Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed the class. I was able to explore some new things that I don't think I would have tried otherwise. Some of my favorite things were finding sites like Flickr and Creative Commons that have materials that my students can access and use in class. This has effected my lifelong learning by motivating me to check out some of these sites more and learn better ways to use new technology in my classroom. I was surprised that I hadn't heard or used a few of these sites. I am fairly up to date with technology but some of these things were new to me and I'm glad I got the chance to experience them. I don't think there's a lot I would change about this class. There were a few too many things relating to libraries though. I know that's where this was based from but we don't use the library in my classes and therefor it's not as important for me to explore. I would definitely take another class like this if it was offered. I loved that it was online and self paced. I will definetly use some of the sites and things I learned in my classes next years. There were some good reasources and I'm thankful I got to explore them.

Thing #23

The creative commons website will be a valuable tool in my classroom. My kids are always online trying to find pictures, music, etc. to use in projects and assignments so this would be a great site for them to use so they can make sure they are using something that they won't get in trouble for using. I noticed this at the bottom of this "Thing" -
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I hadn't noticed this before but now that you asked us to find something, there it is! It's great to be able to take something and modify it without having to worry about infringing on copyright laws. This is something my classes have always struggled with in the past.

Thing #22

I don't see Nings competing with Facebook or MySpace at all. To me, it seems completely different. The Ning sites I saw looked more like normal websites with the option to become a member. It reminded me of some of the blog sites I had visited before. I like the idea that you can join groups that share your same interests but I don't see the kids enjoying this like they would Facebook or MySpace. It definitely could be a useful tool to gather more information about something or to discuss a topic with others. But again, this could be accomplished through a blog or wiki so to me it's not reallu anything too special. I had actually never even heard of a Ning until this assignment so obviously they have not caught on like other Web 2.0 options out there. I probably wouldn't use this in my classroom.

Thing #21

Podcasts are another really neat option found online. They are a great way to have a "guest speaker" in you room that you would normally not have access to. In the past, I've made a podcast during a mac training session and it was fairly easy to do. I have used iTunes to find podcasts before. Today I also looked at the Educational Podcast Network and was able to find a few podcasts that might be nice to use in my classroom. I found several in particular about career education that I could use for my co-op classes. I will definitely check back to some of these sites when I'm preparing for lessons this year.

Thing #20

Having access to YouTube and TeacherTube is very valuable. I have been able to find many videos to show in my classes. For example, last year when the iPad came out, we wanted the apple launch presentation that Steve Jobs did over it and then had the students write out their opinions about it. It was a great way to see new technology. Searching on YouTube and TeacherTube today, I was able to find numerous videos that would be good to show in my class. I found this the Do You Know video that would be great to show in class:
Using video is the classroom is a great way to get the students engaged in learning and to help make a point.

Thing #19

I created an account and added a few book. Here's the link to my catalog. I added the Twilight books and obviously they were very popular. All but one had over 20000 people. I also added a book I just read about babies. This was much less popular with just over 300 people. I checked out the discussion about this book and found it interesting. The readers either loved the book or hated it. I guess it just depends on if you like that style of parenting or not. This site would be great for an english or reading class. Students could read reviews before picking a book to read.

Thing #18

Wiki's can be very useful in the classroom. I liked the idea of a top 10 list. I might be able to come up with a version of this to use in my computer classes. I might also be able to us a Wiki in my co-op classes. I could have the students post information about their jobs and the skills they have learned. Wikis are easy to use and most students have had some experience with them so they shouldn't have too much of a problem using them.

Thing #17

In some ways I agree with the articles and in some ways I don't. I don't know about the population in general but I know that I personally still like to read traditional books and don't have any problems focusing doing so. Now this is reading for pleasure. When it comes to doing research, I totally agree with the articles. I don't want to read big books or long articles to find the information I need. I know I can search for something and find what I need quickly. There's no need to look forever to try to find stuff anymore. I know this is the "traditional" way to research but it has become outdated for the most part. Our brains can skim over articles until it comes to something that we need. There's no reason to read the whole thing. I know I'm guilty of doing just that. I'm told to read something and if I'm not especially interested in the topic, I will just skim it and get the general idea. I think the way people read is changing and we have to change the way we teach to match.

Thing #16

First, I made a start page at igoogle. It only took a couple of seconds to create and then I could rearrange and make changes as I wanted. It was pretty neat but I'm not sure if I'd use it as a regular homepage. I currently use yahoo as a homepage and I prefer that over google.

