Is It the End or Only the Beginning?


Wow! You’ve completed the 23rd thing. Give yourself a pat on the back for finishing this program!
We hope you have learned many new things during Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers. And one thing you have learned is that Web 2.0 is anything but static. Changing, challenging, and exciting are hallmarks of Web 2.0. Here are some other things we hope you have learned:
  • It really doesn’t take that much time. You have some new tools—Livebinders, del.icio.us, RSS, calendars, social networks, and others that make finding news about new tools and ways to use them easy. You know how to use them to make keeping up easier. Of course, you can spend hours (and hours) playing around with Flickr or YouTube or other tools, but that counts as "improving your skills."
  • You know you can do it. Sure, there were trials and tribulations as you learned the new tools or struggled with glitches in the products, but you did finish and you did get the tools to work. That means the next time you see a new tool, you will be ready to figure it out and make it work for you. No fear!
  • It's fun to know and use these tools. Admit it, YouTube can be entertaining--and you can even see some uses for it in school. Some of the tools have more toy-like features than others which have a more obvious use. It is amazing what people will think of and more amazing what they create to enhance Flickr, Google, or whatever.
  • We need to keep informed. It is easy to get so involved in the day-to-day of teaching. In spite of all that work, we do need to stay up on what our students are using, talking about, and asking us for help with. As technologies continue to evolve, we need to be informed to evolve with them and guide the evolution.
Discovery Exercise:
1. Please give us some feedback by reflecting on your learning journey in one more blog posting. Here are some questions to guide you:
  • What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
  • How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?
  • Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
  • What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
  • How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?
  • How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.
2. Where do you go from here? Some things you might want to do now are:
  • make a resolution to maintain your blog, use the tools you now know, keep up with new tools, and apply them in your classroom or job. Give yourself the gift of time—15 minutes a day, a Webinar now and then, conversations with classmates or colleagues about Web 2.0, whatever—but don't quit now! Put your resolution in writing in your blog!
  • every day, ask yourself, "What did I learn today?" Record your responses in your blog.
  • add your blog URL to your e-mail signature line
  • re-purpose your blog as your classroom blog
  • share your blog with your classmates, colleagues, and administrators
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Our hope is that this not the end of our learning together, but rather it’s just the start of something amazing …that will impact the way we work with our 21st century learners.
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Thing # 23

Creative Commons

Putting the ‘social’ into social networks allows us to freely exchange information. But with the free exchange of information comes the responsibility of how we share it, and how we give credit to the author of that information. Check out this video, “A Fair(y) Use Tale” and learn some history of copyright.

In the classroom, we are often faced with the challenge of determining when it is acceptable to copy something and how much an item [book, website, music, video, etc.] we can copy. Faced with declining budgets and little time, we are tempted to make the copies. But with the advent of file sharing, downloading, and RSS, we must acknowledge and teach the ethics of information gathering and sharing.

Creative Commons is a copyright license that allows us to choose to share our intellectual property. This course is designed under a Creative Commons license and is an example of how one can take a piece of information or a product and re-work it to make it fit your needs. By acknowledging the original authors, they have given permission for you to share. One place for good information about what's going on with the Creative Commons is Lawrence Lessig's blog. Lawrence Lessig is one of the Creative Commons developers and a Stanford University professor.

Discovery Resources:
Discovery Exercise:
  • Find an example or attribution that shows the Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original.
  • Now that you know about Creative Commons licensing, how will you use it in the future as a teacher?
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Thing #22

Keepin' it Together: Livebinders

Did you ever wish you had a way to easily store, organize, and share your online resources? LiveBinders may be just the tool you need. Livebinders allows you to store websites, pdfs, word documents, and images in a convenient digital binder that is stored online. Best of all, you can share these web-binders, with anyone you like, and you can search for other public binders that have already been created.
Watch this short video about using LiveBinders -




Discovery Resources:
Here are some resources to help you explore how others are using LiveBinders:
Discovery Exercise:
  1. Set up your own LiveBinders account.
  2. Create three education-related binders in your account. 
  3. Find several resources to place in each of your binders.
  4. Create a blog post that tells:
  • What are the titles of your binders? 
  • Embed one of your binders in your post. Click on the Options button under the binder you have selected to share, and then click on Embed. Copy the code and paste it into your blog post.
  • Discuss how you might use LiveBinders in the classroom, including possible lesson ideas for students.
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Thing #21

Animoto


Make video clips like the pros!


