AHH! So it was called 23 Things, but alas, there is a Thing 24. Or Thing 23 1/2. However you want to do it...for this last one I am going to copy and paste the questions. If you'd like to see what I have to say about my experience feel free to read ahead! If not, and if you've not checked out some of my other entries, go back and take a peek at them. This has been a semester long project and although it's been fun, I'm ready to be done and focus back on my food blog!
1. Please give us some feedback by reflecting on your learning journey
in one more blog posting. Here are some questions to guide you:
- What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
-I must say that anything I was able to log in with Google was the best for me. Although it was fun playing around with new tools, I did not like having to sign up for so many things that I may not use again.
- How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?
-I do have greater aspirations to find everything that the web has to offer now. I imagine there are and will be many tools out there that will aid me on my path to becoming a great teacher.
- Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
-I thought I knew about everything Google had to offer, so I was quite surprised to see just how much there really is out there.
- What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
-Don't make us sign up for so many accounts!
- How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?
-I will definitely be relying more on technology than I previously might have.
- How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.
-Google searches! Good gracious I am a Google fan girl!
2. Where do you go from here?
Welp, I do plan to maintain my food blog and improve upon it since I have a few folks interested in it. I may also keep up with my Live Binders since they are pretty useful as well as the sites for creating flow charts. I can see myself needing those again.
AAAAAAAAAND done!
Creative Commons is somewhat of a "soft copyright". Click that link for a better explanation than what I can offer. But we all know that in this day and age, information is just out there for the taking. This doesn't necessarily mean that people who work hard to create something want for others just to take it, modify it or heaven forbid re-distribute it as their own. Hence Creative Commons!
Thing 23 asked me to find evidence that the Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original. I decided to start from the beginning. I clicked on Thing 1 and from the get go it links you to a tutorial that is credited to someone else. The 23 Things is basically a blog as well as a compilation of other people's work.
How will I use my knowledge of Creative Commons in the future as a teacher? Well the very simple answer is for lesson plans. I intend to come up with some pretty banging lesson plans and if fellow teachers want to use it, that is GREAT! Just don't steal my work and call it yours is all I ask.
Question of the Day: Do you think you would ever need to use Creative Commons for anything?
Ok so Thing 22 gives me yet another online resource available to help me keep myself organized: Live Binders. I have been assigned the task to sign up for this free source and create 3 education binders, one of which I will be sharing with you! First I should give a quick explanation of what Live Binders actually does. It gives you a place to keep related files together, such as Word docs, PDF's, websites, etc..
Right off the bat I'm a bit irritated. This website runs crazy slowly and I've had to hit "stop" and "reload" already...but ok let's power through this! I figure it's a good idea to make myself a binder with some of the Web 2.0 tools I've been introduced to through this project. I just added 3 to this one for demonstrative purposes. It's pretty user friendly and each to navigate once you've added content.
YAY so I successfully embedded the first binder. The second one I did I played around with making sub-tabs, a way of organizing things into more specific categories. I only did one tab on this one just for illustrative purposes, so here ya go:
For my last one, I decided to click the option under creating a new binder to fill it with a Google search. I typed "tips for teaching second grade" in the Google search field to see what kind of binder it would create for me! If you don't look at the others, GO LOOK AT THIS ONE! This is a crazy good example of what you can really do with this tool! SERIOUSLY! CLICK IT!
So on to the issue at hand...how would I use this in the classroom? Well I think that last example sums it up. As a teacher, I need to stay organized and on top of my game. By utilizing this organization tool, I can keep up with blogs, news, as well as keeping my own personal websites organized. I like it a lot!
Question of the Day: Did you actually look at any of my binders? :P
Thing 21 introduced me to a site called Animoto. It creates a video clip for you using photos you upload (you can link it to Flickr if you so desire) and allows you to add music. I'm going to see if I can create a neat little video of my girls (yeah, I'm THAT kind of parent. If you don't think my kids are as awesome and as cute as I do...well tough luck :P )
Oh! Wait! The site let me connect with Facebook and it's automatically choosing pictures for me to make a video! Let's see what happens....HAHAHAHA I ♥LOVE♥ how random this is...food, kids, snakes...hahaha oh man this is great :)
Click here to watch it!