Second I made a yahoo calendar. It was easy to make and didn't take too long. I like that I can access this calendar from anywhere I have internet access. This is a big plus but I still like using a regular calendar to write things in on as well.

Next I made a to do list on Remember the Milk. I like that there is an app for my iphone that I could use if I wanted. That way I can add something anytime anywhere from my phone. I like this feature and will most likely add it to my phone.

Finally I checked out Zamzar. I could definitely use this site in my classes. It allows you to convert file types. I can't tell you how many times a student wanted to use something but it wasn't the correct file type so they couldn't. This would give an easy way to fix this problem. Love it!

Thing #15

I looked at Gliffy first for a flowchart. It's kind of nice to have a template to start off with if you want. It gives you something to work with and you can add to and modify it to work for your needs.

I looked at bubbl.us for a mind map. I feel like this was easy to use and gave you lots of options. Starting with nothing could be a little daunting though. I feel like students would do better with something is they have a template to start with. Sometimes this helps them see what they need to be doing.

Neither of these would be extremely helpful in my classroom but I could see them being useful in an english class or something like that. We do write a paper in my class so maybe we could use one then.

Thing #14

The first thing I looked at was Google Alerts. I like that you can choose how ofter you want to get emailed and how much info you want to receive. I see this being very helpful in a history classroom maybe. You could use this to get up to the minute current events to discuss in class. I could also use it in my classroom to get technology updates. We could use it as a bell ringer at the beginning of class.

The second thing I looked at was Picasa. This website is very similar to Flickr. I created an album in Picasa of Landry's newborn pictures. I could see using this in my class. My students could save their pictures for their assignments into albums there and have better access to them. Here's a link to my album:

Landry

Thing #13

The concept of tags is a cool thing. You can add anything you feel may describe that topic and this allows you and other people to be able to find it again. I'm not sure if this would really be the best research tool though. The things that come up when you search for a specific tag may not really be related to what you want. I think it would be more beneficial for personal use or finding general information. You can bookmark things more easily using Del.icio.us which is pretty neat. Social bookmarking sites could be used in a classroom to find general information about a topic.

Thing #12

Rollyo is a pretty neat website. I like that you create the list of websites and you can only search those sites for the information you want. This helps narrow down all the results you would normally get using a traditional search engine. Often times when using a traditional search engine, you get some results that are really not related to what you are wanting to find. Students could use this site to help them research certain topics. The sites they add will be ones they know are reliable and helpful. This would save them time since they don't have to check numerous sites that may or may not be what they are looking for. I created a searchroll for Photoshop topics. Here's a searchbox:

Select Search Engine...PhotoshopSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Thing #11

I posted on the following blogs:
Bobo's Blog- I like the graphic she found for Thing 10 and wanted some more info about it.
Mr. T's World- I comment about his Thing 6 and the problems with some of the mashup sites.
Margaret's Thoughts on Things- I agreed about Thing 7 and the students just assuming info on a website is accurate.
RHHSTechPlayChandler- I liked his Thing 8 comment about using the reader to monitor when students post to a blog.
Jane's Techie Efforts- I posted on her Thing 4 and encouraged her to keep trying and offered help.
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/- This is a blog I have been following for a while just for enjoyment. She hasn't posted much lately but her older posts are priceless.
www.bpa.org- I added a comment about my opinion on a competition for next year.

Commenting on blogs is important because it builds community. Your comments could help someone else out with something or just encourage someone. This builds the amount of information there is out there about the topic you are commenting on.

I like the point about adding a hyperlink from your comment to your blog. This is a great way to get more followers if this is something you are interested in. I also like the point about not being too negative or hard on someone when they post something personal. You shouldn't be judgemental. You chose to read their blog and if you don't like it, don't read it.

Thing # 10

This "Thing" gave me some problems. Many of the sites were blocked or some wanted money to download the images. I did find a few that worked for me though.

First I made a Smiley Face at http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/

Then I made a glittery name at http://www.glitterizer.com/

I made a few more things as well. All of them were very easy to make. You just add your own text or picture to the provided image and then save the picture to your computer. I wish more of the sites would provide the HTML code for the images though. That would be helpful if my students wanted to add images to their websites we create in class. It would also allow the movement that some of the images had.

Thing #9

I tried several of the different search sites to find blogs. Feedster was not working at all. Google Blog Search was pretty good. It gave me a large list of blogs related to my search and was easy to use. For some reason a couple of sites wouldn't let me subscribe to their feed though. I also am doing this "Thing" from school and have run into several things that got blocked by the school. I know when I tried to go to my blog the first time, I had to authenticate so it would let me go to the site. Students wouldn't be able to do that so it would be a problem for them to view any blog.

