Summary

My favorite discovery was Animoto. It was so easy to use and the results were wonderful. I am anxious to learn more about the available tools for utilizing the computer and also to practice what I have already learned. There are definite opportunities for lifelong learning. If someone as old and set in her ways as I was can learn and accomplish this much, everyone in the district that teachs needs to take this course. Everthing that we did in this course surprised me. I had never heard of most of these tools. I do not see room for improvement unless there would be a way to get help when you really get stuck. I guess that I could have emailed more but I just slogged through. I would definitely try another discovery program. There is so much useful info out there on the web to enchance a classroom's learning, I think that we are cheating our children and shortchanging them if we don't use these tools such as podcasting. Right now other than keeping up with what i have learned, I would visit blogs like Cool Cat Teacher to keep up with things in 2.0. I hope to start a blog on Xanga to get used to thinking through my new experiences and things that I come in contact with day to day and I will subscribe to the RSS feed for Learning 2.1.

Thing 23

Credits
Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.


I copied and pasted the above from the sidebar of the website for 23 Things. I suppose that this is similar to a "works cited" or bibliography page. We difinitely need to stress to the student to give credit when and where it is due in order to avoid legal problems. I am not sure that I am totally clear on fair use after viewing the video A Fair(y) Use Tale and reading that comic book about copyright. Both are very well done though the video was annoying and hard to follow due to to all of the different voices used.

Thing 22

I listened to an episode of The Science Show which I found on the Education Podcast Network. It was somewhat like having someone reading a science book aloud. My mind started to wander. I do better reading along in the text or having something to watch. The EPN was easier for me to use than the Podcast Directory. I was not able to find anything that would work for me on the Podcast directory. When a radio station has "live streaming" audio, is that a podcast? I love listening to the shows on KCBI and they often mention that the listener can also listen from their computer but I have never tried. I would subscribe to that, I need to look a little more to find anything else that I might subscribe to. I think that a classroom creating a podcast of things that they have learned and allowing the parents to listen would be fun. Students in today's schools need those kind of positive learning experiences or when they grow up they will be computer illiterate like I am (was). LOL!!! ;)

Thing 21

I absolutely can not believe that this worked!!! I am so happy that I could cry!!! Yesterday was some day for me. I worked Special Ed this morning (my summer job) and helped to change the biggest dirty diaper that I had seen ever, poor little guy is 22 and completely at our mercy. He is a great guy, wheelchair bound but despite it all, laughs alot and keeps us laughing. I then was at Eastfield with my daughter as she donated blood and another student had a seizure. She ended up being okay but we were there for awhile and my clock to finish this was ticking. I left this program uploading my photos while I went to Bible study and after 2 hours, it was not finished. I left it over night and then could not find it right away. Yikes!! On top of all that, our internet connection keeps coming and going. Animoto was really easy to use. The uploading of photos took forever (might have been me, or my computer, or my lousy internet connection). I definitely will use this again, I would love to collect photos throughout the year to show in a short program for class graduation (promotion).

Thing 20

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kJZOfq7zk
I don't seem to have much luck posting these things to my blog. I chose Urban Ninja for my YouTube. My children used to take Tae Kwon Do and we knew someone that was almost this fearless, fun to watch as long as you are not his mother. I am sure that there must be almost anything available to show (after previewing, of course)to match up with whatever the students are learning or even as a reward for good behavior, they could watch something funny.

Thing 19

I joined BakeSpace. I keep trying to convince myself that I like to cook. I think that I might try WhatsOnMyBookshelf, sounds like a good idea, people trading books. I am sort of a loner, maybe in time I will join another group. I am a work in progress as far as socializing.

View my page on 23 Thingsters

Thing 18

I set up an account at Facebook because my daughter uses it all the time and after looking at MySpace, I was a little concerned about safety. Facebook brought up the names of 2 people that I went to high school with but I do not feel ready to communicate with them again so I added It was very easy to create a Facebook and I would think that it would be easy to lie but then if people do not accept you as a friend, I would think that you would not get too far. I know that on Facebook, people post many, many photos to share. Right now I can not think of a reason to use this in school unless former graduates wanted to communicate and inspire the kids back in the classroom or I guess that the class could use this like a pen pal in another state or country.

