IGoogle and Google Reader-What's the deal?

Thing 7 Tangled

(What's the difference between a "feed" page and a reader?)

I've had an I-Google page for a while now. I really enjoying having my favorite sites updated daily. It saves "surfing" time and allows easy access to sites I'm interested in both personally and professionally. I am a bit confused, however, about the difference between a "Reader" page and the other feed pages. I have Google Reader on my I-Google page. What's the real difference between the two? I can see the format is different. For example, on my Reader page, I can't tell where the posts are coming from. There is just a huge list of articles with user names arranged horizontally. There are many in foreign languages and most are things I don't remember adding to my Reader. It is also difficult to delete articles, as I can't find a delete option. Any reader omments or suggestions will be welcomed.

• Re: R.S. S. feeds: I have used sites like ESL Grammar and Quizzes, and that have been helpful and have sometimes used the most recently added materials.
• Re: Student use: There are surely many ways that students could utilize a reader page. Of couse, they need to be able to access it on a regular basis and that is still an issue sometimes. In terms of an academic setting, I am thinking of ways that students could use it. For example, they could choose one of their feeds to stay "on top of". They could then blog about the topic and their response to it and other students could read the blogs and respond to them. The possibilities are there; I think that I need to collaborate with other teachers to discuss and share ideas.

Copyright in the Digital Age

Thing 6-

I think that the information presented in this unit is important as we plan for increasing the use of technology in schools. These issues have not been a concern for me in the past, however, I can see that as students have more opportunities to use technology in the school on a regular basis, fair-use in relation to copyright law is an important topic to be familiar with. I was particularly impressed with the Teaching Copyright module in part three of the lesson. I look forward to sharing the information with my students as we work on increasingly complex student-driven multi-media projects.

Summertime (mash-up) Thing 5

My creation
Originally uploaded by verbena123

This was a fun project. I think that this would be a great project for ELL students. I imagine them taking pictures of various people around the school. They can then use English to identify the people and describe what they are doing in the picture. This will help them learn basic grammar and technology ininteresting and meaningful ways. Sharing and describing the cards will be part of the fun!

The Journey Becomes the Destination

First Flickr

I love the simplicity of this image. No toys, no towel, and only one destination-- the water. This photo brings back such good memories of my children, my friends, and camping.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/verbena123/3706683305/

Learning Creates Feedom for the Mind

Thing 3--Lifelong Learning/71/2 Habits
The easiest thing for me is the sixth habit: To use technology to my advantage. Sometimes when I have learned something new and interesting, such as learning how to create a narrated "photostory, or a power point narrated with audacity, (I like the recording options in Audacity better than Power point) and have shown the students what I have done, they have enthusiastic created projects with what they have learned. That motivates me to learn more and share more with my students so they can continue to grow as active learners.

The most difficult thing for me is the third habit: To view problems as challenges, although, I can easily see, in hindsight, how overcoming problems has pushed me to learn things in a more thorough way than I would have otherwise. When I encounter challenges when I'm learning or using technology it can be frustrating and time consuming. It seems every "new thing" including twitter, school home pages, blogging, Smartboards, web pages, wikkis, and Moodle classes, use many different techniques. Getting to know each communication form takes time, and one has to be willing to "play around" with it a bit. Although it's so rewarding after I learn how to use the specific the technology, getting there creates cognitive dissonance. In other words it can feel frustrating.

Here is an interesting approach to learning and practicing the English language. It was created by an ELL student this year...

Sorry, you can't see the video here because somehow it failed to upload, although it was a Window's Media File. I spent 30 minutes tying to upload this. The message only continued to say: "processing video". It never said "failed" or "error". How is one to know if one should just wait until "processing" is done?--30 minutes? When does one give up? I'm viewing this problem as a challenge and will learn how to upload video soon. Any suggestions?

Thing #2 What Makes a Good Blog?

A Good Blog Journey

• is easy on the eyes


• is easy to navigate


• demonstrates personality (voice)


• contains quality information


• clearly shows blogger's interest


• offers visuals and/or audio


• offers helpful links

23 Things--The First Thing

This is my first blog to date.
I am looking forward to learning how to use blogs in interesting ways for the benefit of my students and colleagues. Currently, my biggest challenge is speedily adding and/or updating photos, documents, and spreadsheets, as well as audio and video links. I love the collaborative potential that we have here with Web 2.0. Wishing the best to all of you and I look forward to hearing from you and learning from you!