Thing #13 - Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

I LOVE DEL.ICIO.US!!! This has so many wonderful time saving applications that I can use for my kids this coming school year. I started tagging sites that will help us with math concepts and will be working in this more as soon as I finish this course. It will be fabulous for research to help the kids and me. Teachers can use this to get ideas for kids who are struggling or for help in planning lessons. The professional and personal applications are thrilling!

Thing #12 - Creating Community Through Commenting

I'm having a hard time narrowing down which two points I think are important when it comes to commenting on someone else's blog; they're all important. I guess the one that was most meaningful to me was "Don't be afraid to comment". I think that I fall into the "Lurker" category. I worried, and still do worry, that what I have to say to someone else might be regarded negatively for whatever reason. So, this was good for me to "force" me to make comments and realize that it was ok to say what I wanted to say. The second one that I thought was important was to be respectful when commenting, even if you are disagreeing with what someone else is saying. I dread my first encounter with DC. We, adults and children alike, already face so many situations with negative/disrespectful people that it is really important to point out that you should treat others with kindness and respect always, whether in the "real world" or "cyberspace".

Making comments on the blogs of people who are currently involved with "23 Things" was a lot easier than commenting on outside blogs. I could relate to many of my fellow players regarding their celebrations/frustrations, but found it harder to comment on the others. I chose blogs about animals because I really enjoy animals, especially dogs. I thought it would make it easier, but discovered that I still have a long way to go before I'm comfortable being a "Commenter" instead of a "Lurker". I'm sure I'll get better with more experience as my comfort level grows.

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

LibraryThing was really interesting. I can see myself using it as a tool to help me keep my own organized list of favorite books that I like to teach with during the school year. Goodness knows, I have a hard time remembering the titles/authors sometimes and this would really help. I also like being able to see other books that people recommend on a subject/topic in which I'm interested. I believe this could really be a time saver.

I did find a couple of groups that sounded interesting and I joined one of them. It's great knowing there is a place that I can go to get suggestions from others who understand "where I'm coming from".

What's next?!

Thing #10 - Online Image Generator

Totally addicting! I really enjoyed playing with these. I particularly liked Comic Strip Generator and Image Chef. I can see many uses for these from poetry writing displays to content miniposter making to class rule displays.

Thing #9 - Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

The Cool Cat Teacher blog about selecting your "Circle of the Wise" was very helpful because those feelings of confusion were exactly what I wrote about in my previous post on Thing #8. I think that I found the Edublog Award Winners list one of the easiest ways to find feeds that I was interested in because of the category lists.

Technorati was really easy to use and I did not find it nearly as confusing as Topix.net, which had a page that was just way too busy. A lot of them have pages that are too busy and I find they overwhelm me a bit (I think that they are an excellent way for adults to get the idea of the confusion students go through the first time they see the TAKS test!).

While I will continue to look for feeds on my own sometimes, I think Cool Cat really gave good advice about starting out subscribing to people you trust and then using their blog rolls to get possible ideas for others in which you might be interested.

Thing #8 - RSS Feeds and Readers

This was interesting, but a bit frustrating because there were just so many things to choose from for which to subscribe. I spent a great deal of time putting in various key words to see what other options would come up and found more than anyone could possibly ever read. I know I missed some really good ones, but I did finally settle on some to subscribe to for this project.

Now, to answer the project questions...

What I liked was the fact that I could see all of my choices at a glance instead of having to go from site to site. The brief descriptions helped me choose whether I wanted to go ahead and read the full "thing" or move on to another. This allowed me to maximize my reading time.

I could see me using this professionally by blogging with others in the field of education to discuss various topics, share discovered sites, ask for suggestions on whatever I'm struggling with at the time, etc.

