Reflections

This class has been amazing! Thank you for teaching me soooo much. I really have enjoyed keeping up my blog and think I will make the resolution to maintain my blog for my family and friends. I need to add some pictures and enhance it a bit but I feel very comfortable doing that now. I had such a good time exploring Creative Commons and Flikr... and You Tube was lots of fun. I have recommended this class to several of my friends and even taught them a few new "things." I'm surprised that I could do all the activities with little frustration. It's a lot easier if you just get in there and try. I would definitely be interested in participating in another discovery program like this one if one is available in the future.

Once again, thank you for everything!!!!

Thing #23

I can't believe I've made it to the last "Thing!" I had to take notes during this thing because I was a bit overwhelmed with all the information. During part 1 of exploring I visited Classroom 2.0 and checked out the forum tab, groups, and members. I searched for special education topics and found some interesting things such as The Inclusion Revolution and uses for Technology in Special Education. Another one I liked was talking about how a teacher had all his students set up an igoogle page to use as a daily planner! After quite some time had passed, I went to Ning networks related to education. I liked the table of contents located on the right side of the page for easy access. The "other" listed in the t.o.c. was really cool. I found italki where you can learn a language on line for free with support of other people. Flashcardfriends was also neat....you can create flashcards to help you learn whatever it is you want to learn/remember. Lastly, I visited and joined our MISD 23 Things Ning network, created a profile, created my badge, and sent a message to Mary Woodward inviting her to be my friend!
Visit 23 Thingsters

My overall impressions were that I am amazed at the amount of information available on just one social network and how nice it is to be able to find groups that are interested in the same things you are without having to search through tons of stuff! What a fabulous resource for anyone!

Thing # 22

Social Networking..... well, I've spent too much time exploring Facebook and MySpace this evening and in the middle of all the exploring, my internet went down!!!! Frustrating. I liked Facebook better than My Space; it seemed much easier to use, not so visually distracting to me, and I found some friends that had profiles. I set up a profile on Facebook but selected some privacy so to view my profile, you'll have to request to be my friend first. I found a few friends and requested they accept me as well. I think it's important for educators to know about these social networks because it's so popular among young people today. Seems like any kid I ask knows about one or both of these sites. I learned that there are some security features on these sites and I appreciate that! I have a friend who's student got a little mad at her and decided to create a profile as if he were her! Didn't go too well forhim once it was found and the police got involved. I think both sites have useful features such as allowing you to determine who sees your profile, what to include on your profile, e-mail/messaging features, adding video/pics, etc. I'm not sure how I would use this in the classroom other than teaching appropriate use but I'm not the number one fan of having one's business out there for all to see, or hack into if private. I'm sure there's a way to find out anything if you really want to.

Thing # 21

Google is so much more broad than I ever imagined! I had fun exploring/discovering during this exercise. In fact, I spend too much time on google book search because on that site, I could actually read the text of books that I've wondered about or wanted to read. I think it's great to be able to check it out before buying. I also looked at google alerts but didn't think of anything to follow or be alerted to at this time. I would use it for sure if there's something of particular interest I want to follow. Google earth is cool..... kind of scary to know anyone can check out any place at any time. I found my house! Even my blog is generated through google.... amazing, the possibilities seem endless :-)

Thing # 20

I have explored google docs before but not really used it until today. It was easy to use and very user friendly. I developed a "working" parent letter to send home after I've completed a student's evaluation. This letter explains, specifically, the student's results and invites the parent to phone me in the event they have any questions. I can see myself sharing this type of document professionally with my colleagues to gain insight as to what correspondence they use with parents and in developing a better letter. I think the spreadsheet would be good to help me keep my testing data organized (who, when, etc.) and I may use the presentation option when developing a staff development piece. This would also be a good one to share with colleagues and we could develop it all together.

Thing # 7b

I'm jumping ahead a little bit but I don't have time to complete #20 & #21 right now. I've been reading my google reader and recently added southern living to my list. It's one of my favorite magazines and I rarely find enough time in my day to read it at home. Seems I'm always doing something...cooking, washing, cleaning, you know the drill of a working mom! Anyway, today I read several fun articles but I had no idea there were southern living blogs!!! Written by folks who write the magazine articles! Everything from food to gardening (and all points in between). What a delight!

Thing # 19

Voicethread was neat. I really liked the idea of sharing photographs with my family and friends and having the capability of hearing their comments, sentiments, etc. I could see myself using Voicethread in that way. I can also see how very cool it would be to use in a classroom where the students can make comments collectively, make predictions about pictures, compare and contrast, or even use to generate written works. I've noticed, throughout Learning 2.0, that some of our teaching videos have been created with voicethread (or something like it) and I feel so smart now that I know where to go to create works of my own!

Thing # 18 edit

I forgot to report on my "how to" videos..... I was having trouble embedding my video clip so I went to You Tube and searched "how to embed a video into a blog!" I also checked out "how to replace a ballast" because mine is out in my pantry and seems I can't get my husband to get it changed!!!

Thing # 18

During my scavenger hunt, I found two interesting videos relating to special education. One was on inclusion and the other was about a career in special education working with severely challenged kids. They were both very informative. The inclusion video was especially helpful because our campus is moving toward inclusion next school year. I've added my favorite You Tube video for fun: Bon Qui Qui at King Burger. Watch below and enjoy. I found Teacher Tube to be a great source to be used in the classroom. Kids seem to pay so much more attention to video/computer and several of the videos I explored like Animals in the Rainforest, Ocean Currents, and From an F to an A (kid production) were very interesting and captivating. I'm sure kids would really enjoy viewing videos or short clips as an alternative to the old textbook! And...it's a great idea for those kids whose reading skills are lacking or maybe learn better with visuals :-)

Thing # 17

Podcasts.... I've used i-tunes forever and never knew podcasts were there! This class is the best and I'm learning so much. I looked at several podcasts, some easier to navigate than others, but ended up subscribing to Dragonfly TV in my google reader. I also liked The Tech Teachers because it has so much information on all kinds of technology use. If you haven't tried I-Tunes, download it now and check out all the available stuff! I'm planning on spending more time there exploring what all I've missed the past few years.