What's Next?

I've spoken to several people in the know in my district and am hopeful that I can convince them that our technology needs to be improved (that's the easy part). The question is how to improve our technology and not have it cost the district much money (that's the hard part).

I'm going to begin searching for grants to help pay for funding. I'm hoping that I can post my progress and thoughts here, just to help me keep my sanity.

Some changes could be made simply by loosening the restrictions to websites that are available to the staff. Assigning usernames and passwords to every student in the district could challenging since we have only two people who take care of everything that deals with technology. Our middle school has a tech person (who teaches computers in the classroom) but even she has limited capacities when it comes to making changes. She tells me that she has fought these battles before with some slight progress. I plan to utilize her expertise and previous experiences to help pick and choose the people and battles that lay ahead.

Wish me luck!

Using THINGS in the classroom

After learning about Zamzar (video conversion system online) I took several videos from YouTube that I wanted to share with my high school choir students. My plan was to play the videos on our Windows 2000 Media Player and show it on the television monitor that is in the room. Our district has TViews connected to the system to show items from our classroom pcs to the TV in the room.

Apparently the SVideo isn't compatible showing "homemade" videos through our network to the TV...the picture was very distorted. So I did the best I could and showed the videos to my classes on the pc monitor...all 13 inches of it.

Our media carts do not currently have working pcs connected to them. Maybe I should sell 100 cases of M&Ms to purchase equipment for my classroom use. No, I'll start hunting for major grants to start purchasing this stuff.

Things - Review

I've gone back and revisited some Things and explored what they have to offer. The first one was another image generator. I created a new logo for my blog. I'm not sure I like it enough to keep it, but it will do for awhile.

The second revisit was to Knowtes.com This is a shared network for flashcards. You can view study cards created by others or simply make your own. You can set it up like Jeopardy; giving the answers and then asking for the questions, or simply giving the answer and looking for the keyword to phrase. The student clicks on the right corner if they got the answer write, or the left corner if they got it wrong. I believe the site will keep score for the person, to give them an idea of how they're doing. I'm going to explore this site some more and create some music terminology cards for my middle and high school students.

More to come, I hope!

Thing 23 Reflection

Whoa...I just started....I can't be finished!!

I was worried because I didn't get the first email as scheduled, and so I started a week late, and in less than a month I've covered all of the "THINGS".

So what have a I learned? Other than the obvious sites, widgets, feeds, and terminology I've learned that Web 2.0 is where we're at, right now. The challenge will be that we won't be here long; technology is evolving faster than many of us in the classroom can even hope to keep up. Many good teachers want to keep up and move along with the students (will we, or can we, ever hope to get ahead of them in this?). Our biggest challenge will be to convince our administrators and boards of education that it is imperative that "they" work harder to keep the technology as up to date as possible in their schools and district.

I remember coming to school this past September and being thrilled that our operating system had been updated to Windows 2000! Can I shout that? WINDOWS FREAKIN' 2000!!!

With many districts (including ours) in the financial troubles they're in I'm afraid that technology will be one of the areas that will be put on the back burner, if not taken off the stove altogether.

Hopefully one solution will be to locate, apply and receive grants to help update our ancient operating systems (and perhaps our thinking) and help our schools and teachers attempt to keep up with technology and the rate in which our students are moving forward.

Where do I go from here? Well, there are several "Things" that I'll revisit and explore some of the widgets that I may have missed. I'll probably add posts on the new things I've learned.

I HAVE set up a wikispace and have had students and families use it to sign up for banquet reservations, and picnic planning for the end of the school year. Next year (more likely over the summer) I'll set up the wiki and this blog to be used by the students and their families for information and idea sharing.

This has been a truly outstanding opportunity! It has been fun and eye-opening; one that I would like to share with everyone in my school buildings. I'm hoping that someday I'll become an administrator, and I would certainly do my best to see that the staff have all of these tools and widgets available for them to use to help educate the students, families and community.

I thank you!

Thing 22 Reflection Embedded video

I've really enjoyed learning how to add and embed videos to my posts. I found this sketch from the old Carol Burnett show. This clip is a true classic, and features Tim Conway and Harvey Corman.



I can't imagine being in Harvey's position and trying not to laugh.

