One Final Thing

What a journey! I greatly enjoyed traveling the web through these 23 Things. My favorite stops were playing with applications that allowed me to use my photos to create new products.  Flickr, mashups, and animoto are definitely things I will be returning to frequently!

I was most surprised that during this journey I was able to create a Facebook page.  My friends and family have been on me for quite some time asking when I was going to get with it and start up a page.  Well thanks to 23 Things I have joined the club.

I really like the format and concept of 23 Things.  I noticed that many of the dates were as far back as 2005-2006.  I'd be curious to see what, if any, of the 23 Things would change if it were revised to include applications that have been developed since then.

This journey taught me that computers and Internet are today's pencils and textbooks for my students.  I realized how easy it can be to create truly amazing activities if I'll just take the time to do it.  I'd much rather develop lessons on the computer than running to the copy machine and I'm positive my students would rather use web applications than worksheets.  I know that I don't have to transform my entire curriculum over night but doing an activity at a time, incorporating a tech lesson once a week, will help me shift into a 21st Century classroom.

23 Things has inspired me to become more active in using web 2.0 technologies.  RSS feeds have become my greatest resource and by using them I know I'll be able to stay current as web 2.0 continues to evolve.

My 23 Things Resolution is to continue a personal blog to journal my learnings as I complete graduate school.  Once I return to the classroom I will continue blogging by having one blog for my class and another to reflect on my learning experiences throughout the year. I'm so thankful for having come across 23 Things, I feel it has made me a more effective and fun teacher. Cheers!

Thing #23

Under the Credits section on the right hand side of the blog I found the info which states Learning 2.0-23 Things for Teachers was developed under a Creative Commons License.

I think it will take some getting used to and practice of looking for Open Education Resources as well as materials that have Creative Commons Licenses but I am up for the challenge.  With sites like Curriki and Flickr CC I think I'll be able to pick up on it fairly quick.  I like that with these types of licenses creative collaboration is encouraged throughout the web.  I'm interested in learning more about licensing my own work and putting it on the web to be used by others.  I love sharing activities with teacher friends and after completing these 23 Things it only seems logical to take it to the next level and share it with the world on the web!

Thing #22

I checked out each of the podcast directories and I liked Educational Podcast Directory as well as the Learning Out Loud directory.  I thought these two were easier to use and they didn't get into risky material from the few clicks that I did.  On the Educational Podcast Directory I really enjoyed the classroom and student podcasts.  I watched a sweet 2nd Grade Production about Turtles that was anchored by two 2nd graders. It was just adorable and had good information too! The podcast is called Discovery Through a Scientific Lens.  This would be a great podcast to download to school computers for students to listen to during anchor activities.

This Thing did not really inspire me to create my own podcast but it did inspire me to look up some of my favorite shows from NPR.  My two favorite shows are Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Car Talk.  I used to drive around Saturday mornings running errands just so I could catch these programs.  Now I am thrilled to have subscribed to these podcasts so that I can begin loading them on my iphone and listening to them all week long!

retrieved from
http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/WeeklyShow/online.html

Thing #21

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Hehehe! Animoto equals lots-o fun! This was such an easy and fun program to use.  They try to catch you at every turn though with another reason to upgrade.  By the end of my experience making my video I was just about ready for it too.

There were so many neat features available for the free account that it makes me curious how much greater it gets with a subscription.  I love making home videos and in the past have used imovie but it takes forever to put anything together.  Animoto was quick, simple, and smashing! My video turned out great and I am excited to begin making more!

How neat would this be to use in the classroom.  Students could use pictures from science experiments and cooperative learning activities to document their collaboration.  With a class Flickr account it would be simple for students to select videos that the teacher uploads.  All that is left after that is arranging the pics, selecting a theme and some music and PRESTO movie magic!

Thing #20

I am a big fan of YouTube.  I love that when I want to show my friend a great scene from a movie I'm able to do a quick search and usually find it, which is way easier than popping in a movie and fast forwarding or trying to re-enact the scene myself! I love that if I want to show my students what a hurricane looks like I can do a search for "hurricane' and find many, many options.  I love that if I need to figure out how to use a tool in photoshop to enhance a picture I can find a tutorial with a few simple clicks.

On I library website I think it'd be great to incorporate an edited version of YouTube.  There are many wonderful videos available that would enhance school curricula but there are also many available that are far from doing anyone any good.  If schools were able to post collections of relevant videos on the website it would be a super way to motivate learners about topics being studied throughout the school.

The video I chose to upload is from the 2005 TED talks.  This video though it has a few choice words is a great 3 minute talk about secrets to success.  The speaker, Richard St. John, states that he typically gives this speech in more detail to high school students.  I decided to include it because his summary is inspiring about what it takes to be successful, which is something all teachers strive to be.

Thing #19

I am not currently a member of any online communities other than my recently updated Facebook profile from Thing #18 and the possible membership with TeacherPop for which I'm currently waiting an approval.  I'm more of an email and texting person but I'm willing to expand my networking abilities.

Of the social networks listed for Thing #19 the one that most appealed to me was Shelfari.  This online community for book lovers seems exciting.  My husband and I love to read.  Spending hours wandering through book stores is one of our favorite hobbies.  Taking this pass time to the couch with laptops would make for a nice evening of perusing books!  

I like that with Shelfari you are able to see what books friends are currently reading, have read, and want to read.  The tour on the homepage shows the community to be well organized and easy to navigate.  There are many options for searching books such as most popular over all and favorites among genres.  Best of all like so many of these neat Things we have discovered - its all free! I'm looking forward to setting up my own account once I have a break from school work.  When I get it going I just may add my virtual bookshelf to my blog. :)

Thing #18

When I was working on my undergrad I had a Myspace and Facebook account.  Then I frequently used myspace and rarely checked Facebook. Once I began teaching I deleted both of these accounts because at the time I felt that it wasn't professional and I did not want students or parents searching for me.  My friends and family have begged me to rejoin and after completing this Thing I feel comfortable about re-entering the craze of social networking.

The trend in social networking has done a flipflop.  Facebook has become the network I most often hear friends, family, and even businesses using.  Social networking has transformed into an acceptable and popular way to communication professionally and personally.  Its interesting to see how sites such as Facebook can be used among teacher colleagues and students.  Some of our classmates have said they actually use Facebook to converse with students in the evening and answer questions and concerns about the day's lessons.  I think this is a positive way to connect with students.  If I were to use Facebook for school purposes I would mostly likely create a separate account in addition to the personal one I just recreated.  I would use the site as others have to answer questions and allow students and parents to comment about the happenings of the class.

Here is a link to my new page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001774831828