Summary of the thoughts...beware :P

My favorite blogs were the ones related to iGoogle and the flixr and other picture and interactive APSU things. In fact, I liked every one of these 23 things except the more boring ones such as RSS Reader, JUST because it had so much reading. I have learned a lot from this program and I plan on using all of the information. I will maintain this blog and apply what I have learned into everyday classroom activities to make it more engaging and fun! I thoroughly enjoyed doing this. Hands down to Mrs. Wall, Mrs. Castleberry, Jake, and anyone else that worked on the APSU 23 things! *claps enthusiastically*

Thing #23!!!!

I actually always copyright something as I feel it is better to be safe than sorry. Plus, it is just rude to take someone's product, work, or words without saying they are the creators or asking them. I will make sure that my students understand Creative Commons licensing and know how to cite sources and information if needed in a paper, project, or any other information. I actually didn't know about Creative Commons, just knew the copyright rules, such as plagiarism, paraphrasing, and citing. I am glad that I am aware of the Creative Commons as I am an English major and future English teacher!

Thing #22

I actually did not know what a podcast was before this class. I am so glad I know about it now! I went under Educational Podcast Directory: "Who Said -- a literature game delivered as a podcast: Every other day or so, listen to a character speech from a novel. Then guess the character, novel and author."I found that the Educational Podcast Directory was the easiest to use and I thought that the literature game was a little funny. I was able to guess two out of five, which is probably not as good as some other people can do. I am actually going to make multiple podcasts for my students as I will have extra credit assignments and homework assignments vocalized so that they fully understand what I want from them so they can get an A. I found this literature game intriguing and I will tune in each week to see if I know what the new character is!

Thing #21

I absolutely adore Animto. I am going to use it from now on. I started with something pretty basic for my first one. I walk around campus taking pictures with my cell phone on pretty days. It's just of nature, buildings, the sky, whatever strikes me as beautiful at that moment. So, I put my favorite ones into this video. I thoroughly enjoyed this APSU Thing. :)

I call it, "Austin Peay Through Different Eyes"

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing #20

I absolutely love YouTube. Some of the videos listed are incredibly silly and pointless, but some of them are really touching or funny. Those kinds of videos I tend to watch and look for the most. I can see youtube being used in various ways in the classroom and to my library website. Just as interesting facts, or instructional videos.

I chose the video Identity "I Am" by BlueFish TV. It is a very moving video and I can see the point of view. Anyone can look at an individual and immediately stereotype them. People can't see what is on the inside of a person, what their morals, goals, life choices are. We just make assumptions. And those assumptions can leave an individual feeling even more confused than they were to begin with.

Thing #19! Getting closer!

I am a member of Myspace and now TeacherPop :) I find both of these networks appealing, however I will probably shut down both when I become teacher just because I do not want my students coming into my personal life. I want to keep that professional boundary. However, if the teachers in my school decide to use a social network to correspond, I will be a part of that as social networks are important in communication and collaborating.

Thing #18

I actually already have a myspace and have been meaning to make a facebook. HOWEVER! Once I become a teacher, everything like that is getting deleted. Facebook, myspace, youtube accounts, whatever. It is just too much when you have students begging to be your "friend" and it is neither professional nor intelligent to allow students into your personal life.

Now that that is out of the way, I think that social networks are important as it is a gateway to social communication and can be important part of communicating with co-teachers. I like myspace and facebook well enough as it is a great way to find new friends and keep up with old friends. I like the privacy settings and have my myspace page set to private. I think facebook has the most useful features, but I like myspace more as I have more experience with it. And, unfortunately, no. I can see social networks as a whole as being informative and can use in a classroom and school application, but as for myspace and facebook. Flat out, No. That is more trouble than needed. I have seen teachers fired over adding students as friends to myspace or facebook.

