Summary

Well I made it to the end. There were times I did not think I was going to finish, but I did!! I think my favorite discovery was Animoto. I did not realize it would be so easy to make a slide show. I will definitely use this for personal things as well as with my students. This class has also forced me to go out on the web and explore things I have not always been comfortable with. It was nice to see facebook and myspace, however I will not use it in the future. I guess it is just neat to know what kids are talking about when they mention these things. I plan on exploring more on zohowriter. I think this will be a great tool for my visually impaired children as well as myself. I am glad to know it exists. As far as doing things differently I have to say I would like this better if we actually met and had an question and answer meeting. I realize exploring is a great way to learn, but when something does not work and you have tried it 15 times it gets very frustrating. I know a lot of people have someone to ask at home, but I do not and it was hard to find people to help. This part gave me problems, but I am glad I finished. I am ready to enjoy the rest of the summer!!

Thing 23 Creative Commons

An example that shows Learning 2.0-23 things blog was based on someone else's work was evident in the credits on the welcome page. It clearly tells one what this is based on and who created it. I think this copyright thing is very important. It is only fair that one would get permission before using another persons work. A lot of time and hard work are put into creating some of this very neat stuff and the proper credit should be given. I don't think I or anyone realizes the process one must go through to get permission nor the very small things one would need to get permission for. I am glad I know about the Creative Commons, it makes this process a little bit easier. I will definitely use this before showing videos, putting up home made posters, using bits of quotes, etc. Good thing to know.

Thing 22 Podcasts

I listened to the VIVA! Garden Podcast. The most recent episode was "SunPatiens". The podcast talked about a new type of impatien that can be planted in the sun. To find this podcast I used Podcast Alley which turned out to be user friendly. I will probably not make a podcast with my students, instead I would like them to use podcast to find information relating to what they are currently learning. I will continue exploring the podcasts to find one that I will subscribe to.

Thing 21

This was a fun exercise. I found the computer to be a bit slow, but not too bad. It was a user friendly site and gave very specific instructions to follow, I like that. It was a nice experience.

Thing 20

I have played around on YouTube before, but not much. I enjoyed it, but was a bit overwhelmed by all the information and videos. I usually learn about different videos from TV. I chose the video I chose because it is of my best friends son skateboarding. I think it is neat when kids can go out and skateboard and also make a video and put it on YouTube, a lot more than just "skateboarding". Kids today know how to make the videos and post on YouTube and I think they like it. Anytime you can relate learning to something A. the student knows B. the student likes, you have won. There are so many ways to use this, I think it is neat that it is available and I am sure it can be adapted to any new concept.

Thing 19 Social Networking

OK, this had been a pretty fun thing, but nothing I would persue or really do. I realize there are social networkings for all types, but still it is just now something I like doing. I hope I have done this part right, but I have so many passwords I cannot keep up with them. Someone needs to create something that keeps up with passwords for all the different websites!!

Thing 18 Social networking

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1352964359

This is really not my thing. First of all I feel way too old for this (myspace, facebook, etc). I created an account in facebook, but I just don't feel comfortable looking around. I think these sites are great for students to keep in contact, but when it does not arrive until your 42 it is a little late to hook up with old friends. I would be very hesitant to use this in the classroom, but would let students know about it so they could explore on their own time. Face book seems a little more geared towards older people, while myspace is untimately for the young. I could see how this would be beneficial for a select group of people working on something together or for communicating with someone overseas, but again not my thing.

Thing 17 Tagging and social bookmarking with Del.icio.us

I really think this website and tool are very beneficial to educators and other professions. Keeping everything together "out there" for others to see is cool. This allows students to research any time they can get to a computer and share the information. The teacher can also put information out for all students to benefit from. I don't think this is just an easy way to bookmark, I think this should be used in all classrooms so students can see the wide array of information available to them through technology. Libraries can use this to educate students and parents of new books, etc for them to explore. I like this idea and think it can be used in many ways. It would be neat if the school district did this to inform employees of information and also gave the employees a way to comment about what is going on.

Thing 15

Wiki's open a whole new world. I always knew what wikipedia was, and knew that while it was good information, it was able to be edited. I created a wiki that I can share with my friends that either want low fat type food ideas or are on Weight Watchers, like a good friend of mine. She and I can add different recipes that are WW friendly and low in points. Check out my wiki at http://mywwfood.pbwiki.com/Foods-with-Low-Points. I only added one snack so far, but it is a good little snack that fills you up.

I will keep playing around with wiki's and see what I come up with.

Thing 12

I love google, all parts of google. I set up several Google Alerts to be notified of lots of different things. There is so much you can do with just Googling, it is just a fun and easy tool to use. I used Picasa and saved some pictures. I am planning on playing around more and trying out iGoogle to see what all I can do with it. Googling can find someone any research topic, pictures, and a load of other things I have yet to discover. LOVE IT.

