Thing 13 - RSS Feeds

For Thing 13, I was at first reluctant to dig too deep into RSS feeders. In the past I haven't really made use of them at all, although I did have some basic knowledge of what they were.  However, as I watched the video and read through the "How to Use RSS Feeders" article, my interest began to be piqued.

I decided to download the Feedly app on my Smartphone and created an account. I added the CoolTools blog to it, and then - while looking at some of the other sample libraries and how they use blogs, became inspired to start my own library blog! I set it up and posted one simple introductory posting to get started. I have a call in to my library automation tech support to add the blog/RSS feed to each of my school library's webpages as well. It is my goal to use my blog to let students know about new books, special events, book clubs, and more! You can see my initial blog at http://mcsdlibrary.blogspot.com/ and I hope to make it a dynamic site by the end of this school year.

Feedly seems super easy to use on my iPhone. I downloaded the free app and added the Cool Tools RSS as well as my own new blog mentioned above (to see how it works when new posts are added). I started exploring some other blogs and sites from the Thing 13 recommended lists, but want to be selective in what I start subscribing to, so I'm going to continue browsing for ones I really want to follow, rather than picking some randoms. My intent is to use Feedly, and not just set up the account to play with for this course. I think I am really becoming a believer in RSS :-)

Thing 12: Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing

For Thing 12, I browsed through the list and decided to look through a few that were new to me. Some I've used while others I've never heard of.  My school district has recently adopted Google Docs, so I have some basic knowledge of that and how to share content. However, I decided to take it a step further and have students in my classes create content using Google slides and share their projects with me. I had no prior experience doing this, and was thrilled to discover how easy it was to have students share projects and have them displayed through my account for projecting onto the SmartBoard. No need to switch laptops for each presentation like Keynote! Awesome! I didn't really find any "cons" of using the Google suite of apps yet. I will definitely continue to use it and have students share their projects with me for easier presentation experiences.

I had some prior knowledge of slideshare, but when I saw how Polly embedded on it so easily on a webpage, I decided that I will use it in April during National Library Week to feature a slideshow of special Library Week events. Last year I tried to create a video on my MacBook and post it to my webpage, and ended up requiring the assistance of my Technology director. Slideshare will hopefully make it much easier to share!

Also completely new to me was the "Today's Meet" app/website. I went to it and typed in a test message... although with nobody else to meet with at the time, I was unable to get a full picture of how it works and looks.  However, based on the description and the fact that I didn't need to create an account to use it, I plan to further explore this site in my personal life and see if it's a good platform to conduct Board meetings for a nonprofit I'm involved with. It could be the perfect solution for folks who can't physically be at the meeting. I'm not sure how I'd use it with students, other than introducing it to them to use for their own project collaborations.

My favorite "new to me" item on this list was the MakeUseOf.com site. What a great compilation of "Best of" apps, websites, and software. I started looking through it, and each general heading then has links organized by topic, type, or platform in a very graphically pleasing, easy to navigate manner. I liked it so much that I even shared it via my Twitter account (MCSDlibrary).

My second potential favorite might be the appear.in tool. I looked at it, but didn't use it yet. Instead, I forwarded it to my son and asked him to test it out with his friends and let me know how it works. I'll have to report back on it once I have his feedback :-)

I love the great ideas this course provides, and Thing 12 was full of great new ideas for me, many of which I plan to investigate further.

Thing 11: Coding

Time to get started on Track 2! Although I am just beginning now in January, I enjoyed browsing through the ideas and resources for Thing 11: Coding. I DID do the Hour of Code with my 6th grade classes, so I decided to reflect on how that went. I registered as a site coordinator and allowed my students in my 3 classes to work on the Hour of Code tutorials during our class time. They LOVED it! Something new I learned as the week was drawing to a close, was that I can actually have students create accounts and log in to complete much more in-depth tutorials (21 hour programs). I think that next year I will expand my Hour of Code activity to include that component, and possibly offer extra credit to students who choose to complete the extra tutorial outside of class time. I think many would do it just for fun! I initially had no idea that component existed!

