Not recognized????

What is the problem, what can it be?

My web is silk and always a comfort to me.

Mine is not always a comfort, I say.

It sometimes goes wrong, and it has for today!

So, I am a bit frustrated as I have been trying to apply for an Educator's Account from Diigo.  It doesn't want to accept my email - needs to be recognized as a school email, which it is, but from Canada - perhaps that is the problem.  I have emailed them to see what the problem is.  Why are things never simple?

Is a Diigo a dog?

My web is so vast, it is sometimes a chore

To keep up with all I've left piled at the door.

What do you do to keep track of your things?

To find them again when the final bell rings? 

I have been using the Diigo social bookmarking application since the fall to keep track of my numerous bookmarks gathered from my UBC classes, the many blogs, websites and Twitter feeds I follow.  I have used Diigo to create different "lists", for different courses or different projects I have been working on, and have "tagged" the sites so they are easier to find again.  I have also used the highlighting and annotating function in Diigo to, well, highlight and annotate things I want to remember on the pages.

I have been happy with using Diigo in this way, but really want to see how I can use Diigo at school to create lists of resources for students to use on research projects.  I envision creating lists but then allowing students to add to the lists as well.  Richardson (2010) describes how teachers can use Diigo groups with their students who can then access the collected links from home or school.  Groups of teachers can also use Diigo lists for collecting information and articles for ProD (Richardson, 2010).

As I went to explore Diigo farther, I noticed that they have a special Diigo Educator Account.

According to their website, Diigo Educator Accounts have the following features:

• You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
• Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.
• Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
• Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

This looks very interesting, I am going to apply for an educators account and see what I can do with it.  

References:

Diigo, Inc. (2011). What are Diigo Educator Accounts?  Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com/education

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Facing the Book

A book full of faces, how strange is that?

Is it all just your friends or also the cat?

A picture of you and your friends on this space

Connecting with words but not face to face.

So, why should I be on Facebook? Personally and professionally - what can it do for me?

Will Richardson (2010) suggests that:

"whether we like it or not, if we're working with kids in schools, we have a responsibility to understand what Facebook is all about, even if it's just to the extent that we participate there for ourselves." (p. 132) 

This is where I am coming from right now - everyone is using Facebook, so I need to understand it and know what it is all about. Although they are too young to actually have Facebook accounts, I know that there are students at my elementary school who have them. Many of my friends use Facebook to communicate and I know that most parents at my school use it.

What else should I be thinking about as I explore Facebook?

In Why #Educators Should Use Social Media, Anne O'Brien suggests the following major points:

• communication - with parents
• public relations - highlighting successes
• branding - of the school and its name
• professional growth and development - communicating with PLN
• student engagement - innovative projects using social media
• opportunities - connections throughout the world

In The Why and How of Using Facebook for Educators - No Need to be Friends at All!, Ronnie Burt suggests different ways of using Facebook, including how to safely "friend" students so that they do not see the rest of your personal information and communications. He also suggests setting up a separate page to connect with students or a "fan" page that can be used to disseminate information or setting up a Facebook "group" for students.

Here is a quick video that shows how to alter your privacy settings:

While I am going to stick with using Facebook personally for the moment, if I end ever end up teaching at a high school again, I can see that Facebook may be come part of my teaching life as well. Having students so connected in this way, it only makes sense to tap into this method of communication as a teacher.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Facebook fun!

I don't have a phone, said the spider to me,

To keep in touch with those in a far a way tree.

How do you talk with your friends far and near,

Surely the post is too slow I do fear.

So, while I was busy checking out the security settings that I put on my Facebook account, I noticed that there was a chat option in the bottom that indicated one of my friends was online.  I clicked the "chat" button and then we could type notes back and forth.  I also noticed there was a video chat option so we gave that a try as well.  We each downloaded the application and then did a video call.  The opening page (as it quickly disappeared) seemed to indicate that it was run by Skype.

It is fun that you can actually leave a video message as well.

Of course, the friend I was talking with online only lives about 15 minutes away, but . . . ?

About face!

So how do you keep in touch with your friends?

Are they on other webs, just around the bend?

Or is your web so big that everyone can fit,

With conversations around bit by little bit?

Somehow, I have managed to avoid Facebook, the social media phenomenon that began in 2004.  While many (most?) of my friends have used Facebook extensively, I have always been tentative about jumping on the bandwagon.  In the past two years, as my technological aptitude has skyrocketed, I have started to interact more with the web, creating blogs and using Twitter, yet have still avoided Facebook.  However, I think the time has come to take the plunge.  As part of my Web 2.0 inquiry project for LIBE 477, I will be adding Facebook to my repertoire of social networking tools.

