Summary

WoW! I have finally done it, lol! I started, I went out of town, I had a family emergency, I had to work, I almost didn't finish, but I did it! I have learned so much about the Internet and all it has to offer. I thought I knew, but I didn't know everything there was available to us. I am so glad to have taken this course and finished it. My goal was to finish and learn something new. Boy, did I ever learn some new things, lol. There is so much to use that I don't know where to start, or how to even present this information to my team members in the fall. I guess I will just have to try a little at a time and go from there. Eventually, all teachers will be aware of Web 2.0 anyway. My favorite discovery was learning more about Flikr and Online Image generators. It took me some time to play with different sites, but I eventually figured it out and got what I wanted. I just loved learning about what all I could do with my pictures online. This course has made me more technologically aware of what is out there and available for teachers to use in the classroom. I don't think it stops here either. I knew there was new technology out there that needed to be used, but I didn't really know how to use it with my students. I only knew Promethean Boards and traditional school programs like Word, PowerPoint, etc. I also knew how to use various educational websites through another staff development that I took last summer. This technology has taken computers to a whole other level.
I was surprised by the suggestions to register for social networking sites such as, MySpace and facebook. I know that it is frowned upon on by many for the bad press it gets. I think that this course made me more aware of other ways it can be used with teachers, students, and parents. I discovered some other great networking sites through Ning, like Classroom 2.0. I really think that this course should be completed by all teachers in our district, or at least by representatives from each school. I would definitely be one of the firsts to sign up for another discovery course. This was so much fun and enlightening! I have gotten so many great ideas to motivate students and make learning fun from this course. I really enjoyed reading other teachers' blogs and being able to learn from them. I was even able to work at home in my pajamas comfortably, lol. It was great! I will definitely use del.icio.us and RSS feeds more often and add more to My Yahoo! page. As I have mentioned before, I have learned so much that has caused me to "think outside of the box". I will be doing a lot more with computers and advocating technology to my team members. I will try to collaborate with R. Brown, who also took this course, to educate others in our school about possible uses of this technology. I will look into using more websites in the computer lab and in the classroom. Hopefully, after this course, more websites will be unblocked for usage. It is difficult to get started if there are too many limitations in school. Take a look at the video I posted from You Tube on "A Vision of Students Today" It will make you think...

Thing # 23

Now that video was cute! My daughter just had to come over and see what I was doing because it had Disney characters in it, lol. Our "23 Things" blog was based on another Learning 2.0 program designed by Helene Blowers. I discovered that many school districts are doing the same thing as I did some research on Learning 2.0. It's great to know that teachers around the world are updating themselves on today's technology. Times are definitely changing and soon all teachers will be required to take this course. I am very happy to have been one of the firsts in my district to do it! =)

The Learning 2.0 program was designed by Helene Blowers, PLCMC Technology Director, with the support and assistance of several staff and is loosely based upon Stephen Abram's article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006) and the website 43Things.

The design of this online program was completely built on Web 2.0 technologies that are freely available on the Internet. These sites include: Blogger, Flickr, Odeo, YouTube, PBWiki & Bloglines.

It is important that all teachers and students understand copyright laws. We are now in the age of cut and paste. Plagiarism is too tempting for many of our students and teachers alike. It was mentioned in the Learning 2.0 blog that many times we are "faced with declining budgets and little time". If we are going to join the age of Web 2.0, then we should definitely educate "the ethics of information gathering and sharing". C, CC, and PD should be everyday acronyms in use.

Thing # 22

The podcast I chose was the audible version of The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. I really loved this book and enjoyed listening to him speak at our district convocation a couple of years ago. He is very motivating and entertaining. I have read the whole book, but I think I would love to actually hear him read it to me in his own animated voice. This would bring the book to life! I found this podcast through Learn Out Loud. I tried out the others also. I really liked podcastdirectory. It was more organized and made more sense to me. I also liked the The Educational Podcast Network directory because it let me browse through a lot of titles to find those related to elementary school. I could even post a podcast that involves me or my students to share with others. This is definitely a useful site that I could use in the future also.

