Is it the end or only the beginning?

I really enjoyed learning about Animoto and how social networking is great for the classroom. Animoto is so much fun. I can definitely see myself using it in my classroom.

This program has broadened my horizons so to speak. I had never thought technology was as broad as it is, especially in the classroom. It really taught me a lot and I hope to carry my knowledge of these tools over to my students.

I didn't think I would enjoy blogging as much as I do. I have thought about starting my own blog or maybe a journal of some sort. I have found that I really like documenting my thoughts and feelings. It has become a type of therapy for me.

Much of what is included in 23 Things is a great learning experience with one exception. I really don't like having to create so many accounts. It gets annoying having to type in the same information for an account I may or may not use in a later time.

I will always have this blog to look back to when I am a teacher. It has opened so many doors and I have so many ideas that come to mind when I learn a new thing about technology for my classroom. I hope to have a class website to communicate more efficiently with my parents and students outside of the classroom. My students will also be apart of the website, giving them the chance to explore new technology as well.

Simply creating a search for Web 2.0 will give you latest news for how it is developing. Because it develops so often I hope to keep in touch with it and stay up to date with technology for my classroom.

Thing #23

Creative Commons is a way that you can take someone else's work and make it your own. One way you know this 23 Things blog has been adapted for students at Austin Peay State University is the note at the end of the list of 23 things.

*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

By giving this note and referencing the original document, we are able to use 23 Things as our own work.

I will definitely be more careful about using copyrighted material in the classroom. (Especially now that I've heard Dr. Wall's story about the picture on the website!) Creative Commons will be a great way to make sure I have legitimate material for my lessons.

Thing #22

One of my Binders is HERE

Live binders is interesting. My three binders are titles Punctuation, Technology and 2nd Grade. The standard I have been using for this class is 2nd grade punctuation so I thought it suited the assignment to continue that idea and see what I found. I liked how Live Binders group my search term with several websites that have to do with what I'm looking for. I also chose to look at some websites that talked about technology in the classroom. Seeing as this is a technology class, I did some extra research to see what other people thought about technology in the classroom. This would be an easy way to find educational websites for the classroom. It would also make it easier to find a website you wanted to use during a lesson.

Thing #21

Christmas is here!

I loved playing with Animoto! I do not have a Mac, so I was never able to create my own videos very well. Now that I know about Animoto, I will definitely use it. It was very easy to use, especially after I watch the short tutorial.This would be great for students to use in the classroom. It is an easy project idea. Everything is already there for you to use (pictures, music, etc.) all you have to do is put it together the way you want it. I created a short clip about what Christmas is like at my house! Click the link above.

Thing #20

Youtube is still a rising sensation. This huge video database is full of any video you may need for the classroom. From instructional to videos to cute nonsense things, it has it all! I think Youtube is an excellent site  for the classroom when you have good intentions in mind. Granted not everything placed on Youtube should be shown in the classroom, you have to make sure the video is acceptable. A good thing about Youtube is that you can create your own account. This allows you to select videos you like and keep them in your account, making them easier to find later. This comes in handy in the classroom and reduces distractions from other videos that shouldn't be in the classroom.

The video I chose to post is about technology in education. It is a cute video that just gets the point across about how technology has evolved over time. Take a look!

Thing #19

I have been a member on Facebook for several years. At first it was just the cool thing to do, but now I don't know what I do without it. It is how I communicate with my classmates and peers. All this to say I would not be opposed to joining another social networking site. Especially those that are dedicated to teachers. I think these would be very beneficial to me. Have this type of social networking allows me the chance to talk to other teachers, either in my school, school system, or around the United States. I am also a big music fan, so to join a music social networking site may be fun. I could share my music interest and get insight on other peoples likes and dislikes. I looked at a few social networks that were about hobbies and those were appealing to me. I thought this could be used in the classroom. If a student needed to do a creative project for an assignment this could help the teacher to help them to brainstorm ideas.

