Thing #19

Visit TeacherPop

I am now a member of Teacher POP. I think this will be very useful in the future and I plan to make use of this resource. I am also a member of Facebook.

One Last Thing

I learned so many new things in the Learning 2.0- 23 Things activities that it is hard to choose a favorite between all the good things I learned. The blog will definitely be a good tool which I will use . I think it is a good way for teachers to get parents of their students involved in school activities. I also like the YouTube and podcast activities and I thing students will really enjoy using these tools in education in the classroom.
I must admit that I was challenged at the beginning of the semester with the 23 Things. I thought the first half was the most difficult. I am glad that the more fun activities were toward the end of the semester. I think this was a good idea. The 23 Things was a challenging activity but I learned a lot and I plan to continue to explore the many areas and online learning tools.

Thing 23

I had several favorite activities in the 23 Things activities. Flicker was one of my favorites. I liked the selection of photos I found. I also liked the YouTube and Facebook activities. I learned so much new information in doing the 23 Things. I had never heard of Creative Commons so this was especially useful information. Teachers can really make good use of this resource to find free material to use in their classrooms. The consequences of not getting resources under the proper copyright is so important. I will definitely use what I learned about Creative Commons to be sure the materials I use are approved under the proper copyright laws. I googled the 23 things and found out the details about Learning 2.0 which was created by Helene Blowers and adopted through the California School Library Association. Permission is given under a Creative Commons license. I think Creative Commons is a wonderful idea and will help everyone, students and teachers find and use resources.

Thing 22

News

I chose the CNN News Update for my podcast since I like to listen to the latest news reports daily. I used the Podcast directory which was a good resource for podcasts on a wide variety of topics. I thought it was the easiest directory to use. Podcasts could be used in the classroom for science or history resources even in the elementary grades. This would be especially useful to students who are auditory learners.

Thing 21

I really enjoyed making the video. It was easy to create and add music to the video. I liked the variety of selections they offered. It would be nice to make a video in the future of family photos and share them with my family since we are living in different states.

Thing #20

Germinating Seeds

There are so many good videos on YouTube that it is hard to choose only one for my blog. I chose this one on germinating seeds since I enjoy gardening. Starting your own plants from seeds is a great way to save money on plants for your garden. I also like harvesting seeds from my garden and saving them for the next year's growing season. YouTube videos would also be a great resource for class room use to show students activities for science projects.

Thing 17

The bookmarking tool is a very good way to keep up with websites. This will really help in the classroom to store websites for future use. I really like the idea of sharing resources with other teachers and seeing what they found useful also. Teachers can tag the websites which will help students on class work, for example good extra math practice or science resources. Teachers can see what works for teachers in their own area or across the country.

Thing 18

Loretta

I really enjoyed this activity with Facebook. It is a very user friendly site. This can be a great tool for educators to communicate with other teachers and share resources. Facebook would also be a good way for classmates to communicate with each other or the teacher and work on group projects. I really like the picture sharing feature. I chose Facebok because I am already familiar with this site. I use it to communicate with my two sons who attend colleges in different cities. I also communicate with relatives who live across the country.

Thing #16

I really like the IGoogle calendar. It is a great tool for staying organized. I like getting the latest national news updates. This is a good personal organizer for all of us with such busy lives. I like the Mystickies for keeping a grocery list, since I always seem to forget something at the grocery store. This is a good way to keep up with apointments or deadlines for assignments.

Thing #15

I liked the wiki activity. They are a very good way for a group to communicate with one another. The example of the campers planning their supplies list and camp site destination was a great example of how wikies can be used . The sandbox was a good way to comment with classmates and get quick replies and comments. This would also be a good tool for communication within a school or classroom with students.

Thing #14

I chose to explore gliffy and Bubble.us for the flow chart and the mind map activity. I thought gliffy was a bit complicated to use and to navigate. I prefered Bubble.us much more. I thought it was easy to use and a lot ao fun. It was a nice way to brainstorn and express ideas. I like the way the bubbles expand as you write and colors make it more fun. I think Bubble.us would a good choice for use with students in the classroom. Gliffy is good for teachers to explain rules or consequences and could be a tool for teachers to give alternatives for projects. I can see good uses for each tool in the classroom. The main difference between The flow chart and the mind map was that the flow chart was more structured and the mind map was free flowing and more creative.