An interview... given to a Project Lead student...
School media persons need to collaborate with others to provide instruction, learning strategies, and practice in using the essential learning skills needed in the 21st century, such as critical thinking, collaboration, evaluation of information, creativity... We all need to learn more on our own / or within a social context or group as part of our global world that is becoming smaller day by day. Learning has got to be a life long process of selecting, evaluating and using information effectively and appropriately... I hope my comments below can be helpful to others.. and feel free to comment on your own.. Flo
Jeannie... I started but it is not really about blogs... So if this is not what your are looking for let me know... I have a CPI training today.. That I will try to continue — sorry it is coming in bits and pieces.. Flo
On 6/3/08 5:42 PM,
1. How many blogs do you have for your media center? About 4/5 years ago I used a blog with my students at Dunedin Elem.. But it was blocked and I had to upload all their writings once I got home .. It was awful.. Back and forth .. I used web whacker to try to make it work.. Then decided to use Inspiration and Filemaker Pro.. To simulate the blogging concept and kept it within my walls. It was around this time that I was being introduced to the wiki and several other WEB 2.o tools.
When did you start? YEARS AGO!!! I did promote and encourage the use of blogs with all my staff & faculties and have done several county, & state trainings .. Not just on blogs but on the concept of the read and write web. In all aspects of truth...One of my main loves.. And one of the email systems that I push and did countless hours of training on for over 10 years was PLACES! Our old mail system PLACES was the best training ground I had for the concepts necessary in today’s world. The bulletin board possibilities that all the Pinellas county employees had with using PLACES and First Class was exactly the mentality of web 2.0... We have taken a 1000 steps backward when we took that away from the employees.
2. What are the topics / audiences for your blogs? Again.. I am answering more about all the tools-wiki, podcasts, vidpods, rather than just blogs.. I am a great reader of many blogs .. Mainly educational & technology based.. I have the responsibility and created them for the various organizations and trainings.. But as of late my true love is a wiki!.. I consider myself a wiki-maniac! Topics balance my love for literacy and integration... And therefore I am involved in many areas within Media & books, Education _(*currently project based learning), digital topics, and crafts.. Knitting
audiences...... Students, teachers, media specialists, tech coordinators, administration... Anyone interested in my learnings.. And sharings..
3. What is/are the purpose(s) of your blog(s)?
.. Training.. Sharing and learning.. There is soooo much out there — I know I need help to keep up with the digital kids of today.. So my taking part in the colloborative nature of web 2.0 tools .. I learn and then I love to share what I learned..
4. How often do you make an entry? Usually daily to one of the many wiki, or other collaborative tools... For the past 2 years or so I have been using Think.com with my students .. Which is free, educational, global, project based, giving my students voice around the world.. funded through the Oracle Education Foundation.
5. How would you characterize the response rate to your blogs? That is so different with each situation or activity that I am dealing with.. if it is an assignment for students.. then I am usually the person to direct the timeline of response … if it is with a training or time with adults ..just learning about the use of web 2.0 tools.. then I usually look at the following ratio.. 90% of the participants will attend.. 9% will really understand and be participative.. and 1 person will take it beyond what I can offer them!... usually it has to have a personal value to the individual to get a response rate to the use of a tool.. So often when training I keep it fun and try to relate to what they are clearly into..
6. How do your students/faculty/parents access your blog?
…………….. wiki is wide open on the internet.. I have one for myself, family, Palms, and one for my school and I have created many for specifice projects that I may have been working on as a Florida Master Digital Educator.
7. What sort of publicity have you done for your blog?
Mainly modeling the use and emailing my url to people that may be interested. I have used the wiki as my agenda for my state board meeting for FACE. We have our board meetings online using a Breeze server and the wiki is great as a working agenda.
8. What is the average of the number of words in an entry?
......This is a very varied response.. On a blog answer I can sometimes go on and on.. But I try to keep it simple. On my wiki.. I would say more of a “brainstorming” teaching technique is used.. For example apage that I used for my teachers and students last year on the Sunshine State young reader award books... http://mcgeef.pbwiki.com/It%27s+all+about+BOOKS%21 or some activities done with classes right at the end of this year .... http://mcgeef.pbwiki.com/ideas
9. What do you call your blog(s)? My personal wiki is called McGee’s Learning Leaps http://mcgeef.pbwiki.com
One of the blogs that I was trying to get populated for our state association is called FACE to FACE... But we are having problems right now getting someone to take the responsibility of managing it.. And we are not getting the type of comments we want .. It is not a working blog and the membership has not really found it useful.. So it may be coming down soon!
10. What server is hosting your blog?
I have used both wikispaces and pbwiki as my server..they are free and offer excellent opportunities to teachers. .. And because of early adoption and intervention and training work with pbwiki.. They have given me extra storage and various free little bonus’..
As far as blogs & other digital tools.. It usually depends on the project being worked on / most are online and part of the WEB 2.0 tools provided for free .. For example Voice Threads... http://voicethread.com/about/
For the MDE program — we use a server that is housed at Florida Center of Instructional Technology {FCIT} -- @ USF.. .. For my students and the work we do with Think.com — the server is provided free by the ORACLE Education foundation.
For FACE — the server is provided by Lutronx, Inc. and offered to us at a great discount, but we do pay for the service.
................
Jeannie... Hope this is helpful and what you are looking for ... I realize that the use of blogs and wiki’s might be very differenct for high school students.. I do have a personal myspace site to keep in touch with my family, grandkids in Alaska... And to see what it is like.. I can see how the kids can get addicted to “youtube” ... And other simulations, and virtual worlds... The next installment to follow as soon as I can grab a few minutes to work on it.. Right now my coffee and workplace are calling me..
