Thing #23

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?


I'd have to say that my favorite discovery was probably the Web 2.0 Awards list. There's just so much on that one page that I want to investigate. I also loved digging deeper into the world of blogging. It has actually inspired me to start a blog about my teaching experiences in the hopes of helping someone, who, like me, is always looking for more information.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?


It has helped inspire me to keep learning about all that technology has to offer and all it can contribute to education. I love learning, but it's not always easy to know where to look, and this program has helped me with that.


Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?


Nothing really surprised me about the program, but there is definitely a lot that I will take away from it and use in my classroom as well as for personal use.


What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?


Hmm...nothing pops out to me. I liked how everything was organized and easy to follow. It was very welcoming to me eventhough I started the week before it was due. One thing that would be nice is an updated awards list for Web 2.0. I couldn't find one on that specific site, but maybe someone else has one. 


If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?


Definitely! I love learning about new things!


How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?


Inspiring.




Thank you for this experience!

Thing #22

I was really excited to learn about Nings, and after exploring some of the sites listed, I discovered that it would be a great way to collaborate with teachers from around the world. You can easily share resources and ideas. A couple downfalls I noticed were that you have to pay to be a member, and some of the pages attract spammers. Luckily, neither keeps you from searching through the sites and finding resources or ideas. 

Thing #21

I didn't know what to use for my vidcast, so I just picked some landscape pictures from a road trip to Colorado a few years ago. Also, I am using a Mac, so I did the vidcast on iMovie instead of Photostory.

Thing #20

Having access to so many video resources allows teachers to give their students exposure to more than what is in their classroom. Not only can you watch videos about other parts of the world, but you can see videos from other parts of the world. If a student is struggling with something, you can quickly find a video that might explain it in such a way that the student will understand better. You can also introduce students to the countless "how-to" videos that explain a barrage of different things from how to use a word processor, to how to build a computer. These may come in handy when only a couple students have trouble remembering how to use a particular program. They can look it up individually rather than having the teacher re-teach the whole class. 

Here is a video I found on YouTube about the future of educational technology.

Thing #19

There are so many interesting sites to choose from for this post that it was hard to pick one to write about. I ended up selecting ThinkFree. This seems similar to Google Docs, but a little more sophisticated. It allows you to type or edit a document online without needing to download any software. You have the option to create spreadsheets, databases, word documents, etcetera, and you can save them within ThinkFree also. This way, you can access them all in the same place, and you can do so from any computer or mobile phone. ThinkFree allows for sharing as well, but it goes a step beyond that by allowing you to invite participants into a project via email. For example, if you wanted to use this with your students, the teacher would create a project where they could allow students to submit documents related to the project and share them with the rest of the class, or the teacher could allow for the students to be able to participate in each others' documents by allowing them the ability to edit also. This would be useful for group projects. I could also see administrations using this to communicate with their staff. They could post useful information as well as allowing teachers and staff to put their 2 cents in.

Thing #18

I love Open Office! I have actually been using it on my Mac for a while now. I hate lugging the school laptop around, and I don't want Microsoft Office on my Mac, so it is a great solution! I have found that the formats, when exported to use at school, don't always look they way they did at home, and sometimes require tweaking, but, to me, it's worth it. Open Office also doesn't have all of the fancy features that you can find in Microsoft, but they aren't always necessary, and could be added later if you import the file into Microsoft Office.

I don't use Google Docs often, but one advantage I like is the ability to upload documents online. This is beneficial if you forget or misplace your flash drive occasionally. Sure, you can email documents to yourself, but uploading them so that they are all organized and in one place seems so much more appealing.

Thing #17

I have to say that I was expecting Rollyo to be a little bit easier, but after watching the video, it didn't seem too bad. I love the idea of searching only certain sites; in fact, it reminds me of Google Reader except that you are searching certain inputted sites, not reading updates from certain inputted sites.  It would be a great way for students to research using only trusted sites. The search I created is for Autism and searches between three sites that I inputted.

Rollyo Autism Search

Thing #16

I haven't had too much experience with Wikis, but it does seem like this could be a great tool in the classroom. I especially like the note-taking idea where students could compile notes and potentially write essays, review for a test, or catch up on missed material. In addition to the ideas mentioned, Wikis are a great medium for collaboration. Subject or grade departments could use Wikis to discuss unit information and cross-curricular connections. At my school, we have even used Wikis to record book studies among teachers. It is a great way to encourage discussions, and it makes it easy for teachers and administration to keep up at their own pace.

Thing #15

Before I started reading some of the articles and posts, I really didn't know much about Library 2.0 or Web 2.0. It makes sense that, with most things becoming integrated with technology and the internet, that libraries would follow as well. According to Rick Anderson's Away from the icebergs, we won't always have to go to the library, nor will it necessarily be beneficial for a library to house a huge print collection. It is expected that, if the interface is user-friendly enough, learners will be able to logon and access all kinds of information from the internet rather than searching through the, somewhat limited, collections of various libraries. While this does remove some of the face-to-face interaction that patrons experience when venturing to the library, it seems like it will provide a more efficient way to sift through the enormous amount of information that exists.

Thing #14

I tried doing a keyword search for "School Library Learning 2.0" in blogs, tags, and in the blog directory, but I received zero results each time. Also, the popular section was "currently unavailable" when I looked. 


Technorati seems like a great user-friendly way to search for blogs or posts pertaining to, pretty much, anything. Students could easily use this for research and teachers could use it to find new strategies, ideas, and activities. Tagging is also valuable. It provides organization and an easy way to browse through many posts to find what you're looking for.