Thing #18

Social networking sites are very popular in today's world. It seems that everyone has one, and if you don't you're out of the loop. It is important for we as educators to understand how they work because they can allow different insights and strategies for teaching. They can be looked at like blogs. Just like blogs, social networking, such as Facebook and twitter, allows you to be apart of someone else's thoughts. Through status updates and wall comments, you can read different ideas for the classroom. I prefer Facebook over many other social networking sites. Through Facebook, a school can set up events, have their own page, or create a group for the school. It is a easy and efficient way to communicate because many people have Facebook.

Thing #17

Delicious is an interesting site. It is very similar to Diigo that we use in class. It allows you to bookmark websites and by tagging the websites you can organize them into categories. Bookmarking in general is a good tool. It keeps you from having to search for the website you wanted to use. But what happens when you have so many bookmarked sites you cannot fathom looking for the one you need to use? This is where Delicious comes in handy. This site uses tagging to help organize the websites you have bookmarked. As for the classroom, a teacher can easily find a website that pertains to a certain standard with no problem. Every website they need for a lesson is waiting for them on Delicious. It makes the lesson go so much smoother and faster without lags and dead moments for students to disrupt the class.

Thing #16

I chose to explore Google Desktop. Because I have a Google Account everything I do can be sync together and even put on my phone for easy access. Google Desktop was easy to use and the tools are very useful. It will not be my homepage unfortunately, because facebook is, but I do tend to rearrange my widgets often. I especially enjoyed the calendar tool. It makes my life so much more organized. I take my computer just about everywhere I go. The calendar makes it easier to keep my life in check. I think that the to-do lists could be used in schools. If a student can write out his or her own things to do for the day or week, then they will be more inclined to get their own responsibilities done. It shows them visually what they need to get done and gives them the opportunity to erase and mark out what they have already completed.

Thing #15

Wikis are a cool way to integrate technology with students in the classroom. Once they are created anyone can get to them later in time. I think that it's really awesome for student to be able to see their work later in their school career. When I looked at the APSU 23 things wiki, it was interesting to see what everyone had posted. There were things from every subject and grade level. This is a great way to compile resources and find ideas for  teachers. I added a comment on someone that had posted a mind map about punctuation. This was the same standard I chose to do and I thought their mind map was very good and definitely could be used in the classroom.

Thing #14

I chose to explore Bubbl.Us and Gliffy I found a significant difference between them, besides the fact that one is a flow chart and the other a mind map. Flow charts are mainly used to show the flow of something. It takes you through steps of a project or activity. Mind maps on the other hand, are simply that. They are thoughts that are written and put into groups. This is mainly used to help writers create ideas for books. Bubbl.Us was a great way to brainstorm ideas. For a student, this could be used to write a story for literature class. Or create a newspaper entry. It is an easy way to help a student get started on this kind of project.

Thing #13

Here is my Drawing from Google Docs!

Zoho and Google Docs are very interesting! Zoho reminded me a lot of Microsoft Word. The way it was set up and how it looked was very similar. It could be very useful if your computer does not have Word or another processing system. However, I rather enjoyed the Google Docs. It was super easy to figure out and very simple to use. As for the classroom, Students can use the drawing tool to create illustrations for books or create their own books illustrations. Another tool in Google Docs that I feel would be suitable for the classroom is the spreadsheet. Students can create all kinds of graphs and spreadsheets for any Math situation. The last high point for Google Docs I have is the presentation tool. It has all the basics for students to understand and utilize for any sort of presentation. Although both Zoho and Google Docs are great tools for the classroom, my preference is Google Docs.

Thing #12

Google is an overall incredible creation. I don't know where the word would be without it. I absolutely love it! I already use the Calendar resource. It keeps me organized and sane! I can print it off and use the search bar to find events that I have scheduled. In the classroom I could easily make out a weekly or monthly schedule to give out to the students with assignments and due dates. Or I could have them fill out a blank one to show them how a calendar works. One tool that I haven't used but I thought was really cool was the Translate tool. To be honest I didn't really know about it. It was fun to see what the other languages looked like.

