Friday, June 25, 2010

Thing 23

I made it!!!! It was very time consuming project but worth it. I learned so much that I never knew was out there in the technology world. I enjoyed many parts of this journey and will use some of them in my classroom. I thought the podcasts, Youtube videos, and slideshows were some of the bests. I found many new websites to do different things. I really like the Google Docs too. I am thankful that I had all of you to go through this journey with so that we could communicate about any problems or amazements that we had found. Now all I need to do is take some more time and go back through some of the things and spend some more time with them!

Thing 22

https://cmawiki.wikispaces.com/

I enjoyed learning about wikis and creating one. I think the difference between a wiki and a blog is that a blog is owned by one person and they are the only one that can make changes and write things. A wiki can be created and changed by many people.

Thing 21

I think Wikis are something that could be really valuable. I have never heard of these before and enjoyed exploring different ones. While watching the video about the list for a camping trip I was thinking that would be really neat to use when you have family or friend gatherings and everyone brings something. I had a lot of ideas for using that tool. I also liked the Hanalee Book Wiki. I think it would be really cool if the kids could do that in class with novels they are reading. I definitely think this would be beneficial in the upper grades. I really enjoyed this one!

Thing 20

When looking through the EPN website for podcasts it was very interesting all the different kinds I found. I thought the ones that were done by classrooms and kids were cool. I had a hard time listening to some of them.

Podcast Alley was difficult to look for things I thought. I had to preview a lot of them because the titles were very different from what I was searching for.

I downloaded iTunes onto my home computer because my laptop from school wouldn't let me download it. I wish I could have done it on my laptop because I did download Storynory which gives updates of new kid's stories that I think I would use in the classroom for the students to listen to. I also downloaded Sesame Street for my girls because they love it!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Thing 19

I really enjoyed looking through the podcasts. I found the storybook part where they read children's story books. I found this story of Cinderella.
http://storynory.com/2006/04/08/cinderella/
We read a couple different versions of Cinderella before in class to compare and contrast and this would have been really cool to have them listen to as another version. I think this tool would be great in the classroom. You could pull up various books and have the kids listen to them instead of reading them all the time. They could all use practice with their listening skills. I could see myself using this a lot!

Thing 18




Here is a slideshow of beautiful baby photos. I couldn't resist, I love looking at cute babies, especially my own :) ! I could see how you could use this website to find slideshows of various things. I could search for animals, geography items, or things we are learning about and show slides to the kids. The kids love looking at pictures. I think it is very useful how you could use this website in meetings to get certain things across.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Thing 17

I chose the Flashcarddb one and I thought it was a great tool to study with. I think the students could use their spelling words, math facts, and any subject test material to use for flashcards. Kids love to use the computer and this would be great for them study with. It does take some prep but in the long run I think it could be used in many different ways.

Thing 16

Well I couldn't find the 23 Things spreadsheet that I was supposed to preview. Looking at other people's blogs it seems some other people had problems too.

I can see how awesome this tool would be to use. I wish I knew about this in college. It would have been easy to save papers to this website and then be able to edit them in the computer lab or home. Instead of worrying that you saved it to everything and then carrying all those devices with you everywhere. Since I am teaching an elementary class I am not sure if I would have the kids use this website to save things done in class because they would need to have an email address to log in and save and edit documents. I would have to see if the kids have email addresses at home already or if their parents would allow them to have one. What if a student sends something to another student that shouldn't have been sent? The kids would have access anywhere to send and read things so supervision would be a problem. I think it would be great for high school students and college students and maybe even middle school students when they are writing papers.

Thing 15

I have to admit that I haven't checked my Bloglines account since Thing 5. It was easier but I needed to check out Thing 5 again for a refresher course. I hadn't checked my feeds till today so needless to say it isn't a habit yet. I like how you can add and delete any feeds you want. I had one feed on my account that I am not interested in so I delelted that one. I hope to keep up with checking the feeds much more digently now.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Thing 14

I had a lot of fun browsing the different websites and searching for things. My link is delicious.com/lisa2jay . I found a lot of cool educational online games for the students to play in math, spelling, and language arts. I saved quite a few so that I could pull the games up on any computer in my classroom. My students love playing math games and I am so excited to have found even more. I also found some nice websites that have free math printables. I am always looking for new things!!

Thing 13

I think tagging websites to another online website is a great idea. There have been many times that I have either had my favorites on my computer cleared out or I have saved a website to my home computer and then wanted to know what it was at school or at another computer. I would love to be able to go to a website and get all the websites in "my favorites" when using any computer.

I think the advantages would be getting access anywhere and also you could easily share with your colleagues anytime. Some disadvantages might be what one person might tag something might not be the same thing you would tag it. You would have to look carefully when you are looking at someone else's tags.

When you are assigning names to your tags be careful of the spelling and what you are tagging under that name. Other people may look at your tags so choose your websites carefully.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Thing 12

I have to admit that I had a brain lapse when I was told to embed a widget, I did have to go to thing 10 and look again but then after the 1st minute I remembered. It was easy to embed the cluster map I have on my blog and I want to go through and choose more widgets that I can add. It is very interesting, I never knew all this was out there.

I am on Facebook and I rarely use it. I don't have the time to sit on the computer and write about what I am doing all the time, nor do I have the time to read daily updates from every friend on there. I can see how people use online tools to communicate more than face to face. I think it's sad, I love talking to people and seeing them. It is so funny how things get around online and how fast!!

Thing 11

I think leaving comments on blogs is a great way for people to communicate with each other on what they are thinking. I liked receiving my first comment because it is great to get another idea or advice from a colleague on what you are doing. What one person perceives something to be may be totally different than another. I think students would like to hear feedback about their writing on their blogs. Sometimes when you get another perspective on a certain topic it sparks another idea that the writer may have.