After watching Liz Davis' great screencast about using Mozilla's "social browser," Flock (a browser-on-steroids), I decided to try it out again. I'd downloaded it awhile ago and never really fully gave it a chance. Gotta say that I'm not totally loving all of it yet, but I might grow to like it better.
I love several of the web2.0-ish aspects of it. For example, I'm blogging from it right now! note: posting from Flock didn't work tonite, although I tested it a few days ago and it was fine, so maybe a glitch??? I'm getting used to the feed reader--I have always preferred using an rss aggregator add-on to my Firefox. It's my favorite way to read my collected feeds, although it is limited, of course, since it resides in the browser. Flock has the same problem, but I'm not comfortable with the Flock interface quite yet.
I also love, love, LOVE the clipboard sidebar in Flock, which enables you to simply drag any item--photo, link, video, pdf--to the clipboard so that you can later use it in a blog post, google doc, etc. easily. Very convenient!
Flock seems to be a little....cumbersome....to me in some ways though. It takes a bit of time to load (aren't we impatient these days...), and there are several tools that I'm not that interested in right now. I love my Firefox browser because it's light and I can add whatever add-ons I know I'm going to use. Flock seems interesting enough to use it for a while though--I may love it in the end!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Week 7, Thing #16: Wikis
What a disappointment that the wiki that I've been working on to support this class and to help us plan for a possible future class is not useable on the school network. Don't know why, but all pbwiki pages lose their formatting on our network and make it such a mess to look at that it's a no-go. Strangely, it seems that if you don't log in or try to go to another page within a pbwiki, the formatting on the front page is ok. Log in or click on a hyperlink, and all formatting goes wacko and the wheels fall off the cart! How frustrating.
AR and I can't remember why we decided against wikispaces last summer & I started making the wiki on pbwiki instead. It's a moot point though because wikispaces is blocked! Shriek!
Discussion tonight centered around our Acceptable Use Policy and exactly what it might be about wikis that is so dangerous that none of them are cleared for use. That's a powerful tool that is just totally unavailable to us.
Some of us agreed though that wiki use is not as easy to "get" as blogging is--I think we need more opportunity to practice with one another. Maybe soon???
AR and I can't remember why we decided against wikispaces last summer & I started making the wiki on pbwiki instead. It's a moot point though because wikispaces is blocked! Shriek!
Discussion tonight centered around our Acceptable Use Policy and exactly what it might be about wikis that is so dangerous that none of them are cleared for use. That's a powerful tool that is just totally unavailable to us.
Some of us agreed though that wiki use is not as easy to "get" as blogging is--I think we need more opportunity to practice with one another. Maybe soon???
Monday, March 24, 2008
Dr. Tim Tyson--another great keynote
OK, OK, OK...I know I've been full of suggestions, must-hears, must-reads, must-sees, but I'm going to add another to my list--if only to store my thoughts here for my own future reference.
I've been listening to back-episodes of Bob Sprankle's Bit by Bit podcast for the last few days. Among insightful blog posts, he's posted all sorts of wonderfully rich and thought-provoking podcasts, including several keynotes from various conferences he's attended, including the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference last fall. Today I had a real treat hearing the keynote speaker from that conference (Bit By Bit Podcast #56), Dr. Tim Tyson of Mabry Middle School in Marietta, GA. Dr. Tyson just seems like the kind of administrator that I'd wish for to lead my daughter's school--he's a real visionary, I think. Visit his school's web site, Mabryonline , if you have a chance. Wow!
Here's a link to Dr. Tyson's Keynote, entitled Moving from Personal Knowledge to Global Contribution , linked from Bob Sprankle's great site. I think Tyson's one of the most inspiring speakers around--how I WISH we could get someone like him to speak in our district! Wish, wish....
I've been listening to back-episodes of Bob Sprankle's Bit by Bit podcast for the last few days. Among insightful blog posts, he's posted all sorts of wonderfully rich and thought-provoking podcasts, including several keynotes from various conferences he's attended, including the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference last fall. Today I had a real treat hearing the keynote speaker from that conference (Bit By Bit Podcast #56), Dr. Tim Tyson of Mabry Middle School in Marietta, GA. Dr. Tyson just seems like the kind of administrator that I'd wish for to lead my daughter's school--he's a real visionary, I think. Visit his school's web site, Mabryonline , if you have a chance. Wow!
Here's a link to Dr. Tyson's Keynote, entitled Moving from Personal Knowledge to Global Contribution , linked from Bob Sprankle's great site. I think Tyson's one of the most inspiring speakers around--how I WISH we could get someone like him to speak in our district! Wish, wish....
New Video and Rethinking...
Great video I just discovered--it's a response to Karl Fisch's Did You Know . Did You Know is the most important education-related video of the last 2-3 years, imho. I think every educator, every administrator, every school board member should watch it--more than once. If you haven't watched it yet, watch it now and then perhaps read (or listen to, like I did) Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat 3.0 . It will change your outlook--I promise.
Anyway, I found this new (to me) video, called Mr. Winkle Wakes, on Scott McLeod & Fisch's shifthappens wiki, as I was trying to reinvigorate/refocus myself before returning to school tomorrow after spring break. How true it is! How wrong that it is true...
I'm left again with the question how do I foster the needed changes in my school community? Modeling doesn't seem to cut it because the most resistant teachers (and we have a lot of them) seem to think that I know how to do these things, but they could never learn. I (as librarian) have "so much more time" than they do--they can't possibly "fit it in." After school/conference period trainings are ill-attended. Administrator doesn't want to "bother" the teachers with things like Fisch's video--"we just ask so much of them anyway--we can't put another thing on their plates." Teachers are under so much pressure to focus on state testing to the exclusion of any other authentic learning/evaluation.
I've so far failed to ignite change in my school. That's clear.
What are your ideas about effecting change so that our students really are being prepared for their own future? What are you doing in your schools???
Anyway, I found this new (to me) video, called Mr. Winkle Wakes, on Scott McLeod & Fisch's shifthappens wiki, as I was trying to reinvigorate/refocus myself before returning to school tomorrow after spring break. How true it is! How wrong that it is true...
I'm left again with the question how do I foster the needed changes in my school community? Modeling doesn't seem to cut it because the most resistant teachers (and we have a lot of them) seem to think that I know how to do these things, but they could never learn. I (as librarian) have "so much more time" than they do--they can't possibly "fit it in." After school/conference period trainings are ill-attended. Administrator doesn't want to "bother" the teachers with things like Fisch's video--"we just ask so much of them anyway--we can't put another thing on their plates." Teachers are under so much pressure to focus on state testing to the exclusion of any other authentic learning/evaluation.
I've so far failed to ignite change in my school. That's clear.
What are your ideas about effecting change so that our students really are being prepared for their own future? What are you doing in your schools???
Monday, March 17, 2008
Cyberbullying Guide
On his Blue Skunk Blog, the amazing Doug Johnson has posted Mankato's new Cyberbullying Guide, which is well worth a look as we're getting our cyberbullying curriculum going in our district's libraries. The pdf contains a nice list of cyberbullying resources as well, including quite a few of Nancy Willard's resources.
BTW, Web 2.o classmates, if you're not subscribed to Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog, you might consider adding it to your Google Reader! I think he's really one of the important "thinkers" in our field today. Check it out!
BTW, Web 2.o classmates, if you're not subscribed to Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog, you might consider adding it to your Google Reader! I think he's really one of the important "thinkers" in our field today. Check it out!
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