Вещь 16 - Холодные инструменты для вашего блога

Thanks to all of these cool widgets and gadgets I can now communicate with the millions of foreign language speakers who have been dying to read my "23 Things" blog. Once I put in my translation gadget a collective cheer rang out across the globe.

I already had a widget (a wildley successful poll) on my blog, but I went in search of another. Most all of the gadgets or widgets I saw were pretty fun. I first put in a "countdown until schools out" widget, but it looked a bit cheap so I left it out. The site I went to had some great ones but those that I really liked required a fee. I could see paying for them if I had a commercial website.

But I can see that many widgets are just distractions, even though they are pretty cool and fun. I almost got caught up in putting on a cat that followed your mouse, and a colorful game and a magic 8 ball, but they really don't serve a purpose for my blog. An important point in designing a web site is just because it is cool and can be done - doesn't mean it should be done. It has to be appropriate to the blog - like my translation tool. I now expect to be flooded with "thank you" emails from Moscow to Kyoto from those who can now read my blogging in their native language. You're welcome.

Thing 15 - Screencasting; Easier than Ever

Way back if you wanted to capture something you did on the computer, then you would get out your video camera and record it. But now things are much different. I know I am sounding like a broken record but I am continually amazed at how much easier tech things are now.

Screencasting is one of those things that have gotten so easy and inexpensive. I remember when Camtasia was really the only screencasting tool. And it cost a bundle and often times it didn't work. Now we have Screencast-o-matic along with others that make it an easily used tool that is cost effective. It's so easy you can almost just figure it out for yourself how to use it. And it's cost effective because its FREE!

[*Note - one problem I did experience was when I copied and pasted the "tiny" size embedded code into the html it wouldn't play. I had to change the code from np=1 to np=0.]

I can immediately see a use for this as a teacher. For example doing chemistry, physics or math problems for students that were absent, didn't get understand it the first time or just need a refresher. This then can be posted to the teachers website or they can be saved as an MP4, flash, or posted on YouTube whatever. They can even be put on the last "Thing" we did - "VoiceThread" so students can comment on it and ask questions.

Thing 14 - Voice coming in loud and clear

I have to say how wowed I am with VoiceThread. I think it is pretty awesome. It is yet another thing I have never heard of. And another thing that can be used in many aspects of life, let alone class. My head is spinning with all the possibilities. Some examples that I saw on VoiceThread were where a teacher created a lesson that students commented on. One where a student did a lesson where others commented on. I saw examples where people from across the globe came together.

It would be cool if we could do it on a smaller scale at ASH by participating in a lesson with other Sacred Heart Network Schools.

This is another tool I would love to use, but like with many of the previous tools I have been shown in this "23 Things" journey, I would need to really sit down and spend a good deal of time reviewing everything we did and then seeing what I can do with them.

Thing 13 - YouTube

I watch YouTube all the time, but usually for the music videos. The kinds we used to see on MTV when the M stood for music, not moronic. I usually try to avoid the amateur videos. But I have to say that there are some great amateur videos put on YouTube for educational purposes. I really liked the chemistry demos for a variety of reasons.
1. I can get ideas for class.
2. I can see how these demos are done. If there is only written instructions for a demo I can't always picture what is going on.
3. I can show these things to the class if I don't have the equipment, supplies or if it is too dangerous to do in class, such as dropping a chunk of cesium in a bucket of water.

One video I like and which is applicable is the following on creating Hydrogen gas and coincidentally it is called "Chemistry Experiment 13 - Hydrogen Balloon" which is quite appropriate since this is "Thing 13".

Thing 12 - Web 2.0 Tools

I really enjoyed Thing 12. I got to see many of the wild and crazy things out there. Most I have never heard of. I took my picture and put it in a BeFunky Impressionist view. You can see the results on the left. BeFunky Impressionist
With many of these Web 2.0 tools you can accomplish the same thing if you are a master of photoshop, but why spend the time if you don't have to? It's much easier and faster to just go to these sites and plug your picture in and - viola'- you have a master piece. Using these tools you can become much more productive as you don't have to spend time trying to figure out how to do something in a program such as photoshop, as mentioned before. In the mid-90's I used a program called Fractal Painter that would take me hours and hours to do something like this. I should have waited 15 years and then I could have just done the same thing in seconds with BeFunky and the other mentioned web tools.
Students and teachers both could beneifit with using these. They could really give a kick and snaz up their presentations/ lessions/projects with these tools. And with today's Lady Ga Ga generation a lot of it is about the visual presentation. And importantly they could spend most of their time on research and information.

Thing 11 - Social Bookmarking and Tagging

Tagging isn't what it used to be. 20 years ago if I said "I'm going tagging", the fuzz would be on me before I could say "krylon". Nowadays it takes on a totally different connotation. Tags are, as of now, I think the best way to organize information about websites out there. I can't tell you how many times I have favorited something, only to do the following:
1. Completely forget about them.
2. Lose them in a myraid of other bookmarks.
3. Don't know what the heck they are for
4. Be overwhelmed by all of them
5. Waste time by all of their confusion.
Even if I organized them into folders, they just seemed like such a pain to find and figure out. I pretty much gave up on bookmarking and would only put the absolute "required" on my menu bar. But even then I don't use them. I am almost "afraid" to do it for fear of "going into the abyss of the bookmarks". With tagging and Deliscious, I am excited because now I can use the web as it should be used - as a resource of immense information.

Thing 10 - Mashups should be on your Radar

Mashups should definitely be on your radar, especially if you are doing research. Mashups are a way to look at different ideas by combining them. It's a great way to bring together API's such as google, youtube, flickr, twitter, etc.

Here is a neat example where you can map all your friends using the API's of facebook, google maps and amazon - http://people.emich.edu/mchiang4/MapYourBuddies/ . With this mashup I am able to see how close Thag's cave is to mine and how many days walk it is to Trog's place without separately typing in their addresses.

There's a great site http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups in which you can look at almost 5000 mashups out there, you can submit your own and even learn how to do one yourself (provided you know some coding). You can search mashup's by topic and if you chose one they will also give you some related ones. It's fun to check this site out. There are some of the pretty cool mashups out there. Lots of ingenuity and creativity. You can seriously spend eons going from one mashup to the next.