Last Thing

I have really enjoyed these 23 things. I have explored all that web 2.0 has to offer and I have gained so much. I would have to say that my favorite discoveries are flickr.com, the generator, animoto, and the mashups. All of these things can be incorporated in the classroom or I can just use them to have fun. I thought that I knew everything there was to know so the fact that there was a whole other world on the computer really surprised me. I really like the exploration aspect of web 2.0. There is so much to learn and so many ways to incorporate the things learned. It can all be added together or modified in a way that will help students learn. I am now probably more involved with social networks than I was before. I definitely feel a greater sense of freedom on the internet now that I know so much about it. There are so many options. At first it was a little overwhelming and I was a little frustrated with it when I couldn't find things right away. After I worked on it a little more, it became much much easier and now it's so much fun. I think if there were multiple things where it was mandatory to include more than one thing at a time people would start to really memorize the different sites and that would strengthen the program or the goal of the program at least. It would force the things learned to become like second nature for the students. I think it has helped me to keep an innovative and adventurous mindset about me. I think that this program has opened my eyes to all the web has to offer. All I have to do is explore, which is fun and much easier now! I will be a much better teacher because now I have all of these resources to incorporate into my daily lessons and activities. To keep up with the developments in web 2.0 I will continue social networking and I will do searches. I think if I stay on social networking sites, chances are someone on there will be more advanced in technology and can help introduce me to all of the new developments in web 2.0 so I can stay up-to-date.

Thing 23

This program started out as Learning 2.0. It was created by Helene Blowers and was modified by the California School Library Association. It then became Learning 2.0-23 Things. This belonged to the Mesquite Independent School District. This is the foundation for what is n now Learning 2.0-23 Things for Teachers. All of this was made possible by Creative Commons. I really like the creative commons website. I see myself using this quite a bit when I am a teacher. The website allows me to do a search and use the material I find for lessons or class activities. I am sure I will use the photos from flickr.com in my classroom. I think it would be really neat to take all of the pictures I find that pertain to the lesson I am teaching and make a poster using all of the photos. The students could also use these pictures to create something. I thought that was a really neat point or idea behind creative commons. It does not restrict creativity at all and allows us to take and build upon others work. There are no restrictions with creative commons. I may also print out written works found on the creative commons site. All of these materials can be used to really help the students and the teachers learn and be creative.

Thing 22

The first thing that I noticed when I looked at this was the livebinder that included pinterest. I never really thought about pinterest as a creative tool that could help with teaching. I thought that was really interesting. The three binders I have are called 1.Interactive Tools for Teachers 2. Science and 3. Reading and Language Arts. The one I chose to embed was the Interactive Tools for Teachers. I really enjoyed all of them and they are all really helpful. This one, however, has a few of my favorite websites. These are the most helpful to me and I really like how I can organize things by categories. This will make life so much easier. When teaching, if I need a lesson, I can just click on the category that I need and find it pretty easily. I set all of my binders to private. I could have set it to public, but I chose private since I'm a beginner. The other binders that I saw were really neat and I really enjoyed looking at them. They were so neat and I liked how everything was so easy to see and access. When I become a teacher, I may make a binder that the public can see because it is really beneficial and provides teachers with really great resources and lesson plans. It could be fun for interests outside the classroom as well. It doesn't just have to be for lesson plans. I am really interested in dolphins and whales. I could create a binder just for that. I love how the possibilities with the binders are endless. It will definitely help me keep lessons and different subject activities organized while having a rich resource folder to improve and enhance each lesson.

Thing 21

This was so much fun! This is something I can do during my free time or for my classroom. This would be great to use for displaying a science fair project. Also, this would be great with adding visual emphasis to a lesson. If we were talking about natural disasters for one lesson, I could put a slide show of volcanoes or something like that. I also think that parents will appreciate this. I could take pictures of the students doing different activities throughout the year and I could make a slide show or short film out of it. I could also do this throughout the year, which may help to make the parents feel as if they were more involved. This would make a great gift for the end of the year. I was so excited to learn how to do this. This is something that I will definitely use more in the future. :) It was really easy putting it all together. I really liked how I was able to go to flickr.com to use all of the pictures in my video. It really allowed me to be as creative as I wanted with the short film or movie. I have always wanted to do a documentary. This may be something I could use to do that. If the documentary film is educational, this is something I could use in my classroom as well.

