Thing 5: Photo Mashup Fun

I had fun with Big Huge Labs! There could be a number of interesting activities that would enliven a lesson or unit in a class.  For example, you could make badges to create identities for historical figures.  You might make motivational posters for a political campaign in a government or civics class.  A calendar of visual math structures using graphic elements from Wolfram Alpha would be very cool.
The only trouble I have is that my district block most of these mashup sites.  Teachers would have to work with them at home.  I did create a mashup badge that is kind of fun.

Mr. Fred's Picasa Slide Show

Thing 4: Photo Sharing

Photo sharing has been a bit problematic for me.  I have put a few photos on my Facebook page, but I don't take many pictures even though I became an iPhone owner in August.  I think one of the main reasons I don't use Picasa, although I did download and install the app on my Mac, is that I am a pretty private person and I just don't post much information about myself for the world to see.
At school, I don't discourage kids from posting pictures, but I am constantly trying to educate them on the potential hazards of sharing too much information with people they don't know.  A number of students have "friended" me on Facebook ( I NEVER ask to be a friend of a student because of the awkward power relationship) and am surprised at both the text and photo posts some of them put up.  Even some teachers who are my "Facebook friends" have put up visual and textual information that I think may come back to bite them in the future.
Kids at my school are blocked from most of the photo search engines except they can use Flickr.   When they find photos they would like to use in a project, I instruct them on how to cite the site and owner of the photos as a source and show them how to capture the photo while leaving all the "button" and linking code behind.

Thing 3
The hardest of the 7.5 for me is knowing where I want to end up.  The easiest is viewing problems as challenges.  When I was a classroom teacher, I always had to tell my kids that they needed to make sure that I stayed on the "subject highway" and didn't make a "sharp left turn and begin to two-track off road" on some odd topic.  As a media specialist I have the same problem.  Sometimes I will start learning a new thing and then " two-track off road" on something else. I don't know if I will ever be able to focus on just one thing when I am working.  I have too much fun learning about new stuff that serendipity lays before while I'm trying to locate or do other things. 

When I became a media specialist I knew that much of my job would entail figuring out technology problems for staff and students.  I also knew that helping teachers "solve the mystery" of where certain information was or certain other online resources were located would be a challenge and fun.  I am one of those geeks who really likes to do research. 

First Blog - 23 Things

My primary goal for taking this class is to create a very user friendly and interactive website for students and staff to use. As the media specialist at Forest Hills Eastern, I am always trying to come up with interesting websites and online articles. The high school kids are also interested in starting a book club. I would like to use the redesigned media center website for communicating our thoughts about the books we are going to read. Lastly, I would like to create a quality website that will be very accessible to teachers and staff (and perhaps secure from students as well) that will make it easier for them to learn about and incorporate new technology ideas into their curriculums and teaching.