Thing # 23

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? teacher tube, nings, avatar

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? i know more about the technology out there, and can now use it.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? i wasnt sure if i would use anything that i learned here when i started, but this turned out to be the best proff dev class i have ever taken.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? maybe exaplain some of the more complicated things a little more.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? yes

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
whether you know nothing about technology or you think you are an expert, you will learn something new in 23 things.

Thing # 22

Nings, especially the teacher ning seem like a great personal resource. not only are there
teacher's blogs and lessons plans, but you can network with others. this can be useful because if you are having a problem with a student, or another teacher its another helpful resource to get you through your issues.

Thing # 21

http://www.switchpod.com//users/shauna/podcast.mp3

Podcasts are neat technology because you can record something anywhere and then bring it to the classroom. so if you are on a tour in a museum and you want your students to hear something it's possible. also i like how you can add pictures to the podcast so that you can cater to the visual and auditory learners.

Thing # 20

This video is really cool. a teacher created a song about Julius Caesar and the first triumvirate. i definetely would never create my own song, so it is nice to have things like Teacher Tube available. now i can find cool videos to show my students without me having to make them! or if i ever work up enough courage i could create one to share also.

Thing # 19

I looked at Backpack, which is an organization tool. It seems pretty neat. you can have your whole office using it, or just a few people. this would be a good tool for team meetings and lesson planning. It would also be good for students to use them while working on group projects. you can post notes, presentations, a calendar, messenging, a message board, reminders and keep track of what everyone is doing. its seems like a very useful and free tool!

Thing # 18

for this activity I looked at google docs. I think that it is a good idea to have one place for your documents and having everyone else go to that document, especially if you have to deal with multiple documents and people to deal with. i dont know that i would need to use it. and you still have to deal with the fact that you have to email everyone about where the document is.

Thing # 17

i really like being able to customize my own search engine. i created one for the presidential election, i typed in Obama and his homepage was the first thing that popped up, i was not expecting that. it is very useful and i like that it only draws from website that you want, so you know where the information is coming from and that it is accurate. i am not sure how to show the link to my website, ive tried several times and just the generic rollyo search engine keeps showing up not the one i created, here it is though. http://rollyo.com/index.html

Thing # 16

I am really excited about the students and the Wikkis lesson. i am going to have them create wikkis for everything! a new way to integrate technology into the classroom! i am glad that you guys posted those ideas for using wikkis on there, i never would have though of doing that, or that it was that easy.

Thing # 15

Wow that was a powerful video about education and student time. i graduated in 2005 and completely agreed with everything they said on there. i didnt buy any textbooks unless i had to, like in spanish or math where we worked out of the book everyday, or if there was a non fiction novel that we had to read. i pretty much always wanted to do research on the internet, it was such a pain to have to go to the library and go through the catalog figuring out what books i needed and if they had them, and then 1/2 of them are checked out. i understand why books are valuable, i love them, but as far as research goes they are outdated. i have worlds of knowledge right here at my fingertips, which maybe makes all of us a little lazy too. im glad i learned how to use the system, but unless i am going to the library i wont ever use it. libraries need to become more technology oriented while incorpoarting the books that they have, but i guess there are many icebergs along the way to doing that.

Thing # 14

Technorati and de.licio.us are very similar, i think that i like Technorati a little more. it seems like is it organized a little better, sort of like a newspaper. anyway all of these tools are great and its nice to be able to type in anything and have tons of articles, pictures, videos and comments are that subject right there in front of you. it beats googling every thing that you need and going through all the stuff yourself to determine if it is even the same subject that you are looking for. this cuts out a step of two when researching, which is a great time saver.

Thing #13

Del.icio.us is a great tool and very easy to use. you just type in whatever you want to look for and there are hundreds of great websites that other people found, or you can contribute too! i even found some great websites that i can use next year! depeneding on your needs though you may need to type in more specific tags that just "history". students and teachers will be able to pull up a knowledge of wealth just by typing in a few words, this is a great research tool for anyone.

Thing # 12

I think that two important things to remember about posting comments are that you need to be polite and you should actually say something of substance. No one wants to read comments that are full of wow your so right, and cool. And no one wants to read comments with a bunch of insults. People have to remember that just because you cant see the person, doesnt mean that they dont have feelings. no one would blog anymore if that was all that anyone ever said.
It was fun commenting on other peoples blogs. at first i was nervous and wasnt really sure what to say, but the more comments i made the easier it became. i chose to comment on an outside blog about global warming and another one about gas prices because these are extremely important issues today that i felt like i could say something worthy of being posted. i also chose them because i did not agree with them, so i got to put some of those commenting rules to use!

