5611 Thing 10

I love RSS. It is like my own personal paperboy and I use this on a daily basis. The first thing that I do when in get into the office in the morning is to check my feeds to see the updates that have posted. I have a reader window added in my iGoogle homepage so I that I can check things quickly from there. RSS is great because is saves so much time searching for news and materials that are of interest. There are so many great sources out there to check and RSS makes it so much easier to keep track of them all. With teachers as time pressed as they are, this would save valuable minutes by delivering all requested info to a central location.

5611 Thing 9

I kinda liked creating this image. It was fun to look around and see what selections were available and think of things to write in them. I am not sure how I would use these in a classroom situation, but they are fun to play around with.

5611 Thing 8

I am into photography and I think that Flickr could fill the content delivery service that I have been needing. I really like this service and the ability to tag photos will better enable my viewers to search and display what they want to see. I think sharing photos online is fine. I would just make sure that photos of my daughter are locked down to family only. Not ready for her photos to be on the public stream just yet.

5611 Thing 7

Flickr is a great service for sharing photos online. Users don't need any web knowledge to start uploading images to either a free site or a pay site depending on size needs. This simple interface will allow for users to share their photos with friends, family and the general public with out needing any special instruction. The image I chose is of Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a 2 week trek twice out there while I was involved in Boy Scouts and had the opportunity to spend a summer out there as a photographer while in college. It is a photo of a trail that I hiked while out there. It brought back a lot of memories seeing this photo.




Photo By Phil Romans

5611 Thing 6

The application that I chose is Twitter. This service is something still intrigues me. I still believe that while it is very popular, it still has not found its true purpose. There is everything on there from breaking news feeds to celebs letting everyone know that they just got Starbucks. I think that its usability and functionality would be a great communication source in the classroom. It works as a good backchannel communication tool that would allow for students to communicate with each other as well as the professor during class. This works great as a real time communication avenue that can help the professor target specific themes and lessons that students are interested in or are having problems with. If there was one draw back that I have to point out is that it could serve as a distraction with students "tweeting" during class.

5611 Thing 5

School 2.0, for me, is not just a catch phrase. It embodies living education because it is powered by both the students and the educators. It continues outside of the classroom in the homes of students. The great thing is that by pushing the content to a Web 2.0 style and interface, is that it is reaching students where they live digitally. For modern educators to succeed with these students, they must adapt to these new technologies. Students in the 21st century are much more fast paced and they want it now, with no waiting. That is one of the beauties and pitfalls of the School 2.0 concept. It is instant and often times without filters. Educators need to develop strategies to pass on to students on how to use the web to do research and use it as a educational resource.

5611 Thing 3

I thing that using my blog in the pursuit of an advanced degree could be a real plus. It will be a place that I can display my work so that others that I work with will be able to see what I am doing and offer their insight and opinions on what I am doing. This online critique will better enable to me to look for other ways to look at problems and allow me to garner other ideas to assist with course work.