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.

Thing # 17

I used the bookmarking sites del.icio.us, Furl, and Ma.gnolia. I thought that Delicious was the best site out of the three I used because it was the easiest. It allows the user to put all of their websites in one place that is easy to access from any computer. By book marking on one of these sites users can go from computer to computer and look up their bookmarks. Another benefit of these sites is that if something happens to a users computer they still have their bookmarks saved to the site & they don't have to go find them again. This also helps users to organize everything into one spot. I think that in the future I will use this website to keep all of my bookmarks easily accessible from any computer. I am currently working towards becoming a special education teacher and I think that this will be helpful to my students. By using a site like this my students can keep all of their websites needed for school and personal use all in one place.

Thing # 16

For a start pages I used iGoogle (I actually already had one) and I love it. It puts the weather, headlines, your mama jokes, and a calender all in the same spot. This is helpful because I usually sit around and watch the news all morning waiting for the weather to come on. On my desktop I actually already have some similar Google Gadgets so its basically like putting all of those onto a web page. I wouldn't make this my homepage because I use apsu.edu as my homepage. The plus side of using online calenders is that you can access them from any computer. Being able to see everything broken down into time slots is also a plus. As far as online calenders go I'm not impressed with any that I have seen. I tried to use the MSN Calender but I didn't really like it (probably because I prefer to have everything hand written.) But who knows, maybe one day I'll learn to like them. I tried to use remember the milk as a to do list, but like the online calenders I would rather hand write these as well. Out of all of the tools that I tried out today I would recommend iGoogle to everyone because you can make it your customized homepage. I will probably use these tools in the future to help me become more organized (and I will certainly use iGoogle again).

Thing # 15

So a wiki is a webstie that allows users to edit and add content to it easily. This means that people (like me) who are not good with computers can go in and add their information or opinion to a wiki. The downside to this is that ANYONE can make changes. This includes people who don't know what they are writing about. The wiki that most people have heard of is probably wikipedia (scary because I know a ton of people who use this religiously & believe everything they read on it). The great thing about using a wiki is that a group can collaborate through it. Using wikis (like wikipedia and others such as book lovers wiki) is great to find general information about a topic. On the apsu23Thingssandbox I added to the Photos and Images section. It was nice to read that other people enjoyed learning about that as much as I did.

Thing # 14

Flow chart or Mind Map?

For the flow chart I used Gliffy. I like it because (like I have said before) it is easy to use. Signing up for it does not take FOREVER! I don't really like to use flow charts or mind maps because I would rather organize ideas differently. Even though I don't like them I did think that Gliffy was easy to use. All I had to do was click and drag. The down side was that I had trouble getting my "bubbles" to be centered and lined up the way I wanted them. For the mind map I used Bubbl.us. I actually liked this a lot because all I had to do was type what I wanted it to say and the website did the rest. This is great because I dont have to spend my time trying to do it myself (and it was lined up)! I think that I will actually use Bubbl.us in the future for assingments. I think that I am definatley a bigger fan of Mind Maps.

Thing # 13

Zoho Writer was really easy to use. Signing up and getting started was basic and took no time at all, which is great because I HATE taking forever to sign up for programs. Once I started writing in the program I found that it was easy because it was very similar to word. The great thing about using this program is that you can use it from any computer. By saving your documents in it you don't have to carry around a jump drive or (what i often do) email the document to yourself so you can print it from another computer. With this you can work online or offline and the document is at whatever computer you need!

Thing # 12

The two tools that I chose to use are igoogle and the google calendar. I could not find a way to make either of the assessable to other viewers so you won't be able to see them but I will be able to tell you about them. I like google calendar because I like for my tasks to be organized by time. The only thing that I don't like about it is that I will have to get on my computer to see it since I can't use my phone to look. I would much rather write down what I had planned for the day that way I could carry it everywhere. I liked igoogle because it was easy to put everything into one spot. I did not like that when I made igoogle it changed the way my google page looks(since it is now my igoogle page). But that is something I will adjust to. I also looked at google notebook and read some things about it. I tried to use it but when I clicked on the link it site told me that they will not be updating google notebook anymore. So I decided against using it. For education I could use the calendar to organize my day by time. Using igoogle will be helpful because not only am I able to see the weather when I open the page, I can also see news feeds. This will make it easy to find out about things that are going on in the world.