You don't have to be Steven Spielburg to create professional video clips online. Animoto is a web application that produces professional videos using their own patent-pending technology. Animoto is the brain child of producers from ABC, Comedy Central and MTV who definitely know their stuff. Animoto analyzes your images and the music you use and pieces everything together to where it all flows perfectly in sync. If you don't like how your video turns out you can click the Remix this Video button and have Animoto automatically change it up for you or tweak it yourself. No two video clips come out the same which makes for hours of fun. Here is an example of one I did several years ago using some images from a trip to Disney World with our then two-year-old grandson.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

If you want a clip longer than 30 seconds it will cost. But, you can make as many 30 second clips as you want for free.

Discovery Exercise:
  1. Create an account on Animoto.
  2. Create a 30 second clip or Animoto Short, by uploading at least ten pictures. Still got the Flickr account? Animoto can link directly to it.
  3. Choose from one of the songs in Animoto's music library or upload your own music file to go with your clip.
  4. Embed your new 30 second clip onto your blog. There is a special code just for Blogger that you can use.
  5. Blog about your experience using Animoto.
(originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)
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Thing #20

YouTube and Beyond


In recent years, online video hosting sites have exploded allowing users to easily to upload and share videos on the web. Among all the video tools and applications in this area, YouTube is currently top dog, coming in at #3 on the list of most visited sites in the US and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily but also easily embed clips into their own sites.

Did you know there are over 2,000 Youtube channels pertaining to science and education? TeacherTube is a hosting site for educational videos. Do some searching around YouTube and TeacherTube and see what these channels have to offer for educators. Of course, like any free sites you’ll also find some stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the sites have too offer. :)

Discovery Exercise:
  1. Explore YouTube and find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
  2. Follow these instructions for adding your video to your blog.
  3. Try out one of the other video tools and applications available online. 
  4. Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about Youtube and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to your classroom website?
  5. Link to the new tool you visited and discuss its possible uses in the classroom.

Here's a video from YouTube that I embedded. It's called What Do Teachers Make by Taylor Mali - I think you'll appreciate the message (warning: strong language).



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Thing #19

Beyond Facebook: Other Social Networks

1. Twitter and Facebook may grab the headlines in social networking, but there are many other social networks. Social networks are online communities created around interests with people-to-people recommendations and communication. These specialized social networks allow like-minded users to find and interact with one another, but it is important for educators to use these networks cautiously. In this Thing, we'll take a look at some of these networks and the best ways for using them.

Discovery Resources:

 The Teachers' Guide to Social Media

 My Five Best Social Networking Tips

Three Social Networks Teachers Should Try Out


Pinterest for Teachers

Discovery Exercise:
2. Find another social network that might interest you. Explore the ones mentioned already or one of these suggestions:

3. Write a blog post discussing the following:
  • What did you discover about the best uses of social networking for educators?
  • Are you a member of any online communities besides Facebook and Twitter?
  • Are any of these social networks appealing to you?
  • What did you find that was interesting and that you might use later?
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Thing #18

Explore Social Networking

Facebook and Twitter  are two of the most popular social networking sites available today. But who isn't a member of Facebook? If you're not, it's time to join so you can keep up with friends, family, and the College of Education. Please join our page; you know you want to know everything that is going on in and around the Claxton building! 

 Since Facebook is such a common part of most of our lives, we won't spend our time there; this Thing will focus on Twitter and how it can be used in education. 
Discovery Resources

What is Twitter?
Twitter Frequently Asked Questions
Twitter Tutorial
Twitter Hashtags for Education
Educational Hashtags

Discovery Exercises

1. Set up an account with Twitter if you don't already have one) and post the link to your profile in your blog. If you are uncomfortable using your real name, use an alias.

2. Look through this list of educational hashtags and find some related to your area(s) of interest. Search Twitter for those hashtags in the links above and see what new information you can find.

3. Write a blog post about your experience that addresses these questions. Why is it important that educators understand social networking? What new insights did you gain about Twitter? What did you like or dislike about your hashtag search? Can you see a classroom or school application for any of these sites?

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You're more than halfway through! Still having fun?? I hope so! Leave a comment and let me know how you're doing so far...
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Thing #17

Tagging and social bookmarking with Delicious


Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures, and posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data any way they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored one site – Flickr --that allows users to take advantage of tagging and we use Diigo in class as a tool to share or Web sites of the Day. For this thing, we want to take a look at how tagging enables people to share their favorite web sites with others by using a social bookmarking site.

