23 Things Part 7

Part 7 continues on with Flickr. This time we get to share some pictures of our own. I've posted some pictures that are public on Flickr. You can check them out here: http://flickr.com/photos/26102107@N08/


At first, I wasn't sure how to use Flickr educationally. After just a little bit of thought, anything that could be communicated visually would be a fit for Flickr. This would include social studies (where maps could be uploaded, vintage pictures, etc), science (images of a variety of science topics), art, physical education (pictures of proper techniques, games, etc) and more.

23 Things Part 6

Part 6 is all about Flickr. Flickr has long been a wonderful resource for dealing with pictures. A quick search for "middle school" produced some interesting results. I was hoping for a variety of pictures about, well, middle schools. However, the results were much more serendipitous than I expected. Here is a picture that I found that I greatly enjoy. I like the multiple meanings (love of books, the wedding ring forming a heart, etc.)

23 Things Part 5

Like a few other of my cohort, I jumped the gun for Part 5. I
subscribed to many sites in Part 4 when that is supposed to be part of
part 5. Anyway, I largely revisited some of my most heavily "traveled"
RSS sites from NetNewsWire. (If you're interested, check them out at: http://www.bloglines.com/public/MiddleSchoolMatters
) . RSS can allow you to gather a lot of information together. I think
that it needs to be targeted though. I sometimes return to visiting web
sites for a couple of reasons.

1. Going to a web site gives me more context.
2. Going to a web site "slows" me down. This allows me to process better.
3. I can automatically "rank" the sites that I want to see. Yes, I
   know that I can do something similar with the RSS reader, but somehow
   it's still different.

23 Things Part 4

Part 4 is all about RSS. RSS is a way to quickly and easily bring updates on the web to you instead of you going out to a variety of sites to check them out. This can save a ton of time as you don't have to check sites that haven't been updated. My personal favorite way to do this is using NetNewsWire. However, there are other ways to do this as well. Google Reader is another way to do this easily.

The advantage to NetNewsWire is that it is laid out very nicely. It is also self-contained. One of the advantages of Bloglines is the public nature of the linking. You can easily share the links that you like.

I still can get overwhelmed by the number of sites that I "keep up" with. Here is an interesting blog post on that very subject. It didn't work for me, but your mileage may vary. RSS certainly can help you take control over the shear number of web information inputs that you want to follow.

Educationally, RSS would allow you to easily pull in the updates from students who were blogging (think of it as an easy way to "collect" papers).

23 Things Part 3

Blogs can be mighty useful. As a middle school principal, I have my teachers "turn in" their weekly team meeting logs in a blog. This saves some trees, saves me carrying notebooks home over the weekend, prevents "lost" notebooks, and makes it so that teachers can update their logs at any time. It also provides the teachers opportunities to quickly search their logs. Plus, several teachers can view the logs at once from different places.
Obviously, I have very strict constraints on who can see the blogs.

Some of my teachers use blogs for the kids. The teachers tell me that its faster to input the homework in the blog than to check a bunch of planners. This also allows for parents to know exactly what the homework is.

Blogs can also be used for Professional Development.

Good stuff.

23 Things

Welcome to the reinvigoration of the blog! This will become the home of a new project that I'm participating in to help teachers understand Web 2.0. The idea behind 23 Things is as follows:

Wayne RESA’s 23 Things is based on The Learning 2.0 program originally designed by Helene Blowers, Technology Director, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, and has been modified for use by Wayne RESA. The original program is loosely based upon Stephen Abram’s article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006) and the website 43Things.

This online program was built using freely available Web 2.0 technologies that include: Blogger, Flickr, YouTube, Wikispaces, del.icio.us and Bloglines.

So why am I participating in 23 Things? Easy, I want to understand how I can best help my students learn. I feel pretty comfortable with technology (I run a weekly podcast with an award winning RESA educator (Shawn McGirr) with an accompanying web site: http://middleschoolmatters.com). I think I posted my first web site in 1998. However, I still feel as though I have much to learn. I want to be part of the conversation. Part of Thing 1 was Pay Attention.

This is a presentation that has been somewhat controversial. Some educators have taken it as an assault on their teaching and what they are doing. I found that an unexpected reaction. I think the video is a great opportunity for discussion. Facts are great but they are only a beginning. Context is important. The question becomes, what is the context for lots of the facts brought forward?
How do we frame the conversation about how students are different (or not)? We also have to be careful of the "good ole days syndrome".

Middle School Matters on the Go #3

Gabcast! Middle School Matters on the Go #3