Diigo

http://learningworksforkids.com/wp-content/uploads/diigo.png

This weeks adventure was to explore Diigo, a social bookmarking site.  Diigo allows the user to bookmark, tag, share, annotate, and collaborate.   I had never heard of this site before until this class. Once I created my account I explored the site, and watched a few videos to help with navigation of the site and understanding of the features that are offered.  

In my opinion Diigo is awesome!  I wish that I would have know about this site earlier in my studies. The features that I find really useful are the annotating, saving, and sharing.  What great about it is that I can access from any device and it will have all my information...thats why it is the BEST!

Aggregating Pages

This week’s adventure was to explore Protopages and Netvibes. Here are my findings about this week’s adventures and of course a few opinions here and there.

This adventure started early in the week so that I would have enough time to explore.  I started off by exploring each site and page setup.  After a bit of playing around with each interface I found that the Protopage would work best.  I choose the Protopages, because I found it easier to navigate.  I went back today to check out the Netvibes, and it wasn't as difficult to understand as it seemed on day one. I'm guessing the experience of creating the page in Protopage, has made it understandable. I did do a check to see if there was an app available, and as of right now I found Netvibe to have an app. Maybe at the start of my examining of each I should have checked that out?

Overall I enjoyed learning a new tool.  I see this as a great tool to be used as a form of organization and simplifying all my pages and sites to one.   

 http://www.protopage.com/mckrisrob

The Twitter Adventure Continued....

Over the past couple weeks I have been exploring twitter, well at least reading a lot tweets made by my classmates.  So what I have discovered through this adventure is that I am not as "plugged in" as I thought I was with social media.  I find myself really having to take an extreme effort to take part in Twitter.  Yes-I do have a smart phone, a tablet, and a desktop readily available to me, it is just not catching on that quick.

Today when I got to work I logged on to Twitter via my desktop, with hopes that I would really be a participant rather than a bystander.  I did tweet something rather useful, but than my day moved on.

Now I don't want anybody to think I do not like Twitter, and it may sound that way, but I do like it! It is quick, fast, easy to share, and you are easily connected...I just need to keep exploring..Let the adventure continue!

YouTube Adventure

This week I went on an YouTube adventure.  I went on search for videos related to Web 2.0 tools and learning, plus a few extra things that I came across.  I enjoyed this adventure, as a teacher I am always looking for videos to help with teaching.  Whether I share with my students or use as part of my learning/research process, there are many out there.  The important thing is to make sure that the content you are viewing is relevant to your need.

When I was searching I found myself filtering to find videos that were no more than a year old. Since the topics that I was to search for are constantly having updates, I thought it would be important to search for newer videos.  I did find it was easy to find current videos on Twitter, but many of the videos for Web 2.0 and learning were several years old.  My thought on the lack of newer videos on the Web 2.0, maybe because it is so common now, whereas 5 years ago it was in its early/moderate stage of developing.  Just a thought-

I will leave you with a video from my playlist that makes me happy:-)

Twitter Adventure

This week I was suppose to go on a Twitter Adventure.  I'm embarrassed to say, my adventure has not happen yet...but it will! I promise!

Vanity Search

When asked to do a Vanity Search I became very curious.  What is out there about me?  Do I have a digital footprint? Or how big is my footprint.  Well I would say my foot print is very small!  I was somewhat surprised, but then I thought about it and continued to search.  Mostly what I found were incorrect addresses from when I was in college living in Denton which was 15 years ago.  I found a few old photos from when I was in my twenties, and that’s about it.  I was surprised how many people have the same name as me and spelled the same!  

So why is my digital footprint so small?  It’s an easy answer though I do participate in social media I am very cautious of where things go.  I know it is because of my profession.  I make sure I disable all that I can so that I will leave as little trace as possible, but enough that I can participate.

A digital footprint can be as big as you want and as small as you want, but it takes knowledge about the subject matter to be able to control.

Tech Play #4

I choose to explore Cubify Sculpt for this week’s tech play. I found out about this software through an email for an annual art contest that I participate in with my students. The contest is Scholastic Art and writing Contest.  Scholastics Art’s will introduce teachers to different software for free for the students to create and submit entries for the contest. A few years ago they had an entry for a video game using the software Gamestar.  I had never heard of the software, but at the time I taught an animation class and thought that it would be great experience.  We learned the software, and the entire class submitted, and we had gold medal winners.  This year they are providing for free the software Cubify Sculpt.  I was excited to finally see something that would work for my ceramics class.  So I thought that I would give it a try and see if it would be useful for my students.

My Findings on Cubify Sculpt:

The software is 3-D simulation software for modeling out of clay.  The software has a very easy interface for learning, and came with a couple of tutorial videos for getting started. The videos were very easy to understand and follow.  

I really like the software; it provides a very challenging creative process.  Unlike working from life the students really have to grasp the concept of 3-D, in the round.  When I was experimenting I found it to be difficult at first trying to manipulate the space, but after about a week of practicing I started to get the hang of it. The major challenge that it provides for the students is that they must go in with a plan.  Software like this provides the students with a 21 century challenge in technology, they have to think, learn, plan, try, try again, and finally create.  It takes the students through different levels of learning.  

To use this in the classroom, I would need to spend at least a week teaching the basics of the software. From there I would have them create step by step simulations so that they can get the hang of the software, and create something with an end result given. Then from there I would let them create on their own.  I think it is a great software that would interest and challenge students.  Our campus has a STEM pathway, so I could see a connection between this and the engineering pathway.