SNC in School

SNC's in schools, which I had innitial thought of as being merely the MySpace and Facebook type pages includes much more than that. My latest reading, about uses for SNC's in schools, brings with it more ideas that can be incorporated to take advantage of the skills that the students have. From the library to the math class, the school newspaper to parental communications, there are concepts out there that are worthy of further exploration. Take a quick read of the above link and see what you think.
On another note, a colleague found out about the Blog Learning Contract from Net K-12....and found it interesting. It lead to quite a conversation, ranging from what I intended to some of the risks to the likely hood of our school OK'ing the idea. At any rate, it should be interesting. Most likely there will be more on that later.

Humans Conquering the Solar System

I just hit this article and had a mixed thoughts about it. Terraforming Mars and later other planets is the idea. The author discusses the fact that we have been terraforming here for millenia and will have to do the same, starting on Mars, which isn't too far from being somewhat habitable. The science behind this is wonderful, but the arrogance of some in the human race is a little scary. There will be issues that arise as humans become a spacefaring species. We have enough political issues over boundaries...what will we have when there are multiple planets involved. Would it be like the great days of exploration when brave men drove their men on to new things, planted flags and claimed the land for their king?
Somehow, it does sound interesting, but it's fairly obvious which countries would have an advantage in this realm. Could we be moving back to a future of colonialism?...then into a skirmishes over boundaries, taxation, and revolution? Imagine watching that develop as you compare the history of the U.S. Interesting and scary.
One can only hope that those in power will have learned from history, so it doesn't have to be repeated. BUT, imagine the possibilities...

Podcasting

I'm still looking for the best uses of podcasts and trying to find a reason to use them, when the video component is so useful, and with high speed connections, and massive storage capabilities it only makes sense.
I do like the idea of students creating their own cast and then placing the audio into a presentation, or screen casting. Or, maybe having them add a cast to the class wiki that verbalizes the events of the class that day, maybe creating an audio version of our text and trying to help some of our lower readers that way. There are some interesting uses for this technology and I have to adjust and try new things. That's really what it boils down to.

While looking for uses, I have found some pages that should be useful.
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/
-general stuff, may have uses in a variety of class settings
http://www.podcast.net/
-more general stuff
http://epnweb.org/
- more education based than the first two offerings with separate sections for the different curricula

First Wiki

Here is the START of a wiki that I'm considering trying to use with my students in the next school year. I have the basic divisions started and will see how it develops throughout the months to follow. It's really an easy thing to do so far, but I have lots to learn. Check out the Team Viking wiki.

Wikis for Me

I found a free wiki-building web page that seems easy, watch the tutorial, basic and FREE. Free is the good part. Paying a few bucks a month gets you more stuff, but for starters this seems pretty good. I'll try making one for my classes next year and see how it works. More on that later.

Fun In Space - Zero Gravity

Fun in near zero G...who says science can't be fun

More Space

I found a great weightless video on YouTube. Other than some fun with a cat, it shows a lot of what weightlessness is like. I'd been looking for some short clips to show my students about what it's like on the ISS. Some might be a little upset by the cat experiment, but I laughed any way. Should be good to use next year!
Wahoo...maybe I'll get to liking YouTube too!

Just Cool

This might not fit into any real ed tech topics, but it's just cool. I enjoy pictures/videos of space and the ISS. I use them frequently with my students. Here is a nice little set of pictures. They change from time to time and are usually very well done. ISS shots show a variety vantage points and show that the astronauts seem to be having a pretty good time in space. I can't wait for the average person to be able to go. I just hope I'm not too old for it by the time it gets here.

Power Point in Blogs

Well, the first attempts at putting a PP into the blog didn't work. I guess it's time to research and figure that one out next. If anyone has any ideas or success stories here, please fill me in :)
Instead I'll just insert a couple of pictures from the DP class for Week 4. I know I'm behind, but am nearing the surface!

This is Bear in his natural state...sleeping. He's such a calm animal, most of the time.










This is my attempt at being "artsty". At a recent car show, I tried taking different pictures, and avoiding the traditional shots, as recommended by an earlier reading.

A Couple of Useful Blogs

Throughout the searches lately, I've found couple of blogs that stand out in their uses for me in Earth and Space Science.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/kerthan is written by a contributing author to Space.com which is one of my usual stops in the AM when I'm checking the various news sites. His blog is full of links and content that may be useful in the future.

The second page is http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/ which looks to be useful as I try to implement a blogging aspect to a new student written science based newsletter. The focus is on blogging in schools which lends itself well to my next venture. I'll be trying the student blogging on a small scale and see how it progresses before embarking on a much larger scale the following year.

