Thing #12

I had a blast using the Google Translator and Google Alerts.

With the translator, I translated lines from Wagner's Ring Cycle (German to English). It was interesting to see the poetic approach to the text that Wagner used. With Google Alerts, I set up alerts for topics that interest me as an educator and as a musician. I will be following some composers (Eric Whitacre, etc.), writers (Maya Angelou, etc.) and musical artists/organizations (New York Philharmonic, etc). I am very excited about following these people and keeping up with their accomplishments and comments.

The ability to scour the web for information on anything and stay up to the minute on any topic is a wonderful educational resource. I can't imagine any tool that reflects such relevancy. Students can follow any person, group, organization or thing and know exactly what current info is being exchanged on the web about them.

Thing #11

I did play around with all three suggested blog search engines. Although I honestly did not have any trouble with any of them, I did develop an order in which I liked them.

Google Blog Search is by far my favorite. As I was typing in blog names, it provided several possibilities of blogs for me to explore. It found blogs quickly and easily.

Topix.net (redirected to topix.com) is more of a news feed finder than a blog finder. It did direct me to several useful news sites and was very easy to use.

Technorati is a blog search engine that suggests top 100 blogs and categorizes blogs into subjects. It was fun and easy but I prefer the rapid, no-fluff Google Blog search.

I found several useful blogs for musicians and classical music fans. I found numerous educational blogs as well.  There were of course tons of pop culture blogs, political blogs and religious blogs. All of which do not interest me. The fact that there are so many blogs out there is wonderful. I'm sure to keep busy even after this class is over!

Thing #10

Wow! I love the fact that I do not have to go to each site to get my news or to follow my favorite blogs. The fact that RSS will save me so much time is wonderful! Setting the Google reader up was so easy. Since I already had a google ID, all that needed to be done was to add the URLs of the blogs that I wanted to follow. Piece of cake!

I think that I will certainly use this technology in my professional life and in my personal life. Being a musician, it is always helpful to read other musicians thoughts and advice. The RSS will allow me to keep up with several at the same time. In my personal life, I would love the opportunity to read the posts of my family and friends so that I can stay informed on their day-to-day adventures.

I think that teachers could involve students in the RSS/blog world by having them follow specific news sites or blogs and discussing the information that they find. Self discovery is such an important way to learn. I think that this application lends itself to self discovery very well.

Thing #9

Okay, so this "thing" was even more fun than the previous "thing". I spent a long time playing with these apps. My wife kept snagging my laptop and playing with the comic strip generator. Here are a few of my images:

from http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

from http://www.imagechef.com/

Creating these images was a lot of fun. I spent an hour exploring these apps and laughed the whole time. I think that the best way to use this type of application in the classroom would be to create personal images that include information that students can personally relate to or feel that represents them. When students are allowed to create such images, they could feel that they are assuming ownership of their own education.

Thing #8

I can't imagine anyone not having fun playing with the apps for this "thing". I used fotor to edit an existing picture that I took a few years ago of a student of mine just before she competed in the Jr. Miss Tennessee Pageant. fotor: image editing app

I can see several possible uses for this type of application in the classroom.  A teacher could highlight  images to illustrate specific points  so that students could quickly understand. So many people are visual learners and this kind of application could greatly enhance the effectiveness of instruction for those people.  There are really so many possibilities that image enhancing offers that could be used in education. I remain cautious of allowing photos to be viewed online. Especially photos of children and family. I do maintain a facebook page and upload photos fairly often. The safety net is that I never allow too much personal info to be viewed. I think common sense goes a long way in the digital world.

Thing #7

 Flickr is a site that is easily navigated and accessed. I believe that flickr would be a wonderful tool for teachers to use. A teacher could place images on the web and allow students to comment on them. This could function as a collaborative discovery lesson where students read each others comments and then post their own. I can see how Flickr could be used in many subjects but its applications in art would be amazing!

This is a picture of my dog Baylee. On the morning that I took this picture, she and I were playing and wrestling. This picture captures a moment when we stopped. Out of the frame, my hand is holding her down and I am making UFO noises to get her to keep the concerned look on her face. People always ask me if this is photo-shopped. Nope, just crazy eyes on my dog.

 

 This next photo is an image of a high school band that I recently worked with from Franklin, Tn. The Fred J. Page marching band is seen here at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia in competition at a Bands of America Super Regional. The photo is by Wayne Mann (band parent).