Thing # 23 Final Thoughts

WHEW! I am done! I really liked it! I will be doing the next set next year!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercised on this learning journey? I liked the photo story and the mashups and of course flikr!

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I always like to see what the new stuff is out there but never never have the time to really just browse online. I normally stay with the same sites but this "class" is good because it exposed me to some things I didn't' know were out there!

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? The amount of time I could become engrossed in these applications. I would look up and hours would be gone!

What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept? I think you could list more options and the participant could pick the 23 they want to do. So that everyone had the same about of blogs etc but had the choice to try ALL new things. For example, I had seen wordle, you tube and teacher tube as well as some of the other ones but if you listed about 30 and I chose the 23 I wanted then that would be good to have some choice.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future would you choose to participate?
Definitely! This is a great way to get your hours in at your own pace.

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? FUN!

Thanks so much for putting this all together it has been a real eye opener and I will definitely be putting this to use in my classroom!!

CC

Thing # 22 Ning

What a neat idea! I don't know if I want my students to be out there "in the wild" but a social networking page that I control would be neat!! I love the Elementary Ning. You could set it up to share with other educators to share ideas across the world! LOVE IT! I already do face book but this is better because it merges both the aspects of a wiki with the social part! Super cool!

Thing # 21 Photo Story

I like these. I used to use Animoto but the quality isn't too good unless you buy it in hd format for a fee.

I like it. This is justmy practice one I didn't have the right music on this computer!

CC

Thing # 20 You Tube and Teacher Tube

Every year I have the students make Rube Goldberg machines on paper when we talk about systems in everyday life. These are fun and the kids love them! I show these two videos to discuss and explain what exactly a Rube Goldberg machine is and the concepts! Check them out!




Don't worry this is paint on the guy not blood. It is student friendly!




This one is the honda commercial from a while ago.

Both super fun!
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Things # 19 Web 2.0 Awards

What is special about the tool?
One tool is the travel section winner where you can search different travel sites is called farecast. It is so fun. There is a Math Menu that I have been working on involving flight schedules and how much money it would take to fly different places this is a really neat little site that compares travel sites with putting in one set of dates! I love it!

I also really like Pandora! I made my own channel and really like that I can play it in the background. I made one for the class that is very calming to play when the students are doing the morning warm up and during journal time.

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Thing # 18 Online Producticity Tools

I really like these. I like that you can collaborate on the same document. I like that it is web based so that students can access it from anywhere. I really love it. It is so easy to use. I will be using this a lot on my school computers because the students can go to any computer and log on to this site to find the documents to work on. No need to save to the desktop and have to only work on that one computer! GREAT GREAT GREAT! What a find!

CC

Thing # 17 Rollyo

I like the idea but I am having trouble deciding what to use it on. I could make a safe search engine for my students directly related to what my class is searching but I think I need to do more thinking on what exactly to put in there! Maybe I could try to set it up for the scientist wiki that I am going to set up. I could set it up so that the students get accurate information.

I did like all the already made things that were fun to try out. The celebrity gossip one was fun to try too!

Thing #16 Wiki

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these! I think I can use these a lot. I was thinking about setting up a page on the big ideas in science ex matter and its properties and having students add to it. Or as a way to get in the scientist teks into the mix easier we could do research and add it to the wiki. SUPER! It was so easy to add. If a student can word a word document he can certainly do this. I am very excited to get back to the classroom to try out all these new things!

Thing #15 Web 2.0 Library 2.0

WOW... that video was very good! It is very typical of most students in this day and age. My step children are able to do 3 thing including reading, studying and checking facebook all while maintaining a conversation with me. They need stimulation and other forms not found in a book. I think our district is ahead of this curve by putting the activeboards in classrooms and making so many things interactive in our libraries. I think most of the teachers are not using the technology to the best ability in those classrooms. We need to push this more by making it part of our PD and PDAS as well. I have seen some teachers just use the activeboards as a glorified over head not really interactive just same old stand and deliver just done on the board. I think it would be a good idea for the district to offer incentives for making flipcharts and sharing them with other teachers. We need to get on board with the students because they will just tune us out or worse become discipline problems. The students are ever changing and as teachers we need to change with them.

While I think that the library needs to change to be more interactive we also need to hold onto books as well. Weather it be in electronic form or old fashion book form we need to stress the importance of being able to read and communicate both short (tweets) and longer formats (novels!)

CC

Thing # 14 Technorati and how tags work

I liked this one. I am always be on the look out for cool blogs! I found a really fun one on foodies. My hubby and I are big into food so that one was fun to read for a while. I also am now into cupcakes and I found one on that too! This is definitely easier than just skipping to the next blog like on blogspot!

I love blogging! I didn't like that the widgets are no longer working. The site says it will be making the new widgets available soon! I guess I will have to come back at a later date. I hope they are fun and I can spice up my blog with new widgets! I am starting to get a little technology over load though. I hope I can remember which one is which and where everything went too!!!!!!!



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Thing # 13 Tagging and Discover Delicious

I like this one. I think the idea of having a place to bookmark a lot of favorite sites is a good idea! I like that you can use it to bookmark sites for your classroom when doing research or other projects. I think I could also use it to have a list of bookmarks to share with my team as well. I like it. I already made one that has several science sites! YEA!

CC

Thing # 12 Comments

As a person who has anther blog I think that comments are so relevant. It reminds you that you are not just typing nobody but there are actually people reading. On cool cat teacher blog, I think that she has a good point when she says that you shouldn't be afraid to comment. I write about people that are in my life, job and etc. Most of my followers are those people who know me and comment to me in person. It is more fun for them to comment on the blog for all to see. I also LOVE that they really enjoy it. My blog is meant to be funny so know that I am hitting my mark is very positive!

I also am a firm believer in that if you wouldn't say it to the person's face you shouldn't write it in the comments section. There is no reason to be rude! Good thing they have the comment moderation section! You can never take it back once it is out there on the net!

CC

Thing 11 Library Thing

I set up my library thing and I really enjoyed it! I like being able to list the books that I read and review them. I also enjoyed that I could look at other people's review. I looked for a few teacher groups that would be good to see what they are reading to their classes and didn't find any so I was thinking about making that my group. I also like finding good summer reads for the beach and there was a group for that too! I really like this site. I think that students could make one to share what they are reading and as a different way to a do a book report!

CC