Thing #7 Fun with Flickr? Hardly!

I had never heard of ‘flickr” before, so I took the tour—short and simple, with an invitation to join at the bottom of each page. Hm, 5 simple ways to upload sounds good. I can do that. Organize - make sets or collections (groups of sets) with the handy Organizr. Share . . . with millions?!? I like that groups can be either public or private – it’s nice to have a choice. The Maps tab was interesting, letting others know where the photos/videos were taken. Users can search by topic, tag, time, text, photographer, and group, which would be a great shortcut if I needed photos/footage of a particular place. Make Stuff – prints, calling cards, stamps, books, photo cubes – all kinds of options! The last tab, Keep in Touch, is another way to “reach out and touch” friends and family as well as make new contacts. OK, I’ll create an account.

Spring forward to three days past . . . Flickr fun? This was hard, more than 5-6 hours worth of working on the computer, trying to log in, finally going back and changing the password, trying several things, trying more pages, but it finally worked. I'm probably the only one who had trouble with this. The saving grace was the email from Mary with needed useful hints, otherwise I would have been working on this one longer.

I think, once you learn how, this would work for teachers and students, a way to keep photo collections from various class activities available to everyone. Who would make decisions about public vs. private? That's something that would have to be worked out in advance. I'm sure it's obvious I have never used a photo hosting service before - now I've gone public with three of my pictures, but I didn't put names with one of them. I think that's a way to keep public pictures still private. Onward!

Seconds later . . . GREAT! I lost the picture. Fear not - I'll get it back!! Check it out tomorrow. :)

Days later - come back next week! :)

Thing #6 Mozart and Elvis?

Although I skimmed through the other music sites I took at in-depth look at Last.fm, the first choice on the music list of winners. At first all I saw were current musicians (using that term loosely!) and nothing that I wanted to hear. I put in two names, Mozart and Elvis (I know, they’re diametrically opposed) but I wanted to check what they had about any classical composers (for 6th grade composer reports) as well as 60’s musicians (our school’s Rock ‘n Roll theme next fall). Features I liked best were the tabs: Overview – a short paragraph with general information about each, which, incidentally, could be edited; Videos - I didn’t think there’d be videos for Mozart, but there are! ☺ Going on: Pics – lots of pictures posted by readers; Bio – a more detailed biography, with view, edit and discuss options; Events – both recent and upcoming events, or for old dead guys, performances of their music; Albums – could be bought at Amazon.com or downloaded by iTunes; Listeners – this was interesting – it had pictures/avatars of listeners, both recent and weekly top listeners. When I looked at “RedDeath69” it gave the user’s sex, age, and country, when registered, last seen, how many tracks played, and # of posts, also “my open mind index, from closed to open – she was in the middle with a 141, which made her “open.” This was cool – a pie chart showing her musical taste, with the major music styles shown in % and also color-coded. Also included was a Visitors box, with flagcounter.com which had numbers by the flags of the various countries. That was on the left side; in the middle was a list of “Recently Listened Tracks,” including when she listened. On the right was a “Shoutbox” where readers/listeners could leave a comment for her. There was also a list w/pictures of “Friends” and one for “Neighbors” but you had to sign in to get on those. Oops, I got off track. After Listeners came Similar – a list of composers (for Mozart) and contemporaries (for Elvis), with a note at the bottom, “based on overall listening habits.” Mozart’s “Similar Artists” started out well, with Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, but after the first 10 or so, I’d say they were doing a little reaching! Next was Charts, giving the Top 100 Tracks, then Tags, also must have been editable – ex. “fag with either a judges [sic] gay wig or gay stupid hair.” Must have been someone who didn’t care for hairstyles in the 1600-1700’s! Last one – Journals, where people could blog. Some of the journals were OK, some were really out of it. I definitely wouldn’t allow students to check this out at school!

The only thing I disliked about the site was the annoying little pop-ups. Use for school? Yes, with limitations. Same in the library – students couldn’t have carte blanche to look wherever they wanted. This site might be blocked at school anyway. I do like that the site has audio and visuals of some many of both guys’ works. No wonder this won 1st place in the Web 2.0 Music awards!

Thing #5 Not a Rant - but close to it!

School 2.0 is more than a paradigm shift, according to what these articles say. It's more of a catastropic upheaval of the learning process that "mature" teachers learned in education courses and have taught for decades. That in itself can be fearful; some teachers will have to be pushed or carried kicking and cussing into this Read/Write Web of 2.0 that not only encourages, but demands, students to be contributors and active participants. One of my first graduate courses in the mid 80's was about the computer in education. Ten years later I took my first distance learning class for my masters plus prepared all papers (including my thesis) on computer. I look back at events then and am amazed at how far we've (I've!) come and how much has changed since then—by quantum leaps!

How does this affect schools? How does it NOT affect every person in education! Teachers must take the lead in making those "to" and "from" moves (Hargadon's "Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education") that are crucial to change. Collaboration between school, home and community will need to be not only encouraged, but directed and modeled. In low socio-economic areas students are less apt to have access to technology - how is that going to be addressed? And how can schools invite the community to be a partner with them? Many questions, and the answers aren't always immediately forthcoming. Administrators and staff must prepare for and embrace the changes. If they move in slow increments (baby steps instead of charging into the future) the students will be the ones who are unprepared and will lose the opportunities that are open to others.

