Summary

So I am finished 23 Things! Throughout this experience I think my favorite Things to learn about were Flickr, spell with Flickr, and iGoogle. Before completing the 23 Things I did not realize how many different tools I could access on the Internet that would be useful in everyday life as well as the classroom. During this program I found websites and tools that I will actually use after this class is over. Now that I have seen how many tools are available through the Internet I feel confident that I will be able to find more on my own. Using these has been a learning experience and makes me realize how many different ways I can reach and teach my students.

During 23 Things I didn't have any problems with the program other than one or two of the links didn't work. Besides that I thought it was great! I think to possibly make it better more than 23 Things could be added to give students more tools they will use in the future.

From here I plan to use the Internet to find new tools and developments. I think by searching for new tools and keeping my eyes open to things I usually wouldn't use will be helpful in doing this.

Thing # 23

Creative Commons allows users to create and copyright their creation. When a person copyrights their creation with creative commons the creator gets to say what parts of the creation can be redistributed, changed, or used. At the bottom of the 23things web page it credits where the idea for the 23 things came from. Using this in the classroom can be helpful because teachers can use work created by someone else(if they allow it) to help teach a lesson. Teachers can also take another persons work (if it is allowed) and add to it. By using and building onto work already created by other people educators have unlimited resources.

Thing # 22

The two podcast directories I use were The Educational Podcast Network and PodcastDirectory.com. I honestly am not a fan of podcasts. I understand that they can be useful and wonderful in the classroom but I don't think that I would have much use for them outside of the classroom. I think that creating them myself would be more useful than finding ones by other people online. Both of the sites had sections for education but under those sections neither had special education listed. Out of the two I liked The Educational Podcast Network better. I thought this site was organized better than the other and that it was easier to navigate. I might possibly use them in the future but I'm not sure yet.

Thing # 21

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

I made a video on space because it goes with the standard for my project. I thought that this site was really easy to use. It took about 10 minutes to make the video. I thought that it was great that the website provided tips and step by step instructions to follow. The down side is that to make longer videos users have to pay. So I hope you like the video that I created.

Thing # 20

I use Youtube to kill time. I like that I can find videos about almost ANYTHING. If you don't understand how to do something Youtube more than likely has a video of it. The downside about this is that anyone can put any video on the site. I once found a video on Youtube of me doing a dance for my theater class in high school. I didn't even know that the video was online (or that I had been on camera)! For this Thing I typed into Youtube search the word "Funny" and the video I found was short clips of people doing funny things. I hope you enjoy it.

Thing #19

For this Thing I joined Goodreads and TeacherPop. I thought that goodreads was a great way to keep up with books that I have already read and would like to read. It is also a great place to see what other people enjoyed and see how readers rated books. I thought that TeacherPop was confusing and I had trouble finding the links that I needed to navigate around pages. I did see a discussion on TeacherPop that I thought was interesting. I know that in the future I can use TeacherPop to get ideas about internet sites or activities to do in the classroom.

Thing # 18

I already have accounts with both Fackbook and MySpace. I use Facebook almost daily (MySpace not so much). What is great about these sites is that you can use them to communicate with people that you know without having to know their email address. I find people I have not seen in a while all the time on Facebook and it makes it easy to catch up. It puts your friends all in one place and makes it easy to communicate. The down side is that people can read almost anything that you post so you have to be careful about what you say. I think that it is important for educators to understand how social networking sites work so they can use them. It is also important for educators to understand what their students are interested in and this unique way of communication is a big part of some students lives. I think that Facebook or MySpace could be used for the classroom but I wouldn't use it. I think that students have a tendency to forget that what they post on sites like MySpace and Facebook can be seen by more people than they think. I think that when I'm a teacher I won't want to be "friends" with my students on either of these sites because I will want them to have privacy to talk to their friends on there.