Thing 17

Web 2.0 Winners-
Okay, checked out some sites for both personal and professional use. Craigslist is very visually busy.
I already belong to a PBworks and whenever our pages are edited, I receive an e-mail and I can check out the new, updated information. I know I could be more efficient with this tool.
Doof seems to be a bit adult - I was searching with my 8-year old by my side-and found some interesting photos on the first page.
I had a student publish his book this year on lulu and he was so proud. I like that idea and the books look great. There is a fee for the publishing.

Thing 16

Digital Natives speak out! The 1st and 3rd podcast seemed to repeat the same idea over... and over... and over. I got the point after 50 seconds - teach the way digital natives learn, not the way your grandparents learned!

Sir Ken Robinson could moonlight as a comedian. He had some great stories. My favorite quote by him was that "we should teach creativity like we teach literacy". I do think that we snuff out creativity with some of the ways we teach. Students need to be more autonomous!

Thing 15

The mere idea of allowing students to use their I-pods, MP-3 players and cell phones in school is exciting! Two years ago, we had a 2-day workshop on technology and invited some of the leading gurus to our district to talk about this very topic. In fact, the keynote address was about allowing students to use their technology. There were many teachers who were NOT in favor of this at all. They tuned the speaker right out and said it was "just to much" and that "it opened too much possibility of trouble (cheating etc)". That type of thinking shuts down some of the great possibilities the internet, web 2.0 and technology has for us. I also think fear had a lot to do with the way this idea was received. Since I was not raised in this era, it will take some time for me to learn along with the students. After all, we should, as educators, model our own life-long learning for our students!

I can't wait to use podcasts with my students. One on our 4th grade teachers received a grant from our PTO to purchase a set of classroom i-pods for this very idea. She uses them for all her students and they love it! I will plan to share all these ideas with her and she has offered a few i-pods for my students to use when I have them for small groups.

Now, my next learning needs to take me to a place where I can learn how create podcasts by my students!

Thing 14

I spent a lot of time this morning learning about podcast b/c I have been wanting to use this tool for my students for 2 years now. Podcasting will be great for my students who are auditory learners. I love StudyCast and GrammarGirl. As we discuss student learning in our collaborative groups, these podcasts will come in handy as some strategies.

The mathgrad podcast is for high school, but I intend to use it next year for my accelerated 6th graders when we study math and science in real life. I checked out the cast for the Deal or No Deal game show and it fit perfectly with our topic.

With the changing science benchmarks in Michigan, I plan to use the RESA website and cast by David Bydlowski. They look great for our Professional Development this fall.

Personal note: I have subscribed to NPR's poscast of Story Corps. It airs on Friday monrnigs at 6:30 and often times I am not able to listen to it. If you enjoy tender moments, you will love this podcast.

I am so glad I am exploring all this technology during the summer. I am keeping a notebook on all the ideas for next year!

Thing 13

The final product of the slide show was fun! However, it took me 2 hours to upload 6 photos. I'm doing something wrong!

This will have more value for me in my personal life right now as I learn about uploading my photos and doing some digital storytelling. When school starts, I certainly could try using a slide show with presentations versus the old power point. In fact, for my students, a final project for a literature piece could be a slide show that depicts the photos from the time period we were studying.

Thing 12

Personal and Professional Productivity is exactly where I am right now! I am all about "working smarter and now harder". I have been searching for a calendar to use for my professional and personal life so that my whole family can have access and I can coordinate it all. I tried my AOL calendar and that's fine, but the 30Boxes online calendar seems to be so much more. It is much easier to navigate around than the AOL version. I can also customize it and sinc it with all of my other "things" about which I am learning.

I am excited to use bubbl.us and LibraryThings with my students and in my office.

I love thing 11 and 12!