Thing #21

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

My experience with Animoto was stressful. I think there was some sort of glitch whenever I went to preview my video. I could not see what it was going to look like until after I published it. Luckily the video turned out okay. If it was not for that error in the system, I would have really enjoyed playing around with Animoto. This site really gets the creative mind flowing.

Thing #24

My Feedback:
Some of my favorite exercises were the ones using photos. I love creativity when it comes to educations, and I know students tend to be more interested when visuals and hand-on activities are involved.

This program has shaped the way I think about technology in regards to using it for educational purposes rather than for entertainment purposes. Times are changing, and students need to know the ins and outs of the world wide web and other electronic devices.

In the beginning, the habits of learning really got me to evaluate my mind and the way I look at education. Not everything will be perfect, some teachers will mark one paper an A and to another teacher it may be worth a D. You can't please everyone, but you can do your best.

Some parts of the 23 things seem to be redundant. Maybe they can come up with a test to take on the 23 things, and whatever parts are passed then the student can disregard those when writing their blog.

Since my classroom will hopefully be more advanced in technology then the classroom of my high school days, I plan to incorporate it more, but only when necessary. The Internet can be distracting to students, especially for high school seniors.

I plan on keeping this blog for future use. Right now as a college student, my time is limited. When I do have free time, I am usually napping or going for a jog. Blogging is not in my list of top hobbies because when I do have thoughts that are personal on a subject, I tend to keep them to myself. I do not like my business being shouted out to anyone, especially not over the Internet. As an adult, with a stable job and a more routine day, I can possibly work blogging into my time, and I can definitely incorporate it in my classroom as a teacher.

Thing #23

The Student Journalism 2.0 reminded me a lot of the 23 things. It allows students to express their thoughts through blogs on various topics. As an English teacher, Creative Commons is a resource that my students can use with their papers, projects, and personal knowledge growth. For extra credit, I can have students create an account for Creative Commons ("extra credit" is the magic word to any high school student's ears). I also used the Creative Commons site in my interactive document for Livetext. The document allows students to quickly navigate to specific links and see images about the issue of plagiarism and how to avoid it. Creative Commons gives users a safe environment to share their works.

Thing #22

I created three binders: Beowulf, Geoffrey Chaucer, and APSU. APSU is my private folder with information in regards to my time at Austin Peay and any resources I may need for tips, forms, or notes.



My first creation the Beowulf binder. It contains any relevant resources pertaining to Beowulf. I used Google search and it automatically synced the websites for me! Which saves me a lot of work.

LiveBinders can be used in the classroom by teachers and students. If a teacher has many websites or PDF files that she wants to share with the class she can have them all in one area. A possible assignment for students can be to find other educational websites or articles pertaining to a topic and place them in a LiveBinder. The binder can be shared with other students and the entire class will have their information in one place.

Thing #20

Youtube is one of my favorite sites. I can sit around all day watching funny videos of people falling or pulling pranks. You can find ANYTHING on Youtube. I use the site for mostly entertainment purposes, but teachers can find all kinds of educational videos on Youtube also.

I chose to post "Kid President" because sometimes you just need an extra boost to enjoy the next hour of class, or to make it through a stressful week. This would be a good video to play to my students during midterms and finals. I like how much Youtube has to offer in terms of the quantity of videos, but the quality of a lot of videos is poor especially in content. There are very nasty and vulgar things on Youtube which is why it was blocked from CMCSS computers. I am not sure if Youtube is still blocked, but there are other sites you can watch videos from that edit the content better.



There are a lot of interesting components of Youtube that could be applied to the Library Website. One being that after you search for a video using the title or key words, similar videos of similar content come up on the side. So once you finish watching the original video you searched for, you can move right on to the next video in sequence. Most library pages do that with articles.

Thing #19

I am a member of a few different types of social networking sites such as Pinterest and Wanelo. Both are sites where users post pictures of crafts, clothes, and other things with links to obtain a certain clothing item or find a certain recipe. I can spend hours just looking through at the many craft ideas, recipes, and cute clothes that people post.
Bake space was appealing to me because I love to bake and cook. This site has many recipes on it, but I did not want to join it because I do not have a lot of recipes to offer the site.
The Teacher Pop Ning site had many questions and topics that people commented on. I can use these many opinions to get an idea an what teaching strategy is best, or what piece of technology suites which type of grade level best. I can even ask my own question to get a discussion going and have many helpful answers to choose from! I like how Teacher Pop has to accept the person's request to join the site and that it is not open to the public. That is how Pinterest is also.

I am adding the TeacherPop badge here because it will not appear on my profile.

