This podcast caught my attention because we've been talking about tags a lot in my DED class at Kansas State University, especially with out Delicious sites. Using tags prevents information from getting lost in the virtual world. A tag is one word that you could use to describe the info, but you can have several tags for everything. If you have an educational website, you could use "teachers", "education", "edu", "teaching", "learning", etc. Anything that could help you find a resource later is helpful. The general "rule" about tags is that you should try to have at least five tags on everything because some people use different tags for the same thing or might make something plural while another leaves it singular. You need to find a balance between overstructuring tagging with strict rules and not having enough. Honeycutt used the phrase, "When you put things in the ocean, they get lost" just like information would without tagging in the virtual world. On the internet, people are overwhelmed with all the information that is available so easily and quickly. This is only going to increase, though, with time which is why we must implement tagging now rather than later.
Art Snacks is website that Kevin Honeycutt talks about in this podcast. On this website, you are able to build a creative learning community where students can access 10 minute art lessons that teach other lessons at the same time. There are 135 curriculum aligned 10 minute art lessons all on this one website! This website is also a learning network where teachers and kids work in the same place. Some teachers use it as art curriculum because there isn't an art teacher while others use it to "teach" the class, so they (the teacher) has the freedom to walk around the classroom and mentor the class in ways you normally wouldn't be able to. Honeycutt's dream is to have thousands of videos created by anyone and everyone about anything and everything. They try to keep this website as safe for kids as possible. If someone says something inappropriate, they are first warned. If it happens again, that person is then banned from the website completely. You have to register to use this website strictly because it helps to prevent scammers from getting on (which has worked so far). Also, this website has kids becoming mentors to one another. People go out of their way to be nice to each other because they have had mentors and role models. Another thing he mentioned is that there are currently about 3300 members, and he does NOT want a million users. At that point he would break it up into another website because it would lose it's "community" feel. I thought this was awesome. It just goes to show how important being a part of a community it is and makes me like the website that much more! When you go to the website, the creators and members "greet" you at the door just as an educator would to his/her students in their own classroom. To the creators, you are not a member, you're an artist. They aren't videos; they are are lessons. It isn't just a picture; it's artwork. You can also get in touch with Kevin Honeycutt at his e-mail kessdack.gmail.com or his website.
Thanks for seeing what I'm doing.
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