My Final Thoughts For 23 Things

I enjoyed learning about all of the wonderful tools that are out there. I had no idea about most of them. I really enjoyed the image generators. I believe I would have loved animoto if my computer would have let me finish it. I looked at a few people's videos and they were really nice. I know these tools will be helpful in the classroom. I just hope I can remember them all! Although I enjoyed most of the 23 Things, there were those that were fustrating. I would have to say that Thing #4 was my least favorite because I had to rewrite what I commented on in my blog. I am glad I had the chance to learn about all of these wonderful tools. Thanks!

Thing #23

One attribution that I found was on the very first page. It told what the 23 Things was loosely based on. This gives credit of the idea to the creators. I have always know about copyright and that not giving credit is wrong, but I have never heard of creative commons. I will always give credit where it is needed in my classroom. This will also let the students know that they need to give credit for information that they get from others.

Thing #22

I chose to listen to the Pocahontas Podcast. This podcast told about the history of Pocahontas and corrected Disney's version of Pocahontas. I chose to listen to this podcast because a class that I just observed was studying about Pocahontas. It was filled with useful information. There were several other podcasts that dealt with history. I found this using the Educational Podcast Directory. It was very easy to navigate through. I also looked at podcastdirectory.com, and it was filled with a variety of podcasts. The educational podcast directory was more useful to me because educational podcasts is what I was looking for. I believe I will use this in my classroom. It is good for auditory learners. Podcasts can be very useful in the classroom for several reasons. They can be good activities for the students and they can be a good substitute for oral instructions if the teacher knows he or she will not be in the classroom one day.

Thing #21

Animoto seems like a wonderful and fun tool, but my computer froze every time I tried to add music. I have an older computer, so that may be the problem. It has easy steps to follow and I really want to finish my video. I will try to get it to let me finish and I will embed it. I was able to finish my video, so here it is.

Thing #20

Here is the link to a video that I found that would be useful in an elementary classroom. It is a dr. seuss video on the alphabet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyoWdUBWKqg&feature=related
I have found youtube to be very useful while in school. I have used several videos in presentations. I do not like that if you type in a certain topic that it gives so many results that it can be fustrating to find the right video.

Thing #19

I am a member of myspace, facebook and now teacher pop. I enjoy these because it is an easy way to keep in touch with others. I looked at the Bake Space. I am always looking for new and easy recipes and I found that there. I plan on using it from now on. The rest of the social networks listed seem like they would be interesting also, so I will look into them too. The cooking ones just always stick out to me the most.

Thing #18

This is the link to my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000203795222
I already have a facebook account and I am familiar with myspace. I like facebook more than myspace because in order for someone to look at your account, you have to confirm them as your friend. This is also a useful feature that facebook has. It is important that teachers know how social networking works because that is what the world is evolving to. It is also a good way to maintain communication with other teachers. It would be useful in the classroom because students can chat about assignments and help each other.

Thing #17

Social bookmarking is a useful tool that allows you to have all of your favorite websites listed on one page. This is useful because it can be accessed from any computer you are on. This can be useful in the classroom because teachers can create a page that has useful websites for their students and also for other teachers. This seems like it will be a lot of help in the future.

Thing #16

I chose to use igoogle to create my start page. It was so easy to do. It allowed me to be creative, which I love. I really enjoyed created my page. It allowed me to choose my interests and it automatically added different items onto the page. I will probably not use it as my permanent home page because the Austin Peay website is my home page. I use it all the time, so it would be easier to keep it as my home page. Online calenders are useful if you are constantly on the computer. They are easy to add to and check, but personally, I find that a calender that I carry with me to be more useful. I chose to use the Remember the Milk to create a to-do list. I was actually disappointed because I live by to-do lists and Remember the Milk was kind of complicated to use. It was difficult to understand how to use it. I thought Zamzar would be useful. I have an older computer and I can not always open all files at home. Zamzar is an easy way to convert file types.

Thing #15

Wikis would be very useful when working a group of individuals. Teachers could communicate through them easily on different things about the classroom. They can talk about lesson revisions and post useful tips. I think wikis would be very useful to use in the classroom as well. Students can communicate with each other and help each other. The teacher can also observe and help when needed. I explored the sandbox and posted a couple comments. It was nice to see how others felt about some of the 23 things.

