Virtual Service Learning

The presentation from class is available here:

http://scribe.edu.glogster.com/service-and-engaged-learning/

When I was creating it, it was in between a basement bailout, so there are so many things now that I'm thinking 'gosh, I should have done this' or 'music would have been so cool -- I'm sure I could have used a Van Halen song even if it fit the presentation poorly just because they ROCK'.

Maybe Friday night was a poor choice to write this entry...

In the presentation, I highlighted four possible tools that could somehow be incorporated into the service learning portion of the curriculum. I've only used freerice.com before, but I think since twice the students have chosen to hold a book drive that I might try using bookcrossing this semester as a trial run on it. I have a contact at a local coffeeshop (Moondance Cafe --- WONDERFUL food, Alterra coffee, and he makes almost everything fresh) that I think might be amiable to the idea of having his place be a point where the bookcrossings can happen.

Anyhow, this is definitely something I can use in my class, and I've already started to think of other things that I can do with these tools. One of the first items that the students do is create a powerpoint (it's ungraded; they get the points for the attempt) to a) demonstrate how much they know about technology and b) show me how comfortable they are with asking questions when they don't know something and c) get a feel for the public speaking abilities of the class.

I've always let them just use whatever they want as a topic, but I've got an idea in my head on how to make it a little more exciting, incorporate some research components, and utilize not just powerpoint, but also glogster and animoto to do it. Hopefully it will be fun *crosses fingers*. I'll probably blog here about it... I mean, I hate to abandon this after just five weeks. Especially considering the failed first attempt on the blog. Then, I'd have abandoned two of them, and I think it's like a policy that if you abandon too many blog, the information superhighway sheriff takes away your blogging license.

Also, now that Tuesday afternoons are free, I need to find a Voki Addiction Support Group.

Personal Learning Network

Admittedly, I've been spending more time on the final project than I have on the personal learning network. I think that's very much due to the fact that I have been online for so long and have been participating in networks that lead to learning in some way or another for nearly half my life.

Twitter was interesting to use for a professional reason instead of a non-productive utterly fictitious way (though, I'm not going to stop sending tweets out for Gandalf... he's much too popular to give that up...) I did find some interesting tidbits through the professional twittering that goes on.

It was really more through the project that I was engaging in more social networking this week, and specifically while using Akoha. For what I tend to do personally online, I usually network with one of three groups:

1. people I work with who are playing Mafia Wars and need an extra person

2. people I used to go to high school with... who are also playing Mafia Wars

3. people likely to read Gandalf's tweets

Through Akoha, I was networking with.. other people with very random interests. But the site itself doesn't just attract everyone, it attracts the sort of person with the enthusiasm and awareness of community to take on the tasks on the site. It means you don't get someone suddenly blurting out 'a/s/l?' or sending images that look like they were taken in a brothel. (Huh, I can't believe I used the word brothel in a writing assignment...)

The point is, while the connections were made for very random reasons (omg, I love snapping turtles! i'm friending you!), they were sometimes leading to deeper conversations and going off in tangents and just generally become a learning experience for both parties, one of communication, cultural awareness, and in some cases discussion and debate.

So that's where I ended up. Not sure if I really did things 'right' this week or not, but for what it's worth, I've been enjoying it.

And now to go reward myself with coconut pudding and check the basement (because I shall be forever paranoid since Thursday flooding). I know, I know, here's this silly stuff no one cares about, but I'm just too used to this sort of blather at the end. There's no icon for me to pick, no music to input, no emoticon to add...

Funny link

http://www.googlefalle.com/googletrap/#

Kate the Dolphin

(Please ignore this post; it's for the Tuesday presentation)

Animoto

This week, we had the option of trying out some different online tools that could help in the classroom. The one I chose to play with is Animoto, which was very easy to use. Inserting the images was pretty quick, and I was able to figure out how to manipulate them and add text easily.

When the video was being created, I wasn't required to wait for it -- an email would be sent when it was finished. I waited for it anyhow, impatient though I am to see these things when they're finished, like the kid at the zoo that stands and stares the full three minutes at the wax animal machines.

