Thing 23

Now that I have completed my 230 things I can collect my 16 CEUs, right? I can truthfully say that I have spent more time on these "Things" than any other CEU activity I have ever attempted. If anyone wants to lobby for increasing the 1.6, count me in. Now that I have that off my chest, it is time to reflect. Don't you just love those education buzzwords? Like every other "innovation", these Things should all be evaluated objectively. Some teachers will embrace them and invent new and exciting ways to use them in the classroom and beyond. Some would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to even get near these Things. Most will end up somewhere in between those two extremes. The bottom line for me is, as it has always been, does all this new technology increase student learning? The answer is, of course, maybe. Like any other tool, technology can help teachers accomplish goals if used properly. If it is used for its own sake, it can become a colossal waste of time and money. Of all the information presented in this activity, there was one in Thing 19 that that really bothers me. The presentation was titled, "Giving the Students What They Want: Short to-the-Point e-Lectures." To that I say, "don't give them what they want, give them what they need."

Thing 22

While adding my entry to the newington23things wiki, I started wondering about a few things. Wikis open to editing by members appear to be "wide open". I tested that by editing my wife's entry with her permission. Sure enough, I could change what she previously entered. I am not sure how that would work in an educational setting. When I setup my blog in Thing 2, I purposely set it so I could moderate any comments. That would prevent anything "inappropriate" from ever being seen in public. (Not that this group would ever do such a thing!) I guess that highlights the difference between the two. A wiki would be a more interactive way of collaborating, while a blog could become a place to pontificate and accept or reject any comments. I then created my own wiki and tried entering text, links, images, and video. It was all quite easy and sort of anti-climactic after all we have been through.
FairWind Wiki

Thing 21

Is there anyone out there who has not used Wikipedia? I know anything you find there must be, how should I say it, "scrutinized", but I must say it sure is easy to find answers there. It makes a good starting point anyway. The video on Wikis showed an interesting example for a collaborative activity that could be adapted for many different uses in the classroom. Someone commented that Lee LeFever seemed over caffeinated. I was wondering if they sped up the video! Next, I tried each of the wikis on the list. The Comparing Hemispheres project was cute and Welker's Wikinomics looked quite extensive. The wikiHow site was interesting. Building the world's largest how-to manual? I wonder who checks the accuracy of the posts? Well, I checked the one on testing the intelligence of your dog. If I don't agree with some of the answers, should I join wikiHow and dispute them? In any case, I was not inspired to create a wiki. I decided that anything I could think of is already out there. My hurdle to creating a wiki would be lack of interest. My wife says overcoming this hurdle would require a brain transplant.

Thing 20

eBooks are great, just ask my wife! She really enjoys her Kindle, but I am not sure if I completely understand the fascination. Luckily, by waiting so long to purchase one, she has the second generation device. Apparently, the first version suffered from poor battery life. The current unit can go three weeks on a charge. The books we have downloaded have been free (so far) because many of them are "classics". Does that mean buying the Kindle has saved us money? As far as eBooks in general, I can remember attending a conference at MIT many years ago where the researchers claimed no one would read books on a computer screen until the resolution reached about 2,500 dots per inch, which is the same as a printed page. Computer screens are still nowhere near that, but the Kindle uses a new technology which is effectively electronically deposited ink. That makes it easier on the eyes than any computer screen, but still not as good as a book.
I checked out some of the sites to obtain eBooks and chose manybooks.net to explore more fully. It has an easy to use search feature and contains over 26,000 free books. I downloaded Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum, the first person to accomplish that feat. You can download the books in 25 different formats! Of course, I picked the Kindle format. I then tried some of the NHS eBooks and found a title on Alternative Energy. Did you know that polar bear fur converts 95% of the sun's UV rays into heat? I also checked out the British Library and had it read me some of a book. The reader had a nice accent!
This is a technology that has far reaching implications for education. Just think, no more visits to the Chiropractor for all those students carrying heavy backpacks! It should also save money and trees. I am not sure if we are quite there yet, however. The devices will need to be improved in three main areas: increased battery life, more robust construction, and color screens. Finally, all the publishers will need to come on board to make this transition possible.

