effective communication Thing #13

Partner Activity Communication Quiz

1.  Give me an example where there was a lack of communication.

2.  Were you able to convey your message clearly?

3.  Could you clearly understand what your prtner was telling you to do?

4.  What are the keys of effective communication?

5.  How did this activity help you understand the keys of effective communication?

I published my test document. I found it to be really easy. I liked the little smiley faces. It seemed to have a little more options than microsoft word. I just bought my mom a laptop for Christmas and cant wait to show her this so she does not have to pay for microsoft application. Awesome!

Thing#12

I explored all of the google web tools to see what I really like and would use. I set up a google alert account and it was set up on one of my mutual funds. I dont know what kind of bad news I will receive but I thought that would be interesting. The google calendar was a little confusing to me. I didn't like the time periods that it uses. Anything that goes past 12:00 gets me confused. I did like the feature that I could send people an invitation , but I did not like the times. I thought I could use the calendar for my basketball players and set it up where they could see times and practices but middle schoolers would have difficult knowing anything past 12:00. The iGoogle home page was easy to set up but I already have a yahoo home page and I did not see much difference. I thought I also would set up and investigate further the google notebook. I am still a little confused but I did find some information on decades that we do not currently have and I put that in my notebook. The web address for that notebook is http://www.google.com/notebook/public/04905526813765467927/BDQxBQwoQ_5X8sawj. The Picasa web album seemed not much different than Flickr and I wasnt interested in sharing more pictures.

I guess you could use this tool to help your students become more organized and have a notebook that they could keep for their research project. It also could have one place for all my findings and information that I find on the web.

Thing#11

I continued to explore the RSS feeds and added some RSS feeds that could help me when we take a trip to Chicago this summer. It was very easy to set up. The only problem that I had with a few of them was that it took some of the sites such as feedster a long time to load. I thought Bloglines search tools was definitely the easiest to search and find feeds for blogs about a particular topic. I liked also Google Blog search. Syndic8.com and Feedster took way to long to load and I had to try them several times. I thought some of the search tools like Topix.net were more about local news stories and a little more work in finding the information you were looking for. I think I liked the yahoo and google search for feeds because it was easier to find what I was interested in.

Thing #10

Signing up for the RSS feed was really easy and it was very easy to describe different feeds. This technology could keep me up to date about different things or news. Teachers and librarians would be aware of current events, books or other things that would access them with more information. I have wondered what the RSS feed sign was on web pages and now I know.

Thing #9

Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

http://www.txt2pic.com/toons/

I looked at the generator sites and it was hard to choose some. To the right I made a new page element with a hotel sign that I am on vacation. With 2 college boys at home for the summer, I wish I can put that sign in my yard. The comic strip site was really neat and you can use your photos as well. I will also create a couple of more, but I am still a rookie in saving it to the blog. That is the thing that I get confused on, even though this was easy. I tried some others and it didn't go as smooth. We have a poster maker at our school and you could use these to make a poster or enhance your handouts,web page, or any type of correspondence. Oh, by the way, I am a little confused on the difference on the url for viewing the site. If I need to add more information like the url, please let me know.

Thing #8

 

 

I went to spell with Flickr.    My students have to write down their goals for the school year and this would be a cool way to do it.  Also, you could even just use it for a cover page.  If I were a really good photographer and loved taking pictures I would love using this site and posting my photos for the public to see.  I was amazed of all the neat stuff you can do and that people actually think of these applications.  WoW.

Thing#7

As you can see, I went with option 2 when it comes to learning about Flickr.  This photo was taken of my son Cole when he was the cowardly Lion in the musical "Wizard of Oz" performed by Poteet High School and directed by Sarah Morgan.