Thing #17

Del.icio.us is a good tool to use for bookmarking and tagging. You simply type in a subject, and bam! I do not particularly care for bookmarking and tagging but I can see the use of the tool in the classroom as a teacher can tag or bookmark a web page at any time and then his/her students can see the web pages to do research projects or group projects. Or the students can use the bookmarking/tagging tool for their own research sources and papers. The teacher can also use it for purely personal or professional use. It can be used on any computer, so since teachers have to work just as much at home as at school, this tool would be available anytime on any computer for the teacher. I think that bookmarking and tagging is wonderful, even if I don't use it that much :P

Thing #16

For my customized start page, I chose iGoogle. I absolutely adore iGoogle and all of its features and widgets. I use the online calendar, to-do list, the weather, date and time, quote of the day, and the daily horoscope for my zodiac sign on a daily basis. My iGoogle is my homepage for my laptop and it is a great home page as I get to choose what I want to see and use, and there is not any annoying ads or clashing internet pages. The iGoogle online calendar is useful as it allows me to plug in important events into any time or day I want and then sends me emails the previous day letting me know that that important event is happening the next day.

The iGoogle to-do list is something I use two times a day. The first time during the day, and the second for the night, as I have two different two do lists that I want to accomplish for those two times. The to-do lists are extremely helpful as I have a lot on my plate, especially since it is the end of the semester. Both of these tools I use at home for doctor appointments, dentist appointments, important family events, and so much more.

I would recommend iGoogle as a whole, the tools online calendar and to do lists are just the toppings.

Thing #15

I think wiki is an excellent idea! As the youtube video stated, it can be used in groups, such as classroom groups, correspondence between teachers about a project, field trip, or certain assignment, correspondence between the principal and the teachers, and so much more! I can see teachers using wiki for all of those reasons that I listed above. HOWEVER...I have never found Wikipedia reliable, and it makes me nervous that anyone can go in and change the wiki web page. Therefore, I will probably not use wiki in the future as it is not that reliable. I could post something for a group project, and a student or random person could go in and change everything. Like i said, wiki is a good idea, but I think that they need to put a little more privacy on it to make it safer and less apt to an outsider changing it.

Thing #14

I chose Gliffy for my flowchart and Bubbl.us for my mind map. Bubbl.us was my favorite out of these four. It was easy to use, and I could see myself using it for telling the plot of a story in my literature courses and telling relationships and stories between and behind the stories of characters. For Gliffy, I preferred Bubbl.us to Gliffy, but Gliffy had some very good uses, such as making a flow chart for cause and effect and topic and subtopic information. I will definitely use Gliffy and Bubbl.us in my classroom as it will help my students understand the topics I will discuss in my future classroom. As I will be an English high school teacher, one example is:

Thing #13

I created an account in Zoho Writer, and explored the site. I created two different test documents and was suprised at how easy it was to use Zoho. Zoho is just like Microsoft Word, except easier to use and transfer from PC to PC. How you may ask? It is on the internet! But! Only you can see it! Therefore, say you forgot to print off your report for an important class and the teacher said that today was the deadline, no exceptions. No problem! Simply ask for a restroom break, run like a mad man with ants in his pants to the computer lab, print, and head back to the classroom, calm and confident. Also, Zoho allows a file, image, document, or any other device needed from any computer to be put onto a Zoho file. I was impressed with Zoho.

Jessica

Thing #12!!!

I actually already created my igoogle. I absolutely love it. I have the weather zoned to Clarksville, where it has the temperature and type of weather is predicted for that day and the next three days. I also have a map of clarksville, my horoscope, quotes of the day, my to do list, the date and time, and the word of the day for dictionary.com. I think that everyone that uses google.com needs to make an igoogle account. It is free and so easy and informative. In my future classroom, I am going to put a quote and a word and its definition up on my dry erase board every week. I will use my igoogle for that purpose. There are many, many more uses for an igoogle account and its uses in the classroom.
I also created an igoogle calendar and already began adding things such as the spring break coming up (YAY!) and classes that are canceled for this upcoming week. I am going to continue putting events into my igoogle calendar to ensure that I am up to speed and on the ball for the rest of this semester. And in the future, I will use my google calendar for events in the school and in my classroom, such as project and paper dates, field trips, and school events.

iGoogle and Google Calendar = fantastic!