Thing #13

I have actually had a Delicious account for a while now and have always thought it was a great way to save and access bookmarks from anywhere. I also like that you can share bookmarks with people in your network. While looking through the other bookmarking sites, however, I discovered that I like Diigo also. It has different groups you can join and it even has educator accounts where a teacher or librarian can easily set up student accounts. These accounts are automatically in a group together so that the students are sharing with each other. This could be beneficial for class projects or research.

Thing #12

While reading through the commenting advice, I came across Meredith Farkas' post about sharing. She makes some good points about how, even though you may not feel like your thoughts are worth sharing, they will help someone in some way. They also let the blogger know that you appreciate what they are writing. She also goes on to say that sharing your thoughts by commenting will also come back and benefit the commenter in the long run. The Cool Cat Teacher Blog about commenting explains this a little further by suggesting that leaving a comment invites the blog writer as well as other blog readers to your blog. 


Commenting is slightly hard for me, as I'm sure it is for quite a few people. I would hate to offend someone or make a somewhat stupid comment. I kept some things in mind that I read earlier to encourage myself to keep posting comments. The outside blogs that I posted comments on were a couple of the ones I found while learning about RSS feeds. Hopefully they will appreciate my appreciation for their blogs.

Thing #11

I am surprised at how easy LibraryThing is to use. It is a great way to keep track of my personal collection as well as the books I have at school for my students! You could even share collections with friends or colleagues to form a trading circle or just to get recommendations. 


When looking through the groups, I found one called What Are You Reading Now where people discuss the books that they have read, are reading, or will read. It would be a great place to find recommendations for new books.

Thing #10

These image creators would be great in the classroom to help students learn more about the internet and what it has to offer. Here's a picture I made using Dumpr's Photo Pencil Sketch. 

This is just a sketch of a flower, but this image creator would be a fun way to help my students remember the names of their peers and of the school staff. They could participate in creating the images, and it would become a fun learning activity that they would be proud of.

Thing #9

Which Search tool was the easiest for you?


I would have to say Technorati was the easiest for me to use. It's very user-friendly and lets you choose between searching for actual blogs or searching through posts.


Which was more confusing?


I would probably say that Syndic8 was the most confusing, probably because it seems very crowded to me and not nearly as user-friendly as Technorati.


What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?


I found a couple useful blogs to add to my collection such as SMART Ideas for SMART Board Integraton. I'm always looking for new ways to use my Smart Board with my students, so this will come in handy.

Thing #8

What do you like about RSS and readers?


I like that it saves time. Instead of checking every website you like to keep up with, it is all in one place.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?


For school, I can subscribe to various technology blogs or blogs about teaching strategies. With my personal life, I can keep up with friends, news, and many other things.

How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology?


Libraries can use this to keep up with current events, new research, and even other libraries. Teachers can this technology to subscribe to different websites that they can use in the classroom or that will give fresh ideas about teaching strategies. They can even share their information with each other to keep everyone updated as much as possible. Administrators could use this to subscribe to class blogs, current educational trends, as well as other schools or regions. 

Thing #7

I've played around with Google before, and even though, for some reason, I still like Yahoo better, I am beginning to like Google more and more. I love using Google Earth with my students. The first time I typed in a boy's address and asked him to show me his house, his eyes widened in amazement. His house is about 45 minutes away from the school, but somehow it was on the computer too. It immediately sparked a conversation which is rare for him. I also loved using it during the hurricane because it showed the weather and let us zoom in to specific locations.

I also enjoyed checking out Google Reader. I am always looking to learn new things such as finding new activities to do with my students, learning about other teacher's ideas, finding out more information about autism, and so on and this gives me the option of subscribing to various blogs or websites. It compiles everything into the Google Reader and lets you know when each one has been updated.

Thing #6

It is really hard just to pick one mashup to write about. I love bookr and the idea that we can make experience books all year long about projects and field trips, but I can't get over the Colr Pickr. It lets you select a color and then shows about 8 pictures from a category that are the color you selected. This, again, is great for lifeskills students. It shows great examples to teach the basic colors, but it is also a great way to teach about all the different shades of color.

Thing #5

Monarch Butterfly

I enjoyed browsing through Flickr, and I can definitely use it in the classroom. I am currently teaching lifeskills and I am always in need of real-life, concrete pictures to help my students understand exactly what I am talking about. This site would be great for vocabulary words as well!

Thing #3

Wow. There has been a lot to do in these last two posts. I have successfully created this blog, and exported the avatar. Setting up the blog wasn't that bad, and there are a lot of options if I choose to make some adjustments in the near future. The avatar, however, was having some issues. The picture wasn't loading, it wouldn't show me my changes, and then a stray ad made the page look weird. I know this isn't normal since I had a yahoo account and avatar already though. I just had to refresh the page a few times to get it back to normal.


Now onto the fun.....
:)

Thing #2

As I watched the 7 and 1/2 Habits, I realized that the easiest habit for me is probably the first one. I tend to be on the obsessive compulsive side of things. I plan things out in my head and on paper to an obnoxious extent, therefore, when I put my mind to something, I almost always try to plan out how I will achieve that goal.


The hardest habit for me is probably play. While I do "play", I often find myself thinking, or obsessing, over things that haven't gone as planned or obstacles I still face which ends up taking time away from just relaxing so I can look at things in a different light.