Thing 13

IDEA #1: Search De.licio.us to find links for student assignments. I got a couple of ideas from this part of the assignment. How to incorporate these into next school year is something for me to work on over the summer.

I guess we'll see if this works out or not as we get closer to next school year and I get more comfortable with how to make this a part of my classes.

IDEA #2: Create your own De.licio.us bookmarks for various subjects/resources to use with student assignments. Since we have several things that we use our AP Biology blog for and since we have several internet type of assignments for all of the biology classes, I think this idea will have some immediate use for me. I just have to sit down and spend a little time creating these, but in the long run it should be a good tool to use.

Week 11 + 12

I investigated several sites on the Awards list and was surprised to see how many of the sites I already make use of. Google Maps, Wikispaces, Craigslist, CitySearch, Google Earth, iMedix, Pandora are all sites that I have anywhere from to some to great experience with.
I'm currently working on a way to incorporate Wikispaces into my Honors Biology classes, although I still am not sure how this can be done with meaningful results. A lot of this stuff is fun and cool to explore, but as regards doing something with this for a targeted result with my class curriculum, I do not feel that I have found something yet. Using some of this at this point seems like just another fad to add to what we now do. We have problems with the kids focusing on the material and I think all of  these distractions create just another way for the kids to be distracted from the topic at hand.
I realize that the kids are undoubtedly making use of many of these sites already and perhaps know them better than I certainly could how to use them, but I in most of these areas that I have tried to incorporate into my class usage, there is still the issue of getting the kids to actually think about what they are doing. If we can find the key to getting more thought process out of the students, that would be something I would much more motivated to investigate and utilize.

Thing 10

I have been playing with Image Chef - an image generator - and I think this exercise could provide something possible during updates of my web site and maybe even for spicing up some of my class handouts.

Week 5 - Thing 9

I added several RSS Feeds to my Google Reader account - some related to science and some related to education. I tend to think that the science ones will be more useful than the education ones. I don't know how inclusive the list that I chose from really was. Nothing jumped up and grabbed me as info that I just had to have at a moment's notice.

Week 4 - Thing 8

I set up a Google Reader account and have added several feeds for various topics: Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Miami Dolphins football, and Swimming. What do I like about RSS and newsreaders? I'm not sure yet since I have not been following any of these feeds yet, but the early thought is that I can find topics of interest all in one place and can keep up with certain things without spending as much time as in the past. How do I think I might be able to use this technology in my school or personal life? Again, early idea is that I can save myself time while keeping up with topics that I normally follow week to week. I'll have to spend more time thinking about school applications. Patty's idea that this would make following student blogs easier is a possibility. I'll have to explore the idea to a deeper level and see what develops.

Week 3 - Think 7

I have reviewed several of the Social Networking Sites and see a couple that might be incorporated into several of my classes. I do like the flickr option "Tell a Story in 5 Frames." I think we could find a creative way of using this to explain or define certain biological processes. I think I will cogitate on this idea to see if something is workable.

Week 3 - Thing 6

I made this "trading card" on the Trading Card Maker for the study of mash-ups. I was disappointed that several attempts at a number of these sites did not work. This was my 4th attempt at making a Trading Card. I cannot figure out why some pictures would not upload, particularly since this one was larger than one of the other photos I tried to upload. Perhaps the pictures need to be in some specific (although unspecified) format in order for them to upload.
Either way, the process was easy enough to figure out.

More Thing 5

blue-footed_booby,
originally uploaded by dwhit2009.

This is my Classroom 2.0 picture that I uploaded to Flickr as a public photo.

Week 3 - Thing 5

I found this really cool picture on flickr and thought this would be a wonderful first try at adding a picture from flickr to my blog. The exercise was pretty straight forward. I took advantage of my exploration time on flickr to upload some of my own pictures as  well. I'll see where this leads, but I have a lot of pictures that I might share this way.

Water Drop,
originally uploaded by ayeteedubbz.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Week 2 - Thing 4

The goal for this "thing" in the Class 2.0 at this stage in the process is to register this blog. Clearly that has already been done since I e-mailed Patty the link for my blog last week. And that's the way this whole program has gone so far. I've done the assignments out of order, but have felt the need to blog about them in the order prescribed. Once again, my rebellious nature makes itself known.

Week 2 - Thing 3

I went out of turn, obviously, since I had this blog and my avatar posted before actually doing Things 1 and 2. The process was simple and took very little time to do. I enjoyed the process actually.

Week 1: Thing 2

I have considered myself a lifelong learner all my life. Gladly, I have incorporated the 7 1/2 habits into my daily life as far back as I can remember. As a coach, the GOALS, the personal responsibility, the viewing problems as challenges and the confidence in yourself are all daily activities that I promote in my swimmers because I do them myself. The Learning Toolbox is a given - even though I have never thought of it in those terms. The only one that I consider myself weak in would be the Technology to my advantage. Unlike my children who have always taught me about technology, I think of technology and envision things like planes, trains and automobiles. These computer things and iPods and mobile phones are all greek to me. And since they seldom work for me, I HATE them most of the time. (I currently HATE my computer and printer in my classroom because they continue to fight me. PET PEAVE: why do the tech people CONSTANTLY change from formats and platforms that work and do what you want to accomplish to other ones that require another steep learning curve to figure out??? That's something I REALLY hate.)

But don't tell any of the tech people I said that because generally they are wonderful people and I find myself forgiving them a lot for just doing what they do. (I should look back at the Hallmarks and the video from the last post to understand why they insist on doing this to me!)

Even More THING 1

In reading the "About" section again - mostly to reinforce in my mind why I thought I should do this project - I came across the 6 Hallmarks:

Hallmark #1: The Internet has become the computer;
Hallmark #2: Tens of millions of Americans, especially the young, are creating and sharing content online;
Hallmark #3: Even more Internet users are accessing the content created by others;
Hallmark #4: Many are sharing what they know and what they feel online and that is building conversations and communities;
Hallmark #5: Tens of thousands are contributing their know-how and/or their processing power to the online commons;
Hallmark #6: Online Americans are customizing their online experiences thanks to Web 2.0 tools.

I think these have suddenly helped me to focus better. They remind me of the Education Session that Ellen Davis and I did at our diocesan inservice a few years ago when we showed the short video: Shift Happens.

More Thing 1

As I was continuing to read the information for the 23 Things that we will be doing for this classroom 2.0, I came across a page of weekly TIPS. One of the tips was to NOT use Black as a background color since it is hard on the eyes and makes any printing kind of tough. Oh, I am such a REBEL!!

Week 1: Thing 1

OK, I've read the "About" information and I understand where we are going. My interest in doing this is based upon wanting to find new ways to challenge my students to higher level thinking skills. Since I am not very familiar with this web 2.0 stuff, I don't really know what to make of it all yet. I agree with Ellen Davis and her postings on Pilgrim's Way: this TIME thing is going to be an issue.

Web 2.0

This web 2.0 thing is so unnatural for me. I hear these people who post everything on twitter and facebook and I wonder what the motivation is to do this sort of thing.