Thing 16 Getting organized with web 2.0 tools

The start page I chose was PageFlakes. I really liked this and yes, I did make it my home page. I found it was really simple to use and to change and I am all about simplicity!! Online calendars are cool, but I don't know if these are for me. I am a pencil and paper girl and like to carry a calendar around with me so if I create something that requires me to do double time I am not that crazy about it. The to do lists are too much work, again it is neat to explore that stuff, but I like a piece of paper and a pencil.

For school I like the PageFlakes. Students can set up their own home page and have some ownership of the computer. It might encourage them to read more about what is going on around them as well.

Thing 14

I could not create an account for bubbles, but I think it is a handy tool. It would make brainstorming much more interesting for the students. It was easy to use but I am not sure how to put it in the blog. I think students could use this for writing and brainstorming and just for general thoughts on any project. The thing I liked about this one was it was already connected and you could choose your shape. There were not a plethra of choices, but I liked the simplicity. For the flow chart I chose Gliffy. I liked this one too, it gave the used more choices, but the user also had to connect items manually. This might be good if you have a more detailed chart and could pick and choose more shapes and detailed items.

Thing 13

This is really neat. It will give everyone the opportunity to use a word processor without all the extra software, which I think is GREAT! I also like all the colors. It adds a lot. I had color and smiley faces, but they did not copy.

I tried out Zoho Writer. I made a grocery list to get things I wanted to cook for dinner. You type what you want and then double click it and it posts it in its own little window. Pretty handy. I changed the font, added pictures, etc. I think I could use this as a place to keep my students info, their likes and preferences to activities I do with them, etc. This could be a living journal that I could go back and refer to, add to, print information from, and delete when completed. It is a "on the road" word processor that I could have access to from any computer. It would be quite helpful to keep track with since I type faster than I write.

Thing 11

I usually use Google.com to search for stuff. Home page is Google.com, so it is just easiest for me. All the search tools I have used are pretty user friendly and easy. So really, none were that confusing. I played around and found that the FoodNetwork has a feed. I added that I think as I search around more and when I go to sites I usually go to, I will look for the RSS feeds and add more in the upcoming days.

I tried to get to Feedster, but it kept giving me an error that the page wasn't found. So next I went to Topix.net. I found this one to be very confusing. It wasn't set up so that I could really read it easily. I didn't stay on that site for very long. Too much nonsense type info. So then I went to Google Blog Search. Much better! Very organized and easy to understand. You can type in anything like when you are Googling and the blogs appear, along with the RSS feeds and blog urls. I found houses for sale, news about my town, sports in my town, (I googled my town, obviously), stores...all sorts of stuff. I also noticed that sometimes, those blogs may be listed, but the actual blog isn't there anymore. I found one blog that a person did about their garden. All sorts of pictures, what she was doing in her garden that day, how hot the day was, etc. Pretty interesting. There was a picture of her house on one of her postings and I know where it is because I recognized the house!

I will be playing around on Google Blog Search more often!

Thing 10

I LOVED this Thing. This was an awesome discovery. I always wanted to know what those RSS or feeds were when I saw them on websites, but didn't realize what I could do with it! I like the fact that I don't have to check out 3 or 4 different news sites to get up to date news. I can just go to my Google Reader and read everything. In my personal life, I will use RSS all the time, but it may be a little more difficult in my teaching life, since I am a vision teacher. I will teach my kids about this at the high school level though, so they can learn how to get to information much quicker and easier and in one place after the initial reader and sites are set up. Librarians and teachers alike can use this to keep up to date on new books, resources, teaching methods, etc. This will make a lot of people's lives easier!

My pekingese

Thing 9

This wasn't as hard as thing 8, I think. I think these things are great, but when exploring by myself I am not always sure of the steps of the process I took. I am not sure I could teach this. I wish we have instructors in person to help us.

Thing 9

Thing 8

I give up, I have tried to get this on my blog but having difficulty. I really need some help.

Thing 8

I don't know what I have done wrong, but the "Life is Good" is not appearing as it was created. Any suggestions?

Thing 7

I hope I have posted a picture on "misd23things". Not quite sure I have done this correctly. I liked Flicker, however this is something I would not use with my students. First, I work with visually impaired students and pictures don't really mean anything to them and second it is kind of scary for the photos to be "out there" for all to see. I have never used a photo website before, but very interesting. It would definitely take a lot of practice for me to become a "pro" at this one.

Bandit

My baby, Bandit. I got him just a few months ago and he is 3 years old. He is soooo sweet.

Thing 6

I explored urbanspoon.com and imcooked.com. I really liked urbanspoon because it gave you different restaurants to try, however it did not have a lot of the menus for each restaurant. I like to try new places and it did provide me with locations and the kind of cuisine they offered. This website is not really something I would use in the classroom except for down time to let the students explore the world outside of Mesquite and what is available for them. Oh, and the website would sort out places by location, so if you wanted a restaurant in Rockwall you could look just at Rockwall. I thought that was completely neat.

