Thing #16

   It is really surprising that even with my technology background, I am a newcomer to Facebook. I started using it about a year ago, just a little before we started our cohort. I do like the possibility to stay in touch with people that sometimes you have even forgotten about, I do not like the way some people let their lives be driven by it but as usual I think that everybody has a right to do as they please.

  By making this blog I found a lot of new applications for things I've been using regularly. The ones that changed my views the most were the ones I saw in my classmates' blogs! this is not surprising since they would be looking at things that I won't think about and viceversa.

  I think Dr. Wilson needs to take into account that most people these days are already using some of the tools and maybe needs to change some of them. For instance, we all had already put together a group of the cohort in Facebook, so it was not a new experience for most of us.

  I really hope that we keep the blog and continue to check everybody's and comment on them although I know it's not practical to think so, we are just too full of other things to do. It has been a pleasant experience to know your digital selves.

  Thanks everybody.

Thing #15.5

   As with most of the other tools, I have been using twitter for a while mostly to follow newspeople from Mexico but I have never made the jump to tweet or even less to try to have a following. It is a very good idea to limit the size of the comments people can make because that keeps the conversation multiple sided. Twitter is one of those things that when you see it the first time (before it was famous) you think "What would people use this for?" and don't give a penny for it but when you least expect it, it's the next wave in communication. My twitter name is @fbarocio, hello world!

Thing #15

   Being from a different country, Skype has been a part of our life since we arrived. We use it all the time to communicate with our friends and relatives back in Mexico. Been able to see them at the same time is awesome, my wife's sister had a baby 2 months ago and she sees him all the time and is aware of every minor change he has had since he was born thanks to Skype. The baby even recognizes her voice already. Technology is indeed a bleesing.
   Talking about the classroom, the obvious use of Skype for me is to find students in Mexico learning English and hook them up with my own students learning Spanish. The experiences both groups can get are very interesting!

Thing #14

I found a lot of interesting Podcasts but the thing that called my attention was a directory of language-learning ones. You can find the most common languages with lessons spoken by natives and you can use those to practice your learning. I posted a link to the French one because that's the one I personally would like to use, but the uses of the one for Spanish in my classroom are endless.

Thing #13

This is something I never thought I'd do. I've mentioned before that I hate publishing personal videos or photos online, so it never crossed my mind uploading videos to YouTube. Of course, now that I have, it's obvious that I needn't worry about it, I can upload videos that are NOT personal. What I did was: I took a video that I had from my trip to the Niagara Falls and using movie maker I edited out the personal parts, I posted what was left after that. Enjoy the might of water falling...

Thing #12

   I have used YouTube for a long time now, mostly for personal recreation. I go in to look for music videos of my favorite artists and to look at funny videos. Now for this activity I went to take a look at YouTube from a different perspective and I liked it.
   I've heard several people complaining about the amount of "garbage" you can find there but I think that YouTube is just like any other human activity, there are lots of things worth your time and some things that you do not want to look at it. But guess what, you don't have to look at them if you don't want to! So, there is no point complaining about things you don't have to watch.
  I think the good points of YouTube far outweight any bad (which I really think there aren't any that you HAVE to experience), and to heat up the discussion I chose to add a completely stupid video, the kind that I love to watch because I think laughing is a crucial part of life (Especially when you learn to laugh at yourself).
  Please take a look at Spiderman at a children's party...

Thing #11

   I would never have thought that I would find something like this listed in the Web 2.0 tools page; I found this incredible science fiction universe; Galaxiki, where you can find a map of the galaxy and "buy" a solar system in which you can create your own civilization. You can write stories about what happens there and how they achieved intelligence. There are literally more than a hundred thousand million stars to choose from. Thousands of stars are already bought with stories of their own where you can just enjoy the imagination of their owners. It is a complete universe ready to be colonized!

Thing10

​   Being an old timer, I do not like the idea of being tied to the internet to do things. I am always thinking that something can go wrong and that for some reason I won't have internet access and I won't be able to work in my documents whenever I want to. I know that having files (and now, applications) online makes life a lot easier; but I also know that if for some reason the internet is not working or is too slow or is simply not there, having your own software on a computer and your files on a flash drive can save your day. In short, use the internet's advantages but always have a backup.

  Having said that, the ability to just turn on a computer, loggin in to the internet and start writing documents is amazing by itself; but being able to save your work in the cloud and work later on a different computer in a different city is just mind boggling. If on top of that you also publish your work directly into a blog or a wiki, then I am at a loss for words. I just do not know where we will be getting to in the next few years. This document was created in Zoho Writer and posted to Blogger from there. Amazing.

