Rollyo, Glogster and Delicious...oh my...

I have to be honest, playing around on Rollyo and Glogster was frustrating. I tried making a Rollyo account and I was frustrated. I like Google as a search engine and I just wasn't truly understanding why I would want to use a site like Rollyo. I wasn't happy with the search engine I created, so I just gave up that week.

After reading Elaine's post, I can see the value in using the site to be sure students are pointed in the right direction for finding reputable information. However, after some reflecting, I question whether or not we would be doing a disservice to our students. Part of the education of the 21st Century has to be helping our students to understand how to evaluate what they are reading on the internet. So, in some situations, I think this site may be useful, but we also need to be careful that we don't take away some of the critical thinking our students need to do when they are searching on the internet.

I can see that Glogster may be a fun site for students to use to make a multi-media "poster" and this is a site I want to do more exploring on. Unfortunately, my old home computer cannot keep up with this site, and I have not had time to visit this site at work.

Additionally, I am excited to explore the possibilities of posting a link to a delicious account on the wiki we have set up for next year's biology classes. If that doesn't work, at the very least it will be a great way to share websites with other biology teachers.

I look forward to having more time to "fool around" with and become more comfortable with these sites. At this point, I just have not had the time to really master all of these tools. But, as we move forward into the 21st Century of teaching, I believe these will be valuable resources for us as teachers and for our students.

Just sharing...

What a great clip from Youtube! Someone sent me this clip from church, and I thought it was pretty neat. Enjoy.

Wikispaces!!!

I'm very excited to look into Wikis. I've been to several conferences where Wikis have been used or discussed, and I didn't quite understand them. I've been told about the benefits and the possibilities, I just haven't had the time to spend on figuring out how to use one. I was thrilled to learn and experience just how easy it is to create and use a wiki. Having come across wikis about recipes, anime, Xbox, Twilight, and vintage dresses, I can see the options are endless. The great thing about these sites are the collaboration they allow. The simple video about wikis was eye-opening in that it would save so much email traffic when planning an event or gathering with many people.

I started to creat a wiki for the group of biology teachers at my school to post assignments, information and resources for our students next year. We'll develop it more over the summer, but here is a link to our wiki.

Image Generator

For some reason, I really like these (see below) types of images. I was excited when I saw this "word art" type of image generator. It was VERY easy to produce and post! If you click on the image, it will take you to the website where I made it! I'm excited to play around with these images to use for fun e-cards or to add some fun to my lessons in school!

My thoughts on RSS feeds...

I have really come to appreciate RSS feeds. I started using a news reader about a year ago and after this exercise want to start using it even more. I started my exploration into this technology when I was curious about the RSS symbols on the sides of certain web pages. Soon, I started seeing them all over the place. I asked a few of my "tech savvy" friends about them and even some of them couldn't really explain, so I started searching on the internet. I started playing around with the Google Reader in my gmail account, but didn't really do much with it at first.

I didn't really start using a news reader until a few months ago when I got a flyer for a website that interested me. When I visited the site I realized it was a blog and I wanted to be sure I would remember to come back to read it. About the same time a friend of mine told me about her blog where she posts recipes. I had always enjoyed the dishes she brought from home to eat for lunch, so I definitely wanted to keep an eye on this blog as well. I finally started using my Google Reader regularly. I just didn't know any other way to keep track of these blogs.

After doing this exercise and using Bloglines.com I have realized that I can follow more than just blogs and after doing some exploration, I will definitely expand my subscriptions. So far, I prefer using my Google Reader news reader over Bloglines. One of the main reasons is that I am on my iGoogle page all the time, and I have a widget on the page that shows me a snap shot of new posts. It is helpful to have that little reminder to have me visit the reader. Since it is not yet a daily habit, I like to have the visual cue.

I have mostly been using the news reader and RSS feeds to help me stay current with my non-professional interests; but once I find some blogs and feeds related to educational issues, I'm sure it will help me stay current in my field. This tool is a great time saver. I look forward to finding some great new blogs, sites and podcasts to follow.

Horsepower.

Horsepower.
Originally uploaded by j_bischoff

After the week of snow we received, I thought this picture was fitting for Lancaster County! What a spectacular snow storm, and what a spectacular demonstration of perserverence!

Photo taken by Mr. Jeremy Bischoff. Thank you for this awesome picture!

23 Things...my first assignment

I've been anxious for quite some time to learn about the new web 2.0 tools available on the internet. It is exciting to have this opportunity through the library to be guided in this learning. I'm always looking for ways to improve my classroom, and I'm excited to see what applications these tools will have for my students.