Thing 16

I wish I had endless amounts of time to explore all that is out on the Web. It is such a short time to explore and discover, it seems, once I put the kids to sleep and really get to check out new sites that can help with my curriculum, my students, and even me and my family as well!

But here I am, happy to have a nice little list to choose from for Thing 16. After looking at my choices and quickly assessing a few to see where my interest might lie, I decided to check explore bubble.us. I thought this might be a sight that could be a great resource for both me and my students.

The first thing I liked was how I could try it out and decide if it was worth signing up for. I began to create a concept map for my Computer Education curriculum. I created a very quick version displaying the different technology concepts learned from 5th grade to 8th grade. It was very user friendly and allowed me to save it in my account and also share it or embed it on a blog or website. I decided to try it out and save it on my blog that I am currently testing to be used with my 7th graders (Kidblog.com- Thanks Terri!) It was easy to embed although appears a little small even though students can zoom in to their area of interest. I think I will have students use this for their notes during research. They can access it from home and school which is nice and they can easily print it or embed it as well. My seventh graders can even add them to their blogs for me to check over from home...an added advantage (one with less paper peddling too).

Thing 15

Much like social bookmarking, this is another great way to be able to share and access important items elsewhere, digitally. This is always an issue with school items since we do not have access to our school files. I always find myself frustrated when I am home and have forgotten to email myself something from school or save it to my thumb drive (and I absentmindedly misplace the thumb drive as well). Many businesses give their employees remote access to their files from home. Since we do not have this, Cloud tools could come in quick handy.

I added my information to the 23 Things spreadsheet quite easily. It sort of reminded me of the program Lotus Notes which we used way back when in college. I thought it was really cool that l could collaborate with my group mates on a major business project through this program, researching and writing sections, while my group mates gave continuous feedback and my college professor chimed in whenever needed. Perhaps we were ahead of the times...that was back in 1996. With that in mind, I can see myself doing this with groups of my own students that might be creating a website or video, or both, together. They can keep me posted on their progress and share problems, successes, and technology learned with cloud tools. I can help edit and revise research, writeups, and scripts.

I don't know what I would do about the email addresses needed here. Suggestions anyone? What a cool tool this could be!

Thing 14

I joined Facebook mostly to get in touch with old friends and colleagues. It is a quick and easy way to catch up and let them know I am thinking of them. I can see what they're up to and find out what we have in common. If there are common interests, and time avails itself, I might even find myself reconnecting with them in person.

I am very aware of the common mistakes people make with social networking sites like this, and I am vigilant about checking privacy settings that seem to change frequently without notice. I also make it common practice not to "friend" students or people I do not recognize as friends. Many people seem to go overboard with social networking, as if it is some kind of addiction, and share ridiculous personal information with the Facebook world. I find this appalling.

I really enjoyed seeing how the NHS library uses Facebook to their benefit. After seeing that, I can definitely see how I could use Facebook for my computer technology program. I could post tips and cool tech happenings on there. I could also share student created photos and videos (ensuring copyright rules apply!) on there. I like this idea!

Thing 13

I created my account with Delicious. I chose Delicious as opposed to Diigo only because this is my first time social bookmarking and the Diigo looks more advanced.

I chose to begin bookmarking all the great new technology sites I have been learning about. I am excited about this because I have written descriptions of what each does (since it is easy to forget if not consistently used), and I now have access anytime, anywhere and so do my students and colleagues. If I want students to explore some sites I have for them, I can direct them to my Delicious site. If I am at a workshop or a meeting with my technology colleagues and we are sharing ideas, these sites are at my fingertips. I see see so many benefits here.

If parents are interested in what I am sharing with students, and would like to explore as well, I can send them to this bookmarking site to take a look. I love this new tool!

Thing 12

I think it is extremely important to be able to organize all of these amazing digital resources. The Internet is so full of amazing resources, and some that are not so useful as well. When we find something that is useful, it is so important to be able to continue to use it, and to share it with others who can benefit.

I love the fact that I can bookmark something at home and have it at my fingertips at school. I love that I can work on it at home, and a colleague can do the same and then we can share each other's findings with ease. Being someone who has just had MAJOR issues with her PC, and junked it for a brand new iMac, I would be much happier if I had used Delicious.com to organize my bookmarks instead of my browser. You live, you learn. That is why I am taking this online workshop. I feel like I should have known all about these things, but I have not found the time to explore.

I will find this extremely useful to share the great sites I have already learned about here with students, colleagues and friends. I will also find this very useful to assist those students who need some extra help exploring resources that have been deemed appropriate and relevant to the research they need to do. I just need to be very aware of how I tag items, so that they are easily understood.

I should also remind students that they need to give appropriate tags to items so that they are not offensive or misleading.

Thing 11

Widgets and Gadgets can certainly enhance instruction, especially when you can create exactly what you want for any occasion. It is a great way to connect with our digital learners! Today's digital learner is not excited about filling out a survey with paper and pencil...a survey with the same questions all teachers are asking to assess learning. But send that same learner to that survey on your weekly blog that they are required to read, and the motivation and eagerness to share might be quite different.

I see these widgets becoming great ways to start and finish classes as intros and closure. Having students read today's current news stories as they flash on a gadget, having students get their first instructions of the class through a Voki Talking Avatar (with a REPLAY button! Every teacher's dream!), flashing a series of student produced photos in a small slideshow to inspire and encourage students to create and practice their technological skills with cameras...all of these things are ways to reach, connect, and motivate the learners of today!

I personally enjoyed playing with the Voki. I will certainly find many ways to incorporate these into my computer classes, and I cannot wait to share them with my student bloggers!

I had much trouble embedding my Voki into my post. I was using a PC when I tried numerous times and got very frustrated wasting time with no positive results. I had heard that it might be because I had not updated Internet Explorer to IE8...but unfortunately, I could not do this, as we have a very important program that cannot be run with IE8, only IE7. This PC had some issues over the past months, so yesterday, I made the best move and purchased a brand new iMac. I am now a very happy computer user and also have found embedding this Voki to me extremely easy! Ahhhhh...technology!

Thing 10

Well, I officially became a Twitterer this evening. I'm not so sure I like it. Something about people posting their EVERY move creeps me out. I almost feel like a stalker. Not surprisingly, I didn't find many of my friends on Twitter, nor do I think I would use this Web tool often. It is cool to get some updates from areas I am interested in like Family, Travel and Sports, but I can get similar updates on Facebook.

I also had a chance to explore the BEST of WEB 2008. I discovered that a few websites which I use a lot were 1st place winners: Zillow, Flicker (now!), Google Maps, and Craigslist. I decided to check out a few others but was a little disappointed. Standoutjobs wasn't what I expected as it was geared towards the employer rather than the prospective employee. Onmidrive was merely an article on how Onmidrive's domain had expired and the company gone bad. And after searching Mother's Click for a few topics that I was interested in, I was disappointed to find all outdated, very old posts from moms. After three attempts to find new and interesting sites, I gave up and went to bed.

I look forward to checking out Thing 11.