Thing # 21

I knew this would be fun! I saw the word Animoto and thought, "what am I getting into?" Is this some foreign Japanese website? I immediately thought this would be a great way to showcase some of the photos from my trip to Baltimore with my daughter. I have so many to share with family and friends. This would be a creative and fun way to email them. As I was doing this, I realized that I could have done this with all the photos from my class field trip to the Dallas Museum of Nature & Science last year. This would be neat to share with the students and their parents. I could also use this to showcase photos of the students throughout the school year. It would be like a video yearbook online! I waited forever to see the final product and in the end it was well worth it. I think students and parents would really appreciate something like this. I am so excited about trying this tool in my classroom next year!

Thing # 20

I love You Tube! I am so glad to finally have gotten to this point! I have been working so hard to get through all the stuff I didn't know and now I seem to be breezing right through the stuff I do know. =) I could be on You Tube for hours. There are so many interesting videos to find on just about any topic. You can find television clips you may have missed, or even your favorite television commercials. There are endless possibilities! I chose a video on Barak Obama because I think he is probably going to be our next president. I like what he had to say. There are lots of good videos with him on this site. It is always interesting to read the comments people write about the videos. You are also given links to similar videos to view. You tube is great!
Of course, there is bad press about the videos that you don't want to see. Just explore and look for videos that do interest you. I could find many interesting videos to use in my classroom on this site, but unfortunately, there are too many videos that should not be be available to students. If there were a way to filter this site for school use, You Tube would be a great classroom tool. Right now, I like to use PowerMediaPlus. It seems to be a great site to use and is student friendly. The school district gave training through Library Services a couple of years ago on this. I also discovered Teacher Tube while playing with this part of 23 things. It might be worth putting on my del.icio.us account.

Thing # 19

I am now a member of Kiddnation, 23thingsters, and classroom 2.0. I have always heard about Kiddnation on the radio because I listen to Kidd Kraddick every morning. This was my opportunity to check it out and see what all the talk is about. It's funny how if I got a request on Classroom 2.0 and I could also see the same request on Kiddnation. They are obviously both affiliated with Ning. I found these sites to be just as interesting as the ones I already know. However, I have come to realize that I am starting to have too many pages and it's getting to be too much work to keep up with them. For newcomers, I would register to just one or two of your favorite social networking sites and stick to those. Overall, I think I could find some uses for a social network at school. It could be used either within the district among employees or within the school among students and teachers. It would be an online community just for the school. I would have to play around with the idea some more to be sure this would work out.

Thing # 18

I have both Myspace and facebook but they are both kept private. I have been a member of both for several years. They are great to use when you move around a lot like I do. It helps me to keep up with family and friends and know more about what's going on with them these days. I also can share photos and update them on what's happening with me. Much like other homepages, you can add widgets, applications, upload photos, make collages and generate images, add feeds, you name it and it can be done. MySpace has evolved a lot over the years as it has become more popular in our culture. Our students our becoming addicted to it and using it at earlier and earlier ages! This is the main reason I keep it private to friends and family only. After reading several blogs about this topic, I think that it may be useful for teachers in the upper grades to create one for students to view. It would help them to connect with the students on a more personal level at home. They could comment on what's going on in the classroom. After all, it is what they know and if a teacher understands what they know that it is even better! There are many possibilities for this in the classroom that are untouched due to bad media about it. MySpace is not all that bad and only becomes bad when you don't know how to use it properly or know it's true intention.

Thing # 17

del.icio.us is an easy tool to set up and to use. I learned about it and played with it during my staff development on social bookmarking. I definitely use this now and enjoy having my favorite websites available to me anywhere. It helps me to remember sites I have visited and want to return to. I can definitely see teachers and students using this tool for research and in the computer lab or on the laptops. I said before, that it helps out a lot when you have a room full of second graders who all need help getting to a certain website for a lesson. It increases productivity time and reduces headaches, lol. Libraries can obviously use this took keep all appropriate websites handy for the students to use in one place. This has redefined bookmarking as we know it!