Thing 19

I can remember using stand-alone products in the past to record what is happening on the screen, but I had never tried any of the online tools before. I started, as I always do, by watching all the demonstrations. Then I went to each site and clicked on record. I noticed they all wanted to access my computer. Sounds like a security risk to me, but you can't continue unless you agree. I checked the certificates on all the sites and screencastle.com was not certified, so I did not try that one. The other three worked fine. What is everyone having trouble with? Screencast-o-Matic seemed to slow the computer down and did not have a full screen button. Screenr requires you to post to Twitter. ScreenToaster seemed like the best bet, but I tried all three anyway. So here they are. The first two are just for testing. Unfortunately, ScreenToaster cut me off at 2 minutes 45 seconds while I was still talking. Sorry for the abrupt ending!
Screener:

Screencast-o-Matic

ScreenToaster

Capture your screen in seconds

Thing 18

Podcasting is a great way to take audio entertainment with you on the road. Some of my favorites are Whad'ya Know?, Wait... Wait Don't Tell Me!, and Car Talk. I watch video podcasts on the computer. The iPod screen is kind of small for those. With the ability to subscribe, it is easy to record your favorites for use at any convenient time. That makes it ideal for use in the classroom. It certainly beats using a VCR! Most people never mastered the programmed recording features anyway. The flashing 12 on the VCR used to be a measure of technology illiteracy. I guess we need to use a different method now.

Thing 17

When I started comparing Slideshare and Zoho, they appeared to be quite similar. Until I clicked on the Zoho Home link, that is. Wow! Zoho has 22 things listed on its home page. Almost as many things as our 23 Things! You could spend days just checking out all the productivity, collaboration, and business apps on that page. It would be very interesting to compare the Google and Zoho offerings. Of course, someone has done that already. Here. Actually, there are at least four more web apps to compete with Google Docs. Check them out here. It's enough to make your head spin. Zoho looks like it has the most complete solution. On the other hand, perhaps I just enjoy saying Zoho Show Two Oh. To use it, you no longer even need to create a new account. You can use an existing Google or Yahoo account. Time to embed a show!

Thing 16

After looking at each of the tools on the list, I decided not to sign up for any of them. Not because I did not like them, but because I don't really need them. Besides, if some of that functionality is not available on Google, it probably will be soon after Google acquires the company! In the meantime, why burden yourself with five different ways to do a calendar? In my job, I spend all my time reacting to problems, nothing is scheduled. There is a meeting to attend every Wednesday at 8 a.m., but I don't need to enter that anywhere. At home, we enter events on this old fashioned paper thing hanging on the wall in the kitchen. It works great and you never need to reboot it! The bubbl.us brainstorming tool was interesting. It looks like an online version of the Inspiration or Kidspiration software we have at school. The collaboration features that the Internet facilitates could make it quite useful.

Thing 15

Look, that cloud is shaped like a bunny rabbit! Wait a minute..... That is not the cloud we were supposed to look at. I will fix my gaze on the Internet cloud instead. Now here is something that can be very useful. No need to carry around a flash drive, floppy (remember those?) or a re-writable cdrom, we have a place somewhere out there where we can save files. Sounds like a computer panacea, does it not? Well, like everything else in life, it has potential problems. What if you type that ten page paper, go to school to retrieve it, and the Internet is down. I know it happens infrequently, but it does happen. (Maybe that is not important, since we are helpless these days without Internet.) What if a file is deleted by mistake and is not stored anywhere else? That provides us with a new student excuse, "the cloud ate my homework." The one thing that seals it for me, however, is a privacy issue. Have you ever noticed that when you use Gmail, the advertisements that appear on the right are based on the content of your mail? That is because Google is data-mining your email. If you also use Google Docs and the new Google Voice, they are looking at everything you email, type in a document, or say on the phone. Kind of scary, isn't it? Do you really think I should put my backups on Windows Live Skydrive? Great! Now both Microsoft and Google know everything about me. Oh what the heck, they probably already do.