Uhhg

Today was beautiful, sunny and not too warm; the perfect day to be out doing something, anything at all, and I spent it working in front of the computer. I'm working to get all caught up, and have worked myself to confusion. I'm trying to find an article on a product from an online digital photo magazine that reviews something that I can use in my Earth and Space Science classroom. So far, I'm not doing too well. Most things I've found just don't fit all the requirements. I'm tired and fed up with this part, might just skip it?
I started working on my second class and feel very overwhelmed there too. SO much to do, I'm getting confused and feel like I'll never get up to the point of being up to date! On top of that, I think I start my third class today. I haven't taken the time to check any of my email accounts, so I'm not sure, but I bet I'm behind in that one too...this is really starting to get to me...I can't remember ever feeling this bad about the things that I have to do. I guess I should have done things a little bit differently.
That's all the time I'm putting into posts today. Back to the grindstone!

Getting Caught Up

This past week has really put me behind. The last week of teaching usually makes for lots of work. I corrected 14,300 answers for the final this year. Most of that is behind me and I can start looking at taking care of school for my self. I hope to be all caught up by the end of next week. The Nk-12 class text is pretty well read. This is the first text that doesn't read like a text. I like it. DigPhoto has gone OK so far, I just wish that I had more time to dedicate to it. Hopefully that will improve now.
I'm looking forward to taking the time to find new shots and using my newfound skills to improve my classes next year. So far I've liked what I've seen. The chapter on the wikis got me thinking about how I could use them. I've started a file for my thoughts as I go through classes. It should help me to remember what I'd like to use new ideas for in my lessons. I leave today's post with a picture. It's one that turned out pretty well. It's also one of my favorite areas to hunt. I'm usually only here during the winter, with snow and ice everywhere, but for a class I ventured in to see what I could get a shot of. I'm happy that I did. Plus, on this little hike, I saw that there are number of native brook trout that live here. Sounds like an excuse to take day fishing the length of this little tributary. The surrounding area is steep enough and far enough from the general public that it should a solitary event...peace and quiet!

NK12 Approval

I received the initial approval for my club next year. In the MS each teach is to supervise a club that relates in some way to the curriculum. I'm looking at a club based on a newsletter that I put out for my students. The idea is to have students find the weird, latest and greatest in the science world and collaborate to make the newsletter. Meeting face to face once a month would not work to get the latest news out to the students, so the use of blogs only makes sense. I'll still have things to work out with the tech department, but I'm under the impression that all looks good. If all goes well with this small group there's talk of implementing the idea for my entire team and then all 8th grade...and from there the entire school. So, what I do now must be well thought out and demonstrate the possibilities while keeping guard for the possible misuses. I'm the "guinea pig" for this idea...maybe I'll get an official promotion to "certified test monkey" if all goes well? One can only hope :)

DP resizing

I tried PIXresizer yesteday. I'm pleased with the simple use and the fact that it allows for saving to a new folder, so the original and larger files can still be used later. It takes them down to a small size and doesn't cost too much in the detail department. A NICE FREE program!

DP - Shot choice and size

One of the most difficult parts of the digital photography course has been deciding which shots should make the cut and truly show what I've learned. Sometimes, looking too deep into things may make for poor choices. More than one picture has missed the cut due to minor deficiencies. These shots look really nice until I started to think about what I'd read.
On the same note, getting the pictures down to the required size can be rough too. This weekend, I talked photography with a friend who's pretty into the whole thing, with a $1500 camera, lightweight graphite tripod and countless other things. While looking through his recent shots, I noticed that the average picture size was between 55 and 60 megs each! Through this class, I'm supposed to get up to 10 shots sent at no more than 2 megs for the lot. That has posed its own problems. I have multiple versions of some as learned how to make the initial ones smaller without cropping them down. I really want to show the pictures without any form of editing, but have conceded and cropped a few. Getting a feeling for the setting before taking the picture should lead to less editing later.
During my car show, which my car failed to make, I spent time with a friend's girlfriend who happened to be an art/photography major. She was using a 1967 camera of some sort, which meant that each of her shots had to be well though out and perfect, as there would be no manipulation later. She helped me with a few things and suggested a few shots, but none fit the current assignment. For the first time in a long time, the rains held off and not water shots were available. I did get a few usable shots, some of which I though were interesting, that may make a later assignment, but I'll have to see what happens.
Still it comes down to choosing the pictures that best show the desired results. Sometimes it hurts to leave some of them out, but between the requirements and the size limits, something's got to give. I just hope I'm choosing pictures that show what they're supposed to!

DP-Rainbow

Today I found that taking a shot of a rainbow is quite difficult. I saw a rainbow over the rear of my house this evening after a rain, and thought that it would be a good opportunity for a pic or two. Well, after trying multiple settings and more shots than I'd like to admit to, the rainbow disappeared before I found the perfect shot. Each shot looks grainy, and unfocused. I would like to figure this out at some point and get a good rainbow shot. Not biggie right now, just a few minutes wasted and not much to show for it. I've wasted more time on less useful things I guess.