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.