Thing #21

Ok so I skipped #21 in the list because I was doing all of my bloging and exploring on my Mac, oh how I love my Mac. But when I got to this task I was sad that I had to go back to my Dell, oh my problematic Dell. Anyways, I played with Photostory and think it is a really fun program. I can see creating a show for my students with images from a specific topic, like algae blooms. Yes I know, I am a dork. My only problem is that none of my own images are on my Dell, they are all on my Mac and on our photo sites. So I had to go to the sites and download what I wanted to use. Also all of my music is also on my Mac, oh Mac how I love you, so I had limited music choices. Yes I know I could have recorded myself, but I tend to sound like one of the chipmunks when I record my voice so I just delt with what I had. And now ladies and gentlemen my Photostory:

Thing #23, Done!

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I would say that my favorite discovery/exercise was actually setting up this blog. I have been wanting to and have tried a feeble attempt to do so but this really set me on the way to make one and keep one going!
   
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I think this program has made me think more about the tools that are available and has helped me become more confident in using them. It also reassured me that I am pretty "hip" to technology that is out there and I am keeping up on new technologies and resources that are freely available to use.
   
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I really did not know what to expect out of the program. When initially looking at the topics I thought "wow I am pretty familiar with most of these, is this really going to be helpful?" While I was familiar with a lot of the "things" doing this project made me really actively explore and learn about them at a more in-depth level than I had before.
   
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I think the biggest thing is to keep checking links to make sure they are still active and in some cases maybe update some of the tasks. A few of the "things" I did not really feel where that beneficial to me or will be useful in a classroom setting, especially a high school one.
   
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Of course! The web is a very large universe with so much out there to explore. Programs like this help people discover these resources easily and efficiently.
   
6. 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? I got much more out of this program than I expected, already being a fairly tech savvy teacher!
   

I do plan to keep on bloging, but I will start a new one since I started this one just for the purpose of this journey. See you all in the blog-sphere!

Thing #22

So without realizing I had actually signed up for a Ning almost a year ago! While searching for APES resources I stumbled upon a Ning for APES teachers and joined. Now that is all I had done with it until today. I updated my profile and read some posting by other members. I even commented on a fellow members forum posting. Now there are not a lot of members on the site but it does have some good resources and is a great way to connect with other APES teachers accross the country.

I could see actually setting up a Ning for my classes. I can see it being a useful site for students to corrdinate projects, ask questions and form study groups. Its a more moderated version of Facebook which I really appreciate. I am already friends with students to help answer questions but sometimes, even though I have them blocked from all my content, I still worry what might pop up. A Ning is a great alternative!

Thing #20

While I have used YouTube, mostly at home since it is blocked at school, I have yet to use TeacherTube. So I spent the majority of my time exploring TeacherTube. Now overall it seems like it has great potential to be a very useful site but they really need to improve the search function. It is difficult to narrow down the search to get valuable info. For example I searched for "Environmental Science" and got 36 pages of videos. Now it would be nice if I could select only those for high school but I could not find it.

I find videos are very useful in the classroom and one type that I use pretty often are video podcasts. They are often free and can be downloaded off of iTunes onto our school computers.

On a humorous point I found this video on TeacherTube about "How NOT to use PowerPoint" which I think I will show my students this year before they do their first PowerPoint presentation.

Thing #19

One Web2.0 site I found interesting was Docstoc. This site is a site where people can upload documents to share with anyone in the world. I can see this as a double edged sword though. The good is that there are some really high quality documents and presentations on specific topics that if you were needing something to use for a class for information it could be a great source. The problem I see though is copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Another really cool site I saw was LiveMocha which is a social networking site to help people learn another language. I plan on trying to learn Spanish at some point and feel that this could be very beneficial to me. I would be curious to see if any foreign language teachers use this program in their classes to help students with conversation use of the language.

Thing #18

I think using these free online productivity tools are great, especially for students who are in homes that can't necessarily afford expensive programs. I have had students who use Open Office and have had no trouble opening or using their files. I didn't even know it had existed before a student turned something in this year that was an open file!

I have used GoogleDocs to create documents that I can share with different people who then can edit it which is a very nice feature. Sometimes though formatting is difficult with it so there are some downfalls. But it is also nice that you can access any documents where ever you are with that application.

THing #17

Rollyo is an interesting application. Pretty easy to use for the most part. After I created my list (which was the easy part) I found the interface for creating a profile and finding my created search confusing and not very user friendly.

The Rollyo I created is one that my AP students can use to find articles on Environmental topics from reputable sources. I think this is something that will be very useful in the classroom.