Kin 710 - Week 6 - Google Sites

https://sites.google.com/site/charlesgagekin710/

Here is my site. I think I could clean this up a lot more with time. But I love the idea of have a digital resume that you can post or email. Instead of mailing resumes by mail, having an up-to-date resume would be very useful, especially if you were looking for employment out of the area. And a digital resume gives potential employers a lot more information and insight into the type of person you are. I think also this would be a great tool to add to a departments website that your school might have set up. Instead of relying on the school to update your info you could have a link to this page. And if you switched schools, or were doing some other work after school, you could just have this page linked to another site. Pretty cool.

Kin 710 - Week 6 - online professional portfolio sites (e.g., Plaxo, LinkedIn).

Using Plaxo and LinkedIn could be very useful especially if you have to communicate with a large group or travel. I did like the ability to upload numerous address books into one. Over the years I have had to create numerous email accounts and the only way to really get a contact would be to login and copy and paste from one site to another. I also do like how this allows you to upload your contacts and you're able to access them anytime you want. Owning an iPhone, there is an application that allows you to sync your contacts with those you have online. This is especially useful since do any indepth work on your iPhone is annoying, being able to edit info and then have it sent to your phone automatically is very convinent!

Week 5 - Kin 710 - Library Thing

I found this site to be pretty cool and useful. Being able to type in key words and to find a long listing of books, and to further filter the results is extra helpful.  I found a few coaching volleyball books I'd heard about and one I never have but am interested in reading and added it to my catalog.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/coachgage

I did find a book by entering physical education as the key word I never thought about looking. It was jobs for physical education majors. That is a book I'm going to order so I can read.

In the future, if and when I'm looking for additional resources I'm going to use this site. When I did my last graduate degree, having a search like this would have been helpful in finding additional resources.

Week 5 - Kin 710 - Image Generators

Ok, I have never played on any image generator, and its a lot of fun! I think it could be a fun way to post things throughout a classroom. Now what you'd post couldn't be anything very serious, at least this is my opinion. Thinking of it now, we piloting a PE portfolio with our 6th graders for the Spring semester, the students might get a kick out of making printing out photos with their name, period and grade level to put on the outside of the portfolio! No matter what these sights are fun...here is my photo I made, I think the picture explains itself!!

Week 4 - Kin 710 - Youtube Search

Doing some looking on youtube searching and I found some videos about volleyball, especially from the club I coach. This video is of the final the match, of a tournament we were lucky to win, and was played at 11:30pm. Normally matches are played two out of three games, but with the time of day the other head coach and I both agreed to just play one game winner takes all.

And I'm shocked on the many coaches who have posted interviews and instructional videos on how to better coach.

This is a video of Gary Sato on of the coaches whose spent a lot of time coaching at the international level and has some great insight.

Week 4 - kin 710 - DEL.ICIO.US

DEL.ICIO.US was is a cool idea, having a favorites page you can access anywhere would make accessing information easier for someone who traveled a lot and didn't have a computer. I think I would have used it in college for sure, I used the whatever computer I could find at the library, and felt lost when I couldn't remember a sites address.
I also think it would be a great tool for those who do research, you could see what other sites your colleagues are using or looking.

Week 4 - Kin 710 - TECHNORATI

I spent 30 minutes playing on this site and looking through the blogs they had within their directory and feel a little frustrated. TECHNORATI website wasnt easy to use, I did a search for 'physical education' and the results were over a million and included blogs wlth that had the words 'physical' and numerous others focused on 'education.' And how the site was layed out didn't help, it wasn't very user friendly. I did like that you could look up Blogs by category, but they were too basic and didn't allow you to refine the searches. Blogging is new to me, and think if I knew what exactly I was looking for would help me, just browsing them with no particular idea of an end result just frustrated me.

Week 4 - Kin 710 - Podcast Search Engine

I think the podcast search engine is useful, but there are SO many to filter through, you have to know what you are looking for, or be willing to browse. I do like being able to down load podcasts so I can take them with me, like on a flight or in the car. I did find a few podcasts I linked to my bloglines, its called Net Live, which is a podcast on the men's and women's national volleyball teams. I've heard about it and have always want to listen to it because information about international play is rare and you have to go looking for it.

Week 4 - Youtube - Kin 710

I think most of us have used youtube at least once, I know my first experience was when a friend emailed me a video she thought was funny. I just recently started to look up things I could use in my teaching, mainly I used it as a resource to get new ideas or see what others were doing.

Every year at my school we have difficulty getting all our sixth graders to be able to open their lockers, its a new experience for them and many have never opened a locker. And one day I searched on yourtube 'how to open PE locker,' and found there were numerous videos on the subject. What I'm going to do next year is pull the video off of youtube, a friend told me of some software, and show it too all the sixth graders.

I think youtube is a great resource, but you have to be careful, when I looked at the posts below I saw several that were inappropriate for students to read. I've also looked up how to take care of injuries, like how to treat plantar faciitis.

Week 3 Kin 710- Web 2.0

I've used many of the Web 2.0 winners sites many times. Youtube is great, especially when you're able to download the material(just need the right software). I downloaded a video on how to open a locker and used it to show students. There are SO many educational videos on Youtube, you just need to make sure they are appropriate. The google maps, I've used it to create routes for me to run, and find out the distance of some routes I want to try.

