One Last Thing...

Wow what an assignment. This was really a great way to see what is out there for our use. I think my favorite Things were the RSS feed to Google Reader and Anamoto. The question is posed how has this program affected your lifelong learning goals...I guess when I think about it the answer is to realize that there is so much out there for our use if we just take them time to look for it and someone is always coming up with something new. The only real complaint I have is that now I have multiple accounts with things that I don't know if I'll use, but who knows maybe I will. I just wish some of these things were set up to where you could explore them without having to become a member. The only thing I would say that needs to be improved is "Thing 17". Furl is now Diigo and Ma.gnolia shut down. Also the video that the common craft guys did is now set to private so you have to go to their website to view it. I think all the different tools that have been introduced to me help me to realize that I have so many options available to me to help me be a better teacher. In conclusion, I am not a hundred percent positive what I will and will not keep using. I can guarantee I will continue checking my reader and I may continue to blog. I'm not sure yet on that one.  I do not feel as though I'm the most interesting blogger, but maybe practice make improvement.

Thing #23

I thought the video was cute, but I almost had trouble following the words cause I was paying attention to the Disney clips, but anyway overall I got the message. After this semester it has become very clear how important it is to understand Creative Commons and Copyright laws.  Creative Commons was a great solution to maintain the integrity of the original creator of a work, but still allow it to be used by the public domain for good use. In my future classroom I will be aware now of making sure that what I choose to go in presentations or things that I copy for teaching are all legally available for my use. Plus, I think it would be important to explain these concepts to the students at some grade level, because I and I know several others had never heard of Creative Commons until earlier in this semester. I did do some looking around and I found some of the 23-Things for the Librarians. Plus at the bottom of APSU's 23 Things Page is this 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.

Thing #22

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/september-11th-tribute/id275633442?i=87183850

I listened to this Tribute this past September 11th. It really is so powerful. I almost stopped on the side of the road. (If I wouldn't have be late for class I probably would have). This is amazing I hope people will listen to this. It is under September 11th Tribute. I remember September 11, 2001 very clearly and this is just a great reminder.

Probably the Educational Podcast Directory was the easiest to use in my opinion I like break down of the categories. Although honestly all of them were good the only one that I would rank at the bottom was Podcastdirectory.com. Mainly just because it did not look as interesting as the others, but it still served it purpose. I think that podcast could come in extremely useful for teaching and it could be fun for the students because it's something different from the every day norm. Plus children enjoy technology and it generally gets their attention quickly. I couldn't get any of the podcast I was clicking on to let me add it to my Google Reader, but I could subscribe and it would pop up in my iTunes.

Thing #21

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Okay so I will admit when I started reading about this Thing I was not looking forward to trying to figure out what picture I could use because I don't have many on my computer. Then I thought about it for a second and duh my wedding pictures will work. I LOVE THIS.  I think it is so neat and I'm like some of the others I would not mind having the upgrade. My only complaint I have is it did take me a little while because I live in the country and my internet connection is not always strong so it took awhile for all the pictures to load, but it was worth it. This is so much fun. You could use this as a teacher too. Maybe a slide show of a semester or a fieldtrip. It also could be used in presentations. Love it.

Thing #20

So YouTube is neat and all the only thing I do not like is the fact that there are so many videos on there that it is hard to know the good from the bad.  You can judge a little bit from how many have viewed it, but that is not always reliable. I could see how this could be used in the classroom. I would however be nervous about just turning loose students on it. I know that people can find horrible things on it. It could be used for presentations and for instruction. There have obviously been quite a few videos we have had to watch in this technology class to help us learn. This video I learned about when I was learning about perception and what we see. It's pretty cool.

Thing #19

I really had no idea there were so many different online communities out there. When I first joined an online community it was MySpace and that was sometime when I was a teenager. After a couple of years in college one of my friends convinced me to get on Facebook. Once I started using Facebook I never use MySpace any more.  I do think TeachPop is a good idea and could come in useful during student teaching.  After exploring some of the sites, I joined Shelfari. This is site allows you to have a bookshelf that you can add books to that you've read, have read, or want to read and you can look at whats on other peoples shelf. This is an awesome site however I had to force myself to quit finding book because I was wasting my Homework time. I also though Shelfari was cool because it basically provides you with a virtual list of what you've read and you can keep up with things like when you read it or where. You can do your own review of the book. I just think it's a really neat site, but I love books. I'm sure there are plenty of other sites that would come in handy, but I think if you have an investment in the interest than the person is more likely to enjoy the sites and use them.