The other website I chose to look over was imcooked.com and I really loved this one. You could look at different entrees, desserts, appetizers, and various kinds of recipes and actually watch on video the meal being prepared. I think this could be used in the classroom for numerous things. In Home Ec. or Family Planning the students could create their own video to post which would allow them to learn how to put something out there for all to see. It could also be a teaching tool for how to writing because some of the recipes are done to music with no dialogue so the student could watch and write the dialogue for them. I really liked this website and will save it to my favorites for my own use.

Thing 5

School 2.0 means many things to me. First to mind is independent learning. Blogging allows students and teachers to respond or even initiate communication at various times and places. This method does not lock you in to 8:00 to 4:00, you can express anything anytime. It also means equality to me. A lot of times students are assigned projects and usually the students from an involved family show up with a beautiful project and others show with nothing or the bare minimum. The computer world allows each student the same thing. Pictures, information, and extras are there to be had by all. It is almost like meeting someone without ever seeing them. I like the method and am truly interested.

As far as the future for schools, there might not be as big a need for teachers as has been in the past. YIKES!! but with the amount of information out there everyone deserves the opportunity to explore.

Thing 4

Commenting is like "talking" or dialogue. I believe that when one writes as they talk the message comes across easier and bit more entertaining. Students so many times are intimidated by writing that if they "talk" their writing then is sounds a) more natural and b) easier to read. It is important for your personality to shine through as you comment so others will find it personal and fun. I think that 2 things important in commenting is to ask open ended questions and share info about yourself. Open ended questions allow the respondent to "talk" and share his/her opinions and thoughts. AND who wants to communicate with a dummy! I like to know personal things about the person I am blogging with, and I like to share info about myself. I commented to Shan about this class because we were in another class together. It was just like sending a quick email to her. I just communicated about this class and if she liked it etc.

I am not sure I really chose specific "comments" however I hope that whatever I blog about is interesting and people find it purposeful. I chose 5 bloggers from the sidebar but where do I get the other two? AGAIN, not so good at this, still don't have an Avatar!

The seven blogs from our group are:
1. 23 thing by Miss Williams
2. 50 days
3. Kathleen's blog
4. Technocricket
5. Boog Phil
6. Wendy's Wanderings
7. Cricket's corner

I selected two of them because they were in a previous workshop with me and the others I selected based on their names. I actually have looked at more just because it is fun!!

I selected http://grapevinetomatogarden.blogspot.com/ blog. I found a blog in Grapevine, Texas about gardening. I love to garden so this was interesting to check out. There are pictures, comments, things she is growing, things that have happened in her yard. Some of the pictures were really pretty.

The other blog I checked out is http://highndrygarden.blogspot.com/2008/07/flower-bed-i-never-water.html. Pictures of flowers, and stories about homes, stories about what her flower garden used to be like versus now. All types of gardening interest so this was a great blog to look at.

Thing 3

Blogging seems like a fun and exciting way to allow the students to communicate. It would also help them with writing and expressing themselves. In todays world this is a necessary skill.

Thing 2

Well, I thought I was OK at the computer, BUT obviously not. I have had a lot of trouble and I still don't have an Avatar?! I think I have it now, but not so sure. Maybe I am just a "First do this, second do this...etc" kind of person. Anyway I hope I have done this correctly and can kind of get caught up.

Well, I named the blog after my position. I wasn't sure what the "proper" naming of the blog should be, I just wanted something I could easily remember. Creating the blog was not a piece of cake, but it was much easier than creating an avatar. I thought that was hard, I had to seek help from a friend. I was just wanting step by step directions.

My avatar is kind of "bohemian" which reflects my personality. I love the "hippie" era so I dressed her that way. I did make her look as much like me as possible, but I an not quite that skinny! I thought she should look like me instead of someone else. I think that is deceiving when people make their avatar not look like them. I put her outside a home with flowers because I love to garden. I have learned as I grow older that I should have majored in horticulture and owned my own nursery. Sometimes I think life is backwards because we don't quite figure out what we truly want to be until it is too late, anyway I do love my job!

Thing 1

I have looked at thing 1 and I certainly agree with the concept of learning by experimenting. I think everyone to a certain degree can benefit with this, however it seems that there is not enough time to use this method with so many tests!

As far as my experience in setting up the blog, it was a mess!! Really actually the blog wasn't that hard it was the avatar. I had to seek outside help in getting this done. My experience all in all was bad, however I hope exploring the "23 things" is fun. I look forward to moving on.

The easiest habit of lifelong learners for me was habit 1: begin with the end in mind. I tend to think of what I want and then work backwards. I try to create steps to get to the ultimate goal I have set for myself.

The hardest habit is habit 3: view problems as challenges. I am really bad about tuning out or loosing confidence when things become a challenge. I don't feel this way about all problems, however if it is something that is new to me totally or something I know nothing about I become intimidated and shut down.

I would like to learn anything I can about Web 2.0. I like to share with my students and because I work with visually impaired students I really like to share technology ideas because they are so fast at catching on and entertaining themselves with it. So anything I pick up here I will pass on to them!!

Vision Teacher

This is really a test. I have started my blog but my url was wrong. I am now recreating it.