Reflection

Over the course of doing the 23 Things for this class I have learned a lot about tools and resources that are available to use in teaching. I have quite a few ideas on how I can use these tools with the students that I work with. I hope that I will be able to inspire them to explore Web 2.0 tools themselves in order to discover new resources. I liked the way the 23 Things list was set up. It presented a large amount of information in a logical way that was not overwhelming. I think the activity I enjoyed the most was creating the video with Animoto. I liked seeing my pictures set to different music. I also enjoyed searching for podcasts and finding sites that listed different ones, making it easy for me to find one that I would be interested in. I was surprised at how much I ended up enjoying the blogging process. I am going to try to keep my blog going after this assignment is completed. I am not sure what I will put on it yet, but I now know where to go for ideas. :) I plan on keeping up with developments in Web 2.0 by finding a current blog about it and adding it to my RSS feeder so I will know when updates occur. I will also look at the Web 2.0 Wiki as well. Overall I think this lesson was well developed and I only hope I can remember everything I have learned in order to pass it on to others. :)

Thing # 23

I think Creative Commons licensing is a great idea. It allows people to feel free to create items and have peace of mind about sharing them with other people. On the 23 Things first page it mentions that it is based on the website 43 Things and an article by Stephen Abram. I can see myself using Creative Commons licensing to share my creations with others as well as finding items that others have created and adapting them to my use. I think Creative Commons licensing will assist teachers in becoming more innovative in their teaching as well as allowing educators to share ideas while they retain certain rights to the original idea.

Thing # 22

I liked both the Educational Podcast Network and the Podcast Directory. I liked the EPN because I thought it was a good way to find educational podcasts for use with students and it had podcasts divided into grade levels. I liked the Podcast Directory because you could either search for a topic or browse by category which makes it easy to use. I listened to The Roaring 20's Podcast Pt. 1. This podcast was done by an English class as a semester project. It covered facts about the 1920's as well as dramatizing the novel The Great Gatsby. I chose to listen to this podcast because I thought the topic was interesting and because it had been done by students.
I can see students putting together a podcast very easily. I think this is a great way to have students not only learn how to communicate using a broadcast media, but also a way to get students who may not normally want to read or research interested enough to complete an assignment. I found a lot of podcasts that I would like to listen to, but I have not found one that I am ready to subscribe and listen to on a regular basis.

Animoto

Thing # 21

I love Animoto. It is a lot of fun to take pictures that I took and pick out music and watch the video come together. I will definitely find a way to use this in a class. The students I work with are always taking pictures of each other and I think they would love to use this as a creative way to express themselves. Personally, I cannot wait to take my family photos and make some more videos to share with my family and friends.

Flowgram Presentation

I liked Flowgram in that you could easily record your own narration for a presentation. I prefer PowerPoint presentations in that you can decide how pictures appear and how the slides transition from one to the other. It was very difficult to do my original presentation without any words or narration. I chose a topic that I could keep simple and aimed it at a younger group than what I work with usually. This assignment brought home to me how many words we use each day and how much we take visual communication for granted. I think this presentation turned out OK, although I did have to modify it quite a bit from my PowerPoint because I had the pictures transitioning on each slide and Flowgram put everything up on the slide at once. (Maybe there is a way to change this, I was just not able to find it.)

Thing # 20

I really love some of the videos on YouTube. There is a wide variety of videos to choose from, including clips from old cartoon shows, music videos, and instructional videos. No matter what you are looking for you will probably find it on YouTube. Actually, that is a positive and a negative. You can find ANYTHING on YouTube; even items you do not want to see. Even typing in simple search terms can bring up items that would definitely be inappropriate for students. I think it would be an interesting project for students to create their own videos for a class or as a project and share them within their school community via a site like YouTube. Students would be very excited to learn the information if they knew they would be presenting it in such a unique manner, especially if they were involved in all aspects of production. From YouTube I chose a video about origami because it is one of my favorite past times, although I am just an amateur compared with whomever shot this video. Also, I liked the music that went with it. :)