Thing 20

I went to Youtube and looked through some of the videos they had. I really like the idea of Youtube. Anyone can post a video. There are a lot of educational videos. In some cases channels will post a video. Or maybe someone is posting them. Either way, I am able to see what was on the history channel about a variety of different topics. This was the video that I chose to embed. I hope I am doing this right. It's called education today and tomorrow. I thought this was interesting. Something else I thought was interesting is the youtube videos that explain youtube and how it came about and how it connects individuals. It talks about how it allows for communities to evolve. I thought this was important especially for educators and those who are in the process of becoming a teacher. They can join the teacher community through sites such as Youtube.

Thing 19

I like how this site applies to teachers. It's a great site just for teachers so I really liked that aspect of it. I also went to goodreads, shelfari, and crafts. I really liked the first one. I wasn't sure what it was about,but after searching the site, I found it is just like an online book club. The members will get on the page and rate books that they've read. Something that I really liked about this was it can be personalized so that anyone can form a reading list of what they want to read and what they have already read. I think this would be a very useful tool in the classroom. I could ask the students what books they would like to read and incorporate some of my own ideas to form a reasonable reading list. That's one idea. Another idea may be to record all the books the students have read. I could see what books students like more or less. This is a great way to make a really interesting and fun reading list for the students. The crafts page is something I could use as well as far as the ideas go. I also liked how on goodreads we could collect our favorite quotes. I think this is my favorite out of the ones I looked at. Back to teacherpop though, I think this site will be extremely useful. Teachers could make sure they have all of their coworkers on their page so that they can give and take ideas and rely on one another. They could form a strong sense of community among the group of teachers. Everyone is sure to benefit from this site because it will only strengthen them as professionals. Lastly, I chose to respond to John McFarland's comment. I had a challenging time with the ning badge, but I looked at the bottom of the page and found the embed code. :)

Thing 17

Bookmarking and tagging is something that everyone can use. It gets rid of the monotony of just looking through the sites. I really like exploring the web and finding new sites, but I always forget where I found them, what they are called, or sometimes how to spell the URL address correctly. Bookmarking will definitely take care of this issue as I can tag all of my favorite sites. This will definitely benefit me as I become a teacher. I can gather information that will help me learn about different things that are important to know about teaching. I can help others at the same time too. I can find really great sites and tag them and then others will be able to use them. I think that I will use this quite a bit as a teacher. I think if there is a site like the one mentioned about homework help, I could print off that information and use it as a handout for class or to strengthen a certain activity or lesson plan. It will be a lot of fun searching through everyone's tags and finding things that will help me and my classroom grow. At first I thought it would be challenging, but after watching the different tutorial videos and reading about it, I found that part of it's appeal is the simplicity and convenience behind it. It eliminates the fluff of the web and provides a quick and easy way to access information from anywhere at any time. Tagging and Bookmarking show that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. :)

Thing 18

I chose to do the facebook page. I have had this page for a little over two weeks now. I notice a lot of people will use facebook to let others know what they are doing. It is a way to let others keep up on your own personal status. I haven't participated in it too much. If people use it for educational purposes, I think it is a great site for teachers. Usually people check their facebook quite a bit. It is a sure way to get a quick response and information or help if that is what is needed. Social networking is really important for all educators. It allows them to expand on their ideas, values, etc. based on school. In turn, it allows others to do gather information and ideas. Teachers and parents can converse using facebook or twitter. Twitter seems to be more sophisticated. Facebook seems to be something that all ages equally enjoy. Facebook has more options for the page. It is a lot of fun to add pictures and information to the profile section. The fact that Facebook allows pictures on the profile section, may make parents feel more involved. Though there should not be pictures of the classroom on the page, other aspects of the classroom could be added. Different projects or all of the students art work could be added to the page. Parents may appreciate this. Also, the facebook page shows friends when you're online. Parents could send messages if they have a question about their child. Facebook could be used for older students and classroom I'm sure. However, for my age group, I may just put art or projects on the wall. An upper level class may make a site and participate in social networking that way with an initial goal of learning and sharing their own knowledge. They could have like news pages and get creative that way. That would be a fun and interesting way to get the students to participate in reading and writing, depending on what age group it is. I think Facebook and Twitter are great sites for older students, teachers, and parents. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home

