Summary

I admit that I had done the 23 Things in the past. I remembered some of what I learned but I had forgotten a lot of it. My favorite things were the ones that gave me places to put the things I had learned: Google Reader, Delicious, Flickr, and Picasa! These are the storehouses for all the information that I have gathered. These tools will help me to keep up with what I have started, which was the problem the first time. No follow-up on my part. Of course, I also loved the image generators and other fun stuff you can do to enhance your web pages or blogs.
It was interesting to read and hear from others to see how to put into practice all those skills we have learned. I see a whole new way to introduce these things in the staff developments and trainings that I do with teachers. My mind is working on overload right to figure out which of the tools would be the most beneficial.
Thanks so much for facilitating this course. And, yes, I would definitely like to learn 23 more things.

Thing 23

Exploring the networks was fun and gave me a lot to do on a hot afternoon all in the name of "homework". As I looked though the groups and forums, I realized that the levels of involvement go from "recognize a computer" to some very advanced networkers. One strand of a forum was particularly interesting to me. A discussion was started that seemed to be very negative regarding the use of Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom. Several responders seemed to thing that it was just putting the teacher in the front of the classroom with the students as by-standers. I tried to respond but I have not yet been "approved" to comment. I'm saving it for later however. Some groups asked a lot of questions but had very few answers. You really need to pick and choose the groups you investigate.
I do believe that joining a group with common interests will be beneficial. What better place to get new ideas, new outlooks and new perspectives.

Thing 22

I got a Facebook account about a year ago. I did it because a couple of the people at the office had one and it just seemed the thing to do. I have had so much fun on it since then. It is the wave of the present, not the future. I have connected with people from work, highschool, college, and neighbors long moved away. I am "friends" with both my children and several of their friends and their friends' parents. It is the way kids communicate and network. I heard recently that Facebook was been taken over by the Boomers. Well, they certainly are visible on Facebook.
Like any internet site, you have to be careful with what you post and who you allow to see your page. My son (27) has over 600 friends some of whom he doesn't really know.
They are friends of friends. I worry about that. All of the people I have as friends, I really do know and feel marginally certain that I can trust them.
If properly monitored, I could see that Facebook could help students connect with classrooms in other parts of the country or even other countries to study and communicate. At the very least, they could get a sense of what it is like to be a teenager in another place outside their comfort zone. There is an age limit on Facebook, so I believe this would only be a high school consideration. However, there is nothing that would prevent teachers from networking and sharing on Facebook.
This is a link to my page. Be my friend.

Thing 7b

One thing that really bothers me is that Word tries to prove that it is smarter than I am. It wants to manage my lists on Excel, put the capital letters in Word for me, and thinks it know exactly how I want to space thing in a document. At last I have found someone who agrees with me. On the blog Gadgetwise I found an article titled "Making MS Word Less 'Helpful'". In the Tip of the Week, the author tells how to shut off those helpful pop-up menus that to me are so annoying.

Thing 21

I firmly believe that some day, Google will take over the world and it may be very soon. They certainly seem to be on the leading edge of the technological world in applications. I've used some of these tools in the past. I took Picasa! this summer and really did like it. It has just become available to Mac and there are still a few glitches that need to be worked out with that version. My favorite feature is the collage. You can choose pictures, add and delete, and then set them how you want them to look. It is easy to use and the kids could make their own collages with a particular topic in mind, ex. shapes, colors, patterns, numbers, etc.
I love Google Earth. I found my house with it's garbage in the front yard waiting for pickup, my mother's old house in Wichita Falls, and the Statue of Liberty, just to name a few. This is perfect for kids a more personal and up-close view of places studied in their history books.
The best surprise was Google Book Search. I read so many different kinds of books that I can't keep up with which ones I read. With Google Book Search, I can preview the book and try to remember if I've read it. Saves time and money and is very exciting. In fact, I off to read the newest (to me) #1 Ladies Detective Agency book by Alexander McCall Smith.



Picasa! photo collage

Thing 20

Google Docs are the most useful tool in our department. We use it for just about everything that we do that needs collaboration. Examples from just this last semester: time sheets for summer work, inventory, Friday meeting agendas, ideas for staff development, ideas for end of the year documents, school maps, training schedules, etc. I really could go on for a long time. All of our New Teacher Orientation is on a Google Doc so that our whole department can view, edit and collaborate. Makes life a lot easier. We've suggested this to our teachers as a way of collaboration, but there are still a few hoops to jump through to get them on the MISD Google Doc...which is the goal.

One problem that we've had with the spreadsheet is that it is very inconsistent when trying to use a form. Last semester we tried to do an inventory form for our campuses to use to document what computers they had in their classroom. We all (6) created the form together, and shared it in exactly the same way. It worked for me, but did not work for 3 of the other ETFs. Very frustrating and we couldn't figure out what the difference was in the way it was shared. I hope it'll be fixed next year or at least we can determine what the problem was.

Thing 19

This was fun. I loved looking at all the examples of how this could be used in the classroom. I looked for Promethean activities and found several examples of lines and angles that I think I could use next year. It is such a simple way of getting students involved in their own learning. I also liked the Voicethread that showed how to turn a Keynote into a ActVote lesson. Again, something different to show teachers that is beyond PowerPoint. The examples of the ABC books were great. Any project that we can use as examples tend to give the teachers a feeling that it is possible and it looks so easy.
I found several of examples that liked, but I decided to be "stretchier" and try one on my own. Pretty easy and lots of fun.

