RSS Reflection

C:\Users\Heather\Pictures\Screen_Capture_1_RSS.png

This blog posting is a reflection on creating and following my own RSS Reader page and should include a screen dump of my RSS Reader page. (However, I am currently having technical difficulties..I downloaded Jing, took a screen shot of my RSS Reader page, saved it, and when I go to post it, the above shows up. I have tried several different things, and feel that I am lost in a sea of technology, paddling against big waves, trying not to be swamped.SO, there will be a Part 2 of my RSS Reflection that will include a screen dump once I overcome the technical barriers that are blocking me.)

I created my soon to be revealed RSS Reader page through Google reader since I also have a Google calendar and use Google documents, I like to stick with Google. I chose reader subscriptions to sites that I thought could be used in my professional growth and that would provide me with ideas that I can use in the classroom.

From tracking pages routinely, I discovered subscriptions that don't have frequent updates such as PBS org teachers and Reading Apprenticeship. Bummer! There was not any recent activity since I started following both of those. Other sites such as Free Technology for Teachers and the Cool Cat Teacher blog have frequent, often daily updates.

I have learned useful information from the contents of newsfeeds I have been tracking that apply to my own professional growth as well as tips that I can use in the classroom. For example, from the NPR Topics: Education, it was interesting to read about happenings in education around the country. It was informative to read about how Mayor Bloomberg in New York City is appointing Cathie Blak as Chancellor for the school system. Also from the NPR site, I was able to listen to Talk of the Nation and hear Neal Conan host a discussion on schools finding the achievement gap tough to close between black boys and their white peers. This was informative to listen to, especially since the population of students I teach are predominantly African American.

I found that the ideas that I was most interested in for using in my classroom came from the Free Technology for Teachers feed. I got ideas from postings such as '7 Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games', 'An Easy Way to Make Online Booklets', and 'Educational Games and Toys for Your Holiday Lists'.

How I might apply content on my RSS Reader page in my own setting is to share information with other teachers in my building. Through a posting on Free Technology for Teachers (I really love this site!), I learned that there was a free scientific calculator for websites. I can share information about Web2.0calc.com with the math teachers. We frequently have shortages of calculators and this could be a helpful tool to provide students with calculators.

Trying to reflect on how I might apply the capabilities of RSS Reader pages in my classroom gave me a couple of ideas. I could create a class RSS Reader page to expose my students to it, and maybe we could find a 6th grade middle school orientated language arts feed and subscribe to it. Or, if we are studying a novel from a specific author, we could search to see if that author has a blog and include that on a RSS Reader page. When searching through Google blogs, there were several blogs, such as '6th Grade Language Arts by Mrs. Helm' in which the teacher used the blog to post reminders about classroom assignments. That could be useful if it is updated frequently, and if a student was absent from class they could be kept abreast of assignments.

One thing that I am discovering about some blogs, such as 'Ms. Teacher', is that they are not frequently updated. Or, that people take breaks from blogging. A fellow educator from 'Teacher Man/Teacher Ms.' even made the posting that since he took a hiatus from his blog, he has had more traffic on it then he had when he was frequently updating it. I posted to a blog of another student in CEP 810 to comment on her social networking post, as well as posting to a blog on MACAUL. My experience with commenting to a blog post is that the person has to approve the blog before it is posted for all to see. I think that is a good safeguard to prevent unwanted comments.

Before enrolling in CEP 810, I was unfamiliar with the term RSS and did not know that there was an organized way that I could subscribe to feeds on a reader page to keep updated on issues in education and technology, as well as ideas for the classroom. Furthermore, I had never read a blog posting. I have found the course tasks with the RSS reader page informative and helpful. I forsee that I will continue to follow feeds on my Google reader.

Creative Commons and Media Use Performance Tasks

 This is a Creative Commons image that I might consider using in the classroom. My 6th graders are getting ready to read the novel The Great Gilly Hopkins. I might incorporate this image and other novel images into my curriculum by having students create 'book reports'  or 'advertisements why a book is a good read' through power point presentations or microsoft publisher. Students will be able to use the image of the novel when creating projects.

I completed the tasks of opening an account with Flickr and uploaded an image from my digital camera and licensed the photo with Creative Commons. Here is an embedded link in my post that goes directly to my Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/hbombbizzle

PC Maintenance and Security workshop response to tutorials

Three of the Atomic Learning PC Maintenance and Security workshop tutorials that I visited were: Protecting Your Family Online; Making Email Safer; and Tips for Safer Web Browsing. There were things that I learned from each of these that I will definitely be sharing with others, as well as some information that surprised me. By posting this information in my blog, I will be completing my performance tasks for the PC Maintenance and Security lab.

I chose the Protecting Your Family Online tutorial to become more knowledgeable about stuff I should aware of, since I have 11, 7, and 4 year olds at home that frequently use the 'family' older computer in their playroom. I will definitely be sharing information about setting up the Content Advisor in Internet Explorer. While I informally monitor what my kids are going on and am usually nearby when they are on the computer, there are times when I am away from the playroom area doing chores in another area of the house. I like how the content filter will allow me to filter out what my kids can see, and that I am enabled to approve certain content. I wasn't exactly surprised by the next thing that I am going to share, but it is a pointer that I am going to keep in mind as my 11 year old continues to progress towards the teenage years. IF YOUR CHILD HAS A 'CLEAR' HISTORY, with nothing on it, then chances are he or she is clearing their internet tracks and you should probably question why the history is being cleared.

Another tutorial that I completed was Making Email Safer. I will share with others information about Mailwasher, which is a free spam blocker. While there is an upgraded version that you can pay for, the basic free version is still a useful tool. I really like the thought of blocking spam emails and bouncing them back to the sender. I found the information about avoiding phising scams useful, and would naturally have been suspicious if 'Bank of America' (the example used) had sent me an email to confirm account and user information. But I might have been taken in by the 'eBay' second chance-respond now phising scam, since I never use eBay and if I did, might be caught by that one. So, the information about the eBay phising scam surprised me.

A third tutorial I visited was Tips for Safer Web Browsing. Information that I will share from this tutorial will include that there are 3 types of cookies. I kind of had an idea of what a cookie was, but didn't realize that there can be 3 different kinds: persistent cookies (such as amazon.com); session cookies; and tracking cookies (Beware! Tracking cookies are security risks, they report back to advertisers and should be disabled and blocked). You probably could say I was surprised by learning that you can use a thumbdrive to aide in web browsing.

Visiting the above mentioned tutorials were useful as well as the others on the Atomic Learning site. I definitely am a novice on the computer and feel that my mind is a sponge soaking up all kids of useful tidbits. Right now I am feeling slightly saturated, so I am going to sign off on this post.