Thing 13. Social Bookmarking and Tagging with Delicious

Being a Bilingual teacher, I am in a constant search (hunt) for Bilingual and Spanish resources. Delicious gives me a great way to search, organize, bookmark and share these resources. I performed some searches with keywords, and found some great websites that you can see here. The interface of Delicious makes it very easy to use and manage your websites, and you can take them with you anywhere you go!

It is also a great way to share this wonderful resources with other Bilingual, ESL or Spanish teachers who are also on the hunt for books, tips, authors, lessons, teaching techniques, etc.

Thing 7a. Google Reader Revisited

Well I found a lot of interesting new postings but I found Search Like an Expert: New Google Search Lessons Unveiled at NECC 2009 by Lucy Gray especially useful. It talks about how being a skillful searcher on the web can be of great help for teachers and students. We can find these lessons on Google.com too, and are divided into 3 modules: Understanding Search Engines, Search Techniques and Strategies, and Search Features. Each module is divided into 3 sections.

It is worthwhile to take a look at these lessons because they explain how we can understand and be successful with our searches. You can mix and match the lessons that best suit your needs and they come with a set of slides to guide you and your class with additional help.

The posting comes from Infinite Thinking Machine.

Thing 12. Discoveryng Web 2.0 Tools

Part 1. I created this word cloud with Wordle, and it was very
easy. I am planning on creating a cooperative learning
environment in my classroom, so I thought this tool would be
a great way to create and print posters, describing the traits
of a cooperative learner.
I think this tool can be very powerful in presenting informa-
tion to support a lesson, because students can relate the
words and colors to a concept.

Thing 11. Online Image Generators

It was so much fun exploring these tools and very easy to use. This first one was created with ImageChef. I chose the Word Mosaic generator (It was hard to decide which one to choose from all of the options they have). You only have to choose the symbol, type the text and choose the font and colors. These applications make it very accessible to everybody with a computer to create attractive signs. It can be a very fun way to have students in the classroom create signs or edit images for a given lesson.



This was also created with ImageChef. I chose the Candy Hearts generator. You only have to type the text, and choose the font!!!

Thing 10. Create a Slideshow!

It was a lot of fun working with all those online slide show creators. They are very user friendly and intuitive. They give you endless possibilities to create more attractive and engaging lessons, with all those awesome pictures from Flickr.

Here are the credits for those beautiful pictures:
Honouring Amphibians: Year of the frog by Tim Ellis
Frog by Stellaretriever
Salamander by Paddy B
Marbled Salamander by Cotinis
Red Frog in the Rainforest 2 by Stellaretriever
Toad by TomFlickrPhotos
Big-eyed tree frog by Jormungund
Reed frog by Jorjungund
Axolotl with reflection by Mandy Verburg

Thing 9. Photosharing with Flickr

Honouring Amphibians:Year of the Frog
Originally uploaded by tim ellis

I enjoyed very much exploring Flickr. I thought about creating a lesson about Amphibians for my 3rd grade students. I found great pictures about amphibians on Flickr. One would think that there are very few amphibians, but if you only think of the huge varieties of frogs that exist, that gives you a more accurate idea of the richness of nature.

I wasn't able to upload the image from my blog, so I tried doing it from Flickr and it worked. Under the Share option, you can choose Share to my Blog.

Thing 8. Creative Commons

Creative commons is a gold mine of electronic media. I was amazed by the amount of resources available for creators. I am into the Graphic Design and Multimedia, and being able to use clip art, pictures, videos, music, lessons, is very motivating.

We are living an era where the visual factor is more important than ever. With the help of technology, we are able to become developers. And Creative commons makes it easier and safer to use resources to enrich our media. Weather if you want to create lessons, websites, electronic newsletters, blogs, etc., you have to think of your viewer, your receptor, you want to give them a visually attractive product, dynamic and fun. Of course you also have to take care of what you want to say, because you don't want to create something hollow. That is, we want to take care of WHAT we want to communicate, as well as HOW we want to communicate it.

Thing 7. Creating community through commenting

Commenting on blogs has NOT been an easy challenge.
1. First you have to read the original posting, and try to understand the point that the blogger tried to make.
2. Then you have to think on what is your own opinion on that particular topic.
3. Then you have to think if you agree or disagree, and how you can express it in a constructive way.
4. You also have to think if you can contribute with something new or different.
5. Finally, try to write as clear and concise as possible, so that any reader can understand it.

I am sure we will get better on this with time and practice.

On the other hand, having followers and readers is very rewarding, because it makes you feel that you are not alone in the cyberspace! :-)

Thing 6. Feed your Reader

Sharing items or articles of common interest is great. This really changes the way we navigate on the internet. I found this very interesting article called New Reading. New Writing. which talks about how e-books will change the way we read. I will say, not only e-books, but any electronic reading material. We can stay in touch, get notified when something has been added or shared on our favorite blogs or websites, bookmark, highlight, etc.

This article also talks about this bookmarking tool called Diigo, which I found very interesting, watch the demo video if you can. This program allows you to bookmark, highlight, share or annotate. Just like if you were reading a real book!

This and other programs are powerful tools that make it easier to handle the huge amount of information available on the web. And as we add blogs to our Reader, we sure can take advantage of this tools to make it easier to find and share information.

Thing 5. Getting started with RSS

It was very interesting reading the postings from the Students 2.0 blog, the one that caught my attention, was Don't Save the World . I thought it was a very honest point of view from a high school student, who writes about her opinion about some students who get involved on humanitarian causes overseas, not because they want to help, but because that will give them points on their application for College. She thinks that students should do what they are really interested in and not what will look good on their Resume.

I agree on the fact that we should do what we really like to do, because that is what is going to make us happy. One should still focus on what your goal in long term is, and always be honest with what you really are. That is called integrity.

Thing 4

Blog writing is a way of sharing. Sharing anything from ideas, articles, thoughts, memories. And what is really special, is that it is alive. People can respond, add, discuss, link, etc.
Blog reading is different from other types of reading because it is not just linear, it is multi directional, and it lets you read other peoples opinion and express your own.

From the Blog postings that I read, this was specially interesting. Wandering Ink: with the article How to prevent another Leonardo Da Vinci. He cites the book "How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci", and gives 10 ways in which we can promote, or kill creative thinking. Here are my thoughts: We as teachers should be promoting creative thinkers, but having to prepare students to take standarized tests, brings a lot of preassure to teachers, students and administrators. You try to focus on the standards, and discourage any question or activitie that is taking you in a different direction. That is why, I think that in order to have creative thinking friendly environment, it takes a whole effort, from top to bottom.

Thing 2. Thoughts about Web 2.0

I find a lot of applications for my classroom. One of them, is having a digital newsletter, where parents could read what we are going to be learning every week; track their son/daughter’s reading fluency rate, or I even think that they could read aloud a chapter that is posted on the letter, listen to a read-aloud podcast, etc! The possibilities are endless!!!