Cody

Here is a picture of the Codster
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Thing # 12 Social Bookmarks and Tagging

Social bookmarks and tagging are both completely new to me. I definitely understand the concept and how it will help myself organize online resources for the variety of classes and organizations I am involved in. Due to the fact that I run so many computers at home and at school, having a central location to keep things accessible from all locations is a definite must. When tagging a bookmark it should be a tag that everyone will understand and benefit from, it shouldn't be a nickname or something not associated with the link.

Whenever I need a bookmark or favorite, it is always seems to e on the computer I am not working on. I am looking forward to exploring these options in thing # 13.

Thing # 11 Widgets

Widgets are useful little programs that can enhance a daily lesson. In my music tech class we were exploring the history of video games. For them I installed a pong widget, pong was one of the first gaming systems released in 1977. I have a guitar club that meets a few times a week having an online tuner will help them at the start of class and while they are practicing at home. I am still searching through more widgets and add them to my page. The embedding process was easier than I thought, just copy and paste. On one page I just need to click on the blogger icon and it installed it directly onto my page.

Thing # 10 Twitter...

Twitter is an interesting little device, it is very similar to having just a facebook status shared with your "followers". It still seems in it's early stages as I could only find a few of my friends and some famous people to follow. You really need to have their address to follow them, the search feature didn't work as well as I thought. It will have a value for connecting with people if everyone gets involved.

From the Best of the Web 2008 the best thing I explored i still you tube: I am a visual learner, if I can see someone demonstrate something I can repeat it, from fixing my ipod to repairing a crack in my basement floor. I use you tube all the time in my classroom for software tutorials and history lessons. The good thing about youtube is that there are often several clips on the same topics, sometime one may be better than the other.

Thing # 9 Copyright

With the development of technology it gets easier and easier to view, share, and utilize the work of others as well as sharing the work of your own.

As educators it is our responsibility to explain the ethical and legal rules of copyright and how students should utilize the www for research and information.

Through CC we can point students in a direction of fair use information. Check out http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/

I traditionally have students do a research project on Copyright and the use of file sharing networks. My students seem to have a good grasp on what they can and shouldn't do.

Extrication Training

St Louis Wreck

Thing # 8 Wallingford FD Slideshow

The Following is a slideshow of various fire responses in the past few years.
Through the use of videos we can share information faster!
I chose this video because I did not create it. :-)

Thing #7 You Tube

A: I have been exploring the online videos on you tube, there are a lot of good things and then some I could do without.

B: I created a you tube account, currently I do not have any videos to upload but I will work on recording a few in the next few weeks.

C: I love that there are often several videos on a similar topic, sometimes there are clearer explanations. There are hundreds of great videos I use in class from guitar lessons with visual technique, violin tuning exercises, to the history and manufacturing of the record. Currently youtube is not restricted for staff accounts at NHS, occasionally the bandwith gets filled up and the feed slows to a crawl. For years I used a you tube downloader to get the videos at home and save them to my computer for viewing at work. I feel this is better because I don't have to wait for anything to load and if something ever gets removed I still have a copy of the video. From year to year I add more clips to the class folders. For my American music studies class I downloaded hundreds of performance and put them into chapter folders for the kids to utilize on the school network. I highly recommend getting a downloader!

Thing # 6 Photo Comment

This is a picture I came across while exploring the Flickr website. This is a patch from my fire department year unknown. I chose this photo because of it unknown history, I especially like the embroidery, it looks almost hand sewn. At my next department meeting I will show it to the members and hopefully some of the older members may be able to give some insite to its history.

Thing # 5 Flicker

Flickr is a wonderful way to view and share information through another media format that students use daily. Almost every student in my classroom owns a digital camera or has a camera on their cell phone.  A picture is truly worth a thousand words. Through tagging and keywords the public may now search for and share in my photos. My wife is a professional photographer and with a newborn I have thousands of photos to share with friends, family and the world.

Using the internet to back up our photo albums is a wonderful idea! As a firefighter I am often sent back into home after overhaul is completed to recover items of value. As the video stated photo albums are on the top of the list with important documents, family heirlooms and large amounts of cash.

The site was again simple to navigate and the search options for photos were ideal for my use. Both Downloading and Uploading areas were clear and easy to work with. I am able to upload from my ipod, and my blackerry. Since Flickr, a yahoo app. it is embedded into my homepage, this again make accessibility simple and convenient.

I love Flickr and will updated my library's with all my new baby photos!

Onto Thing #6

Thing # 4 Home Pages/Dashboards

I log onto several different computers throughout the day including the 4 I run at home. Most of the time I am visiting several of the same pages each time. Weather, News, CNN, various technological websites. Six e-mail accounts and other web services. I have for years, customized my web browser to open several pages/tabs upon the initial start. By using a home page, I am able to condense several pages into one simple page that I may access the majority of my daily inquires in one simple location.  I enjoy subscribing to RSS feeds, podcast and blogs.

I have had access to a my yahoo page for several years but never took advantage of it. For this project I experimented with an IGOOLE page. I found the webpage very easy to negotiate and able to add gadgets for everything I need; weather, facebook, news, e-mail, horoscope etc. I found a theme that suited my taste, lego characters! In my class I would definitely  utilize you tube video widgets and other tech news pages and updates.

In conclusion, keeping everything in a central location on one page will definitely save me some time during my busy schedule. I was also able to open igoogle on a few of my handheld devices, although all the gadgets are not accessible much of the information is still there.

See you all in Thing #5

Thing # 1 Learn About Web 2.0 and Thing # 2 Create Your Own Blog

I decided to participate in the 23 Things in an effort to see what my fellow colleagues are into and how I may use technology to enhance my students learning. I teach a high school technology class in a computer lab and have access to technology and internet so it was ideal to jump on board with this project. Unfortunately at the middle school level I lack the resources to present anything unless I set up my own projecting equipment which proves to be time consuming.

During Thing 1 we learn that students of today learn much differently than that of their parents. Through technological advances and the WWW resources are limitless. Educators of today need to explore all possibilities for utilizing online resources. When writing or posting everything on the internet for the world to see, one needs to use caution. It is best to not offend anyone nor put private information that as I say may be "used for evil". Often prospective employers will search a facebook account to get an idea of an individuals lifestyle or action. Please make sure settings are set to private :-)




  

Thing # 3 Blogs in Education

I think blogs in education can be a very useful too for both students and educators.

I began using a blog for my tech class at the high school after starting thing # 2. So far it has been a great success, I upload student work, class quizzes and other links and information I cover in class.

It is especially beneficial for any students that have been absent or didn't get all the information in class, they can go back and review the information from the class lectures and videos shown in class.

Sometimes I allow comments for certain blogposts others I do not.
It is good that you can customize control and look and style of your blog. My students created them and we able to customize to their individual style.

Again check out the cool things we are doing in tech class visit www.nhsmusictech.blogspot.com

Welcome to Corneau's Place

Hello everyone and welcome to my blogspace! I am very excited to be participating in the 23 things project. If anyone ever has any tech questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to assist you in anyway I can!

See you on the net!

Steve