One last thing...

Really? One more thing? Man, and I thought I was done. Oh well. I'm going to be a turd and just answer all the questions.

* What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My all time favorite thing that I did was signing up for Shelfari. I really love all the gadgets and interactivity of that site. And I'm not one for social networks (See Thing 18). I even put the widget in my blog that shows all the books that are on my shelf at Shelfari.
The most useful exercise was the one with Gliffy (Thing 14) because all the different applications that site has is wonderful for any teacher.

* How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?
I now have something that can be used as a reflection tools in my lifelong learning. And there are so many opportunities for play with all the Web 2.0 tools (sometimes too many /: )  But then you find one that is wonderful for collaboration and alternate ways to assess knowledge (podcasts and YouTube). You just got to look.

* Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I now have an iGoogle page. And a Facebook account. And a blog. This whole thing was just one big unexpectedly fun adventure across subspace. Thought there were some times that made me go 'Ugh'.

* What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Personally? Well, because it was a link in D2L sometimes you would open sites and it would be trapped in the D2L box thingy so it was hard to see or the site wouldn't even open because of something like "cannot open in another site". That's the only thing that peeved me.

* How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?
I have a whole new set of skills under my belt and I'm ready to unleash them. Ways to interact, ways to facilitate learning, ways to engage children, all with the click of the mouse (or clicks of a keyboard). Most everything learned in the 23 Things is applicable in a classroom!

* How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.
If you hear of a beta, try it. If it looks fun, try it. If it the application works, keep at it. If not move on. Just staying aware that the Web is a changing interface is a good start. Going though and doing exercises like this like every five years or so would be awesome as well.

And as for coninuing with this I pledge too:
1. Keep my Facebook and actually update it.
2. Keep on with my blog.
So, for the 23 Things crowd, Au revoir!

Thing #23

Score! 
We totally already went over this in class! And another funny thing is I used the Fair(y) Use Tale as a tool in my technology project for the lesson we had to create about Creative Commons.
As for our discovery exercise, what shows that Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers was based on someone else's work is in the credits. It states it outright.

"Credits 
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."

That's pretty much a smokin' gun right there. Wow, this 23 Things thing has been adapted from an adaption of a work. That's so cool. AND, there's a sticker at the end of the 23th thing that says that  Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is under a Creative Commons license as well. Which means we could adapt it in the future to teach our students about all the fun and interesting Web 2.0 tools....Hey...This is kind of like the "Circle of Life" isn't it? We learn then use what we learned to teach others so that they can teach others. HOLY MOLY, I just got the point of all this!
And the use of learning about the Creative Commons is so that
a) we don’t break any copyright laws
b) so that we can be informed individuals and share all that we learned so that the circle continues!
Now that I've had a breakthrough, I'm going to go listen to that song...

Thing #22

Isn't it funny? We just made a podcast! :D Now we are discussing them again. I think I sense a pattern here. I chose a podcast entitled Write Now, because I would like to, one day aside from being an educator, be a young adult and children's writer. This be the link. Actually I listened to the third one, entitled 'Calming the Inner Critic'.
 I found this in Podcast Directory which turned out to be the easiest to use. However, that doesn't seem to be saying much. There were some podcasts in there that did not have anything and the way everything is filed there is very odd. However, the other directories were not much better so...I'll just stick with Podcast Directory.
But back to the actual podcast I enjoyed it because it was a little bit helping you fight writers block, a little bit meditation and a little bit positve thinking. The host's voice isn't annoying or the like. And I know I have a really hard time calming down my inner critic so...I plan on subscribing...I think I have like 6 feeds on my Google reader now.

Thing #21

Animoto is super easy and fun! I had a ball putting together my video. I also like how you could use music from your own library. I, personally, went with Daft Punk. All the buttons and gadgets are self-explanatory or explained so that anyone with just a little computer experience could create a video. The only drawback I saw with Animoto is how they are constantly bugging you to upgrade. I swear like every 2 seconds something is popping up to ask you "would you like an Upgrade?" No, no Animoto I do not want an upgrade. I don't have the money, so please stop asking me! D8
Also, so where do I put my video exactly?
Oh, so that's how! Nevermind....


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing #20

Really we get to do a thing on YouTube?? Really?! I LOVE YOUTUBE! There is so much fun to be had on the Tubes!
There's so much stuff on there too. Like just absolutely silly videos but what I really like is finding music videos on there like this one: (MIKA is awesome. You should really watch it!)

