Whew! There is a lot of information and tools out there! This was a great course because I have learned about so many things, and I will be able to carry them with me throughout my future career as an educator. This is definitely a technological age, and this course has shown me that with a little time and effort, I can use technology effectively and easily.
My favorite things were the various sign/picture generators, RSS feeds, Del.icio.us, and Animoto. I loved learning about the RSS feeds because now I can follow my favorite things online without having to go hunt them down individually every day. I have them all in one spot at my fingertips with the Google Reader.
Along the same lines, I love Del.icio.us for much the same reason. I can have all of my favorite sites in one spot, regardless of where I travel. I also loved learning about this site, because now I can also see what other like-minded people found in their search and explore their content as well. I loved the sign/picture generators as well as the Animoto because I have no doubt I will be able to create some project for my classroom in the future.
I don't have any suggestions for improvement because I think it is a great program. I wonder, however, if I would have enjoyed it more if it weren't a summer class. Between class and the 23 Things, there was SO much information that I feel like I haven't had adequate time to really explore and digest it all. I have felt more rushed to get everything completed. I was really overwhelmed with the vast amounts of accounts I had to start in such a short amount of time. However, I will be maintaining a good portion of these accounts for continued use. So, I will have my time to explore them further and more thoroughly.
Although, I have no plans to maintain this particular blog, now that I know how to blog, I plan on maintaining a personal one. I have been wanting to begin my own blog for some time now, but I had no idea how. Now I do. This has been a really informational class, and I have learned a lot. I now feel the technology available out there is approachable and will be easy for me to use. Although, time was crunched, I have learned a lot from these 23 Things and have plans to make future use of them.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Thing #23
I was able to find an area of Flickr where there are nothing but pictures that have the attribution permission linked to them.
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/page2/
Before this class, I had never heard of Creative Commons, but I am so glad I have now. I think this knowledge will be indispensable when I become a teacher. It will save so much time if I can use and build off of other people's work. Likewise, it will be just as great to be able to create something and put out on the Internet with a Creative Commons license for others to use and build upon as well. There is a whole community of teachers out there waiting to collaborate, and that community is not bound by borders; through the Internet, it is boundless.
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/page2/
Before this class, I had never heard of Creative Commons, but I am so glad I have now. I think this knowledge will be indispensable when I become a teacher. It will save so much time if I can use and build off of other people's work. Likewise, it will be just as great to be able to create something and put out on the Internet with a Creative Commons license for others to use and build upon as well. There is a whole community of teachers out there waiting to collaborate, and that community is not bound by borders; through the Internet, it is boundless.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Thing #22
Thing #21
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
">I chose to make a short video with pictures of my daughter from when she was first born to present. I had a really good time with Animoto, and I could spend a lot of time on here. I like how this site gives you a lot of options for your video from the music to the pictures to your background. I also liked how you could either upload pictures or get them from your Facebook account, from another site, or they even had their own pictures you could use. This video was REALLY easy to make. Enjoy!Sunday, July 3, 2011
Thing #20
I have been familiar with YouTube for some time now, so this was a fairly easy thing to do. The video I chose was called "Reading Strategies." I chose this video because it pertains to elementary reading strategies. It is a Discovery video and teaches the various reading strategies. I liked this video because it gives me a preview of how I will be teaching elementary children to not only read, but to comprehend what they have read. I have a passion for reading and I look forward to teaching elementary students all the fun and adventure that comes with reading a book.
The thing I like most about YouTube is that you can find a video on practically any subject. The thing I like least about it is that sometimes you have to filter through a lot of horrible videos or videos that are unrelated to what you are looking for until you find a video that meets your search criteria.
The thing I like most about YouTube is that you can find a video on practically any subject. The thing I like least about it is that sometimes you have to filter through a lot of horrible videos or videos that are unrelated to what you are looking for until you find a video that meets your search criteria.
Thing #19
I guess I'm a little slow on this, but I could not get the TeacherPop badge on my blog.
Moving along, I do belong to several online communities. Along with Facebook and Twitter, I now belong to the TeacherPop, which I think will be a great resource to me in the future as a teacher. All of these communities broaden my pool of people I can learn from and look to for ideas when I begin to teach. I found all of the communities in the exercise interesting, because I think I could use all of them in some form or fashion in my future career as an elementary school teacher.
Moving along, I do belong to several online communities. Along with Facebook and Twitter, I now belong to the TeacherPop, which I think will be a great resource to me in the future as a teacher. All of these communities broaden my pool of people I can learn from and look to for ideas when I begin to teach. I found all of the communities in the exercise interesting, because I think I could use all of them in some form or fashion in my future career as an elementary school teacher.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thing #18
For this thing, I already had a Facebook as well as a Twitter. I don't feel comfortable putting either link up here. I'm a private person and I would like to remain that way. :-)
It is important for educators to know how these sites work because their students certainly will. I think the teacher who is not afraid of these sites and who is capable of having an open dialog with students about them will have an advantage over those teachers who do not. One of these advantages is that the teacher who is fluent in social networking will also be fluent in the language. A teacher could even set up a classroom Facebook page, invite all of the students to be "friends" and use the page as a communication tool. Not only could all of the students communicate with one another, but a student could even send the teacher a private message through the messaging tool. Students and teachers could also make use of the chat if they chose.
I tend to favor Facebook over Twitter because one, I am more familiar with it and two, Facebook seems to have less limitations. I like how Facebook has a chat feature, messaging that is akin to e-mail, you can post pictures, and post links. With Twitter, although you can post links, it just seems more of text rich application.
It is important for educators to know how these sites work because their students certainly will. I think the teacher who is not afraid of these sites and who is capable of having an open dialog with students about them will have an advantage over those teachers who do not. One of these advantages is that the teacher who is fluent in social networking will also be fluent in the language. A teacher could even set up a classroom Facebook page, invite all of the students to be "friends" and use the page as a communication tool. Not only could all of the students communicate with one another, but a student could even send the teacher a private message through the messaging tool. Students and teachers could also make use of the chat if they chose.
I tend to favor Facebook over Twitter because one, I am more familiar with it and two, Facebook seems to have less limitations. I like how Facebook has a chat feature, messaging that is akin to e-mail, you can post pictures, and post links. With Twitter, although you can post links, it just seems more of text rich application.
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