Thing # 16

I already use MyMy Yahoo!, MySpace, and facebook currently. Many of this is already similar to what I use on a daily basis at home. I am able to add widgets, personalize my layouts, upload pictures and create photo albums, create images and post to my sites, add applications to play with, etc. It's all about generating the html format and copying and pasting it to your site. Some of my favorite sites to use when editing my pages are Pyzam, Yahoo!widgets, and playlist. Lilypie is other good for those with children and Glitter Graphics is fun to play with. I discovered the google calendar in thing # 12 and really enjoyed using it. I think it will be useful as well at school and can be shared with my team members as well as the other staff. This would be a great tool for our principal to use and share with us. I know she often has to check with us about staff development dates, etc. I know that most of us at my school have been using the traditional Credit Union calendar that we get every year. I think this year I may change that and try something new! I know that I forget things written down in that calendar if I do not look at it periodically and have it handy. Pop up reminders will come in handy and help me out. =) I think the to do lists are a lot of work just like the Palm Pilot which has faded away over the years. The Palm has now evolved into a feature of many cell phones, etc. I would rather write it down or make a document on word and print it out. I think the best tool that I have discovered is the use of the online calendar to keep me organized. I have many uses for it. As for homepages, I already use several and they are great!

Thing # 15

I really love the "...in Plain English" videos to explain "things". They let you know how easy it can be and how anyone can use them. They are funny too! I played around in the MISD Sandbox and found some interesting ideas to use. I added my ideas on using Zoho and Glypho to the Web 2.0 Collaborative tools part. This is a great way to share ideas with teachers across the district. I think that it is way better than email and more convenient. I think teachers will soon see the benefits of a wiki. It is a funny name that I never knew the meaning of until now. I only thought it was short for Wikipedia and now I know the true meaning is "fast" from Hawaii. Who knew what a wiki really was? It was an online encyclopedia at your fingertips for me. It means so much more now and I can't wait to set up one and use it in the classroom.

Thing # 14

First I went to bubbl.us and played with it. The site calls them "mind maps", which reminds me a lot of the thinking maps we use today. They are definitely good for using in writing. This site could organize ideas and help students process their thoughts during the prewriting step. It would be something different than the traditional bubble map. I also went to Flowchart. These maps ar also similar to ones we use in Social Studies and Reading. They help make difficult concepts easier to grasp for students. We are now in the day and age of learning visually and kinesthetically. This site can help students see relationships or present outcomes in a way that makes sense to them. Both sites seemed to be useful and practical for school. I could use both in several subjects for various lessons. Kids are so technologically savvy that these types of things make it more fun for them to do traditional assignments. They can "play" on the computer instead and still be learning. I think it is a great thing and awesome that MISD has offered this course for teachers. I think ALL teachers should be required to take "23 Things". I am excited about the new school year and plan on trying some of these things out. Traditional classrooms will never look the same!

Thing # 13

Wow! I like Zoho...it's so convenient and easy to use. I like how I can set up these "things" through my same email address and password in google. I may change my email and homepage to google, just for the convenience. I hate having to memorize many passwords for many sites! I have them on a spread sheet on my computer just to keep up with them, lol. I set up the account on Zoho Writer and began playing around to see what Zoho could do. I wondered if I could do everything I do on Word and Excel on this site. There were not as many fonts to choose from. I liked how you can share the documents and have discussions about them on the left hand corner. As I went along, I found that is was adequate and had more to offer. I also discovered Glypho along the way. It seemed like a fun way to write stories in the classroom. I could start one of these for the class and have all the students contribute to the story. It even has a feature that allows users to review and vote on contributions to the story. I think it would be a wonderful tool for the classroom. I might try this next year with either the laptops or in the computer lab. It could even be a writing center on the classroom computers.

Thing # 12

I love it! I use Google for everything and I knew that it had options, but never knew so many. This gave me the opportunity to play around and actually learn how to use the options available to me. I can do EVERYTHING on the web. Goodbye to pencil and paper, lol! I first started with the Google Alert,. That was interesting because I found so many topics I enjoyed and wanted to be alerted about. I found it to be similar to RSS feeds. It seems that so many "things" are related in the Web 2.0 world. I then realized I was about to crowd my email inbox and had to stop at just a few alerts. I could be updated just about anything I wanted to know.I also tried out
google calendar and just loved it! I spent over an hour on this one. It was the desk calaendar I had on my desk, only on the computer. I spent my time adding all my events, appointments, work schedules, etc. for the next few months to the calendar. I love to be organized and have everything written down, so this was my favorite part of this "thing". The only thing that bothers me about all this Web 2.0 stuff is that you share with the whole world to see. That isn't always the best thing with Identity Theft, stalkers, hackers, and pedifiles in this world. I think I will play with it a little more and see if this will work as a school calendar for parents at home. I could update it and write in things going on in the classroom for parents to see. iGoogle seemed a lot like My Yahoo! which I already use. These types of sites are useful and are looked at daily. You can make them your homepage and visit them often. They can be personalized like many Web 2.0 websites with widgets, feeds, weather, whatever you like!