Thing #11

Having an RSS feed is very convenient when it comes to finding a blog that you are looking for. It helps to narrow your search to the specific subject you are looking for. I liked the Google Blog Search the best. I like Google in general, but this was the simplest way to search in my opinion. The more confusing search engine I thought was Syndic8. This wasn't as easy to look at and there were a lot of words on the page that made it harder to understand the search engine. I found a lot of Blogger feeds, Twitter feeds, and Facebook feeds. These three seemed to be the most popular. I thought PageFlakes was an unusual page. The name to me just doesn't ring well. The other news feeds didn't interest me. I really like Google,so I will probably just stick with that!

Thing #10

RSS is very interesting and useful. I like it because you can search for things that you are interested in and you continually get updates from them. The constant updates are really cool. I subscribed to the Austin Peay RSS and I already have every news story from campus in my account. It is a easy way to stay updated in today's world. I could definitely use this in school. The sources are reliable and easy to find. As a teacher I could have a particular RSS to look at for certain subject I am teaching at the time. For example, I subscribed to the PBS learning reader and an English teacher reader. These will be useful to me because they give updates on the latest in technology and teaching strategies in the articles.

Thing #9

I have always wondered where people get these crazy pictures from! This was fun! I played the most with Image Chef. I liked the options it gave for inserting pictures. There were lots of cute and funny ones. The image I posted is one of my friends of a player of the game jumbo tron! I just thought it was cute. I had a little trouble with figuring out how to post this to my blog, but I played around with it enough to understand. I tend to make things harder than they really are.

I think this could be used in a classroom setting. On Image Chef there was a Birthday college theme. A teacher could post a picture of a students birthday and have it up for the class to see. This would be a nice and not distracting way of saying Happy Birthday!

Thing #8

My creation, a photo by mmaxwell6 on Flickr.

Flickr is a very interesting website. You can find yourself playing  on here for hours! I chose to create a Jigsaw puzzle. I thought this was a neat idea because it could easily be used in the classroom. My thought behind creating a puzzle was that my students could use the smart board to put the puzzle together and in the end they should know what the picture is as it relates to the subject matter. 

Thing #7

music is like coffee to my senses, a photo by alvin lamucho © busy!!! on Flickr.

Flickr was kind of fun to play around with. It was wasy to set up an account because I already had a Yahoo account. I personally enjoy using Picasa (Google's picture storage), but I didn't see anything wrong with Flickr. It is very easy to manage and not hard to use. Something I found interesting in Flickr was that you can easily upload pictures to social networking accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also edit them through Picnik, which is awesome!

 I didn't know how to get started with finding a picture so I clicked on explore and chose popular tags to get me started. I chose music to search because I love music and it's a big part of my life. I love this picture! I think the concept of the two subjects is so cute. The photographer,Alvin.Lamucho Photography, tied these two popular items together with saying in the picture "music is like coffee to my senses."

Thing #6

http://pidgin.im/about/

I didn't realize how many Web 2.0 tools there actually were. One that I found interesting was a chatroom like website. I know that when I chat to friends, family and classmates that not everyone using the same instant messaging system. So because I have so many accounts, I have to open several tabs if I am talking to more than one person who has a different system.

Pidgin is a chat program that allows you to be logged into many instant messaging systems at one time. It is compatible with just about every chat or instant messaging system out there. One thing I like very much about it is that it's free to use. You do not have to subscribe to anything. All you have to do is create an account and download Pidgin itself. There is one downside that I have found. You cannot chat through Facebook! There is a plugin you have to download, but the process seems complicated.

I could see this resource being used in the classroom. Teachers could use this to communicate from classroom to classroom without being disruptive. You could also communicate directly to parents. As a student, you can have a great way to communicate with other students at the same time with only one window opened. It sure would make group projects easier!

Thing #5

Web 2.0 is the new phenomenon in education. It allows teachers to use the internet in different ways in the classroom. Which leads us to the term "School 2.0". This is an extension of Web 2.0 and what teachers are calling their newest emerging resource. School 2.0 is a way for students to learn in many different ways outside of the classroom with books. It allows students to learn in places other than school. They can learn at home or in the community.

