End or Beginning....this is the question

I had never blogged before I entered this class. I have enjoyed the experience, but I don't know what I will do with it honestly from here. There were several things I had never heard of. I feel that I try to stay up to date with Web 2.0 tools. Between my mom and husband already being teachers and me only being a few semesters away from graduating, we all share sites and information with each other. There are some of these things I will be revisiting to use furthermore such as Animoto, online image generators, and delicious. Some of the things seemed to overlap, which many things do anyways in education.  Overall it was very interesting and useful information and experiences.

Thing #23 - Creative Commons

Creative Commons is something still slightly new. I was once told to beg, borough, and steal ideas to improve my teaching. This did not mean to copy them. As a teacher if I find a video that is just awesome, but I don't own it and I have recorded it....can I use it? No, however if I contact the producer and they say I can use my recorded copy in my class I am ok. There are ways to search online for sources that have Creative Commons attached to them. This is a sticky subject and we as teachers have to be careful, not everyone wants their things used for free even in the classroom. Oh how we wish it were....

Thing # 22 - livebinders.com

School sites

Well, here is one of my binders created on livebinders.com. Two others were named Book Reviews and Music. I'm not totally sure how I like this yet. I may have to play around with it some. I liked using the site Delicious better than creating binders, however you can upload your own documents. What do you think about it?

Thing #21 Animoto

Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

This sight was really really cool!! I signed in through my facebook and it gathered pictures for me to make the short video. Just think, at the end of a school year you could create a video with pictures from the year that parents could see. I was impressed!!

Thing # 20 - YouTube

 This is a video on You Tube that has Candy Cane Crafts. My neighbor and I love to do crafts with out kids and this will come in handy! We use YouTube for a lot of things. I have watched tutorials on how to fix long hair; since my hair is to my knees new hair dos are awesome! :) We have used this actually in my Educational Psychology class this semester to watch the Big Bang Theory clips that associate with the different behaviors we are going over.
The downfall to this site is that every bad thing is not reported. You can accidentally come up on videos that are not appropriate. With every good thing on the internet there is bad that you just have to by-pass.

Thing #19 - Teacherpop

I am currently weighting for approval from the administration to be in on TeacherPop.

Thing #18 - Facebook

I am on Facebook and at one time during the summer my husband called me an addict. My Facebook Page
I can honestly say I do not know everyone well that is on my facebook considering there are 1,187 "friends" on there. There are very few of those that I have not met and that is only because they are some of my husbands family that I have not physically meet. In a way Facebook has become a tell everything site. Parents of some of your students may get on there and complain about you or hopefully bragging about what you are doing in the class. Younger students have facebook pages, that in my opinion are not mature enough for it. I can't say too much about that since I do have a fan page for my daughter. :) She has had multiple health issues and instead of befriending everyone under the sun so they could keep up with her, we made a fan page. I also help run three other organization pages. As a teacher I think it would possibly be appropriate to create a class page that current parents and students could be on that would be another place to find school work information and links for games that go along with the lessons. Most everyone will get on Facebook, but may not go to the school website for the information. I don't like twitter too much, but I really enjoy Facebook. It keeps me connected with friends and family. I have also got to know some of my peers better due to Facebook.

Thing #17 - Delicious

I logged onto Delicious and seemed lost at first. The very first site I found under the "educational Technology" search was glogster.com. You can create your own poster for your classroom or students can create posters over what they have learned. Instantly I was sold. When you look at a post someone has saved under the tag you are searching; you can see everything people have said about it that has tagged it as well. Student could use this in doing research. Teachers can obviously use it to share resources. I will be looking back at this gain and incorporating it into my teaching lifestyle. :)

Thing 16 - igoogle

I chose to use igoogle. Almost everything I use is based on google for some reason. It is very helpful on a laptop to use the igoogle. When you log in everything you would normally look up is right there in front of you. Unless your doing homework, there is really no reason to "search" the net. On the iPad and iPhone the calendar on there syncs with the online calendar. I don't like the idea of using a to-do list when I just use my calendars to give me reminders. I don't want to input something I have to do twice. I use the online calendar with google and our school e-mail calendar. Not only do I get it on my phone or mobile device, but when I long onto my laptop I can see it there as well. I have used igoogle in the past, however I do not have my own computer right now. :( I will use it again though.

Thing 15 - Wiki

I had no idea there was more to Wiki than the Wikipedia. This is like a closed discussion board! I was thinking while watching the video about wikis, how cool would that be to use in school organizations or even with teachers in the same grade in the same district that are trying to teach generally the same stuff. This could also be used if you have a small group at church that is working on a bible study. The uses for a wiki is endless, just not many people know that they are there to create. AWESOEM!

Thing 14

Bubbl.us is a great source for teachers. I could only imagine using this site on a smart board brainstorming with the class! Students can use this to arrange their thoughts before writing. In younger grades the teacher can create a "web" on here for the students to fill out.

Thing 13 - Zoho vs Google

Ok. Exploring on Zoho Writer was not friendly to me. I was using my iPad and could not do much. I'm not sure if it was internet connection or using a mobile device. When I got home to the laptop, it worked better, but I still didn't like it.
Call me old school, but I had problems with the Google app as well. I guess I have used microsoft office too long.
Google was better than Zoho, but I couldn't figure out how to upload a drawing. Here is a link to a document I tried to put together. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose Google.
Test Document
I can see how using Google documents  would be beneficial for collaborative work with students. The group would set up an account and each do their part for example...one person would write a paper, one a spread sheet, another a drawing.

Again I still prefer Microsoft.