Thing #23 Your Thoughts

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I enjoyed learning about tagging, wikis, rollyo, Teacher tube and photostory. These are the "Things" that I think I will use most.

2.How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Well, I learned that the internet is very awesome, but not as overwhelming as I used to think it was. I have found ways to "harness" the internet beast and make it work for me!

3.Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I don't think I will be able to have my students blog on-line due to computer availability ( or should I say unavailability). However, I have had students do written "blogs" about pictures on a particular science topic, and we just went from there.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I can't think of anything. This has helped me so much since I used to be totally overwhelmed by the internet, now I see it as a very important tool.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
YES! It was great to sit here in my pajamas (as I was recovering from back surgery) and play with these web sites!

6. 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?
FANTABULOUS!!!

Thing #22 Ning

I looked at Ning for teachers and found it to be another source of information for a lot of different things including classroom management and lesson plans. However, you could go to blogs that teachers have written and read and comment on them. You can also set up your own web site. I could use this as a site where students go to at the end of a unit and write about what they have learned. However, I could only do this if I had computers in my room most of the time. So, for now, I'll probably stick to face to face commemtaries from students as well as regular assessments to see what they learn in each unit.

Thing #21 Podcasts and Videocasts

I chose my 2 babies as subjects. My babies are 2 retired racing greyhounds. They have been VERY patient with me as I have spent many evenings on this computer doing these 23 things!
I have tried 2 different ways to put my photostory into this blog and so far no luck. It is late so will try again tomorrow.

Well, another day and the thing worked this time. Here are my babies!

Thing #20 You Tube and Teacher Tube

Thanks to our great librarian, Cheryl, I used You Tube videos last year by using the Zamzar conversion program. I used several short videos as "teasers" at the beginning of a lesson. Below is one example of a You Tube video I would use in my class.



This is the first time I have used Teacher Tube and will probably use it as much as possible from now on. Below is a video that I will show my class this year.


I will use these two sites as additions to my lessons as well as introductions.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards List

Most of the ones I looked at were NOT free, but seemed to have a lot of helpful ways to deal with information. These include Wufoo and PB Works. Several of the items on the list were items we have already looked at during the 23 things. I also looked at VuFind and their whole "thing" is being friendly. This software has a section for readers to leave comments and tags. Therefore, when looking up a book, comments from other readers are readily available for viewing. This software also has a review tab that brings up reviews from other websites. Seems to be very user friendly!

Thing #18 Open Office

I like this software and have downloaded it to my computer. It is like having lots of stuff all in one place. I played with several of the features and think I will probably use this application quite a bit during the school year. The advantage of using this software instead of microsoft office is that it is compact, all in one place, and does not come with the massive fees that I am sure microsoft office does. I also really enjoyed the fact that you can save your document to many different formats. Downside - it took a long time to download.

Thing #17 Rollyo

This is going to be a very important tool in my class. I have always done web searches as classroom activities for each unit using the laptops, but this way I can expand it to where the student actually does the research instead of me!! Oh joy! This way I can give them the criteria and have them use Rollyo to search for the required information, knowing that they will only be in contact with the required websites. This will really cut down on a lot of wasted classroom time! This one is really exciting!!

Thing #16 Wikis

I visited the sandbox portion of the Spring Branch Library Future wiki. I enjoyed reading all the comments posted. It made me feel better and not so alone as I learn all this new technology. I left a post reflecting those feelings!

I feel Wikis could be beneficial for use in our grade level. We try to meet once a week, but sometimes that is not enough or the meeting is cancelled for one reason or another. We could use the wikis to post and share our ideas, thoughts and opinions during the times when we can't meet. That way, we can at least be in tune!!

Thing #15

Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries:

I read Away From Icebergs by Rick Anderson. He compared the librarian profession to a boat. He stated that he felt all librarians are rowing heroically, but are not prepared for disasters that are in their path and he called them icebergs. He talked about 3 icebergs.

First is the "just in case" collection. He states that building a comprehensive collection no longer makes sense because of all the new technology.

Second iceberg is reliance on use education. He states that libraries are poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed for teaching. If you think about this, he is right. One librarian for the whole school! The ratio would be about 900 to 1 at some schools, more at other schools. He states that the library services need to be fixed, not the patron. He also mentioned some web sites that offer promising models for user-centric service.

The third and last iceberg he talks about is the "come to us" library model. In the past if you needed certain information you had no choice but to go to the library to do your research. He feels that the library services and content should be put on the web.

He ended by stating that we need to shift directions and we don't have time to wait for the big ship of the profession to change. The change will be one library- one little boat- at a time.

I agree with a lot of what he is saying. In education change is NEVER easy and always comes with a price. We need to look at how our students live and learn and do our best to adjust the whole of education, libraries included, to reflect this.

Thing #14

I went to the Technorati web site and did the searches for “School Library Learning 2.0”. The results were different for each search. I found it confusing to use and like Delicious a lot better.
The popular blog, searches and tags site seemed pretty normal, I guess. I didn't find anything surprising or really interesting here.
I think tagging information in this day and age is important. There is so much out there that I get overwhelmed a lot. Tagging can really cut out a lot of the irrelevant information and only let the information relevant to your search come through.

