Thing 23: The End!

I completed the survey, and now am officially done with 23 Things. I'm ready to start working with staff here in Edina.
Click here to view the Edina 2008 23 Things on a Stick homepage.

Thing 22: What did I learn today?

Despite the fact that I had used many of the tools for the 23 Things on a Stick project, I learned a lot!
I hope that while continuing to explore these tools that I will be able to help the staff that I work with sort to find the wheat from the chaff and utilize these tools with their students.
Now that I see this site, I've got my work cut out for me this summer!

Thing 21: Other Social Networking sites-NING

I had joined Ning earlier in the year, but hadn't logged in much. For this thing, I joined the 23 Things on a Stick group on Ning.
I added a couple of comments on people's pages, and updated my profile page to include some photos and the sound file I created for my podcasts.
Next school year I will try to utilize Ning more as I look to expand my network.

Thing 20: Social Networking sites

Thing 20 asks you to join Facebook or Myspace and add some friends and then write on a few walls.
I joined Facebook earlier this year, and now have around 15 friends. I also figured out how to connect my Twitter tweets to my Facebook posts, which has made things much less complicated. I like Twitter as a networking tool, because it forces you to get to the point, in 140 characters or less! At first I didn't get it, but once you start following people, like Will Richardson or Steve Dembo, or things, like the Mars Phoenix lander, it's pretty cool!


I've also created a Ning account this year, but have yet to really use it much.

Thing 19: Podcasts

For this thing, I explored some of the Minnesota Public Radio podcasts, my favorites being the 89.3 the Current Song of the Day and Mike Mulcahy's Policast.
This year I have created several podcasts of tech tips, and also assisted staff with student podcasts. I think it is a great way to create authentic learning opportunities for students.

Thing 18: Youtube

I found this video that makes me realize how much I will miss our current president.

I struggle with Youtube as an educational tool, as there are many good applications. Unfortunately, Teachertube is too unreliable, with limited content, and Schooltube, which I signed up for over a week ago, has not given me access!

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

I had never accessed the Electronic Library for Minnesota. Wow! What a great resource, and free to all Minnesotans!
Several databases that I have used before now available for free!
I searched the consumer guide and was able to access articles from Consumer Reports for free!

Thing 16:Student Research Tools

The University of Minnesota Assignment calculator is a great tool for students conducting research to organize their time. It allows you to put in the date the project is assigned and when it's due, and the subject matter and then it generates a step-by-step guide for completion.


I think I like the format of the "Research Project Calculator" better.
Here is a video project that I put info in. It includes more detail.
Both allow you to have e-mail reminders for each step sent to you. NICE! I can see teachers using this to create timelines for big student projects.

Thing 15: Online Games in Education and Libraries

For this "Thing" I started by downloading and playing "Puzzle Pirates, an interactive game that requires software installation that may destroy your hard drive ;-), and 8 minutes of data downloads prior to play. As the father of a 9 1/2 year old, I thought this would be an interactive environment that he might enjoy trying this summer (As long as he doesn't see the "Buy Puzzle Pirate cards at Target" banner!).
After creating your pirate, in my case "Boogleyboo", you're ready to learn how to pillage!
I liken it to "Second Life meets Webkins" but with a pirate theme! It seemed very well developed and if given more time, might be a good learning tool.

I also logged in to Second Life and checked out Info Island. I have been using Second Life for about 3 months, and have found some resources that have me wondering how best to incorporate SL into 6-12 education.

Thing 14: Library Thing

Library Thing is a great social networking site for people who read books. It allows you to enter the books you are reading (up to 200 per year for free) and connect with people who are reading similar books. They also allow you to put your bookshelf on your blog, as I have done here.

Thing 13: Productivity Tools

This thing was an opportunity to explore several online productivity tools, such as calendars and countdown clocks!
Here's one I added for how much time Edina teachers have to complete their 23 Things on a stick!

Created by OnePlusYou

For this thing, I updated my Google Calendar page so now it will sync with both my phone and my Outlook Calendar!

I also checked out the "Top 25 Web 2.0 Apps to Improve a Student's or Professor's Productivity, Online Education Database". Many are sites that I've tried, or as in the case with the grading sites, do not apply to staff here in Edina, because we use Edline/Gradequick and Moodle.

Thing 12:Do You Digg?

