All is almost said and done

We have made soooooooooooo many accounts in the past 5 weeks! I must say that a lot of the time, if a site has you create an account before you can browse it to decide if you like it or not, I usually deny. So, again, Im glad that this class has pushed me to research all of these sites and applications. I had no idea about the great tools that are being shared for free! Everyone should take a class like this! (But then everyone should take a class to learn how to balance their check book, drive a car, etc- but not everyone gets those oppertunities either!)
I am so excited to have all of these new tools!!! Some of my favorites are Zillow, Flickr, and GarageBand podcasts. And then theres my google reader, Zoho writer, Furl and GoodReads. Everything we have studied has a use!

And its very important to stay involved as technology continues to evolve. This has me on the path to being more technologically inclined and staying up to date as a lifeling technology learner! I will continue to discover whats next. Looks like its going to be 2.1 and now that I know what an RSS feed is and how to subscribe to it, I can stay up to date with a few clicks! (Isnt that what we all want?)

Five weeks ago, I had no idea about the things that I would want to add to my classroom activities. Now I will make webquests and Scavenger Hunts for fun interactive learning, just to name a few!

Now its time to let all that I've learned soak in and relax in keeping on top of it all! Im just stepping off the threshold into a whole new world!


THANK YOU, Dr Jerles, and Dr. Wall!!!

Thing 23: Commons for the Creative

Found on our 23 Things page:
Credits
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Now that I know about Creative Commons, I will use it more often to make sure its ok that I borrow something, especially if I am going to make a lot of somethings with the material. I will also look for it at the bottom of the page that I want to take something from. And when I publish content I will add a CC logo to let people know if I mind sharing that particular idea.

Thing 22: Podcasting

I listened to a podcast of 2 young students telling what they have learned about sea turtle in their lab. It was very inspiring and added even more excitement to wanting to create podcasts for and with my class. I found the Education Podcast Network the easiest to use. I like the podcasts by "Discovery through a Scientific Lens" but they seem t be videos more than podcasts even though it is on the EPN. I would subscribe to it and enjoy listening to it regularly. Its a great place to get classroom ideas!

Thing 21: Annamoto...?

Making a video with my pictures was so seamless with Animoto!!! It was just a few simple click, a couple of choices to make, and your video is being made and next thing I knew I was watching it.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This is an easy way to make a slideshow. It could be used in the classroom to display field trip pictures or pictures of a specific topic that is being studied.

Thing 20: Your vid becomes our tube

I chose to upload one of my favorite cartoons from when I was little. We used to have this vhs of 5 hrs of cartoons. I think many of them were MAx Fleischer cartoons, like this one. This seems appropriate for our class, because its about a couple that goes to a world's fair where they get to see, of course, all of the new-est-fangled technology!

Its incredible that people love making and posting so many videos to share with everyone!!!

Thing 19: Other Socializing

Ning and TeacherPop seems to be very cool social networking sites. I like that teacherpops focus is on teachers, and education! It will be a great place to ask questions when I am pndering the future of having a class of my own, as well as when I need answers or advice once I do have a class of my own.



Visit TeacherPop

I also like goodreads.com. I have been wanting to look for a site just like this!!! I have become a member and Im sure this will be of great enjoyment in the future! I am excited for some good summer reading once this class is over! Have I mentioned how great this class is?!!! And fun, too!!!

Thing 18: Ace'ing

I facebook. I have an account with friends and pictures. Its so cool that facebook and myspace have linked people in such an accessible way. It is great how it has been made to be so easy and quick! Both of them have very useful features for the social networking site that it is. I think I like facebook better for ease of navigating and using.
It is important that educators know how social networking works because their students will be using it. They could even be using it in class on their phone. The little boy (not so little anymore) I used to babysit is ALWAYS on during school hours, posting and updating. Which makes me think that his friends probably are too! It amazed me to learn how many people are using it! I really like, and obviously LOTS of other people do too, how easy it is to upload pictures onto facebook. Everything about the site seems easy to me. A classroom application would be discussing homework in the evenings. It would be a great place for students to ask each other questions and guide each other through the work when help is needed. Of course, it would have to be "teacher monitored"!

Thing 17: I wonder why they call it delicious...

...And whats with the dots in the name? This is a great tool if you ever want to save a tidbit of information while you are browsing the web! (Who doesn't, all the time?) Furl and gnolia also are nice. Bookmarking makes finding things so much faster. And being able to save text from a web page and definitely being able to access it later is wonderful! I still havent figured out the dots in the names,...

These can be used in the classroom for accessing previously-found data later, and by easy search-and-find with bookmarking.

Thing 16: Organization and Productivity

I already use iGoogle for my home page and I really like it. I have added many widgets to it that I really like. I did not like PageFlakes better. Netvibes seems very different however. It seems like it can be used like GoogleReader. Except that it will show news feeds on a specific topic instead of from a specified news source or blog. AND you can add RSS feeds to it also! There is so much to explore about Netvibes! It would be great to use in class for researching a recent or current topic of interest. iGoogle would also be great in the classroom for quickly checking the temperature outside, or info from other widgets.

I also like Google Calendar. I use it already as well. It has everything I need, although it is simple. But I do like that 30 Boxes has a separate to-do list so that tasks do not have to be date-specific. And it can be shared, unlike Google's calendar, which would be great for project and assignment due dates as well as other predetermined school or classroom dates.

I also researched Engrade. It seems to be a great gradebook tool. Students and parents can log into it as often as they'd like making it very nice. It also has a calendar feature where tests or other assignments cld be posted and checked by students and parents. There is a place to enter comments for students to view about themselves when they log in. It also will keep track of attendance and you can mark a grade as an excused absence, or missing. It has many excellent features.

Each of these would be useful at home and at school. I would recommend them to others.

Thing 15: Wikis

Well, it seems that wikis are lot like blogs except for the fact that anyone can add things to them. It can be very useful for getting ideas from people or for planning something with a group, just as mentioned in the wiki video by CommonCraft. It would be great for a group project in class. Each person from the group will be able to add their input or their list of responsibilities and all can see and edit them. Commenting on the 23 Things Sandbox wiki page was very easy to do. It is interesting that you can edit the previous post! Haha, it makes me wish I hadn't 'signed' my name at the bottom of my post, tehe.

And so I have created a WIKI page, you can go to it here, (but I think I will have to accept your request, sorry for the 'raised drawbridge' there!)

Its called: "What's for dinner". Its a place for us to tell what we will be making and enjoying for dinner. A nice place to get ideas and brag about fabulous meals!

Thing 14: Thought Mapping

Flow charts and mind mapping apps are useful when you want to lay out a process such as a decision or how something works. They can even be nice to illustrate how something looks. I chose to explore flowcharts.com and mindmeister.com. I really like mindmeister for displaying ideas. I think it would be great in the classroom for showing the class the subjects and details that we will be learning through out the upcoming school year. It seems very intuitive and easy to use. Flowcharts however, doesn't seem as intuituve. After creating my own from scratch, I got used to it and learned how to make a nice flow chart. This could also be used in the classroom to illustrate the process that will be used for an upcoming project, or a decision making process, also for demonstrating the cause and effect process. I chose to use mindmeister to map out the projects that I have to complete for the final. I will be able to easily change the order or the layout as I make new decisions on which to complete next. As I get a new idea for each project, I add it onto the map. It is has been very helpful!!!