Is This the End or Only the Beginning?

This 23 Things Blog has been a roller coaster ride! I sometimes experienced feelings of frustration when trying to figure out embedding codes and HTML and things like that, but I also was very proud of this blog. Completing this project and doing these activities have made me so much more confident in technology and my future as a teacher. Now, I'm not so afraid of being left behind since before, I wasn't the most tech savvy person in the world. I was pretty surprised at how little I knew about technology. I honestly had never heard of about half of the websites we used and RSS feeds and things. I knew nothing about social bookmarking or even much about bookmarking in general. That's sad, right? I learned how to use so many things! Things like image generators, iGoogle, to-do lists and calanders, and LiveBinders. Many of these Web 2.0 tools I can use just about everyday and many of them will make my life much easier. I liked almost everything about the project except that some things repeated several times. I feel like there were a few too many things about social networking. But all in all, it was a great program and I learned many things!

I am continuing to learn about new technology after this class by subscribing to the RSS feed for the Learning 2.1 blog. Technology changes so fast and it is very important to keep up with it so my students will get the most they can out of my class.

Thing 23

Creative Commons licensing is a very important thing to know about as a teacher or anyone using the Internet for resources. Dr. Wall credited several different people for our 23 Things blog as you can see in this screen shot below. Although Dr. Wall modified it, she still had to give credit since it was not her original idea.

As a teacher, I will have to use Creative Commons licensing because even though it may seem harmless to copy and paste something, it could actually get you into trouble. 

Thing 22

The three binders that I made all had websites and resources that we learned about in our instructional technology class. I decided to share my LiveBinder that I titled 3040 Binder. It has 3 tabs; the first is the Cool Cat Teacher blog, the second is Flickr and the last one is Zoho.

3040 Binder

LiveBinders are great because you can add a website to a binder anywhere, as long as you have internet access. Teachers can use them for the classroom to keep themselves organized. They are also easy to share so they could be used to share helpful websites and resources with parents and students. Teachers could also make a LiveBinder filled with resources to help students out on an assignment or project that they may have to work on at home.

Thing 21

Try the slideshow maker at Animoto!

I really enjoyed making my video on Animoto because it was easy and fun! All I had to do was chose a the style I wanted, choose music, and choose the pictures and Animoto did the rest of the work. The only downside of Animoto is that if you want a video that lasts longer than 30 seconds then you have to pay for an upgrade. In the future I might decide to do this because I think I could use Animoto to pay a slideshow of pictures for open houses or classroom parties or projects, among other things.

Thing 20

I absolutely love Youtube! It's such an easy website to search for and watch videos that interest you. Most times I watch music videos for funny videos or news stories that interest me. I found this video about the roles teachers can play in students lives. It made me a little emotional to think about the impact I could have on a student's life by encouraging them and that is what makes me look forward to becoming a teacher!



This video is about the importance of teachers knowing how to use the Internet because it is the future; it's not just a fad. I thought it went along perfectly with our instructional technology class, plus the little boy in it is pretty adorable!



I also explored Teacher Tube. Both of these websites could be used in the classroom to show video clips or something that could enhance the lesson. I've had several teachers in the past do this. It's refreshing to watch a video occasionally instead of just listening to a lecture, plus there are a lot of great educational videos out there!

Thing 19

In addition to Twitter and Facebook, I have also joined the social networks TeacherPop and Craftster. TeacherPop is appealing because it is specifically for those networked to APSU. This network is a place for teachers to communicate and share ideas about common interests, which is teaching and education. I also decided to join Craftster. It is a social network for people who enjoy doing crafts and making art for a hobby. On the website you can find out how to do just about every craft imaginable. There are articles, pictures and videos. My favorite part of the website is the tag cloud. The tag cloud has hundreds of different tags of things such as, Halloween, Christmas, children's books, and different crafts that go along with each tag. I think I could use this later on in the classroom to find crafts for students to do that could enhance the curriculum.

Thing 18

I can say with confidence that I use facebook more than any other website. Whether I'm procrastinating homework or waiting for class to start, there's a good chance that I'm on my facebook page! Educators should know about social networking because it can help them communicate and learn from one another. When I joined twitter for this project I followed a couple of educators and while reading through their tweets I learned a lot about different technology and government programs and things I had never heard of. I personally like facebook more than twitter because it is simply more personable. However, if I were to use social networking in or for the classroom, I would probably get one separate from my personal facebook or twitter. Both of them could be used to share things such as classroom news and projects with parents. Because they, like me, probably use social networking quite often so it could be an easy way for them to stay up to date. With facebook, you could also share pictures. Facebook or twitter could also be used to network with co-workers or other educators to receive and share advice or resources.