Is it the End or Only the Beginning?

I think that my favorite thing is the LiveBinders. I thought that I would use Del.icio.us for organization until I got to Thing #22. I also like Animoto, it is so easy to use and gives a professional appearance. Google Translate is also a wonderful tool that will be useful and fun for the students.
I had always thought that I was pretty good on the technology front until I got to grad school, little did I know that just because I knew more technology than my sisters really didn't mean much! I was really surprised by how little I knew about copyright laws and had never even heard of Creative Commons before.
I think that the program does need some updating and fine-tuning. It was rather inconvenient for links not to open in separate tabs. It would also be nice for the list of things to be at the top of the page instead of the bottom. I have no idea how to operate a white board, so a tutorial on this would have been helpful.
I know that with all of these new skills, I will be a more effective, organized and efficient teacher. This course has given me new tools to differentiate instruction with, something that is definitely essential in keeping students engaged.
The RSS feed will help me stay on top of new developments in web 2.0. I have several websites and blogs in my feed to keep me up-to-date on current issues.
I will definitely keep a classroom blog and now I know how to do it! I think that it is such a great communication tool and I plan on making it as exciting as I can for students and parents alike!

Thing #23

On any of the pages of "Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers", you can look under the heading "Credits" to find the original authors and permissions granted to use this program. There are several links to follow here and it was very interesting to look at the original Learning 2.0 site and compare the orignal "23 things" to our "23 things".
I will certainly be very careful about what I use in the classroom and give credit to the correct people. Creative Commons takes the guesswork out of that equation. It is important to set a good example for our students and teach them the importance of copyright.

Thing #22

I really like LiveBinders and I have moved quite a few things from "My Favorites" to it, with many more to go. So far I have created binders for Language Arts, Lesson Plans/Worksheets, and History. Here's one of them:

Lesson Plans / Worksheets

This will certainly make my life easier when planning. Students could create their own LiveBinders tailored to their own interests. I could also create LiveBinders for them with pertinent resources for them to explore and use for assignments or to further their understanding on any number of subjects.

Thing #21

Animoto is one of the coolest websites I have seen in a while and I love it! It is so easy to use and makes you look oh so creative! I just used some of their stock photos from nature and Animoto basically does everything else for you. I love to work in my yard and have tons of flowers so the end product came out very customized for me and my interests. This would be fun to use for a classroom blog featuring the students.

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Thing #20

I started my search in YouTube by entering "4th grade poetry", thinking that I would tie a video in with my 4th grade language arts standard. Well, you know how one thing leads to another on YouTube.......The sidebar had some interesting looking videos so I decided to watch "Whole Brain Teaching: 4th grade: The Crazy Professor Reading Game".....who could resist? It is definitely worth watching! The title drew me in and I have never seen anyone teach this way, enjoy!

YouTube

Thing #19

I have just joined TeacherPop and it looks like a great place to connect with others in the education field. I have read through several posts and enjoyed it. I went to Leslie's post and left a comment and a gift. I don't know about the gift thing, there was only one free one and the rest you have to pay for. I guess everyone will just have to be satisfied with the free red ribbon. I uploaded a picture of a pink zinnia, I love zinnias :)
I took a look at: Crafters.org because I have been a crafter all of my life. I could get lost in this for hours. One of their slogans: "Justify your hoarding instincts". I can relate. I will have to revisit this site!

Thing #18

I have been on facebook for a few years and the information on my account is only visible to my friends. Here's my link:
facebook
It's important for educators to know about social networking sites so that they know what their students are talking about.....that goes for all other technology that they use as well. I don't think that I would use this in the classroom, however it could be a communication tool to use with parents. I think it's a big no-no to be facebook friends with your students!

Thing #17

Well, my favorites list looks like the old way (shown in the video) so I will definitely be using Delicious. My favorites have been disorganized and frustrating for some time and it's time to get organized. I tried to take this course my first semester but it was "sold out", it would have been helpful to have taken this class closer to the beginning than the end for sure. Social networking sites are definitely a plus for teachers, especially new ones. I know that I will need all of the good resources that I can find and it will be nice to have an excellent site to save to as well as to search from any location.

Thing #16

When I first started using a computer, Internet Explorer was the only option that I really knew about and my main email account is still msn.com. Then I started using Firefox and decided to use it strictly for my schoolwork. I wasn't happy with IE too much anymore, so I started using Google Chrome for my personal stuff. In essence, I use 3 different home pages for different reasons, just like 3 main file folders.
Since my IE's homepage is just AOL's homepage, I decided to replace it with Igoogle, feeling sure that I would like that better. There are so many things that I like about Google, I feel that I can't go wrong with it and it will remain my homepage for my Internet Explorer.
I chose MSN Calender to try out. I liked that it had the weather for each day and a tab to create a to-do list. If you put everything on your calendar then a to-do list is sort of redundant to me. Right now, my life is not too complicated so it's easier to keep a hand-written calendar and to-do list. Once I start teaching, I am sure that I will keep these things with me technologically. I think that I had referred to a Franklin planner being used in my former career before this sort of technology was available. These tools are the new planners and necessary for efficiency.

Thing #15

I thought that "wiki" was a term exclusive to Wikipedia. I knew about some of these other sites but didn't know that they were called wikis. I feel that Wikipedia is much more reliable than when it first started, but I know not to take it as the absolute honest last word on anything. I would think that a Wiki would be a great collaboration spot for teachers to share lesson plans and standards for their grade level. That would be a great resource to have district wide.
I had trouble with the sandbox. I tried to edit someone's post by changing the colors and it didn't work. The only thing that I could really do was move the image around or change its size, so I abandoned that attempt. I put in my smile generator but got no further than the editing box.....I couldn't figure out how to make it show up on the "front page"......Hands in the air, sign me.....Technically Challenged.

Thing #14

I chose Gliffy and Bubbl.us to play with and compare. I liked them both, it seemed that bubbl.us had a less formal look to it while flowcharts were a bit more rigid and "official" looking. Gliffy gives you a much more professional looking product than Bubbl.us, so my target audience would determine which to use. Both mindmaps and flowcharts are useful for lesson planning and for a student's organization of concepts. It is much easier to make these things with these websites, I have used MS Word to do this previously and there is no comparison. I see that Gliffy has a floor plan option that might be useful for classroom layout plans. Overall, I feel that I will use both of these in the future.

Thing #13

I found Zoho Writer to be very similar to MS Word and would certainly recommend using it to anyone. There is really no point in purchasing a software program when you can access something so similar for free. I had only heard of Open Office as a substitute for MS Word, so this is a great option.
I liked the Zoho Writer better than the document writer in Google Docs, perhaps because Zoho is so similar to what I'm used to. I tried some different things in Google Docs and I hate to admit it but I was lost. This drawing was the best I could do. I tried to paint it but that didn't work.
I did like the fact that Google Docs automatically saves your work and I can see how easily this could be used for group projects. My preference is Zoho, it was more user friendly for me!

smile