Is it the end or only the beginning?

My favorite exercise on this journey was Exercise 9 I really like working with the pictures and being creative with what you can do with them. I love art and I feel like this in a way is art. This program has affected my lifelong learning goals because now I want to learn more about technology and all the wonderful ways that you can use it to improve the education of my students. One unexpected outcome from this program was that working with technology is a lot easier than I thought it would be! I  don't think there was anything that should have been differently I really enjoyed the program. I will use what I have learned from this program and continue to use it in my future teaching career. I plan to keep up with developments in web 2.0 by joining some teacher blogs. My resolution is to continue to learn and stay on top of the new technologies that come out that can improve education.

Thing 23

When we first started this 23 things blog I thought that these were just made up for this class. After doing some research I came across this website :

http://schoollibrarylearning2.csla.net/2007/02/23-things_27.html

and learned that 23 things was created for teachers to become more knowledgeable about Web 2.0 tools.

Now that I know more about the Creative Commons Licensing I am going to be a lot wiser about what kind of Clip Art and Pictures I use from the internet. I will also make sure my students are well aware of the Creative Commons so that they can also make smarter choices about what they use on the internet.

Thing 22

I titled my binders Learning resources, worksheets, and lesson plans.  Here is the link to my binder titled lesson plans: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=703083. I think that i will use Livebinders for my own personal use in the classroom. However you could also use it with students by making your binders public and then letting the students access which websites you want them to use.

Thing 21

I cannot get Animoto to work with me at all. Setting up the video was not a problem at all but when I went to watch the preview its comes up as a loading screen and has been loading for over an hour. I tried to push skip and produce and the same thing happens. So I am sorry to say I will not have my Animoto video on my blog, nor will I ever be able to view it since it is taking so long to load!

Thing 20

The video I found is titled "We're More Alike Than Different" and it just melted my heart, because it is so true and these people are just amazing! I love using YouTube, I usually use it to look up music though. I choose the video that I did because I plan on being a Special Education teacher and this video just hit home for me. I think that it would be very interesting if this was applied to the library website and would make the it a lot more interesting.

Thing 19

I really like the teacher pop and Ning websites because they were just for teachers and it is nice to blog to other teachers and get ideas. I really like the fact that you have to be approved to post a video and a member before you can post anything. I will sue teacher pop for sure in my future teaching career I liked this on best because it reminded me most of Facebook.

Thing 18

It is important to know how to work social networking sites because social networking is such a a big part of life now a days (my Grandpa even has a Facebook!) I really like twitter because it is constantly refreshing new "tweets" with information and there are a lot of different twitter accounts for education news. I like Facebook because being so far away from home it makes it easy keep up with my family. I am not a huge fan of Twitter because i think that there is more junk then good on it. I don't know if i would feel comfortable using either of these websites for he classroom or school.

Thing 17

Delicious is a great website. Bookmarking is so convenient especially in the classroom because it saves you so much time. It gives you quick access to the websites you want instead of worrying about typing in the URL. It is also allows you to share the websites you bookmarks with your students. I also like how you can create a delicious button on your tool bar which give you even quicker access.

Thing 16

I really like the google home page, it was really nice to have everything right there on my home page. I really like the fact that it had the weekly weather report, sports news, entertainment and world news. I also really liked the Remember the Milk one also because I am always forgetting things so its nice having the reminders on a calendar.

Number 15

To be completely honest Wiki is not one of m favorite sites, I rarely use it because I am not always sure of the accuracy of the information being provided. Needless to say I guess Wiki doesn't like me either, because it wouldn't let me do any editing on the Sandbox. I created an account and logged in an hit the "Edit" button but nothing happened so, I didn't do anything on the Sandbox. I could see the uses for Wiki though because people could add links to web sites that provide additional info, but you really do have to be careful.

Thing 14

Here is the flow chart I created on Gliffy. The Flow Chart I made represents the the planets and their order from the sun. I found that using gliffy was a little bit hard for me to work with. Maybe it was just me I just found that it was not very user friendly. Also I think that the end result kind of looks a little bit old fashioned.

I also created a mind map on bubble.us and I found that this was a lot easier to use and I think that it looks a lot more modern. This map that I created is just a simple one I made into a map of my family.

Thing 13

I thought that both the Zoho writer and Google Docs were really great tools. Microsoft Word is a pretty expensive tool and a lot of computers don't come with the program pre loaded ($119.99). So having these tools for free is awesome because not all families can afford Word.

The Zoho Writer is very simple to navigate through and it allows you to save your documents to links and then other people can actually leave comments on your work. Google docs was also very easy to access and work. It allows you create a word document, a presentation, spreadsheet, form or a drawing. then it saves by itself to the drive.

Thing 12!

The two tools i chose for Thing 12 were Google Calender and Picasa Web Albums. Even though I do not have a smartphone I do have a tablet so I thought it was really cool that I could link my Google Calender to this. I carry my tablet everywhere so having my calender right at my fingertips always helps with a busy schedule like mine! I think this is a great app for both personal and school use because you can have a personal calender along with a calender that you use for lesson plans and assignments. The other app I researched was Picasa which is an awesome app for personal use but I am not sure how I would use it in the classroom. I created an account and I do believe it is public (have to figure out how to make privite!) and it uploaded all the images I have on my blog and then gives me the option to upload any other pictures I want. Then it lets you edit your own pictues which i think is so much fun. I am going to continue to use this website in the future!