Thing 21 Reflection

I've been a fan of YouTube for a long time. I currently have an account just to manage the favorites that I've seen. I also subscribe to several users and get notifications when they upload new videos. I have not yet uploaded my own video, basically because I haven't felt that I'd created anything to share.

On my personal blog, rhoevin.blogspot.com, I have links to YouTube videos with some performers that I enjoy. I have added a YouTube section in the left hand column that currently shows performances by a group called Young@Heart. Their performances are moving and very entertaining.

YouTube, like so many other wonderful sites that we've discovered on 23 Things, is not allowed on our district system. I'm trying to brainstorm to determine ways that we may be able to bipass the filter system, or perhaps download videos on a laptop and sharing at school. I'd love to hear the ideas from some others.

Thing 20 Reflection

What was once a scary and unknown icon on some websites has now become a quick and easy tool to keep me updated on many sites that I rely on. In addition to the education and music links that I subscribe to I've found that my hobbies and interests are much easier to track and follow.

Bloglines is very easy to use and keep current. After going through the items in Thing 20 I went and quickly realized exactly how many items I subscribe to. I also quickly saw that there was nothing that I wanted to delete, or even reorganize. I did have one subscription that needed to be renamed, and that was just as easy as described in your video feed.

Thanks for sharing this invaluable tool!

Thing 19 Reflection

This is a continuation about del.icio.us bookmark networking. I easily set up the account and installed the icons onto my desktop (I use Firefox most often) and started searching for sites. My first entry was for the tag "choral". Surprisingly there were thousands of sites available. More surprisingly these site links actually worked! (I've always hesitated looking at "Links" on sites simply because most of them don't work anymore.)

After scanning the list I found several that I thought were interesting and visited them. The ones that I didn't care for I left, but saved several. It was good to see the suggested tags available, and I chose many of them, and occasionally added one or two that I thought I'd find more specific. After trying several other searches I quickly found a number of sites that were exactly what I could use and had no clue that there were sites out there in cyberspace, just waiting to be tapped. Within moments I easily had added 13 sites to my list.

I also watched many of the additional videos and learned how to add people to my network, and personalize the privacy for my links and the people on the network I'll create. Importing bookmarks onto the site will also be incredibly easy, but I'm not sure that I'd want all of my home and personal sites online (although the privacy options would keep them from being seen).

I also tried accessing the site from school today, and of course it was blocked? So my question to everyone is: How do we educators get our administrations to see that there are tremendous opportunities out here that our colleagues and students are missing?

Thing 18 Reflection

My first thought about social bookmarking was that it was just like COWs (Classroom on the Wall). The idea was that teachers should share ideas, lessons, etc. with their colleagues by posting things on a bulletin board centrally located. Others could see, modify, or add to the idea. Of course it sounded like a great plan, but the logistics of the information didn't make it conducive for success. Social bookmarking makes the whole plan workable and expands the possibilities for ideas endless.

How well would it work in my school system? I think accessing the site would be the first question and then giving the less pc literate teachers a short professional development lesson would be the only pitfalls.

I may take the bull by the horns on this one, experiment and present it to my building administrators to see if they're interested. I'll keep you posted.

Thing 17 Reflection - Slideshare

Music Technology & Innovation

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Presented at the 'Air & Amplified Music Conference', Hobart, Tasmania on 15 March 2008. The presentation was designed to take a snapshot of the way in which digital promotion and distribution is currently affecting the music industry, what it means for existing models and practices, and to examine ways in which musicians particularly can take greater control of their affairs in the new landscape.


SlideShare Link

This is a Slideshare presentation on Music Technology. I embedded this into this reflection because it talks about many of the ideas and uses of Web 2.0 that we're learning about in 23 Things. Slideshare allows everyone around the world to share ideas and research knowledge, bringing us closer together. It's very easy to use and embedding this presentation into the blog spot is rather easy to do. A very useful tool, IMO.

Thing 16 Reflection

Geesh, did I really spend three hours working on this one? Where did the time go?

I explored the 30 Boxes widget, the online calendar. It's very easy to use, easy to link to your Flickr account as well as your blogs and wikispaces. You'll see that I've added a small badge in the left hand column of the blog. I also added the embedded calendar into a page on my wikispace.

