What if, however, you want to present students with a list of web pages you want them to visit in a particular order?  Again, you create such a list on a course web page, but you won’t be certain that students visit the indicated pages in the specified order.  That’s where the tool reviewed in this edition of Web 2.0 Weekly comes into play.

Jog the Web is a simple app that allows the user to create an ordered list of web sites for visitors to sequentially step through.  These lists are called “jogs”.  Below is a screenshot of an example jog I created (click the image to see it full size).

You can see that Jog the Web places each of your websites in a navigational frame.  Clicking the “<” and “>” allows you to move forward and back through the list of sites.  You can also click on a particular web site’s listing to jump directly to it.  The top frame provides the position number of the view page in the list, it’s URL, and also gives the jog creator the opportunity to insert a brief description or comment.  This last feature is great for providing students with instructions or other information.

At the end of every jog (at least those created by non-premium users), are two special pages.  One gives registered users the opportunity to comment on your jog.  The second provides users with links to other recommended jogs.  Note that these pages do have advertisements.

Strengths

• Easy to create jogs
• Navigational frame provides easy sequential access to web pages
• Teacher can leave instructions or comments for each page

Weaknesses

• Navigational frame can limit amount of screen real estate available for displaying content on lower resolution monitors
• Advertisements are added to the two special pages automatically included on each jog (unless you are a premium account holder)
• Premium service is very expensive (~$40/month)
• Free account holders’ jogs are listed on the Jog the Web directory

Jog the Web offers two levels of service: the free service and a premium version.  As mentioned, the premium service is quite expensive at roughly $40/month.  To make use of Jog the Web, you will need an Internet-connected computer with a modern web browser.  Creating jogs requires the creation of a user account (you will need a valid email address for this), but anyone can view jogs.  Jogs can be shared but note that the URLs are quite long (http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/TPOxCvEq8u8C/LuthEdGuild).  A URL shortening service might be helpful here.

I love conducting faculty meetings.  I love teaching teachers!  I broke the day up, doing different activities.  The first half of the day was our PD with Devotions time.  I am working my teachers through the book, “What Great Teachers Do Differently” by Todd Whitaker.  The second half of the day was spent on numerous activities.  Learning our email system or website, curriculum mapping, 21st Century Education, and time to share and answer some questions I wanted them to think about and answer.  On the last day we also took time to be with a partner and pray for and with that person.

One advantage I will have this year is a lot of time for faculty meetings.  Almost every Wednesday is a half day for the teachers.  So the rest of the day is time for Faculty meetings.  Obviously there is the to-do list and administrative part.  But, I am using this time for continual PD , Curriculum Mapping, and departmentalized learning sections.  I will also bring in a few presenters and speakers.  Lastly the teachers will have work they need to work on throughout the week.

How are your faculty meetings run?  Are they informative as they should be? Why or Why Not?

Remember The Milk (RTM) is a simple tool that allows you to enter tasks and reminders quickly and easily.  Tasks can be added to customized lists, then assigned due dates, tagged, associated with specific locations, link to URLs, assign priorities, and even share with others.  RTM can be configured to send you reminders via SMS, instant message (using almost any service you can think of), and email.  If that was all that RTM did, it would be a great tool.  However, RTM does even more.

Remember The Milk reminders can be set via a special email address that is given to each user.  The service is also iCalendar-compliant, so you can easily import your data into your Google Calendar or Apple’s iCal.  And if that wasn’t enough, RTM also creates Atom and RSS feeds that you can subscribe to in your RSS reader!

All of those features are part of Remember The Milk’s free service.  The new, $25/year Pro service adds mobile apps for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.  There are also numerous third-party apps/services and a few other official ones.

Remember the Milk’s standard service is free to use (and there don’t even appear to be any ads).  RTM supports all major, modern web browsers on Mac, Windows, and Linux and has been online since 2004.  With the numerous, powerful features, and its easy-to-use interface, RTM should be in every teacher’s Web 2.0 toolbox.

