Thing 22

Can Thing 22 be the reflection spot? Whew!

Having this intro to so many tools has been a wonderful overview. I'm super linear so I feel like making note of the things I plan to continue using at this point. Then I can check back here as a way to keep tabs on myself. Many of the tools seemed easier to use than they were to represent well in the Blog.

Shelfari

iGoogle

Facebook

Flickr, Picasa, and iStockphotography

Spell with Flickr

Wordle

Google Docs

TED

YouTube

Common Craft videos

Thing 21 - Other Social Networks

I didn't play around too much on the Ning site. It seems pretty focused on Library 2.0 info. So I checked out Gather a bit. The article was interesting in terms of the way Gather is trying to carve out a niche for writers/publishers.

Carving out a niche is an interesting concept. One one hand it makes sense for social networks to be specific to interest. However, if everyone's joining different social networks, how will we all find each other??!! :)

As I've mentioned a few times before, I am a member of Shelari. I love it and use it often and as a way of connecting with a pretty wide range of friends.

Thing 20 - Facebook

I got rolling on Facebook this winter. When my brother and law went to the middle east, it was the easiest/fastest way for him to share pictures with family. I must admit it was a little addicting at first, but I'm glad it wore off for me.

The upside is hearing news from friends and family. The downside is wading through all the the status updates from people who jot down what's for supper, the time of their run, etc.

I'd love to know a way to quickly sort out news once or twice a week. I still haven't figured that out yet.

I am a member the Basilica Block Party group. A parent of one of my students started a group for our CP family. It's Pekarek/Wallace CP family. It'll be interesting to see if it takes off and what people us it for.

Since I'm fairly familiar with Facebook, I took a few minutes to look at My Space. It seems a bit "looser." I ran across 3 pictures that were less than tasteful on my first screen.

My oldest child is only 9, so I'm not dealing with screen time/monitoring issues yet; which are sure to be even more complicated in a few years. I'd love to hear thoughts from parents on this issue.

Thing 19 - Podcasts

I really enjoyed working on this Thing. The explanation of podcasts was short and to the point. I was not aware that there were some sites that make it easy to search podcasts. I think all of the podcasts I've watched before today have been linked or forwarded by someone. So I'm glad to know about search options. I used podcast.com to find the TED site. I've heard several of these and they are fabulous. TED stands for Technology, Education, Design.

TED

I also searched NPR and quickly found what I was looking for there, too.

Thing 18 - You Tube

So how is it that I figured out how to embed this You Tube video, but I can't figure out how to get the text to wrap or to move around the video image so I can type easily. I did it. I'm outta here.

Thing 17 - ELM

Wow! What a resource. The piece I find so interesting is that this tool is available to everyone! This has amazing implications for education, obviously, but I'm thinking a little more big picture and feeling so grateful that any body in our state can walk into a public library and have access to anything from consumer info to geneology and can research any topic they can think of.

Today I was working with my daughter and her friends on a Fermi math problem. We were looking for info about Bastille Day. Here's the link. I did have to make quite a few clicks and enter my bar code to get here. For young kids researching something in the classroom, I'd get as far in as I could, then bookmark the site and let them make the last couple clicks according to their subject, otherwise it might be too complicated.

Bastille

Thing 16 - Student Research and Assignment tools

Wow! If someone wanted to succeed at a particular assignment the resources shown in this Thing are nearly endless. The tools clearly lay out the steps and offer a huge variety of supports. Using the links would clearly pump up basic research skills that would be transferable to other assignments or papers.

I wonder how students are encouraged to use these tools. I certainly hope many take advantage of this service.

Thing 15 - Online Gaming

The Ohio University Second Life promo is a bit intriguing. It sounds like there are many possibilities for learning, connecting and collaborating.

During this Thing I was also reminded of a positive connection to video gaming that I had while reading Daniel Pink's book: A Whole New Mind. He give a specific example about a video game simulation used to train military personnel on maneuvers with great success.

Personally, I'm more of an outdoor, face-to-face kind of gal. This Thing gave me a chance to rethink and reaffirm my values. I am grateful for the efficiency that technology brings to my everyday life, but I don't use it much at all for entertainment purposes.

Thing 14 - Shelfari

I read the info and checked out the links for Library Thing. It seems very similar to Shelfari, which I've been using for about a year now.

Since I'm a list maker, my favorite part of Shelfari is the simple fact that it's a place to record books I've read and books I want to read in one spot instead of a million post its sticking out of my planner.

Shelfari's social networking feature is super fun. I'm friends with a range of people from my daughter, to kids in my class, and also some Highlands parents and women in my book group. It's fun to see what friends are reading and read their reviews of books.

I have my Shelfari linked to my school web page. Parents can use it to get ideas for books on parenting and school philosophy as well as recommendations for their children.

It's easy to friend people if you just know their e-mail address.

My Shelf on Shelfari

Thing 13 - Online Productivity

I got totally lost in this thing. It was fun to set up an iGoogle homepage. Mine is very simple with a garden theme, NPR, weather, and gmail. I may add a few other things things as time goes by, but I'm going to be cautious about getting my start page too cluttered up, because I know I'll be tempted to tend to everything that pops up, so I only want the necessities.

I don't use a lot of goals, stickies, calendars, to-do's etc. online. I really, really love my paper Franklin Planner. I still like having it right in my purse at all times and not being dependent a connection to get at my stuff.

Thing 12 - I don't really Digg

I'm not really a pop culture kind of gal, so this thing isn't something I would get into very much. I was pleased to see the tabs as a way to narrow, but even then I still ran across lots of random, off-beat articles.

I understand the whole idea is to side step editors and conventional journalism. Still, I'd like a little quality filer. Who's quality you say?? Good question....