While I have seen Digg and Reddit before I had never done much with the sites.
For this "Thing" I decided to visit Digg and sign up for Newsvine, as I am an admitted wonk when it comes to news on politics and sports.
On Digg, I read a few of the posts on the front page, took a poll on who would win the election and learned that "Man likes woman so much, he marries her!". It's in the Onion, it's got to be true!

Newsvine allows you to create an account (Plan on waiting a half hour for the confirmation e-mail):

The moment you register for your free Newsvine account, you are automatically given your own column and your own web address (e.g. "yourname.newsvine.com") where you can write articles, seed links, collect friends, and a host of other things. You're free to put anything you'd like in your column as long as it follows the Code of Honor (e.g. no hate speech, no advertising, etc.). Here's a sample column. The Newsvine community loves investigative reporting, opinion pieces, and just about everything else considered newsworthy and in good taste. Newsvine also sells advertising around all content on the site and returns 90% of the advertising revenue from your content right back to you (based on page views).

Cool, now I'm a reporter, and can take on the Star Tribune, and get paid!! Katherine Kersten will be shaking in her boots!

Now to come up with content...

Thing 11:Tagging

Tag-You're it!
Tagging allows your posts to show up in others searches. I have used tagging in my blog posts,and in fact had people I wrote about comment on the post.
I've also used Del.icio.us for bookmarking, but have fallen in love with Diigo, and it's ability to highlight and post comments on Web pages, along with social-bookmarking.
For this thing, I signed up for and tried Pagekeeper.
They allow teachers to create resource pages for students. While this is an easy way for a staff member to create pages of links, they could easily do this on a Web page for their class, and it is not as easy to create groups of links because...there are no tags!

Thing 10:Wiki

I've had ample opportunity this year to create wiki's using wikispaces, pbwiki and wetpaint this year. I've used them to help staff integrate technology into their curriculum and to plan a holiday party!

However, I had never logged in and updated a site such as Wikipedia or another "official" wiki until today.
The Minnesota Historical Society set up a wiki for the Susquecentenial titled: MN 150
On the site there are the top 150 topics answering this question:

"What person, place, thing, or event originating in Minnesota do you think has transformed our state, our country, or the world?"

I chose to edit the page on Cass Gilbert, archetect of the State Capitol. I added a link to my photos on Flickr of Statehood Day 2008, and included my photo of the capitol in the images.

I also added this information to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki.
I believe that the collaborative nature of wiki's is a perfect fit for education, from student created textbooks and study guides to authentic editing of wikis used in the "real world".

Thing 8 and 9: Share Your creations

Thing 8 is to use different tools to share photos and other information on your blog.
On the left side of this blog, I had already added the Flickr badge, and this gave me an opportunity to try a few others.
Zoho Show 2.0 allows you to import PowerPoint files and make them available online, as I did here with my LINKS PowerPoint.

While it was nice to be able to share the presentation, none of the links are available to either Web content or the files I linked to.

Picturetrail allows you to upload photos from your computer or with the URL of the photo and create cool "Flicks" with them, such as the Photocube of my pictures from New York.

The piece I didn't like about this was that you couldn't import directly from sites like Flickr or Picassa, but the special effects were built in and kind of cool!

Both of these tools were a nice way to share my content easily on the blog. I will try to use these to make more interesting content on my blog.

Thing 7: Communication Tools

This segment of 23 Things focuses on Communication.
I set an account with Google Groups to explore the 23 things group there, and I also signed up for the Educational Technology Group.
In the last few months, I've really been active with Twitter, following many Educational Technology "Gurus" and have gained many cool insights from what I now consider my "Personal Learning Network."


I also started texting more with my phone, though mostly to my wife! As my kids move toward adolescence, I'll probably start doing that more, so I better practice now!
I would like to look at a comparison of Google Talk vs. Skype and other communication tools, such as AIM.
I also want to look at using other appliances to Tweet, such as my
phone, but haven't done that yet.

Thing 6: Online Image Generators

Big Huge Labs image generators as mentioned in the previous post, are really easy to use. Here is our puppy on the day we got her, in trading card form.

This would be a great way for kids to create cards on people, places or topics that they are studying. Then they could be printed out for study guides.

Another image generating site is Imagechef. Imagechef requires a login and verification that you are over 13. There are hundreds of templates, including license plates:

Some of the templates are just fun, but others could definitely be used for powerful imagery.

