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.