Participating in the Curriki community is easy, as video tutorials are provided for every major feature, including registering a new user account.  Anyone, including non-members, can access the site and search the shared resources.  Members can participate by uploading content, commenting, revising shared curricula, and making collections of their favorite site resources.  Community contributed content is rated and reviewed by master educators and Curriki partners have donated whole units and courses.  This helps ensure a high standard of quality for the resources you’ll find here.

Curriki uses an xWiki backend and provides templates and forms to make adding content relatively painless.  Content can be searched using a number of parameters (including standards) or browsed by subject or standard.  Resources range from reading lists to entire textbooks and courses in all subject areas, so there should be something for just about anyone.

Normally, I would include a section on strengths and weaknesses here, but I’m really not seeing any major weaknesses to Curriki.  The site design is clean and user-friendly and tutorials have been provided for most functions.  The only slight issue I see is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to preview content that was added as an attached file without downloading it first.  That could make it a little difficult to be able to quickly determine if a resource will be of use to you.

Curriki is free to use.  You can access all resources without registering, but if you wish to upload, edit, or comment, you will need to create a free account.  Registration is simple and, as mentioned above, supported by a video tutorial.  You will need an Internet-connected computer and a modern web browser to access Curriki.  You will also need the latest version of Adobe Flash to watch the video tutorials.  Many of the resources include attached files in PDF or other common formats, so you will also need the appropriate file viewers.

By this point, you might be wondering just what this has to do with 21st century education.  As we all know, developing critical thinking skills is one of the major goals of 21st century educational reform.  One way to develop these skills is by working through questions or situations that pose a problem that requires students to think about it from a variety of perspectives and combine their existing knowledge in often novel ways.

A regular feature of Car Talk is the Puzzler.  The Puzzler is a riddle-like question, sometimes automotive in nature, that is often presented as a real-life scenario.  Puzzlers have also included logic problems, mathematics, and word games.  The nice thing about most of the Puzzler questions is that they are short and can be related quickly using, at most, a chalkboard/whiteboard to jot down important details.  Even better, the Car Talk website has an archive of Puzzlers (and answers) going back to 1996, providing educators with a ready-made source of critical thinking exercises.

These Puzzlers would be great to use during those times when a lesson has finished early, but not early enough to start the next one, or for students to work on after finishing a test.  They could also be used a bell work, to prime students’ brains to think critically and creatively, or at the end of the period to give students something to think about overnight.  You might even find some Puzzlers that could be incorporated directly in to a lesson.

Admittedly, the Puzzler archive isn’t technically a “Web 2.0″ tool.  However, the skills that the Puzzler strengthens are most certainly 21st century skills.  Also, if you find you enjoy the Puzzler, you can subscribe to the Puzzler’s RSS feed to receive new Puzzlers directly in your feed reader.  You can also subscribe to the free Car Talk podcast to hear the weekly broadcast at your own convenience.

The Puzzler archives are accessible at no charge and simply require a modern web browser and Internet connection to access.  The Puzzler RSS feed can be accessed using a feed reader like Google Reader or the built-in RSS tools in most modern web browsers.

All the above are great places to start.

Our main presenter was David Black.  He took us on the journey of looking at Digital Age Learning Skills.  For many of the principals these aren’t new concepts, but something they might not understand fully.  Dave made sure we remember to always leave an apple pie!  We are in revolutionary times and we will have great challenges, but in those great challenges we will have great opportunities.  Dave did get a great room of laughter when he answered a question from a principal.  The principal asked Dave about what to do with the teacher that will change change because they are holding out to retirement in 3 years.  Dave answer, although was funny is true.  Dave answered it is easy tell that teacher it is not about him it is about the students, it is about THEIR future.  Dave went on talking about trends and meeting standards and what he has been doing at his school.  It was a great time and at the same time  not enough time.  I personal enjoyed having Dave there since it was the first time meeting him in person, after years of online communication.

Our other big presenter was Gordon Kennedy and how curriculum mapping.  This was a great wealth of information as I want to start this process at Holt Lutheran.