Thing 18

I spent hours on YouTube yesterday. I found so many fascinating, funny, educational, and informative videos that I could have watched for days. I found things that were very useful and that I will go back to watch again. I also found some things that I thought, first, "Why would anyone video that?" and second, "Why would they post it for someone else to watch?" However all those videos had hundreds of hits. Go figure!
I did watch a couple of videos featuring the Promethean board, one of which I will use in a Staff Development that I am presenting next week. I re-watched a video about how to make an infrared controller for the Promethean using a Wii remote. If you could have seen our office last spring, you'd know that it was one video we took to heart as we tried it ourselves (with was more or less of a success). I also watched some videos of s some funny dogs doing strange and unusual things. YouTube is very easy to search with the results being clearing defined with a snippet of the picture next to it.
TeacherTube was a little more difficult to get a good understanding of exactly what you were looking for. I also noticed that many of the TeacherTube videos were much longer that YouTube. They seemed to be more for a longer Staff Development or training session. I compared the types of videos on Promethean from TeacherTube and YouTube. Some were the same video posted on both sites, but many of the videos on TeacherTube were posted by Promethean as a part of a training modlue. Some of these are actually posted on the Promethean Website.
I wanted to attach a video of a talking dog, but the file was too big. So I settled for a Promethean example.

Thing 17

I listened to several podcasts that I found in the Educational Podcast Network. One thing that I discovered was that many of the podcasts on GEEK!ED! ran 30 min to an hour. While I was interested in what was being said, I wasn't willing to spend the time to listen that carefully. I'm not sure teachers will be able to invest that kind of time either. The podcasts that really caught my attention were the ones that were short and to the point. I especially liked three in particular: Radio WillowWeb, Grammar Girl, and 60 Second Science. These podcasts were very informative, fun to listen to and short enough to keep my attention.
I also subscribed to Promethean Planet-ActivTips from iTunes. These tips are, again, short and in my case very pertinent to my job. Anyone using a Promethean board would find a lot of information in this podcasts.
I have done quite a bit of podcasting and taught podcasting to several elementary classes. We have done Book Reviews, Readers Theater, Math Facts, and Poems and Stories. Some have been audio podcasts while others have incorporated student drawn pictures. The two common experiences have been how much the kids and teachers love doing these and how easy they are to complete. Podcasting is just plain fun.

Thing 16

I've used Library Thing before. Like a lot of other tools in this class, I am rediscovering its usefulness. I have a huge personal reading list and I am one of those people that like to read books in a series. Not only in a series, but in the order in which they were written (I need to be able to form a timeline of events within the novels). Library Thing is the perfect place to keep track of which books I read, which book is next, and to find other books I might enjoy. Professionally it would be a great place for keeping lists of literature that will enhance a lesson or topic.

Thing 15

I've always loved the beach and playing in the Sandbox was the next best thing. Well, not really, but close. I did love the ease of creating in the wiki. I also liked the fact that there were lots of examples to look at as I was creating. The only thing that was a little frustrating for me was following the directions at the top of the page when I was at the bottom of the page. I realize that printing the directions would have been easier, but our printer was not happy, so I was stuck with navigating back and forth. The Voki was so much fun. There did seem to be a little delay in recording the speech. I had to play with it several times to make it work. I'm not sure if there is a better way to record. The Wiki was easy to edit and the pop-up directions seemed simple to understand. I can hardly wait to create one by myself.

Mousing_Around

Thing 14-Stretch

I looked up dachshund in Wikipedia. I've had dachshunds for many years and as I read the article I learned several new facts. I enjoyed reading the article and looking at the images of the cutest dogs ever. (I may be a little biased here) I've used Wikipedia a lot and yet never looked at the discussion or history tabs. I was surprised at how interactive it is. In the discussions, bits and pieces were talked about and even deleted from the original article. The history showed how many times changes had been made. And all this time, I just thought of it as an online encyclopedia with updated entries.

Thing 14

I thought Wiki Wiki Teaching was amazing. It is exciting to me how one teacher can have an idea that impacts the entire school. Those kids took that idea and literally ran with it. I'm sure that even the teacher did not see the far-reaching influence that the wiki would have. It was also very impressive that the other teachers in the building were so ready to jump on board. That must be a very technology oriented building. The fact that a wiki is a collaborative, living document is one of the most exciting things about it. Teachers across the district or grade level can collaborate on ideas, lesson, or reviews all to guide their students learning. This is a very powerful tool.

One wiki that I especially liked was Primary Math. I loved their use of YouTube videos to enhance their learning. Almost every one of their lessons had some video attached. One classroom shared questions with partner school in South Korea. The kids were so excited to see their buddies on the internet. What a cool way of learning. This did not have a lot of comments but an impressive amount of reads.

Another wiki I liked was Schools of the Past. Even though there was not a lot of kid typing, I think the information gathered was fascinating. The children certainly would have learned a great deal from this kind of questioning skills. An authentic, first-hand interview shows those students the value of primary sources.

I also enjoyed reading Go West, a wiki about the Oregon Trail. The information seems to be well researched and well presented. I especially like the navigation tabs along the left that allowed you to jump from one topic to another. The students obviously learned a lot not just about the Oregon Trail but about online creating and presenting. Their sources were cited as well as the citation for their images.

Yes, I think there is definitely a wiki in my future. I already have a very basic, very limited one started that contains recipes from my family. It is a great storehouse for memories. Now if I can only get my sister to contribute!