Visit TeacherPop

Thing #18

Twitter is my favorite way of communicating with my friends, catching up on the news, finding out who won the game, and sometimes reading a spoil alert about a new episode of my favorite TV show (unfortunately). There are all different types of Anonymous accounts that are there to make people laugh, and celebrities have twitters also.
 I like Twitter better than Facebook because its just for people's thoughts. No one is inviting me to play a stupid computer game or blowing up my time line with spam and invitations to play "Farmville" or whatever game they are inviting me to. I just like to see whats going on in those whose lives I care about but do not see often, or maybe pictures of a vacation, etc.
 Instructors need to know the importance of social networking because it is apart of the adolescents everyday lives now. I never go anywhere without my phone and I have been that way since my first flip phone. The future generations are going to become more tech savvy and soon a new social networking site will appear ten times better than the most popular ones of today.
I can only see the use of Twitter in the classroom if someone needed to do a biography about a celebrity or do a newsletter for the here and now subjects of our world. Facebook would be the better classroom option because people can create private groups. This would be good for group work, online discussions, etc.

Thing #17

Delicious is one of the most helpful resources that I have discovered in EDUC 3040. I definitely plan on using this as a classroom tool. The potential that Delicious has in the classroom goes above and beyond what my expectations were. You can see tags and bookmarks and comments all at once. You can attach the link to your page and have access to it whenever you need it.
Teachers can take advantage of social bookmarking sites by sharing ideas with other instructors, finding new practices or new ways of teaching a standard, and allow students to research and discover educational items on their own in some cases. The fact that I can type any English related word and Delicious comes up with hundreds of links is astonishing. And I can save them all to my page!

Thing #16

I chose iGoogle because it syncs with my Gmail account. It has everything that I usually check when I get on the Internet in one spot. You can also change the background photo and page theme. Bookmarks and widgets help navigate the web to other sites that I normally search for. I will not make it my personal homepage because the APSU one stop log in page is my current home page. APSU one stop and D2L is where I spend most of my Internet hours anyways.

Online calendars, like Google calendar, are helpful in organizing dates and meetings. You can color code your calendars, have more than one for different schedules, and if you have a Gmail account it can sync to your iPhone so you have the calendar with you always.

The to-do lists were an OK tool. I preferred Remember the Milk the most because of the layout and many tabs. The site is organized in my opinion and easy to follow. Unfortunately, I wont need to use it hardly because I have a To-do list application on my iPhone that I can quickly type up with no Internet access needed. Sometimes for me to really make sure I get something done, I have to write it on my hand so I will constantly see it and be reminded. That's only for extreme cases!

Google Calendars is the most useful tool I have come across, and I encourage others to get a Gmail account and play around with Google calendar.

Thing #15

Wikis would be useful for a group project where all persons involved will have access to the page. If I wanted to split my students into groups to create a page for a certain novel, wikis are the best way to do that. I did not have anything to write about when I added a page, so I was not as creative as I could have been. I just think it is interesting how everything is together and all persons involved have access to edit and save the page.

Thing #14

Making flow charts and mind maps is a fun and easy way to lay out your ideas so that they are easier to understand and follow. If you are like me, I have a million ideas running through my brain at once and its difficult to begin a paper or project without brainstorming first. Both sites that I used to create my charts make exporting files simple also.

I chose Gliffy to make my flowchart. It made the template for me, and all I needed to do was change the words and legend. Flowcharts help find a solution to a problem or question. I made a flow chart that would be relevant to my 12th grade English class for the standard I chose.

For the mind map, I chose the website bubbl.us. I made a brainstorming sheet for Chaucer which is an author that 12th graders cover. Mind maps are more for organizing a paper or making an outline of notes. Bubbl.us makes terms and directions easy to understand so making this mind map was quick.

Thing #13

The free Zoho online workshop is almost an exact replica of Microsoft Word. Zoho takes a few seconds to process letters when typed, but that depends on Internet access. Zoho is an easier to use and free tool for students who cannot afford Microsoft Word or need documents that can go wherever Internet access is available. If a student forgot their jump drive at school and have a paper due the next day, he or she can type it on Zoho and print it out for class time so it won't be late.

After working with Google Docs, I prefer Google over Zoho because students can use google docs with their emails to efficiently share and work on documents together. Zoho can be connected through each individuals email account, but, with Google, every student needs a gmail that downloads google docs correctly with misconstruing any of the documents. You may also use Google Docs to draw pictures like the one I made below.

Thing #12

I explored Google Calendar and found it very easy to set times and dates for my meetings and events. This tool can be helpful to both the students and me as the teacher. Students can put reminders in their calenders about homework assignments and upcoming due dates for papers. I can also share my events with my students if I have their email address. I will require all of my students to create a professional email address if they do not already have one because they are needed for college and in the real world. I could not survive without my gmail account. I did not want to include a link to my calendar because it is personal to me. I already created a Picasa account before this class because I edited pictures to give to my friends as Christmas presents. Picasa is a helpful photo-editing tool, which can be resourceful to my students in projects.