Thing #13

I learned about the delicious website a few years ago at a workshop. I have used it and find it quite useful and easy to use. The tags are easy to put in and makes it easy to find whatever you are looking for. I have used delicious in the past and have found excellent websites that include interactive lessons for students.
I took a look at Furl and I really do like it. When we get back in full swing this school year I will use it as well as delicious to find needed information to enhance the curriculum.
Students can benefit from the delicious website as well if they need information for a research project, the tags will make it much easier for them to find information quickly.

Thing #12

In coolcatteacher's blog on How to Comment Like a King (or Queen) I felt number 7 was very important - Remember the Power of Words. Words can help or hurt, and to be a successful blogger you must become a successful commenter. So beware of "DC" as she calls him and learn to weed out the comments that are written by frustrated people.
Blue Skunk also said it well that bloggers love to know that they are being read, and the only way to know this is by the comments! I totally agree with how Blue Skunk feels comments should be: make it heart-felt, make it relevant, and don't be a troll!
I commented on the following Library2Play blogs: A Gal Named Al, All Things Green, Bibliotechno, Chocolate Happens, and MrsG.
Record Breaking Solar Eclipse in Asia is a blog I commented on for several reasons. It happened today, and I am a science teacher. This blog included a video of the eclipse. Very cool!
The second blog I commented on was in the Democratic Daily, Highway Agency Wanted Total Cell Phone Ban on Roads because this is a cause I do believe in.

Thing #11

The library thing is a good thing. It is rather easy to use and is very useful to help keep track of books you have read and books you want to read. I found a group of usesrs and joined - The Green Dragon. When I have more time I plan to go back and utilize it to its fullest potential and help find elective reading material for my students on each of our units.

Thing #10

This was fun! Always wondered what was on a male dog's mind! I used Big Huge Labs
to do the picture on the left. http://bighugelabs.com/captioner.php

This top picture is actually a picture of another greyhound running. I used Dumpr's amazing circles to capture this effect http://www.dumpr.net/amazing-circles.php

I can see how these sites can be used by students to express themselves to show what they have learned in a unit. It could be a good end of unit assessment in some cases!!

Thing #9

I enjoyed reading the Cool Cat Teacher blog and agree that we all need our Circle of the Wise. Good advice! I found the Blogline's search tool quite easy to use and can see how it can be helpful when looking for information to use in the classroom or when looking for information to use for an activeboard lesson.
Edublogs' award winners was a set up a little "different" and was a bit hard to navigate at first, but I did find a few interesting blogs. My favorite was Teacher in a Strange Land.
Topix had a lot of good news information, but what a busy page to look at - made me kinda cross-eyed for a second!
Technorati is a big website and I found it quite easy to navigate. It was easy to search for a topic and then sort through them until you found what you wanted.

Thing #8

I must admit that I have always thought that the internet was too totally overwhelming. As a result, I would let things lapse instead of trying to figure out how to find what I needed. This Google Reader I just set up takes care of all of those problems and frustrations! I feel more confidant than ever now when I am trying to find something!!

Thing #7

I love the iGoogle page! It has everything you want and more! You justput in your interests then google does the work for you! You can edit it by adding things, taking out things, etc. I put in a daily quote that could come in handy for the classroom. http://www.google.com/#home

I am going to really enjoy using google scholar. Now that we have to create lessons for the active boards, this will shorten our searches for accurate information and pictures to go along with the lessons we are preparing.

Thing #6

At first this one confused me so I went back and read and re-read the sites and I finally got it! The one I really like that I feel I will use in my science classroom is the Digg. We are always asking students to brainstorm about a topic, so why not brainstorm using computers???? This way students can all contribute their findings and then at a later date the whole class can review all the information students have found using the activeboard.
I would also probably use Mappr to have students use maps and pictures to geographically locate catastrophic events as they occur around the globe. This can be used as an ongoing activity all year long.

Thing 5

Flickr has tons of pictures that teachers can use in many different ways - in power points as well as active boards. It can also be a source for students to use when they do power point projects.

I chose this picture of hurricane Ike as it came into Galveston Bay for several reasons. I am a science teacher and catastrophic events is a major topic I cover. Also, Ike is still very present throughout my neighborhood, everywhere you look, things are still missing.

Thing 3

Well, I got the blog all set up and worked on the avatar which turned out to be a problem. I have had an avatar on Yahoo for quite some time but no matter what I tried, it could not get it to export. I tried all the suggestions on the instructions page but nothing worked. If anybody has any ideas, plese let us know!

Thing #2 Part 2: I feel that goals are necessary for learning because it serves as a road map - shows where you are going and helps if you get off track. Getting off track is not always necessarily bad, it just means you may need to modify your goal to encompass what you have come across. I feel I need to be more adept at viewing problems as challenges instead of just problems. I think this will give me more insight into whatever the problem is and allow me to deal with it easily and more professionally.