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.