Thing #14

I chose to use Bubbl and Gliffy. Bubbl was very easy to use. It gave direct instructions and even allowed to maximize or minimize the viewing size. It was very easy to create a mind map using Bubbl. I created one for the word "love". This is a good exercise for younger students. They would say what they thought of when they heard the word love. Gliffy was a little more complicated, but it was still nice to use. I made one for the steps to christmas shopping either online or at the store. I liked Bubbl more because it gave better instructions on how to create the mind map.

Thing #13

Zoho seemed like it could be very useful. I mostly explored the writer and the planner. I loved the planner. I am a forgetful person, so I always have to write down appointments or things that I have to do. I liked this planner because everything was already divided into categories such as to-dos and appointments. It also allows you to set up reminders and due dates which is always helpful. I also plan on using the writer in the future. I do not have a good word processor on my desktop computer, so I believe the Zoho writer will make writing much simpler for me.

Thing #12

I chose to follow the google alerts. This was very easy to use. All I had to do was type in a keyword that I wanted to follow and it pretty much did the rest. I chose to have them sent to my e-mail because I check my e-mail every day. I now have alerts on NFL football teams the 49ers and the Cowboys and a couple of my favorite singers Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. I did not create a link to my account because if I did, anyone who follows the link can change my information. I did get a lot of good information about my alert subjects. I believe this could be used in the classroom as an easy tool to use when teaching history or keeping up with certain news topics. I also chose to do the google calender. I believe it could be useful for friends to plan around each other easier or for teachers to plan around each other for meetings and such. I believe it is safer to just share your calender with friends and family not to the general public. They do have it where you people who view it can only see if you are busy or free which is what I have chosen to do. Here is the link to get to my calender.

Thing #11

I found the google blog search to be the easiest for me to use. It gave me good results for what I was looking for. I found that topix.net was good for searching news items, but that was not useful for what I was looking for. A lot of the results I got was not what I was looking for. I was looking for home renovation blogs and websites. I did find one great site through google blog search that I will probably use in the future. Technoroti was probably the least useful. It did not give me the results I was looking for. Most of the blogs confused me.

Thing #10

I have been putting off doing thing #10 because it looked and sounded really complicated, but once I started it, the process was really simple. I did not think that I would use it, but I already do. I like that all of my favorite blogs are right there. I have ones from recipes to the local news. I believe I could use this to save time and be able to remember sites that I really like. I believe it could be used in schools for teachers to use to keep track of their students' homework submissions or their favorite teacher websites. Here is a link to my bloglines. Click here.

Thing #4

I believe commenting is a good way for folks to give their opinions on others' blogs. It is important so that those who are blogging know that people are reading their blogs. One thing that I read was "10 ways to increase comment numbers on your blog". A point that I liked was to comment back if someone comments on your blog. I know I do not like to be left hanging, so I would appreciate it if someone commented me back if I commented on their blog. I also liked a point made when I read "comment like a king (or queen)". It said to write a meaningful comment. Instead of putting just "Yeah", explain why you liked it. I decided to comment on: People in my class:
Jamie Hamm's Thing #2 because I really liked her avatar. I let her know that I liked it and she was wondering if it looked like her and I assured her that it did.
Stephanie Mitchell's Thing #3 because I liked her url for her blog. I wanted to let her know that I thought it was very creative.
Wendy Matheney's Thing #4 because she is a friend and I thought she did a very good job on her post.
Alicia Presley's Thing #6 because I wanted to comment about what she said about facebook. I wanted to let her know the reasons I like facebook.
Keri Hill's Thing # 10 because she is a friend. I let her know that it looked difficult to do the RSS feed, but she did a good job.
People not in my class:
Rachel Morris's Thing #7 because I really liked the pictures she got from flickr. I commented that I love flowers, but I do not like the weeding part of having a flower garden.
JamGrant's Thing #9 because I saw that she is getting married and wanted to tell her congratulations. She made a sign that said how many days is left until the wedding.

Thing #9

I chose this image because it is almost halloween. Here is the link on how to create your own jack-o-lantern.

This was really simple to do and so cute. I have never actually carved my name into a tree, so I liked this. Here is a link so you can carve your name in a tree to.

This sign was also easy to make and fun. Here is the link to the sign maker.

