Video Sharing

I read for hours last night. Mostly Will Richardson, but then I followed up some of the "Good Educator's Blogs" that he recommends. So tonight I have been checking out the work of Marco Torres and exploring Teacher Tube. I have been at it for another couple of hours...I'm really inspired by what I am reading and viewing. I love the grass roots feel of video publishing with all it's gritty characteristics and earnest videographers. Digital Students@ Anolog Schools is a sample piece that really gets to the heart of the matter, I think. Why do we do what we do? We do it because we want the students we teach and guide to have the best lives that they can. Preparing students to be productive, creative, compassionate people in a global community is our overarching goal. The students in this video piece are looking out on that big world and are feeling that the education that they are receiving is falling short. Many of the educators that they are working with are "old school" and not aware of the student's particular context as "digital natives". The work place where these students wish to be productive contributors is dynamic. These youth know that they need to be stong communicators and problem solvers and they seek a connectivist educational experience.

Well, I have had a fairly frustrating day trying to learn how to share photos on the Web. I spent the whole morning trying to organize our collection on iPhoto and then attempting to use Picasa to post an album on this blog. Yipes! It was a formidable task for me because I had never tried to share photos on the Web before (I expected it to be easy, but ran in circles until I was pulling my hair out) and because of the sheer volume and disorganized state of our our iPhoto collection. I know, I know...What was I thinking waiting until Sunday morning to get down to it. Life is like that sometimes. So, after going in circles for too long and allowing my self to become very irritated, I managed to post a photo in the profile section of my blog using Picasa. Then I decided maybe a different tool would work better for me and I tried Smilebox.

More on Photo Sharing

I wasn't really ready to post that last bit but I was unable to edit my draft. It seemed I could post it or delete it, so I posted. I'll have a look at editing it as a posted comment if there is anything glaring.

As I was saying...I gave up on Picasa for now and took a look at Smilebox (Thank you, Kim!) and had an album on my blog within 20 minutes. I'm not entirely sure why Picasa was such a struggle for me. I think my hardware may be part of the problem. I'm currently working with a refurbished MacBook Pro that has had all my files and programs transferred over to it and I have been noticing a fair amount of glitchy things. I was also completely unfamiliar with photo sharing of any kind. I was able to get Picasa downloaded and it did scan all my photos and I could select photos and put them together into an album. I was even able to make that album available on the Web for public view, but I was unable to then post my Picasa album to my blog satisfactorily. I didn't like how it presented and I couldn't figure out how to solve the problem and I was fed up. Perhaps I was doing things in the wrong order...I tried tutorials and the help functions, but I didn't find what I needed. I called a couple friend who use Picasa and they were both out of town!

In the end I managed to put together a super easy album, for a small fee, which I then posted and sent out in emails to family and friends. I'll return to Picasa another day because I feel it should be easy, but for now I'll take a break.

Have a great week, everyone.

Monica

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overarching questions

I'm curious about how to make the best of my time and then how best to support my students in getting the most out of their use of the Web.  If there are thousands of Web tools how do I choose?  I don't do the research myself.  I trust that those that have gone before me know more about it than I do and reason that popular might mean better.  What role does marketing play in which tools win the lion's share of users?  I wonder what percentage of users are like me and go with a first or second recommendation and what impact that has on the market.  Web 2.0 readers and writers need to first choose their tools.

I am also curious about the idea that there have never been more readers and writers on this planet nor has there ever been the volume of text that we produce.  I'm sure that lots of these texts are profound, contribute to bodies of knowledge, and generate new bodies of knowledge, but what about the other stuff.   Web 2.0 readers and writers need to be thinkers. 

I wonder about the way that we need to think as we sort through all the information that we link from site to site, as we skim and scan at flit from one path to the next.  Does this have an impact on thinking?  I personally find it distracting that there are often so many links embedded in texts.  As I pass them by, or follow them, I am torn because following links can be like going down the rabbit hole and I'm not sure I want to go on that adventure, but maybe it would be fun.  I'm quite easily distracted and so are many of the students I work with.  I wonder if this distraction factor is detrimental to thinking.   

So, over the next couple of months I will be considering these questions and participating in the Read/Write Web in an attempt to develop my understanding and ultimately become a better teacher.       

I am undertaking this blog in order to fulfill the requirements of EDES 501, also known as Exploring Web 2.0 Tools for Schools and Libraries.  This is my first course toward my Teacher Librarian Masters of Education degree through the University of Alberta.  It will largely consist of my reflections on my experiences of these tools as I learn how to use them.  I am currently at the very beginning stages of setting this blog up and am still navigating my way around in iGoogle and Blogger.  I am also exploring Twitter and Facebook as well, but have yet to make "tweeting" or checking Facebook a part of my daily practice.  I am new to all of these tools and am experiencing a fair amount of frustration at this point.  I'm sure it will all get smoother, soon.  

I chose Blogger as my blogging platform because Will Richardson recommends it in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, as one of the easiest blogsites to use and one that he feels is a particularly good choice for class blogs because of it's privacy features, and it's free.     

When I'm not moonlighting as a graduate student, I am a full time Kindergarten teacher, wife and mother of two daughters.