This is another great gadget that will help sharing information with students, their families and the community. I just hope I can keep all of these accounts and names clear. I have not yet discovered how to separate business info from personal info that I want to keep on the calendar. I'll probably have to create a separate calendar for home and one for school.

I hope to explore other tools and widgets soon.

Off-Topic

Here's a neat picture that I thought I'd put out here today, just because it's a beautiful day.
I hope you enjoy it!

Thing 15 Reflection

I've explored programs similar to Google Docs before, but with limited success. This site seems to work much better and is easier to manage than the others. I uploaded my resume, but did not share it. I may consider that in the future....

This program would be very helpful for compiling information for newsletters, lists, etc. Managing the lists of students/parents/staff for sharing would be a bit time consuming at first but could be quite manageable after that.

Google Docs Link

This link will take you there!

Thing 14 Reflection

Podcasting continues to look very appealing, and I can see uses in the music department. Since I teach performance classes (choirs, etc.) I could see using podcasts to make rehearsal tools available to the kids, as well as recordings of concerts, etc.

I can also see other applications that would be very helpful for other subject areas and I really believe "the sky's the limit" in how helpful it could be.

Downfalls? If my classes were not performance based I could see usage quite regularly. If I had a music technology, or composition class we could use podcasting to produce student works (both musical and non-musical). I could envision the class preparing and working with all areas of the school district in creating podcasts for grades K-12, and even for administrative purposes. A program of this scale would require a bigger investment of time and money, both of which are in short supply in our district and my schedule. Ideally the district would have someone on staff to work in this area, perhaps our IT person (who is also short on time). Getting the needed upgrades to our system would require another investment.

I will probably purchase a microphone and download the audacity program and play around with the podcasts during summer break and see what I can do from home and/or with the pcs that we have at school.

Thing 13 Reflection

Gosh, there are tons of podcasts out there in cyberspace...which ones to subscribe to or not? This will be task for summer break, for sure.

I decided to use my bloglines account to subscribe to the podcast "MusicTech for ME"; the ME stands for Music Education. I think it will just be easier to keep track of everything on one account instead to sorting through several accounts/programs for my feeds. (Gee, I'm sounding so techno-geeky!) I'll keep exploring through several feeds and see if there are others that pique my interest. You can look for them in my "Links" section of the blog.

Thing 12 Reflection - Podcasts

I really find podcasts very interesting. I learned some new things about them in this segment, such as: you don't need an iPod to listen to them, and the different types of casts available.

I believe I would find the professional development podcasts very useful, as well as some general ones that could also be very entertaining. If I have podcasts set up for my classes I'm sure those would rank high in my list of "favorites" too.

I could see using podcasts in the choir arena by recording rehearsal sections for the kids to listen to, recording songs or entire concerts for sharing with families and friends. The kids could also produce segments on lessons they learn in music theory and the like.

What wasn't shared in this Thing (but I'm sure will be covered on the future ones) is how to create the podcasts, equipment needed, etc. Like always the 23 Things leaders bait us with these gadgets only to move us forward into the next Thing! (It's almost like they're trying to teach us something new all the time....how useful is that!!!)

Thing 11 Reflection

I was right....creating my own wiki was next on the list of things to do. (I are smart, I are a teacher!) BTW, that's a line from a very bad joke, so no comments on the grammar, please!

After viewing some of the wikis out there in cyberspace, I can see that it will take more than a moment or two to create a wiki that is visually appealing as well as useful. I may spend a bit of time on this one.

The benefits can be wonderful: sharing information with students and families. I started a file on our upcoming choir banquet and we'll see how many parents and students will actually get on there and add their names and make reservations. I may add to this post in the future...stay tuned!

Oh...I DID publish a link to the choir wiki page in the left hand column of the blog.

Thing 10 Reflection

The wikis that I visited seemed very information and nicely set up, so I presume that it wouldn't be any more difficult in setting up than my blog. The benefits seem endless, and very helpful and informative. The only drawback I can figure is the amount of time it might take to moderate and update a sight, but I believe the benefits would outweigh any downfalls.

I'll probably set one up (or is that Thing 11?), and see how it goes! My students' parents won't know what hit them next fall!!