I have actually been a bit of a Facebook "lurker" since January, when I initially set up my account.  This allowed me into Facebook, where I could look at information about various organizations that are on Facebook.  I even searched for some people I knew, checking out how much information (or not) was visible.  One of my big concerns about Facebook has been the privacy/safety issue, so I was interested to see the level of control people had over their accounts.  It seems some of my acquaintances have their information wide open while others are very limited.

I did a quick search looking for "hazard of Facebook" and came up with some good tips:

• use the lists function to limit who can see what; ie. family vs. friends vs. the boss
• take some time to go through all the profile pages and make the settings appropriate
• review all privacy settings; "only friends" is the safest setting for any feature
• keep friends from sharing your info; in applications and websites
• don't friend people you don't know
• don't reveal your location
• limit use of applications; they may take your personal info
• you can remove a tag of yourself from someone else's photo
• turn the "social ads appearance" to no one

Some of these tips seem very obvious.  I went back to check out how I had set up everything and my settings were pretty much in line with the recommendations.

References:

Facebook. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Liu, A. (2010, October 24).  5 ways to stay safe on Facebook.  Foxnews.com  Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/10/23/ways-stay-safe-facebook/

Null, C. (2009, June 25).  Facebook hazards - and how you can avoid them. itbusiness.ca Retrieved from http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=53662&PageMem=1

Pure Chrome!

My spider web is made from silk so strong,

What about yours, how does it go along?

And how, exactly to you get around,

Without always falling all the way to the ground?

After having a discussion with our district tech guy yesterday, I have decided to give Google Chrome web browser a try.  I have been using Firefox, but have found that it isn't the best for some things, including the Vista platform for the UBC courses.  So, here I am - downloaded Chrome, imported all my bookmarks over and things look good so far.  I will give Chrome a try as I work with the Web 2.0 applications for this course.

Let's get started!

You still haven't told me what you'll explore,

Will it be three tools, will it be more?

Tell me, please tell me, as night time is near.

Which web tools will you use, please tell me my dear!

Go here to see the entire Inquiry Proposal.

What to do when you're stuck in a web?

So what will you, asks the spider to me?

Where will you go, and what will you see?

Web 2.0, there's so much to explore,

Come take a look, I'll go open the door.

The possibilites are endless when looking for Web 2.0 applications to explore. I am fairly comfortable working and learning online and would consider myself an “intermediate” technology user. I am the “go-to” tech person at our school, yet I have much to learn.

As I travel into this web, learning and teaching have changed. No longer is the teacher imparting information on students.

It is time for top-down approaches to schooling to give way to the active, engaged, and collaborative teaching and learning relationships made possible by new educational technologies. Teaching in a Participatory Digital World

Teachers are now guides to assist students in creating knowledge and meaning from the vast amount of information they are immersed in.

In order to work with students in this new learning world, teachers must become connected and engaged themselves. In 5 Reasons Why Educators Need to Embrace Internet Technologies, K. Walsh suggests these technologies are important for:

• professional development
• the power to engage
• students use them already
• it's not going away (it will only grow)
• businesses want to hire workers who understand the internet

I have kept these ideas in mind as I walk along the web, exploring Web 2.0 tools.

What took so long?

What took so long, she said to me, I've been waiting here so long.

Spiders have been making webs for forever and a song!

I took my time along the path, to see my way so clear,

To try so many other things before I made it here.

My technological journey has been long and complicated as well. Take a look!

A spider's welcome

Welcome, said the spider, welcome to my web.

Be careful though, she said to me, you may be in over your head.

I will try my very best, and with your help, I am sure,

To navigate your twisty web and in the end endure.

Join me as I start out on my voyage to explore Web 2.0. I will investigate and use tools that will make my personal life and professional life easier. I will also look for tools that I can use to help students' and teachers' learning expand.  In Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2010) Will Richardson states that:

"we must become connected and engaged in learning in these new ways if we are to fully understand the pedagogies of using these tools with our students." (p. x)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hungrybrowser/2879853255/

The goal of this blog is to allow me to personally connect and learn with Web 2.0 tools. By becoming fully immersed in an online world myself, I will be able to guide and direct teachers and students as they forge ahead as well. Joyce Valenza, in her Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians, clearly indicates the direction today's teacher-librarian is heading. To remain a connected and valuable part of the school, the teacher-librarian must jump in with both feet. Let's hope I don't get caught in the web!

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.