For my Computer class.

Read this article from the Washington Post

Write a comment to this posting about one or more of the following:

1)  How do you feel about the government using FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and other social web sites to find information about criminals?

2)  How would you feel if someone "friended" you, and you found out later that it was a lawyer investigating you, your parents, your friends or your friends' parents?

3) Do you think it's ok for people to create fake FaceBook/MySpace identities?

Remember in your reply, to follow the good writing guidelines (Topic, Evidence, Discussion).  This should be 2 or 3 paragraphs long.

Mr. Moccia

Wikis 2.0

For anyone working on a class wiki, I found a couple that have great tools and widgets to add to your wikis.

Try these:
gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com

And

cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com

Give 'em a try for customization.

OK Go's Rube Goldberg Machine

I saw a tweet from Adam Savage referring to this video.  When I saw it, I had to post for all geeks.

Thing 23 - The Reflection

So I made it through all 23 things, and there's a part of me that wishes there were 23 more.... I know there's a lot more out there that would greatly enhance our use of the web in school, and I bet that most of it is free. 

As with most people I'll take parts of this as helpful (wikis, blogs, Zoho), and discard others (RSS feeds), but I realize the whole purpose of this is a chance to sample parts of Web 2.0, that I really hadn't bothered looking a lot into.

When I signed up for the class, I didn't know what to expect, and when we met with Kathy at Covert, I looked at the list and saw that I had heard of about 18 of the 23 things, and used/done 8 of the 23 (none of the blogging, but my wife had done all the blogging stuff to document everything we ahd been through with my son's therapies).  I figured I'd see what was new, and what I could expand on, and maybe along the way, I could even teach a little too.  I hope I did that.

As with everyone, there is a share of frustration.  I understand Waterford's problems with streaming videos.  The pipes are only so big, and only so much information can flow through them.  There is lots of free web out there, and so much we wish we could do with our students.  We need someone out there who is willing to take the chances with classes to see how things work, and someone who will teach the other teachers about their trials & tribulations.

I actually (surprisingly) enjoy doing this blog.  Yeah, I know it shocks me too.   I wish that there had been more interactions between the blogs, so that we could cross pollinate (*oh my!*) between each and build more off of each other's blogs.  There was one thing about commenting on someone else' blog, but it should have been a continuing experience.  Like comment on one different person's blog with each THING you did.  This way we would be more encouraged to view each other's blog.  But the problem with blogs is that you don't feel like continuing if there is no audience.  Kind of like preforming to an empty house.  I will probably continue this blog to document things I try, as well as any new ed tech I might discover along the way.  If it seems like no one is watching, I'll probably let it die a natural death, because, you know, what's the point.  But if there are a couple of people out there who might be interested (and leave comments... comments let you know you care), then I'll keep it going.  We'll see how it goes.

Things 21/22 - Wikis

I had heard of wikis (well other than Wikipedia) for teachers' use over this past summer and thought they sounded cool.  I had a decent plan (I thought) of how to implement, but it was an unmitigated disaster.

I created my wiki (mistermoccia.wikispaces.com), and started building a framework.  One pgae for a home page, and then one for each unit that we study in 8th grade.  I figured out how to bulk upload students as members of the wiki, so they had editing privileges (through an Excel spreadsheet).  I had a plan to rotate each of my 4 classes through the computer lab so that each class would be in twice per parking period, and so that each could make a weekly edit, to put in the information we learned during the week. 

Well, the problem ended up being that what one student would edit, someone else (usually simultaneously) would edait as well, and everything kinda blew up.  I realize now that I didn't give enough guidance to make it work (mostly, because I didn't know about the need), as well, as the fact that, at first, 90% of the kids were more interested in the prettiness factor, rather than the content.

I *will* tell everyone though, that with this tool it is very easy to tell who made what changes.  You can set it up to get an email whenever someone changes things.  As long as you keep a list of whose username belongs to what student (because they can change their usernames), you are in good shape.  It will also tell who undoes a previous change.

I think that, for the end of the year, I might revisit the wiki as a review strategy before the final, or at least before our final project.  Students will need some central repository of terms & vocabulary and the wiki could be very powerful.

I see this as potentially being the most powerful tool in our arsenal for communication.  A wiki could work easily as a class webpage (if the teacher is the only one with editing privilege), but in terms of student creation, whis could be fantastic.  It would be much easier for a teacher with 30 students, rather than me with 125, but I'll continue trying to work my way through the issues.

Thing 19 & 20- Podcasts

I've *loved* podcasts for the last 3 - 4 years.  Since I've gotten older, I've become a big talk radio person, mostly due to sports.  Sadly, the commercials drive me nuts.  The other side that's bugged me is that I grew up in CIncinnati, so am an out-of-town sports fan, and after a while Detroit sports talk wasn't doing it for me.  When WDFN died a couple of years ago, I totally have ignored the radio in my car in favor of my iPod.  When it's just me in the car, I pretty much only listen to podcasts.

The ones I listen to fall under a couple of categories...
Sports
  1)  Cincinnati Sports podcast - no ads - depending on the season, usually updated every other week
  2)  ESPN - Around the Horn & PTI (these are audio versions of the TV shows on ESPN) - 1 ad at the beginning - updated daily
  3)  The BS Report - a podcast by Bill Simmons, an ESPN columnist - 1 ad at the beginning - updated 2 - 3 times a week

Tech - there is *only* one... called TWiT.  This Week in Tech.  Leo LaPorte is a former TechTV guy who used to have a radio show.  His podcast is fantastic, and most of the new stuff I've learned about technology (like Google Docs, and cloud computing), I've learned from the TWiT podcast.  4 commercials in a 2 hr podcast. Updated weekly

News/Sports - The Tony Kornheiser Show...  A Washington DC radio show with a nice mix of news, entertainment & sports - no ads - updated daily

Entertainment - Movies You Should See - A British podcast discussing a movie each week.  Very funny, fairly explicit, and some nice discussions. 1 ad at the beginning.  Besides, everything is better with a British accent.

And last, I found this one this past summer.  (If you prefer to save it to listen to later, here's the link.  It's after the interview).  It has several segments, but the first is MythBuster Adam Savage talking about his way to improve science education... Given money and time, it sounds perfect :-)  I also learned about a couple of other potential applications (including the Smart Pen) that have interesting possibilities in the classroom.  Kathy, what are the chances we can get the social networking thing (ELGG.. it's free!!)  in the district? 

Thing 18 SlideShare

Fairly cool...  even better if we can grab it at school.  Here's one I might use a little later in my next unit about foorces & motion.

Force & Motion

View more presentations from jshinkle.

OK... answers one question... can't access from school :-(