Thing 13

Social bookmarking and tagging are nothing at all like what I expected. The only previous references I've heard regarding tagging were the children's game and facebook photos. Now I can see that there is a valid and very useful educational purpose to it. I have spent hours searching web sites for materials that would be useful in my teaching - occasionally stumbling upon something worthwhile enough to keep up the search. Understanding tagging, and using it as part of a music education community will not only save me time, but will also open up enormous potential for finding new materials and techniques. The biggest disadvantages that I see are in making sure that I use the appropriate tag words to and the fact that it's public.

Thing 12

So here I am, on thing 12. I have been surprised so far at the ease of using all of this technology; it certainly is geared towards being user-friendly. As with most experiments so far, I found that embedding code is easy. The hard part is finding the time to surf through all of the available stuff and finding something you want to use. At this point, I've decided to spend less time searching and sifting in order to focus on learning how to use it and get it on my blog. I figure I can always come back later when there's more time to really dig in.

I don't Twitter or use Facebook, so this whole online community thing is new to me. I especially have a hard time leaving comments and trying to make my blog sound interesting. ;-D While I believe that there is enormous potential for collaboration in the online world, I also think that there is a danger in kids using social networking sites. There are too many predators and too much freedom in the anonymity of it all. Cyber-bullying is the new weapon of choice.

Thing 11

This "thing" probably should have been easy, but for me it was not. I don't really like commenting on other peoples' work unless I am asked for my opinion and even then it makes me uncomfortable. And, thanks to this "thing", I will now be even more paranoid in my own blogging, waiting to see if 1) anyone is reading it and 2) if anyone feels the same way!

As with all technology, commenting and social networking can be used for good or evil...dependent completely upon the writer. It's an amazing tool for idea sharing and for getting a feel for what others think, but the author has to be willing to put their work "out there", and then be ready to hear the feedback.

Thing 10

Check out this cool computer animated music machine!



Again, I found this thing to be a lot easier than I expected. Technology is becoming so user-friendly that even a veteran teacher can figure out how to use it without too great an effort. I can see posting interesting finds like this video on a blog for my students, but there are also a ton of instructional videos and performances available. I can also see giving out extra credit for kids who forward cool things for me to post.