Sites Referenced during the Elluminate Meeting

During our class meeting, Thursday, I spoke of two websites that I use in classroom. Patti asked me to pass them on to the class.

The blog I like to use in my classroom is at edugblogs.com. To check out one of from my class and how use it, you might look at culturalheritage2008.edublogs.org. I like the strength of the program and the security it offers.

I also have introduced elementary teachers in my school to www.ikeepbookmarks.com. It is a much more simplified version of del.icio.us and can easily be used in a classroom for collecting bookmarks, putting them in folders and giving students easy access to them by placing a bookmark on the toolbar for this one website. It makes it easier for teachers and students to keep track of bookmarks the go to regularly for their classroom.

Social Networkinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

I joined the Classroom 2.0 network at http://www.classroom20.com/profile/cjronnander and found it interesting that it circles around into the other items we are doing, i.e. it has a link to a Diigo group wiki about education. I also like the discussions that some many teachers of English are wanting to have about high interest, high quality, newly published books. It is really nice to connect with someone of a like mind. :)

The other social network I connected to was Knit Picks at http://knitpicks.ning.com/page. I found this quite funny, as it wasn't until after I had signed up for the network that I realized a couple other classmates had, as well. I guess great minds think a like. It did make me wonder, though, why some networks were more popular than others, which I believe has a lot to do with how complete and current the material is. I found a network for my church as well, but since my minister is the only member, it didn't seem like the best option for me at this time. It also didn't have anything new and interesting in it - I'm sure it is waiting for my insight. :) Actually, I found a great deal of networks on topics I might be interested in, but no follow through after the initial set up.

Joining a Social Bookmarking Site

I joined Diig, mostly because I have already used del.icio.us and ikeepbookmarks.com, both of which I find useful, to varying degrees. I wanted to pick a site that I had heard of and was highly recommended. To join the website was easy, with a few questions about my demographics, an anti-spam code, and a verification link sent to my e-mail.

I added the following websites to my "bookmarks:"
ancestry.com
Musings from Alaska
ASTE
learners4life wiki
Huff English

It was easy to locate other, similar websites using the tags I had given the sites I added, which gave me five more bookmarks:
Cyndi's List
Wiki Links
ISTE
National Writing Project
The Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Elluminate

Elluminate was a little frustrating for me this last time. I've been out their four times now, but each time, it was from a different location - my home, my school, UAF, and now a coffee shop in Anchorage. I couldn't get things to work this time. The program seemed to just think, but never got where I wanted it to - namely posting items from my desktop. It kept locking up on me, and I couldn't decide if it was something I was doing in error or it was my connection (which I tend to think was the issue.) I will keep trying to work my way through it, as I'm sure it is a useful tool and want to be able to use it well on Thursday.

Three Specifics About the Blogs

Although iLearning Technology is written by a K-5 technology teacher, it has a lot to offer by way of adaption to my high school classes. I appreciate how most of the posts explain the following three items for each technology being recommended: what the technology is, how to integrate it into the classroom, and tips for using the technology. The blog highlights a variety of materials from search engines (Search Me, still in Beta), to a PDF template for a pinhole camera to Disc Inventory X (a disc image utility to help you organize your files and free up wasted disc space. Other pages are noted in the sidebar to link to classroom websites, teacher resources, and tutorials.

As the title says, Web 2.0 Technology & the Classroom does just that - brings Web 2.0 into the classroom. Adam Clark's blog entries give insight into how to use the applications in the classroom. I especially like how he makes available through discussion or video how other teachers are using the applications. One downfall of the blog is that the entries are not posting in their entirety on the main page. Instead, the topic is introduced and if you are interested in reading more you have to click on "read more." While for most this might not be a big deal, but for those with dial up, this is an extra step which requires more download time. He has done a nice job using his sidebar for additional articles, directions and resources that will be helpful in the field of educational technology.

Finally, the person blog I chose, GenLady.com, has great voice. She write in a very personal tone, not stiff or formal. There is historical trivia mixed in with the search tips and she doesn't rely just on her own knowledge, but makes connections to other blogs, websites, and Youtube videos. She does seem to have too many placed in the sidebar to get to her archives posts, which seems like a waste of space that could be better used. Instead of having "archives," "categories," and "recent posts," it would work better to have "recent posts" and a search box to look for specific topics in the archives.

Useful Blogs

Well, I'm not sure I found www.blogcatalogs.com or www.globeofblogs.com particularly useful in my search for blogs I will continue reading. I, like Naomi, had difficulties with the keywords I was using, ie. "teaching technology," "teaching English in high school," and "technology education," all returned the same or similar blogs, but none of them appealed to me or what I was after. Finally, I used "using technology in the classroom," which yielded better choices, and I was able to pick http://ilearntechnology.com/ and http://web.mac.com/mradamclark/Web20/Home/Home.html. Both of which look like blogs I might use again as solid "idea" blogs to give practical uses of technology in the classroom. As for my personal research, http://www.genlady.com/, looks like a good place to learn interesting tidbits about genealogy searching.

One of the best ways I've found to locate blogs related to my interests is to use the favorite links on a blog I already read. One of my favorite blogs is www.huffenglish.com. I read her blog religiously, but have found other blogs I enjoy reading by clicking on the same ones Ms. Huff reads.