Thing # 11

I continued to explore RSS with my Google reader. I found some great sites to subscribe to and found myself lost in all there was available. I stayed away from the prepackaged bundles so that my feeds could be customized to what I enjoy. I was able to locate many blogs, facebook, and MySpace of friends and family. I remembered some sites from my other class on del.icio.us. I typed in websites that I new on the search feature as well as typed in topics that came to mind to find feeds available. I also filtered out some by looking at the number of subscribers to the left of the suggested feed. I peeked into several other blogs to see what other classmates had found. As I said before, I never really got into blogging. I find that it is so interesting to hear what other people have to say and know what is going on with other people also. I added several blogs to my reader and many more sites I found interesting. I am at about 20 feeds right now, I think I might go over that soon!

Thing # 10

RSS feeds and newsreaders are great! It saves you time from searching for all your favorite websites and boomarking them on your computer. They are all right there for you at easy access and you can log on from any computer and view your favorite sites. I think it would be great to use with students so that they could have many educational sites at their fingertips approved by the teacher. This will be a great tool to use with social studies and science. Our students could learn more about the upcoming election and the World Olympics through RSS feed. They could also discover wierd and interesting facts about science and social studies. Students could use National Geographic to learn more about cultures around the world. It would be like using a magazine, only online and often updated. In upper grades, the students can keep up with what's going on around the world and what is happening with the war in Iraq. I think it is wonderful for research and projects. I remember the days of the encyclopedias and card catalog when I was growing up. As for my personal use, I definitely use this tool to keep up with what is going on in the world. I love music and like to know the latest about artists and new music of all genres also. I enjoy celebrity gossip for some odd reason. This is free and doesn't require me to purchase a magazine at the grocery store that I don't need. :) I guess it just amazes me how much nonsense those people get themselves into, lol! Technology has changed so much of what we do today!

Thing # 9

This was a lot of fun also! I really liked the cartoon of Mike. I remembered him from Monsters, Inc. This was a fun cartoon I watched with my daughter when she was younger. He was a great character and the picture says, "More Coffee!" to me, lol. I love the huge eye. I think this idea would be a lot of fun for students to play with. Kids love cartoons and they would have a great time learning about history or any other concept by creating a cartoon to tell the story in their own words. I think I might test this out next year in social studies to make it more interesting for them. It would be also a great idea to have students retell stories in class for other classmates. I did something similar to this on manila paper, but this would definitely make it more updated and motivating! I am sure I could find other fun ways to use this idea in the classroom in the future. I am very excited about incorporating this new technology in my classroom next year! ;)

I did not like Custom Sign generator because it kept locking up my computer and going into error. Every time I tried to upload an image and create a sign it would go into error and I don't think I trust this site. I ran a "sweep" and scanned for viruses just to be on the safe side. I think I will stick to Photoshop. However, I was able to use the Comic Strip Generator, even though I found it to be suspicious also. I had difficulty with it also and just decided to do a basic cartoon search. There I was able to find Mike, from the movie Monsters, Inc. and add a caption to it. I then copied and pasted the html information to my blog. I then tried Image Chef and had more luck with that site. It reminded me of Photobucket and seemed easier to use and more trustworthy. I was able to upload a photo and the simply add text and then poof it was done. I copied the html information and pasted it on my blog.This site was quite easy to use and actually enjoyed this one. ;)

Thing # 8

Lighting firecrackers ;)

I loved this! I had no idea you could this with your pictures. It was similar to Rock YOu! and Photobucket. I really liked the puzzle feature and the mosaic option. I think this would be a useful way to be creative with my pictures when updating them for my family and friends. It ca also be used in the classroom to gather pictures needed for class and present them in a fun way.

