ETEC 527: Web 2.0 Technologies

My journey in aggregating pages wasn’t as complex as I originally thought it would be.  In fact, it was probably one of the easier tools I’ve used. I’ll admit when I first read the assignment I thought “Create a what?”  I had never heard of Protopage or Netvibes before this assignment.  Now that I’ve worked with them, I’m sure I’ve seen others using them but didn’t know what the technology was called. My experience with creating my Protopage wasn’t difficult.  After viewing some of the class discussion regarding the different forms and many agreed that Netvibes wasn’t user-friendly, I decided to stick with Protopage.  Creating the account was simple and fast.  Then...I sat for a minute staring at the screen.  It didn’t take me long to know I needed a quick video tutorial.  Within minutes I was watching a short tutorial supplying me with everything I needed to know in creating my Protopage.   After viewing the tutorial, it didn’t take...

My History ~ Before this adventure, I used YouTube much like our children use it, when I needed a quick tutorial or to find that funny video everyone was talking about.  I've used some videos found on YouTube to supplement class learning but not a lot. I was shocked to learn YouTube is a Google product and that I had my own YouTube channel by simply having a Gmail account. I'll admit, it was a little daunting stepping into the unknown of accessing my channel and creating playlists, but it was painless and I enjoyed the challenge once I got started. The Adventure ~ It was exciting to explore videos in the areas assigned.  I really enjoyed adding a playlist for my area of teaching and a free choice. During my exploration, I was introduced to other web tools that were noted for further investigation.  What makes the playlists so valuable is the ability to save those videos for viewing later.  That saves you a lot of time in the future. Playlists can easily be...

History with Twitter~ The world of Twitter was introduced to me a few years ago.  However, it took some time for me to actually start using it.  I decided back then that it would be a platform I used primarily for educational purposes.  It has truly been my personal learning network!  Although my journey in ‘tweeting’ has been slow, I do frequent the platform looking for new ideas and resources. One of the many resources I learned with using Twitter was Skype.  It’s been a wonderful resource that connected me with other teachers, field experts, and published authors across America.  We connected with other classes studying the same learning concepts, introduced students to their penpals they wrote to all year, and a geologist during our study of rocks.  Our learners also had the privilege of meeting author Kate Messner via Skype. For the upcoming school year, I’ve already arranged a Skype session with the author of the Minecraft novels, Mark Cheve...

My Digital Footprint Our identity is no longer sacred with the creation of the Internet.  There's definitely no anonymity anymore, whether you choose to see your name online or not.  However, the amount of information one can find about their self is dependent on their digital presence.  At the moment, I wouldn't consider myself to have a profound digital footprint but it's growing.  I'll be honest, before this class, I had never heard of a vanity search.  It took me some time but what I found what shocking.     My Search It was shocking to see my personal information, that anyone can retrieve, with the push of a few buttons.  Immediately, the first items to pop up were the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest).  Other items included my website from work and those related to my school district.  It was interesting to see some of my friends and the people I work with in the photo section of the search....