Melissa's SSL Blog

Meredith Farkas in American Libraries Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 03:23:00 +0000

Meredith Farkas wrote an article entitled, "Why Be Transparent?" for the August issue of American Libraries. It yet again reinforces how important blogs can be to a library. She discusses using the comments element of a blog to get user feedback. This issue of American Libraries also has a library 2.0 manifesto.

Final Project

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:57:00 +0000

If anyone cares to offer any words of advice for my final project, it is a wiki and a blog. The wiki is far from done and if anyone wants to contribute, the password is math123. Thanks!!!

The realization that gaming is one of my hobbies

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:44:00 +0000

I spent the beginning of my summer trying to conquer Ball Revamp 4 on Yahoo Games, it took me about a week. I was very proud of myself. I hadn’t realized how much of game junkie I am until I read the Johnson article and listened to Jenny Levine speak about gaming. I am one of those people that dreams in Tetris, JT’s Blocks, Soduku, or what ever other game I am currently playing.
My earliest memories are playing Frogger and PacMan with my mother on Atari. This was followed by Nintendo playing Mario Brothers, Tetris, Castlevania, Metroid, Contra and Duck Hunt with my brother (we were never into Zelda). We also spent a considerable amount of time trying to get that stupid robot to work with Gyromite. We then got a Sega Genesis, and my time spent playing the Sonic games which now comes in handy when I babysit (although the Aladdin game was my favorite). The kids have one of those controller games that has all three Sonic games built into the controller. They can’t believe I know how to get all the Chaos Emeralds-this earned me huge points with the 8 year old. I also have a Playstation which I will occasionally break out to play Skull Monkeys and classic Atari games. My friends have a Wii and it is addicting!
Somewhere along the way in the late 80’s, we inherited a ColecoVision Adam from a neighbor and aside from the 3 games that came with it, it served as my way to word process things through the mid-nineties until the last of the printer ribbon ran out. My parents were not into technology, we even had a Beta player (which I am pretty sure is still in their shed), but I was and had access to computers (for academic purposes) at school. When we got our first computer in December 1995, we entered a new realm of computer games. We tried Myst, and I adored SimCity and SimTowers. We have been gaming ever since. Yahoo Games has been a favorite of mine for a while and I continue to play many of the free games. I usually block the chat feature as often it is someone asking you to look at their pics.
As I think about this more, I was playing computer games like Oregon Trail in elementary and middle school. I have been playing video games my whole life which makes me sort of resent the fact that I am not a digital native. I know that my access and exposure to technology is way more limited to technology than kids today, but it has always been a part of my life. Also, I would never list gaming as a hobby, or when asked what I like to do I would never answer that I am a gamer. However, it is clearly something I like to do very much. I guess I always thought of a gamer as someone who spent hours online playing World of Warcraft or other such games. I am may not play World of Warcraft, but I spend quite a bit of time playing games (of course this is not happening right now with school). I will now have reply when someone asks me what I like to do besides go to school or buying shoes. Or maybe I should find a new hobby.

Beside Yahoo Games I also like Pogo and PopCap games some of which are linked through Yahoo Games.

Google vs Yahoo Groups

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:52:00 +0000

I have used Yahoo groups to stay connected to my math cohort from my education grad school program. We are only a group of 8, but it is a way for us to stay connected. We had originally intended to use it as a place to share lesson plans, but so far that has not materialized for the group at large (although 3 of us do share material). We use it to mostly send out emails about updates in our lives. Based on my superficial comparison of Google and Yahoo, I feel that Yahoo groups is easier to use and more organized. Google kept booting me out and the only advantage I see to it is the ability to set up an individual page otherwise I found navigating it confusing.

MySpace

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:43:00 +0000

Check out my MySpace page.

Tomatoes on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:30:00 +0000

Here is the tomato video on YouTube.

Click to go to YouTube.

How to grow tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:24:00 +0000

After a fight with windows movie maker, I finally have my video. Enjoy!!

Click To Play

Having trouble? Click here.

Here is Sadie's YouTube debut!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:36:00 +0000

Check out Sadie on YouTube!

watch it here too!

Sadie eats a frosty paw mp4

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:32:00 +0000

Here is the mp4 version of Sadie eating ice cream. I can't get it to work as a pop-up.

Click To Play

mp4 file

Sadie eating a Frosty Paws

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:16:00 +0000

This is a short video of Sadie eating her ice cream.