Jessica

Thing #11

This blog was interesting. I tried looking up blogs with all of the hyper linked search tools. I kept typing in education, high school education, and teaching in all of the search tools under the blog option. I now am subscribed to the following blogs in google reader: Edu In Review, Cool Cat Teacher, 2 Cents Worth, Dangerously Irrelevant, and Weblogg-ed. The easiest search tool for me was Technorati as I simply typed in high school education and found great blogs. I found bloglines and Syndic8.com to be more difficult. I am only interested in blogs, so half of the ones listed on 23 things do not pertain to me. As I said before, I found quite a few good blogs that I will keep for when I become a high school teacher, such as Cool Cat Teacher and Weblogg-ed. Another way that I found feeds and blogs was a way that the Cool Cat Teacher suggested. To go through and look at people's weblogs whom you know are good bloggers and see who they are following. Hence how I found 2 cents worth.

Thing #10

I at first did not have a clue what RSS was. However, I clicked on the links (only a few worked) and learned what RSS is. I signed up for RSS through Google Reader and subscribed to The Cool Cat Teacher, Weblogg-ed, and Always Learning. I like RSS because I can simply go to my google reader, and there is all of the most recent updates from the sites I am subscribed to. It's so much easier to follow up on the sites, instead of have to go to each and every site. I will use this technology in school to look for updates on technology for classrooms, updates from the county or state I am working for, or updates from my coworkers. In my personal life, I will use RSS for a lot of different websites and fun things to do in the near future.
Teachers can use RSS to look at updates for teaching their students, updates from the county and school they are working for, and updates on their subjects they are teaching.

Thanks for your time!
Jessica

Thing #9

Comic Strip Generator

License Plate Maker












Warning Label Generator










I have enjoyed the past three blogs, including this one, a lot. I used three different generators: the comic strip generator, the license plate maker, and the warning label generator. These generators were extremely easy and fun to use. For the comic strip generator, simply click on the link, search for a certain cartoon or browse through their popular strips. Then, be creative! For the license plate maker, click on the link, and choose which state you want your plate to be from. Then, choose which license plate decoration you want. And type whatever you want on your license plate! For the warning label generator, click on the link, and then choose what kind of warning label you want. Then, type in whatever you want your warning to say! It's all that easy!

I will use all three of these generators, and more, personally as they are humorous and yet stand for things I believe in. And in the library or classroom, I can use the warning labels for "Do not touch without permission" or any other such labels. I can also use something funny to put my students at ease for the first day or simply for fun. And the cartoon labels, I can relate them to whatever literature I am discussing and put it on one of my walls. I look forward to decorating my future classroom...and cannot wait to use these generators for that purpose!

Thing #8!

Mosaic Maker
Keyword: Literature
1. Shakespeares at night, 2. Wall to wall..., 3. Literary Labyrinth, 4. The Piano, 5. Shakespeares Wall, 6. Readers, 7. The System, 8. Notice, 9. The Typewriter, 10. One for Lit Scholars, 11. Le Jour ni l'Heure 1552 : vestiges de la maison d'enfance de Georges Bernanos, 1888-1948, à Fressin, Pas-de-Calais, région Nord, mardi 23 février 2010, 16:55:30, 12. PostSecret, 13. Flying Books14, 15, and 16 Not available













Bubblr: Keyword cat
First cat picture taken by PP1502; Second cat picture taken by spratmackrel
Literature Loving Felines



Flickr and Flickr mashups can be used in various ways in a classroom setting: pictures of what I am talking about, to "jazz" up a presentation or lesson to the class, provide humor, and so much more. I will definitely use Flickr and the various Flickr mashups in my future classroom and I think my future students will love playing around and making their reports and lessons more enjoyable. In my personal life, I am going to set up a Flickr account and began using it to make framed photos and posters for myself, and will also use Flickr mashups, especially the mosaic maker. I think that photos that have minors, people that do not wish to be on the internet, and things that are personal do not need to be shared online. However, if the photo is beautiful or creative, or have some important landmark, then yes! The photo should definitely be shared if the author wishes to.


Jessica

Thing #7! Picture it!

