One Final Thing

I enjoyed the 23 things course. It was very time consuming and I was very worried about the blogging aspect of this course. I have never felt very comfortable with writing, so this was a struggle I had to overcome to complete this course.

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I really enjoyed learning about the photo sharing and image generators. I think these will be great tools for use in my classroom as well as my personal life.
  

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals? I have always considered myself a lifelong learner, so it didn't really change my outlook on lifelong learning. I do know that the course has motivated me to use more technology in my classroom.
  

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I learned some news things about some old things I already knew about. I had a flickr account and was very familiar with flickr, but I had not considered all the options I had for using it in the classroom. This was the case for some other "things" as well that I had previously known or learned about but I had not considered all the ways for using it in the classroom setting.
  

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I thought the program was great. The assignments were very easy to understand. Maybe an email from the facilitators every now and then letting us know we are on track or just checking up? Also, once or twice it a week and a half went by before I was marked off for some assignments. Maybe this could be done a little more often?!
  

• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? I would absolutely love to participate in another program like this one!
  

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher or school librarian? As I stated above, the course has motivated me to incorporate more technology into my classroom.
  

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? By looking at many of the sites that I have subscribed to. I have even set up some alerts regarding technology in the classroom to inform me.
  

Thing #23-Other Social Networks

I joined classroom 2.0. I spent some time looking around at some different of the different sites. I was hoping I could find something directly related to Elementary math, but I did not. I did find some interesting sites related to professional development. I also found it pretty interesting that you could be able to communicate with other teachers around the world about specific topics that are going on in my own classroom. I really enjoyed looking at a neat site that would be great for some of my gifted students. It was called the Gifted Kids Network. It had many resources related to the gifted student. There was information for teachers as well as parents. But there were also many resources for the student. I thought this would be a great tool for my gifted students I have in my classroom this year.

Thing #22-Social Networks

1. Why is it important that educators know how social networking works?
Educators need to know about social networks because they are very popular and students today are very familiar with how they work. While their primary use is outside of the classroom, teachers need to have an understanding of their place in students lives.

2. What new insights did you gain about these popular sites?
I was familiar with the sites before, and my main observation is that they require a significant amount of your time to keep them up to date.

3. What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored?
The like is that it is nice to keep in contact with friends and family who you do not see on a regular basis or who live far away. This is a simple and easy way to keep up with those who are not a part of our daily life. The dislike is that when the information is posted for "all the world to see" your information can be accessed by practically anyone. Even by using the private blocking options of the sites you can still be found through search engines.

4. Which site had the most useful features?
Facebook has the most useful features because it's programming uses information you provide to recommend people you might know to be your friends.

5.Can you see an educational application for any of these sites?
I really do not see any educational application for the social networking sites at this time.

Here is a link to my profile

Thing #7b-Google Reader

A Good, Old-Fashioned Book

The author makes some good points about books today and how they may not be used like they once were. I think this is true because the way people get their information today is constantly changing. With the internet comes so many more options. I believe that the good, old fashioned book will always be around, but its role is definitely changing. Traditional classroom learning has always included textbooks and I believe that will continue to be the case for the near future. But educators must be flexible and forward thinking when planning for students of the future. Getting the most out of the options available will certainly include a greater use of the internet and online learning in the future.

Thing #21-Google

I chose to look at many of the google tools that were listed. I thought many of them would be useful in both my personal and professional life. I set up a google calendar
for my own personal use. But I can see a great use for the google calendar in the classroom. You could set up a class calendar that could be shared with all of the students and parents to be informed about what is going on in the classroom. This would be especially useful if you were working on a special project and you could include specific deadlines dates on the calendar. I also set up google alerts to inform me about news related topics regarding education. I also have it informing me about some of my favorite sports teams. Another google tool that I explored was Google SketchUp. This tool could be used in the classroom in several ways. I explored a little bit a created a triangular prism. This could be used with some of my higher level students in my classroom when we are doing our unit on 3D figures.

Thing #20-Google Docs

Google documents are a great tool for the classroom just because of its simplicity. Since they are stored online and accessible online, you can get to them from any computer. It allows you to be able to create documents at home and still have access to them in the classroom. It is also easy to create a document for a project so that students could access it from home or at school. This just provides another aspect of learning that allows the students to use the internet for non traditional assignments. In addition to assignments, we could use it for our grade level newsletter. This would allow different teachers to provide information about their specific subject area, from home or school. Its also a great tool for teachers to use to share ideas for the classroom projects or lesson plans. Teachers of the same grade level or subject matter can contribute ideas and information while the students are allowed access to the material necessary to complete the assignment.

Thing #19-Voicethread

A voicethread is yet another unique tool that can used in the classroom. Since today's students are, for the most part, web savvy it a great way to add a personal touch to an assignment. I have used voicethread before at the conclusion of a research unit. Each of the students was asked to do a voicethread to provide a brief synopsis of their project. Then other students could listen to it and make comments or provide feedback. Since the subject matter was the same it allowed students access to a different perspective and therefore helped to reinforce their learning. In addition the students have a lot of fun with it because their fellow students are making comments.