Thing #4 Comments are Crucial

Reading several of the blog spots about commenting has been an eye-opener for me. The idea of inviting questions and/or comments, initiating dialogue over what I (or anyone else) have written was intriguing. My original concept was limited - I write, others read . . . and comment? "10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog" was enough to fritz my mind - I want people to comment on what I've written? Scary! Let others ask questions, leave myself open to criticism, constructive or not? This will definitely be an interesting summer! By blogging I am saying that I welcome input from others (even if I don't agree) and that I'm open to what they have to say. The "10 Commandments for Blogging" presented mostly common-sense ideas, good manners and all that we expect others to exhibit. #4 "Contribute" is an open invitation to involvement in what's being discussed, to have an opinion. I especially liked #9, "Humor goes a long way" - one liners or well-placed comments can bring a smile, or even a guffaw! I enjoy laughing - I've heard that laugh lines are much better than frown lines. The third article was "Using a profile name vs. your real name" - interesting because it brought up the point that while some prefer anonymity in their responses, others want to be recognized, to have a "brand." Use of an avatar can bring recognition as much as a blog name. The article closed with questions: "Do you use an alias or real name? Why? Do you have a unique avatar?" I had to laugh - that's one of the 10 techniques to foster comments! No questions on my blog . . . yet!

I checked out two on our list, "A Teacher's Summer" and "Ms.Brownie's Bag" to start. Reading and then re-reading gave me ideas, mostly agreement on difficulty with the avatar in the first and lack of confidence in the second. It helps when I know that others are struggling - but we keep trying, and that's what counts. I'm not sure if I can disagree with anyone right now. At first glance that seems rude. Everyone has opinions and sooner or later I'll come across one I don't agree with, I'm sure! Then I'll get to practice polite non-immflamatory disagreements.

Update: I've read through several blogs, sometimes to see what they've done, especially if they're ahead of me, and other times just to read what some other bloggers are thinking as we read the same "things." I told "Mandy's Mailbag" that she was an inspiration as the first finisher. It really is an encouragement to know that we CAN get through it. "Boog-phil" mentioned the time it was taking as he checked out many sites. He's slightly ahead of me, and it's good to know I'm not alone in the struggle. Some "things" are easier to do than others, but I have to remember this is a journey, a process. I told "Teddy Bear Blog" that I had missed the image generator sites that she used - the pictures/photos were so good, I knew I wanted to check hers out. In addition to in-house blogs, I ran across one on "betterdays" - the title caught my attention: "In Japan mobile phones are not for making calls." The article said children and teens basically used phones for gaming and texting. I commented that I found it interesting, since my son is in Japan at this time, in the Air Force. I use my cell phone to call his landline there. The second blog I found through Edublog Awards, the Best Teacher blog, "The Tempered Radical." His blog about "High Needs Schools" touched on the difficulties those schools and teachers face. I could identify since I teach at a Title I school, and commented on the need for teachers to care about those children of poverty, whose world is different from many teachers, and give them the dream of success - being a dream weaver, something that we have been challenged to do at our own schools.

Thing #3 Blog Thoughts

A blog by definition is a web log, an online journal or report. It's something that is live and growing, never stagnant - or shouldn't be. It's reflective writing, a way of sharing thoughts, feelings and/or opinions, so is very personal. At the same time, the words are out for anyone to view - the writer has to think of the "audience." For someone who loves to write, a blog can provide an enjoyable outlet for communication; for those who find self-expression difficult, it could become more of a chore. It's probably evident which camp I lean toward. Anne Davis' Edublog Insights gives many ideas for usage, and I plan to try some of them. In school a blog can serve as an instructive tool, giving information and assignments to students, providing easy communication for parents, tracking events, giving previews of coming programs or events and more.

As a music teacher, I could set up a grade level blog for each grade I teach, give out the address and invite students to comment. Even better would be to help students set up their own blogs. It would be interesting to read their blogs after they completed a required composer report or some special project. Perhaps I could include that for extra points. As a C-TEC I would also like to share the information with fellow teachers, get them started, and let them come up with their own applications. As PTA President, an informative blog would help maintain communication and hopefully encourage parent and teacher-members to get or stay involved. These are ways I might use a blog for school, possibilities to get me started. I make no promises!

Thing #2 Got My Avatar!

I had to think a while on both my posting and blog names - who was I representing myself as and how best to reflect both. I knew it would need to include something about music - that's the "Notes" part. The MMS could be anything - masterful music specialist? but I'm the only one who knows. The posting name gives a clue about my life direction - very obviously.

Creating the blog was extremely easy - just follow the directions (although I sat for a while before choosing names. adding the avatar was not as easy. :) I couldn't find the blue rectangle - I think it was green on my computer. Then I didn't put the code in the right place, and had to repeat the process several times to finally get it in place. Sometimes re-reading and repeating actions works best, even if it's a little frustrating.

There is nothing as exhiliarating as completing a project successfully - not without having to backtrack at times, but that's not the point. First, I had to decided who "i" wanted to be. Lots of choices, lots of thinking, but in the end, I decided to be myself, or as close as possible to who I am. Any picture I post will show a smiling person, because that's usually my frame of mind.I looked through all the outfits after getting the right face, then realized before I could choose what to wear, I needed to have a background. When I saw the American background, it was an easy decision. This was a hard week, with the death of an Army Ranger who died close to the town in Iraq where my son had been stationed. I am proud to be an American, proud to have known J.D., and thankful for him and others who have been willing to put their lives on the line. I may not keep the same picture throughout this experience, but the picture is where I am right now.

Thing #1 Getting Started

I found "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" very informative and encouraging, realizing that I do most of those items listed, but not continually. I view most problems as challenges and try to look for the "big picture" (the end), but I don't always have confidence in myself as being competent and effective. I enjoy using technology and want to learn more than I know now, so feel I'm ready to develop #5 and create my personal learning toolbox with the view that I'll be able to teach and mentor other teachers on my campus and in my teaching field, as well as students in my classes. I'm ready to play and have fun learning!