Thing 21: Animoto

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.

Thing 19: Beyond Facebook: Other Social Networks

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?

Thing 20: You, Too, Can YouTube

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: Explore Social Networking

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? 

Thing 17: Tagging and social bookmarking with Delicious

So Thing 17 is simple enough. I need to create a Delicious account first, and let me tell you...

AHHHHH! Somehow I managed to jack up the Captcha like 5 times. FIVE TIMES! I swear I was typing it correctly but it wouldn't accept it so I had to click to give me a new one...but ok. Now that that's over...

Ok next thing that Thing 17 tells me is "Type in the tag "educational technology" in the search box. Explore the results and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users."

This one doesn't involve a Captcha so I think I'm alright :)  Box of Tricks caught my attention. This page is constantly updated and has a HUGE list of awesome websites! Holy cow! Seriously, click it. DO IT! I'll wait....

This particular site had 7 tags associated with it on Delicious. I can see this site being useful in the classroom since you can search for anything and find some awesome sites to use with your students. For example, I did a search for "teaching addition" and got a TON of results that could be useful later on down the road, or even for when I work with my little Natalya. In addition to finding them, you can bookmark them on your account. This is absolutely great, since I'm sure we've all had an experience where we had something bookmarked on our home computer then wanted to access it elsewhere...well now you have to try and remember the URL or do a search for it...it's a pain! This would be an excellent tool for teachers since they can bookmark educational sites and access them no matter where they happen to be.

Question of the Day: Why do you think I've been using the "strike-thru" effect whenever I type my things?

Thing 16: Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools

So Thing 16 is all about getting organized! This is great because my mind is always in a million different places and I sometimes have a hard time keeping things straight. My first task is to set up a personalized start page, but I'm going to skip that for now and check out one of the other tools on the list. I'm looking at Remember The Milk! Not only is it free (my favorite price), but you can access it online, and they also have an app for Android....there is also one for the iPhone, but who cares? Haha...just kidding! Anywho. you can use this to make lists, which is essential for folks like me who walk into the grocery store with a short list memorized, then forget everything as soon as you touch the shopping cart! 

Alright so back to the first thing. Being the avid Google fan that I am, I decided to check out iGoogle. It's super user friendly and customizable! As soon as I'm back on my own computer I'm going to make this my homepage for sure. Having my things to do in list form as well as having more than one calendar to refer to is extremely useful in my personal life, and will only become more so once I'm a teacher.

Question of the Day: What do you think about these tools?

Thing 15: What in the World is a Wiki?

Alrighty so Thing 15 is talking about Wikis. Now this is a term I've heard before, and have a basic idea of what it is, but here is the definition per my 23 Things page: A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content.

So Thing 15 asks that I read into a few Wikis they have listed, then go to the APSU 23 Things Sandbox Wiki and either edit a post or create a new one. This raises a new question: what in the world is a sandbox wiki? Luckily the definition is right there on the page! Sandbox is a term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play and exploration.

I guess I'll start at the beginning and check out some of these Wikis. First I clicked on the Teacher Librarian Wiki. As the name suggests, this one is for librarians. I'm not particularly interested, if I may be honest, but there is something about this one that I like. The creator/moderator of this Wiki does not simply allow anyone to just edit anything they want; they have to email her their suggestion. This is definitely a good tactic to use when dealing with educational techniques you don't want things popping up that are...well less than education-related. 

The other one I decided to explore was Book Lovers Wiki. This one is cool for people who love books (duh). The reviews are organized by literary genre, making it super easy to see if they've reviewed a book that you're considering reading. My thing is, even though I appreciate reviews of books, movies, etc.., not everyone is going to have the same weird opinions as I do. A book they may give 2 stars to I might give 5. I guess I try to take reviews with a grain of salt. 

On to the fun part! I am supposed to either create a new, or edit an existing, entry on APSU 23 Things Sandbox Wiki. Yay....well here goes nothing! I just threw in my opinion about the first entry about Google Drive. I ♥LOVE♥ it! 

Question of the Day: Have you ever edited or created a Wiki?