Thing # 19

I liked TeacherPop a lot. I think communities like this are helpful to people who are looking for others who share interests in the same things. I think my niece had signed me up for Flixster a few months ago, but I never have time to check it out. A lot of the networks that are listed look interesting and I would live to join the communities. However, I need to have more time on my hands than I do now. :) Between work, school, and parenting I barely have time to sleep! I think that networks that are limited to certain people, such as TeacherPop, could be used in the classroom to introduce students to new topics or to other students who have common interests. Although I would be very cautious when using any social network with students. I believe that there are better ways to enhance a students learning experience and introduce them to others than social networking sites. A teacher could easily use a blog to begin outside discussion on a topic and since you can add pictures, videos, etc. to a blog just like you can on a networking site, I think a blog is just as good and you have more control over who uses it and who has access to your students.

Thing # 18

I tried both Facebook and MySpace and I liked the way MySpace could be personalized. I thought Facebook was too impersonal. I feel it is aimed more at older people and professionals than students. I know that social networking is very popular with students right now and I do think it is a good way for people to keep in touch once they have graduated or moved on from a school but I do not think it would be appropriate for use within a formal classroom setting. I know users have the ability to choose who can be their friends and who cannot be their friends, but I think these particular sites are just too open to be used in a classroom. Perhaps if a school had their own private networking site that could only be used by students and teachers, it could be used for students in different classes to collaborate with each other on projects.

Thing # 17

I thought that Del.icio.us was an interesting site. I liked the fact that you could explore the web and add items to your bookmark lists as you found them as well as the ability to create unique tags for specific uses (i.e. a class or project). I could see teachers using this as a resource for their students, especially if they find an interesting article or website that would add something to their lessons and enhance a student's learning experience. I think that I may use this in the future for lessons I am going to teach to some of the students I work with. I believe that they would like to explore some of the sites that I have looked at on their own and learn for themselves.

Thing # 16

I tried both iGoogle and Netvibes as homepages. I preferred iGoogle to Netvibes, although both were fairly easy to set up. Netvibes' layout just did not appeal to me when I finally got my homepage set up. iGoogle's layout was much easier to figure out and seemed to actually have what I had asked for whereas Netvibes had stuff on it that I did not ask for when I was setting it up. I liked the iGoogle page so much that I have added it to my homepage tabs on Internet Explorer. I also tried the site Ta-Da Lists to create a to do list. Although this site was very easy to use, I just do not see much use for it as an online tool. I would prefer to use an online calendar in a classroom setting to let students know what needs to be done and when. Also, a to do list can either be written out or typed in Zoho or another word processor very easily so it would seem a bit redundant to have a separate program/account to just create to do lists. Another site that I thought could be very useful to online learning is Zamzar. This site allows you to convert files from one type to another. This would be extremely useful if someone was trying to share information with another student but they had two different software programs. The students could send the file via email and convert it to whatever fit their needs and vice versa. There have been times I needed this for myself. I wish I had known about this site!

Thing # 15

I looked at several of the wikis that were listed and it gave me some ideas of how I might incorporate this in a class. I loved how the Westwood Schools Computer Science Wiki was set up. I think it is a good example of how to incorporate wikis into the classroom. I also liked how the NECC 2008 San Antonio wiki was set up. I think it would be a good project for students to create a wiki about their hometown which included places to eat and what to see/do. I would like to see some of my students use a wiki to perhaps discuss scholarship opportunities or events that were occurring locally. Perhaps I will be able to set up a wiki in the future and let students create something for our program.

Thing # 14

I chose to explore Mindmeister.com and Gliffy.com. I really liked using Mindmeister to create a mind map. It was fun to begin with one idea and think about what was related to it. I believe students would love using this to possibly review test material or map out ideas for a paper. To me it was a little confusing at first trying to figure out how to actually make the map, but once I had figured out the tools it was very easy. I chose to use Gliffy for my flowchart and I thought that it was very easy and straightforward to use. I do not see me using this in a classroom setting very much as what I do with students does not really lend itself to a flowchart. Although, if the opportunity does present itself, I will definitely use Gliffy in the future. I personally enjoy making mind maps over flowcharts, so I will probably use them more in classes with students.