There are several social bookmarking sites available (for example Diigo), but one of the most popular and widely-known is called Delicious. Delicious allows you to bookmark a web page and then add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users, however, find that the real power of Delicious is in the social networking aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links. It also allows you to discover websites on topics that interest you that other people have found. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Delicious and a couple of other social bookmarking sites to see how this tool could be used in your school.

Discovery Resources
1. Start your exploration of social bookmarking by watching this video by the Common Craft guys.





2. Watch the Delicious tutorial
3. Check out Digg and StumbleUpon - two other social bookmarking sites.
4. Watch a Digg tutorial here.
5. There's a StumbleUpon tutorial also.

Discovery Exercise

1. Review the resources above to get a good overview of social bookmarking - especially the Delicious tutorial.

2. Join Delicious. 

3. Type in the tag "educational technology" in the search box. Explore the results and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags they used to categorize this reference?

4. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool in the classroom? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? How can teachers take advantage of social bookmarking sites?


Image by cambodia4kidsorg, http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/260004685/
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Thing #16


Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools


While it may seem that the Internet is populated by people with endless time on their hands who are out to torpedo our productivity, there really are Web-based applications that can improve productivity--or at least make some things easier.

These applications fall into a variety of categories including online office tools like the spreadsheets and word processing tools we learned about in Thing #13, calendars, start pages, project management tools, to-do lists, personal organizers, sticky notes, online collaboration tools, and much, much more. A search on “online productivity tools” turns up many lists of these tools.
RSS aggregators like Feedly from Thing #10 also help your productivity by helping you keep up with the news and information you need.
In this Thing, we have selected several organizational tools for you to try. These are tools that have use in schools and libraries, as well as at home.

1. Customized start page

A customized home—or “start” page— like the one above, lets you collect and organize all of the information that is important to you on one page that displays whenever you open your browser. Since it is online, you can access your start page from any computer anywhere. Netvibes, UStart, and Symbaloo are three examples. Each lets you choose headlines, weather reports, links to your email and RSS feeds, and dozens of other widgets (or gadgets, in Google) to manage information—or your life. Note that many widgets require a download.

2. Online calendars

Online calendars all offer similar features—add events, get reminders, search, repeat events, coding, etc. and of course, the hallmark of Web 2.0, the ability to share your calendar with others. Google and Yahoo! Calendars integrate with their other services and features. Other calendars include 30 Boxes and Upto.

Discovery Resources:
  • PDFConverter - converts files to portable document format (PDF) so they can be read on any computer
  • Zamzar - This program will covert one file type to another.
Discovery Exercise:
1. Look at the intro pages for each of the customized start page tools and choose one to create your own customized start page. Add, delete, and re-arrange the features and widgets on your new homepage.

2. Create an online calendar or to do list using one of the tools above.

3. Choose one other tool from the lists above to explore.

4. In your blog post for this Thing, address the following questions:
  • Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
  • How can the online calendars be useful to you?
  • Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
Challenge (optional)
1. Have a big project that you need to complete? Online productivity tools can help with complicated tasks involving multiple people, deadlines, and activities. Compare and contrast these project management services. Write a blog post and let us know what you think.
Project Management Services
2. Explore more tools from any of the lists above. Share any you find especially useful.

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tidalotter/538731706/
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Thing #15

What in the World is a Wiki?


A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools, but with benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:

  • Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
  • Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
  • Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
  • Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.
As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, schools, libraries, and individuals all over the country have started to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, professional conference wikis and even best practices wikis.
Discovery Resources:
Use these resources to learn more about wikis:

Wikis in Plain English





What is a wiki? - from about.com

Discovery Exercise:
1. Take a look at some ways libraries and schools are using wikis.

2. Sandbox is a term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play and exploration. Add or edit an entry in the APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki. Select some of your favorite curriculum ideas from your own blog, copy and paste them into the appropriate page in the 23 Things Sandbox wiki. Add pictures, change the font size, color, format....whatever. This is your chance to experiment.
3. Create a post in your blog about the experience. How might you use a wiki? What did you find interesting about the wiki concept?
Challenge (optional):

Create your own wiki! There are many sites where you can create a free wiki of your own. Here are three that offer ad-free wikis to educators.

PBWorks
Wetpaint
Wikispaces

Choose a topic, create your wiki, add information, then post the link and let us know what you are doing.

[Note: Please remember to include THING# in your heading posts.]
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Thing #14

Go with the Flow











Who loves flowcharts? They can make concepts easy to grasp and solutions easy to find. When describing complex relationships or presenting a variety of choices and outcomes, they're wonderful at keeping important points from getting lost in translation.