Click To Play
or try here for flv or wmv.

They Might Be Giants

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:41:00 +0000

So I had this great idea to use the James K. Polk song by They Might Be Giants to do my project and decided to use flickr to find images. I found a link to the YouTube Video that already did this and way better than I could have done. Check it out below or click here.

Screencasting Test

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:49:00 +0000

This is just a test of a screencast, I think.

Click To Play
When you click, it will pop-up in a new larger window so you can see it better.

Click here for flv. Click here for mp4. Click here for wmv.

YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:46:00 +0000

Visit YouTube.

blip.tv of sites of paris

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:42:00 +0000

Click To Play

Sites of Paris flv.
Sites of Paris wmv.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:06:00 +0000

This is cheating a little bit, but I still think this is great.
Visit YouTube .

Sadie

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:55:00 +0000

This is Sadie. She is almost 13. She likes to sit behind my desk chair and whine until I get up and give her a treat. When she really wants something she sticks her nose throught the arm of my chair and rest her head there until I get up which usually doesn't take very long because she will start to nudge me. I also got a random comment on her picture when I uploaded them.

SCILS Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:30:00 +0000

Here are some of my photos of scils.

Clever Mailboxes?

Front of SCILS

Want more?
Check my SCILS pics out on flickr here.
Check out the rest of the classes on flickr too.

DSCN1450

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:34:00 +0000

DSCN1450
Originally uploaded by mpscils598s07

Test using blog this feature in flickr

Orange Flower

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:29:00 +0000

This is one of the flowers from Steve's yard using flickr.

Comments on Brown Chapter 8

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:43:00 +0000

Here are my comments on Brown. This is much shorter than last time, I promise.

PS. I like embedding the player better.

PPS. I fixed the file.

LibraryThing vs. Shelfari

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:39:00 +0000

So my initial thoughts to both of these sites was did I really want the world to know what I have been reading and why would anyone care? I read a lot of romance novels and it might be nice to find out what others are reading instead of just relying on amazon’s recommendations and my own shelf browsing. I like the idea of what each site does and think it is a great way to keep track of what I read. I thought the guided tour provided by LibraryThing great compared to the just browse feature in Shelfari. It is not completely clear what Shelfari is about. I did not like the fact that only 200 books were free and I would have to pay catalog the rest in LibraryThing. I know that I have a least 200 romance novels sitting on my shelf or in an excel spread sheet as marked “read.” I would exhaust my 200 book limit in one shot. Shelfari being completely free is more appealing in that respect. I had trouble with LibraryThing freezing when I tried the suggest screen. I also liked the cleaner appearance of Shelfari over LibraryThing as some pages on LibraryThing seemed to overpower the screen. LibraryThing provides a tag feature that appears to be specific to a particular section and browsing some of the clouds they are ridiculously large. Shelfari lists the most popular directly and then a user can look through what are called community tags for more narrow results. I am not particularly sold on either site. For me, I think it comes down to the fact that Shelfari is free and LibraryThing is not and that I would have room to develop my collection online beyond the 200 book limit.

Facilitating Online

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:09:00 +0000

As a student in the online portion of this program, I was genuinely interested to read Facilitating Online and it made me reflect on my experiences over the past two years in the program. My experience online has had its ups and downs. I understand that I am part of the original crew so that I have hit a few more bumps along the way than others. On of the most important things I have learned is to speak up for myself as this is absolutely necessary to be successful in the online environment. The asynchronous nature of this allows for me to formulate my thoughts before having to “speak” them which provides me with the comfort I need to speak up in front of my peers. I also like the fact that I can start to do something for a class and I can walk away, or I can sit on my exercise ball and listen to the lectures and no one but the dog will look at me funny. I also have a greater sense of camaraderie with my fellow classmates than I did when I worked on my first masters program. We are a particularly close bunch for having only met a few times in person.

I think one of the most important things an instructor can do is be up front with students. This ranges from stating that sections of the course not ready to religious observances. As stated in Facilitating Online, you have to be readily available to answer questions through whatever means you deem appropriate whether it is in an email, class lounge or discussion areas. Students need to know that you are there and responding to inquires.