I also used Technorati to search for blogs. I didn't like this as much. The list of blogs I would get would be very short (like 1-3 listings) and not as relevant. I probably wouldn't use this one again. Syndic8.com was alright. Not as user friendly as Google Blog Search though. It was a little hard to figure out what you were looking at when your search list appeared. There were things listed that said they were "awaiting repair" and such.

From all these sites, I was able to find some blogs with tutorials that I might be able to use in my classroom. I like using these searches because you can't really type a topic into regular google and get blog results most of the time.

Thing #8

Today was the first time I really used RSS feeds. I knew what they were but never messed with them. I decided to use google reader. I like that it tells you when new posts have been made to a blog. It allows you to see everything on one screen and not go from website to website to see if anything new is posted. I subscribed to several blogs that I think could be helpful in my classroom. There were all kind of blogs with tutorials and help for many of the different software we use. If students have a problem with something, they could check the blogs and see if they can find a solution or even post their question on a blog and hopefully be able to get the answer. Personally, I like the RSS reader because I keep up with several people's blogs. I usually just go to each website to see if there is anything new which takes a lot of time loading the pages. If I use an RSS reader, I can see right away if there's anything new and cut out a lot of wasted time. Overall, I like this technology!

Thing #7

Of the website listed, I chose ColorBlender. Overall, it's a pretty basic website. Not a lot going on but it allows you to mix your own colors and then export them in different formats. I like this because we use both Photoshop and Illustrator in my class and there is an option to export to both of them. When you are creating a color, it has a pallette of that color family so it's easy to pick colors that go well together. Might be a cool idea for picking paint/remodeling colors. I should suggest it to Julie Durst for her interior design classes. There's not really anything I don't like about it. It's simple to use and easy to export. I should be able to use this in my classroom.

Thing #6

I went a played with all the sites list and looked up a few more on my own. The one I like the most for me classes was the Flickr Color Pickr. It's very cool how it find pictures in a specific color for you. It gave me an idea for a lesson using same color pictures collaged together to create a different bigger picture. Could be a really neat project. I will definitely be putting some more thought into that one. The other sites listed wouldn't really be very helpful in my classroom but I personally liked the Mosaic Maker. It's a easy way to put pictures together. Too easy for my classroom projects but perfect for me! A lot of the programs on the Big Huge Labs site create things that my students already make in my class. I could have my students go ahead and make then on their own in class and then have them go on there and see how else they could make it as well.

Thing #5

This was one of the first times I've used Flickr. Our cheer squad uses Shutterfly and Flickr appears to be similar to it in many ways. I love that it has copyright free photos. This will be very helpful for my classes if my students can get to these photos. When edit tons of photos in my BIMM (soon to be DIM) class and it's not always easy to find a photo the students like that you know doesn't have copyrights attached. As long as the school doesn't block Flickr, I can see us using the Creative Commons on an almost daily basis. The fact that you can tag photos so it makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for is very nice. The group feature is similar to what we use in Shutterfly for Cheer. We have a group set up so only members can see and access the pictures. Does anyone know if this is blocked for the students?

Here's a picture I downloaded.
I decided to use a picture of a pool because that's where I wish I was right now!

Thing #3

Creating a blog was really easy! I've never done it before but it took all of two minutes to set up and get going. I follow several people's blogs and have been thinking about setting one up to keep friends and family up to date on Landry and this has process has shown me how easy it is to blog. I may be making another one here soon :). Creating the Avatar was fun as well. There are a ton of options so I can really customize her how I want and the process was very easy as well.

Before today, I have had some experience with blogs, just not one of my own. As I mentioned before, I follow several of my friends and family's blogs and have often commented on their posts. I have also asked and answered questions on a few other blogs out there. This is the first time I have seen this side of blogging though and I think I like it!

Thing #2

Of the 7 1/2 habits for lifelong learning, I think the easiest one for me would be using technology to my advantage. This is something I do all the time already. If I want to know something or even if I'm thinking about learning something, I usually turn to the internet to find out more information. Technology is my #1 source for learning so it's already a habit that I do regularly. The habit that may be the most difficult for me would be viewing problems as challenges. Sometimes when I run into problems, I let them sidetrack me or I give up on the learning because I don't want to deal with them. I need to work on letting these challenges motivate me instead of discourage me. Overall, I think I practice many of the habits listed to some extent without even realizing it. I've always loved learning new things and will always be a lifelong learner.