Thing #18

I already have a MySpace and a Facebook account for quite awhile. Although I have both I very rarely ever use my MySpace account. Mainly because most of my friends primarily use Facebook so I do too. Facebook is great it helps you stay in touch with your friend and family in a very convenient way. I can send messages, write on their wall, or just click on their wall to see what is going on. I really enjoy using facebook and it has come in as a very good communication tool as well. I am not saying that I could not see educational implications for Facebook, however we have been addressed by several different people not to allow students to be our friends on facebook accounts. Although, it may be a way to get in contact with parents about activities or for other reasons. My Facebook

Thing #17

Ok so this activity had a lot of little hiccups in it. First, the link for the YouTube video said the video was set to private. So I went to the Common Craft guys website and found the video to watch it (which was very good and made lots of sense). Then Furl has been replaced with Diigo. So that hyperlink takes you straight to Diigo, which is fine we are using that in here. Then lastly Ma.Gnolia has shut down because no one was using it. So after all of that I guess it is Del.icio.ous and Diigo. Both of these seem really neat. I think because I was introduced to Diigo first I am a little partial to it. However, that is not to say that Del.icio.ous is not good. Both are great. I think the concept could be particularly useful in a classroom either through teacher to teacher relationship or teacher to student relationships. The idea of putting web resources that will help either our students or our fellow teachers seems like a great idea. Reading list or really any kind of list we want to make. We already are using this tool in our technology class through the website of the day assignment. Social Bookmarking can have a variety of uses the world wide web is the limit.

Thing #16

For the start page I just went with my iGoogle start page. I did look at PageFlakes (which was having technical difficulties) and Netvibes, but I have been using iGoogle for awhile and I like it the best. The gadgets are easy to add. Also, I love that I can easily get to my Google Reader from it.  It is set to my home page on my computer already. I feel as though I am repeating myself a little from previous blogs, but online calendars can be extremely useful. There is not a limited to how much or what you can add to it. It is extremely organized and you can have reminders set for your convenience. The only thing I said that could be a bit of a hassle is one if you need to look at your calendar and you are not able to access a computer or if you have an internet connection that you have to connect to; it can be a little annoying to go through that process just to be able to look at your calendar. I really like to do lists so the To Da list was pretty cool to me personally. I like how you just type what you need to get done and it is automatically formatted with the check off boxes. Plus you can rearrange the list in order of importance very easily. Out of the other tools I thought MyStickies were a really neat idea. The concept of them is that you can paste sticky notes on webpages and save them so that when you come back you can see the notes or flags you have posted. This would come in extremely handy during researching assignments for school.

Thing #15

I'm honestly not so sure how I feel about wikis.  The wikis that I looked at were really neat. There were lots of good ideas like the library sites, book reviews, and the organizer for the trip. I could see where this could come in handy in a school setting. Students could use it for learning activities.  However I found it very difficult or just a hassle to try to edit the sandbox for APSU 23 Things.  I hope I did it right I am not a 100% sure that I did (which is partially why I am not so sure how I feel about wikis). However, I will say if I used them more often than maybe I would love them. I just would prefer blogging over using a wiki. The concept that multiple users can use it is neat, but you also have to be careful because that means more chance for vandalism or scams.

Thing #14

Flow charts and mind maps are two tools that could be fun any easy to utilize in the classroom. They could be used either independently or cooperatively. Although, I have to agree I think mind maps are more useful to use independently. I choose Gliffy and Mindmeister to explore. I really like Gliffy, there are some neat features on it. Sure a traditional flow chart can be made, but there are more options like floorplans, swimlanes, venn diagrams, and more. My only complaint about Gliffy is the stupid reminder at the bottom of your template on how many days your free trial is available. So this would have to be paid for if any long term use was intended.  Mindmeister seems a little bit more confusing to figure out how to use, but once you do it is not difficult at all to manage.  One use for these mind maps could be an aid to writing a research paper. It can easily be used to organize your thoughts and see a clear direction for the paper. I think the flow charts would come in more useful in the classroom. All the colors and the technology could make it more interesting to the student than the traditional pencil and paper flowchart.

Thing #13

I find that probably the biggest appeal to Zoho Writer would be the avoidance of paying the software price for Microsoft Office.  Personal  preference I would rather have Microsoft Office; however, I do realize that it is not cheap to buy. Even the student version is expensive. The reason I personally prefer Microsoft Office is just because I've been trained how to use it and there are a lot of neat features to it. Plus you get all of the software programs not just Word and Excel. Now that being said Zoho is a nice tool to have available to the public. It is not at all difficult to sign up for a free account. Then using the actual program is not difficult it function very similiar to Microsoft Word there are a few exceptions. After searching around the program it is not that difficult to figure out how to use all the different tools available. Some of the appeals is how easy it is to share documents with others. Another plus is avoiding the file formatting problems that can be common when trying to share a documents with others.

