Thing 23!

Take a few moments to reflect on your journey. You've covered a lot of material over the past ten weeks. What does it all mean? How has your thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thing 23? Has this program changed how you view the Internet or how view teaching in the digital world? What plans have you made for using these tools in and out of the classroom? How will you continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools? What are your big "take aways" from this experience?


Well this was a big eye opener! I am so much more aware of what's available on the internet! I feel as if I've "come of age"-- the digital age that is. I can actually picture myself using many of the digital programs I've learned about whereas prior to October, I never knew some of them existed. I still fumble around, but I'm proud of the progress I've made.

I am already using a blog in my 9th grade English classroom for student commentary on issues in To Kill a Mockingbird. Next semester, Karen Villegas will help me put together a wiki for my two Mythology classes. I can see a lot of potential in that application in that class. I also want to look into document sharing programs so that groups of students can easily access a shared folder for group work. How many times have I heard someone say: "I couldn't do any work because so and so had all our papers". Document sharing will take care of that.

I also thoroughly enjoyed learning how to incorporate pictures, widgets, video and slideshares into my web pages. I can see so many possibilities now that I know a few tricks. I always left my web sites very plain -- just sticking to the basics. Now I can offer a lot of variety along with the information.

Personally, I will also benefit from what I've learned. I can read cool new info on hobbies and areas of interest through my delicious account. (In fact, my 9th grade son and I already used it to check out a science experiment on magnetism for his science demonstration.) I will probably be using Flickr to organize my pictures and I can think of a lot of uses for the document sharing within my family and my groups of friends. We might not plan a camping trip like the group in the demo, but something a bit more cushy is in the works.

Now that you have me started, I can't help but want to learn more. We're experimenting with a lot of new technology in my district so there will be many opportunities to learn and share with my colleagues. I'll also keep up with the feeds I've entered in Delicious and in bloglines. I'll be downloading some podcasts on how to use Web 2.o as well as the new Smart Boards that will be arriving next year. I imagine I'll continue to think of countless ways to use these new tools to enhance learning in my classroom.

I'm grateful to Carol and Jackie for providing such an efficient format for us to learn. Clicking on the various YouTube and Common Craft presentations and hyperlinking all the sites showed us how we could utilize similar formats with our students. Many nights I looked forward to one of the "thing" adventures along my journey to relevance. Other nights, I'll admit, I was frustrated and tired, but no reward is as great as one that requires effort. I enjoyed the journey and would definitely recommend it to other educators.

Thing 15

Is RSS becoming easier to understand? Do you recognize new benefits of using this tool? Do you remember to check your feeds regularly? Has it become a habit (or obsession!) yet?


No, I'd have to say that RSS is still not a habit. But I am amazed at the ease with which one can subscribe to these feeds, and I do recognize its benefits. Subscribing to a delicious tag feed roll is ingenious -- what a time saver! I especially enjoyed reading the NY Times feed and spent some time reading some interesting articles. I imagine that I'll get more comfortable with bloglines as time goes on.

I was glad you put in the section on clean up. I wondered earlier if I could drag something into a folder -- and you answered that for me. I also discovered something on my own. I don't have to have a folder made in bloglines when I subscribe to a feed. When the subscribe menu pops up I click on "New folder" and make one on the spot! Very convenient!

Thing 22

In your blog post be sure to include the link to your wiki. Then discuss your feelings about using a wiki. How does a wiki differ from a blog? When is one more appropriate to use than the other?



Here is my wiki.

I see great potential for maintaining a wiki for my English classes. I really am excited to incorporate this in my plans for the future. A wiki differs from a blog because participants really can help create the site. In a blog, the participants comment, but have no control beyond that. The wiki has more possibilities for interaction.

Despite my enthusiasm, this was a frustrating night. I spent three hours working on this exercise -- far too long if I want to use one efficiently in my classroom. I trust I will get better with practice. Today I just couldn't navigate between the various places on Wikispaces very easily. Then I was juggling websites and YouTube and the 23 things site. It's like learning a language -- it takes quite a while to become fluent. Still, when I did get the you tube video to play and the web site to link to my text, it was pretty amazing.

I just feel so overwhelmed right now. We're making applications for new technology in my district, we are currently being visited by an NCA team, I'm trying to learn MyAccess, a writing site for students, setting up and maintaining a blog, and just keeping up with papers to grade and classes to teach during the Christmas season. I think all of this is the source of my frustration. As I said before, there's no doubt that these applications are marvelous tools for learning. I just don't want to launch one or more of them and remain frustrated. I think, truthfully, I'll just have to take the plunge and believe that the process will get quite manageable with time.

P.S. I still have to use your instructions for making a link on this site and on an earlier "thing". Once I do that, I'll complete thing 15, and write my wrap up for Thing 23. All in all, I am so pleased that I stuck to it this time around because I learned a lot and feel so much more aware of the power of Web 2.0 applications.

Thing 21

Describe a wiki you found that inspires you to create one of your own. What hurdles might stand in the way of your using a wiki? What would it take to remove the hurdles? Is it worth the fight?
I enjoyed the Wiki made by the 5th grade class on the novel Turn Homeward Hanalee. I can see great potential for using this format in the classroom to create a resource that students can work on collaboratively studying all facets of a novel, its creation, historical background,
vocabulary, related topics, and so forth.

