IN PURSUIT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In light of all the chaos and uncertainty surrounding current events, online tools are becoming more of a necessity than a convenience. With the requirements of social-distancing, self-isolation, remote learning, and everything else entailed under the mandates by government officials, we find ourselves resorting to our tablets, phones, laptops, and other devices more than ever before. I've wished for ways to communicate with my colleagues and to share with them things I'm finding out - and while we have each other's phone numbers, emails, and social media, those are just not great platforms to share easily. E-mail is probably the best choice among those since it puts the information in a place where the recipient can easily find and access it - but it does have some drawbacks. We have dozens - hundreds? - of emails daily with updates and new information and questions. If somehow the link or resource is shared inaccurately, there is now an additional obstacle to overcome bef...

I have to admit - I was very skeptical of this assignment. I had no idea what an aggregate page was or how to put one together! In reading the instructions, it sounded like this was a "Pinterest" of sorts...a place to keep all your ideas about stuff in one place....almost a replacement for the toolbar at the top of your screen. After I played around with both NetVibes and Protopage, I realized that this is actually a pretty cool idea. If I wanted, I could make my "aggregate page" my HOME page - and instead of having to click on 14 tabs or search for 14 sites, I can have them all ready to go and right in front of my face. That's kind of nifty, if you ask me. Of the two sites we were to experiment with, I initially thought that NetVibes looked more simplistic, less flashy, and easier to read. I think this still may be the case, but when I started playing around with NetVibes, I was turned around so backwards that I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to ...

"Mom! Can I watch YouTube?" This is a frequent question that I hear from my daughter. I'm always torn. I trust my daughter. I trust that she will not visit or search for any unsavory videos or subjects. But do I trust YouTube? Not really. YouTube for me has always been this big unknown. I usually only visit the popular site if a link from elsewhere takes me there, OR if I have a specific video I'm searching for. Otherwise, all that "chance" of seeing or hearing or experiencing something I don't want to is too big for my anti-risk taking ways. All that being said, I embraced this adventure because I realize that I live in the 21st century. Like our professor says - THIS is what kids use the way we use Google. Do I like it? No. That doesn't change the fact that it IS a fact! Also, my husband had just set up an account channel for me to record videos for my library students - so I was looking forward to playing around with that a bit more. What did I...

Ah, Twitter. 280 possibilities to express what's on your mind. (Note: This is new. The limit used to be 140.) Except for when someone takes 10 "posts" to express their long rambling thoughts. Um - Hello! That's not what Twitter is meant to do! Get on Facebook, Instagram, or - hey, I don't know - BLOG about it! I've actually been on Twitter (meaning, I created an account) since 2015. I never really embraced its use. I'm still not sure that what I'm doing now would be considered an "embrace" of Twitter either. However, last summer, I began using Twitter on a more regular basis after attending a Scholastic Reading Summit. I wanted to be able to follow some of the authors I met and learned from and this was the best way to do that. Subsequently, I jump on Twitter once or twice a week. Since the authors are basically the only ones I follow it's not a long feed to scroll through to see if I've missed anything interesting. I appreciate tho...

Ever "googled" yourself? I know I have...so I was surprised when this time the results were NOT what I expected. I suspect this was due to a couple "instructional" factors. When I have googled myself in the past, I don't think I've used quotation marks and I think I've started with my maiden name included. The instructions for this assignment said to "enter your name in quotes" - and to use that as a starting point. Putting "Sharon Howard" into Google resulted in thousands of hits - but a quick scroll through the first SIX pages revealed not a single "Sharon Howard" that was ME! Even when I added the geographic identifier of  "Texas" after my name (quotes here only - not for the search), still NOTHING that was me! There is no shortage of Sharon Howards in the world, that is for sure! (Quite a few obituaries - that was a little disturbing to see!) However, when I switched the search to "images", about ha...

CREATIVITY TOOLS This week's "Tech Play" assignment was to look at creativity tools  - and there are quite a few options out there. It seemed to me that many of them were versions of the same thing: a platform to upload pictures and or sound (narration or music) and then DO SOMETHING with them - a movie, a slideshow, a trailer, a poster, etc. These are the programs I played around with (or tried to, at any rate!): MERGE Cube, SonicPics, PuppetPals, Animoto, Glogster, ToonDoo, & iMovie. Below is a brief description along with my opinion of each. MERGE Cube - I didn't actually play with this one at this time as I don’t have one on hand but I DID play with one earlier this year. It's a pretty nifty little gadget. I knew it had the capability to show objects in a 3D capacity (solar system, human anatomy, etc.) but I discovered that it also has the capability to view objects the students have created into 3D visuals. This would be pretty neat for the students...

Gotta admit. My feelings about ePortfolios have run the gamut. When I first read the term, I thought "What the heck? I have never heard of such a thing. I wonder if it's what it sounds like?" In reading about them through the different assignments, I became intrigued and thought they sounded really cool -  a great tool to showcase projects and to give evidence that learning actually occurred and the student isn't just repeating information on a test. And now that I've had to research and play around with them, although I still think they're a fantastic idea, I'm intimidated at the thought of this process! From confusion to curiousity to delight to dread, this ePortfolio business is stressing me out!! But no matter, it's still a sensible tool in this technological age and I think the end result will be worth it! FOLIO THINKING AS ASSESSMENT I love this idea. Assessing students based on more than just test grades has always seems more like what teache...