhere across this great planet that would be willing to read the same book as my students. Then we can do a collaborative voicethread project and the kids can hear each other's voices. I can also think of lots of ways this could be used from Kindergarten to the University level.

Voicethread

http://ed.voicethread.com/share/428910/