On a more professional note there are many videos on YouTube. In Educ 2100 are teacher had us watch like three videos on YouTube and answer questions about it. The theme was Exceptional Students. For my Diversity 4160 class we had to make an Annotated Resource Folder. I found this video and used it as one of my resources in my folder.


The only thing I never really liked about YouTube is it usually takes FOREVER to find anything worth while on that site because there is no way that videos are sorted. I would really like it if there were channels like on Hulu on YouTube. That would make life easier.

Thing #19

I signed up for two social networks. TeacherPop and Shelfari. Of the three social networks I'm on, Shelfari is my favorite! It's all about books, which is my all time favorite thing in the entire world (followed by Star Trek) and you can tell EVERYONE which books you have read, you are reading, and you want to read. And on your virtual bookshelf you can see the actual book (I think that's the part I like best)! Here's my page: http://www.shelfari.com/o1514261237
I also signed up for TeacherPop, because it is a network just for educators and it was started here at APSU! My actual membership is still awaiting approval, but I have high hopes for this site. It's like Facebook, which is wonderful for educators to network, but just for teachers.
Now I'm going to go play on Shelfari some more. LOVEIN' IT!!

Thing #18

WHY? You know what happened last time I got a Facebook account? After two months I DELETED IT. ಠ_ಠ
I'm hoping this time around I can keep it longer, hahahahaha .__________. YES. Link to my page here!
No, but really social networking...not my cup of tea. I'm not a social person to begin with and here I am handed a way to be seen by people 24/7. I'm kind of looking at you funny saying, "Now why would I want that?"
I did friend someone. It was a character from one of my favorite webcomics. (Haha, no I'm not joking). But when I tried to find my BFF on there I couldn't. I'm not sure if I'm not looking in the right place or like what. I have no idea.
For education, can be a wonderful thing. Teachers can connect and keep in touch at the click of a button. Also by knowing about and being able to navigate social networking sites they won't be in the dark about things like cyber bullying and all the other not so nice things Facebook can be used for. I know in a class I had last semester our professor created a Facebook page for the class so people to congregate and ask questions among themselves and what ever else they wanted to to there (his words not mine) and this route might be applicable for a social networking site in view of high school learning (seeing as you must be over 13 to get into most of these sites).

Thing #17

I think the Common Craft guys sum up how nicely social bookmarking can work for a teacher.
It would also be interesting for a whole grade level, like say 2nd grade (that's what I want to teach), had a common tag so they can share the different tags among themselves. It would be really useful in high schools where teens are more free to use a computer, so you could create a whole list of things for them to read on this site.
The only thing that would worry me is if you wanted to have some of your personal tags in there, for me it would be Star Trek sites or something silly like that, your students could see that too. I'm wondering if you could make a personal list that only you could see, or if you could have two accounts? I'm thinking about checking that out! It would be lovely to have my bookmarks not only on my labtop!

Thing #16

Firstly, I used the Google start page. Why? Because since Blogger is connected to Google I already had one to begin with so no signing up for something new. HOORAY! Also, I just really like Google. A lot.
I customized the snot out of my page (it was fun!) Deleted useless things like the YouTube gadget ( I mean really I see no point) and made it to where I see how many feeds I gotten over the time I've been away. Also, you can add a theme, so your page looks pretty. I've been on a Celtic/Ireland kick lately so the rolling emerald hills greet me every time I open iGoogle now. :D
I also found as I was searching for gadgets, that there's a to-do list gadget on there! So I added some stuff (such as work on 23things haha) to it! Since most everything is centered there now, except my e-mail accout I'm planning on making it my homepage.
I didn't really look into an online caldender or to-do list since the iGoogle page already has them and they work rather well as far as I can tell. Personally I'd rather have it all in one place than having to go to like twenty million sites. But there are so many advantages of having a calender and to-do list online: 1) you can't lose it, 2) since I'm on the computer a lot it's always there as soon as I open the browser and 3) you don't run out of room to add more stuff on the actual page!
The last thing I did was explore one of the 'other' things on the page. I looked at Zamzar. All I can say is, where were you when my iPod died and I had to reburn all my cds because the stupid iPod program burned them as m4a's and my new Sansa only supports mp3's? ;____________; It would have been golden then. But now its still super cool. I totally book marked the site.

