Thing #9 - Slideshare (11.5 More Things)

I think Slideshare is a great Web 2.0 tool. I remember wanting to post a slide show to my blog someone sent to me via email of various places around Houston after Hurricane Ike. I couldn't figure out how to do it so, naturally, I emailed Vaughn. She pointed me to Slideshare and it worked like a charm. I think like all the other things we've been learning about, students can really benefit from using Slideshare. To me, it seems like the same idea as You Tube or Teacher Tube, just in slide form. It's a great way to search for information on a topic, and it would be a great way to put student projects on a blog, etc. for all to see, or for students to share their projects with the world. It would also make grading presentations nice for a teacher as they would all be in one spot. As I mentioned before, I've used Slideshare to post a slide show to my blog, but I didn't understand it well and didn't realize you could use it to search out other people's presentations. I found a book talk presentation on Slideshare that gave me an idea for my own book talk slides. I also remember Teri Lesesne's TLA presentations being on Slideshare this past year -- such an easy way to get access to her lists without killing all the trees. It's funny to think that it wasn't but a few years back that she was still using an overhead projector and rapidly tossing her transparencies to the floor as she spoke (or perhaps I just have a warped sense of how quickly time flies)...

Thing #8 - Screencast (11.5 More Things)

Well, it was real, it was fun, and it was real fun... but it wasn't REALLY, REALLY fun. I enjoyed learning how to do screencasts, but this "thing" probably took me the longest of all because of all the trouble shooting I had to work through. I first downloaded GoView because it seemed so quick, easy, and visually pleasing to the eye. But then I was stuck. I had previously read in Vaughn's post that Jing was the only one that seemed to work for her (of the ones she tried), so I tried that next. It was really easy to use, but I couldn't get the sound to work so it took a while for me to figure out that my internal microphone wasn't turned on. (If you have this problem go to My Computer, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, click the Audio tab, click the Volume button under Sound Recording, then select Internal Microphone). Sigh. And for some weird reason I had to keep going back to turn on the internal mic over and over again (the setting would default back or something with logging in and out). After that I got excited and decided that I was going to do a screencast of a "Technology Tip of the Week" I previously sent out to my teachers (how to turn off the default setting so email notifications do not pop-up on your computer screen when giving presentations). This required me to switch back and forth from two different screens to do it, and after I recorded it, it would only show a tiny rectangle of the screen when played. I FINALLY figured out that one of the screens had to be minimized on top of the other one (if that makes any sense), and then it finally worked. Then because I am such a perfectionist, I had to re-shoot my screencast like 10 times. Well, I thought the hard part was over until I tried to post it to my blog (or share it). I changed the share settings to allow it go provide an embed code, but every time I would record and try to get the code, it would give me an error message. Grrrrrrr! I kept trying to shoot other things to see if I could get a code, and occasionally something would work. I finally just walked away from this over night and tried messing with it again today. In frustration I tried ScreenCastle but again I got stuck, and I didn't feel like learning a new program since I had already messed with Jing for so long. SO, I uninstalled Jing and tried to reinstall it to see if that worked. When I tried to reinstall it, I kept receiving an error message from SBISD!!! WHY, WHY WHY??? I didn't have this issue the first time! Then I figured it all out. I was logged into the district when I tried to install Jing the second time. After I logged out of SBISD it installed fine. Then I figured out that the reason it wouldn't give me an embed code is because I was trying to record a screencast from Outlook, which required me to be logged into the district. I finally just decided to try a screencast using Meriwether (logged out of SBISD) and it worked! It worked! It worked! I thought to myself that I am not going to be a perfectionist anymore, I'm done! ...until I replayed my screencast from my blog and it had no sound. Yes, I had to go back AGAIN and select the internal mic! I think I deserve 4 more credit hours for this one!!! :-) I wonder if anyone else has had this issue using Jing on their district laptop? I think this is a great tool for people to use to demonstrate things on Teacher Tube, etc., and students would have a ball using this for presentations! I think I could use it for the future Technology Tips I send out to my teachers, but an email just might prove to be less time consuming for me. I may have leave this job to the Atomic Learning folks. For what it's worth, see below... Okay, I just watched my screencast after posting, and it only shows half the screen. I think I am just going to move on now.