Not being a librarian, I'm not sure that I'm qualified to answer how libraries could use this technology, but here goes...I think it would be great if it was used as a way to share education/technology issues and sites with teachers. It would be a way for a librarian to give teachers information without having to have a face-to-face meeting. That way, the librarian would be saving teachers from looking and looking for information that the librarian may have already gathered. I know that our school librarian sometimes finds it frustrating that she can't meet with our grade level team because of all the other meetings we already have. Maybe by creating a shared Reader we could eliminate some of that frustration and save time. However, I know that she would have to spend time teaching our teams how to access the reader, etc. so I'm not sure how much of a time saver it would be for her.

Thing #7 - Cool Google Tools

Ok, we have got to put a stop to this madness (and I'm not even half way through)! Yet another group of very cool items for which I will need to find extra hours to play with... I mean study!

I really like Google Earth and I'm sure that we can use it in our map/geography studies in class. I think the kids will really be able to get a much better understanding of how maps are translated into symbols. Students will also be able to "visit" places to which they may never actually travel.

Google Notebook and Google Docs could really come in handy for student and teacher use. I can see the kids using both to gather research data and putting together presentations. I also believe teachers could find both of these tools useful for communicating with each other during summer break for planning and building units of study.

I set up a Google Alert, but quickly discovered that I will need to try to figure out how to be more specific in what I want to be alerted to because my request seemed to generate a lot of items that did not provide information I was seeking. I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

I can't wait to try the calendar out because it looks really useful and versatile. I like that so many of the items have a "tutorial" to show you about it before you actually try it out.

Thing #6 - Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

Very interesting and addicting! I found several things that I can use with and for the kids. Mapmaker would be a great way for the students to track their progress on their states tests. I think I will use Motivator to have the kids make updated posters of the Life Skills we study using their own pictures and descriptions (maybe this will give them a bit more ownership in class behavior).

I really liked the Trading Card maker. My librarian shared this with my class last year and taught them how to use it to create state cards. This would really have a lot of applications from making cards to support research projects to generating vocabulary cards to help ESL students.

I need more time in the day!!

Thing #5 - Explore Flickr

I liked this site and I can see many possibilites for using it to create lessons to help my students.

The picture I chose to share in this blog entry will help with my Science unit on plants. It shows a group of various kinds of plants and will allow the children to see the many different types of leaves that exist in the Plant Kingdom. Photos like this one are very good for classifying activities.

I look forward to exploring the Flickr site further when this course is complete.

Thing #4 - Register Blog

Ok, this was the easiest "Thing" so far; I can handle sending an e-mail for registration. Thanks to all of the Kickball Captains for taking the time to monitor this course and help all of us out with continuing our goals as Lifelong Technology Learners.

Thing #3 - Set Up Blog

Wow! This was really much easier than I thought it was going to be when I first read the assignment. I spent more time thinking about a blog address and ID than it took to set up the blog. Setting up the avatar was interesting and fun.

I also liked reading the advice from others about setting up a blog and why they are important. The statement that made the biggest impression on me came from David Warlick..."Rather than just making students information consumers, make them information artisans." If learning these 23 Things can help me encourage my students to become "information artisans", then I think it will be worthwhile.

Thing #2 - Lifelong Learners

The "7 1/2 Habits" online tutorial was really interesting! I really liked the emphasis on individuals being in control of their own learning. I agree that if you want to learn more about a subject there are numerous resources available and you are the only one standing in your way. I also like the "1/2" Habit...learning through "play" can be very powerful.

I think the easiest habit for me is #2, Accepting responsibility for your own learning. I have always been one of those eager learners constantly asking "Why?" and "How?" and generally pestering others to teach me things I don't know.

The habit that is the hardest for me is #6, Using technology to my advantage. I feel that I do use technology to help me, but I waste more time than necessary sometimes. A lot of my knowledge of technology is self-taught and I don't always discover the most time efficient steps right away.

Thing #1 - Read Program Blog

This online course sounds really interesting, but I'm a little bit worried that I won't be able to complete all of the components correctly and on time. However, I'm always willing to try to learn new things, so here I go!