Thing 16

I was really excited to do thing 16. I am always looking for ways to become more organized. I chose to use pageflakes. It is extremely informative. I really liked the online calendar. I have been trying to find an online calendar for the longest time so that was the first thing I went to. I really like how it has an annual reminder programmed into the calender beforehand. It seemed really helpful. I think the reminders will probably be one of the more helpful aspects. I also like the access availability. There are computers everywhere, especially on campus. If I forgot my planner one day, I would be able to keep up with what's going on through my online calendar. To-do lists are always helpful. It's just another way to make sure goals or projects are getting done on time. This ensures that each person is more productive or at least it helps with productivity. I will probably use the calendar at home and at school. This was the easist for me and the most useful.

Thing 15

The Book Lovers Wiki showed a lot of book reviews. This may be used in libraries. If a teacher or a student would like to find out more information about a book he/she is interested in, this wiki page would definitely help. People on this site can blog and inform others. Right now I am working on the sandbox thing. It is taking a little while to load, but other than that, I like it. I think this would be a great way to see what others have to say as well as write down my own thoughts and opinions. Overall, it is just a great way to trade information. I chose to put a picture from flickr on there. I wrote why I chose to use flickr. That has been the thing I have used the most out of everything else. It is really fun to use too. :) I also posted thing 3 in the comment box.

Thing 14

I really enjoyed all of these sites. I can see how they will all be extremely useful in my classroom. I think they would be fun for independent projects as well. I could see this being a great lesson reinforcement. Students could be creative when doing a organizational chart like this one. They are a lot of fun to make and require a certain level of the material to create it. I would let students use his book when working on this. If I wanted to do a formative assessment, however, then I would put a more stringent restriction on what the students could and could not use while working on the flow charts. This is something that student could collaborate on. They could get into groups to brainstorm different causes and effects of whatever the lesson covered. For this specific topic, they would write the different environmental impacts on reefs. This is a great tool, and I think that all of the students will learn from this if I were to complete it or if they were to complete it themselves. I think that this would be a great addition to a resource folder. If they were to keep folders or journals on a specific topic or subject, this would really be a great thing to add to that. It will definitely strengthen their understanding of whatever we are learning or covering in class. I would encourage them to use this outside of school as well. I really love all of these resources and can think of a million ways they would be helpful with my daily tasks as a student and, eventually, a professional educator. I've done the mind map before. They are kind of similar, but I think the mind map encourages more thought in general. Flowcharts seem to be a more finished structure and mind maps encourage this eventually. I think of the mind maps as more of a thought process/ draft.

Thing 13

I really like the google docs. However, I had some trouble getting the URL transferred and the actual document that I wrote. I had a few problems. I have done this before, but it's still a little challenging. These are the links I was given, but they are not showing up. My favorite aspect of the google docs is the presentation portion of the site. Zoho writer seemed to be almost like word just more advanced. Google docs has this link that allows you to invite others to collaborate. I think this would be extremely useful for teachers, parents, and students who wanted to share their ideas and receive feedback on ideas of their own. I really like all of the options that google docs provided. I would have to say that I like google docs better. I will have to keep working at copying the URL though. This reminds me of the dropbox site. The set-up is kind of the same. I think this will really help me stay organized. It's really fun to just play around on, too. There was a couple of examples on the google docs. I was glad that I saw those. They looked really advanced. I don't think I could do something like that just yet, but it would be fun to work towards at least. The possibilities are endless with google docs!