Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

     Some of my favorite discoveries were iGoogle, ImageChef, Animoto, and LiveBinder. I never knew there were so many different websites that could be so helpful in the education profession. In the future I look forward to being able to engage in all the resourceful technology that is available.
     I will be able to apply various skills learned through the different programs that I have become aware of. The application of such information may be exemplified through future educational and personal advancements for visual concepts learned as well as hands-on technological experiences.
     I would have to say the most valuable experience that I took from the 23 Things would be the usefulness of the iGoogle program. I find it beneficial because it allows me to be organized, it allows me to keep up with up to date educational resources and it allows me to stay informed with everyday events.
     In my opinion, it needs to be much more user-friendly to only have used my e-mail once to enroll in the multiple educational/social media sites. Somehow, there should be a shortcut created to avoid the time consuming effort of sharing my e-mail just to join the various sites.
     What I have learned will help me keep my students up to date and involved in the field of technology.  I will be able to incorporated visual and hands-on experiences.
      In the future, I plan to periodically check my RSS feeds, continue to explore new educational technology that is available, and collaborate with other professional educators.  One of the ways that may be useful to accomplish these tasks is to use various free time for educational purposes.
   

Thing # 23

https://sites.google.com/site/23learning20things/

Now that I know about Creative Common licensing, I will share this with other educators and know that I can look for the symbol that shows that the work was shared and that we as educators can use the resources for our classroom.

Thing # 22

<div style="width:75px; height:78px; background-image:url(http://www.livebinders.com/images/binder_icon_private.gif); border:0px; margin-top:4px; background-repeat: no-repeat">     <a href="http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=369585">     <img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=http://www.wresa.org/Pbl/The%20INTASC%20Standards%20overheads.htm" style="width:60px; height:60px; border:0px; padding:0px;margin:11px 0px 0px 13px;" />     </a>     </div>     <div><a href="http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=369585">Standards for Good Teaching</a><br /></div>


I am not sure this is what I am suppose to do, I did follow the directions and hope that this is one of my binders I wanted to share.  The titles of my binders are: Standards for Good Teaching, Kindergarten Lesson Plans, and Assistive Technology. I would use LiveBinders for teacher resources and to collaborate with other teachers. I will be teaching the younger grades, so I believe this would not be useful for the students. It would be a great tool for the older students to keep resources for a research paper and other projects they may be working on.

My Animoto Video Thing #21

My Animoto Video

I loved doing Thing 21, it was by far the most enjoyable and one I could really figure out.  This is a great website to turn your pictures into special messages to friends, and family. It is very easy and you can share the videos many different ways.  My daughter loved the website and she has already put the app into her ipod, and has made a video of her friends. I would recommend Animoto for teachers to use for sharing pictures of their class to the parents and the end of the year programs.

Thing #20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sHOH_zsRl4&feature=related

I like using youtube for finding good resources for my class that I will be teaching. There are a lot of videos for teaching numbers, spelling, language, reading, and a lot more subject areas. I was looking for a number song for a  math lesson on counting, that I was working on for a kindergarten class and I was able to find many. I copied and pasted one of my favorites on my blog. The only negative thing that I see with youtube is that there are so not so nice things that young children can see. I believe that youtube in a great website for educators to use for getting ideas for there classroom and lessons.

Thing # 19

Visit TeacherPop
 I am a memeber of Facebook, Twitter, and know I am a member of TeacherPop. I enjoy having this online communities, it is just hard to find the time to keep up with them all.  The most appealing social network to me is Facebook, because I am familiar with that one and have been a member for several years.  I find that social networking is a good way to collaborate with other teachers and friends about the latest technology are resources that are available.

Thing #18

I feel like social networking is a good place for educators to keep up with what is going on with other educators and it helps with any new fresh ideas that educators have. I would rather use other websites for collaborating with other teachers. I do have Facebook and Twitter accounts.  I have had a Facebook account for a long time and enjoy looking at my friends updates and pictures. I don't have a lot of time for Facebook or Twitter. I only joined Twitter because of this class, this network to me its not as easy as Facebook.  I also believe that Twitter and Facebook could be used for the wrong things. People say and do all kinds of things on Facebook and it makes me just not want to be a part of that.

Thing # 17

Delicious is a great website for social bookmarking, it allows teachers to collaborate and share ideas with one another. The website allows you to stay organized and helps to keep things sorted.  I could use this website for helping me out with my unit plans and other projects that I may need for finishing my education degree. I believe this would be good website for the older students.

