Is it the End or only the Beginning?

Throughout this process by favorite learning activities tackled whiling writing this blog were the use of Animoto and the LiveBinders. I enjoyed these activities because Animoto was very easy and fun, and LiveBinders are a great resource for teachers and students. The use of this blog has helped me learn more ways to implement technology into my future classroom and helped me learn to continue to look for new technologies to continue lifelong learning. I had no idea the vast amount of Web 2.0 tools available for teachers to use to educate themselves and stay organized as well as educate future and present students. I believe requiring blog posts in smaller groups and closer intervals would help with getting meaningful blog posts. The technologies I have learned about and worked with through this process have been bookmarked and will be implemented in my future classroom. I hope to continue searching often for new and updated Web 2.0 tools to discover and explore as time passes. I really enjoyed this experience and journey and am looking forward to continue my growth through technology!

Thing 23

The 23 Things Homepage Blog created by Dr. Wall includes an attribution at the bottom of the page for the 23rd thing that states that the blog is licensed by Creative Commons and some rights are reserved. I believe the use of Creative Commons can be used in many different facets. Teachers can use creative commons and licensing filters to find material that can be shared and used in the classroom. Using these filters and getting a license for work that the teacher wants to use in the classroom makes the use of such material legal and is great for helping teach students on copyrights and the proper use of copyrighted material. This lesson can help implement technology bu requiring discovery activities asking the students to explore the Creative Commons websites and sites that use licensing filters to find material that is appropriate to share and use, modify and even use in commercial ways.

Thing 22

For this post I did a discovery exercise where I created three live-binders. I decided to use these binders to store educational resources for three areas of education. My binder titles are Instructional Strategies Websites, ELL Resources, and Special Education Resources.

Instructional Strategies Websites

The binder I have embedded in this post is the one I created over Instructional Strategies. I included three websites in the binder. Live binders can be implemented in the classroom for assignments that ask students to document resources, like annotated resource folders, or just resource folders in general. Live binders can be kept for ever because they are stored online and use absolutely NO paper which is wonderful and even better for the teacher. They can be shared and viewed online allowing the teacher to grade them and give the student a piece of paper with the grade instead of handing back a large amount of paper and resources.

Thing 21

My Animoto Video

The link above is for a 30 second video I created using Animoto. The pictures and song I chose for the video are of my fiance' and myself and a love type song. This video was very easy to create and the process was step by step and very simple to understand. Animoto requires an upgrade and payment to create videos longer than 30 seconds but I believe this could be a useful tool to implement in the classroom. Students could create a video that documents a group project following the process of the project and the end results. I really enjoyed this discovery exercise, it has been one of my favorites so far. Students could also use this tool to create a short video to introduce themselves to the class and show their likes and their personalities. Websites that provide services like this are absolutely wonderful.

Thing 20

I absolutely love the use of YouTube and the implications it can have in the classroom. Age, content, and school appropriate videos can be used in the classroom to enhance the lessons being taught. The video I chose to include in this post is School House Rock's "Shot Heard Round the World" explaining how the Revolutionary War Started. I chose this video because I hope to one day be an 8th Grade United States History Teacher. This video can be applied in that classroom setting to help entertain the students into being interested in the topics covered. Educational videos are there to help instruct students without completely boring them to tears and allows for teachers to keep attention and make difficult lessons more fun. YouTube has a wealth of videos available to be shown in the classroom and they should be taken advantage of to help improve a lesson's quality. The videos can also be used as review tools for the students to watch at home.

Thing 19

Visit TeacherPop

The above badge is a link to a social networking site for Teachers and Teacher Canidates at Austin Peay State University. This site is similar to other social networking sites but is based for networking between teachers. I, myself, am a member of sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as TeacherPop. These are the only social networking sites I am a member of but I have come across sites I am interested in like Fuzzster, a site for pet lovers, and Craftster because I love crafting. There are sites for all interests and the use of these sites in a educational way can be a great lesson for integrating technology in the classroom and networking with like-minded people. I believe applying these networking sites can be useful especially applying the sites that fit interests and shying away from the more people oriented social networking sites. Getting students interested in networking with other people having the same interests could open up a number of lessons to use in the classroom.