Thing #15

     So, wiki's...I'm pretty fond of them. I have never posted on one, but I love both Wikipedia and HeroesWiki. I know that your not supposed to trust Wikipedia due to the fact that anyone can change the information but I have always found it to be a great way to look up quick information, or as a springboard on where to look for other (more reliable) information. And HeroesWiki...its a wiki for Heroes fans. You know, every character has his/her own page, discussion boards for plot theories and whatnot...
     Also, I couldn't get on the freaking 23things sandbox. You have to login to edit the blasted thing! whelp, there was no information about that on the 23Things page...so ya.
   
      Wiki's though, could be a very useful education tool. I really enjoyed the Westwood Computer Science wiki and personally think that was the best use of a wiki for a school setting. It would be really cool to see something like that included in some of Montgomery county high schools. I also like the Book Lover's wiki. That was a cool way to bring a reading club to everyone, instead of you know meeting at someone's house discussing the book, yata yata. It makes the club a lot more assessable. But the whole raffle ticket's thing I don't think would work unless you were nearer to the actual public library it's based out of.

Thing #14

You wanna know a funny thing? My friend, S----, told me about a program called Mind App, which helps with flow charts. She used it to help map out her comic idea. I used it to map out my reflection for the micro-lesson I thought in 3070. Then forgot I had it...Until today!

Nonetheless, I tried two different programs from the list today, Bubbl.us and Gliffy.

This is my flowchart from Bubbl.us (as you can see). I used it to chart out the paper I have to write for Sp Ed. I took a screen cap of my chart and didn't sign up for the program. I mean I had a free and relatively good program already on my computer, whats the point of signing up for one online?
But I do like flowcharts. A lot. When you write, academically or otherwise, a flowchart is a nice way to visualize your ideas. This program would be great when planning a lesson or as an activity for kids as a re-empt for a piece of writing.

 

Once I got the hang of Gliffy, I really enjoyed it. There was a little while where I couldn't figure out how to change the text in a textbox, but then I started my own document and that fixed that. What I love about this site is all the different things you can do with it. Flowcharts, Venn Diagrams, room layouts, it goes on and on. I did sign up for this site. It can be easily used to create simple worksheets for your class, and in Diversity the professor stressed that simple visual representations such as flowcharts is a great tool for ELL. Aka Gliffy, I love you and so will my ELL students.
Oh and another thing I loved, you can export your product as a jpeg and other things. That makes life so much simpler.

Thing #13

Well, I'd decided to take the road less traveled by and use Zoho to publish my # 13 blog. We'll see how this goes.

But, I really like Zoho. It's simple and accessible. You don't have to be some kind of computer genius to work it (like with Word it sometimes seems). That and there are a lot of cool things you can use. Like the calender and planner. It's a fun tool that could make your life simpler is you let it.

I think though that this would be most effective for someone who doesn't have a computer at home. They could log onto Zoho, write out their paper, and save it. And when the paper is ready, send it to the teacher in the file type he or she wants. Another option is for people who have a computer but don't have Word. I can't tell you how many times I heard people complaining because they had this or that word processor and it wasn't compatible so they were unable to submit their work. I'm typing on the answer right here.

Oh, and the post right to your blog thing. About half and hour later and I've given up! Uggh, so hard. Kept saying something about being on the https part of Zoho... 

Thing #4

Hello there! Making one final post before mid-term. The infamous "Thing Number Four"!

I, of course, have been following five of my classmates, whose blogs have been fun to see! It's funny to see that we're doing the same thing but come up with very different experiences and ideas for education. But here are my fellow bloggers: BloggeRiley, maKing it oKaye!, HALLA BACK, Cotton Candy, and Alex McDaniel's Blog. I liked seeing what worked for them and their views on what we were learning thoughout the semester.
Outside blogs I follow are:
New Dress A Day, this is the ongoing (though nearly completed journey) of a Marisa Lynch who after being laid off and watched Julie and Julia decided she'd to a project of her own. So for one year with $365 she was going to find bargain (really ugly) clothes and transform them into something cute and current. So far she's on day 313 and has two dollars more then the minimum dollar per dress. Sweet. I enjoy this blog because it really shows how fun and inspiring a blog can be. Not just some person whining or complaining or be egocentric but showing the world that you can have fun and be conservative with your money!!
The Church o' Blevins, this blog is upkept by a church friend's son who decided he and his friends were going to walk the AppalachianTrail. And blog about it. What I found most fun about this was the fact that they updated the blog by using someone's iPhone when they could get a signal. I also like the blog because it's a journal about an adventure and hey who doesn't like adventure?

Also, Google Alerts: still so AWESOME!

Thing #12

Finally here!!