I agree with the Responsibilities in Practice section, but for the nature of the online program I would take it a few steps further. I have listed a few here a few of the ideas that immediately came to mind. This served as a little therapy for me and is not anything that I haven't already shared with the powers that be, so here are my thoughts…

Take Ownership
The instructor needs more than a familiarity with the topic. It should be necessary for the instructor to know the material that they have posted to the course intimately. I teach and I understand that sharing resources is helpful, but it is not helpful when the material contradicts what the instructor states. It is also not helpful when a question is asked about material posted and the instructor has no idea what the content is of a particular set of materials like PowerPoint slides. Giving credit where credit is due is important, but to state that the entire course is another person’s work makes it sound like you are a stand-in for someone doing more important work. A first impression online is as powerful as it is in person. When you enter a course and the content is not updated or obviously copied from another source without any attention to adapting it to the online environment, it sets the course off on the wrong foot. For example, if your summer course starts June 25 why are there due dates for April? Blaming this on the “tech people” does not wash, because you are the “tech people,” for the most part especially when it is a Word document you posted.

Show Enthusiasm
It is important in your writing that your enthusiasm for the material comes through. Otherwise I do not believe you should be teaching it. I repeatedly hear that the topic is dry and boring, I can usually figure that part out myself.

Allow for Differences of Opinions
As adults with various experiences, we all have opinions and should be able to share those in a respectful manner. I am entitled to my opinion just as you are, but this sometimes leads to disagreements. This makes the discussion richer. Also keep in mind if you are passionate about a topic that is not going to necessarily translate into having a class full of students who love it as much as you. Student may take a course because it is required, not because they love what you are teaching. Your enthusiasm will make the class enjoyable but don't expect everyone to agree with you about everything, especially when you go on about Disney being the root of all evil when more than half the class disagrees with you or us not wanting to hear your political thoughts where they do not belong, let it go until next semester.

Limit Discussion Time
I know that I am probably alone in this, but I feel that a week is too long for a discussion on one particular topic. This is especially true when discussion questions are not particularly well developed or do not lend themselves to being discussion type questions. Asking students to use the discussion area as an area for a book report is not a discussion. Schedules are different, but having 2 days between when the last discussion ends and the next starts gives a little breathing room in getting readings completed and gives time for students to think about the next set of questions. If the discussion is going to go on for a full week, be prepared to facilitate the discussion in away that makes the discussion meaningful. There is nothing worse than having to contribute to a lame discussion.

Limit Email Use
The use of email for all course announcements and concerns in excess can be overwhelming. Just as you should be familiar with your course documents, you should be familiar with how your shell is set up and use it.

No Lame Excuses
I do not care if it took you four days to make hotel arrangements for family visiting from out of town, had a wedding to go to, your mother was sick, or you were babysitting your grandchildren. We all have lives and have made accommodations to get our studies done in a timely manner. I am sure we have come with lame excuses too, but you have the power in deciding our grades. If I told my boss even half the excuses I have heard for delinquent responsibilities, I would be out of a job many times over. This links back to the being upfront with students. It is rough to be waiting for an answer to a question for a day let alone three when you have no intention of responding. Time is precious and it comes across as our time not meaning anything to you. Tell us if you will not be available for a day or three, so we can work on other stuff or not obsess for an answer.

New Wiki on Literature Resource Center

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:00:00 +0000

Check out our wiki on Thomas Gale's Literature Resource Center at http://lrcbymms.pbwiki.com/. The wiki co-creators are Mary Fran, Sharon C. and me!

Wiki Convert in the Making...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:45:00 +0000

So I was in the Wiki = BAD camp for a long time. The reasons for this vary from it being told to us repeatedly that wiki is bad to my own bad experiences with wikipedia. A few of my students would tell me things about how they would make up stuff on wikipedia (like them being a future NHL prospect or changing entries to only their names). I started to waver when I did a little when I saw that wikis and blogs were being used for classes. Also I found a few really good explainations for math stuff on wikipedia like a great illustration of Cavalieri's Principle (which when I linked to it in class, I was screamed at by 25 tenth graders that wikipedia is not a good source of info). After reading the Library Garden blog post and the NY Times article about wikis, I continue to see the possibilities of using wikis for classrooms and as a reliable place to get information. It is a little weird to be thinking that some of the current event information is coming from people not necessarily even out of high school, but then again I do not trust much of what I read in my local paper as it really stinks for local news. I also like the point in the Library Garden blog post that since a wiki is in the public domain one would hope to put forth one's best effort.

Comments on Brown Chapter 5

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:25:00 +0000

Here are my ramblings about Brown mostly from an educator's perspective. Enjoy my nice Bucks County/Philly accent.

Click To Play