Thing # 13

I absolutely loved Zoho writer. It was easy to use and fun too! I would definitely use this tool with students who may not have a computer at home, but who had access from a library or from school. I think the one thing I liked the most about Zoho was the fact that it is saved online so that a student can access it from anywhere without having to have a jump drive. I am going to try using this with some of my students who come in to type their papers and who worry about getting back to the office to finish. Most of the students I work with cannot afford jump drives so this would be a great tool for them!

Thing # 12

I tried out Google Notebook and Google Calendar. I love the idea of the notebook, especially if someone is doing research online. It is an excellent way to remember what websites you looked at and which ones you thought were the most interesting. I also think it would be an excellent way for a teacher to organize websites for assignments. One could have a notebook on England for example which students could look through in order to get information on the country. Or, for Juniors and Seniors, the notebook could be used to save prospective college websites and/or scholarship websites. The Google calendar could be used by a teacher to have important due dates or meetings for students. Again, for Juniors or Seniors, a calendar could be published which had important college and scholarship deadlines on it. I started my Google Notebook with a couple of recipes for now. I plan on adding other notebooks that would be more related to my work in the future.
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/08852194471668496100/BDRCNSgoQiK3T0swj?hl=en

Thing # 11

I thought that Bloglines and Google Search were relatively easy to use, although I liked Blogloines the best because I liked the way it returned search results. Syndic8 and Google Search returned so many results that it was a bit overwhelming. Although, this may have been a result of the way I searched for blogs. I found a lot of useful news feeds which will help me search for news stories to share with students. One great site that I liked, especially for news feeds, was Topix. I loved the way it had the stories laid out and that it included local news stories with national and international stories.

Thing # 10

Newsreaders makes looking at a lot of different sites a lot easier, although I like going to the actual sites not just to read the stories but also to see what else the site has to offer. I think I would use the newsreader only if I did not have time to look at everything. I chose to use the Google Reader because I liked the way it was laid out. I do like the fact that you can easily see when a blog has been updated because if you have a lot of blogs you like to look at or keep up with, having them all in one spot would be very convenient. I think I could use this in a classroom as a way to have students interact with each other by being able to see when their classmates have updated their blogs. I may use the ability to have news sites on the reader for a current events class I am teaching. It would be a good way to make sure students have a wide variety topics to discuss as well as ensuring that they were able to find stories that would interest them.

Thing # 9

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

I used the comic strip generator to create this cartoon. I used a picture of a genuine Austin Peay Squirrel that was in a tree outside of the Claxton building, near the library. I loved this site because I think it would be a good way for students to have fun creating a comic strip to share with the class. Having a visual image to correspond to a concept helps students understand things better and when you add in humorous pictures, they will want to learn more.

http://www.signgenerator.org/

I liked creating my sign, although I am not sure how I would use this in a classroom. I think it might be a good tool to let students express themselves on a subject. I will have to think some more on how to use this site. Personally I would use this to make images to use in a newsletter or something that I was creating outside of the classroom.

Thing # 8

I love the mashups on Flickr! I had a lot of fun looking through the different items to choose from and finally creating my trading card. I chose a trading card because I think that students would have a lot of fun creating trading cards either about themselves or to go along with something that they are currently learning. I think I would have had a lot more fun doing research projects when I was in school if the format that the information was in was presented in this way.

Thing # 7

This is a picture of a kitten I took for my Education 5616 class. I love cats and I really liked this picture. I really liked using Flickr. I think this is a great site for sharing pictures. I am not sure I would put pictures of my family up because, as I have said before, I am a private person. However, I would love to share pictures like this one or others I have taken that were not personal. I thought Flickr was relatively easy to use and I think that students would love to use this site in the classroom. It would be great to have them do a photo documentary of their school year or take pictures for a class project. I could see me using this for a specific project with students.

