Reflections

Some of my favorite learning exercises were picassa and the sign generator. They were both creative and fun. This program has shown me how much stuff is really out there on the web that I would have never known about. So as far as life long learning I need to explore more with downtime to find these sort of programs that can help me in my personal life and teaching career. I was shocked that I did take a way a lot of this information. I thought at first this would be a tutorial through different teaching tools online. But it has become apparent that it's not just useful professionally but also personally. I had a lot of problems with finding information on class projects before as far as lesson plans. But now with Bloglines, I can use that to keep updated without having to search and read through so much information. This will definitely effect me as a teacher by helping to keep me organized and more up-to-date with technology. That impacts my students and is a very important part of school as our world becomes more technologically advanced, so must our students.

Thing #23

Creative commons protects the authors while still letting others use information and ideas they've made or created. This is useful in the classroom 1) for finding other's works that I can modify to fit my own projects under the creative commons laws, 2) it helps students understand how serious stealing other's works is. I can communicate how to use the creative commons laws to them so they don't accidentally break the law.

Thing #22

I listened to this podcast about math. This would be especially helpful in english or foreign language classes because it allows you to communicate through voice. I like this option because it gives more of a personal feel and is also helpful for parents. I would use this in my class website. I found the Podcastalley the easiest one to navigate.

Thing #21

Animoto was a lot of fun. I've made something similar to this using a different site called One True Media. There's a beautiful video slideshow of my husband and I meeting our newest addition. For the Animoto I used a halloween video. I liked the site, but love One True Media more because it has fade in and outs on it, although the music selection isn't very good. I embedded my video on the sidebar.

Thing #20

I chose this youtube video. The reason why is because I was researching mean, median, and mode for my big technology project and ran across this video. It was so effective, I can't get it out of my head now.

I liked that there were so many instructional videos out there that were easy to find. The thing I didn't like was that some videos weren't labeled properly and were listed under the subject you searched, yet had nothing to do with that subject.

Thing #19

I am a member of Babycenter.com. It is a social network based around parenting.

I think I would use the Teacher Librarian Ning because the different topic discussions would be helpful in realizing my own ideas if I had a block on how I wanted to do a lesson.

Thing #18

This is my facebook.

I have had accounts with these sites for a long while. I don't like Myspace for a professional networking system. Facebook works much better because it links you to the other people on each person's profile. Also it sets everyone into groups so it's easy to find people you have things in common with even if you've never met them, but they live nearby and maybe work in your school's county. The only thing I don't like about Facebook is that a lot of privacy is lost because it shows every new group you join. There is a good side to that though, other people who share similiar interests might find the groups you join useful. So as long as you create a Facebook account that is purely professional, I think it could be a great tool. Myspace, on the other hand, has a lot of advertising that is unprofessional for teachers and it's hard networking with people based on their search requirements. I think it's great as a personal social space though.

Thing #17

This is a great tool for the classroom. Just doing research for making a lesson plan about something brings a lot of useful websites up. The only problem is that I can never seem to find them in my favorites when they are all about the same thing. The difference with teachers using it, is that we all teach the same lessons. Being able to access someone else's tags helps you get new ideas for your own lesson plans and connects you to resources that might have been hard to find.

Thing #16

I chose the Stikkit because I'll be honest, I use sticky pads everywhere so I liked the name. It very cute, but I still will use the APSU home website as my home webpage. Online calendars are helpful because I tend to get online everyday, so it's nice to have a reminder place where I can easily erase and write in new appointments. I did find the to do lists to be too much work though. I always just jot down little notes for myself every once in a while and they work better. Plus I cross off stuff on my to do lists and wouldn't feel like printing something off everytime.

Thing #15

Wikis are great. I thought that a wiki was just an encyclopedia like wikipedia. But now learning about the different ways you can use a wiki, I agree that it would be very useful for teachers to use. It is not exactly a communication open line, but does present a great way to share information especially on a big project.

Thing #14

I used bubbl.us and giffy for my mindmap and flowchart. The biggest difference between the two seemed to be organization and how you can enter your information. With the giffy, I could use different kind of squares, diamonds, and triangles that meant different things besides just the typical then this breaks down to this mindmap. Also if I had thought of something that didn't quite fit the right order or train of thought, the flowchart would let me enter it and put it off to the side, whereas the mindmap all built off the last idea or entry.

I really liked working with both though because they were easy to set up. Definitely good for explaning steps in math and such because each bubble in the mindmap was closed off from any other information. That gives the student a clearer picture than just a bunch of numbers and equal signs.