A few sites like google maps is what Nike Plus and MapMyRun offer, you can see the routes other runners around have done.

Like Google Docs, Microsoft has an online service where you can look for other templates people have created and posted for others to use and rate. I used it last year to find my school a new referral, there was one already completed, I downloaded it and changed it to fit my school.

Week 3 - Kin 710 Google Docs

I have tried to use google docs before, actually I was playing around on it trying to find things I could use at work. Its a great tool to use, especially for groups or people working on a project. What I noticed I like about google docs immediately is EVERYONE can use it. Last year I put Word 2007 on my computer and when I would forward things to other colleagues they were unable to open because they had Word 2003. Lastly, all of these docs are saved online, so you don't have to worry about your computer crashing and you losing it.

I wish more Physical Education teachers would use this, create and publish written work they will use with their classes. Then we as educators would have use of a bank of ideas and already completed work we would only have to rework a little for our own use. Below is the link to the written assignment I am working on to give to students who having missing work.


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1fa0FsWFzTkwR8sD_C4I8QbWUkuJAde2aaF_hHQXarD4

Week 3 - Kin 710 - RSS feeds/Bloglines

The RSS feeds I found on Bloglines are seem to very useful, and seems like something I could use. Being able to follow several different sources, and tailor it towards my needs. I could see myself using it in several different ways, have a feed for work set up for my work computer and another for my home computer. Even for this class, having a list of all the blogs for this class would keep me updated to other students who are making posts for me to read and respond.

The RSS feed I found, and attached to my bloglines, is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-net-live. It is a podcast of a radio show Keven Barnett and Reid Preddy do about the USA mens volleyball team and International Volleyball. Its nice to hear about whats going on with internatioanl volleyball since there very written about it in the press.

Kin 710 - Week 1 - Tweeter

Getting use to using tweeter. But I see how it can be a useful, especially for professionals or even students. For example, if you were working on a project in a group, posting the status, questions and answers to items that pop up would be very valuable. Also, for people who work together but do not see each other, have varying schedules, don't have time to make phone calls, etc. Tweeter would allow such people to keep up to date and communicate quickly and easily.

Kin 710 - Week 2 - Social media in Education readings

Web, Library, and Teen Services 2.0

Today's libraries are going through an evolution. Its challenge is to stay relevant to today's population and if not careful could find itself being outdated and forgotten. Instead of looking at the Internet as being a threat I think this article provided some good examples about how libraries can use the web as a valuable tool to reach out and engage the populations they serve, especially teenagers. This requires libraries to experiment and try new things to include and engage children so they not only use but become proactive members of the community that uses the library and its services. Allowing users to post comments, rate items, and even make recommendations for others to read and comment. Libraries could use this information to make recommendations to others so they might be able to find items they are interested.

Emerging Technologies Changing Public Library Service Delivery Models

This articles reminds of many of the same ideas as the one above. Today's libraries need to continue to change and engage the community. People today, especially myself, are accustomed to being able to obtain the information required 24hrs-a-day and seven days a week. One of the ideas I like more than anything is providing podcast. For example, if I was doing research and was using a never before used search engine, having a podcast of step-by-step instructions playing in the back ground telling me what to do would be extremely useful. And what I like most about podcast it is allows the user to listen when it is convenient and wherever they want. The ideas are endless for ways for libraries to use the web to communicate, its just going to take a lot of work and exploration.

Editorial: Examining Social Software in Teacher Education

As libraries are going through an evolution so is the education. Today's educators have the opportunity to engage those they are trying to educate. In reading the articles I started to think about having a class blog or website where students could post comments or questions. This would be a great tool because it would all students access to the content at all times. Today's youth is extremely comfortable with technology and as an educator if I could allow my students access to the content in a manner they feel comfortable then I am increasing the chances of students connecting with the material. But this requires educators to embrace and experiment with the resources available. The only potential negative is its use to distract, and this requires educators to be just as tech-savy as the students they're attempting to educate.

KIN 710- week 2 - Exploring Flickr

Looking around Flickr I found a good friend who is a head coach at the local junior college with the men's volleyball team. I thought it was a good picture, and might have to forward it to him. Looking around I think this can be a great tool, to find pictures of interest and use them when creating projects.

Here is the link to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/louievee/3334189720/

Kin 710 - week 2 - My Flickr account

Flickr can be a simple way to share photos with friends, colleauges and anyone else. I think for work it might be very useful to create a photo bank. A place to save pictures so everyone can use them and have easy access.



The photo I tagged as KIN710 is http://www.flickr.com/photos/58526535@N04/with/5371300020/

Week 2 - Kin 710 - Tech related interest

Early this week my principal and I were talking, before the team leader meeting. He showed me the new app he added to his iTouch, a Student Information System (SIS) that allows users to get information about students onsite only. It is through the schools wireless, users are able to flag certain students and share it with others. If a new student enrolls they can take a picture and upload it, it is later sync'd to all of the other users on site. Its a fun software the former AP and I, I was dean the past two years until budget cuts cut the position, wanted to get for the school. I might get the app for my iPhone so I can use it as well.

Getting start - Kin 710

Hello Kin 710. This blog was much easier than I thought to get started! I'm looking forward to trying new things on the web, I've never taken an online course before and know it will be a little getting use too. But I feel comfortable with technology and know over time it will be like second nature.