Thing 10

Here is a video of my son #61 ( left guard )playing for Grosse Pointe South last season.

I selected it because I enjoyed watching him play.
I was able to down load it also.

Thing 9

YouTube is amazing. I could not believe the amount of material found in it. That is something I liked and disliked. I found video of my son playing football last season. Practically the whole season was on YouTube. It also appears that we have no privacy. Almost anything we do could end up on YouTube.
I tried several key word searches using biology terms. There were many videos for each. Some of them very good. YouTube is blocked at our school so they would be unavailable directly from the Internet.

Thing 8

These are great tools! I have used several of them in the pst. This is the first time I have used spell with flickr. One of my favorites is the jigsaw. I have used it on several occasions. Jigsaw makes a great poster. I made one of my son after his team scored a touchdown last fall. It went over big at his grad party. The uses will be almost endless next year. My students will be making several presentations over the course of the year. I am sure that Flickr will be among the most popular tools.

Thing 7

We are moving to a project based instructional model next year developed by the New Tech Network. A major part of the model is technology based student presentations. I can see us creating a photo bank on Flickr for use in presentations. I also think thatI will be able to find useful photos for power points etc. My biggest concern with any type of online sharing is privacy. I also worry about students posting material that they shouldn't.

Thing 6

I chose a photo of a Spartan for Thing 6 because I titled my blog Spartytime. I will have 3 children at MSU next fall. My wife and I both graduated from MSU so the Spartan nickname has meaning to us. I picked that particular photo of a Spartan because I liked it. The background is great and it reminds me of the Spartan scene they put on the scoreboard screen before the third quarter.

Thing 5

The biggest question I have right now about Bloglines deals with classroom use. My first thought is to have my students maintain a page with feeds dealing with current topics in biology. We would probably spend some time finding appropriate feeds to be included on student pages. We would then do some type of current events journals on a weekly basis. I am not sure yet, still trying to work it out in my head. Personally I use it to keep track of several sites I visit often, mainly sports and outdoors.

Thing 4

It is easy to succumb to information overload. I think sometime people cope with it by withdrawing. There is so much out there to keep up with that I wont even try. RSS feeds can help you narrow your focus. Concentrating on specific topics or subtopics makes it easier to keep up. You are not trying to cover the whole world just that piece that is important to you.

Thing 3

I am also thinking about going paperless next year. Blogs will be a major tool in this effort. Many assignments can be done using a blog. I think that a blog will encourage students to be more careful in their writing. Many students may actually write more knowing that classmates will be able to view and comment. Blogs may also be useful in the editing process. Students can use their peers as a resource before turning work in. My main concern with using blogs in this manner is that some students will not use them constructively. The is the real possibility that inappropriate comments could cause problems. We will have to monitor what is actually published.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

I have several plans for blogs next year. As part of our New Tech High each student will create and maintain one. We will start out using it for a weekly journal exercise. Each Friday there will be a prompt to focus their writing. I am sure that this evolve over the year. The blogging exercise will probably look very different at the end of the year.