Thing #13

The best thing about this program and the thing that really sets it apart from Microsoft Word is the ability to share your work and move you work to places like blogger online and just from computer to computer without needing any disks or other file holder technology.

Another great tool in Zoho is the Zoho show. It gives so many different ideas on how to use it during the presentation and has very cool useful shapes. It's also available onlne which makes doing group projects with people extremely possible and convenient because you don't have to be in the same room as someone to do the presentation with them and everyone has a copy they can edit whenever they need to.

This is my Zoho Document.

Thing #12

I really enjoyed working with the Google Picasa 3. It was difficult at first to find out how to make the collage, but it just took a little looking around the website.

Thing #11

I liked Topix.com and Technorati the best. Google reader and Syndic8 were more difficult to navigate. Also I didn't like how Syndic8 put new subscribers names on a pbulic list. I found mostly news feeds but one good Clarksville TN feed. I also located some new feeds just by going to the news websites and clicking on the RSS symbol to add it to my list.

Thing #11

I liked Topix.com and Technorati the best. Google reader and Syndic8 were more difficult to navigate. Also I didn’t like how Syndic8 put new subscribers names on a public list.
I found mostly news feeds, but one good Clarksville, Tn feed. I also located some news feeds, by just going to the news website and clicking on the RSS symbol to add it to my list.

Thing #10

I like that it keeps you updated without having to click on many different websites. I would be able to use this in my personal life to keep up on certain news, like for example, right now its politics. In my career, I could use it to keep connected to school websites.
Other teachers can use this technology the same way and keep up to date with their own school websites.

Thing #9

sign-generator
Originally uploaded by hburns14

This activity was a bit frustrating. I really liked navigating the ImageChef, but found it hard to upload any personal photos. I had found a wanted sign I wanted to use, but couldn't. So instead I found this at HappyFaceGenerator.com . It's very cute and something I could print out and use in my class. It was easy to make, I just clicked in the text box and pushed the customize button. To get it in the blog, I had to save it as a picture, then put it in Flickr.

Thing #8

I liked the flickr color picker, but chose the spell with flickr because I'm more likely to use this in my classroom. It is very catchy and I like how it is not just a different kind of font on each letter, but each letter is a different picture all together with a different background as well.
I feel fine with sharing images online and since seeing this program, I might try to take pictures of different letters and upload those.

Thing #7

I had a lot of fun in this experience. I went the 2nd route and created a Flickr account and added a photo to both our Apsu23things group and to my blog. I have used Photobucket in the past and Flickr seemed a little easier to navigate, but didn't have the URL option attached to each photo like Photobucket does. I'll probably end up using both and definitely will use it in my class blog so I can post a picture of myself. Having photos public doesn't bother me a lot, but I tend to keep all pictures of my kids private. I made an exception for this assignment though.

The only reason I might have concern is that I am a member of a community center called Babycenter.com and knew of a woman who found a picture of someone else's baby from a place like photobucket or flickr and pretended the picture was hers. I do know that the best way to stop this is by placing watermarks on your pictures, but for this one picture I'm not too concerned.

Paul Jr and Emma Lynn

newyork059
Originally uploaded by hburns14

Thing #6

I chose the backpack organization website, http://www.backpackit.com/, from the shortlist. It got first place in organization. I really liked the site. I constantly find myself forgetting appointments and due dates, even now and it’s hard programming every date into my phone for reminders. It’s just as difficult to keep up with a small notebook planner. So this tool is very useful because it allows you to set up an online calendar that you could keep private, or for business you could make public. But then when you have an event due, the program will email it to you or text message it. The calendar itself has color coding and plenty of space, which is a problem I have with paper planners. In my future career, it will be nice to use a program like this so I can keep all my kids’ events and all my teaching events straight. The only thing I didn’t like, is that it is not a free tool.

Thing #5

Web 2.0 does mean different things to different people. When reading through Wikipedia, I found out that Myspace and other similiar sites are part of the web 2.0. Then I went to the Web 2.0 for Educators, I found that the site I was just at, Wikipedia, is also a part of the Web 2.0 experience. I also found that the Educators site defines the web 2.0 as a more two-way relationship with the internet where people are contributing free space and information. That makes sense. I also read about Amazon.com and found many of those statements something I could relate to because I ususally won't buy something until I read all the reviews especially if I'm debating between two or more products.
I think that one of the other sites I read was right about where education is going as far as web 2.0. Myspace is a huge networking place, and teachers need to get into some kind of program like this where everyone can be connected online, such as just one classroom. This could be great help for students because it would provide direct communication and assistance could be given for homework. In my opinion, things are definitely going more web 2.0.