I think it is important to include coding in schools, and not just as as elective or club. So many of my students commented on how much they enjoyed coding, but never thought they could do it. Without the exposure to coding (if even just as one unit in a computer course), several students may not realize how much they enjoy the process... or even realize it's something within their realm of possibilities.

I enjoyed browsing through the list of resources in the "50+ Tools to Learn to Code" article, and appreciated that many of them are free! I bookmarked the site and plan to look at some of the suggestions more closely in the future - and will share it with my school's code club advisor.

I also wanted to explore something new, so I completed the tutorial for the Mozilla Thimble. It was confusing at first, but quickly became intuitive and easy to manipulate. I did not sign in and create an account, so I was unable to publish the result of the tutorial, but I did see how easy it is to change color, font, font size, images, upper/lower case letters, and justification of content. I find it very interesting to gain this added understanding of what goes on "behind the scenes" in computer software.

Now on to Thing 12!

Thing 10 - Final Reflection

Thing 10 - My final reflection

1: What did you learn?

▪ How did you put what you learned into action at school? Personally?

Throughout this course I learned about several new tools that I have and will definitely implement into both my classes and for personal life. The resources that each lesson included were very valuable, and I often shared them via my professional Twitter account (MCSDlibrary). Several times they were “favorited” by my principal and colleagues - reaffirming their value and timeliness.  

I also included some of the Web 2.0 presentation tools into my classes. I’d been working with the 9th grade English teacher on an “Times 100 Influential People of 2014” project when I happened to have recently finished Thing 9. I decided to explore the advanced search feature of the Gale databases, and ended up doing a demo on them to the 9th grade classes with terrific results.  During this same project I also implemented a completely “new to me” Web 2.0 presentation tool: Bunkr. I love how easy it is to import a huge variety of files and media types, and the student response was very favorable as well.

It was also fun to play with some of the tools I learned about with my own two children. I showed them some of the coding activities in Thing 11, had them participate in the “Hour of Code”, and my 7 year old is now working in Scratch writing his own games!

▪ Did you expand your Personal Learning Network? Make new professional connections?

I did exchange comments with a couple of other participants via our blogs, but found there was already so much to explore with the suggested activities that I did not spend a lot of time cultivating new professional connections.

▪ What challenges did you face during the workshop?

Finding the Cool Tools site was actually my biggest challenge - in order to find it I would always go back to my e-mail, search for an e-mail from Polly, and link to the Cool Tools site that way. Bookmarking it just never seemed to work for me, which is strange. Also managing my Blog was sometimes a challenge. I was never sure what format/link to use when recording a completed “thing”, so sometimes ended up with 2 activity logs posted I think (better to be safe than sorry). 

▪ Were there projects that didn’t work out well for you?

My least favorite projects were the activities focused on curating tools. For some reason I could just not get into that topic area. I explored several of the suggested tools, and subscribed to a few them to give them a chance, but I find that when the daily/weekly summary alerts come to my e-mail, I tend to delete them without opening… just could not embrace them, although I do appreciate their value. Maybe some day!

▪ Other thoughts?

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and the pacing was perfect. Having a selection of activities to choose from made every “thing” engaging and interesting.

2: What’s next?

▪ Did you start some projects that you’ll be following up on this summer and next school year?

Although I did not start any long-term projects that will continue into the summer or next school year, I have certainly adopted some of the tools into my curriculum and will be using tools such as Bunkr with my classes for sure. I really enjoy exploring new presentation tools, and think it is a valuable area to share with colleagues to help them keep their curriculums fresh and also to assist them with incorporating technology into their course content. 

▪ Are you planning to share what you’ve learned with others?

Yes, and I already have! I’ve been sharing, and will continue promoting for the next school year, many of the tools I came across during this course. I’ve been sharing via Twitter as well as word of mouth and through teacher collaborations. 

▪ What other professional development projects will you be pursuing?

