Thing #23

I have made it to the end of this journey.  I have to say that I really enjoyed learning about a few of the sites that we visited.  I think that my favorites had to do with making trading cards and doing interesting things with photos.  I also like the idea of delicious because it seems to be an easier way to organize my bookmarks.  Many of the sites I have know about for a while, but it was fun to get a chance to be reminded about them and play with them for a while. Photostory 3 is still one of my favorite tools to play with.  I have to admit that if I wasn't in this class I probably wouldn't have finished this journey.  I liked learning about the new sites, but I kept distracting myself while I explored.  As much as I wish I was a blogger, I do not see me continuing to do this.  I like reading other people's blogs and commenting when I feel the need, but I don't like the idea of feeling like I have to keep updating my site.  I think if I had to sum up this experience in a few words it would have to be that this was a wild ride on the information superhighway.  :)

Thing #22

I think that NING is a great tool.  I like the idea that I can post information that is important to the group.  Not stuff like I am eating a sandwich at subway with Suzie.  I looked at all of the sites on the list and I think that I liked Ning for Teachers the best.  I think that is probably because that is still my main focus for the time being.  It gave me some good ideas and sites for my class to use right now. 

Thing #21

I love using PhotoStory.  I have even used it for several projects with my 3rd graders.  They loved it and their projects turned out really interesting.  The more that they use it the faster they get at setting everything up.  I have also used it several times for personal presentations (family reunions etc. )  I highly recommend using this program for even young elementary age students.  Also I really like how easy it was to upload it into blogger.  I wonder if it will be as easy to add it to the wiki sites.

I really like using the Teacher Tube site for all the videos to share with both my students and fellow teachers.  It keeps me from reinventing the wheel every time I want to show them something new.  I found this video that I am going to share with my students on Monday.  I think that they will really like it and then we will make our own video to share with others on verbs.  This is the link that will take you to the video that I found.  Teacher Tube Verb video

Thing #19

The Web 2.0 site has a great list of the sites that were the best in 2008.  Many of the sites that interested me I have already explored.  I wonder if there are more things out there that would help me more.  I wish that they would have continued ranking sites in 2009 and 2010.  I did like the colorblender.com site because I am looking into painting my bedroom.  It was fun to mix and blend colors to see what would complement them.  I also got some good fitness tips from one of the sites.  I can see using this site to find useful tools if I hadn't been a part of the 23 things activity.

Thing #18

Ok... I am sure that if I could ever get it to download I would have liked to play with it.  So I decided to try Google Docs.  There were a lot of cool templates to use there, but I could not figure out how to make the pictures show up in the presentations.  The thumbprint views of the presentations showed the things that I changed, but the presentation didn't have it.  It was also running really slow.  I am not sure if that was the site or if that was my computer,but i know that I don't have 30 minutes to spend putting in one picture on a presentation.  I like using powerpoint and I am now learning about prezi so I think that I will stick with them until I have more time to wait on these tow programs.

Thing # 17

I like the Rollyo site.  I did have a little trouble setting up my own at first.  But I liked using the ones that were already set up.  I found some new sites that I will be adding to my list of good sites to use for math.  I think that if I were to do a research project I would set this up to help limit the results for the searches for my 2nd graders.

Thing #16

I have to admit that I didn't like wikis until now.  They have always seemed so complicated to use and update.  I really liked the in plain English video that helped me see what was really happening on a wiki.  I think that a wiki would be a helpful tool for me to use either in the classroom or in the library.  It would be easy and fun for the kids to add information and check in with class happenings.  I think that it might be my one of my New Year's Resolutions to start one and keep it running for the rest of the school year. 

Thing #15

Library 2.0 means that the library is moving into the information age with the rest of the world.  It means that it is meeting the patrons at the time of their need by using technology to be available all the time.  I like the idea that the new library will be the place that can be accessed both on site and on the internet.  I like the idea in Web 2.0 that the library is "human".  And just like a regular human, the change might be difficult but in the long run it will make the library a better place. 

Thing #14

I tried doing the key word search "school library learning 2.0"  and got 0 results.  I didn't like Technorati the first time that I tried it and I am still not warming up to it.  I am not sure what it is but I am having a difficult time using it.  They seem to be under construction because I didn't have anything in the popular section.  They also didn't have any widgets to add to my blog.  Did anyone else find any results to the key word search?  Or have any better luck with it than me?

Thing #13

I really like the delicious site. I found a lot of neat sites that I can use at school.   I have been using ikeepbookmarks.com for sites that I find.  It isn't that hard to use but this is much easier.  I find a site that I like.  I click on save to Delicious on my toolbar.  Then add tags to make it easy to find later.  I think that this link will take you to my bookmarks, but I am not really sure.   http://www.delicious.com/karenviviandrew  I am going to share this site with my grade level so that we can all add the sites that we enjoy/ use the most.

