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