One hurdle that might stand in my way is my own experience with managing this kind of application. I'd have to start small. I'm sure that I can find a project that is simple enough to handle until I get the hang of it. I've tried lots of group work before and much of it has been mediocre because students couldn't get together easily. I would hope students would like this and be proud of their accomplishments. It would certainly aid their creativity to have so much on the internet available to them -- text, pictures, video, audio, images, etc. all with the click of a button!

Another hurdle is dealing with students who do not have internet access at home. I know that students without computers can work at school, at a friend or relative's home, or at a public library, but some students could use this as an excuse. Hopefully, students would be enthused enough to overcome this hurdle themselves -- taking responsibility for finding a place to work because they want to contribute in a meaningful project. If this enthusiasm is absent, I could find a way to require student participation by providing time in the classroom.

I'd also want students to be accountable for their work. Many slackers would cut and paste material they found on other sites. There would have to be some checks and balances on the students to make sure that they are really producing work that is original.

I know that a social studies teacher in my school had a wiki this year as part of his AP Government class for a project on the presidential election. I know our media specialist, Karen Villegas, helped him out setting it up. I am fortunate to have Karen and Barry as pioneers who can help me in my own exploration and use of wikis. It's worth it to try out new techniques. It energizes both the instructor and the students.

Thing 20

Include in your post the name of at least one podcast to which you subscribed. Describe your experience using the various search tools. Which do you prefer and why?


I loved this "thing". I have an ipod and the idea that I can listen to these on my 1/2 hour drive to and from work is enticing. The variety of podcasts is amazing! I downloaded two of them, Grammar Girl, and Smartboard Lessons (from Canada). I discusses my reasons for liking Grammar Girl in my last posting (Thing 19). Our school is about to embark on a huge purchase of Smart Board Technology (if I can get my technology application filled out this weekend -- deadline Dec. 8). The program I downloaded is from Canada and received many favorable reviews -- Canada is high on Smart Board Technology. Anyway, I think it would be helpful for me to get some tips from these educators. There are 150 podcasts! They're 45 minutes each -- so that's a hugh investment of my time, but a good investment as a future user of this expensive technology.

I also love to listen to Public Radio and was happy to see so many of my favorite series are available for downloading. I didn't download these, but I will be listening. I imagine it will take up some space on my ipod -- now I know why I should have invested in one with a larger memory capacity.

By the way, I have been doing most of my work in this course on my daughter's computer. She already had an ipod account so the podcasts are on her account just in case you're looking for an account with my e-mail address. I will probably transfer them to another computer at a later date.

I liked using the Itunes store. I tried to save on my bloglines account, but it was offline because the application was being serviced for an 18 hour period. I thought it would be more efficient to keep my news feeds and my podcast feeds in the same storage area. I'll get back to bloglines and perhaps try again, because I still have to get back and finish up Thing 15 as I promised.

Thing 19

Which podcasts did you find interesting? Identify one or two podcasts and describe how you would use them in your teaching. (Be sure to include links in your blog entry to the podcasts mentioned.)


I spent quite a lot of time exploring the pod casts you listed.

Since I am an English teacher, I liked the Grammar Girl Podcasts. These entertaining podcasts are informative and they're about practical grammatical issues in a very comfortable, unstuffy format. I can see that my next "Thing" is to subscribe to podcasts. This is one I know I'll add. I just listened to her podcast on whether or not to use prepositions at the end of sentences. I thought her advice was clear, useful and practical. She mentioned that some people are sticklers about not ending a sentence with a preposition, so it's wise on a cover letter for a job application to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition to enrage one of the "purists". Good advice! I'd play some of these in the classroom. I think it would be interesting to have students make their own podcasts about various issues in grammar and usage modeling them after these presentations.

Of course, if I'm going to tell students to make podcasts, I'm going to have to learn how to make them. That's why I listened to quite a few of the podcasts by the Lower Merian District in Pennsylvania. What a great resource for the teachers in that district! One that was quite pertinent to my situation is the podcast titled "The Fear Factor". The interviewer talked to seven teachers who had faced their fear and introduced some technlogy application into their classrooms. I loved hearing how all these teachers faced problems, but let the solving of the technology problems be part of the lesson. I also was encouraged by their testimonies that the use of technology enlivened their classroom and increased the interest and productivity of the students. I want to go back to this podcast site and add it to my Delicious account because I need to listen to its three part series about podcasting. You can find these podcasts here.
Note: I will try to fix the URL's listed above so that they are actually links. As you see, these are the little things that I struggle with that make me lack confidence. I'd be open to any tips you have if you read this before I add the link.

Thing 18 -- On Writing by Writers

Here's a great slideshow from Slideshare with wonderful quotes from writers about the process of writing. It would be useful as a teacher introduces writing to students.

Quotes From Authors on WritingView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: writing author_quotes)


What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might Slideshare be useful in the classroom? out of the classroom?


I like showing my students thoughts about writing by writers. Perhaps they will take inspiration from other voices than mine. Students think that writing comes easily to experts. They're wrong. Professional writiers struggle, too. They have to be disciplined, they face writer's block, they revise often. This realization can encourage novice writers to see their struggles as part of the creative process that every writer at every level of expertise faces.

I was amazed at the range of subjects on Slideshare. I found many shows I could use in my classroom. There is, however, a wide range of quality in the presentations. Any slide show needs to be viewed carefully before use in the classroom.

I'd use this side just for my own enjoyment and to gather information. The "Shift Happens" presentation, for example, was provacative whether or not one is an educator.