Working on 2.0

I have spent the last several weeks trying to collect information on good Web 2.0 apps to use for the presentation at Trinity. It's so easy to get lost in fiddling around with things that are so cool. It's too easy to lose focus on the reason I am doing it all. I've worked in Webspiration and created a Wiki so I can list the apps I use in the presentation. I intend to list a lot of the things I find right here, as soon as I can figure out how to do some of them. Yeah, right.

Nice, Quiet Day

Today was a perfect day for staying in my robe until I absolutely had to get dressed -- cool & damp. I worked on my proposal for the Dio Conference presentation and started poking around in Webspiration.
Mind Mapping software is a good thing for folks who need visuals to keep themselves focused--like me. My mother probably would have given her checkbook to anyone who could map my thoughts. If they had this kind of technology around when I was a kid, I probably wouldn't have spent my entire school career thinking there was something wrong with my brain. I knew I was smarter than my test scores. That's probably why I spend so much time with kids who need the kind of help I can offer. With the right approach and application, I can give the kids who can't take tests an opportunity to show that they really know the material if you give them some time and a leg up.
So I signed up for Webspiration (beta) which is free for the time being. Who knows what they're going to ask for it once they're done with the trial. The software is not cheap at all. Soon afterward I got an email from them that they're going to stop adding accounts on the 18th. I just got in. So now I have something else to play with. But if it goes like I want it to, it will make the presentation that much cooler.
I also got started on a Wiki. I figure I'll need one for after the presentation so I can post my information on it for people who lose the handouts.
You can check out the progress.

http://mywebspiration.com/view/116168a32d39

100 Undiscovered Websites

I've become a champion of Web2.0. Spending over 30 years in a Catholic school you get used to looking for cheap, or better yet -- free. So, when PC Magazine had an article about the top 100 Undiscovered Websites, you'd better believe I was on it.
There they were -- a treasure trove of goodies for the teacher of technology to download and begin sharing. Gotta love it.

The grandboys and I had fun with Totlol last night -- looking up videos of kittens falling off ledges and laughing at dogs morphing. Totlol is YouTube for kids -- filtered for content and of age appropriate.

Viewzi Power Grid is one of the best search tools I've ever seen. Put in what you want to search and up pops the website index pages to browse. I'm going to see how to put the links on this blog.

Earth Album Alpha -- a mash up between Google Earth and Flickr. Click on any part of the world and up comes beautiful photos of the sights.

SearchMe -- another Visual Search. You can look for videos and music as well as pages. Ask for The Beatles and you can even find a choral arrangement of Michelle by the Kennedy Chorus (if you really want to hear it.) As for videos -- most of the ones I looked at were YouTube, however, instead of offering other things similar but unrelated, it has a plethora of videos by the artists right there to scroll through.

There was lots more besides, so I'll put in the link to the article.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2174685,00.asp (good stufft)

The Dow is Up (and so am I)

Went to Andi's today to see Theo. We played all morning while she went to the doctors. I don't remember having this much fun with my kids, although I'm sure I did from time to time. The great thing about going to see Theo is that I have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do except rummage through his toy box and put stacking toys together. At that moment, there was nothing more important in this world -- not work, not Church, not cleaning the house (joke). Just me and the boy wrassling on the floor and dancing to the ABC song.

The Dow is still Down

Sitting on the heating pad while trying to get the back to settle down, I'm watching the smiling babes at CNN worry about the Dow. It's below 7000. I don't like to think about the Dow or the NASDAQ or any other acronyms that mean numerical trouble for us. I don't understand them, and have never been able to figure out exactly what the numbers and arrows mean. That's not a good thing to admit since they have a direct effect on what happens in my life and the lives of those I love. I do understand that down is bad and up is good. I guess, since I don't know anything about Wall Street and the suits that run everything, I'll have to put my faith in the people who do, or say they do. Certainly, the Prez is thinking about it, and that's his job. Mine is to keep working for my paycheck and trust that I can keep doing that until I win the lottery.

It always makes me think about the stories of the Great Depression that my dad would tell. His favorite (and mine) was about a boy he knew in his one room schoolhouse who was so poor that he would go to the creek with two pieces of bread and catch a grasshopper to put between the slices for lunch (yeech). Whether it was true or not it made his daughters squeal and that was certainly the effect he wanted by the telling of it.
He'd talk about how he was born in one room and chicks were hatching in another and that it was more important that the chicks survived than him.

From listening to his stories and those my grandmother told of the abuses of the Industrial Revolution, I must conclude that we have quite a ways to go before we get as desperate as those who lived through those times.

Who knows, perhaps if we did get desperate enough we could produce another generation like that one.

Buzz Killers

So as I was saying, it's so much fun teaching.

However, I have discovered that when you know how to do things on a computer some folks automatically think you know how to fix computers -- not just computers, but any machine -- even TVs, smart boards, printers, handhelds and computers. Pa-leeze!!! Do I look like I know how to do that? I'm just a little old computer teacher, trying to achieve happiness and self-fulfillment in my lab.

Sometimes I'll get lucky and the problem will be a switch, battery or cable, and I can make myself look like a wizard without too much trouble. I once saw a T-shirt on Cafe Press that said, "No, I won't fix your computer." I should get that. Either that or get my own little pink toolbox and go to it. I guess this is why I get the big money.

Picking it up where I left off..

Mrs. Kelly -- the introduction:

Okay, so the last time I tried this was two years ago. I've been busy.

Changing after 30+ years of teaching music to technology has been interesting to say the least. On one hand, it's like a mental water ride . Educational technology is changing so dramatically and so quickly that I'm having a hard time keeping afloat so I kind of bump around the twists and turns and hope I don't hurt something necessary. On the other hand, I think it's been good for me. If I don't do new things I may as well start interviewing nursing homes because my brain will stagnate.

I've tried to twitter -- even found a few friends. I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care what people are doing nor do I particularly care what they think about their dinner or whatever. For that matter, I may not want anyone to know what I'm doing nor do I feel like sharing all the time.

I'm afraid of Second Life. I'm turning 55 shortly and I'm still trying to get a handle on this life. I'm afraid if I go there I may not come home, especially with some of those cute avatars running around.

I think what's most exciting, though, are the kids. As I was saying to Nino, my hairdresser, I think kids today are way more fun to teach than in the past. When I taught music I found a few kids that I could really connect with and the rest just kind of took up space for 50 minutes while looking at me like they wished I was in some other life but theirs. Kids that I teach now -- even the little ones-- are so excited by everything. They grab ahold of new ideas like they were legos (sometimes they are) and try to see how far they can run with it.

From my experience with my own kids and grandkids, I know they need to touch and hold and smell and taste everything to really understand what it is. Unfortunately, in this world there are priceless Hummels, glass lamps, sharp things, hot things, delicate things and things that will cause a grown-up to go into apoplexy if it's touched. Not so technology. It was made to be messed with. I think that's what I like the best. I think that's how I learn the best. The kids and I -- we can do it together and it's fun.

Anyway, I'm in this unique balancing act of trying to grow older gracefully yet not giving in to the temptation of slacking off and becoming granite. I need to keep playing with these toys and learning. So I'm going to add my two cents to the blogosphere and poke around other people's blogs and try not to be boring.