On line videos

Online videos such as YouTube or Teacher Tube are great learnig opportunities. There is so much information to be found that can be beneficial to students. The key is too making sure that anything shown to students is previewed for accuracy, since just about anyone can post to these sites. I think the videos are beneficial because sometimes someone who has a different way of teaching or talking about a concept might be the one that connects with a particular student. Teachers all have different styles and not all students learn the same way their teacher teaches. For example, some math concepts that might be difficult can be taught different ways.

I know there is so much to learn on these video sites. The other day my daughter came and showed me how she had painted a "french manicure" on her nails. I asked her where she learned how to do that and she said, "YouTube!"

Converting and downloading vidoes is time consuming, so I am glad that our firewall now lets You Tube through.

Wikis

I think that wikis are a great thing to use at school for both the teachers and the students. Wikis are a collaborative way to learn, discuss, and collaborate on  ideas and concepts. They are simple to use and don't require a great deal of technical knowledge. They are very educational friendly in that the teacher has control over the wiki space that is created. She can monitor, edit and delete posts. The students find the wiki very easy to use.

I think Cy Fair has really embraced the wiki. I know that I belong to at least 5 wikis that are Cy Fair based. I am thinking about creating a wiki for my school that will have technology ideas and how to intergrate them into different curriculums. Using a wiki will allow others to share as well.

RSS feeds

I love the idea of the RSS being the new paperboy. It is so true. To be able to have all the blogs I subscribe to available in one spot is so convienent. I personally have been using Google reader for about 6 months and I am still learning new things that it can do. The share feature and also the email feature are great. I subscribe to the Mental Floss blog and I am constantly sharing posts with my husband via email.

The blogs that I subscribe are so varied, so it is nice to have them in one place. I could probably set up a RSS feed for just school stuff.

I think Google Reader would also be a good RSS to use at school. It is easy to use and has very helpful tutorials for all levels of users.

1st time blogging

This is not my first time blogging, but I do remember when I started I thought it was a great way to share my thoughts and ideas. I was nervous because it is important to remember that once something is out on the web, it is out there forever! When I started my book review blog http://bizyreader.blogspot.com/ I was nervous that I wouldn't have any readers. I now have about 20 followers and now I am nervous about making sure my posts are interesting enough to keep people reading. 

The other day I had a friend of mine who is a mom of 4 kids tell me that she had her daughter look at my blog to pick a book to read. The daughter read Jekeyl Loves Hyde and now wants to read more books by that same auther. Another friend read Shiver because of my recommendation and loved it!

I think that my blog helps others on their life-long learning journey.