I found it easy to use most of the image generators, but I could not post some that I really liked because it would not let me. Some were fustrating because the image I wanted to download to work with was too large. I really liked this activity, though. I believe these could be used to spice up a teacher's page or classroom page.

Thing #8

I really enjoyed making this post card. It was very creative and easy to do. I think these flickr mashups are wonderful. They are a good way for kids to be creative, but not too complicated. This particular flickr activity would be a good way for a teacher to introduce herself to the classroom. It is fun and colorful. The teacher could put a picture of herself and information about her that she would want the students and their parents to know. She could then print it off. I do not like putting pictures out there on the internet for anyone to see because you never know who will look at it. It is sad to say, but there are some people out there that would do crazy things.

Thing #7

Flickr was very easy to use and navigate through. I got so many great results of my keyword "lighthouse". I also looked up a few other words and got wonderful results for them also. I have heard of flickr before, but did not know exactly what it was until now. I will definitely use it in the future. I chose to look up lighthouses because I believe they are so beautiful. They are so peaceful. I have been to a couple and I loved being able to get that close to them.

Here is a link to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

It is by Darvin Atkeson and was uploaded onto flickr by him on June 12, 2008.

Thing #6

I chose to look at the iFoods Look and Taste site because I am always looking for new recipes to try. I found the site very easy to maneuver through and it had a lot of yummy recipes. I liked how the recipes were divided up in types like Mexican or Bread. I also liked how it had video recipes. This is good for those who like to watch someone else do it and follow them. I believe this would be a good site for a high school cooking class or even a measurement activity.

Link to iFoods

Thing #5

I read the Web 2.0: A Guide for Teachers. I found it interesting and true that it stated that things such as libraries and classrooms have been replaced by the web. I also believe that even though we have a lot of technology today, there will be much more to come. I believe this could be a good thing as well as a bad thing. Having instant access is nice, but classroom interaction is still needed.
I also read New Literacies: Enrichment or Essential?. I thought the writer produced a lot of interesting questions. I did like how the writer stated that students already use blogging and other interactive web tools and asked how teachers can use this interest to enhance the students writing skills and such.
School 2.0, to me, means that schooling would be almost completely web-based. As I said earlier, I believe it is a good thing to keep up with the times, but physical interaction is still needed. I believe schools could be more web-based, but need to keep the instructional time. Teachers have good knowledge that they can and will share with their students.

Thing #3

I honestly could not come up with a lot of ways to use a blog in a classroom. I think it would be a good way for students to communicate with each other and to communicate with their teacher. They could discuss topics that they need help on. It can be a way for the students to help each other. I have never used one before this class, but I always thought that they were just a way to communicate with others socially. I looked at the suggestions from Anne Davis and found that there are a lot of good uses for a blog in the classroom setting. The one that stuck out the most to me is that you can use the blog to reflect on your teaching by creating a journal type blog. I think this is good because everyone needs to reflect on what they did and how they could improve.

Thing #2

I simply used my name as my posting name. To be honest, I was more concerned about getting it done correctly than coming up with a creative name. The blog itself was not hard for me to create. I am sure that the avatar is simple to create for most people, but that took me forever to figure out. I had a very hard time figuring out how to add the avatar to my blog. I am not very computer oriented. I did though, enjoy creating my avatar. I like being creative with color and such. I did for the most part model it after myself. I chose colors that I like and the clothes that I liked the best. It took me some time, but I like my finished product and believe that it represents me. I do think that it could be fun to blog and create avatars and such, but it was very frustrating to figure out for me. Now that I have broken the ice on creating blogs, I believe it can be more fun and easier.

Thing #1

I thought that the habit #71/2 was the easiest to follow. I believe that most people do not think that by having fun, they are keeping their minds active. I have heard this before and think that it is very true. Just because we are adults does not mean that we can not be creative and have fun. You do not have to work to have fun, just play! I thought that habit #3 is the hardest for me. When a problem arises, I think of a crisis, not of a challenge. I do believe that you can learn from your problems, but I have a hard time seeing problems as a chance to learn. I do not have a lot of knowledge about technology, so I am hoping to learn about more complex webtools. I think it will be a challenge, but good to know. I like that you can be creative with your blog and profile. I d0 not think that it was very hard to set up the blog, but not really simple either. I think it will be easier to post now that it is set up.