Thing 11

After reviewing the links I discovered that all these websites would be useful in some way and a good reference for all teachers. My favorite was the edublogs because it provided so many good blogs, and you know they are able to be trusted because they won awards. From this website I found my new favorite blog "Think Thank Thunk"

Thing #10

I never knew that google had so many different little links with it! I really like the newsreader because I can filter the news I want to recieve. I will defenitely use this in my personal life but I also think it might be something good to use in the classroom. Maybe once a week pull up a national story to keep your students in the know with what is going on around the country. The feed that I subscribed to for my personal use were sports feeds like  ESPN and then a few education feeds such as the U.S. Department of Education.

Thing #9

I really like the Image Chef it is so easy to work with! I tried a few of the other links and found them ta little bit harder to use. For this creation all you had to do was type your name and number and then hit generate and you were done! This would be cute in a classroom with all your students last names and then make a bulletin board during football season!

Thing #8

I loved this tool I think it is really cool and could be really cool to use with you class room. However I did have a few problems getting this picture from the website to my blog! This is one of my own pictures of the basketball teams before a game so I thought that was cool you could really personalize it! I also tried to make a Spell with Flickr but I couldn't figure out how to transfer that without it going vertical. I will use the mashups in my personal life for sure I think its a very creative way to hold on to memories! I think you can also use these in the classroom because you have images that relate to what you are doing in class at that time!

Thing #7

I have heard of flickr but have never actually used it. It is actually very cool! When I first got on the website I hit the explore link and then it has the "photo of the day" so I went to that and then went to my birthday and found this photo. It reminded me of back home and was such a pretty picture. The photographer belongs to AshtonPal and they own a total of 1444 pictures.

The link to this picture is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashtonpal/7193861332/in/photostream

Thing #6

Looking at the Top Hundred Awards for the web 2.0 link I was very surprised that I did not recognize alot more of the websites. Actually the only ones that I did recognize were Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, and about.com. The website I choose was Picasa Web Albums. It is a very cool website that i will definetly use for my own personal use. The website allows you to edit your photos and then share them with people in your circle (your group of friends). Some features this site includes is editing effects and then side by side editing. I don't think that I will be able to use this site in my classroom however since I plan on being a Special Education Life Skills teacher.

Thing #5

School 2.0 to me means that the terms education and technology are used hand and hand. Kids love to use technology and because of this they are incorporating it more and more in education. This does have a lot of advantages, but also some disadvantages. After using some of the links on Web 2.0 I am uneasy about the effects on education that it could have. Don't get me wrong I think technology is great but there has to be a limit. I think that blogs, D2L, iPads, and Smartboards are great resources for education. But looking into the future it almost seems that technology will soon "take-over" the teachers job. So, even though there are advantages to the use of technology in the school, I think we have to be careful.

Thing #4

I think that commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction becuase if we didnt comment on each others it would almost feel like no body really cared about what we thought and our opinions. When someone comments it gives you a sense of securtiy knowing that someone feels the same way you did, or they didnt feel the same way and why they didn't. One of the points that I learned from the 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog was to interact with comments left, which seems to be a duhh kind of statement but it really lets your readers know that you are interested in what they are saying. Another point I learned from the How to comment like a king (or queen!) link was to draw attention to your own blog, it's a great way to get people come visit your blog and maybe even become a follower.

To be completely honest I do not have a specific reason why I choose the blogs I did other than the reason they just kind of stuck out to me. The blogs I commmented on were

1. Lacear
2. Kayla Crouch
3. Sarah Clark
4. Mary Donahue
5.Jessica Shaw
6. Derek Cooke
7. Alana Mclory

All the comments I left were me agreeing or adding on to what the person had already said in the post.

Thing #3

Blogs can definitely be very useful in education outside of the classroom. Teachers can use a blog to post assignments and provide examples for homework and other big projects. It could also be a great tool to use for a student that was absent. They can get on and check what the class did that day and what work they have to work up. However, it might be a little tedious on the teacher to be posting every single day.

Teachers can also get a lot of great ideas from other teachers blogs check out this one I found: (I love it!)

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

Thing #2

Made it to Thing #2! Whew! My experience creating my blog was a bit challenging! I am not used to using blogs and avatars so this was all very new to me! (luckily the directions were all very easy to follow!) I decided to keep my posting name and name of my blog fairly easy so I would not forget either of them, so they really aren't to creative nor was there much thought process put into them. My avatar kind of looks like me in a way, I tried to make it look as close to me as possible. It reflects me because I am very on the go and athletic and I put my avatar in some sporty looking clothes.

Thing #1

Just set up my first blog ever, never thought the day would come! After reviewing the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Lifelong Learner I have found that the easiest habit for me is habit 3, View problems as challenges. I am very competitive person and I pretty much see everything and anything as a challenge already. I think this is because I have been involved in sports my whole life. On the other hand I think the hardest habit for me is habit 6, Use technology to your advantage. I am very old fashioned I don't have a smart phone or an ipod, I would rather use a a pen and paper, so using technology has never been one of my strong points.