Summary

Wow, what I have discovered on this journey is that sometimes little things can turn into big things, to elaborate, what I thought was a simple assignment that I could breeze through in the end was a terrible mistake. I have enjoyed it but these exercises were quit time consuming. My favorite discovery was the playlist.com still listening to my play list and loving it and animato. In terms of my lifelong learning goals this has helped me to get organized and realize that there are more tools on the internet that can be utilized  to make me a more productive educator. What I did not care for that much was the RSS feeds they and the wikis, just not a fan. What I take away from this assignment is that technology offers us endless possibilities and ways of retrieving information, sharing information, presenting information, and tools to enhance our learning and teaching abilities and so much more. We must be proactive in our pursuit of new technologies and remain innovators of technology. As teachers we must realize that technology is our friend and only a hinderance when we are unwilling to learn. Technology is not perfect nor without flaw. I have had to log into D2L more than thirty times in one day or had to wait for it to become available which slowed me down but I have finished.  I am now a part of the Web 2.0 social networking site so I can keep up with what's new.What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey. I think this assignment works well the way it was designed. I have explored a lot and can share what I have learned with my colleagues, friends, students, and family members.

Thing #23

All you have to do is look at the bottom of the page and there are the credits. In education as with anything else either written or on line you have to give credit where credit is due and it is important for us to remember that when finding things on the web that we want to include in our lesson plans or other bodies of work.

CREDITS

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachersis based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for theMesquite 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.

Thing #22

I found a podcast several podcasts for free. For whatever reason I chose to listen to "Real Time with Bill Maher". I have always heard so much about him, so I listened in for about an hour. Part of it was explicit but it was quite funny and entertaining, though some things could be considered offensive, so I'd advise caution before listening. I think iTunes is best to use for podcasts I did try out a few of those listed in the assignment like the podcast alley.com ( not a fan) and podcast directory.com (somewhat better) and the other two were okay but not real impressed. Then I head to ITunes find the tab for podcasts and I just like it so much better but I am an Apple person so I tend to stay with whats familiar. I am not sure if I would go as far to create a podcast for the younger students but I think high school age children would appreciate since most have their own iphone, ipod, or computer at home and not everyone is the best note taker, so I would like create on for my lectures so they could access them at their leisure. I may subscribe to some educational ones for work purposes but I would like to subscribe to some comedic ones as well I had a lot of laughs and we could as use some humor in our lives every now and again.

Thing # 21

Loved Animoto.

Family

Family

Thing #20

Now we are really getting into the good stuff. And I am still listening to my playlist I created at playlist.com while I knock out the rest of these 23 things. If you need music to keep you going while you work on homework try it out. So for this assignment it asks us to explore another favorite  of mine You Tube. YouTube is great personally,  I listen to videos and watch  tutorials. One of the newest tutorials out there I have found  helpful is for the iPad. I prefer to use an ethernet connection because its faster and the video doesn't stream. The ones I like the most in terms of education are for the elementary school kids that are more visual that teach colors and have songs to help kid remember colors (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9gCUpVwqa8&feature=channel) and numbers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5QLp9Wxrrg&feature=channel) and fun stuff like old mac donald http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_mol6B9z00&feature=related). Since you can search multiple videos on you tube I always recommend plan ahead and watch any video before showing it to your class and always look at the source of the posting.

Thing #19

Obviously I waited a bit long to finish all of my 23 things so I will have to revisit this one tomorrow. Both Ning and Teacher Pro are pending approval so I was able to browse them but I was unable to obtain the badges to post to my blog. However, I was able to sing up for Project Playlist. I love my music and I created a url http://www.playlist.com/barbaraandron. 