Mind maps (an offshoot of the same idea) are similarly useful, though I think they work better for the creator than the reader. They're good at uncovering the relationships between multiple ideas and are not restricted to linear concepts like time and work flow.

So, here are some web-based tools that suitable for educational purposes.

Gliffy (flowchart)


Bubbl.us (mind map)


Flowchart.com (flowchart)


mindmeister (mind map)


Discovery Exercise:
  • Choose at least two of the above (one flowchart, one mind map) and set up an account.
    • Note that flowchart.com will have you request an invitation which should arrive within the day.
  • Explore the differences between mind maps and flowcharts, and consider using (or at least testing) one of these tools with a real project that you may have coming up.
  • Describe the tools you chose and why you chose them on your blog. Discuss how you might use these tools in your future classroom.

(originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)
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Thing #13

Google Drive



The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past two years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based applications ("apps") have their place.

One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Google Drive, to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to take a look at Google Drive and a similar tool, Zoho, create a simple document, and then write about your discoveries in your blog.

Discovery Resources:
Google Drive

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Watch this video about Google Drive, and take a  look at the apps described on this page.
  2. From your Gmail account, click on Drive at the top of the page.
  3. Explore all that Google Drive has to offer, and create a test document, drawing, spreadsheet, presentation, and form.
  4. In a a Google Drive document, create a blog post about your discoveries.
  5. Follow these directions to post a link to the document on your blog.
  6. Create a document, spreadsheet, or drawing and share it in your blog
  7. Discuss in your blog how your students might work collaboratively using Google Drive.
  8. Compare Google Drive to another web-based application, Zoho. Which do you prefer? Why?




Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/374276243/
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Thing #12

Google is Not Just for Searching Anymore


Google is the most famous search engine on the web these days, with the very name becoming a verb in our language. Here's Wikipedia's entry on this phenomenon:

The verb to google (also spelled to Google) refers to using the Google search engine to obtain information on the Web. For example, "Mary googled for recipes." A neologism arousing from the popularity and dominance[1] of the eponymous search engine, the American Dialect Society chose it as the "most useful word of 2002." [2] It was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006,[3] and to the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006.[4] The first recorded usage of google used as a verb was on July 8, 1998, by Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: "Have fun and keep googling!"[5]
Although we generally equate Google with web searching, that's not what this "thing" is about. Google also has a variety of free web tools that can be particularly useful in education. 

 Discovery Resources

 Google Scholar - Search scholarly papers

 Google Trends - Explore past and present search trends

 Google Books - Search the latest index of the world's books. Find millions of great books you can preview or read for free.

Google Alerts - Will e-mail the news to you as it happens. Just enter a search term (news topic, person, event, sports team, etc.) that you would like to keep tabs on. Whenever that topic appears in a news item or on the web, Google Alerts will send you an e-mail.

Google Calendar - Lets you organize your schedule and share it with family and friends.

Google Translate - Translate text, Web pages, or documents


 Google Plus Photos - Similar to Flickr; Google's version of photo sharing.


Discovery Exercise
After looking at each of Google tools, choose two of them to explore further. Try setting up an alert, calendar, translate, or Google Plus photo album and using it. If sharing is an option for the tools you choose, make them public. Blog about your experience with both tools and include a link to your creation. Be sure and include possible educational uses.
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Thing #11

Finding Good Feeds


Now that you have an RSS reader (your Feedly account), you can begin adding other feeds that interest you. Technorati, a blog tracking site, reports that they are currently tracking millions of blogs. Out of all these blogs available, how do you find the ones that are of most value to you? There are several resources that you can use.

First, read this post from The Cool Cat Teacher blog for some great suggestions on how to select good RSS feeds: How to Create Your Circle of the Wise.

Next, explore some other options for locating appropriate RSS feeds.

Discovery Resources
  • When visiting your favorite websites -- look for RSS feed icons (like those on the left above) that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site.

  • Consider Edublogs' award winners

  • Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

    • Google Blog Search - See what appears when you search "instructional technology" or "Austin Peay State University"

    • Blogsearchengine.org - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching.
    • Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs in which you may be interested.
Discovery Exercise
  1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some RSS feeds.

