I'm MOOCing Again, TeachtheWeb

Logo from http://hivenyc.org/teachtheweb/

Hello fellow, #teachtheweb particants.  I am so excited to be a part of a new MOOC. Please feel free to look around my blog and get to know me. 

 I have to warn you I loved Etmooc!  So I may have big expectations, but that's Ok, I'm a self motivated learner and hope I can share and produce as much as possible.

So, I think I like MOOCs.  This one is different, the format changes but not too much, my google plus community is still there just a new one.  I love participating in online sessions via chat or blackboard, skype etc. but am not able to make the 11am timeframe here in NH.  No problem, I can still watch and reflect but I will miss the live online interaction.  I am not a fan of twitter chats, I get lost down one road and boom, the conversation is over but I will always try to participate and share when I can.

I'm leaving my animoto video here to say hello and introduce myself.  I hope you enjoy it. I'm working on my Mozilla Thimble page and I already love the tool for teaching.  I can see a whole new blog post in the works when I am done playing..  I have taught web design and blogging for a while and it makes HTML so easy!!  I promise to post my new page when it's done.  For now, saying hello to new teachtheweb friends and new connections!

Thank you ETMOOC, I Need To Connect

Wow, I miss you already. I am so surprised, I have been so upset that I have had no time to blog and stay connected with a new job in social media. I am doing what I love doing for myself for others and well. It's OK. Fun, yes, but can you imagine blogging and following feeds and composing tweets on a topic you do not love?? It is not an easy task, and I don't think I thought about that. Lesson learned. Oddly, I got the job because of my activity on #etmooc so thank you, my social media skills have increased two folds. I have also recieved gift certificates and new online promotional and early releases and tools from google blogspot, twitter and bufferapps. Pretty neat stuff. Who knew?

Thank you ETMOOC, you brought me out of my online shell. I'm actually quite loud and extremely excited when discussing education and technology in person, yet I can honestly say, I have officially gone from lurker to contributor and producer, again, Many many thanks.I created a lenthy reflection of etmooc here for you reading pleasure.

For the many connections, well that just rocks, I feel like there are at least 8 - 10 people, I would not be afraid to ask for help or to maybe webcast with one of my classes. You know who you are, or do you? I wonder if the connections I feel, feel the same way?

Alec Couros, Thank you so so much for an amazing learning experience that was better than any course I have taken, sorry Jeff... It's just that I had and was allowed to learn at my own pace and while I put a lot of hours in, I had a blast commenting, creating, sharing.

Heck, I created or borrowed new content for three master's level courses. Please check out my new emerging technology class here. I would love suggestions, I think the flow could be fixed/changed. Content is mostly from #etmooc and the thousands of amazing links, resources and the general OER environment, My diigo to read list is full and may take the summer and I am grateful. In my time of not teaching in public school and feeling lost, I found #etmooc, or it found me. Thanks to all, Wish me luck as I continue my journey and attempt to move back into public education. I miss the middle schooler's, I miss the engagement and I miss the relationships. While higher ed rocks, the teacher in me, needs the crazy I guess.

Connected Technology Educator is Seeking Middle or High School Position in NH or MA. Huh, the first time I used my blog for self advertisement. I think.

More to come, I found that I get literally sad when I cannot be myself, connect, blog and tweet away .

New Tools/Applications I've Learned

I have found that I have become much more app centric when it has come to participating in the etmooc community. My rhizomatic learning has given me the following tools I wanted to share:

Google Plus – yes, I had it but I actually like I more than twitter. Building communities to run course content is definitely a great way to go.

SilverBird –

Twitter application, this application on Google chrome has been great. It allows me to: Post in my webbrowser, browse tweets from specific users or hash tags, as well as well all tweets in a timeline. This extension allows you to create shortened URL’s within as well as composing, replying, RT, etc.

Diggo.com – Not only can I create and share social bookmarks, I love the lists feature as well as being able to mark things read for later.

Scoop.it. – what a great way to share online and grab quick content from social bookmarking or directly from posts.

Paper.li – I love creating my own newspapers with up to date information from current feeds and news.

WallWisher – I like this very basic application for the visualy. It helps me to map curriculum and resources for one topic all on one wall.

Buffer App – This is a great way for me to send out tweets without overwhelming my audience. I do a lot of research at one time and don’t want to encumber those kind enough to follow me. Buffer chooses peak times to send your tweets and it’s so easy to use, click on your “buffer” in your browser (chrome) and it places the title and shortened URL or you. You can have up to 4 tweets in your buffer at one time with the free version. It does have analytics but it is not a concern for me.

A reflection on the new tools I have learned and enjoyed. I'm really glad I did this :)

Animated Gif's are Fun!

Well, I guess I need to increase my twitter followers. In asking a question about animated gif maker’s, not much response, but no worries, I found myself on a great journey. Don’t get me wrong, I love gimp and photoshop but I knew some application must have already been created to help me with this goal. I have spent the past two days looking at possibilities for creating my own animated gifs, oh besides my day job.

