Summary!!

Wow! I am finally done. Nothing like finishing almost at the last minute. I really enjoyed this class and I have learned so much. I can't wait to share with some of my co-workers. I have already been telling them about some of the Things. I loved and will continue using Animoto, Flikr, deli.cio.us bookmarks, my RSS feeds, and my blog with my class. I want to learn more about podcasts and downloading music. Technology is a big part of education now and I feel like I am "in the know" of a lot. I would definitely take another class like this. I was suprised at how much time I spent on the computer during this discovery--I thought I would get something done and go on in 15-20 minutes. "Things" took me a long time because I really wanted to get to know what I was doing and learn. That is the beauty of summer--I could stay up late, late and work on this class. I subscribed to the Learning 2.1 blog. Thank you for offering this class.

Thing #23 Creative Commons

The Fair(ly) Use video was creative.  The video on the Creative Commons site was very informative.  It helped me understand the difference between what is copyrighted and what we can all use and give credit to.  I will go back to these sites for references.  From the beginning page of this class--"The Learning 2.0-23 Things program is based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers.  Helene's program was 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 43 Things."

Thing #22--Podcasts

I went to the Educational Podcasting Directory. I found a podcast for Social Studies on Colonial Times that I think will be interesting for my students to listen to.  This directory was easy to use.  The first time I have heard of podcasts was when I was looking up information on a Daytime soap opera and you could listen to a whole show.  I listened to some podcasts of students that was on the blog of another person from this class.  I think that my students would enjoy making podcasts for projects in my Social Studies and Reading classes.  I am going to look up in the Podcast directory for listings on Exercise.

Thing #21 Animoto

I love Animoto! It is easy to use. I made one with zoo pictures from the last few years. I had ideas for songs--like Wild Thing (you make my heart sing) or something along those lines. I do not have songs saved on my computer. I tried to find it, I ended up using one of the songs from the Animoto site. I will look into doing a better job with songs in the future. This would be an awesoome activity for students to put together for projects.

Animoto

Thing #20 You Tube

The first time that I visited You Tube was a few months ago.  I was looking for the  video "Charlie Bit Me."  I first saw it on the Ellen show.  It is cute and  cracks my daughter and me up.  It is amazing how many videos are on You Tube and what people put on there.  There are, of course,  a lot of inappropriate videos, but there are a lot that are educational.  Everywhere you look on websites there are videos used.  I like how someone in this course found the School House Rocks videos.

Charlie Bit Me

Thing #19

I joined 23 Thingsters and made a badge for my blog. I also uploaded a photo of my daughter and dog to it. I like the idea of making a network for different interests. I am going to look closer at some of these networks to see if there are any on interests that I have. I also joined Classroom 2.0. On there I found a group for Reading Teachers, so I joined that also.

Classroom 2.0 badge

Visit Classroom 2.0

Badge

View my page on 23 Thingsters

Thing #18 Social Networks

I have a My Space account. I set it up a long time ago so I could check on my teenage son's MySpace. I never really did anything with my page until today. I am excited about using it now! I added several friends--some that I teach with. I love being able to share pictures and keep in touch. I am in the process of trying to find old friends from high school and college. Now I need to make my page cute! Come be my friend. Being familiar with MySpace and Facebook gives us insight on the language of our students today. I hear them talking about these social networks all of the time. I really do not see how these can be used in the educational setting. They are not able to be accessed at school right now.

Thing #17 Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I set up a del.icio.us account for another staff development this summer.  It was interesting learning about social bookmarking and tagging.  I like the prospect of being able to share sites with others and being able to access my account from school.  Think of the possibilities of group research projects in class.  I looked at the 23 things account and saved some of the bookmarks to mine.

Thing #16 Get Organized with Web 2.0 tools

I really liked making a new home page.  I used iGoogle.  I chose a beach theme picture and added sports and entertainment sites.   This will be the home page for my mac and att.yahoo is the home page for my PC.

I like the Google Calendar that I made for one of the other "things."  I also set one up on Yahoo to see what it is like.  Google integtrated with the Remember the Milk to do list program.  I would recommend the Google Calendar to others.

I signed up for the My Stickies site to see what it is like.

I like the idea of keeping organized.  It is so hard for me to find time though to get on the computer a lot.  During the school year I am lucky if I have time to check e-mail and do lesson plans, gradebook, etc.  Having a calendar will be easy to do and not time consuming.

Thing #15 Wikis

It was interesting learning about Wikis.  I just thought that there was the Wikipedia and I did not know much about it.  I did not know that anyone can edit and add information.  I visited the Book Lovers wiki, the TeacherLibrarian wiki, and the MISD Library Policy and Procedures wiki.  Wikis could be used in group projects in the classroom, faculties could have one to add and edit, your own family could have one to add information to about family history, etc.

Thing #14 Go with the Flow

I signed up for Bubbl.us and flowchart.com.   I can see many ways that these could be used in the classroom.  Any topic in Social Studies could be put on a flowchart. Students could work together on a mind map.  These could be put to a lot of use with the election coming up. These could also be used for characters, plot, setting, etc.  for novels and stories in reading. I want to explre both ofthese programs more this summer.

Thing #13 Web Applications

I really liked the Zoho Writer. I did not know there was something like this. I am excited that I can type something up at home and open it up at school or vice versa without having to save on my flachdrive or e-mailing it to myself. This program was very easy to use.

