Thing #9

I'm spending waaaaay more time than the average 3-4 hours per week on these things.  That's not a complaint, by the way.  I'm really enjoying what I've learned so far!  Tonight's project was my wiki page.  Probably the most challenging part was changing the font color and size, lol.  I wrestled with the program over and over until I WON!

Thing #8

Ok, so I checked out the wikis in our assignment and now I'm really overwhelmed. I can't imagine myself being able to create anything close to any of them.  The simplest one I found was Schools in the Past. It has one page and although very interesting content, wouldn't take very long to read.  If I were going to add anything to this wiki it would be pictures that the parents and grandparents might have of themselves relating to the school experiences they are describing.

I was very impressed with Go West. I just wish I had known about this wiki during the school year because I would definitely have shown it to my students. It has lots of concentrated information about the Westward expansion.  I especially liked the simplicity of the links on the left side of the page.  The flow chart/thinking map on the home page is an excellent example of what we are encouraged to have our students use to organize information.  Someone put lots of time into this wiki.

Grazing for Digital Natives is a one-stop-shop for using digital technology. I can't imagine anything being missing from this wiki.  I think I could probably spend hours, days, months, and probably longer and still not run out of information to learn from this site.  The content is HUGE and well organized.

My idea for a wiki would be a classroom newsletter to parents.  To be honest, I'm not the best at written communication.  My student's parents and I keep in contact by e-mail and telephone.  A classroom newsletter wiki could provide up-to-date information.  Since I teach Special Education in a self-contained setting I would have to maintain confidentiality with pictures and student names.  Are there any privacy settings on a wiki?  Can you keep the content limited to invitees?  I haven't seen any information on that.

Thing #7

Having read each of the blogs in this Discovery Exercise, I found that what the authors said was pretty much common courtesy when talking to people in face-to-face situations. When I don't know someone I ask lots of questions and try to be as open as I can about myself.  When I first started this class in the Fall I fell behind in my work, housework, schoolwork, etc., because I kept going back to my blog and the others that I had added to my reader to see if any new comments were made.  Even though I didn't know the other bloggers, I couldn't wait to see what they had to say in their own blogs but more so what they said to me in mine.  In just a couple of weeks people must've gotten so busy with school that they stopped commenting...and that's when I fizzled out, too.  Luckily now that it is summer it's much easier to keep up and I'm trying to comment on lots of blogs as well as reciprocate with each person who comments on mine.  I check back with those people at least once per day to see if they've responded to my comment.

One thing I found interesting was Darren Rowse's comment about not commenting on blogs that require you to sign in.  Although I don't mind signing in, I've had lots of trouble with this issue.  Almost every time I try to sign in it takes me to my own dashboard.  Sometimes I'm able to sign in several times and then it finally allows my comment to go through, but last night I tried over and over for probably six or seven times and it just looped back and forth between the dashboard and their blog.  Anybody else have this problem?  If you have any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong PLEASE feel free to tell me!

Thing #6

I've gone a little crazy adding RSS feeds to my Google Reader. I decided to add a blog about photography to my list because, in my dreams, photography would be my next career (way down the road, of course.)  Actually, this blog was recommended by a former classmate Talking Tech.  The article I chose to write about was The Engagement Shoot and how it has become quite popular with couples who are planning their weddings. 

My daughter was married two years ago and it was quite a different experience from when I was married almost 30 years ago.  She has had professional photos taken at just about every turn. They had an Engagement Shoot, Pre-Wedding Shoot, During-Wedding Shoot, Post-Wedding Shoot, Pre-Baby Shoot, Post-Baby Shoot, and a New In-Laws and Baby Shoot. I really must get busy and practice my love of photography.  The article has numerous tips on how to make the e-shoot go without a hitch.  The author recommends the engagement shoot as a precursor to the actual wedding photos so that the couple will become comfortable with you, and with posing.  Other tips included in this article were related to the business end of being a professional wedding photographer.  Although my interest is mainly macro photography for fun, I'm looking forward to reading more of the tips that this feed will be submitting.

Thing #5

Lisa Nielson posted her views in an article she titled Why I Will No Longer Work To Differentiate Instruction. As a Special Education teacher, her title really caught my eye.  Gone are the days of the “factory model” schools where everyone was expected to learn in the same way at the same pace. As I read the article further I realized that she and her colleague, Tom Welch, are shifting the responsibility for learning to the student by changing the terminology to “Differentiated Learning.”  Ms. Nielson made the following statement in her article: 

“I realized that when teachers gave up control and empowered students to use the tools they want and meet learning goals in the way they choose, then true differentiation could begin and it wasn’t all on the shoulders of the teacher to figure out how to do this.”

As I continued to read through the article I realized that our 23 Things class is based on the “Differentiated Learning” concept.  We, as participants, are responsible for our own learning.  It is up to us to decide how much we will get out of this class.  I really understand the philosophy that Ms. Nielson is encouraging educators to adopt.