Thing #9

   As I commented in my technology poppers for classrooms entry, I want to use Wikis so that my students can share thoughts and ideas.Some other projects I have in mind to use Wikis in my classroom are:
    I want to post a question in Spanish every week and have them all answer it and watch what the others are answering too. Another idea is to post a conversation starter and let them follow the conversation; in Spanish of course. Also, I want to use a wiki to talk about the current events in the school or around town but again using Spanish. I would give them a grade for participating which I think would boost their interest in doing it.

Thing #8

   I am guilty of using Wikipedia and I really think is a good idea/project. Of course, it is not a good source of information for those who want to learn something completely new, but if you have an idea of what you are looking of or some prior knowledge I believe you will be able to tell if what you are reading is the true thing.
   During my browising for wikis I found a lot of great ideas but when I tried to see them working most of them were just ideas that never had the public support. Like the one from Princeton about books. I went in there hoping to find people talking about books but to my surprise there were only two books listed under science fiction, when I selected one of them all it had was a "review" by somebody who read it and that was it. Only two books.
   Most of the teacher ones were the same, teachers doing the entries but no students contributing to the wiki. I really feel that for a wiki to be a good classroom project, it has to have the collaboration of everybody. Maybe do something related to the community where some fieldwork is required in order to have real time information. This would require everybody to do their part and not feel like only the smart kids are able to do it.

Thing #7

   I had to use wordle just because I've seen it so many times and never used it myself. I made a little experiment, I used the text of the warm-ups I give my students in class to see which words I used the most. You can see the result yourselves:

   Obviously, I use the words "Translate the following to Spanish" a little too much. Just as I did it students can use wordle to find out if they are repeating themselves too much or to find key concepts on things they have to read.

   I also worked with Voki. I think I can use this to communicate with my students in a less formal way. Using it in web assignments I think I can connect with them more on their level without losing the Teacher-Student proper way of communicating.

Thing #6

   For news or sports fanatics, or for bussinessmen, RSSs feeds are great. They keep you up to date without having to navigate several websites. You can suscribe to the ones you like the most and the items you need are all together in one page. Bloglines makes the work really easy. However, I do not see a lot of advantage for the rest of us, I do enjoy going to the website and looking at all there is to it and not just what they want to feed me through the RSS.
   Here's a link to my bloglines. One of the things I feel RSSs are good for is that they can make your blog look more interesting by adding one :).

Thing #5

   I think mashups are a gret idea, it's the same principle of bulding using things that are already created. Since I love traveling, this combination of twitter and google maps called my attention 100 destinations it has the maps, the twits and pictures taken by people that had been there.

   Another specially interesting one is 5000 LIVE webcams where you can choose one webcam around the World and watch live what's happening in that location. Here's a screenshot from one in Boston:

And another one from the cafeteria of a Mexican University:

    I am a little afraid about what the internet might mean for privacy, it scares me how easily people can now find where I live, how to get there, what my house looks like, what kind of car I drive and where I work. Now they can watch things live. What else are we going to get into?

Thing #4 Singapore New Year Countdown 2011 Fireworks : First Burst :

Singapore New Year Countdown 2011 Fireworks : First Burst :, a photo by zoompict (pro account expire soon) on Flickr.

I do like pictures so flicker is a very nice addition to my technological toolbox. I signed up on flicker and connected my Guacamoler blogger from there. I am doing this post from within flicker which I think is a very cool feature. This picture has a lot of the things I enjoy: At night, a skyline of a city, water,a special ocasion, and fireworks.

Thing #3

   Time for pictures. If I do not like sharing thoughts, I have an even bigger aversion to showing pictures of me. They are very rare for that same reason. I have no problems with sharing pictures I have taken, though. This one in particular has impressed me since I took it; so enjoy it!

Thing #2

   Now that I have experienced bloggin on my own, I understand the fascination that people have for it. I also see how it will never have that for myself, I'm just not the kind of person that likes sharing thoughts (specially with the whole world) or likes reading about other people's.
   Having said that, looking at ya'll's blogs has made me make a lot of additions and changes to mine. I guess being a man makes me a lot more sloppy than you and when I see the kinds of things you do I realize that I can make my blog a lot better. Thanks for that!

Thing #1

     It is very easy for me to learn things, I love learning but the hardest for me is to start with the end in mind. Since I always start with no specific goal I find myself vey often not getting what I want, frustrated because I did not have the time to get what I had no clear idea I wanted. I'm convinced that if I started setting goals (specially  realistic ones) my learning would be a lot more satisfying.
     The easiest habit for me is to use technology to my advantage, I always start learning on google. I see what is needed, if it's doable, how had other people done it and how much would it cost me to start. Along the way I downolad tutorials, reviews, experiences, videos, etc. to help me with my learning. Most of the time I do not even need to buy anything.

I made a contract that says I'll be a blogger:
Learning contract