Thing #12 Google Tools

I really liked the Google Calendar. I set mine up with everything I have going on in July. Wow, I am going to be very busy at the end of this month when drill team and softball start for my daughter. This will be helpful to send to my mom so she can see what our plans are for the month. A calendar for my classroom will also be helpful for students and parents to see events and due dates.
michelle's calendar
I also signed up for Google Alerts. I added notifications for the Texas Rangers and also Jenny the Elephant fromthe Dallas Zoo. Google Alert could be used in the classroom to alert me on topics that we are studying for Social Studies. Will it be hard to use at school since Google is blocked?

Thing # 11 Finding Good Feeds

Google Blog Search is easy to use. I put in the topic Shi Tzu (the kind of dog I have) and all kinds of blogs and sites came up. I alos looked up Mesquite ISD. Feedster would not open. I like Topix because like all kinds of news--local news, national news, celebrity, etc. Syndic was doing a data back up process. I will check it again later.

Thing #10 Learn about RSS Feeds

I signed up for Google Reader. I did not realize there was something like this. I am happy to have updates on things I look at all of the time iinstead of looking at each site. I signed up for several newspapers, celebrity gossip sites, my friends's blogs, educational sites, etc. This will be helpful in the classroom for up to date information on research topics.

My Star

Thing #9 Online Image Generators

These Online Image Generators sites were fun to work with. I made this picture on the Online Sign Generator site http://www.customsigngenerator.com/ On this site you can make graphics with your own pictures or with text. Students could use these for a creative touch to their projects. In Social Studies with the election coming up I see great possibilities for the students to work with these ideas. I liked the fake magazine covers, also.

I made the star above on Image Chef www.imagechef.com/

Thing #8 More fun with Flikr

I explored the Flikr Color picker which was neat.

My daughter wanted me to spell her name with the Spell with Flikr. She had a good time changing thimages over and over in her name
http://metaatem.net/words/Tabitha

I made a mosaic picture with the Mosaic Maker.
http://bighugelabs.com/photos/5d0e2db09c040551c7e46ac4fbedcbc6/mosaic6642357

All of these would be useful for projects in the classroom. My students could find pictures that go along with a topic in Social Studies to make a mosaic or to spell a word with pictures. Are these sites blocked by the school district?

I am not being successful at transferring the things I make to my blog.

Thing #7 Explore Flikr

I did not know that a site like this existed. You can find any kind of image imaginable. I put in the keyword beach-Mexico and thousands and thousands of photos came up. I chose this topic because that is where I wish I was. My husband and I went to Cancun 4 years ago and had a great time. I picked a photo of of the first few pages that reminded me of my memory of the beach.

This is the url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/debm01/2121823728/

This was a photo by Photo7070

I tried to upload the image but it would not work on my post. I tried several times. I will try again. When I do it just shows a little red x where the piture should be.

I went to the 23 thingers group and viewed pictures. I also put in the tag of Mesquite and viewed those pictures.

Thing #6 Explore a site from Web 2.0

I chose to go to the piknik site. http://www.piknik.com/
It sounded interesting. I have always wanted to do something with my saved pictures.

This is the description from the site:
Fix your photos in just one click
Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
Astoundingly fast, right in your browser
Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool
Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers

I picked one of my pictures to work with. I soften it up and it made the picture look alot better. I actually opened a my space account and put the picture on it. I am so proud of myself that I figured it out. I know I am a little behind the times but I finally have time this summer to take time to figure out some things.

I just figured out how to add a new picture to my blog page. Yeah!

Thing #5 School 2.0

Reading the articles about Web 2.o and School 2.0 really overwhelmed me with information about how computers and web based sites could be used in school and at home for students. There is so much to do on the computer. Just working with this PFK class has made me so aware of what is out there and what can be worked with. I have spent many hours exploring and I have barely done anything for this class. I do feel a bit more knowledgeable now about what I am doing and what I can use in my classsroom.

Thing #4 Commenting

I believe that leaving a comment to blog posts are important. It gives feedback to the author of the blog. It lets them know that there are people who are interested and that peopleare reading their posts. I agree with the author of the "10 Commandments of Commenting" that you should leave positive comments and not try to start something by disagreeing with the author. It talked about common sense etiquette.

I have commented on the following posts
from our 23 things community:
teachartis cool-I likes her idea about having a blog for Promethean board ideas and thoughts
mandy's mailbag--animoto

technocricket--podcasts

read and giggle-podcasts

kimberly's corner--animoto

From other blogs:

my friend that I teach with just set up a new blog--I commented that I will be able to keep up with her this summer by reading it

10 commandments of commenting--left a comment on what I agreed with

more comments to come

Thing #3

I would like to have a blog in the classroom to set up communication between myself and parents and between myself and my students. There were a lot of great ideas on how to use a blog in the classroom. One I especially liked was to post readings and students blog their reaction to the readings. The uses of blogs in the classroom are vast and I would like to set a goal of somehow using them in the classroom.

Thing #2

Setting up my blog site was successful. I already had an avatar made in my yahoo account. I kind of like it, so I kept the same one. I may go back and add few changes later. It took me awhile to export my avatar to my blog page, but I finally figured it out. I am excited about having a blog site of my own.

Thing #1

I have viewed the slideshow of 71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners. I am excited about learning new technological things this summer. As a teacher I am always on the lookout for new ideas to use with my students. I would like to add more technology to my classroom and I think by taking this course I will have new knowledge to do that. "Begining with an end in mind" is something I have trouble with. I sometimes start things, get distracted by something else, and never finish.