Thing 18

For this post I explored social networking sites I am involved with and the usefulness they can serve to teachers. https://twitter.com/#!/rgrubb1013 This is a link to my twitter account on which I follow several educational profiles that can give links to resources for those involved in all levels of education. I am not going to include a link to my facebook, on which I am friends with teachers, because of privacy issues. I believe it is important for educators to know how to use these sites not only to connect to fellow teachers for advice and help with issues but also to understand the features offered and how their students use the sites to help with bullying prevention. It is not appropriate for teachers to be friends with their students, of course, but by knowing how the sites are used teachers can be helpful when bullying has happened on these sites by helping the proper parties understand the sites. When beginning this exercise I had no idea the amount of educational resources offered by these sites. The first people I followed when creating my twitter account were profiles like educational bloggers, professionals, and national educational "tweeters".  I really liked using twitter for educational purposes better because of the character limit on a tweet to help target the main point and by allowing "tweeters" to attach a link for more useful reading. I do not feel these tools should be used in the classroom because students are so familiar with the technology and would be more apt to check their own profiles instead of participating in the assignment. A useful feature of facebook is the use of groups for similarities and private groups to help communicate more effectively with members. A useful tool for twitter is the ability to write a main point and direct followers to the resource mentioned. Social networking is good for just that and I do not feel I will be using these in my classroom with my students but rather for myself.

Thing 17

I believe social bookmarking is an excellent tool not only for people using the web but in their professions. As a teacher social bookmarking can help teachers find useful lessons, projects, and tools to apply to the classroom. Sites like Diigo, Delicious, and Pintrest are great for keeping track of interesting finds and keeping them organized for later use. Applying tags, or notes about a "bookmark" or like on pintrest adding it a group allows others to search for key words and find items related to their target search instead of browsing through pages of items that are not an appropriate use of keywords or if there is not way to narrow down the search. While exploring these sights I searched for educational technology bookmarks and pins and found the search quite useful. I found items and other sites that give lesson plans, bulletin board designs, projects for classes and ways to integrate technology into the classroom. This tool by far is growing and becoming more widespread between people like social networking sites. I believe the use of these websites will continue to grow and adapt to the needs of those using them.

Thing 16

For this post I used start page tools to create a custom start page for my personal computer. I already had IGoogle as my start page so this was a rather easy task. I love all the features IGoogle has to offer because I can check my emails, post important events to my calendar and make on-line sticky notes that hold my to do lists. By having all these resources open to me when I use my computer makes life a lot easier. I believe customized start pages are an essential tool to staying organized. This technology can be used by teachers to effectively stay on top of things that need to be done, websites that are often visited, and important emails. A customized homepage helps free up time from traveling to many different websites. Teachers can add widgets to these pages that openly show their "bookmarks" of websites often used in the classroom and to look at a glance at what they have to do and who they have to email back. This technology is a great tool for organization and will free up more time for teachers to teach instead of worrying about what they need to do next.

Thing 15

I believe Wiki is a great tool for teachers to collaborate on assignments. My vision for the use of this tool would be for teacher to collaborate with other grade level or subject teachers on how to teach subject matter effectively by pointing out what works and what does not work. Another way Wiki could be used is to have students post work in the sandbox section that parents will be able to log on and to see. This would be an effective way to showcase what is being done in the classroom and would be easy for parents to access. Another would be for administrators to put what they consider to be "star" work on a Wiki page to showcase how well the school is doing. This could be presented at a conference or shown when the school board visits. These are just a few of the ways I believe a Wiki could work for educators. For my post on the 23 things Wiki Sandbox I chose to post again about Thing 8 and the Mosaic Maker. I really enjoyed this tool and felt it could be used in collaboration with Wiki to show how web tools can be utilized in the classroom.

Thing 14

For this post I chose to explore the web tools Gliffy and bubbl.us. These tools are great for creating worksheets like graphic organizers and projects for presentations or as handouts to be used in a classroom. I explored some of the tools offered by Gliffy and one that I found interesting was the Venn Diagram tool. This is a great way to get a pre-made template and customize it the way you want to either give out for an assignment or to use in a presentation or for a resource folder to have and make copies of when needed. I feel that having these tools online allows for easy access from any computer and can be easier than keeping a bunch of worksheets filed and taking up space. bubbl.us is a web tool that allows you to create mind maps , similar to graphic organizers, and I thought it was neat that the chart built off of itself. This tool is great for brainstorming and would be a useful resource to students when given an assignment where they need to brainstorm but contain their thought in an organized manner. I personally favor the use of Gliffy over bubbl.us because it was more user friendly and I feel it offered more tools and uses. I would definitely recommend these web tools to any teachers or people just needing tools for creating a presentation. They are very useful resources.

Thing 13

Zoho.com is a neat website designed to allow users to create documents more effectively than using a word processor because Zoho is already a part of the internet it makes it easier to export created work. I explored the website and thought that the Zoho Writer app was a effective tool and the tutorial document made it very easy to get started using the tool. The tools in the Zoho Writer are very similar to Microsoft Office Word Processors and that makes it more user friendly because most people using this tool will be familiar with a word processor. Google Docs is a very similar tool to Zoho.com for people with a Gmail account. It allows you to create papers, presentations, spreadsheets, and tables. Unlike with microsoft office documents created with these tools allow you to access them from any computer with internet instead of having to carry around you laptop, a jump drive, or hard copies. These tools when applied can change the face of word processing for classrooms across the nation.