Thing # 11

I thought that finding feeds was difficult. I tried to use the sites that were suggested to use and I just had a hard time with all of them. I eventually used the 1000 suggestions that Bloglines offered and came across some interesting stuff. I subscribed to Bloesem which has pictures and descriptions of home decorations. I also found a feed that had art work people had created. I thought it was strange that one of the feeds it offered was to a mans blog who wrote a blog that was only about the firedepartment and parking meters and amazing pictures of storms in it. His feed was up 28 points in popularity and I was surprised about that. For now I guess I'll try to find more feeds.

Thing #10

I subscribed to bloglines and I LOVE it! Okay, so I did what the directions specifically told me not to do. I picked some of the predefined channels that were listed. But I'm glad that I did it because I found a lot of interesting stuff. I actually did not know that websites like these existed. Using one site to look at all the websites that I usually have to bounce around to will make my life a ton easier. Plus using this I found interesting sites and articles. I will be able to use this to read the news and find recipes that I might be brave enough to cook one day (if I ever learn how to cook). As a teacher I can add blogs that have more information about teaching methods and tools and stay updated on those. Although bloglines is ment to save the user time by having everything in one place I might spend too much time reading the articles that I have on there.

Thing #9

I created this image because the standard I picked for class is The Universe. When I was reading through all the different signs that I could make I came across the astronaut one & thought it was great. This website will be good for making cute and funny signs to relate what is being taught to students. I think that I may go back to my powerpoint and insert this image.

Thing #8

I used spell with flickr to get this image. It was too easy! Type in a word and there it is! I thought that was great because you can easily find interesting images to spell out any word of choice. I think in the future I could use this in the future on blogging sites. Also it would be fun to incorporate the picture words into powerpoints or lessons to keep students interested.

Thing #7

I actually searched for the word "beach" since I am dying in this cold weather I need something to look forward to. I found a great picture of a boat by the beach but was unable to use the picture since it had to be purchased. So i started looking at the photographers other pictures and found this one. He named it flower along with several other photos of different flowers. I thought that this one was great because it also made me think of summer time. I started looking around for information about the photographer who goes by the name m o d e but I could not find anything. He has taken some beautiful pictures of people and places. All of his work is amazing to look at.

Thing # 6

The website that I liked best was pandora.com. I have used this site to listen to music before. What is so great about Pandora is that users choose an artist and song they like and Pandora plays it and artists that sound similar. It is a great place to find new artists to listen to. The site plays both popular artists and almost unheard of artists. If the user does not like an artist Pandora recommends they can choose to remove that artist from the list. I like to use it when I want to hear new music that I am almost certain I will like. There are several artists I found on Pandora a few years ago that I still listen to.

Thing # 5

For me "School 2.0" is a way for teachers and students to communicate information through the Internet. Students can use the Internet to access information being taught in class. If teachers set up websites that allow students to access their work and information about it, students will be more efficient at home. Many students go home not understanding the homework and are unable to get help at home. If these students could use the Internet to get assistance they would probably make much better grades. Also, if students needed to miss school they would not fall behind. Basically "School 2.0" will be a place online that the student can go at anytime to get help with school.

Thing #4

Commenting helps to create a sense of community by making it easy for people to respond to and read other peoples thoughts. Through commenting people can share interesting information and let bloggers know that their blogs are being read and appreciated. It is important when commenting on a blog to be polite! People who are commenting need to state their opinions in polite, nonabrasive ways. Leaving rude comments on peoples blogs not only can potentially hurt the writers feelings but it also makes the commenter look bad. Don't be mean!!! Also it is important to write things that actually matter. Writers want to hear why people agreed with or liked their blog.

Thing #3

When I am a teacher I would like to use a blog in my classroom to keep in contact with parents. I plan on becoming a special education teacher and through a blog i can keep parents informed on what activities are happening in class as well as school. By posting assignments and expectations online parents and students will know where to look if they have questions. Through the blog I will be able to communicate with students and parents quickly.

Thing #2

Creating my avatar. Creating my avatar was a lot easier than I thought it would be. When making the avatar i chose features that resembled mine but still does not look like me. This avatar does look better than the one i made on the wii. I named the blog after myself, just to keep it simple. I was actually impressed with how easy these first steps have been.

Thing #1

Out of the 71/2 life long learning habits the most difficult one for me is number 6: Use technology to your advantage. I am horrible with technology! The easiest of the habits for me is number 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning. I understand that continually learning is something a teacher must do to be able to help his or her students. I thought that setting up this blog was easy. I'm not sure how easy creating the avatar will be though. I am not sure what i want to learn from the web 2.0 tools. I guess i will find out soon!