I hope to gain further knowledge of and insight into Google Docs and Google Classroom. My school district is adopting more and more Google apps, and each student will be issued a school gmail account next year. 

▪ Other thoughts?

I hope to see Cool Tools offered against next year so I can complete the next set of activities and continue to learn even more in this same course style.

3: Did you like learning this way?

▪ For some of you, this might have been your first experience with this kind of independent, self-driven learning. Did this work for you?  What did you most value about the program? What didn’t work well?

Yes, this is a perfect learning style for me. I love the flexibility to choose the activities most meaningful to me and my classes. I also enjoy the option of working on course content at my convenience - whether first thing in the morning or after my kids are in bed for the night. The only thing that I can come up with for what didn’t work well is the initial e-mails when some of the “Thing” assignments went to the wrong group of participants, causing some confusion. But that was quickly remedied, making this is a perfectly designed course for me! 

▪ Would you do it again?  Other thoughts?

Yes, I will definitely do it again, and hope it is offered again next year so I can do the next set of “things” and earn credit hours while I’m at it. Thank you so much for a successful course!

Thing 9: Databases & Search Tools

Thing 9 came at the perfect time! I had just been asked my the 9th grade English teacher to assist her students with researching people from Time Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential People of 2014 list. They of course had already exhausted basic Google searches, and I wanted to make the most of this opportunity to share a good database with these 9th graders.

So... as suggested by the first learning activity for Thing 9, I investigated some of the databases available through NOVEL and the school library system to see which might be helpful with this "influential people" assignment. I needed something that was updated often and current, and decided to focus my energy on Gale's Academic OneFile.

Using the suggested checklist from Thing 9, I was pleased to see that OneFile met pretty much all of the criteria:
- Yes for RSS feed
- Yes for saving results (also able to e-mail, download, etc.)
- Yes for advanced search options (which is what I actually used with the students)
- And probably yes for the search widget, although I didn't pursue this (I did however create a link with the OneFile logo directly on my library webpage at http://www.millbrookcsd.org/highschool/library

I found that using the advanced search feature of OneFile allowed students to search for their selected person while limiting results to "Document Title" - I found that by doing this, we got better results that were more focused on helpful information about the selected subject. I'm now a believer in Gale's OneFile and am much more confident using this search tool and sharing it with students. I looked at the Database Info Sheet that was posted and thought it was great, but didn't think it was necessary to use at this point - but definitely something to file just in case!

I also found several of the Thing 9 articles helpful and interesting. After reading the article "7 Academic Search Engines Not Named Google", I tweeted it out and it was favorited by both my principal and some of the HS teachers I work with! I also downloaded and plan to print the "7 Google Search Tips for Students" poster. The colorful circle graphics will catch their eye for sure!

I also tweeted out the link for the downloadable audiobooks I came across on openculture.com as a result from a link in the article "15 Must Have Google Lesson Plans to Teach Students Effective Search Skills". Good stuff!

Lastly, thought not on the list, I did also explore how to better use Wikipedia for research as part of Learning Activity 3 on the list. I explored this topic prior to my 9th grade English classes, and demonstrated it along with Gale's OneSearch. I showed students how to use Wikipedia as a launching point for research, and how to scroll to the bottom and the use the "References" or "External Links" sections to link to more authoritative sites, as well as primary sources, Ted Talks, and interviews. I created a 2-sided handout featuring Wikepedia for Research on side and OneSearch on the other. The lesson was well-received by the majority of students who successfully located information on their "Influential Person".

A very helpful "thing" and highly relevant to my teaching... thank you!

Thing 8 Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing

I have used both Skype and the “Skype an Author Network” on several occasions and always had a great experience withi it. As the K-12 Library Media Coordinator, part of my duties are to arrange author visits for students in all grades. Of course, budgets are tight, so the Skype an Author Network is a great resource. It did take a fair amount of time to go through the alphabetical list and match authors to books I already had in the school libraries, but if you have an author in mind and can search for them directly, it would be quite easy to use. Keep in mind of course that big name authors probably won’t be found on this site.  Authors I have Skyped with include Jean Marzollo, Garth Stein, Michelle Knudson, and Caroline Starr Rose to name a few. I highly recommend!