Thing 5: Fun with Flickr

• At the risk of getting really lost in all the cool things you can do on "Big Huge Labs: Flickr" site, here is the poster I created.
  
  
  It was quick and painless, and now my photostream is linked to some really fun tools I can use with my Flickr photos, such as:
• Maps
• Pocket Albums
• Jigsaw Puzzles
• Badge Makers
  Movie Posters
• Calendars
• Magazine Covers
• Wallpaper
• Trading Cards
• Photo walls
• Etc...

Thing 4.5: Blog Post from Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.
Here is the photo that I altered using Picnik. It was quick, easy and painless

Thing 4:Photosharing with Flickr

I signed up for Flickr back in the fall, and uploaded some photos I took of New York. Then the parent of one of my son's friends sent some pictures of a Lego competition they were in.

I recently posted some photos of Minnesota's Statehood Day, and am hooked! Using the suggestions from 23 Things, I added notes to a few photos. This allows you to enhance images and add interesting facts, a great tool for student projects.

Using the "Blog" tool, you can easily add an image to your blog from Flickr, such as the one below. In Flickr, this photo is tagged, noted and mapped! Then I made some changes to the photo using a 3rd party site called Picnik. Picnik allows you to edit the photo very easily on-line, though some of the more interesting features required a premium account.

Here is the original, and in the post above, you can view the updated photo with Picnik.

Thing 3:RSS

Really Simple Syndication or RSS is a huge shift and one of the guiding principles of Web 2.0-"Make the information come to you!" I used to go to news sites and others that had information I was interested in, and read, often finding that there had been no updates. Now, I use Netvibes as my aggregator, and organize the sites I read by topic-tabs so I can get right to the information I'm interested in. If there is an update, I roll my mouse over the topic, and view the first few lines of the post. If it interests me, I can click on the post to view it within Netvibes, or click to view the Web site. Another nice feature of Netvibes is that the comments actually show up in the aggregator, unlike other readers where you only see the original post.

For this project, I decided to try Google Reader, as I have not used that aggregator as yet.
My initial response is that it is not as pretty to look at compared to Netvibes.
One nice feature is Google Gears, a browser enhancement that allows you to view up to 2000 posts, while you're offline!

Thing 2:Library 2.0 and What I hope to get out of 23 Things on a Stick

Response to Library 2.0
As a technology integrationist who has spent the last 9 months immersed in all things Web 2.0, I feel that John Blyberg's post on 11 Reasons Why Library 2.0 Exists and Matters, is spot on.
If Web 1.0 search engines were not enough to give people pause and rethink the Modern Library, then certainly Web 2.0 must.
In Web 2.0, the whole issue of "authority" has been blurred.
Students researching a topic may use Google, and find the notes of other students researching the same topic and take it as fact. It may even happen to "older students!" If Wikipedia has more in-depth entries and is more up-to-date than traditional encyclopedias, should it not be used as a starting point for research? By requiring students to evaluate the information in Wikipedia or other encyclopedias, we are giving them a valuable skill in critical thinking. This is a change from the Library 1.0 world of viewing everything in the Library as factual. This critical thinking is an essential 21st Century skill, and the 23 Things on a Stick project is a great way for librarians and media staff to embrace it!

Why am I completing 23 Things on a Stick?
We learn by doing. We could sign up for a class and sit back and passively listen to an instructor tell us about Web 2.0 tools, but without the hands-on experience, we would not gain the same understanding. The 23 Things on a Stick project is a great way for library staff and other educators to gain experience with Web 2.0 tools in a structured format that will allow them analyze how they may use these tools in their work.
I hope to get further practice with some of the Web 2.0 tools I am familiar with, as well as expand my breadth of knowledge so that I can run a 23 Things course for educators in Edina, Minnesota this summer.

Thing 1:Welcome to my 23 Things on a Stick Blog!

Hi,
I'm Michael Walker, Secondary Technology Integrationist with Edina Public Schools.
Here I will explore the 23 Things on a Stick, and blog about the experience.
I then hope to use this experience to create a Moodle Course for this summer with my staff, that can then be exported out for use by others in Moodle.
On the left, I added the slideshow feed from my latest Flickr photo set from the "Statehood Day" celebration at the Minnesota capitol.
I can't wait to get started!!