I love it when the site says, "go ahead and play around with it as you like". I always get this evil grin and start chuckling.
I played with Google Alerts and Google Translate. I LOVE Google alert. That thing is so cool! I typed in my favorite actor for my alert...I haven't gotten anything yet but here's hoping! And what I found so cool about this tool is you don't need a Google e-mail account for it to work. I used my Yahoo! account (which I've had since I was like 12), so the compatibility is wonderful. I always hate it when you want to use a cool new tool and you have to create a whole new account somewhere different. Not this time!! This would be useful in education because you could create an alert for news to use for current events talks and information your students might be studying soon.
I also played with Google Translate. I typed a phrase in and got the German phrase, "Hallo, Herr Albert. Ich mag zum Kuchen essen." See if you can plug it back in and get the phrase I typed in! This tool would be wonderful if you had ELL learners. You would be able to send notes and information to their parents (granted you would want to keep it simple, I mean it is just a free online translator). But you could also find sites for them in their native language and check the relevancy and content by using the tool where you can translate the whole page!

on a side note: I just got an alert! Teehee this gadget is so cool!

Thing #11

I subscribed to another feed. It was one of the Edublog winners! The one that won best Library/Librarian Blog, HeyJude. My goal after finishing my undergraduate work here is to get my Masters in Library Science and become a librarian so I looked though a few posts and thought this was a great blog to add and keep up with.
Of the search tools I liked Google Blog search the best (I just plain like Google!). It was familiar and easy to work with because it was like searching for anything though Google, except for the fact that you were looking for blogs and nothing else. The other tool were not all that confusing, but ever since doing all these 23Things I've just become more adaptable.
I actually didn't get that long to search so I didn't really find anything unusual but I think I found some interesting stuff!!

Thing #10

RSS feed is so nifty!!! I can check all of my online comics updated all in one place! And not have to click like twenty million buttons. That video was right, this is a time saver.
And for educators, time is precious. You could check the news feeds and blogs that you have saved for teaching as well as the ones you have for yourself, all in one fell swoop! And since you are only alerted when something is updated, you feel you can watch more than just a couple of things. Therefore, there can be more educator blogs that you register for and you can have more information for teaching.
Of the five you have to subscribe to, four of my feeds are geeky related things (Like the Heroes news). But I did subscribe to Cool Cat Teacher. She had a cool game on there that supposed to help with social skills and expressing feelings. Which is actually kind of funny because we were just talking about that in Diversity. 

Thing #9

Image Chef is the easiest site to work with. The image generators I played with were the ones where you just plug in words and it appears on the sign or note or what have you. I thought it was fun but a little restricting. The thing I really wanted to play with on Image Chef was the Sketchpad but the blasted thing wouldn't do anything no matter what I did. It's like it didn't register me clicking on it. Oh and here are the photos I did create on Image Chef.

This is me and a Mac computer.

What I thought would have been really fun was the comic strip maker but that was a bust. It placed the speech bubble right in the smack dab middle of the photo and I could not figure out how to move the bubble around. I would have been a lot better if you could drag and click.
I couldn't think of any way you could use these things in the classroom, except to make cute photos like a street sign that said "Miss Dean's class this way". Nothing useful, but why does everything have to be useful?

Thing #8

Hey, it's Spock! As a jigsaw puzzle! As if you'd expect anything less from me. (:

These sites are really fun!! However, they're hard to get actual photos from. Well, some of them are. Not the jigsaw one. That's my favorite one. Though I actually used a photo I already had on my computer, so I kind of cheated. And this site could be used in a lot of different ways. Like for school, you could have personalized classroom or school puzzles like with the mascot.
I also enjoyed the Spell with Flickr...I just couldn't figure out how to put my word (banana) into my blog. This feature could easily be used to spice up powerpoints or showing the class their new spelling words.
Splashr was fun to play with too...I actually couldn't think of a way to use it in the classroom though. But maybe some of my classmates have!! But here's my faviorte Splashr picture group I had. I love owls. And postcards too.

Thing #7

I found this on MrsWoman's photostream located here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrswoman/

Flickr...though art a harsh mistress. Well, let me rephrase that. Flickr, you are easy to navigate and have so many beautiful photos but it is harder than a rock to find a picture you can actually save!!! Curse you copyright! Though I finally found one with a creative commons license to put into my blog. Holy crap, that bigger than I thought it would be. That and I can't put it right below my actual words, ugh!! But isn't it cute? It's a knitted cupcake. I would buy one. It's from a group that I found by typing in 'cupcakes'. The group is called KnitCakes. I think it's super cute.