The video was fantastic -- until I reached the end and realized that since the system has a thirty-second-ish time limit unless you pay for a longer video, that it sometimes cuts off the end. It allowed for twelves images or text boxes, but only actually used the first ten. This means that the video ends a bit awkwardly, and does not show the 'final product'.

With some tweaking, it could be fixed, and luckily there is an edit function that allows for this (which I'll attempt later), but for now, here's where I'm at:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

I could certainly see this as a viable tool that could be used, even in its thirty second form, both in the classroom, and for projects that I might do in the library.

Okay, my anal retentiveness strikes again... here's the redone version...'

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Don't suppose it's obvious who my favorite ancient Greek is...

Growing up on Google

I’ve played pacman on the header and I look forward to each and every April 1st. My gmail account came from an invitation, and when I was in college and had to present two different ‘free’ web tools, I showed everyone imdb.com as my database and… oh, yeah, Google.

We called it a ‘meta search engine’ at the time, and no one knew who was going to win the race — would it be Mamma, the mother of all search engines? (http://www.mamma.com/) Or would ‘normal’ search engines win out with their superior algorithms — at that time, everyone wanted to cuddle up to AltaVista. (http://www.altavista.com/)

Well, no one ‘mammas’ themselves to see what’s out there on the web about them, and AltaVista was purchased by Yahoo some time ago. It’s all about Google.

But how can Google keep from becoming future roadkill on the information superhighway?

Many of the tools that they have developed and continue to refine have helped to ensure their future success. Gmail turned email into an interactive experience, with a built-in chat feature, a special system of linking threads of the same emails together, and most recently introducing Buzz as an additional social networking aspect. The list of tools is exhaustive — but, is too much Google too much of a good thing?

From the perspective of a librarian, I am optimistically cautious of the information collection done by Google. As someone trained to keep people’s information needs private, I feel a certain degree of insecurity knowing just how much information is collected. Search terms are analyzed, as are the subjects of emails — ever wonder how it is that the ads displayed sometimes seem to be the exact things you’d be interested in? But can Google really be faulted for it — in order to provide the fantastic services that they do, free of charge, there needs to be something given in exchange.

Dr. McCoy : Posterchild for Technophobia

A recent perusing of an article by Gouri Banerjee entitled “Using Social Media in Small Colleges” (http://www.aaceconnect.org/group/socialmedia/forum/topics/using-social-media-in-small) made me think of a well-known character from the original Star Trek series. Who doesn’t remember the cranky, transporter-shy doctor, made famous by DeForest Kelley and reprised by Karl Urban? Dammit, Jim, I bet he would have refused to get a cell phone, and probably let his email on the Enterprise build up for months (and bribed Uhura to check it for him once in a while).

There are always going to be people who refuse to use the newest technologies — or even the not-so-newest technologies. However, there are many who do not use tools that are available not because they are afraid of them or hate them, but only because they do not know how to use them. Education is certainly the key — not necessarily for the students, but for the educators.

Thinking to the situation at the college I work at, there are yearly gatherings of the instructors and staff — a perfect forum for these tools to be highlighted. Not in lengthy workshops, but as short bites between speakers, kept short, sweet, and interesting. Think: Superbowl Commercials. Who doesn’t love those commercials? Even if it ends up being the worst game ever, I can’t recall turning off a game early — you never know when there might be a cute dog-saves-horse or talking baby or dancing lizard ad that might otherwise be missed.

Even so, there will always be those that run flailing from whatever is new (trains? I’ll take a horse! telegraph? This letter will do just fine!). My advice for those frustrated that not everyone is embracing the new communication technologies is not to waste your energy on those so set, and to openly offer assistance to colleagues who are interested.

And remember — McCoy might not have been fond of that transporter, but I bet he knew those shuttle crafts inside out. To be honest, you’ll never see me step foot in, on, or around EITHER. I’d rather walk.