Hopefully that link works right. If not I put the video on Facebook too. Thing 21 says that there is a code I can use to embed the video to Blogger but I didn't see it.
This is a really fun site. We've had to sign up for a lot of Web 2.0 tools along this journey, and I must say this one is going on my list of stuff I will use again in the future.
Question of the Day: What do you think of Animoto? Go click on it and check it out, you don't have to sign up for it, just take a tour.
Alright so Thing 19 is an introduction to other social networks! The first one it talks about is Gather, which described itself as the “leading social networking and media site for adults, with some of the highest quality user-generated content on the internet.” It says that this site is in a debate format, meaning I need to stay far FAR away! I tend to get really competitive....
The focus of this thing is Ning, which is a site you can use to create your own social network! That's pretty neat! Now getting more specific, I need to check out Austin Peay's own site created through Ning, TeacherPop. I need to sign up and do a few things, so I'll be right back! OR maybe not...so to sign up I have to get approval from an administrator. I'll go check my email and again..be right back!
Ok so approval took just over a day so let's finish this! I left a comment for a classmate on there and uploaded my photo, thus fulfilling the royal decree of the Thing 19....now for the three questions:
- Are you a member of any online communities?
Well I am a member of a forum called Clarksvegas as well as a website called the Consumerist.
- Are any of these social networks appealing to you?
This question is referring to the list of social networks they suggested to me. I have to say no, because I don't have time to join and keep up with a bunch of stuff. I really don't.
- What did you find that was interesting and that you might use later?
I do think TeacherPop is pretty neat. A site like that would be useful to me later on in my career I imagine.
Question of the Day: Do you belong to any social networking sites besides Facebook?
Yay YouTube! Thing 20 says to find a cool video on YouTube then talk about it! Talking is something I'm pretty good at... :) First things first! I need to go have some fun on YouTube!!!! Being the parent that I am, I did a search for "funny babies". I LOVE happy babies! So check out the top 10 baby videos!
Click this!
I really like YouTube because there is such a massive amount of awesome videos that you can view for free. I am a big fan of music videos (not just funny babies!) so YouTube is generally good for that, although I have been disappointed in the past when trying to view something that was removed due to copyright blah blah blah.
Thing 20 asks me if I see any features that might be interested if applied to our library website? Only thing I can think of is that YouTube is very user friendly while our library site..well..isn't. If we could search for things through the library website and see thumbnails previewing the information contained within, it would be a TON easier!
Question of the Day: Do you have a YouTube channel? If not, would you ever consider creating one?
Thing 18 is an introduction to Facebook and Twitter! It asks us to sign up for a Facebook if we don't already have one, but I've already got that part under control. So I'll skip straight to the questions I need to address:
1. Why is it important that educators know how social networking works?
In addition to using blogs to keep up with parents and students, teachers can reach out to fellow teachers to get ideas on lesson plans as well as ways to give students additional help if needed. In addition to the do's, teachers also need to know the don't's. For example: a young teacher may be tempted to post on their Facebook pictures from girls night out on Saturday for their friends. This is not the best idea, even if that profile is set to private, parents could potentially see those pictures.
2. What new insights did you gain about these popular sites?
I must say that I've had my Facebook account for a while now, so this activity didn't give me much more insight into it.
3.What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored?
Well I guess I can just talk about what I already like about Facebook. It is a great way to catch up with old friends and family, but at the same time you always have "that person" who adds you and you either don't know who they are, or you remember them as being someone in high school who didn't like you back then. What do you do? Do you add them and try and make friends? Do you ignore them and risk their feelings being hurt? It's a tricky situation but in general I think Facebook is a very useful application in both personal and professional settings.
4. Which site had the most useful features?
Ok I'll be honest, I don't understand Twitter. I don't. You say something that has to be under a certain character count and other people read it. Facebook is WAY more useful in every way possible.
5.Can you see a classroom or school application for any of these sites?
This is a tricky one to answer when it comes to Facebook. I can see maybe creating a group and inviting parents to join, which would be a handy way to keep them informed about what's going on in the classroom and in the school as a whole. But going back to my answer to number 1, if you're going to have a personal Facebook, you may or may not want to include your parents as a part of it.
Question of the Day: If you were a teacher, would you include Facebook or Twitter in your bag of tools?
