Thing #23: More than Commonly Creative

From the xkcd.com comic 1337: Part 3* 

I have to admit that I only had a vague idea of what Creative Commons licensing was before taking this class.  I had seen it attributed on various websites I visit, particularly by some of my favorite webcomic authors/artists, such as the xkcd comic above, which uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic license).  As a Computer Science major, though, I am very familiar with open source licensing, like the General Public License (GPL) for Unix/Linux systems, and Creative Commons is similar.

Creative Commons provides teachers a lot of flexibility about how they want to share resources, whether "original" or "remixed" creations based on other's shared works.  For example, say I created a series of online tutorials on using programming skills to teach certain math concepts.  Under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license, I allow other teachers (and anyone else) to use and even create derivative works from my tutorials, so long as they don't use it for commercial purposes and remember to attribute me.

Oh, I almost forgot!  The following statements, under the "Credits" portion of the Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers blog, describes how it is based on the work of others:

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

 *Warning: xkcd.com occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

Thing #22: No 3-Hole-Punch Required!

I chose to embed the "Geometry Resources" binder, which is a LiveBinder of Lesson Plans & Activities that I could one day use in a Geometry class.  I've started by adding in links for some of the resources I used in my unit on the Triangle Inequalities, and I added a tab for the TN Standards for good measure.  I foresee using something like this LiveBinder for storing all my online activities & resources, then correlating them to the standards for the class.

Another of the LiveBinders I created was a new implementation of an activity I have used before when I was teaching in interim positions.  I allow students to earn extra credit by writing a 2-page biographical sketch of a famous mathematician and describing his/her contribution to mathematics.  Using a LiveBinder, however, I could make this a more organized activity; for example, each grading period I could chose a time period from which to assign each student a mathematician.  The LiveBinder subtab for each mathematician gives students a jumping-off point for their research, and helps me more easily detect blatant plagiarism.  I originally intended to embed this binder as well, but it is rather incomplete at the moment.

Thing #21: Domo Arigato, Mr. Animoto

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

The video I "made" with Animoto was created from some photos I had of MIG-17F's and F-86 Sabre jets, set to some of the stock music ("Free to Fly") from the Animoto site.  I found that Animoto was extremely easy to use and produces very professional looking videos.  I was very impressed with the quality of the video.

Thing #20: A Series of (You)Tubes

I chose to embed this "Origins of Algebra" video uploaded to YouTube by Khan Academy.  Khan Academy has a large catalog of educational videos on almost any conceivable topic in math, science, and economics.  When I have sufficient bandwidth, I could just sit and watch their videos all day; they are that good.

I've had experience using YouTube in the past, and I have to say that the most recent update of the basic user interface is at best lackluster.  Their intention was to make getting to any given video easier, but I have to click through 2 or 3 layers to find what I could find previously in a single click.  Still, YouTube remains the most accessible and widely used video site on the Internet, and has legitimate use in the classroom (assume your school's ISP or tech department doesn't have it blocked).

Thing #19: "Liking" Other Social Networks

While I had not previously been a member of any of the listed social networks, I have used Ning before, though, as I have had friends create Ning social networks for various reasons.  I decided to join Gather and Classroom 2.0 to find out what to expect, in addition to joining TeacherPop.

Gather is a very different experience from other social networks I have used.  Gather seems more like a social content aggregator than a traditional social network, but I'm okay with that description.  It could also be deemed a "debate platform"; the comments on any particular piece are typically from both sides of the issue and are remarkably civil, especially in comparison to other sites that attempt to approach current and controversial issues.  I could see using Gather (or articles & commentary from it) as part of a debate project with students.

Classroom 2.0 is very much like my experience with other Ning-based networks.  It is a well-designed and thorough site with all the basic features you would expect in a modern social network:  status updates, comment walls, member-to-member messaging, content sharing, etc.  The community is also very active, and many of the members seem helpful.

Thing #18: All A-Twitter about Facebook

Social networking is a relatively new phenomenon, but in just over a decade, it has become an integral and indispensable part of our society.  The number and type of social networks are constantly changing, but Facebook and Twitter remain two of the most dominant right now.  However, they are very different in their design and aims.  Facebook is a social network originally designed to help Harvard students connect, but has since evolved into a service "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."  Twitter bills itself as "a real-time information network" that "connects you ... to what you find interesting."  It's unique feature is that Twitter messages, called "tweets," are 140 characters or less (not counting any links you may include.)

As educators, it's important that we be familiar with social networks for any number of reasons, but in my opinion, the most important  is that the world of social networks is the world most of our students live and thrive in.  To understand our students, we have to understand where they spend their time and what they do there, and increasingly that is on Facebook, Twitter, or any of dozens of other social networks.  I could potentially see creating a "professional" Facebook account specifically for interacting with your students, so that if they did want to "friend" or "follow" you, they could do so.  I would also advise locking down the privacy settings on your "personal" account; potentially embarrassing photographs and tweets on social networks have already cost teachers and staff their careers.  Basically, I wouldn't recommend ever connecting to your students through a "personal" social network account; it's safer and easier to simply have a secondary "professional" account for interacting with students and parents.  Also, I could see using Facebook "fan pages" as a potential classroom resource.  For example, I could have a group or fan page for  "Mr. Davis' Math Classes," which could have copies of all the course documents, and could also update students on projects, assignments, etc.

If you want to connect with other education professionals, however, I would not recommend doing it through Facebook or Twitter (unless you are actual friends or acquaintances in real life).  Use a professional networking site like LinkedIn for this purpose; this also gives you a place to point potential employers if they should ask for your social networking presence.  Also, be aware that you should never be required to give your Facebook or Twitter account and password for a job interview - if the interviewer tells you it is an absolute requirement, then politely decline and thank them for the interview.  This practice is not only bordering on illegal, it tells you that the educational culture at that school is inherently distrustful of its staff, which is not a conducive teaching or learning environment.

Thing #17: Tagged as Delicious

I have to admit, I'm a little late to the Delicious party.  To be honest, I hadn't seen the usefulness behind the idea of social bookmarking.  I consider myself pretty security-conscious, and the idea of having my bookmarks be public where literally anyone could examine them seemed like just another way for someone to learn about me and my Internet surfing habits.  I'm already a bit disturbed about how much tracking of our Internet habits already takes place; avoiding another opportunity to be "tracked" seemed a wise precaution.

Using Delicious was an interesting experience;  I can now see the value in a social method for bookmarking:  It provides a lot of the same benefit of having "access anywhere" like other "cloud" services, and adds the social dimension by allowing you to follow and share your "stacks" of links.  However, there are some competing services now that provide these some of the same benefits.  For example, I can access my saved bookmarks on any machine with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox by "signing in" to the browser.  Delicious does have the advantage, though, in that it is browser-agnostic (and is integrated into the new Yahoo! Axis browser).  One of the newest social sites to challenge Delicious is Pinterest, which has exploded in popularity.  While I haven't used Pinterest myself, friends who have claim it also allows you to socially share links that interest you by "pinning" it to a virtual corkboard.

From an education standpoint, I can see quite a bit of potential for using Delicious in the classroom.  Imagine having a stack of links that students can access for a project or as part of a webquest, or having students search for a particular tag, like "geometry" or "algebra" and do research from there.  Having links that students or fellow teachers can access from anywhere is definitely an advantage.  Like it explained in the Common Craft video, having teachers sharing bookmarks through delicious would be a simple but effective way for them to collaborate on resources and techniques.