Thing17

The information available online is more than overwhelming. A person needs all the help and filters she can get. Del.icio.us is a fantastic way to organize bookmarks and connect you to other sites that you might even know exist because you are able to access others bookmarks. Libraries would be able to assist the researcher from any where, not just locally.

Thing16

iGoogle was great. I had to make myself stop adding things.... Bible verse of the day, Health tip of the day, Word of the day, National Geographic picture of the day. I will keep this, it is so easy to use. I truly am looking to get more organized, but obviously I put things off. I had too much trouble trying to get to a calendar site, I was getting tired of having to sign up for access. I did (and will continue to)enjoy Ta-da list. That is my style, yes, oh yes. I could use this list for school reports due and follow-ups.

Thing 15

I must say that Lee LeFever is very good at what he does with those short videos. BookLovers Wiki is a great idea. Each school district should have one for employees to tell others about books to read and also which to avoid. I could really get into that. I went to the sandbox and felt vulnerable, plus I didn't have anything to say but I love the colors that you can play with. I am time-crunched and brain-tired right now or I would go back in and stir up some sand.

Thing 14

Bubl.us is awesome! I feel that I am waking up from a long nap, like Rip Van Winkle... the world has passed me by. I would like to catch up. I can see so many ways to use this to organize (the progression of an untreated illness comes to mind). I could not get Flowchart to work for me, I gave up.

Thing 13

Zoho is great! I had no idea that such a thing existed! I have helped my own children by proofreading their papers. This would have been a great way to handle that. We used to email back and forth and wait for a response and hope that they got the email and blah, blah, blah... nightmare!! Changing the font color was so easy, as was adding pictures, emotion icons, and symbols but the best thing yet was the way that the writer can add math symbols!

Thing 12

I really love Google Alerts. I will be alerted about Irish Dance Videos and Allnurses, a nurses discussion forum. Adding this was easier than most of the other exercises. I do not like this calendar system as much as the Outlook calendar which I use to remind me to give the students their meds at school.

Thing 11

My goodness! Where did the time go? I could not get Syndic8 to work or Feedster either. I read so many interesting things about Mesquite on Topix that I had to subscribe. I found a good feed on Google Blog Search for nurses, so I subscribed to that too. I may never get another thing done but I am informed and connected. I may learn something yet. I must have been searching and reading for the past 2 hours. I have a headache. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings on my RSS. This is better than going back to school. I am in touch with thousands of people that are willing to share thousands of pieces of information. (Plus I might yet learn to type!) Technorati was not easy for me to use. Maybe my mind is failing me again. There is just so much info out there and I am so old!

Thing 10

I subscribed to Google Reader because so many of the tutorials stated that it was the easiest. I think that having a system that informs you of updates is invaluable, I miss the news many days but check my emails every day. I just hate not knowing what is happening in the world. I searched for sites concerning nursing and only subscribed to those with numerous subscribers. I also subscribed to the recommended news bundle offered at Google reader. I am sure that I will need to "manage" my subscriptions soon. We shall see. One of the nursing sites was for CEUs, since I always will need cont ed, I would love a site to help me find interesting topics. Teachers could use the news features to keep their classrooms up to date for social studies. after scanning the other sites that were listed, I realize once again that my brain has atrophied and possibly fallen out. Cool Cat Teacher, where were you when I was in school? Many of the things that my own children have for homework do not seem up to the level of learning that I would want for them. This teacher is unbelievable! I feel like an uneducated goofball after reading what she writes. If I were a teacher, she would be my mentor from afar.

Thing 9

Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com


This was also fun. I am gaining back a little confidence after slacking for so long. This is obviously from the comicstripgenerator.com

thing 8

I would like to use this for messages and flyers (even though it reminds me of a ransom note). This method of spelling is very eye-catching. I know that students would like to do their spelling lists with this method. I am nervous about sharing pictures online. I think that there are too many strange people out there; however, I suppose that I would not mind posting pictures of places, just not people.