Learning Labyrinth

Thing 21 – Create a custom start page using PageFlakes
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I have been using iGoogle for years now and I love it! I’ve also played around with other personalized homepage tools like Netvibes, Protopage, yourminis and Schmedley so I was already familiar with the basic features PageFlakes had to offer.  However, I was elated to learn and reflect on all the educational benefits that PageFlakes can provide with its sharing and broadcasting features. The sharability is something that I have not come across on other personal home page sites I’ve explored in the past. However, these incredibly powerful features make it seem as if the integration possibilities are endless!

As a former classroom teacher, this really makes me wonder…

• How many teachers are currently using PageFlakes with their classes?
• In what ways are teachers implementing the various PageFlakes features with their classes?
• Do they have a general class homepage pagecast that includes such ‘flakes’ as notes from them to the students, homework assignments, links to class related documents or websites, research areas, a built in dictionary or thesaurus, podcasts created by their students or even pictures of their various classroom projects or events?
• Have any teachers created a page focused on a curriculum unit or topic, where they place relevant ‘flakes’ pertaining to what they are currently studying? For example, a page all about the Greek Olympics, with links to Flickr photos, blogs, news feeds, podcasts, videos, etc… each pertaining to information about the Greek Olympics.

In my current role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I am going to work on creating technology integration resource PageFlakes Pagecasts that I can then share with the teachers at my school. I have already created a Promethean Activclassroom pagecast. I’ve included a RSS Feed flake for the Promethean Planet – Activtips video podcast series; a RSS Feed flake for the ActivEducator Blog from Promethean; Web Site Clipper flakes that target the three main areas of the Promethean Planet Forum; and a Bookmarks flake that features links to Promethean’s multiple resource sites for educators. I also created a del.icio.us account with the username: Activeducator so that I could pull in sites tagged with various terms synonymous with not only Promethean but also interactive whiteboards and their use in the classroom. Then, I added a del.icio.us feed flake that features a tag cloud for the user “Activeducator”; additionally, I added another del.icio.us feed flake that uses the tag: activclassroom. I’ve also included a Flickr Photostream flake targeting the tag: activclassroom; as well as the Universal Video Search flake and the YouTube flake to feed in videos tagged: Promethean, Activclassroom. I plan to create two more Promethean pagecasts that will target their two incredibly powerful software programs: ActivStudio and ActivPrimary. These Pagecasts will focus on resources and lesson plans that can be used by or within the Activ software programs.

Over the summer, I am psyched to be able to work on creating more and more pages that pertain to various educational technology integration ideas or tools that are already available to the teachers at our school, but are sorely underutilized. To begin with I plan to create PageFlakes Pagecasts for software programs like Kidspiration, Google Earth, SketchUp and even Scratch, as well as, web 2.0 tools such as ed.Voicethread and Google Docs. Although I think I might begin my PageFlakes Pagecasts creation excursion with creating pages that focus on resources for creating and using podcasting, wikis and blogs in the classroom. I also aim to create a page that focuses on technology tutorials and how-to resources, this will definitely include links to (hopefully feeds if I can find a way to make it work) Atomic Learning where we recently bought a subscription to for our school community.

Thing 5 – Learn about RSS and set up Google Reader

Thing 6 – Feed your reader: find & subscribe to feeds and build a reading habit

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Ok, I think I had too much fun with these “Things”. Namely because while browsing through the list of blogs I came across David Pogue’s blog, Pogue’s Posts,
within the NYTimes.com RSS feeds list. I attended the Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC) in November 2007 where David Pogue was brought in as a keynote speaker. He was hysterical! I had never heard of David Pogue before attending his keynote, but now, it is a name I will never forget. Anyways, David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. He is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and an accomplished author of many how-to books.

After subscribing to Pogue’s Posts, I found it impossible to just scan and skim his entries. I HAD to read them all! He has a way of presenting the truth in a very real, “call it like it is”, hysterical manner. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I read many of his posts, while at the same time, experiencing many “ah ha” moments and “I completely agree” thoughts. While David often targets certain groups, like bad tech-support reps in his post Today’s Tech-Support Nightmare, I think readers (even those belonging to the targeted group) will find it hard to be offended by his articles. He recently posted an amusing article, Tech Support Gets a Reprieve While Users Take a Hit, that turned his attention to the technology USERS rather than his usual targeted group of tech support reps.

In his post, Readers Respond to the Debate Over Responsible Downloading, David blogs responses from his readers regarding the many shades of gray that exist in the law and in human ethics surrounding copyright-morality situations. I found the responses to the series of hypothetical questions he posed incredibly interesting. Another post I found on David’s blog referenced the Frontline documentary, Growing Up Online, that I recently blogged about and shared with the technology team at school. (You can read my blog post here.) His article, How Dangerous Is the Internet for Children?, reflects on an article he was asked to write a few years ago for a parenting magazine. He quotes his chief message for the article was this: “Sure, there are dangers. But they’re hugely overhyped by the media. The tales of pedophiles luring children out of their homes are like plane crashes: they happen extremely rarely, but when they do, they make headlines everywhere. The Internet is just another facet of socialization for the new generation; as always, common sense and a level head are the best safeguards.” This was not at all what the editors of the magazine where looking for, rather, they wanted another scare tactic message for parents.

Anyway, if you have never heard of David Pogue, or would like to enjoy a laugh or two sometime in your crazy-busy life, I would highly suggest checking out and subscribing to his blog feed. I have a feeling you will really enjoy reading his posts and finding them incredibly easy to relate to. J Enjoy!