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.