One last thing

Well, I'm not gonna lie...this exercise wasn't my favorite.  Some of the 'things' were a bit dated and some lacked educational value in my opinion.  Also, I don't think that teachers have the time to mess around with image generators and mashups...their plates are quite full as it is.

HOWEVER...

If I should need these things, they are at my fingertips!  I can go back to APSU's 23 Things anytime I want to refresh my memory.  I really enjoyed learning about RSS feeds; I had seen the symbol before many times and didn't know what it was for...now I do!  I also liked creating a montage of pictures with Animoto and was pleased at the quality of it.  The flow chart and mindmapping sites were very cool, too and I can me using them for presentations, posters and instruction.  And I'm thankful to know about Teacher Pop!

There were things I was already very familiar with (like blogging in general, Google apps, Facebook and Flickr), but many things I was not.  The possibilities seem endless...

There were some broken links and websites that just weren't user-friendly or intuitive (like Delicious)...my thoughts on improving the 23 Things is to check the links frequently and consider the relevance to the classroom...compare these sites with what is actually going on in today's public schools.  I have worked in the school system since 2005 and rarely do I see technology being used to this extent... I don't think it's out of ignorance, but instead a lack of time.

Well, it's over!  I am breathing a sigh of relief as I procrastinated a little the second half of the semester. I do much better with periodic deadlines and descriptive feedback (formative assessment!!!) as I go... that's something I will strive to do with my future students.  Overall, I learned something - and that's never a bad thing.

Adios!!!

Thing #23 - Creative Commons

Copyright infringement is serious business and it never really occurred to me until I was teaching ESL in Egypt and I asked a teacher friend of mine if I could copy some pages from her Reading book.   She say no way because of copyright law.  Since I will be 'borrowing' many ideas and perhaps lesson plans in my teaching career, it is important I give credit where credit is due.

Thing #22 - Livebinders

Pretty neat concept I suppose; I think it's a good way to organize research and lesson plans. I could show the students various resources for a project. Also, the binders can be organized in such a way that students can easily access information they need at any time. It may also be useful for students to have their own Livebinder. My Livebinders are entitled:

-Special Education Law
-Math, Math, Math
-Random Teacher Websites

 Here's the link to the SPED law binder:

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=865502

Thing #21 - Animoto

Kitties!

OK, this was really fun...and quite simple. As you can see, I created a montage of my kittens, Jack and Diane. I know, corny...but I don't think sharing their photos on the Internet will offend them :)  I think this would be great for an end of the year party or something that maybe as a teacher I could create for my students to say good-bye.  I also think students can make things for their parents for Christmas or Mother's Day or something like that...even though it's only 30 seconds (for free).  Not sure how I feel about paying for this service; I think other things will be more important like perhaps supplies and a like a Brain Pop account or something like that.  Anyway, I enjoyed this 'thing' :)

Thing #20 - YouTube

I've been a fan of YouTube for a while; it's a fun place to watch silly videos and learn something, too.  I have given numerous presentations during this program and have used many YouTube videos.  This being said, I do have 2 issues with YouTube:

1.  Many schools have it blocked on their server, so it's not accessible to me or students at school
2.  The comments on some of the videos are vulgar (as are some videos) and I would not want a parent coming at me for sending their child to a website with lewd and lascivious behaviors being displayed.

I think SchoolTube may be more appropriate.

I chose these 3 videos... the first one is called Math Education:  An Inconvenient Truth.  I was interested to hear what this woman (a meteorologist - NOT a teacher) had to say about upper elementary math curricula.  I was equally as interested to hear a college math professor respond to her video.  The last video is about why cats purr... I found it fascinated and learned something new about my furry little felines :)

Thing #19 - More social networking

Visit TeacherPop


I like Teacher Pop... this is something I'd probably find useful.  I think it's a good forum for pre- and in-service teachers to utilize when wanting to share ideas or learn about something.  I uploaded a picture, but I think the photo has to be approved.  I also posted a comment in the forum and asked everyone's opinion on an assessment question... maybe I'll get a response...

I have been a member of IMDB for a while; I enjoy movies and learning little facts about them...I especially like the 'goofs' and will try to pick them out when I'm watching a movie.  I have read many of the user comments on the discussion forum, but I don't like to get involved in those conversations because they turn ugly pretty quickly.

I checked out Goodreads and really liked that site too.  Good 'Thing'!

