I uploaded some DC pix to Flickr, and it seemed to go smoothly. I run our school's DC trip and have used PhotoBucket instead of Flickr because of the upload limitation. Photobucket doesn't have as many "fun" things, it looks like (like the mash-up).
My problem with Flickr is the 150MB/ month upload. Normally, this isn't a problem. However, when you are doing a large batch upload, like I have to do from our DC trip, it is hard to work around.
I'm interested to see the MashUp stuff.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Thing 4/5 RSS Feeds
OK... I've seen the "feeds" icon in my favorites section of IE, but never got around to figuring it out. Now that I've worked my way through it, I don't really see the big deal. I guess I feel more comfortable, just bookmarking my favorites and being updated that way rather than through the feeds. Maybe I'm a techno "old fart" but it's just the way that works better for me.
BTW, I've got to say that is really frustrating to try to do the 23 things at school when so much of it is dependent on watching videos, which are block for streaming. I'd prefer to do it at school away from the home distractions, but unfortunately can't. This is something that is a problem for us teaching with technology... When I can't link to a video, because the kids can't watch it, it eliminates a good educational portion of the Internet. Any ideas for "legal" workarounds?
BTW, I've got to say that is really frustrating to try to do the 23 things at school when so much of it is dependent on watching videos, which are block for streaming. I'd prefer to do it at school away from the home distractions, but unfortunately can't. This is something that is a problem for us teaching with technology... When I can't link to a video, because the kids can't watch it, it eliminates a good educational portion of the Internet. Any ideas for "legal" workarounds?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Twitter for Teachers
Last year, as the Twitter craze started cresting, I was thinking about the use of Twitter for a teacher. I understand that the use of Twitter is an odd cat... Do we really care as a people what Ashton Kutcher is doing at each point in time? And don't even get me started on why Ashton kutcher is such a big deal anyway...
Regardless, for those who have been skeptical about Twitter, think of using it as a mass text message that can be accessed from any computer, or SmartPhone. So last spring, I started using Twitter to send out homework updates. The reception was met with a deafening silence. I only had 6 followers by the end of the year, out of 120 students.
However, the potential was still there, and starting a new year filled me with a renewed optimism, especially as news organizations, and even the Waterford School District started "tweeting" updates. I convinced my team that Twitter was easy (necessary for my non-geek teammates) so they bought in, and we put a blurb in the team newsletter. We also put our Twitter handles in any email that gets sent out to parents.
Everyday now, we post up a note about the homework & agenda for the day. We have 54 out of 125 followers (not bad). At the bottom of this blog you can see the kind of information we post to parents. We run about 2/3 students & 1/3 parents as followers.
The problem is that, while we know who our followers are, we cannot tell how often they check. I'm sure Twitter data will be forthcoming, but if there are other geeks out there who knkow a quick, easy and (most importantly) free way to do this, please comment below.
Regardless, for those who have been skeptical about Twitter, think of using it as a mass text message that can be accessed from any computer, or SmartPhone. So last spring, I started using Twitter to send out homework updates. The reception was met with a deafening silence. I only had 6 followers by the end of the year, out of 120 students.
However, the potential was still there, and starting a new year filled me with a renewed optimism, especially as news organizations, and even the Waterford School District started "tweeting" updates. I convinced my team that Twitter was easy (necessary for my non-geek teammates) so they bought in, and we put a blurb in the team newsletter. We also put our Twitter handles in any email that gets sent out to parents.
Everyday now, we post up a note about the homework & agenda for the day. We have 54 out of 125 followers (not bad). At the bottom of this blog you can see the kind of information we post to parents. We run about 2/3 students & 1/3 parents as followers.
The problem is that, while we know who our followers are, we cannot tell how often they check. I'm sure Twitter data will be forthcoming, but if there are other geeks out there who knkow a quick, easy and (most importantly) free way to do this, please comment below.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Thing 1 n 2
I guess I can see this blog as fulfilling 2 different purposes. If I chose this to be just an "all about me" blog, I would tend towards techie ideas for teachers, like how to use Twitter, bit.ly & showing off the smartpen we've been using.
If on the other hand, I use it for students... Well, as an 8th grade physical science teacher, the only thing I can think of to use it for is a "kicking off" point for students. For instance, read this article (with link) and comment your reaction to it. It's an interesting theory to work in other links, but without the ability to link to any streaming media, or flash videos, it eliminates whole sections of the web that would certainly help students with reading difficulties.
Let's just say I'm keeping an open, yet somewhat skeptical mind....
If on the other hand, I use it for students... Well, as an 8th grade physical science teacher, the only thing I can think of to use it for is a "kicking off" point for students. For instance, read this article (with link) and comment your reaction to it. It's an interesting theory to work in other links, but without the ability to link to any streaming media, or flash videos, it eliminates whole sections of the web that would certainly help students with reading difficulties.
Let's just say I'm keeping an open, yet somewhat skeptical mind....
Monday, January 4, 2010
Thing 0... The Beginning
Well here I am, the Geeker Teacher. My biggest problem has always been having something to write. As Joey once said, "It turns out I don't have that many thoughts." Hopefully this will keep me going with something interesting as thoughts pop in....
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