Summer Fun

This summer I have been playing more with online social networks and PLC. Most of the tools I am exploring are ones that I have been using but now I'm trying out new ways to use them.

For example the image to the left is a screen shot of my Seesmic desktop. This utility allows me to better organize, sort and search my Twitter account. Using this I am able to follow "friends" who are attending the NECC this week. Using this tool I am able to learn about workshops and lectures that they are attending as well as ask the attendies questions about their experiances there.
I have also been discovering new ways to use Flickr. I can follow other users and see what they are posting as well as comment on the images. I have added as Flickr friends some of my Twitter friends and with this I can follow through both words and images what they are doing at NECC. That is pretty cool, next year maybe I'll go.
I have been using Flickr this year to document an image for every day of the year and through that I have met a few new Flickr friends throught their comments on my photos.
Now I have noticed that FaceBook has created a link between my "Whats on your mind?" on facebook and my blog. This is in addition to the to Twitter and Flickr link on FaceBook.

Racing ahead, falling behind.

I have been grappling with incorporating technology, web 2.0, and other "alternative" methods of teaching for the past few weeks. I have a Twitter group of educators and technology pioneers that I follow regularly. From this I read how others are using various technologies in their classrooms. Of course being very curious I follow links provided and discover new web 2.0 sites.
I also use an RSS feed to aggregate blogs that I read. This allows me to quickly scan what other bloggers are thinking. I also blog myself but not as regularly as some.
A web 2.0 that I have been using in the classroom is PBWiki. A wiki is an easily edited read write web page. I have been using this in my classroom having my student create web pages about their art work. The kids are very interested in publishing to the web but I do not have the time in my class to devote to an in depth study of wikis by the students.
Another wiki that I use regularly with web 2.0 is Wikipedia. Some view the information on Wikipedia as suspect because anyone can create or edit entries. But because of the rapidly developing aspect of web 2.0 wikipedia is often the only source of information. (That is why many of the references in this blog use Wikipedia) Often current events are updated on Wikipedia as they happen. I am writing this on the evening of February 19th 2008 and early this morning Castro announced that he was steping down as the leader of Cuba. Just a short time later that day contributors had begun changing the entry on Castro to include the fact that he had stepped down and his brother is taking power. I think that this feature of a wiki is very interesting.
I have also begun a lesson plan wiki to collect and share lessons with other art teachers. Blissart is also a PBWiki that I encourage other art teachers to add to, the password is #1art, go figure.
To be continued.....

New Story Telling Tool

OK, found a new site called Bookr. It allows you to search tags of images in Flicker and paste the images in to a Bookr "book" This is a very simple example.

As you can see when you move your cursor over the corner of a page it flips up and turns to the next page. You can also read it in full size by clicking the bar under the book to the left.

I "discovered" Bookr while reading a post on my Twitter account.