Keyword: wolf
"Wintry Dawn" by Retron
Caption: Mosi, Torak and Mai pose atop a frosty hill early one February morning. Taken at the UKWCT, Berkshire.



This picture is absolutely stunning. I find wolves fascinating and even though this pictures is not cropped in any way, I had to put it on this blog. I love flickr! It is an amazing website dedicated to simply putting beautiful pictures on the internet or in your own personal enjoyment such as posters, photos, calendars, cards, etc. I loved doing this blog. I am so happy that I have found flickr. I am an image oriented person, and love nature and animals in pictures. I will definitely use this website for professional and personal use.

On Flickr, you can create a free basic account. You can not only explore pictures that other people have made or taken, but upload pictures directly from your computer onto your account and either keep them the way they are or edit them to remove red eye or other blemishes. You can organize your photos by putting them into files, for example, "Christmas 2009" or "Smoky Mountains." Now here is something I really like. You can make your profile and pictures private, or make some private and others public, or share all of your pictures with your friends and family. You can also make a map to show others where you took your pictures at, or look at people's maps to see where they were at in the U.S. or in the world to get their pictures. And of course, my personal favorite, you can keep in contact with friends and family and share pictures back and forth. AND....make your own personal cards, framed photos, calendars, posters, and many others! I enjoyed this blog a lot and look forward to more Flickr use!

Thing #6

And...the winner of the Jessica choosing Award is....Craigslist!

Craigslist is an interesting interactive website that covers anything from jobs, cars, pets ,jobs wanted/selling, housing, just about anything that expands all over the world. Something I don't like about this certain web 2.0 tool is that if someone isn't careful, they can be scammed, lose a great deal of money, or worse. Anyone that uses this site for selling or buying needs to meet in a public, populated place, maybe with more than one person with you. However, what is good with the site is that people that need to sell or buy things, or merely discuss items that are currently on the market have a place to blog or set up a place to meet, and even if they are a few cities or states away. I do not think that craigslist will ever be in a school or library setting with the teacher's consent. This is more of an 18 year old or up site as the things on the site can be slightly dangerous and more mature than what a child should see. More often than not though, the site is just simply a place to discuss buying and selling items and then meeting up to exchange or buy/sell.

Jessica

Thing #5! Break it down!

Web 2.0 and School 2.0 are new and radical ideas that should be embraced and used to the full advantage as technology is becoming more and more relied on for day to day living. My little second cousin (my cousin's son) is not even three yet and he knows what a computer is and he sat in my other cousin's lap at our last family get together and proceeded to play a game on the computer. And he is only two years old. Now imagine what our future students will be able to do. It just makes sense to use technology to further enhance interest in learning in the classroom and provide a sense of accomplishment and comradeship among the students.
I have chosen "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0" and "Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators" for my two articles from the perspectives list. For me, I was a little confused what Web 2.0 was, but after "googling" it and reading all the articles, I finally understood. As I understood from the articles and the web definition for web 2.0, web 2.0 is a universal approach to the internet that is not just reading information, its corresponding and participating in different aspects such as facebook, myspace, twitter, blogs, and etc. So, this goes to Learning 2.0 as tons of journal articles with different points of views and other vital information that students need to write papers, learn about topics of research, etc. and therefore, that goes to school 2.0 - a combination of web 2.0 and learning 2.0. Learning no longer has to be boring, almost falling asleep while the teacher drones on and on about a subject. Now computers are used for research on paper topics, finding sources, understanding how to do a math problem, studying, and so much more. Imagine what the future will be. A mere ten years from now. We will all certainly be teaching and learning new things every day not just from fellow teachers and the web, but from our students.

"Learning 2.0. This new form of learning begins with the knowledge and practices acquired in school but is equally suited for continuous, lifelong learning that extends beyond formal schooling."
- "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0"

Jessica

Thing #3!

There are several ways I would use a blog as a teacher:

I could correspond with different teachers across my school, city, county, state, and maybe even the country.
I could talk about different teaching techniques, teaching tips, and what I have learned as a teacher and from other teachers.

If I create a blog that parents and my class can access, I would put class assignments, project assignments, and perhaps post a class schedule for the week every Monday.