Thing # 6

I really liked two sites from the Web 2.0 list. The first was Colorblender. This site allows users to create colors by editing the amount of red, green, and blue the color has. Once you have gotten the color you want you see it along with several other colors that go along with it. The html codes for each of the colors are listed below the pictures of the colors so that anyone could add them to html code on any website that they put together. I think that this site would be highly beneficial to anyone wanting to have a website and a certain color scheme but who does not necessarily have an extensive background in writing html code. http://colorblender.com/

The second website I liked was Swivel. This is a site that allows users to view graphs on a variety of subjects as well as uploading their own data to create graphs and charts. I believe that this site would be best used in a classroom setting to help students understand how charts and graphs are created and allow them to interact and comment on each other's graphs. They would also be able to use these graphs to supplement reports and presentations. http://www.swivel.com/

Thing # 5

The term "School 2.0" means that educators will be using technology, especially Web 2.0 tools, more in their classrooms and as a way of interacting with students outside of the classroom. As we are learning more everyday, today's young people have embraced technology and are continually looking for new ways to use it. I know from experience that teenagers love to go online and use such sites as My Space and Face Book. If educators are able to successfully channel that enthusiasm and love of using those sites into a new way of teaching, I believe that students will get more out of school. As one of my classmates, Lorrie Anne Cooksey, mentioned in her # 5 blog, we are fast approaching a time when students will work exclusively with computers and online technology in their every day learning. Educators need to prepare now in order to keep up with the students of the future.

Thing # 4

Commenting on blogs creates a community simply because you have people who come together in order to discuss a common interest. Whether one agrees with what a blog states or not, if you leave a comment, then you have become a pert of that community and added a bit of yourself to that blog. Leaving comments not only enables you to interact with people who are outside of your immediate community. The beauty of the Internet is that it is a worldwide phenomenon which means that you are able to share ideas and opinions with people in other countries as well as someone who lives down the street. To me this is what makes a blog become a community.

I have left comments on my classmates blogs, which are listed below. I chose to comment on them because something about them caught my eye or intrigued me.

1. Joseph Hall
2. Kristan Bland
3. David Abbott
4. Sara Kim
5. Lorrie Anne Cooksey

I have not commented on outside blogs yet. I will update when I have.

October 5: I found a blog (bookchase.blogspot.com) that was reporting on a firebombing of a London Publisher by someone attempting to prevent the publication of the book The Jewel of Medina. I commented on this story because I feel strongly about everyone being able to express their opinions without fear.

Thing # 3

As I stated before, I would ever have thought about using a blog on my own, but now that I know how to set one up, I think it would be useful in promoting outside discussion for classes. As I realized recently, sometimes the amount of time that you have in a classroom is just not enough for students to sufficiently express themselves in a discussion. Usually time runs out before all the points have been made. I think using a blog as a way for students to carry on a discussion that may have been begun in class would be a good thing. It would also allow students to begin new threads of discussion as well.

Thing # 2

I must say that creating a blog is interesting. I like the fact that you can personalize and make it so that it can truly represent who you are. I really liked creating my avatar. It gives someone a chance to play around with different pictures, not only of themselves, but also of where they would like to go or what they would like to wear. I did think creating the blog would be extremely difficult for me; howver, I found that it was easier than I expected. Who knows, I might actually get to like blogging!

Thing #1

There are actually two lifelong learning habits that I find easy to do. The first one is to use technology to my advantage when I am attempting to learn something new. I am always looking on the internet for the information I need to use. The other habit is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I have always looked for learning opportunities and when I have decided on a course of learning I have always made sure that I know what to do, when to do it, and what I needed to accomplish it.

I think the hardest habit for me is viewing problems as challenges. Although I have always believed that what does not kill you makes you stronger, I usually go into "how to handle/solve this problem" mode whenever problems arise. I am too busy trying to solve the problem to see how I can learn from it. Occasionally, however, I will look back on something and go "Oh, that is why that happened when it did."

What I would like to learn from using the Web 2.0 tools is how to better interact with students in order to assist their learning experiences. Although, I must admit, that I would never have used a blog if it was not part of an assignment. I have always felt that it put too much of yourself out there for people to look at. (I am a very private person.)