Summarizing with Wordle

During social skills groups this week students practiced expressing appreciation. We created a wordle to summarize our lists of people and things in our lives that we are thankful for. This is definitely a practical application of technology to enhance learning in the classroom. title="Wordle: Showing Appreciation"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1380342/Showing_Appreciation"
alt="Wordle: Showing Appreciation"
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Introducing Nonverbal Communication via Wordle

title="Wordle: Nonverbal Communication"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1379834/Nonverbal_Communication"
alt="Wordle: Nonverbal Communication"
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I thought that this would be a creative way to introduce the topic of nonverbal communication with my social skills groups. Throughout the year it could be used as visual aid as students learn to monitor their use of the nonverbal aspects of communication. Is there a way to embed the wordle in my blog rather than creating a link.

Embedding a Video

Considering Creately

Last night I watched a demonstration for using Creately to create diagrams. Looks like this would be fun to experiment with when I have some more time. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this tool yet. Any sugestions for application to the classroom.

More Voki fun

Experimenting with Voki

One more task for the day involved creating my first voki. What a sense of freedom as I imagined what type of character would be struggling to enter Tech Savvy Land. I successfully created my voki, but I'm having difficulty adding her to my blog. I'll try tomorrow.

Successful Linking

I discovered what I was doing wrong last night when I tried to link to a website. I wasn't highlighting the title. Now another success! I still need to figure out why I can upload images from my photos, but can't add an image from the computer websites such as Flickr. Any ideas of what I am doing wrong?

Embedding a Link-Help!

As I viewed my last post I slid down the mountain a bit since the link to the website for "cool tools for schools" wasn't there. I'll have to figure that one out tomorrow. I copied the URL and clicked on add a link icon and inserted the URL. Did I miss a step?

Sharing the Tools

I discovered this evening that my sister, a guidance counselor at a private school in Canada is also embarking upon the journey to Tech Land and needs to equip herself with the Web 2.0 Tools. Believe it or not, I was sending her suggestions of websites to investigate and forwarded her a link that Susanne sent me today, Cool Tools for Schools.
In this journey with its ups and downs, I shut off my computer for the evening on a mountain top high since I feel that my time spent today experimenting has been worthwhile and exhilarating. I still can't believe that I have learned enough to share with others! This is definitely an adventure best experienced and shared with others who also have a similar destination in mind.

Experimenting with Glogging

My First Glog

Seesawing Together is Twice as Effective

Experience has shown me that learning as a community or with a friend or colleague is valuable and essential. For example the "high" as I experimented with Prezi with a classmate was closely followed by the frustration as I attempted to continue with solo experimentation. The satisfaction with successful learning is enhanced by sharing the discoveries with a colleague, just as seesawing with a friend alleviates anxiety and accentuates the exhilaration of flying into the air.

Learning Together

Experience has shown me that learning as a community or with a friend or colleague is valuable and essential. For example the "high" as I experimented with Prezi with a classmate was closely followed by the frustration as I attempted to continue with solo experimentation. The satisfaction with successful learning is enhanced by sharing the discoveries with a colleague, just a seesawing with a friend alleviates anxiety and accentuates the exhilaration of flying into the air.

Blogging Standards: To have or not to have?

As I signed in to my blog, contemplating the content of my post, an article about blogging standards caught my eye, "Blogging on the Brink: Time to Set Standards" (I tried to make my title link to the website, but to no avail. I'll work on that tomorrow when I am more alert.) Since I teach social skills and encourage students to take responsibility for what they say and do, I was pleasantly pleased to see that some bloggers are raising the bar when it comes to posting blogs. While some continue to take a wild west approach to blogging, there is an increasing trend towards holding bloggers accountable for their posted comments. I agree that standards are necessary for responsible blogging as opposed to an "anything goes" policy for posting.

With this post I am experimenting with double posting and inserting a link to an article. Let's see if I was successful..