Richard Macmanus states in his article, Web 2.0 is not about version numbers or betas, " Web 2.0 is everyday, non-technical people using the Web to enhance their lives and businesses." I think this sums up what Web 2.0 is to a tee. It is just everyday people using the web to better their everyday lives. The article from Technology & Learning brings up a good point about why teachers should use Web 2.0 in learning. They have found that many students these days already use the internet through social networking and media to communicate with other students. So why not use that technology in the classroom? It would be a great way to maximize learning experiences for many students.

As for the future of for schools and learning, I think many new teachers will be open to the idea of using this type of technology on the classroom. Many teachers that have come right out of the classrooms themselves understand the impact that technology makes on students. I definitely think Web 2.0 is emerging and will be a highly used resource in years to come.

Thing #4

Commenting is an essential part of any blog. Without commenting the writer wouldn't know what people are thinking about their blogs. It gives readers a chance to share about how they feel toward a topic. The writer usually wants to know how you feel about his or her work, so why not tell him?

According to Cool Cat Teacher Blog we shouldn't be afraid to comment. We need the feedback to better our blog and make us better bloggers.
One way to have comments on your blog is to simply ask for them. Just a message at the end of a particular blog stating to leave comments and opinions invites readers to leave their thoughts. --ProBlogger

The five classmates blogs I commented on were Candice, Tabitha, Blair, Claire and Jamie. I chose to read their Thing One blog entries because I thought Thing One told some information about each of us as a person. We were to explain some struggles and successes when it comes to the 7 and 1.2 Habit of Learning. I could relate to these blogs.

One blog outside of the Learning 2.0 activity that I found interesting is Successful Teaching. Pat Hensely is the author and she give good insight on different teaching strategies. Another blog I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to read recently is Cool Cat Teacher Blog. All of her blogs are very insightful and I consider her blog to be an excellent resource for teachers.

Thing #3

Blogging can be very essential for teachers and educators. It is a great way to see what other teachers are doing int their classroom. As a teacher you can blog about standards you are teaching, share teaching strategies, and talk to other teachers about anything. An idea that I thought was good in the article by Anne Davis was a classroom blog. Setting up a blog just for your classroom is a good way to communicate with parents, have a class calendar, and list the assignments that are due. Of all the ideas I think I would set up a classroom blog and encourage my students parents to share their ideas for our classroom, see what we are doing in our classroom and see upcoming events and due dates.

Thing #2

I have never blogged before so this experience was a tad painful. I don't like not knowing how to do something, so at first setting up the blog was frustrating. I just used my name for my blog name. I know that's kind of lame, but for the purpose of this class I just thought I would go simple. Setting up the avatar was a little more challenging than setting up the blog. I guess I just don't get this whole blogging thing yet. I'll learn though! I think my avatar reflects my personality. I made sure she wore my favorite color and had brown hair!

Thing #1

          After watching the video about the 7 and 1/2 habits of learning I have found that some will be harder than others for me. The first habit they mention is about keeping the end in mind. This habit is actually fairly easy for me to understand and keep in mind. Some people say that I may be over organized because of the mass amount of sticky notes and labels I own. It is just my personality. If I don't have an organized plan, I won't get the job done. The habit says we need to keep the end of whatever we are doing in mind. I do not feel like this will be a challenge for me because I already tend to keep the end goal in my head. Another habit that I think would come easy for me is habit 3. This talks about viewing problems that occur as challenges. I love being faced with challenges. Over coming challenges brings me joy and confidence that I can do anything. Because of this I think habit 3 would come naturally as well.

         On the other hand, there is one habit that is not my favorite. Although I tend to have the confidence I need when I overcome a challenge, I tend to be shy and to myself as well. Habit 4 states that I should have confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. This poses a problem for me because of my self-confidence. I do have those moments when I am down on myself and I cannot seem to get back up. This is why I feel habit 4 will be challenging for me.

         The 7 and 1/2 habits present the idea of life-long learning. Life- long learning is the idea that it is never too soon nor too late for learning. Learning is a life-long process. The habits are great tools to use for a life-long learner.