I definitely am going to start using Flickr to back up all my photos.  I have been putting them on a picture cd, but it may be more organized to keep them on the web.  Also, pictures can take up quite a bit of memory so it would be another way to have a copy of your pictures and free up some memory.  Also, in my class we scan pictures and use them on an imovie.  I could teach my class how to use Flickr or Photobucket.  It may be blocked by the school district web site though.  Also, you may could find pictures to use for your power points by using the tags with Flickr. I am a little familiar with Photobucket but I haven't used it that much.  I do like it that you can mark your pictures private or to the public.  I am definitely a novice at this and will have to play with it more.  It took me longer than it should have.  I am still a little confused how my picture went to the 23 things site.  Amazing!

thing #6

I was totally amazed at all the sites on this web site and I just went to the winners site.  It was really hard making a decision on which one to explore.  I liked the fact that you can use the file sharing and keeping all your stuff at the same site.  That was really good but I looked in more detail the music site.  Kids love music and we do an I-movie and I wanted to see if you could download music from this site.  The last. fm site is a site that you can download and listen to music.  I think it also will let you put your own music on the site.  My son is in a band and I thought that was cool.  By glancing at all the sites, their are endless possibilities how to use them.  I wondered if most of them are blocked on the school web.

thing #5

I read all the articles under perspectives for teachers and I am not sure I completely understand everything about web 2.0 or web 2.0 school.  The atomic learning on web 2.0 was the most simple to understand.  I do think that school 2.0 will help students become more actively involved instead of wanting to be spoon-fed.  It will probably replace a lot of the pen and paper work and do more more things on line and allow the student to become more hands on.  I do agree that there is so much information that sometimes the kids have so much information they don't know how to sift and sort through the information that is really important and answers their question.  I believe the student that has a hard time being involved might be able to be participate more actively. School 2.0 means to me using the newer technology and social networking in helping them learn the things they need to know and acquiring the skills they will need in the workforce later.  I do think schools are constantly changing and that pen and paper will be replaced by newer technology.  I know that doing research has changed because of technology.  Now they don't need to know how to write a source correctly because their are sites online that will do it for them. I am not really sure where all this is going but I know it is definitely going to change education.

thing #4

I believe that commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction because it involves people with common interest and gives people interaction.  You can develop a sense of camaraderie with people that you interact with on a blog.  I think it could make you feel important and that what you think or say has value, which sometimes our thought and opinions are not valued in the workplace.  I know that I have found very useful information where people have blogged their opinion about certain things or topics.

I thought that is was interesting that there is blogger etiquette and that people like to be read and considered for what they have written.  Most people don't blog but maybe read the blog and more people would write back if they were invited to make comments.  I think it probably is true that if you title your blog with a question that more people will participate.  People like answering questions and helping people with things they know about.  It makes them feel useful and important.

And as far as the other 2 questions, I haven't figured out how to view other peoples blog in our group yet.  Do we do that on the "thingster" website or the blogspot site?  Just wondering?  I will add more when I figure it out.

I selected to read ReeseReadings because she had a great idea that I had not thought of.  She mentioned about communicating with parents.  I also selected to read and comment on 23things blog.  She tried hairmixer on the flickr mash site and it sounded something that 8th graders would love to do.  I was wondering if it was difficult to use.  I loved technocrickets blog about podcast.  I am so interested in learning how to use podcast.  My sons do it all the time.  Parementersplace thought it would good for ESL students and I wanted to ask her about communicating with parents since I have quite a few bilingual students.  I also read pkteddybear and shared with her my observance of my husbands blogging  and how it has helped him with different ideas that he can use at school for his basketball team.  I chose these blogs because I could relate or they gave me good ideas that I want to try.

#3 thing

I might could use a blog in my school by letting them post their answers to me when we are doing a warm-up in the lab or posting their assignment answers while we are in the lab.  That way they would not have to print, and I could view everybody's at one time.  That would be really cool.  The only thing is I don't know if it would be blocked by the districts web site.  Also it would give them an opportunity to use their keyboarding skills and less paperwork for me.  I could even check their answers at home.

#2 thing

The avatar was pretty simple for me and then my husband tried to do his and changed my picture somehow.  I dont know how that happened.  I am wondering if we both can use the same computer or maybe one of us can use Safari and the other Firefox.  That is eventually what we did.  I dont know if Safari will work with all the activities. 

Thing#1

The things I want to learn in web 2.0 is to become more familiar with up to date technology and be able to share some of those things with my Information Communication and Technology class.  I feel a little out dated and some apprehension.  Setting up the blog is easy but I am not so sure about the avatar.  My students probably already know how to do alot of this because of myspace.

I am not so sure how the blogging works but I am willing to find out.