Creating with Cool Iris

I discovered the pictorial resources available when I downloaded Cool Iris to view the 50 Ways to Tell A Story. Unfortunately, I was only able to view the stories since there was no audio. I tried two sets of headphones and then called my son who used to use this wonderful machine. His response, "That's partly way I decided to get a new computer...The audio was inconsistent." Since I have successfully had audio accompaniment to visual presentations in the past I continued searching, only to discover that the mute button was on. I certainly wish that I had inherited the tech gene. Back to Cool Iris..I tried to upload an image from Cool Iris to my blog but to no avail. Is it possible to browse their images and add them to my posts or are they protected by copyright. I found some great shots of Beit She'an, Masada, and Qumran that would be great additions to my major sharing project "Exploring Israel" for sixth grade social studies classes. Any suggestions?

It's Magic!!

In my last post I ranted and raved about adding an image to my post. When I published the post it magically appeared in my blog. Finally a success tonight. I'm going to try it again. I'm sure that this is "child's play" for most of my classmates, but I am missing the tech gene...had I mentioned this deficit before. This would come under "Confessions"..another of the Cs of tech learning for the 21st century classroom. I must confess that I almost gave up on adding images, even though I am the queen of visual aids in the classroom. I'm going to try another one..

Trying to Add an Image to my post

I'm trying to add an image from my computer to my blog since I have been unable to move my pictures into my Prezi. I clicked on add an image, selected my picture, and clicked back to edit my post and voila...no image. This too falls into the category of "challenges" in Cs of Becoming Tech Savvy. This certainly has been an evening of challenges. Read my next post for the continuing saga of Challenges in Entering the Promised Land of Tech Savviness. Before publishing this post, I will try adding an image one more time. Here goes..Well, my picture was successfully uploaded to a blog post, but when I clicked "done", this is what my post looked like. What is all the gibberish at the top of my post? Help? I was so excited when I saw the image uploaded in my post box. And the instructions said I could edit and post. I will post it as it ended up and perhaps someone can explain what happened to my picture.

Formulating Google-proof Questions

I was fascinated to read the comments in the Electric Educator: Google-Proof Questions

Playing with Prezi

After reading Sue's post on creating a Prezi and participating in the class intro to Prezi, I was inspired to add this tool to my repertoire of tech tools for my 21st century classroom. I started by viewing several helpful videos on the Prezi website:

In fact, I was so enthralled with the task that I forgot about the banana muffins which I had put in the oven to bake while I continued my journey to Tech Savvy Land until the aroma of overcooked baked goods wafted into my workspace. I paused the videos as I scurried to salvage my muffins..the cost of emerging tech knowledge. What would satisfy my hunger I wondered only to quickly arrive at the conclusion that I could be sustained by this new found knowledge, or could I? Perhaps that will be a debate for future posts. Check-out these videos to refine your prezi presentation skills.

Frustrated

I am feeling very frustrated as I try to navigate our class wiki to find the essential readings for today's class. I was planning to re-read the Kiva article and comment on the characteristics of the 21st classroom, yet after diligent searching I am unable to find the cluster listing the essential readings. Earlier this week, after meeting with our study group to experiment and encourage each others' learning my confidence level was increasing and I was excited about continuing on this journey. Now my stomach is churning and I have wasted too much time without anything to show for it. This adventure sure takes persistence as I find myself taking two steps back for every step forwards. I find it extremely frustrating when I set aside time to learn and encounter technological difficulties. #i3Cs21

More Footprints

Just added another badge on my own...I'm thrilled that I remembered all of the steps. At one point I was ready to give up or tweet a friend, but a click here and a click there and I achieved success. I have to keep on reminding myself that it is a journey with many tiny footprints. My other achievement today as I collaborated with my study buddies who are also becoming tech savvy was to investigate Google Reader. This is an amazing tool and will increase my efficiency in keeping up with the flow of information oozing into my life.

Badges

I just learned how to "get a badge" for my blog. I'm going to try an add one right now for a ning that I just joined. Let's see how this goes...