 

 

  

Thing #16

    I chose iGoogle for my start page , because I love the way I could put so many different things on one page.  I have already made it my permanent home page. Having it be my home page I can see what is on my  to do list and what I have on my calendar for that day. 
    Online calendars is a great way to stay organized and keep up with things that are due and appointments. I use the computer everyday day so it is very useful to have the calendar right in front of you when you are on the computer.
     I love the to-do-lists,  I started using this tool and it really helped me keep up with the weekly things I have going on and all the things my children are doing and places they need to be for the week. I can also put my grocery list and I can add to it.
     I would use the to-do-list and the calendar at home and at school. I would recommend either of this tools, because they can be beneficial at home or school.

Thing # 15

I found the wiki to be similar to a blog. I know that with wiki you can edit other people's post and add to it, which makes that an easier way to collaborate. I explore the apsu23thingssandbox and was able to post a picture and add a text. It was neat that you could move around the pictures and design a whole new page if you wanted to.

Thing # 14

I explored the website Gliffy (flowchart), and Bubbl.us (mind map). As I explored both of these I really liked Gliffy, because it was more interesting to me. I like using venn diagrams, and I was able to create one for shapes. My daughter is working on shapes and trying to recognize how they related to each other; so I thought by creating a venn diagram it would help her to learn this relationships. This would be a great website to share with students and other educators for assignments and lessons.

http://www.gliffy.com/publish/3438917/

Thing #13

As I explored Zoho Writer, I found that it was very similar to Microsoft Office. I have trouble figure out everything in Microsoft, so trying to figure out Zoho was hard for me. I did notice that in Zoho Writer you could change the extension to what you needed. I really like Google Doc, that is were I created a drawing for fun!  This would be a great tool for the classroom to use, the students would love creating pictures for projects. They can also use Google Doc for presentations, spreadsheets, and also use it for research papers. This website is beneficial to both student and teacher.

Thing # 4

I do believe that the ability to comment creates a sense of community and interaction with other people. It is a great way to share your thoughts with other people and a way for them to comment on what you have to say. You can have discussions with people from all over, and read opinions from all different people.

I found out by reading on Pro blogger that by asking open ended questions, invited people to join, ask questions, and comment on other peoples blogs would be a great way to get people to comment. Also on Cool Cat Teacher Blog said to make sure and give meaningful comments, this allows the blogger to comment back and you can start up a conversation.

The seven people I chose to comment on were:
Kendra Donaldson
Stephanie Tate
Melissa Troyer
Anita Taylor
Tiffany Anderson
Jennifer Velazquez
Claira Albert

Thing #12

I have really enjoyed exploring with different ways you can use Google.  I have enjoyed creating my page on iGoogle and using the Google calendar.  I never knew Google has so much more to offer. I knew I liked using Google to search for everything, but never knew about other tools that Google offered. I am definitely going to use iGoogle for my personal life, and will use it when I become a teacher as well. The Google calendar is a great way to keep up with my busy schedule. I love the way it shows on my iGoogle home page what I have going on for that day. I am learning new things everyday that I can do on iGoogle, I have inserted below the link to my Google calendar and iGoogle. I am not a pro, but it is fun learning how to do all the things Google offers. I believe that this tool could be used for educators to help organize there events going on in there classroom and it would also be a great way to share with the parents of the students.

http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1

Thing # 11

I find that just using google is easiest for me. I am use to that and I can find just about anything I need using Google. I found that the search tools were very difficult to use and that you had to sign in to be able to search for RSS feeds. The search tool that I seemed to like the best was newsgator, because you could put in the search box what you were looking for. I found a site to follow called Teachers Voice which is a very helpful website.
I feel a lot more comfortable using Google, I am good at that and I can get to where I need to go and get the information I need fast.

Thing #10

What I liked about Google Reader is that you can put your favorite blogs, articles, or websites you like and be able to check out the latest post without going to the actual site. Something else that is neat about Google Reader is that you can make folders of things you like and keep them separate and organized.

Teachers can use this technology to keep up with other educational websites, and other teachers ideas. It is a great way to keep up with the latest technology.  Using Google Reader can be an advantage to collaborate with other educators.

Teachers can use this new technology to there advantage. It is just another great way teachers can communicate with other teachers. It is a lot easier to just go to one website and check what is new than having to go through all the steps just to check to see if there is anything new. It will save educators a lot of time and they can use the extra time to find out the newest  information that is out there.

Thing # 9

4bf7c957ad494478, a photo by Gabkit on Flickr.

ImageChef.com was my favorite site to play with. I had fun creating different images and sayings. The site was very easy to do and there were a lot of different things you could do with words and phrases. The only trouble I had is trying to post on my blog different images I came up with and posting underneath them. It will only let me post one image at a time. The process for creating my star was very easy. I first picked out what symbol I wanted to use and then the words I wanted in it. You could choose any color you wanted to put in the symbol. To post it to your blog you just have to click share to your blog and it goes straight to your blog. I could use these images in my classroom for encouraging words for my students. ImageChef.com


sign-generator, a photo by Gabkit on Flickr.