Thing # 11

LibraryThing is a great tool. it is very easy to use and i was able to find the books that i wanted to add easily. i liked how it showed different editions of the books so you could pick a different cover if you wanted to. Also, i really like how it gave a list of all the characters in the book and a good description. i will be able to use that aspect of this tool in choosing books for my students to read. i looked at some of the groups and they were helpful also, i can read what others are saying about the books and use that to help determine if it is what i am looking for. there were so many groups i found many of them that i was interested in. overall this is a great tool, especially for librarians and english teachers!

Thing # 10

This thing was fun! i went to the happy face generator link on the library2play website, you can make a comic, a sign or just type somthing out, which is what i did. you can scroll though different colors and effects to add to your writing. then for the maps i went to the big huge labs website and clicked on map maker. they also had lots of other links on the big huge labs site also. but on mao maker you can create maps in any color, for the whole world or just a certain region or where youve been, which is what i created, or you can make a where i want to map! I could use this in geography very easily. i can post the region that we are studying on the blog, or have the students show me where they haven been and where they want to go. these are fun things that you can use in any class or library that the student will not only learn about what you are teaching, but technology also.

Thing # 9

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?I really liked Google Blog Search, I actually found many other Library2Play particiapant's blogs. The information seemed closer to what i was looking for.

Which Search tool was the easiest for you?they were are fairly easy to use. I do like tpoix and technorati for finding new information. It was nice to be able to click on a topic rather than thinking of something myself.

Which was more confusing? None of them were really confusing, except the Suprglu link was not working when i tried clicking on it.

What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? I found many interesting health and entertainment links from the NY Times, MSNBC, CNN.

What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? I just typed in my usual sights and looked for the orange smybol to subscribe, it was very easy to add to google reader, even if you did have to copy and paste the address.

Thing # 8

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? I like that i dont have to type in each site, or go to my favorites each time i want to go to the site. i can just have it all at one place.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
The students can create readers for themselves and use them to look up information they need to reaserch projects. Plus it is useful to me, because i can look up the information that i want to see faster.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? They can have those sites that students can use put into the readers ahead of time, and it is organized so that students can find the information more easily. Plus librarians can create research oriented lessons using this technology so the students can learn about it now and be able to use in the future, since things are obviously moving in that direction.

Thing # 7

For this thing I looked at all the Google tools, they are all very useful! I never knew about all of these tools that were out there. I especially liked Google Earth, which I have heard of and used before. I will definetley be using this next year in my Geography class. Somewhere, though I am not sure where, there is a list on Long and Lats that you can type in and periodically look at specific placed around the world. I know there was one for Darfur, so you could see what was occuring a village over time through satellite imagery. I also really liked iGoogle. I put Wikkipedia, live weather, national geographic photos, the to do list, i think about every tool they had on the best list. plus i changed my screen so it showed 1/2 the Earth from space at night and 1/2 at day, really neat! i think i can use this for my class by having my students create their own personalized pages and i can supply some of the links that i think will be useful for the year. The Calendar is helpful too, not only for me, but i can make one to share with the students to know when tests and quizzes are.

Thing # 6

I like the Flickr color picker, but altough i am not a librarian i liked the trading card maker the best. It would be useful for history because the students could create a trading card for the various people throughout history. The students can include a picture of the person, have a title and then a description of what the person did; perfect for studying!!! then they can post their creations on the blog so everyone will know the important achievements of each person, or event!

Thing # 5

Flickr is really neat. I like how you can share pictures and choose how you share them, public, private or semi public. It is like a photo blog. Im not really sure that i can use it in the classroom for my students, but it is a website that they can use for projects and sharing information. i will have to keep playing with it to see its full capabillities and potential.

I chose this photo from the National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office because in world history we have started to try and get through the modern era. the cold war and the invention of the atomic bomb has completely changed the world we live in today. We now have to be much more careful about international relations and politics. i will definetly use Flickr in the future to find pictures for the blog pertaining to what we are studying at the time in class.

Thing # 4

I am not really sure what to write for this posting (i have sent my registration email) other than it was really easy to put everything together so far, and i cant believe that i didnt do this sooner! I am excited that SBISD is offering a technology class that is not completely boring and is actually useful for the classroom!

Thing # 3

Setting up a blog was much easier than i thought. I am fairly good at technology, but i didnt realize that setting up a blog was free and easy!!! I like the fact that i can constantly change what is on the blog, and will use it for my history class next year. The avatar is also pretty neat!

Thing # 1

I think the hardest habit for me is creating my own learning toolbox. I am never sure how to go about completing my goals. I have so many ideas and visions that fall through because im not sure what to do to make them happen.

Thing # 2

I think that the easiet habit for me is to begin with an end in mind. I always come up with ideas and goals, and know what i want to happen. Getting there is another story.