The Last Thing

I have really enjoyed these 23 things. I have explored all that web 2.0 has to offer and I have gained so much. I would have to say that my favorite discoveries are flickr.com, the generator, animoto, and the mashups. All of these things can be incorporated in the classroom or I can just use them to have fun. I thought that I knew everything there was to know so the fact that there was a whole other world on the computer really surprised me. I really like the exploration aspect of web 2.0. There is so much to learn and so many ways to incorporate the things learned. It can all be added together or modified in a way that will help students learn. I am now probably more involved with social networks than I was before. I definitely feel a greater sense of freedom on the internet now that I know so much about it. There are so many options. At first it was a little overwhelming and I was a little frustrated with it when I couldn't find things right away. After I worked on it a little more, it became much much easier and now it's so much fun. I think if there were multiple things where it was mandatory to include more than one thing at a time people would start to really memorize the different sites and that would strengthen the program or the goal of the program at least. It would force the things learned to become like second nature for the students. I think it has helped me to keep an innovative and adventurous mindset about me. I think that this program has opened my eyes to all the web has to offer. All I have to do is explore, which is fun and much easier now! I will be a much better teacher because now I have all of these resources to incorporate into my daily lessons and activities. To keep up with the developments in web 2.0 I will continue social networking and I will do searches. I think if I stay on social networking sites, chances are someone on there will be more advanced in technology and can help introduce me to all of the new developments in web 2.0 so I can stay up-to-date.

Thing 19

Visit TeacherPop


I like how this site applies to teachers. It's a great site just for teachers so I really liked that aspect of it. I also went to goodreads, shelfari, and crafts. I really liked the first one. I wasn't sure what it was about,but after searching the site, I found it is just like an online book club. The members will get on the page and rate books that they've read. Something that I really liked about this was it can be personalized so that anyone can form a reading list of what they want to read and what they have already read. I think this would be a very useful tool in the classroom. I could ask the students what books they would like to read and incorporate some of my own ideas to form a reasonable reading list. That's one idea. Another idea may be to record all the books the students have read. I could see what books students like more or less. This is a great way to make a really interesting and fun reading list for the students. The crafts page is something I could use as well as far as the ideas go. I also liked how on goodreads we could collect our favorite quotes. I think this is my favorite out of the ones I looked at. Back to teacherpop though, I think this site will be extremely useful. Teachers could make sure they have all of their coworkers on their page so that they can give and take ideas and rely on one another. They could form a strong sense of community among the group of teachers. Everyone is sure to benefit from this site because it will only strengthen them as professionals. Lastly, I chose to respond to John McFarland's comment. I had a challenging time with the ning badge, but I looked at the bottom of the page and found the embed code. :)

Thing 23

This program started out as Learning 2.0. It was created by Helene Blowers and was modified by the California School Library Association. It then became Learning 2.0-23 Things. This belonged to the Mesquite Independent School District. This is the foundation for what is n now Learning 2.0-23 Things for Teachers. All of this was made possible by Creative Commons. I really like the creative commons website. I see myself using this quite a bit when I am a teacher. The website allows me to do a search and use the material I find for lessons or class activities. I am sure I will use the photos from flickr.com in my classroom. I think it would be really neat to take all of the pictures I find that pertain to the lesson I am teaching and make a poster using all of the photos. The students could also use these pictures to create something. I thought that was a really neat point or idea behind creative commons. It does not restrict creativity at all and allows us to take and build upon others work. There are no restrictions with creative commons. I may also print out written works found on the creative commons site. All of these materials can be used to really help the students and the teachers learn and be creative.

Thing 22

Interactive Tools for Teachers

The three binders I have are called 1.Interactive Tools for Teachers 2. Science and 3. Reading and Language Arts. The one I chose to embed was the Interactive Tools for Teachers. I really enjoyed all of them and they are all really helpful. This one, however, has a few of my favorite websites. These are the most helpful to me and I really like how I can organize things by categories. This will make life so much easier. When teaching, if I need a lesson, I can just click on the category that I need and find it pretty easily. I set all of my binders to private. I could have set it to public, but I chose private since I'm a beginner. The other binders that I saw were really neat and I really enjoyed looking at them. They were so neat and I liked how everything was so easy to see and access. When I become a teacher, I may make a binder that the public can see because it is really beneficial and provides teachers with really great resources and lesson plans. It could be fun for interests outside the classroom as well. It doesn't just have to be for lesson plans. I am really interested in dolphins and whales. I could create a binder just for that. I love how the possibilities with the binders are endless. It will definitely help me keep lessons and different subject activities organized while having a rich resource folder to improve and enhance each lesson.

Thing 21

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This was so much fun! This is something I can do during my free time or for my classroom. This would be great to use for displaying a science fair project. Also, this would be great with adding visual emphasis to a lesson. If we were talking about natural disasters for one lesson, I could put a slide show of volcanoes or something like that. I also think that parents will appreciate this. I could take pictures of the students doing different activities throughout the year and I could make a slide show or short film out of it. I could also do this throughout the year, which may help to make the parents feel as if they were more involved. This would make a great gift for the end of the year. I was so excited to learn how to do this. This is something that I will definitely use more in the future. :) It was really easy putting it all together. I really liked how I was able to go to flickr.com to use all of the pictures in my video. It really allowed me to be as creative as I wanted with the short film or movie. I have always wanted to do a documentary. This may be something I could use to do that. If the documentary film is educational, this is something I could use in my classroom as well.

Thing 20

I went to Youtube and looked through some of the videos they had. I really like the idea of Youtube. Anyone can post a video. There are a lot of educational videos. In some cases channels will post a video. Or maybe someone is posting them. Either way, I am able to see what was on the history channel about a variety of different topics. This was the video that I chose to embed. I hope I am doing this right. It's called education today and tomorrow. I thought this was interesting. Something else I thought was interesting is the youtube videos that explain youtube and how it came about and how it connects individuals. It talks about how it allows for communities to evolve. I thought this was important especially for educators and those who are in the process of becoming a teacher. They can join the teacher community through sites such as Youtube.

Thing 17

Bookmarking and tagging is something that everyone can use. It gets rid of the monotony of just looking through the sites. I really like exploring the web and finding new sites, but I always forget where I found them, what they are called, or sometimes how to spell the URL address correctly. Bookmarking will definitely take care of this issue as I can tag all of my favorite sites. This will definitely benefit me as I become a teacher. I can gather information that will help me learn about different things that are important to know about teaching. I can help others at the same time too. I can find really great sites and tag them and then others will be able to use them. I think that I will use this quite a bit as a teacher. I think if there is a site like the one mentioned about homework help, I could print off that information and use it as a handout for class or to strengthen a certain activity or lesson plan. It will be a lot of fun searching through everyone's tags and finding things that will help me and my classroom grow. At first I thought it would be challenging, but after watching the different tutorial videos and reading about it, I found that part of it's appeal is the simplicity and convenience behind it. It eliminates the fluff of the web and provides a quick and easy way to access information from anywhere at any time. Tagging and Bookmarking show that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. :)