Thing #4

After reading about commenting I think one of the crucial things was realizing that some people out there are just out to critize and be ugly. I don't want to be one of those people. I also think another important point is that it is encouraging for others to receive comments because it lets them know that people are out there and are paying attention to what they are saying. Out of our class I commented on Jones3040, Itty1982, Hill3040, Will Walker Gets Taught, and sbalash. I mainly picked these because I looked through and found post that I either liked or I had the same thoughts as they did. One of the one's outside our 23-Things community was the the Cool Cat Teachers post on integrating Technology into the classroom and the importance of college students being trained in technology. I mainly just agreed with her and the importance of learning new technology that is emerging. The other blog I choose was One Walk. This is a blog that is a friend of mine that just started this blog she and her husband are on a surgical mission in Kenya, Africa. She started the blog a few days ago to keep her family and friends updated on their trip.

Thing #12

After looking at the Google tools I chose iGoogle and Google Translate. I had already explored the Calendar in a previous blog. The more I am exploring Google Tools the more I like them. The iGoogle was extremely easy to setup. The Google Translate is a useful, but also fun tool. It is a tool that could easily come in handy in the education field. In the very diverse world that we live in Google Translate could be used to write letters to communicate with non-English speaking parents or even to communicate with ELL students. I think the iGoogle page would be more for personal use. However, it could be setup to use in a classroom and news or current events could be looked at from it daily.

iGoogle

Google Translate

Thing #11

After searching through the tools I think Technorati was the easiest to use to find feeds. Personally, I really liked the Google Blog Search. I thought Google Blog Search was extremely easy to use. Topix.net and Syndic8.com I thought were the most confusing out of the listed tools mainly because I wasn't sure where the feeds themselves were coming from. I probably got a little RSS search happy. When I figured out how this worked I went out to several sites that I enjoy going to and found their RSS link. As the Cool Cat Teacher said it is also easy to find other blogs or feeds by reading what other people have. I really think this is a neat tool. I added several Special Education blogs or feeds to my RSS because I am a Special Education major. For my own personal enjoyment I found many religious blogs or feed that I am interested in.

Thing #10

The thing I like about RSS is the convenience of using it. It is nice to be able to have several favorite website or blogs in one easy location. In a classroom setting one possible use would be to use it to follow blogs or updates in education. Another idea would be to use it in a Social Studies classroom to follow current events. In my own personal life I plan on following blogs on current educational issues and specifically in Special Education. I look forward to finding more sites to add to my Google Reader.

Thing #9

Dynamic Einstein

Well so far out of our exercises this was one of the more fun ones in my opinion. The first picture I made was very simple. Once I found this website it had a text box to type what I wanted Einstein to be writing on the board and then click create. It was not at all difficult. There were other templates available, but this is one that I found.
  

Happy Face Generator

The second one I made was off the Happy Face Generator that was listed on 23- Things. This one also was not that difficult to make. The hardest part is deciding which smiley face to pick and what to write, but with my feeling about assignments right now it did not take me that long to decide.

The Minifig Generator

The last one I choose was a generator that created little Lego men.  When I was younger I used to love to play with Legos so this sight just seemed fun and silly to me. It was not difficult it had three sections to choose from first you had to pick his head out, then you choose his torso, and lastly his legs. There was a button to do a random generator that could also be fun.





Overall, I think the most challenging part of this exercise is picking which generator to use. There are so many out there that I do not know if I personally could ever explore all of them. These could be really fun though to use in the classroom either as the teacher or the student. As the teacher these could be used to add to a PowerPoint or worksheets. Students could use them for projects or just for a fun activity. Personally I might use these when I am trying to make PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes it can be such a challenge to find pictures that are free for public use. So this way I am creating my own.

Thing #8

I explored several of the Flickr mashups. The ones I liked the most were Spell with Flickr (the above image was an example), Splashr, and the puzzle tool. All three of these could be useful tools in the classroom. The Spell with Flickr could be fun to use for PowerPoint presentations. The Splasher also could be a neat tool to make presentations. This tool can combine pictures that are online into a presentation slideshow with different backgrounds and different ways to view them.  The puzzle tool is very neat as well; this tool takes a picture and makes it into a jigsaw puzzle. Most kids like puzzles and this would be a fun activity for students. I do not have a problem with sharing photos online for one I think it is neat for people who have family in other states. Also for classroom purposes sharing photos with the public has no problems except it is crucial to make sure that copyright laws are maintained.