I can't help but wonder about an edu-digg site that contains the most pop articles from education journals. Or how about one for progressive Christians or parents of elementary age girls. The possibilities are endless. What a time saver that would be.

Thing 11 - Delicious

I created a Delicious account and imported my bookmarks. Now I can access all my personal bookmarks from any computer. Very cool. I wonder if my delicious account automatically updates when I alter my bookmarks on my home computer or if I have to manually update it whenever I make a change. We'll see.

I also checked out the PageKeeper site for teachers. It seems really cool as a way to store curriculum bookmarks. The best part of this would be that one teacher could create and share with others rather than everyone searching for themselves. I wonder if this is better than the student links on our Google site?

Thing 10

Since I've first heard about wiki's I've been interested in the notion of having a central spot where more than one person can draft, add, and edit content. I've been a part of wiki's used to sign up for conferences and to draft and edit an admissions policy. In both cases I had to have a user name and password which can be tricky to pass around to all and for individuals to keep track of. In the case of the sign up, a couple times I had trouble saving. The format seems to be a little tricky for my brain. I wonder if google docs do the same thing, exactly. They are so easy to use.

Thing 9

Google Docs is the greatest thing since sliced bread. In about a 1/2 hour I figured out how it works, converted the project I reference a thing or two ago as an editing and saving nightmare, shared it with collaborators, and am now ready to watch Johnny Depp on Letterman. This is seriously worth getting your hands around for collaborative projects.

I'll try to link our project personal stewardship project here.

Thing 8

Sharing Creations

I heard some one use the term "digital footprint" this winter and it really stuck with me. I'm not sure it's PC to admit in a tech class, but I'm still wrestling with the idea. I'm intrigued by uses of technology to increase productivity, streamline communication, and archive info. The part I think I'd like to watch is how much time I spend. There's something "addictive" about the new, quick, and visually appealing. Even if I spend 1/2 hour, what about calling my brother, playing a game with my daughter, or taking a walk?? I feel creative in my garden and working in my home, not so much on my computer. My philosophy/balance is a work in progress

So.... What have I done?

I share photos by creating slideshows on my digital frame.

We share tons of docs, ppts, etc. at work in our shared folder. It's a lifesaver in terms of communicating with other teachers, making revisions to curriculum and supporting each others' work.

I'd love to learn a way to share docs easily with people who aren't networked. I do a lot of work at the Basilica and we're constantly re-sending and re-saving work in progress. It's hard to know who has the most current version of anything. Maybe google docs is the ticket. We'll see in August.

I've done a fair amount on Shelfari. If you don't already know it, it's a way to keep track of books you've read and books you want to read. It has a social networking feature so you can see friends' shelves. I'm connected to students, parents, women in my book group, my daughter, her friends, relatives, other teachers, and on and on. It's a great way to keep lit. organized and show a little of yourself to the digital world. Let's see if I can link my shelf.

http://www.shelfari.com/o1517831599/shelf

Thing 7

E-mail is great for both professional and personal communication. It works best for delivering a one way message or setting up logistics, because it can be viewed any time the receiver is free. It's not great for discussions, problem solving, or making decisions that are emotional or mulit-faceted because so much of the message is lost.

E-mail has improved productivity tons! I read, act, and delete or file e-mails and keep my box cleared out.

I will have a student in my room next year who will be homebound for a good portion of the year. I'm learning about how her webcam works.

Thing 6

I finally got a chance to try Wordle. This tool is also very fun, quick and easy.

It'll be a great tool for signs and visuals of all sorts. Just hit the randomize button to view randomly generated design possibilities until you see the color, font and layout as you like it.

Again... Like Thing 5, I can't seem to figure out the steps to view this on the blog. I see the upload image button and am pasting the URL there. I must just be missing a little step?? Frustrating. I'll come back to this.

Thing 5

Spell with Flickr is fun, fast and easy. I spelled welcome and changed around the letters a bunch until I liked the colors and design. I can't figure out how to paste it into the blog.... Bummer!

Thing 4

Photosharing is all new to me. I've always wondered how teachers get great images it drop into powerpoints, etc. Now I know. I just pulled the image I wanted to the desktop and dropped it into a powerpoint.

I checked out Flickr, Picasa, and iStockphotography. They are are pretty easy to search. Now I just have to figure out how to upload something onto this blog. I've tried a couple things and I'm stuck. I'll keep trying. Yikes!

For personal use, for now I'm content with my Mac and iphoto routine. My next step will be to us a web based back up.

I've finally figured out how to upload an image to my blog (Thanks, Mike!) Our first unit of study this year is Monarchs. This is a monarch caterpillar on its food source; milk weed.

Thing 3

I've been wondering about RSS feeds since the speaker at the district kick-off a couple years ago had great things to say about this tool. I tried Newsgator and Google Reader. Google Reader seemed easier to me. I added weather, the Basilica Block Party website, and a couple blogs from people in our 23 Things class. As I use Google Reader over the next few days, I'll play around with the formats to see which one I like best. I think this'll speed up the things I check on a regular basis. It should also be a good way to get ideas for this class from other people's blogs. I wonder how much I'll add.

Thing 2

I'm excited about 23 Things. It seems to address and will help me blend the ways I use technology personally as well as at work. Some of the things I've heard of and would like to know how to use and some of the things I've never heard of. I'm pleased to have summer to explore and increase my basic knowledge.

I use the internet at home for researach and connection. It's such a part of life that I'm hoping an incresed knowledge will lead to streamlining. I use the library personally, professionally and with my kids. However I would say that most of this use is related to simply checking out books.

Thing 1

Whew! I'm all set to go. It would be easy to spend loads of time making an avatar. I think I got it saved so I can change it later if I want to.