Here is a picture of one of my friends that I edited with Picasa.

Thing #9

<a href="http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/" target="_blank"> <img src="http://cdn-img1.imagechef.com/w/130219/399101effe463cfa.gif" alt="ImageChef Word Mosaic - ImageChef.com"/> </a>

 

The first site I explored was the Custom Sign Generator, but there was too much going on. The next generator I tried out was Image Chef. I used a star and "First, Finest, Forever" which is one of my sorority's symbol and sayings. I loved how I could combine the two into one picture. Image Chef could be used by a student to portray a vocabulary word using three words and a shape that correspond with the vocabulary word. I looked at the other generators but I couldn't figure out them for the most part. Image Chef has the cutest idea anyways.

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Beach

This picture is also from Image Chef. It has lots of generators to create all kinds of images. This allows students to be crafty and creative in classroom projects. There is a sticky note generator, a flower art generator, and the list goes on.

Thing #8

 
 Photos by: Erik Kastner

Flickr and Flickr mash ups make being creative much more feasible. Some people are not good artists, but signs are easier to make with picture letters. Using the Spell with Flickr was so simple. The only issue I had was uploading the pictures to my blog. I had to upload each individual photograph to the desktop and then upload them to my blog. The inventor did not have a good page layout, but making the word was not difficult to understand. I plan on printing my creation in color and framing it to hang up in my room! This tool can also be useful in the class. Instead of using Times New Roman to label a station or put my name outside the classroom door, I can use Spell with Flickr. I could also have each student be assigned a vocabulary word, use this tool to represent it, and then define their word. Interactive lessons with student presentations allows for more engagement in the classroom. Sharing photographs online is interesting. There are so many effects a person can make to a picture to enhance certain parts of it. However, it can be dangerous. If a photograph that you did not originally take is used in a presentation, then you are liable to be sued for plagiarism. Always cite your pictures!

Thing #7

My experience on Flickr was good. I found what I wanted, which was the ocean, quickly by searching the popular tags. I did not want to set up an account with Flickr because I already have an account with a different photo sharing program called Instagram. None of my friends have a Flickr so I would be looking at strangers' photos which is weird to me. Flickr seems more of a program for aspiring photographers because the pictures look professionally edited. I could not figure out how to upload the image so I took a screen shot of the photo instead. It gives me motivation for Spring Break that is in a few weeks! Flickr seems like a good site to find photographs for slide show presentations so I will be returning to Flickr in the near future. Remembering to cite the photographer is very important because of moral and ethical reasons, not to mention the possibility of a lawsuit if a person fails to cite the photographer also. This picture of the beautiful ocean waves was taken by Victor López Donís.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/viltorinox/8489683438/lightbox/

Thing #6

I found a site called "Opinsy". People post debate topics and you click "agree" or "disagree" and can see the percentages of who all has voted. I like how you can agree or disagree with any post, but in order to join the discussion you have to create an account. The topics vary from gun control to aliens. A person can even make up their own topic for the cyber community to vote on. I could see it in schools and libraries for a political science class or english class. It would be interesting to see the anonymous opinions from not only fellow classmates but from people all across the globe. A person's opinion on a subject in California will be much different than a person who is from Kentucky.

http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=Opinsy

Thing #4

As people, we need relationships with others; we were created for interaction. Commenting creates a sense of community which helps in our relationships. Some people are so introverted that expressing their thoughts over the internet rather than through face-to-face communication is easier for them.

A few things I read that I thought were interesting when it comes to commenting is that reinforcing our opinions is best when we have real world examples to back it up. For instance, if I disagree with a peer's post I can state why with a personal experience. Another tidbit of information I never realized before was that bloggers don't write for just their personal growth, they want others to read and respond to their posts. So make commenting a regular practice with well crafted responses.

The classmates posts that I commented on where Amber Law's Thing 1, Megan Singleton's Thing 1, Jeffrey Doyle's Thing 2, Raleigh Scott's Thing 3, and Kerri Wheeler's Thing 1. Some of these I chose because I knew the person, others because of their content. The Thing 1 posts were very interesting to see the differences and similarities between everyone on the Learning Habits. I enjoyed reading everyone's opinions and giving my own in return. Some of the posts had advice on how to fix a bad habit, or how to enhance one that I do well.

