Labyrinth of Learning 2.0

Thing 19 - Intro to Video Sharing; Explore YouTube and TeacherTube

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I enjoy exploring video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video and TeacherTube; but I am far from being an addict like many students and adults that I know. I definitely see integration possibilities for using such sites within the classroom environment, provided the content used is in alignment with the curriculum goals and objectives. Too many times I have seen fellow educators showing useless videos and other multimedia content in the classroom as an attempt to integrate technology into the classroom. However, their efforts are misguided and highly ineffective as the content does not do anything to deepen or enhance the learning experience for the students.

One area of caution and concern surrounding these public video-sharing sites is the danger of exposing your students to inappropriate material via the links and previews to additional content available at the end of the selected and viewed video. These links are often completely irrelevant to the video you previously viewed and can expose the students to any number of things that would be deemed inappropriate for school-aged children. It’s much like the “next blog” feature in Blogger, where you have no idea where it’s going to take you. In a way, I guess it’s like playing Russian Roulette.

However, while exploring with YouTube this time, I came across a rather hilarious video about how to bath a cat. Now, if any of you have ever had the experience of trying to actually give a cat a bath you will no doubt be able to relate to the humorous, yet in “oh so true”, depiction of the experience.

“How to Wash a Cat“ posted by BigDAS

Thing 16 - Set shared goals using 43 Things

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Although I have heard talk about 43Things many times before, this was my first experience actually snooping around it. I say “snooping” because I felt like I was invading other people’s private thoughts and ideas by reading their personal diaries. I have to say I don’t think I would be comfortable publishing my goals, or in some cases my dreams and fantasies, on such a public domain. I am generally a very private person in RL in that I very rarely (if ever) discuss my true feelings, thoughts or ideas with others – even those closest to me – for fear of being not accepted or ridiculed. This all may sound absurd to some who think they know me and would immediately venture to say that I hold nothing back or that I sometimes share too much information. However, what they fail to see or realize is that everything that I haven’t held back or have divulged are not really my personal thoughts and feelings but rather facts or obvious realizations.

However, I do feel this site would be very useful and a wonderful tool for departments, teams and/or classrooms for tracking group goals.

Thing 11 - Create an online Slideshow using your own or Creative Commons photos.

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I created a slideshow on Animoto.com. I had difficulty finding the embed code and the site was not posting it for me to copy. However, I resorted to uploading it to YouTube and embedding the video on my wiki page via YouTube’s embed code. Yeessshhh….

Anyway, my slideshow contains photos of Australian Rainforests. Our Pre-K classes will be investigating these rainforests in the coming weeks and I wanted to have some pictures for them to see. :o)

Here is a direct link to my wiki sandbox page: http://k12l20sandbox.wikispaces.com/daniklaus