Thing #4

Blogs were created to be an environment of interaction and opinions. So, commenting on people's blogs allow people to interact from just across campus or across the world. Whether its opinions on global warming, or discussing a class and the difficulties involved, commenting allows you to put your "two cents in" and open up interaction. I liked the thought of making an alias versus real name, kind of like Benjamin Franklin and his alias name. And the other major point I liked was being gracious: whether someone else pointing out an error, or thanking people for comments.

And....here are the lucky people that I have selected to read and comment on!
1. Chasity Webb!- A dear friend of mine and I have been in now two education classes and she is just amazing.
2. Mary Ann Emberton - I do not have the pleasure of knowing this woman, but she has the same name as my hairdresser, so...here we go!
3. Jeanette Hastings - She is a good woman, and I look forward to writing comments as I looked at her blog and it looks really cool!
4. Wendy Matheny - Wendy actually sits next to me, so woot!
5. Kenneth Allen - I do not know this man personally, however, I realized I had all girls, and decided I had better have at least one male from our group, and he seems really nice in class :)
6. Nicole Lee - This funny woman was in my Educ 2100 class, and she helped me out a lot :)
7. Rachelle Smith - I do not know Rachelle, but i look forward to reading her blogs!

For Chasity, Mary Ann, Nicole, and Rachelle, I commented on the thing that I found the most interesting: iGoogle!!!!! I am glad that they too find iGoogle and its widgets interesting and relative for personal and professional use :) For Jeanette, I commented on the use of bubbl.us. She used it to show the Earth and its biomes and landscapes. I found her idea inventive and easy to understand. For Kenneth, I commented on the video with his family at Disney World. I thought the video was something he could show his family and looked like fun :). And as for Wendy, I congratulated her on finishing her 23 things and that I hoped she had a good summer!

Thing #2

I decided for the name of my blog, my last name, my favorite wild animal, what I aspire to be, and what I will always be doing: Always Learning. So..."MorganWolfTeacherAlwaysLearning" This is my first blog besides myspace, so I am still learning what all the technical parts are, but overall it leans more towards the easy side than the hard side. As for my Avatar, I tried my best to reflect who I am, however, I will probably change over time to show different aspects. I showed my Avatar, trying my best to make the Avatar look like the real me, with a laptop, because when I was making my Avatar, I have been carrying my laptop around with me for a good week or so everywhere I went. I have had fun so far with making this blog and my "little me," and look forward to learning more about technology as I will definitely need that advantage when I enter the teaching field.

Thanks for your time, folks!

Little Me! My Avatar!

As you can see, I made my Avatar to have blond hair like I do, however, I could not make my white birthmark I have in my hair show up. I was disappointed. Also, my favorite color is blue. I love blue. however, I did not want to have blue jeans and a blue shirt, so I gave myself a pink shirt. I tried to make my Avatar look as much like me as possible :P

Thing #1

Hello Everyone! First Blog coming up! *drum roll*

Learning Habits 1 and 2 I already do subconsciously, I just didn't realize I did it. I set a goal, and I know that it is my responsibility to achieve that goal. I have a difficulties seeing as problems as challenges as Habit 4 advises. I have a habit of getting frustrated every time a problem happens and quitting for a few hours and then going back. However, I am currently working on that. this is probably the hardest habit for me, but I am determined to learn to see problems as challenges instead of road blocks. Habit 5 says to create your own learning toolbox. I have never thought about doing that, but I will definitely try that and see if that is something that works for me. Habit 6 is something i do often - using technology to your advantage. I use computers everyday and I am taking this class (Education 3040) so that I will learn more about computers and technology. Habit 7, I often find myself helping and mentoring others and get a small thrill in seeing the light bulb go off and almost hearing the click go off in their head. And I am going to be teaching for the rest of my life :) And habit 7 1/2, I always play. ;)

I have never heard of web 2.0 tools before this class, so I am eager to learn what the tools have to offer. I actually had fun setting up this blog as the only thing close to a blog I have is myspace. This blog was relatively easy to set up. I feel more accomplished being able to set up a blog and look forward to what the rest of the class offers.