Thing # 7 - Video Resources (11.5 More Things)

Wow! So many resources for finding videos! Most people know about You Tube and Teacher Tube, etc., and Hulu is being advertised on TV, but it's good to know about the others.

I embedded a video from hulu, which is just a funny Sesame Street skit of Grover in the library. Believe it or not, middle school kids are nostalgic about their favorite elementary books and TV shows, so I thought this would be a good video to show during orientation to remind them about the library. While I am not a stereotypical "shushing" librarian, I could use it to talk about what is and isn't appropriate in the library. See below.



Our 8th graders study the Holocaust every spring and our school holds a special assembly with guess speaker Walter Kase, one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors. It is a really moving time for our students, and I often see students in the library afterwards looking up things online about Walter Kase. Some teachers also bring their classes to the library for Holocaust/World War II research, so I thought a video of another Holocaust survivor (like the following I got from blinkx) would be good to show. I did not see a way to embed this video, so I created a link below.

Holocaust Survivor

Finally, the Twilight saga is still all the rave, so I used Google Video Search to find an interview with Stephenie Meyer. Even if you can't physically bring an author into your school for a visit, you can always show a video of author interviews.



Now I am curios to see if I can embed videos into flip charts, which I plan to make for library orientation this year...

Thing # 6 - iTouch Apps (11.5 More Things)

This "thing" really set me back because I do not have an iTouch or an iPhone (although all my students do -- and one of them has been trying to talk me into getting one for a year). A friend of mine recently got an iPhone so I went to her house and she showed me how to download apps. It was all done from her iPhone (not the iTunes store online) so she lent me the iTouch that came with her Mac and I took it home to learn how to download apps on that, although I was required to pay a $10.00 fee to update my iTunes software. It is amazing how fast and easy it is to do! However, had I not already had experience with my iPod Nano, it would have been a much longer learning process. I downloaded Wikipanion, which is essentially Wikipedia for the iTouch, Facebook, Did You Know,? which provides random facts for the day, and Spanish Tudor. There are SOOOOOO many educational apps that can be used in the library or classroom. I have to admit, I wasn't sold on iTouches being useful in the library until using one. Students can use iTouches to do research on anything (just like a computer). They can download apps like Wikipanion, or go to the SBISD online databases (I just searched for a book in my library...). As far as using the iTouches by multiple students, they can view videos on things like Teacher Tube (or download an app like Poptig to view educaitonal videos), create a photostory, use Facebook for a project (as mentioned in one of my earlier blogs), type assignments, take notes, listen to audio books (by downloading apps such as Bookshelf, or Classics, etc.). The sky is the limit. If they had the latest iPhone they could even take videos and pictures for their projects. It's going to be a while before I return my friend's iTouch because I have more exploring to do. And if you've read my latest Facebook status, you will see that this has now convinced me to get an iPhone. I love my Blackberry, but I am behind the curve and seem to be missing out!

Thing #5 - Microblogging (11.5 More Things)

I have been on Facebook for several months now (after avoiding it for some time) and became very addicted early on. It's been really fun to reconnect with people I haven't seen in years (especially high school friends) and it's funny to see that most of them are generally still the same. It kind of feels like a virtual sense of what heaven might be like. You join Facebook (or enter the "pearly gates") and everyone who is already there from every walk of life embraces you. And I love it because all your contacts are right there, so you know that even if somebody moves you'll still have access to them on FB. Who needs Christmas cards anymore? And while I really don't need to know what Michael Yee is doing every two minutes of his life (that can get annoying), I do think microblogging can make you feel closer to people in general.


I just signed up for Twitter so I do not have as much experience with it, but I am excited to follow a bunch of celebrities. I am always reading in magazines that John Mayer Twittered "this," or Jessica Simpson Twittered "that," so it will be interesting to see if I am receiving the same "tweets" I read about.


While these microblogging sites are great, there can also be some negative things about them. For example, I know of couples who have fought about Facebook because the fear of not knowing who their spouse might be "reconnecting" with is concerning. And let's face it, the online love connection thing is alive and well!!! These mediums can also be a means for Internet bullying (I read that Lindsay Lohan got snubbed by Justin Timberlake recently so she Twittered a lie about seeing him cheating on his girlfriend). And online communication can often result in misunderstandings, as it's hard to always portray one's tone in their comments (which can ultimately change the meaning of something said).