Thing#18

 I have facebook and my space so I am ready for this. This is the link to my facebook (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1218738210)  or you can search me by Barbara Tucker ( Clarksville, TN)  It is important for educators to know how social networking works because it can be a very useful tool and all the kids are doing it which is why I recommend teachers know it. I think you have to be careful with how you use it. If you use it to communicate with students and parents then you must keep it 100% professional and be careful what you say because once you have posted it, it's out there for the world to see and yes there is a delete button but you have to hit it before anyone gets a chance to read your post and with live news feeds every second, who wants to be in that position. I think in the era of so much bullying it would be great for teachers to be on if nothing else to monitor students or just to check in, it easier for some of the older students  to trust adults when they feel like they can relate to them. My space has dwindled down a bit and not nearly as many people use it so I suggest schools take the next step like most colleges do know and have their own facebook pages where they can get information out quickly, the news feeds are updated every second. It is a great way to share events and network you can share pictures, raise awareness about a cause, start a cause, get involved. Just like any other site you have to be careful with how much of your information is made public and who you are sharing it with. There are security measures you can select to ensure you share information with only certain people, just use good judgement and enjoy it.

Thing #17

This tool is just okay for me. I can see the potential for it as I go through some of the book marks and comment that other users have left. The biggest advantage of this is to be able to find information quickly (share web links through key words and tags) and relevant to your needs based on what others have found already, so it cuts down on some of the leg work you have to do with quick access. I found the lesson plans here to be quite useful also. Helps to build  a reading list and a valuable tool for research. I think this will take some getting used to.

Thing #16

Since I have a hotmail account I utilized the MSN online calendar and its has similar feature to the other online calendars but I prefer my Google calendar I set up in one of the other things. The Google calendar was more user friendly and had those helpful hints and starting points that are not evident in the MSN calendar. The other tool I chose was.. The to do list are too much work I think it takes me less time to just handwrite things out on a piece of paper or in my planner. The Remember the Milk seems to be great if you need to mange multiple tasks, you can share and send your tasks and lists with contacts around the world, plan and prioritize your time and all sorts of stuff, I honestly just am not that important nor do I have that much going on for something like this.The start page I chose was iGoogle. It was the most appealing to me because I got to pick a nice cute, kid friendly design (my kids use my computer from time to time i have the green background with the ant and the frog) and I will likely make it my home page because it allowed me to put everything I like in one place. I have the weather, the news, recipes, daily jokes, sports scores, my entertainment news (Access Hollywood) I already set it as my home page and this tool I am truly going to ENJOY! So the best tools for both home and school are Google Calendar and iGoolgle start page, a great way to get organized and have all your web information in one place and lets face it with all the stuff we have done on the web lately I need to downsize and de clutter. I am wondering if we are going to be over productive after all these things!

Thing #14

The flow chart I chose was flowchart.com and the mind map I chose was Bubbl.us. The Bubbl.us allowed me to start right away with the creation was immediate. I did not like having to wait all day to use the flowchat.com but I like the design of it better, so I’d assume wait for what I perceived to be the better quality product and that was the case.

The mind maps were dead on with what the lesson said, easy to create but hard to read and it was hard for me to understand what I had created so I likely wont utilize those much, but the editing process and creation tools were really simple and user friendly.

The flow chart was  a breeze to construct once I got in. The great thing about flow chart.com is that you can choose your template and it has like family tree and SWOT analysis, you can preselect the direction of the chart and the number of tiers if you know how many you need to start but you can also add and delete. You can add multiple charts to the same sheet like in Excel. The tools at the top are pretty straight forward and you can glaze the mouse over to find out what each one means, some of the icons I had never seen before like snap grid and script editor. This is something I will definitely revisit for future projects. One thing I can definitely see this be used for is in history to show the branches of government (i.e. legislative, executive, and judicial and the duties of each).

Thing 15

Thing #15

Wiki, in the beginners section is says if control is an issue for you then you wont like wiki’s well it is and I don’t. Wiki’s is way too much of a collaborative effort. I tried multiple times with no success to be able to go to the apsu23things sandbox and add my favorite things. Between this and the constant D2L breakdowns I have had it for the day, actually for the semester!

Thing #13

Zoho Writer is nothing something I liked, partially because I am still trying to figure it out.  I just dont think it is that user friendly or I am reading to much into it. Either way, its frustrating me. It is a bit much to take in so perhaps I will revisit this thing at another time.