Thing #7

This is a picture that I took in Bridgeport, AL of the Tennessee River. It really was not that difficult to create an account or upload my pictures. I did however have trouble finding the URL. When I clicked on the medium size the URL was not showing up. After playing around for awhile I tried right clicking on the photo and going down to properties and that had the URL there. This could be a nice tool to use in the classroom, but as a teacher it would be my responsibility to make sure that my students understand the concept of copyright. Honestly, I figure I will probably use this more for a personal use. My sister-in-law has started doing Photography on the side and it would be neat to be able to see them since she lives pretty far away. This was my first experience using Flickr and I have never used another photo hosting service before. It really does not bother me to have my photo in the public place. However, I do believe if my photos were of family or friends I would prefer to have them marked as private or where only my family and friends could see them.

Tennessee River 1

Thing #6

After searching through the Web 2.0 Awards I choose Google Calendar. I had never used this tool before, but I really like it. I'm the type of person if I do use a planner or calendar than I probably will not remember where or what I am suppose to be doing. Google Calendar is pretty neat it is a web-based calendar where people can sign in to their account and add events or projects to it. Another feature is phone notifications. Users can set it up to where it will send notifications to your phone so that if you are not online looking at it than you will not forget your appointments. Color coding different events is also and option. As well as being able to send your calender to others and they send theirs to you, or just sending a specific event. As a future teacher I could see this program coming in extremely useful to keep appointments and events organized in one spot. Also, if other teachers have Google accounts and use the calendar option than you could collaborate with your co-workers by sharing your calendars with each other.

Thing #5

School 2.0 basically means Web 2.0 technology is going to be part of educating our students. The articles that I read were informative. I did think Web 2.0 a Guide for Educators was probably the more user friendly out of the ones listed. Michael Wesch's video that he put together was an eye opener just like the video that we watched in class at the beginning of the semester "Did You Know".  I think it is critical that we learn how to implement these tools into the classroom. Students are definitely able to operate technological devices better than most adults.  However, I will say I think as teachers we need to be well aware of the availability of technology outside of the classroom. What do I mean by this? Simply put some students do not have access in their homes to either a computer or Internet access. I think we as teachers need to be sensitive to this fact. I know technology is expanding, but some families today still can not afford to by their children school supplies or pay full price for lunch. (I'm not putting this in here to make anyone feel bad or to show elitism, but to just remind some that not everyone is as fortunate as others.)  Another factor might just be geography, my in-laws live in a little valley in the country where they can't even get Internet service. All this to say I'm not against using technology in the class room, but I think it needs to be just that in the classroom. Even though I'm still a "newbie" to blogging, I could see how fun this could be for students. They could discover information for themselves out on the Internet and then share it and their opinions with others. As a teacher I could easily post topics and have allotted time for responses. I believe people do feel a little more comfortable posting their responses than speaking out loud amongst their peers.

Thing #3

Just to be honest as of right now I am not a hundred percent sure how I would use blogs personally in the future, but I will say I can see how reading other professionals' or students' blogs about their experience or ideas that they might have could come in very useful. After reading some of the ideas online, one of the ideas I liked was keeping a log of training experiences. This would be helpful to reflect experiences and how I benefited from them and things I need to learn. I like the idea of using blogs in the classroom either for calendars of events, reading and writing prompts, book clubs, or newsletters. I suppose the options are really endless on what could be done. After having more experience with blogging maybe some will open up that I may have never thought about.

Thing #2

Creating a blog was not difficult to do, because I have had previous experience creating a blog.  I choose "Little Morgan" as my name because I am very short and my last name is Morgan. I have been used to being called anything that has "little" or "short" included in it and little sounds more cute than short. When I was creating my avatar I choose to do one that looked something like me. It never dawned on me to do one that did not look like me. I am not positive on how similar it looks like me, but I did my best. I choose clothes that you might actually see me in and I placed my background as the classroom. I figured the classroom best represents where I would like to be.

Thing #1

These Seven and one half learning habits are all great suggestions for being a life long learner. I would say out of the suggestions the most difficult one for me one probably be view problems as challenges. Most the time I would say when problems arise I am not looking at them as challenges, but as problems that I do not want to have to deal with. As far as the easiest suggestion, I would say that one would probably be teach or mentor others. I love teaching and helping others already and I haven't got my degree yet. I love see the "ah ha" moment when someone gets it.
As far as web 2.0 tools, I suppose I would just like to further familiarize myself with them so that I may uses them in the future in a classroom setting and it not be scary. I think with the direction are world is heading that children will understand and learn well with technology at their disposal. Setting up the blog I thought it was very simple, but I also have set a blog up before in the past.