I know the other part of this Thing was to find just one photo to blog about. It's copyrighted, therefore you have to follow link to see it.Commercial Cartoon...Slice of Times Square. I was searching the word 'candy' when I found this photo. It isn't edible candy but this is some bright eye candy!!! I love this photo. So psychedelic and phosphorescent! I've kind of been on a brightly colored kick lately. The only thing that ticked me off was, of course, trying to put it into the blog. But we all know why that isn't working. It's kinda funny we just learned about Copyright and CreativeCommons then I actually use that knowledge not a week later. 

Thing #6

For my site, I played with Hulu. I had heard good things about it from my friends and once I saw it on the list I figured it was about time to give it a real try. It is just as awsome as they said it would be!
I mean, free TV on your computer? How cool is that! What I thought was super awsome was that they had everything grouped by 'channels' like News, Family, etc. (Once I realized there was a science fiction channel I got distracted for like twenty minutes...yep) And you can search for a specific show, movie, or clip within the channel itself. Totally nifty!!
I think the most useful part of Hulu in a school setting would be the News channel. It could be used for discussing current events and world events. The Health and Fitness channel might also be useful especially so because of the push within schools to fight obesity.

So in all, I TOTALLY LOVE HULU!!! Go look at it! You will never regret it!! I must go now because I just realized they have anime on here! HOLY CRUD, i love the internet.

Thing #5

Well, I decided to post the entry about thing 4 closer to mid-term, since its an ongoing sort of thing.

School 2.0 means that teachers have to completely rethink gathering and receiving information, teaching their students, and how the web effects his or her class at large. With Web 2.0 there are so many opportunities to expand upon information learned in class, with a YouTube video or an informative podcast. But it is also a new aspect of our students lives. We must be aware of them on the web, not only to stop such things as cyber bullying but also because we're out there too and we can never get away from our jobs as role-model for our students.
We're probably going to end up taking tests in those little dome things like in Star Trek. Geekyness aside, this surge of the web and electronics means that it will become ever more engrained in our students and therefore our classes will have to adapt. We'll have to teach such things as "Which websites should be used in reports" and "formatting your paper".

Thing #3

One use within a teacher education program, which some may be doing now in this course, is sharing experiences and tips about information learned in classes. You could post reflections on lessons you had to teach either in your Micro-Teach in 3070 or what you saw during observation at a school.
If you had a blog while actually teaching a class, you could use it as a means to communicate with parents and students about upcoming events in the class or at school. You could post homework worksheets there in case students lose theirs (you know its going to happen). If you are working with class to become profiecent with using technologies, you might have them read something off your blog and them write a response as a comment.
There's a whole plethora of things you can do with a blog.

Thing #2

I have never felt the need to blog. I find myself to be a private person, so I never felt the need to share in such a public way. It's the internet, everyone can see it. EVERYONE... That and I'm really busy, so I couldn't see the point on spending hours keeping up a blog when I had other things that really needed to be done. But since this is required, I did it.
And it was super simple. Blogger is a great site, easy to work with and navigate. It was fun. My blog's title is actually just my last name and I got the idea from a friend at church who constantly tells his mom (when asked why he isn't on the Dean's list), "But I am on the Deans' list!"
The only thing I didn't like was we had to use that DoppelMe picture. I wanted to use an icon, similar to LiveJournal or DeviantArt, which is just a small 100x100 picture. So I added that on top of my Avatar. It's Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, dressed up as Sherlock Holmes. Why yes, I am a nerd.   

Thing #1

I have always loved learning. So when I saw what the subject of the first of the 23Things was I was really excited.
The presentation was rather enjoyable. I liked the PowerPoint used, it wasn't distracting or crazy. But what I really found interesting was the voice over. I had never seen (or heard actually) anything like that before. The voice did get mono-toned at points, and there were time when I found the speaker's accent more interesting than what was going on in the actual PowerPoint, these instances were infrequent.
Some of the 7 1/2 habits I already have. Like play! But who doesn't like to play? However, I can foresee some being harder to pick up than others. For example, viewing problems as challenges. I am always distressed when I hit road blocks and challenges and it takes me ages to see over them. But maybe I haven't been viewing them in the correct light.
The easiest habit for me will be creating my own learning toolbox. I tend to do that anyways. In my Firefox bookmarks you'll find zillions of folders (labeled for different projects and things) with helpful sites so I can better learn about a subject or have references.
All in all I'm excited to see myself as a lifelong learner!