Cosa veintitrés: La última cosa

I remember when I got the e-mail about 23 Things back in October, I did not hesitate to respond to Kathy to let her know that I wanted in. As a first year teacher and part of the digital generation, I felt (and still do) that I needed to enhance my technological skills in order to find some success in the rapidly changing field of education. While I did not learn to code HTML or Javascript, I feel as though I became a more literate member of our Web 2.0 community. I have already begun to use Keepvid to bring Youtube into my classroom and I have found and suggested tools like WordRoll (Spanish-English Dictionary IPod Application) for my students. Completing the 23 Things Technology Tutorial has opened my eyes even more to the utility of technology.

In the next week or two, it is my goal to get a website up and running to allow my students to better access the Spanish language. With this website, I hope to provide my students with a daily schedule that includes classroom activities and homework. I hope to include great Spanish references for them to clarify their learning. I hope to add a wiki or blog which will allow for more interactive learning for my students. And, most importantly, i hope to make the site useful enough that students and parents alike utilize the website to improve my students' Spanish exploration.

As I close this post and my 23 Things tutorial, I will make the promise to myself and my students that I will continue to learn to learn and to use the infinite educational resources that Web 2.0 offers. By doing so, I will create a more engaging and relative educational experience!

Here's a start: Because I prefer Google Reader...

Google Sites...

Cosa Veintidos: Wiki Wiki Fun

In my previous post, I expressed concern about the difficulty of creating a wiki. I saw that Anne Baird, the creator of a Technology Wiki, failed to create a visually stimulating wiki. I made the assumption that her technology background meant that she should would strive to make a technologically superior wiki... I was wrong. The creation of a wiki is actually quite easy. Just messing around, I started a decent foundation for my own classroom wiki. I was happy to see that it was extremely easy and intuitive to create a multiple page wiki. For my Spanish I class, I elected to use a google calendar. I like that I can update my calendar on google and have it update automatically on my wiki.

After about an hour of configuring my wiki, I decided to call it quits. Before investing any more time in its creation, I have a few things that I would like to think about: Will students use my wiki? Will students use my wiki responsibly? Would it be redundant to create a blog and a wiki? Which would be more beneficial?

I think the ultimate answer to my question is to create a website that I can maintain a blog and wiki. The blog would serve as a good source to communicate classroom happenings, while the wiki would provide an interactive workspace. The website would serve as the host for each, while also adding a more logical place to maintain a classroom schedule. In the next 23 Things go around, it may be useful to learn to use Google Sites, rather than 3 separate RSS explorations.

Cosa Veintiuno: Wiki'ing a tad intimidating?

One of the most interesting wikis that I found was Teaching with Thinking and Technology. It piqued my interested because it relates directly to our exploration of technology. Anne Baird, the wiki host, aggregated all of the information that we have seen in 23 Things and included much more. While I enjoyed this wiki, it seemed to me a bit of a paradox. The wiki is supposed to foster the use of technology; however, it pales in comparison to wikis like Welker's Wikinomics, which utilizes an infinite amount of technology. Instead of implementing calendars and user feedback like Welker's, TTT was written primarily in boring script. The contrast between the two wikis showed me that Welker's Wiki is an example of the highest quality, while Baird's demonstrates the difficulty of achieving the most user-friendly page. Based on this exploration, I feel that a blog may be an easier medium to organize my classes... that is... until I further my programming and webmastering skills!

(Picture found at: http://www.ikiw.org/category/wiki-adoption-strategies/)

Cosa Veinte: Podcast part deux

One would think that veinte cosas into this thing, that I would read ahead and just combine posts. Nonetheless, I have not. I wrote about my success with DiscoverSpanish in my last blog. I really like the elementary approach to Spansih that the podcast takes and I am hoping to find some supplementary information to combine with the podcasts so that I can use them in class.

I found that ITunes was the most user friendly podcast browser. Visually, the ITunes search was the most visually pleasing. The Avatars for each podcast give the consumer an idea of the crowd that the podcast is targeting, while the ranking and reviews explain the quality of the podcasts. These features allowed me to invest my time more efficiently. Using the Education Podcast Network, I found that it was more difficult to measure the utility of a podcast because there was not a ranking system and the actual search was quite difficult. Using search engines like Google and Yahoo, I struggled to find good podcast because many of those podcasts required a fee in order to access the content.

Cosa Diecinueve: Podcasting

AHHH!!!! This was a frustrating cosa!!! Obviamente, I want to find podcasts that relate to teaching Spanish, but I felt like it was impossible to find a good one! I listened to the Notes In Spanish podcast, but I found it too boring to utilize in class. I subscribed to Coffee Break Spanish, but I immediately canceled the subscription because, likewise, it was too boring! Finally, searching ITunes helped me Discover Spanish!

The Discover Spanish podcast was pretty simple and more instructional than the others. While this is the most useful podcast that I found, I feel that it is a better supplement than classroom teaching tool. In order to make a podcast a great instructional tool, I would have to tailor my unit's exploration to a given podcast. But, as a link on my blog, it may provide my students with the motivation to discover Spanish on their own.

(Picture from discoverspanish.com)

Cosa Dieciocho: Slidesharing!

Soy yo...

View more presentations from Benjamin Anderson.

(I just noticed that I uploaded the rough draft of my slide, so there are a few mistakes that I am too lazy to correct right now!)

This is a great site! I love the fact that I can embed PowerPoint presentations into the blog. For students that miss class, this allows them to easily access a day's lesson and it allows students to go back and study content that they may have not fully understand. While it is always possible to download the document, embedding it within the site allows students not to waste space on the hard drive and always know the location that they can find the information.

Outside of the classroom, I do not see much use for Slideshare. It may help when one needs a motivational slide for a meeting, but it is not as revolutionary as YouTube which has a use no matter who you are.

Cosa Diecisiete: Knowtes (Flashcards)

I am not a fan of Knowtes. There is entirely too much work that goes into making the flashcards! The website's interface looks good, but it is too difficult to navigate. Each time that I attempted to make a new card, it erased the previous. It was quite frustrating and took a bit to figure out. While I like the idea of the program and I can see how I can use it on my blog (if and when I get it up and running), I do not feel that the time it takes to create a deck is worth the number of students that would actually use it. I also tried Remember the Milk, but I gave up on that after too much confusion.