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.