Thing #12 Google Is Not Just for Search Anymore

 The two tools I found too be most useful in both my personal life and with education were the google alerts and google calendar. For education I would generally use the alerts if I were working on a research project or to follow any pertinent issues they may arise in education. For this assignment, I created an alert for Apple just because I need to keep up on the latest buzz whether it comes from the company or is just rumors and I chose weekly because anything urgent will come to me from Apple anyway. Your Google Alert request [ apple ] has been created.

Your Google Alerts

Switch to text emails  |  Export alerts

	Search terms	Type	How often	Volume	Deliver to
	apple	Everything	once a week	Only the best results	Email	edit

I know a lot of people who utilize google calendars. I have never looked at this tool before and you know what it is pretty simple and straight forward. In less than five minutes I had set up a calendar and sent a test invite to Dr. Luck and made a new Family calendar and added my husband so that he and I both can manage one another and children appointments and family life. Or for those who are not as tech savvy you can simply print your calendar up and hang it on the refrigerator or on your desk in your office so you still have a copy and are up to date. The only downside is any changes you make you have to update them on the hard copies that you have printed out.  This tool was desperately needed and maybe my husband will like it as much as I do; and it could help us get a little more organized. I am not making my calendars public for now. I do find it handy that I can create a calendar for professional use. Each calendar is  color coded. I could easily create a public calendar for the parents in my class and  my colleagues so that we can share information and/or  know what each others plans are for the semester or school year.

Thing #11 Finding Good Feeds

The easiest method of finding feeds for me is just to find the symbols at the sites I frequent the most there are so many feeds it can be overwhelming to have; so just stick with the ones that interest you and that will work.

The search tool that I found easiest to use was Topix.net it gives you the most recent us news and discussions by the minute and you change the city to enter your own zip code.


The Syndic8.com was the most confusing for me because there were too many directions to go in and the most current information did not appear first.

The kind of useful feeds I found were on topix  clarksville through the topix.net because I was able to put in my zip code and find out the latest news and discussion information for Clarksville which is good to know. I think staying up to date on current events is important. I really did not find anything unusual, I mean if you surf the web as much as I have nothing surprises you anymore.


I did a quick google search for RSS feeds and found this site (http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/) and it seemed pretty straight forward and helpful so it may be worth a look for anyone who wants to check out even more RSS feeds, the organization of this site may be a little bit easier than some of the others we viewed.

Thing #10 RSS Feeds

Typically I wont subscribe to RSS feeds they just annoy me. I think what you have to subscribe to our things that you are interested in or care about, otherwise its a waste of time. However as instructed I created the google reader account and subscribed to five news feeds: cnn, the cool cat teacher, free technology for teachers, dangerously irrelevant, and eonline. I think that these can enable us as educators to keep up with what is going on both in academics and technology, which is great.  I subscribe to cnn because I think we should all be current on whats going on in our world at all times, things can change in the blink of an eye. Personally I think this will help me keep up with what is going on around the entertainment world. Everyone needs an outlet so e online is mine. 

Thing 9 # online image generator

The online image generator was a neat tool this is my finished product from frame your photos.

Thing # 8 Flickr Mashups

I was not a fan of a lot of the flickr mashups but spell with flickr is by far the most fun thing to do. All you have to do is type in something and hit spell. You can then copy and past it into a document (see my name below) and it comes with its own editing tool bar when you past it over. The colors and graphics would easily make this a huge hit among younger students who we constantly need to hold their attention and this could be utilized weekly with a new spelling list. Great tool. Another tool that I found okay was create puzzles with your flickr photos. Now these puzzles would make great gifts for children and will help to build fine motor skills. I uploaded a pic of my self and the quality was really great.

Thing #7 Flickr

 Actually, I just talked about this in our class discussion so here was my response: I love this tool. In my exploration of this tool I found it fascinating what you can do with images and how stories really can be told through photos. Some of the photos in the galleries were absolutely breathtaking. Flickr also connects with facebook, blogging, twitter, and yahoo so photo sharing can be made simple and easy to access for friends and family all over the world, handy if you are a military family. In the classroom I could show my students how to use this to share photos and add tags for parents stationed overseas or elsewhere.