1st find: http://makeagif.com/ Where I didn’t have to even loggin, put in four pictures and got the following: Pretty cool.. My animated rose.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

2nd find: http://picasion.com/get-photo/, again, no login required but limits to three pictures. See my animated daughter here:
create an animated gif

Now I want you all to know, that this was not what I planned on blogging about today, but after spending an hour and ½ having fun with no learning curve, I had to share. Ah, if I really wanted to place blame, or more so THANKS to Aaron Muller’s post last night. Check out his animated gif here. Ok, next post Is planned in #etmooc, I have what I think is a great post on storyboarding vs collobartion coming soon.

How Do you Learn from Twitter Chats and WallWisher

Ok, I will be honest, having done two twitter chat sessions for etmooc, or should I say following them while they flew by. I was not a fan! Tweetdeck did help a lot. I was able to follow #etmchat as well as see those messages directed at me. A very nice tool.I will be honest, I'm still not sure how to make an actual connection on these chats, they go so fast, yet I see many who appear to have already made connections and consistently tweet to one another on subjects I'm sure began way before I came in. Maybe they are already connected.. maybe they are new to each other but I see them, connected to two or three and I wonder how they did it so quickly, I will keep trying but to be honest, I don't mind lurking in twitter chats, I still learn. I just feel bad I am not sharing through that medium..

The many comments I received on google plus regarding twitter chats helped a lot. So this week, I did as was suggested, I watched for a while and though I fell like a lurker, I found a post fly by composed by Natasha Allen where she shared her "wallwisher for web 2.0 applications" . Well before I knew if I clicked on the link and was introduced to wallwisher.com. Now this application may seem odd to some, ok, I can put blocks on a wall but for me, it is very powerful. I am a visual person. While my wall is not nearly complete and I love google reader, my reader is a list, if the "post title" does not entice me, I may not read it.

This I can see! It adds a bit of visual perspective to something that is linear. My feeds, wiki's and blogs all on one pretty page is a great idea. What I am most impressed with is how very easy is was to learn, click and add, click and add. It's easy to say the least and I can see great implementation of this in education at all levels. If you use wallwisher.com, please tell me how, currently I am thinking of adding a new wall with resources for my graduate students though that would be redundant from the moodle page they currently have? Or it is possible they like the pretty pictures like I do? Hm...

Created with Wallwisher

Where are the Comments? Learning Communities and #etmooc

I was going to tweet this after listening to the last 15 minutes of Dean for #etmooc on connected learning tonight. My mind has been spinning. Here's my issue. Comments can break a great blogger and no I do not mean poor comments, I mean no comments, I have been teaching blogging for gosh, three years now and it is by far my biggest complaint or issue from students. I personally don't mind, I have not put the work into my blog to warrant the traffic YET. Notice I said yet. So here's my question, I tell my students to be patient, to tweet, to link back to themselves, to label, so what am I missing?? I want to share, I want to build, when does one actually find themselves getting good feedback for learning on one's blog? I think many people in this #etmooc have said it a lot this week, we have to comment on othersI have often sent out this link 7 Tips to increase your Blog Comments, please take a read and I would truly like to know what my new community and friends think of increasing good content on your blog? When do my students and myself become like Dean or Alec, who I imagine get to learn from their own blogs everyday.. ???

I'll in turn promise that for every blog post I write such as this. I shall go through the etmooc blogs and comment on 10 others. Call it a new years resolution I think I can keep. :)

I would be remiss If I did not thank Alec as already my own traffic and learning network has increased in 10 days. Thanks putting together such a great community of learners at etmooc!

I Need Connected Learning- #ETMOOC

Ok, here it is a Sunday afternoon and as football looms on the TV, I have just spent 3+ hours looking over various #etmooc sessions run this week as well as looking over google plus for intro's and new posts to see what's going on and who likes what. It was not a wasted three hours but a valuable three hours and soon to be more. In the midst of another share on twitter and I start to to really put somethings together. I love learning this way. I always have.

Let me explain, I joined a MOOC an etmooc.org which is being run by Alec Couros (I pray I spelled that right) and many others. I'm so excited to work with Shareski this week. I have always enjoyed his blogs and posts and am sorry I didnt truly connect sooner. I am, I admit a lurker, I read, I implement, I "borrow" but I never really connected until now!

It reminded me of a post from Jeff Utecht; (then instructor, now friend). In a jist, he needs a network to learn, people to bounce ideas off of and learn from in order to enjoy learning. In order to enjoy learning, he needed to as I do, to feel connected. In re-reading this post, I realized this was my reality, this is why I haven't taken many PD opportunties offered or attended as many conferences. I don't like learning alone, it is so very true for many of us, and it is certainly true of me. I have needed this connection. I trive on a connectivist approach to learning and I embrace the new applications and tools that I am made aware of. I can truly say I need connected learning.

I love finding connections(people and groups) with such similar interests as myself that it is almost scary.

I have found some questions, how do I work on "connected learning"? Are there any articles I should read for etmooc for this week? Am I participating enough? Why doesn't my diigo look as cool as Alec's in the tutorial?? So so much, BUT, It's OK, This is what I love to do, love to tinker, to figure it out. I have found no links on what should or shouldnt be done for the topic of connected learning as outlined in the calendar for #etmooc, but that's cool, It took one day, a few thoughts and boom, I remembered a post from a dear friend and mentor Jeff Utecht, so to him I say thank you as I do to Alec, Shareski and all of those I have watched and learned from since "2009". I thank connected learning as I would not even know thier names. These connections are much more relevant to me as an educator in technology than some of my professors in the lecture halls back in the day....