Steve's Blog K12 Learning2.0

Thing 7c – Google Reader Update

schecker — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:07:20 +0000

Uh oh…

“Last week, researchers at Stanford University published a study showing that the most persistent multitaskers perform badly in a variety of tasks. They don’t focus as well as non-multitaskers. They’re more distractible. They’re weaker at shifting from one task to another and at organizing information. They are, as a matter of fact, worse at multitasking than people who don’t ordinarily multitask.”

Thing 21 – Create a Custom Start Page Using Pageflakes

schecker — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:38:29 +0000

Learned about the use of Pageflakes which are ways of aggregating, organizing & sharing large amounts of information, files, articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, RSS feeds, almost anything. Very similar to one of the tools I learned about earlier in the course called SimpleBox. I have been using this to assemble links, feeds & other useful information, organized into containers (or flakes). Great way to maintain classroom schedule, assignments, articles, relevant current events, videos and so forth.

Thing 20 – Online Office: Getting Started with Google Docs

schecker — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:07:37 +0000

Google Docs is a great way for creating, sharing, & collaborating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, & forms for free on the internet. Some class-room applications could be:

Students working on group papers and/or presentations
Collecting, managing, & monitoring student progress via update spreadsheets (a la 23 things doc)
Submitting rough drafts and subsequent edits via shared docs instead of wasting paper printouts

What happens if two people have the same document open & make changes to differnt parts? which save wins? How would both person’s changes be incorporated to a master doc including both revisions to the differnt parts of the document?

Thing 19 : A Tale of Two Tubes – Video Sharing in the Classroom

schecker — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:22:20 +0000

I’ve always had an interest to learn how to play the piano. Little did I know that even this could be initiated on youtube!

Learn How To Play the Piano – The Basics (lesson 1)

There ar many great educational video postings that can be easily searched and utilized for anything from solving differential equations to ancient roman architecture virtual tours. Classroom application is limitless and can save hours of time presenting material an interesting, relevant and engaging way to students & teachers.

Thing 18 – Publish a Podcast

schecker — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:39:05 +0000

Recorded a brief anecdote and distributed on GCAST. Can be utilized for publishing lecture recordings so students can concnetrate on listening, analysis, & contributing through discusstion rather than racing through note-taking to capture lecture specifics.

Click here for GCAST podcast

Thing 17 – Podcasts

schecker — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:11:29 +0000

I have been using Itunes & podcasts for sometime now. Great for downloading to your mp3 player for listening to during long runs!

Thing 16 – LibraryThing

schecker — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:48:11 +0000

This thing introduced a tool used for cataloging & sharing thoughts & informational posts about books and book collections. The user group & zeitgeist areas were most thought provoking in terms of classroom application & general discussion.

Thing 15 : Social Bookmarking with Delicious

schecker — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:37:23 +0000

This exercise practiced using Delicious a social bookmarking tool.

First bookmarks

Great for creating materials & gathering info for group projects…

Thing 7b – Google Reader

schecker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:38:07 +0000

I found this very interesting article on Google Reader RSS feed of Larry Ferlazzo’s edublog. He has a created a list of most useful sites (check it out):

The Best Collections Of Web 2.0 Tools For Education

Thing 14 (Week 6): Explore a Tool of Your Choice

schecker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:07:22 +0000

I chose to explore the following AMAZING sites (so glad I did…)

BeFunky -
“Turn your photos into incredible artwork with one click.”

SimplyBox -
Clip and share portions of web pages in an easy-to-use visual format. Great for collecting, organizing and sharing resources on specific topics.

I could spend hours exploring these tools (ooops, I already did with just these 2)

The first site allowed me to create really interesting sketches & drawing version of photos. The second site i am in love with and see so many personal & professional applications for. I look at it like an extension of the Google Reader. You tell Google Reader what’s important to you & it goes after it… What you want to save can be collected, organized, commented on, and SHARED so easily in SimplyBox. I would highly recommend this site to everyone. Seems so intuitive & worthwhile… pick out pictures, articles, websites, and have an easy way to capture them by you and anyone else who you want to share the box with. Check it out!