Thing #4

Commenting creates a sense of community because when someone writes something, commenting is one of the ways they know what they have written is being read. By commenting on someone else’s posts, you can find things in common and that person may in turn, read your blog. This forms an online friendship.
I found the point #10 from the 10 COMMANDMENTS OF BLOG COMMENTING helpful. It states that you should come back to the blog you previously commenting on. That makes sense because if you are a regular commenter, it creates more of a sense of community. Also from the EDUBLOGGER ETIQUETTE-RESPONDING TO COMMENTS, it says that if your retort is long, then you should write a whole new post. This is helpful because if others are reading the blog, they tend to read all responses to it before commenting themselves. If you leave an extremely long comment, it ruins the flow of the reading. Also if you are writing a lengthy response, typically you are including your own experiences and that takes away from the original blogger’s post.
I chose Michelle Burkhart’s blog because she also has 3kids like me. I like how colorful her blog is and commented on a site she put up for heritage in her history class because I really liked the idea. I also chose Tiffany Allemand’s blog because I really like how it is set up. I even received a pointer by just reading through it on how to add different backgrounds to my blog, so I commented on how helpful that was. Next I chose Brandi Trice’s blog and read about the teacher blog she comments on. I wrote a response to that and also about something we had in common. The last classmate I chose was Sarah Azcona. I like the way her blog is set up, plus she’s following my blog. I left a comment about one of the pictures she chose because it really caught my attention and she mentioned using it to catch parents attention of students that she’d be teaching.

Thing #3

Things you could use a blog for, in regards to teaching, is parent/teacher communication. It's always nice to know what is going on in your child's day and children, especially the young ones like my 4yr old preschooler, aren't always the best at describing what's going on.

It could be especially helpful to parents who might just need a quick refresher on subject material as their children get older.

In the blog you could place a spot with information and weblinks that would help the parent to better understand what is going on, so they could in turn be a better tutor to their child.

Also it would be a great place to set up a reminder section for school events coming up.

You could also have a place just for the students that gives clear instructions on homework and homework due date reminders.

Thing #2

I chose to use my real name in this blog. I feel like although this is public, that it is mainly for APSU students and teachers. Since I use my real name in all my online classes, I don't view this as any reason to have a different name.

Creating the avatar was a painful experience. No, actually creating the avatar was fun, but getting it into the blog was the painful part. I like that you can add things to personalize yourself a little more. I added a baby in mine because I just had a new baby girl last semester. The background I picked is also part of my personality. I enjoy being at home and you'll usually find me holding my sweet baby girl.

Now about the putting the avatar into the blog part. That proved difficult for me. I got it exported, but couldn't figure out how to put it in the blog space. After many hours of staring at the screen and several different ways of trying to put it in there, I finally found the input area near tools.

Thing #1

Going through the 7 1/2 Habits tutorial was interesting. I never really thought about learning as a life long thing. I more associate it with the classroom. That's one of the reasons I found this tutorial was helpful. I have found that by thinking about strengths and weaknesses it helps you grow. So picking out mine was more of a mini-soul search into what I do find I'm best and worst at.

A big weakness I find myself having was #2. Online classes have always been a weakness and I think that shows that I am lacking in the accepting responsibility for my own learning department. I seem to always get caught up either in daily responsibilities from being a mother,wife, homemaker or simply just procrastination. Sometimes I find myself making excuses about things I've put off, especially in school or anything that has to do with my own personal growth. The truth is that really, that there are no excuses and I need to do a better job at accepting my own learning responsibilities to become the best me and teacher that I can.

On the other hand, the thing that comes easiest for me, or my strength, is #7. I am constantly finding myself helping and teaching others around me. It makes me happy to show someone something they didn't know and then getting to see the lightbulb go off when the do understand it. I guess the reason #7 comes easiest for me is because I enjoy it so much. It's one of the biggest reasons I want to be a teacher.

I want to find more educational websites from Web 2.0 tools. In particular, not just for when I'll be teaching, but also websites that are preschool appropriate to help my sons.

Setting up the blog was fun. It wasn't hard at all. I enjoyed writing this entry and felt as though I was talking directly to people. Knowing someone will read it makes me feel good and inspires me to put meaningful information in it. Not just for the assignment, but so other people can get to know me a little.

My 23 things

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