Thing #12

I have to admit that I tend to be a "lurker" when it comes to blogs.  I don't really enjoy writing them and I think I finally know why...I don't really feel comfortable talking to strangers so writing to them also makes me uncomfortable.  I realized that even on Facebook where the people that I will comment to are my real life friends I have trouble coming up with comments.  I don't want to come across as "Darth Commenter".  I do agree with the idea that when someone posts a comment they are adding to the conversation and that the comments need to be more than just "that's cool" or "Like".  (That is the button I usually push on Facebook)  I think that is something that I will work on for the future. 
I also found it interesting that the articles commented on the fact that they read and respond to the people that comment on their posts.  I guess that is a good way to expand your knowledge.  It would give you new blogs to read and more comments to make.  :)  I liked the cocommenter feature.  I think that I will need to play with it a little while before I really understand how it works, but I think that it could be a real time saver.
Has anyone tried it out?

Thing #11

I am definitely a book junkie and I think that this site could really help me organize my collections.  I have books at home and at school and I often find that I buy multiple copies of books that I like.  This could help me organize the books so I know what I have and where I have them.  I think it might take me a while but I think that this is a great tool.  I also enjoyed the idea that I could ask for advanced copies of books.  For just a review I can get books before they come out.  I looked into the groups and found two that really interested me.  Teachers who LibraryThing and Librarians who LibraryThing.  I think that I will be following these for a while. They had some interesting discussions going. 

Thing #10

I had a good time playing around with these sites.  As I was working with them Andrew was looking over my shoulder asking me to let him try.  I think that my students would really enjoy working with these sites.  I think that my favorite site was bighugelabs.com.  I think that the students at school could use this cube to share information in a fun way.  They could create their own cubes for math, language or reading. 

 

These comics came from the ComicStripGenerator.com site. There were quite a few well known characters for the students to use.  I think they could use these to create posters to promote books or good characteristics.

The cube and this photo came from Dumpr.

Thing #9

Google Blog Search was the easiest of the searches that were listed.  I found several sites that would be helpful to myself and other teachers at my school.  It was easy to use and I found several hits for each key word I submitted.  Technorati is more confusing.  I think that part of it was that it kept flipping back to searching through posts and I wanted to search for blogs.
Ask A Tech Teacher is a good blog that gives lesson plans and tech tips.  It also post websites for kids with an explanation of what the user will be able to do / find on the website.
SMART Board goodies was an interesting blog that gives examples of activities that could be useful in the classroom and the library. 

Thing #8

The thing that I like about readers and RSS is that it is so convenient.  I believe that it will save a lot of time for reading the new updates on my favorite blogs.  I think that I will continue using this feature after the class to keep up with some of the blogs that I have located.  This new technology will allow librarians, teachers, and administrators to keep up to date on new ideas and technologies.  This might encourage more people to read more professional journals and blogs to strengthen their programs.

Thing #7

I really enjoyed the google tools. I think that my favorite is Google Earth. I love to share this with my students. This lets them see maps in action.
The other one that I explored was iGoogle. I set up my page and found that it was quick and easy to change settings to things that are interesting to me. I like that I can add all kinds of gadgets to my page. I have lots of quotes for the day and I can keep an online pet here. And we all know how I feel about having online pets.
I did try playing around with the Google Doc.  As cool as it seemed at first, I think it will take a little more playing around with it to be able to use it.  Also I don't think that it would be something that my 2nd graders could use.

Thing #6 - Trading Cards

I LOVE THIS!!!! Our campus theme is Team Harris.  I can hardly wait to make cards with all of my students.  I think that they might even enjoy making these for their favorite book characters.  I played around with this and made a few cards for my own kids... I think that Viv might be a little aggrivated with the pic I chose.  :)

Thing #6

 I was playing around with bookr and started a shape book. Scroll to the bottom of the blog for my experiment. I think that my kids would really enjoy being able to make their own book on a subject.  The only thing that I would worry about would be the types of pictures that might pop up during their search.  I haven't played with it enough to know if there is a way to limit the scope of the search to make sure that some thing inappropriate will not come up.  Does anyone else know about that?

Thing #5 - Flickr photo

Here is the photo that I selected from Flickr.  Its original owner is D Sharon Pruitt.  I chose this photo because I am feeling very overwhelmed by the new job of being the art teacher.  I do like art, but I am not sure how to teach my kids in a way that gives them a real art experience.  I am currently trying to teach them to draw animals for thier rodeo art.  Any suggestions?