My creation
Originally uploaded by chica_wf

Thing # 7

The American Soldier
Originally uploaded by jkmarsh

The American Soldier

I chose this picture because it stands out for me. I was married to a soldier and have several friends and family in the military. If we all only knew what they go through and sacrifice. They are the bravest people I know. When is it going to end?
I found so many neat pictures about history, education, geography and children. I also looked at new pictures from some of my family and friends while I was on this site. I realized that I needed to update my pictures and played with the groups and tagging also.

Thing # 6

This was a fun thing! I didn't know where to start. It took me a long time to complete this thing because I spent so much time checking out the many sites and "playing". First I did a quick survey of each of the categories and then started clicking around at the ones I was interested in. There were so many! I was already familiar with several so I looked at others that were new to me. I knew FURL, StumbleUpon, craigslist, careerbuilder.com, monster, Google local, CitySearch, Yahoo! local, Google maps, Yahoo! maps, flickr, Yahoo! answers, facebook, MySpace, del.icio.us, iGoogle, My Yahoo!, and You Tube. I chose to explore the educational sites first and found them very interesting and useful. I really enjoyed using mango and SpanishPod. My daughter heard me listening to these sights and decided to join in. I was great to see her interested in learning Spanish through the internet. It caught her attention and motivated her to continue which made me happy. I also checked out urbanspoon because I love eating out and trying new restaurants. This was so awesome for me that I had to bookmark it to my favorites!Myheritage was a good one also. I found myself involving my family in this site. It's a great way to learn about my family tree. There was just so much for me to get into!

Thing # 5

Wow! I know a lot about the Internet and how to use it, but I never knew how clueless I was until I took this course. The term "Web 2.0" is completely new to me. I didn't know there was a name for all this, lol. I really had no idea that this technology would be available to us and that we could use it in the classroom with our students. School 2.0 gives a whole new meaning to the classroom as we know it. I know from personal experience and taking college courses in the past, that many things are now done online. I am just now realizing that it is now entering the educational experience we give our students. Technology and the Internet have revolutionized the world as we know it. Students are more technologically savvy and are hard to motivate with traditional teaching methods. We as teachers need to be updated and become better trained to stay ahead of our students. I can only imagine what the classroom will be like in years to come!

Thing # 4

This is the first time I have touched blogging. I always knew it was the latest thing to do on the internet. I figured it wouldn't be hard or bad, just never attempted or tried it. I have played with other Web 2.0 sites in the past though. I am quite familiiar with Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, Google, Mapquest, and Wikipedia. Recently, I have become familiar with Del.icio.us through another online course this summer. It is a tool I think I will also use in the future. As I have started blogging, I have found out that I wanted to know if someone was reading my blogs and if so, what did that person think? I think commenting is an important part of this because it lets you know that someone is actually reading.
1. teachergirl's thoughts - I work with R. Brown. I was agreeing with her that there are many horrible people in this world shouldn't have access to pictures of your children.
2. Vision Teacher - I remembered working with K. Clay this past year with one of my students. I agreed that del.icio.us is a great tool to use. I suggested to her that she take the informative MISD staff development I took on social bookmarking.
3. Wendy's Wanderings - I worked next door to W. Bowman this summer while teaching summer school. I commented that I never knew that there were so many other social networking sites to use. I agreed that I would stick to MySpace and Facebook as well.
4. Cricket's Corner - T. Cox was the instructor for my del.icio.us course. I really enjoyed that staff development also. I agreed with her that Animoto took way too much time to develop. I moved on to other posts while waiting for it to finish.
5. Tara Johnson's Third Graders at Rugal Elementary - I commented that the Disney video on Creative Commons was definitely one to remember. I stated that it could possibly be used to teach students about copyright laws also.
6. Ms. Brownie's Blog - I made a comment about how I like her video made by PhotoStory 3. I will check it out and try to see if it will work for me on some lessons this year. I also agreed with her that Animoto was difficult to work with.
7. Kimberly's Corner - I told Kimberly that I enjoyed her music playlist that she added to her blog. I have one of those on my MySpace account. I also agreed with her that we as teachers need to have our students doing more with computers today.