The outside posts that I commented on were "Why Stretching is Just as Important as Exercise" and "Created by God...For God". I chose these two blogs because they are different topics so I will have various responses. The article about stretching gave me tips for why it is important and what kind of stretching is the best. I commented how I was surprised to learn a few things from reading, and also a problem with my shins I get when I do not stretch properly. For the second article, the title caught my eye and I decided to read on. The article really spoke to me on all levels of what I am struggling with in my life. I commented on how I related to the author's story and asked questions that are so spiritual that I doubt she will answer me. We will see!

Thing #11

The easiest method to search for newsfeeds is the Google Blog Search. I tried all the methods, but the most clear and easiest to navigate out of all to me was Google. I think this is because the RSS is made through Google. Technorati was the most confusing to me because it had so many topics all over the place. I did not find any unusual sites because I did not search for anything uncommon. I found religious, health, and women blogs to add to my RSS feed along with a CNN and a FOX News blog. I have six total sunscriptions all various in topics that interest me and are useful to the stage of my life that I am in.

Thing #10

I like that I can pick which subscriptions show up in my news feed, and I can sort the information in different ways. I chose blogs that pertained to the world and lifestyle around me. I have subscriptions to news, biblical devotions, and recipes. Teachers can use this to simplify what they read on the web. The information is coming to the teacher rather than the teacher having to constantly look up items. I would make a public blog, but I don't feel like I have anything interesting to say or that would be important to anyone except my fellow classmates.

Thing #5

When I read the "What is Web 2.0?" article I got a clear understanding of what Web 2.0 is designed to do. The article has tools categorized with explanations for each. "Web 2.0 is the Future of Education" believes Web 2.0 will have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press, but why don't more people know about it then? There are always going to be people who enjoy the old fashion way. I do myself. When you write out a paper you catch more mistakes than you do typing it out. If a person always has a computer to rely on then how will they do anything for themselves? It reminds me of when the graphing calculator started getting more advanced. Once mathematics got harder and the math more complicated, students began to rely on the calculator for everything. Basic division and multiplication became forgotten. What happens when everything is online and the power goes out? If all people know is how to type, imagine how atrocious the handwriting will be. My attitude may be this way because I am an English Major. School 2.0 means to me a school system entirely technological, which will make things faster, but that allows for many problems to arise. Many students of School 2.0 will have an opportunity to share ideas all across the globe. Everything will be online, mobile, and networking will play a big role in every day life.

Thing #3

Some ways I can use a blog in my future classroom is for Discussion boards, newsletters, and to post homework assignments. D2L may be difficult to navigate for some students, but the blog is very simple.

If I wanted my class to discuss the reading assigned as homework, I could post an excerpt and ask a few questions to get the conversation going. Students need different aspects when talking about literature because more often than not is something pointed out that one may not have notice when first reading the literature.

I can also use  my blog to give ideas to other instructors on what to read, which parts of certain novels are the most rich in detail, and other subject areas along those lines.

Thing #2

The only experience I have with blogs was in middle school when myspace was very popular. Sometimes my friends would write their ideas, beliefs, or stories and any one could read whatever they posted if they were friends with that person. I never posted any myself because I never felt like I had much to say.

I just used my name so everyone will know I author the blog, and I have to use "Thing #" as all my titles. I did not have a option, but I would have picked that title anyway because it is simple.

Creating this blog was very easy because the teacher went step by step with the students. However, if someone just sat me at a computer and asked me to make a blog I would have no idea where to begin.

I made my avatar to look like me because why would I want to change my appearance? That would be awkward in my opinion if someone heard my name and when they looked at me I didn't look like my avatar. The clothes were more difficult to pick out because my typical school outfit is not a choice when making the avatar.

Thing #1

The habit that comes easiest to me out of the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learning is habit #2: accept responsibility for your own learning. I have always been a fast learner, and my grades have always been exceptional. Growing up I always taught myself, never needed help with my homework. My parents were hardly home long enough for me to ask for assistance, and it didn't take long for my homework to get so complicated that they didn't know how to help. I feel the most accomplished when I do assignments on my own and can take full responsibility of the grade I receive afterwards.
The most difficult of the habits for me is #4: have confidence in yourself as a competent and effective learner. This is because no matter how smart I am, I know someone is smarter. I never feel like my best is good enough even if I get an A on an assignment. I always feel as if I can do better no matter the outcome. I always second guess my questions, thinking that I may have a stupid question so I just don't ask 99% of the time. I know people say there are no stupid questions, but really there is. Every classroom has that one person who asks a thousand questions that are meaningless, and I don't want that person to be me.
I want to gain a better knowledge of technology by using Web 2.0 tools. I am good with computers, but some people are masters of technology. I think this course will help me increase my technological skills. This blog was much easier to set up than what I expected. Blogs have always sounded complicated to me, but this was a piece of cake.