Thing 7

Flickr is a nice site to save pictures that you want others to be able to access too

 as well.  However, I am not exactly sure how I would use it for my classes.    The only time I have never used Flickr was to view my photographer friend's photos.  

I am interested to read other people's posts on how they will be using it.

Thing 6

Flickr is a great tool that I have been using for awhile. It offers students a wide variety of photographs.

The photo that I downloaded it a retouched photo that my friend Kyla Dorsey posted to show the changes she can make to photos to change their original look.

I decided to also post the original photo so you could see the differences.

Enjoy!

Thing 5

I like bloglines and it seems easy enough to use. I particularly like the bloglines button I installed in step 3. It is by far the easiest way to subcribe to blogs.
I wonder how easy it will be for me to install the bloglines button at home as I use Safari on my MAC (home computer) and Internet Explorer on my work PC.
I am interested to see what blogs other people found helpful. Thus far, I have only tagged news blogs to follow.

Thing 4

Bloglines seems to be a very useful tool to track not only other people's blogs, but also news websites that I like to visit daily. There are so many blogs available that it is difficult to sift through all of the material. I look forward to using this new tool to track new educational ideas.

Thing 3

I think my students would enjoy posting assignments to a blog, but I wonder how much more they would get from electronically posting responses than to turning in printed ones.  I think I would have to require them to respond to at least one other student's posting in order to guarantee that they would read various other responses.  I wonder if the students would simply restate what other's already said.  For instance, in class, my kids are often in their own worlds and end up "participating" in discussions by saying the same exact same thing another student already said, 5 minutes earlier.  However, through a blog, perhaps it would offer them a chance to pause, process and then type a response, providing students with a different mode to develop critical thinking skills.

*Side note: would "the internet wasn't working" become the next "my dog ate my homework" excuse?

Thing 1 and 2

Cellphones in the classroom? This would open up a whole can of warms...from texting "ChaCha" for answers to taking photos of tests.

Not sure what I think about this...

Additionally, not all parents are willing to give their middle schooler's cell phones. By using them in classes, we, as educators, would not only be endorsing the usage of cell phones but also requiring parents to provide their students with them.

As I think about this, I am currently monitoring a study hall for some of my 7th graders. They just went crazy when I suggested that we start using cell phones in the classroom. One student, a high performer I must add, said they could all get iphones and "play games" during class.

I don't want to get stuck on cell phones as both the video and article focused on more than just this piece of technology.

Over all, the integration of technology into the classroom is a great idea. I have taken our schools training on "clickers" in the classroom (remote answering devices) but have been hesitant to use them. I prefer my students to answer questions about history in a more thought provoking format of short answer or essay questions and thus feel like I have good technoligical tool without a way to APPLY it to my subject.

I guess what all my rambling is about is that technology needs to be effectively integrated into the curriculum to accomplish specific curriculur goals and NOT just for the sake of technology.