I got to meet some great people and great principals.  The only time I felt a little uncomfortable was sitting in the fellowship hall playing euchre having a beer and sitting across the room is my first grade teacher, my second grade teacher and my high school principal.  The late night fellowship around the campfire was priceless.  Building those relationships with others outside of your 4 walls of a school is crucial.  Just remember to stay away the 7th Hole and 3 Dogs!

First, regularly change all passwords, especially ones with administrative access to systems.  Additionally, when you add new networking hardware, change the password from the default value.

Second, write down all important passwords and keep them in a secure location, like the school’s safe or a locked file cabinet.  I know that most of you have probably heard that you should never keep a written list of passwords, but it’s preferable to being in a situation where no one knows what those passwords are.  Case in point, I know of a several situations where an organization contracted out some computer work (server, etc.) without obtaining passwords from the people doing the work.  Later on, those same individuals refused to hand over the passwords.  Further, the individuals in question had remote access to the servers, so the organizations were forced to pay someone else to redo all of the work that had been done.  Always, always, always, get your passwords from outside contractors, and change them once the work is complete.

Third, make it clear to all employees that they should never give any password to anyone.  The only possible exception to this may be to give a password to an internal tech support staff member (but never a student worker) in the event of a user-specific problem.  And if you do give out your password under these circumstances, change it immediately afterward.  Also, stress that users should log out or lock their computers if they are leaving the room.

Finally, create a list providing staff with some ideas for creating difficult to guess, but easy to remember passwords.  Emphasis that passwords should never be names of family or pets, birthdays, or anything else easily guessed by someone with a bit of information about someone.

I discovered Manafest from Pandora Radio.  In one of my Radio Station they kept playing a few songs from “Glory” and I liked it.  So when “The Chase” came out, I got it right away.

Manafest wasn’t always a rapper, he was a skateboarder.  It wasn’t until an accident in 1998 he picked up the pen and paper and told everyone what he was feeling.

There are many great songs on “The Chase” but my favorite song is “Every Time You Run.”  It is a song that everyone can relate to.  A time when we are tempted or been lost.

If Rap / Hip Hop not your thing, give Manafest a try.  He has some slow songs like “Every Time You Run.”

LibraryThing is a very powerful tool for managing and sharing your collection of books.  Adding a book to your LibraryThing collection can be done in one of two ways.  The first is as simple as entering the title of your book.  LibraryThing searches the extensive Amazon.com database (or any of almost 700 other databases) for a match and displays the results.  You then add your book by clicking on the image of its cover.  LibraryThing lets you add detailed information to each book including tags, comments, summaries, ratings, acquisition dates, reading dates, and more.

The second method for adding a book is even easier, but requires a CueCat (make sure to get a USB one) or other barcode scanner.  The scanner is used to read the books’ ISBN barcodes which are then compared against the above-mentioned databases.  You can also use a scanner to create a text file containing many ISBN numbers to add several books at once.

Strengths

• Extensive databases contain information about most books  you may have (books not found in a database can be manually added)
• Support for ISBN numbers and scanners can ease the process of creating your collection
• Extensive features for sharing, rating, and receiving recommendations can greatly increase the usefulness of your collection

Weaknesses

• Free accounts are limited to 200 books
• No built-in method for handling circulation needs (many users use tags or comments for this purpose)
• LibraryThing uses ISBN-13 and ISBN-13+5.  Many older books may have ISBN-10.
• Lack of separate user and administrator accounts

LibraryThing offers several levels of service.  The free service allows you access to all features with a limit of 200 books.  You can upgrade to a paid account which removes that limit for $10/year or $25 for a lifetime membership.  You will need to create an account to use LibraryThing, but you are only required to provide them with an email address if you want the ability to retrieve lost usernames and passwords.

To use LibraryThing requires a computer with Internet access (dialup will work for this) and a modern web browser.  If you want to scan your books’ ISBN numbers, you will need a compatible barcode reader.