For collaboration among students, I’ve actually had success using a tool not listed on this site - so I thought I would mention it. Prezi has a great “share” option that allows users to edit the same Prezi project simultaneously from different locations. Each person can see where the other(s) editor(s) are working with little “Mii” type characters. My 6th graders loved this feature, and it allowed for extra work progress to be made outside of class time.

I am part of a Google Classroom pilot project through my school district and BOCES this year, and have had a couple of training sessions on it. It seems intuitive, but I have not actually used it with my classes as a means of project grading… Google Docs shared documents/folders seem to be sufficient for my classes - but students do like the accessibility that having their work saved in Google Docs provides, and I can see my District moving in that direction in the future. 

I thought it’d be helpful to use the Calendar feature, and set up a system for my family’s schedule of after-school activities and special events. I shared it with my husband in hopes of it being a dynamic and useful tool, but it turned out that I still rely on my iPhone, so I didn’t find the calendar something that “took” with my family, and don’t see myself using it in a collaborative manner. HOWEVER - I plan to look into using it in school as a reference for teachers. I'm hoping I can set it on my library webpage and use it as a dynamic calendar that reflects library closures (for class use, etc.). Teachers can quickly look and see which periods the library is available. I think this would be very helpful!

Lastly, I further investigated Google Drive and LOVE it - particularly for the accessibility features (makes life easier when I can access work files normally stored to the District server while at home!) AND for the shared documents feature. I set up a folder for each of my classes and have had students share classwork with me via that shared folder. So easy and the kids love it, too! This allows me to provide guidance and feedback more efficiently than just relying on in-class conferences.

Thanks for some more great resources!

Thing 7 Podcasting and Screencasting

What a fun topic with so much to explore! I think the easiest and most helpful thing for me to do this time is simply go through which resources and tools I spent time exploring. Besides meeting the requirement for this class, I like to think of this blog as my "go to" for refreshing my memory when I'm ready to use these tools with my classes.

I really enjoyed watching the video about the Sequoyah Book program and how the 4th & 5th graders used audioboo.fm and QR codes to post book reviews online. I think this is a great idea and something I hope to try with my 6th graders. We have MacBooks for class use though, so I will need to see if using them instead of iPads and iPods will work.

Although probably not something I plan to incorporate into my own class in the near future, I will definitely share the StoryCorps.me site with other teachers who may require interview based projects. I love how the templates and question ideas are already there to guide interviewers based on their relationship with the interviewee. Looks like a great resource.

Another tool that I really liked but will probably not be able to use in school due to Internet radio being blocked is AudioBoom. The way Polly's example was so easily embedded in our Thing 7 text shows just how easy to use this source can be. I may play with it at home though, and see if students can at least listen to the files I embed... will need to investigate this further.

I LOVE the idea of how Flipgrid works and will definitely try this out with my classes at the end of the quarter as a means of informal assessment. I may ask them to share the most valuable thing they learned during our 10 week class and then use the Flipgrid on my webpage as part of my introduction to future class sections.

Screenr is a resource that I have checked out and found really easy to use. Due to my current recovery from strep throat and sinus infection, I opted not to record my already nasally voice! But you can view a brief screener I created to show how to search for a book about horses on our library catalog at https://www.screenr.com/qhL7 .  I think it might also be helpful to use Screencast.com with my 10 week Digital Literacy class. I probably wouldn't need it to record a class lecture; However - I often run out of time for class presentations and end up grading a student's project without them present. I loved the idea of using screen casting while grading their projects so that they can still get that more "active" feedback, rather than just a rubric and grade handed back to them. Very cool!

Overall, I found Thing 7 to be very helpful and the tools easy to use. Thanks!! and on to Thing 8 :-)