This was a fun site, I love smiley faces and I wanted to put something positive in the sign. This is a great way to share messages to give students are anybody confidence in themselves. This site was very easy to follow and had a lot of different smiley faces you could choose from. http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/


samp59ee63d4e3e6d1ff, a photo by Gabkit on Flickr

Thing # 8

My creation, a photo by Gabkit on Flickr.

FLickr and Flickr mashups would be a great tool for my classroom and personal life. It is a great way to share photos and create fun things with your photos. In the classroom the students could use the app that I used to create a puzzle out of a picture they had made. Students would really get into using these kinds of apps. I will definitely keep using flickr for my personal use and also in my classroom.

Thing # 7

SDC14146, a photo by Gabkit on Flickr.

I chose this picture of my grandparents when they were younger. I was taking pictures of things around the house and after looking through all the ones I had taken this was my favorite. Family is very special to me and my grandparents mean a lot to me. I lost my grandmother a couple of years ago, I still have my grandfather who is ninety and still is doing fairly well. I love this picture of them and I love older style pictures, so that is why I chose this photograph.
I really like flickr, at first I thought it was going to be difficult to figure out. It is actually pretty easy to upload pictures from your desktop, computer, documents,and put them in Flickr. Flickr is a neat and easy way to share pictures with others. I would love to use this in my classroom, because when I taught preschool I would take pictures of the children and make books for them at the end of the year. I always had trouble keeping up with all the pictures, so now that I know how to use flickr it will be a great tool for me when I become a professional educator. This is the first time I have used a photo hosting service. I would probably want to monitor who sees my photos. I wouldn't mind sharing with family and friends.

Thing # 6

I explored Pandora, and love it!  It is having your own radio station on your computer. It allows you to chose the songs you like by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down. It will program the songs you like best and make your own radio station. Pandora allows you to chose the type of songs you like as well, and gives you the lyrics to the songs. You can also shuffle through the songs you have listened to and play them when you want. So as you work or play on the computer you can listen to your favorite songs. It would also be a great tool to use in your classroom for transition time. The only think I dislike about the site is that there are advertisements. The site is free! http://www.pandora.com/

Thing # 5

My thoughts on the article "A Guide for Educators", was very informational about web 2.0.  It gave a lot of information on what Web 2.0 was all about. It talked about how it is being used to collaborate worldwide, through using MySpace, Yahoo, and You Tube. Web 2.0 is a great tool for educators to share their opinions, thoughts and ideas they may have. This article also talked about how it is second nature to children. They use it for social networking as well as for assignments and keeping up with what is going on with their friends.

"School 2.0" means to me that it is a place where you can share information with others about things you may have learned and would like to share your thoughts, as well as learn from other educators. The Web 2.0 uses a World Wide Web where you can collaborate with one another in social media networking sites, blogs, wikis, and video sharing. Web 2.0 gives a lot of freedom to share. For educators it provides a great way to engage students in a meaningful  way.

Web 2.0 is going to be a great way for schools of the future to engage students in technology. It will allow students to share with one another through different networks and explore different ways to communicate with one another. It will allow every student to  achieve a path way to learning through technology.

Thing # 3

There are many great ways I would use the blog, one is that I would reflect on my experiences on teaching, I would be able to share with other teachers. Looking at what works and does not work for my classroom would be very helpful for me and other educators. Also, I would use the blog for looking at what teaching and learning issues I could have in my classroom. According to what age I would be teaching, I would like to have a blog for my classroom, I believe it is a great way for the class to get to know one another and see different ideas from their classmates.

Thing # 2

I decide on a posting name that I could remember. I have so many different passwords and user names to keep up with I wanted something I used a lot. So I decide on my apsu e-mail address for my posting name. For my name of my blog I decided that because it was twenty three things, I would just use that for my blog name. I just kept it simple and easy!

My experience in creating a blog was very difficult at first, but the more I use blogger.com, it became easier. I had already used blogger.com in my reading class and was familiar with parts of blog.

My avatar somewhat reflects my personality in that I do try to smile and be friendly to everyone. The avatar does not really look like me. There were not any clothes that were really my style. I also could not find the hair style that fit me. It was fun creating the avatar, and maybe I will be able to change mine when I become more familiar with all the stuff I can do with the avatar.

Thing #1

One of the easiest 7 and 1/2 habits for me would probably would be habit 7; teach/mentor others. It is easiest for me to help others and be willingly to mentor, longs as I understand the material I would be teaching to someone. The hardest 7 and 1/2 habit for me would definitely be habit 4; have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. I am eager to learn and excited about learning new things, I just have a hard time having confidence in myself to be an effective learning. I want to learn how to become more confident in myself and become a competent and effective learner.