Thing #23

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I really enjoyed those exercises that involved making or doing something and not just checking out what's out there. Setting up a newsreader account, Rollyos, and the online image generators were some of my favorites.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I'm always looking for new things and projects to try out in my classroom. There are tons of things that could be my "projects" this year.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I have my master's in instructional technology so I wasn't sure how much of this would be new to me but I'm happy to say about 3/4 of it was brand new information. It's so hard to keep up with everything and I learn so well in a format like this that I can't wait to do 11.5 more things- I just wish it was offered throughout the year!

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

The only thing would be more activities that you create something. It takes longer, however, so breaking up the 23 things to several different classes with more time to explore and create would be beneficial.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Absolutely

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
Awesome

Thing #22

I like the idea of Nings, however most of the ones I looked at are a bit overwhelming with the amount of information. This is likely a downfall to giving those with little knowledge about web development and technical skills that much free reign to make decisions on what and how things should appear. I think Nings would be great for high schools and colleges- probably a bit much for my 2nd graders. It would be great for faculty however. I'm "friends" with several teachers at my school on facebook and it can, at times, be a bit intrusive. If we had a school Ning it could serve a multitude of purposes....an interesting idea...hmm...

Thing #21

I like Photostory okay but it doesn't do all I'd like it too. I just wish it had more preferences really- like the ability to move your title around besides just top, bottom, and center. I've made a lot of podcasts in the past using Audacity and I love doing that with my students. Below is a simple Photostory project using some pictures from some beaches I went to this summer.

Thing #20

I searched for educational technology and found a ton, of course. I enjoyed this video on the history of technology in education. I wish there was more on recent technologies though. I love having access to numerous videos for my classroom, I just know that it's so important to preview them before showing them to students. In addition, it can be frustrating not to have access to youtube but there's obvious reasons for that.

Thing #19

I already LOVE quite a few of these, such as pandora.com (which you can't get to in SBISD and I HATE cause it could be great for classroom background music for all sorts of purposes), linkedin, Facebook, iGoogle, and more. I explored Last.fm (very similar to Pandora- not sure if it's available in SBISD but I'm doubting it), Yahoo Pipes, Frappr, and then spent most of my time exploring Twitter. I hate to admit that I didn't know much about Twitter prior to this because it's obviously a big deal, however I just keep avoiding it. But, since SBISD is twittering and I can actually get staff development hours for spending time exploring it, I figured why not. :)

I really like using Twitter to follow news of organizations that I'm a part of or am interested in. Following friends on twitter still seems kinda silly. I wonder if I should have a classroom Twitter for my parents to follow what we do. Hmmm...

Thing #18

I've used Google.docs a bit in the past and I really like that different people can be working on the same thing at once, although I can see this as a problem as things wouldn't always get updated just right. It's easier than emailing a document if the other people have a google account. I tried using it once with my boyfriend and he just didn't want to spend the time creating a google account so it was easier to send him a Word document. I think it would work great in the classroom for group projects- especially into the upper grades (not so sure about my 2nd graders using this one). I like OpenOffice okay but it does have to be downloaded. I don't think it's a great idea for a school district to only use OpenOffice and get rid of Microsoft Office because students need to know Microsoft Office for the future, as its not going to go away.

Thing #17

http://rollyo.com/lchafin/get_in_gear/

I really like Rollyos and I never knew about them before! For this one I put in most of the Texas professional organizations for teachers like TCTA and ATPE. Then I can search for something like "lunch" and find out rules, updates, etc. that all has to do with teaching in Texas. I can see this coming in handy all the time! It would be great to use with students to teach them how to search but limit the sites they go to. I will definitely be using this with my 2nd graders this year when we do our bird and famous people research projects.