Did I meet you at the Palms dinner?? Flo McGee
--
Florida Master Digital Educator
http://etc.usf.edu/fde/index.htm
Oldsmar Elementary, PCSB
PCUE, FAME, FAEDS, ISTE
FACE – President
http://mcgeef.pbwiki.com
Continuation of interview...
On 6/5/08 7:15 AM, "McGee Florence" <MCGEEF@pcsb.org> wrote:
11. Did you use a blog service with templates or did you create yours with html? Yes it makes it much easier & quicker... Although I have done html.. do sometimes enhance ... But I would much rather rely on the other geeks out there who do all the programming..
12. Why did you choose to use a blog for your purposes?
I think that I really did explain why I like the wiki better than a blog.. But in a nutshell.. Think of a blog as a journal.. To be read and commented on.... And a wiki as an alive, working, document or project that many can contribute to!
13. What do you see as the advantages of a blog?
(above)
14. What are the disadvantages? (Above)
15. Have you had any inappropriate use (comments) of your blog?
The face to face blog is always being hit with inappropriate use.. That is why I am really not happy using a blog unless it can be monitored daily or some how password protected.. Which I know that is possible. (we use wordpress for the blog..) And I have someone working on fixing the situation right now. The server company that we use is also will to place some firewalls up for us..
I have not had any problems with using the wiki’s...
If so, how did you deal with it? This can also be part of the learning process .. it is important that we teach our kids ethical and effective behavior and thinking skills. Things can be password protected.. all the usual strategies that we use --- monitor & teach.
16. How supportive has your administration been with your Web 2.0 project? Very supportive with a lot of my hair-brained little projects.. I have only been here at Oldsmar for 2 years.. And when I was hired my principal knew that my involvement in the position was going to be one of trying to push the staff towards a more digital approach to learning...
17. How supportive has your faculty / teaching staff been with your Web 2.0 project?
the learning curve is not very high.. Or fast.. with adults.. But each year I grab one or two more teachers into getting excited about doing a project.. And each year I try to work with a new teacher on some new little project..
so it is growing.. For instance last year.. I was the only one using Think.com with 25-30 students// (mostly my video club kids) This year I have 4/5 teachers and over 100 students actively utilizing the program.. And involved in projects, creating movies, podcasts and photostories.. giving voice to all in the global world..
18. What has been the best thing about using your blog? Seeing the kids excited about learning..and creating their own stuff... My mantra for the media center has always been... The Media center is THE place where LEARNING is FUNdamental .. an Oldsmar Elementary student and teacher was the first to respond to the Times NIE SSYRA blog that started this year!! That made me very proud.. Because I know that my encouragement and hounding my teachers is working..
19. Has anything been a disappointment or a difficulty while using a blog? The wiki is working great .. I am excited to perhaps look into the county moodle thru the school board for some of my lessons and trainings next year.. But I will still keep my school and personal wiki.. Because that voice reaches the world — not just our own little county!
20. Will you be changing anything about your blog for next year? (Adding, deleting, etc.)?
The wiki is an ever changing site ... I am and will be adding and deleting .. And hopefully so will many others as we become a community of learners together!
21. Do you have anything to add that might help me set up a blog for my high school?
take the moodle course thru the county.. And just do it!...
Sign up for an free wiki .. And just try it.. See how easy it is.. And then perhaps start small.. Make it a virtual poetry slam.. That the students can write too... Or a book review spot.. That could be shared on the morning news show??
check out the following... I love these guys.. They have it down!!! Lee Lefever has been able to explain the two terms in very easy to understand means!
http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
OKAY done... Hope this is helpful.. I may even turn this into a page on my personal wiki.. In case any others need some help!
......so done... Flo
______________________________________
a great article..http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555547.html
something about the comparisons of ISTE and ASLA.. 
ISTE NETS NextGen
KWOUT.....
Voki
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Teacher Tube...
Some sites to think about using:
Web 2.0 for Teachers - ReadWriteWeb
1. Zoho creator -- for Book reviews, contacts, web site reviews
- <iframe height="520px" width="100%" name="zohoform1" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://creator.zoho.com/showForm.do?formLinkId=1&link=true&sharedBy=mcgeef"></iframe>
2. www.bubbl.us
--
3. visualthesarus
4. Surveymonkey
5. www.teachertube.com
6. www.commoncraft.com
7.magnetic poetry
8.buzzword
9. picassa web -- Beth's art gallery
10. www.voicethreads.com
11. slide.com
12.pbwiki.com
13. jangle
14. photostory
15.googlearth
16.panaromas
17. itunes university... fcit
18.mediaconverter
19. google for educators
20.wacky web tales
21.anagrams
22. http://www.oslis.org/elementary/index.php?page=citeSources
23. Kathy Schrock.... http://kathyschrock.net/cooking/index.htm
24. googledocs http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html
25. Just For Kids Who Love Books
26. assignment calendar Assignment Calendar - 4teachers.org
27. visual thesaurus Thanks for trying the Visual Thesaurus : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus
28. Filamentality
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/
29. book builder http://bookbuilder.cast.org/
30 . comic creator
Voice threads... about: http://voicethread.com/about/
embedding... a voice thread
I love this one:
one for editing photo's on the window side... free download
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
Click here for full screen version
5/3/08 # of visitors....
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