Thing #18 - Social Networking

I have been on Facebook since 2007.  My settings are private, so not everyone can see my personal information.  I also have to give permission for tagging of pictures and posts of me.  I do not 'friend' people I work with, nor would I ever 'friend' my students.  I don't even 'friend' classmates here at APSU unless we've become actual friends and get together outside of school.  I am only friends with people I actually know in 'real life' and do not accept friend requests from friends of friends.

However, I would consider creating a new Facebook page for my class and invite students to comment and post about school.  I would have very strict rules about my page and there would be absolutely no cyberbullying or rude comments.  Of course, most districts have Facebook blocked on their system, so it's not something we could use during school hours...and if some students don't have computers or internet access at home, or their parents refuse to allow them to have a Facebook account, it's useless because they will be left out.

I am not a fan of Twitter.  Been there, done that, don't like it, nor do I see educational value in it.

Thing #17 - Delicious

Before joining Delicious, I perused the site; it's easy to use and has a similar background to Facebook...hmmmm.   Honestly, once again I find myself not impressed.  While I understand I would be able to access my bookmarks anywhere instead of just on my computer, I find it just as easy to just type whatever it is I'm looking for into a search engine like Google or Bing.  Many of the same websites will come back, and quite frankly, I don't care what other people say about sites; I will be the judge of whether or not they are useful TO ME.  I saw all the comments on the right side of the page, but again, just because some people find the sites useful doesn't mean I will.  I would rather explore something on my own than go by the comments of strangers.

Personally, I have no interest in sites like this or Pinterest, although I do see some value of using it in the classroom:  teachers and students can share information and it can be useful when writing a research paper.  It's also an easy way go back and quickly access the information one has gathered.  Will I use it in a Special Education math classroom?  Probably not.

Thing #16 - Organizing with Web Tools

I chose iGoogle since I use other Google products and find them to be really user friendly.  I doubt I'll make it my homepage since my Mac has all that information already available on the Dashboard.  However, it is a handy tool - it's like a one-stop for everything you need.  I added widgets for quotations, moon phases, movies, translation and currency converters.  Here is a screen shot of my iGoogle page:

I'm not a fan of creating online to-do lists; pretty sure I mentioned that in a previous blog.  I like to have a tangible list I can carry around with me and manually cross things off as I go.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment and I feel it takes WAY less time to write things on my list than it would be to input them into a device of some sort.

Thing #15 - Wikis

The first time I encountered a Wiki was about 5 years ago when I was working as a one-on-one instructional aide to a 9th grader with autism.  His English class was presented a lesson by the librarian on research, emphasizing MLA citation and the pitfalls of some websites when doing research.  I already knew about Wikipedia, but I had never seen a classroom Wiki before that.

I thought it was pretty interesting that students from all over could collaborate without actually having to be face-to-face.  I think this is a valuable tool.  Of course students must be aware that other students are editing these Wikis and not all information may be 100% reliable.  It is important that they cross-reference items to be sure they have the most up-to-date and useful information.

I may or may not use a Wiki...with all the other possibilities out there it may not be worth it.  Also, some schools require the teachers have a personal website, so why would I stress myself out running two?

The Sandbox thing was actually a bit annoying.  I did not find it user-friendly at all and spent too much time fumbling around on the site just to figure it out.  But I did figure it out and posted something about Thing #7 on the front page.  I think it may just be easier to create a Facebook page for my class.

Thing #14 - Go with the flow

I had some fun playing around with Gliffy, as you can see by the image above.  To me, it was quite user friendly and intuitive.  I can definitely see some uses in my classroom.  In math many times we have to take steps to work through a formula and a 'map' would be a good way to illustrate these steps.  These flow charts are useful for specific items that depict a sequence of activities.

I also enjoyed using Bubbl:

These types of mind maps are visual and can help my students structure their information and ideas.  I think this is useful for brainstorming ideas because they aren't as structured as a flow chart.

Thing #13 - Web-based applications

I found Zoho and Google Docs to be quite similar and both user-friendly.  I don't really prefer one over the other and since I have Microsoft Office on my computer, I doubt I would personally use them.

However, I have been in groups before that prefer to use the online web apps because it's easier than downloading the document from an email, editing it, saving it and then uploading it to an email to send out to your group members.

If everyone has access to it, than anyone in the group can go in and edit it easily.  I see the value in having our students use this when they are working on group projects because not everyone will have Microsoft Office at home; but if they have the internet, they can get to Zoho or Google Docs!

here is one of the documents I created in Zoho:

https://writer.zoho.com/public/bdbd51b85b9d8b8e07304f5e0dd452f3b1010d9fecb8b4ee1fba11c44bbf3cbc9ece6500d2ba5d8a