  2. Add any feeds you like to your RSS reader.

  3. Create a blog post about your experience that answers these questions:
    *Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
    *Which was more confusing?
    *What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
    *Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
    *What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
EXTRA STUFF -- Feed icon information:

In February of 2006, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by most websites and browsers.
Internet Explorer has something like this as well. For more information about this emerging new standard, see Feedicons.com
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Thing #10

Set Up an RSS Reader and Add Feeds

So everyone participating in Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers now has a blog and we told you to read your fellow learners’ blogs. Are you thinking, “What, I have to click on 40+ bookmarks to see if anyone has updated?!? Forget it; waaaay too much time.”
But what if you could visit all those blogs and more information sources in just one place and all at the same time? Would that be valuable to you? Well, you can! A lot of smart people out there who like to keep up-to-date and save time have created services to make it easy to follow your favorite blogs and other information sources. It’s called RSS.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
In the information world, RSS has changed the way news, media, and content creators share information, and it is changing the way everyday users are consuming information. Join the revolution by setting up a RSS reader (sometimes called an "aggregator") for yourself. These discovery resources and exercises focus on learning about RSS feeds and what free tools you can use to do this.

Discovery Resources:

Watch this video - RSS in Plain EnglishRead this article - RSS for Educators
Watch this video - YouTube video: RSS Explained
Check this out - Feedly

Discovery Exercise:
1. Create a free account with Feedly.

 2. When your account is set up, subscribe to at least 5 different feeds that you will WANT to check every day or so.
Some feeds to consider when subscribing:

3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise that answers these questions:

  • What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
  • How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
  • How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

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Thing #9

Online Image Generators

Generators? No, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about allow you to easily manipulate image and graphics to create fun images like these:




For this discovery exercise, I just want you to have fun. Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and display the result. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button to add it to your post.

If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a classmate for help.

Discovery Resources:

Comic Strip Generator
Custom Sign Generator
Image Chef
Happy Face Generator

Also try a Google search for online generators, text generators or image generators!

Discovery Exercise:

1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
2. Create several different types of images and save them to your computer.
3. Post some of your creations to your blog and describe your process for creating it.
Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator(s) you used, so other participants can discover it too.
4. In your post, be sure to include ways you might use these image generators in the library, classroom or personally.

Take some time and have fun with this exercise. (And remember to be tasteful too!)
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Thing #8

Flickr Mashups
P L A Y Caution!

What is a "mashup"?

Wikipedia offers a great article that explains mashups. Basically they are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like Google Maps). In this example, you get Mappr.

Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged other people to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups that use Flickr images.

Discovery Resources:

Here are a few examples of mashups that use Flickr:
  • Mappr - allows you to take Flickr images and paste them on a map
  • Flickr Color Pickr - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
  • Mosaic Maker – create a photo mosaic from photos found on Flickr.
  • Big Huge Labs offers a round-up of Flickr tools.
  • Spell with Flickr - spells out your word or phrase with photos from Flickr.
  • Create puzzles from your Flickr photos.
Discover more at Flickr tools.

Discovery Exercise:

Your discovery exercise for this “thing” is to:
  1. Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are listed here.
  2. Use the mashups to create something, and then upload one or more of your creations to your blog (most will give easy to follow instructions somewhere on the site about how to copy the code needed and where to place it on your blog).
  3. In your post, talk about some ways Flickr and/or Flickr mashups could be used in your future classroom or personal life. What are your feelings about sharing photos online?
Have some fun discovering and exploring some of these neat little apps, but be careful. Playing with these tools can be habit-forming. You may discover that you have a new hobby!


PS: Play image above created by Spell with Flickr.
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Thing #7

Explore Flickr

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Within the past year, Flickr has become the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.


For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people, schools, and libraries are using Flickr for. The Library of Congress even has a Flickr account with more than 3,000 photos that you are invited to tag!

Discovery Resources:

Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery exercise, you have two options…

OPTION ONE:

a. Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. You can explore Flickr photos, search the tags, view various groups, and more without a Flickr account.

b. Use any keyword(s) you wish to find photos with those tags. When you find an interesting image or group, write a blog post describing your experience finding images, using Flickr, and anything else related to the exercise. Then select a photo to discuss in your blog. Select the photo and open the More menu, then click the '"View all Sizes" link inside the menu. On the next page, choose the size you want to download and click the link in the "Download" section.
Bear in mind, you may not have permission to download the original file so you will not see "View all Sizes" in the More menu or the "Download" section on the "All sizes" page of every photo. Then upload the image to your blog, being sure to credit the photographer. 
Please read "I'd like to use a photo I found on Flickr. How do I do that?"Don't forget to include a link to the image in your post.

-- OR -- 

  OPTION TWO (the more FUN option!):
  1. Create a free account in Flickr and use your camera to capture a few pictures of something around the house or in your school.