As far as educational uses go, you can certainly use either of these mediums for collaboration between students or colleagues, and I have heard of teachers having students create Facebook profiles for fictional or historical characters for a project (and I think she had them make comments like the characters would have done). Groups can also be set up on FB as a means for discussing specific things (my church community group has a group set up on FB). I think back-channeling is a great tool if used in the right setting. I doubt many middle school students are going to pay much attention to a speaker if they have a phone in hand. However, when a Holocaust survivor came to speak at our school, it would have been useful for students to be able to back-channel questions for him to answer.


I think Twitter is more for the famed, as celebrities are the ones who are going to have the followers. For example, I am following Lance Armstrong and he is "Twittering" a play by play of what is going on at the Tour de France right now, which is way cool if you are into that. You can also follow the NBA and such to learn about the latest and greatest goings on before it hits the newsstands. And Twitter certainly played a large role in the last presidential election... But for the average person, I think Facebook makes more sense.

Thing #4 - Video Hosting/You Tube (11.5 More Things)

Wow, that was easy to do! I uploaded a video that one of my students (Meredith Miller) created in Photo Story about a career in acting. I was a little wary to upload it without her permission, but I figured I could always delete it. I use this video all the time to show students and teachers how to create a Photo Story, and she is very proud of the exposure she receives with that so I didn't think she would mind. I first uploaded her video to You Tube, but used the private setting. I tried to search for it using the tags I added but couldn't find it. Then I realized it was probably because I didn't list the people who were allowed to view it. I mean, the whole point of posting to You Tube is for the whole world to see your video, so I deleted it from You Tube and uploaded it to Teacher Tube instead (which I was going to try anyway). There are countless educational benefits and uses for uploading videos to Teacher Tube (how-to's, book trailers, etc.), but my biggest concern (especially when it comes to uploading student projects) is accuracy. Just like with a website, teachers need to be mindful about evaluating the videos they find on Teacher Tube before showing them to their students. Currently I am really into book trailers, and while some of the ones I've found on You Tube are fantastic, others are poorly done (or I couldn't find any for certain titles at all). I look forward to the opportunity to try to make and post some book trailers myself! I also uploaded to You Tube a video I made a while back that represents my husband's favorite things. Overall I think You Tube is more user friendly than Teacher Tube. And while I appreciate Teacher Tube reviewing the videos before posting them (I assume for appropriateness), having to wait 24 hours for your video to post is kind of frustrating in this "immediate gratification" kind of world we're living in. By the way, I didn't see a URL for my student's video, but you can search for it on Teacher Tube using the tag "Hollywood." The title is Meredith Miller Photo Story.

Thing #3 - Like Skype (11.5 More Things)

Skype reminds me a lot of how I received my degree in graduate school -- interactive video. It can definitely be used in classrooms or libraries for collaboration, distant learning, or perhaps to interview someone for a project. The article about the teacher who used it with her class to debate and collaborate with a class from another country was really cool. I also thought it was neat to see the video where a Skype kiosk station was set up in a college library for students to ask a reference question. However, while this technology is a really neat thing (I love the Oreo commercial where the dad is out of town on business and "Skypes" his son so they can share an Oreo together), and there are many great uses (I think about people in the military who might use it to call and/or see their families from Iraq), it seems like too much of a production to set up for ordinary use. I tried downloading Skype on my SBISD laptop and I couldn't do it. Then I tried logging in with the home login, but couldn't get the login to work. Then you have to coordinate with whoever your conferencing or calling to make sure they have an account. I even read on the page that Skype encourages you to send people a thank you gift after inviting them to join. And then even the college librarian on the video mentioned above admitted that the students rarely used the Skype option they had set up. I messed around with EvaPhone and PokeTalk to try to make a local call, and then just got frustrated. I most likely will not revisit Skype or the like under normal circumstances. The video conferencing is amazing, but as far as making a phone call (or texting) goes, a cell phone works for me.