  2. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images "apsu23things." Be sure to mark the photo public and also send it to our apsu23things group.

  3. Add one or more of your images to your blog. Once you have a Flickr account, you have several options for doing this: through Flickr's blogging tool or using Blogger's photo upload feature.

  4. Or, you can add your picture to your post by clicking on the picture icon and pasting the URL of the picture in the URL box.

    How do you get the URL of a photo?

    To use the URL of a photo (like when you add a photo to your Blogger profile), you must provide the web address (URL) of the image itself, not the address of the web page where the image is displayed.

    Here's an example of a correct URL for a photo. Note the .jpg at the end:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/132375_0ca82ae31e.jpg

    Here's an example of an incorrect URL for a photo. It points to the web page where the image is displayed, not the image file itself. Notice there's no .jpg at the end.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/eric/132375/

    (Click both of these links to see the difference.)

    To get the URL of the actual image file, find the photo you want to use. Click "Share This" at the top of the page. If the "Share This" button is not active, the owner of the image has chosen not to share it, and you will need to find another picture. After you click on "Share This", click on "Grab the Link" and copy the URL of the image and paste it into your web site.

  5. Once you have the photo uploaded to Flickr and tagged, create a post in your blog about your photo and Flickr experience. Will you use Flickr for classroom, library or personal photos, or in some other way? How? Have you ever used another photo hosting service besides Flickr? Which one? How do the two compare? How do you feel about having your photos in a public place (note that you can mark your photos private too) -- any concerns?
So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun. If you're interested in looking at some other photo hosting sites, then check these out:

Picasa Web Albums from Google
Smugmug
Photobucket

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) get permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog. Take a look at this blog posting for an example of one way to cite an image from Flickr.

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/canonsnapper/2534297004/
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Thing #6

Discovering Web 2.0 Tools


Throughout the course of this Learning 2.0 program we will explore a small sampling of the new Internet technologies and websites that are empowering users with the ability to create and share content. But given time there are so many more we could explore. There are thousands of Web 2.0 tools currently available, with several emerging as market dominators. And although time will only tell which of these new collaborative, social networking and information tools will remain on top, one thing is for sure, they're not going to go away (at least anytime soon).

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to select any site from the Go2Web2.0 tools and explore it. With so many to choose from, it might be handy to first select a tag that interests you, and then simply select a tool/site to explore. Be careful to select a tool that is Free and that doesn't require a plug-in or download. The majority of these are free, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

Discovery Exercise:
  1. Select any site/tool from the list of Go2Web2.0 tools.
  2. Explore the site you selected.
  3. Create a post about your discovery. Be sure to create a link back to the site where you found your tool. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? Could you see any applications for its use in a school or library setting?

Web 2.0 – with so much to explore, just start with ONE. :)

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Thing #5

Some Perspectives on Web 2.0/School 2.0 and the Future of Education



There is a growing desire to rethink education and learning, and the phrase "School 2.0" is being used to describe the new direction many think education should take. There seem to be three factors driving this discussion:
  1. New collaborative computer technologies, in particular the read/write web or Web 2.0, distance learning programs, free and open source software, and videoconferencing.
  2. The move from an industrial to information economy, and a change in skills that are valuable to employers.
  3. A culture that is rapidly becoming more transparent and collaborative because of the new technologies, allowing a more open discussion about many aspects of our society, including (and especially) education.
School 2.0 is term used to describe a new vision for education in the 21st century. The name, as you may guess, is an extension of Web 2.0 and shares many of its same philosophies and concepts. In School 2.0, learning doesn't just take place in the school, but in a combination of home, school, and community that collaborates to bring the wider world into day-to-day instruction and provide a rich array of learning opportunities. In School 2.0, there is no one path to achieve learning.

Discovery Resources:
General Web 2.0 information
The Machine is Us/ing Us video - Web 2.0 in five minutes by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University
(scroll to the the bottom of this post to watch the embedded version)
Wikipedia - Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0? 

Perspectives for teachers
50 Web 2.0 Tools Every Teacher Should Know About
Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education
The Horizons Report - 2012 Applications of emerging technologies to teaching, learning, and creative expression.
Teachers 2.0

Discovery Exercise 
Web 2.0 and School 2.0 - these phrases mean many things to many people.
1. Read the different perspectives in the list above.
2. Create a blog post on your reactions and thoughts regarding the articles you chose. In your post, make sure you include the answers to these questions:
  • What does "School 2.0" mean to you?
  • What does it mean for schools of the future?



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