Thing 23

I feel encouraged to integrate more digital assignments into my curriculum. For instance, I just designed a project for my students where they create podcasts and then listen to each others. I am looking forward to starting it!

While I don't plan on using every "thing" in my particular classroom, I have definitely discovered new ways to use the web as another teaching tool for my students.

Thing 22

I created a wiki rather easily.

The main way that wikis differ from blogs is that people have the ability to add and edit on wikis. This is why I am hesitant to use them with my students. Last year, I allowed students to post on my school issued page and they answered each other questions and posted interesting links. It was great. This year however, I have turned off the posting feature as they were using it more as an e-mail page to each other and were just being silly.

Thing 21

I never realized how many different ways wikis could be used. I knew they could be edited by multiple users but I was only familiar with wikipedia.

I am still pondering the uses of a wiki in my class. I really liked the "Comparing Hemisphere" wiki. We are currently building a teacher exchange with a school in Santiago, Chile. It would be very cool to share a wiki with them. However, I teach American History, so it would be challenging to find a similar and appropriate curriculum topic for a history class in Chile.

I also liked the wikiHow as a site to use on a personal level.

Thing 20

I liked EPN because it lets you search based on grade level and subject. However, for my purposes, nothing really jumped out at me that I would want to use in my class. I subscribed to "Colonial Williamsburg" (outside the scope of my class) because I visited the 'burg this summer and really enjoyed it.

Podcast Alley was easy to browse and has A LOT of podcasts available.

Since I am such a NPR junkie, I have been using itunes to subscribe to podcasts for awhile and enjoy being able to listen to my favorite shows any time!

Thing 19

I am really excited about learning how to make a podcast. I have been thinking about how to revamp a project of mine and I think I am going to turn it into making a podcast!
I already use podcasts to listen to NPR shows.

I also checked out Mr. Langhost's 8th grade American History page and listened to some of his StudyCasts. I am toying with the idea of creating my own "studycasts" as oral reviews for my students.

Can't wait to learn how to make my own podcast!

Thing 18

Check out this SlideShare Presentation. I enjoyed looking at the various presentations and could definitely use some of them in my classes.

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Thing 17

I checked out LibraryThing because I enjoy keeping lists of books that I have read and am currently reading. I also enjoy reading people's reviews (usually after I finish reading) of books. I have been using Goodreads for awhile and I found LibraryThing to be very similar.

I also checked out Remember the Milk. The enrollment e-mail originally got stuck in my e-mail's spam filter. After I finally finished enrolling, the site seemed cool, but I am a more paper list maker so I can carry it with me during the day and when I run errands. If I used a PDA (just not that necessary for teachers in my opinion), I think the electronic reminders would be great.

Thing 16

A major problem that I encountered immediately is that Microsoft Office 2007 documents are not compatible with Google Docs. Very disappointing. I know that I can convert my Office 2007 documents into a compatible format, but that is just one more step.
Google Docs would allow me to access my documents for any computer, which is nice, however my schools internet storage website allows me to do the same thing.

However, for my students, Google Docs would be GREAT for group projects! I will definitely be showing my students the advantages of using this resource.

Thing 15

I have been checking my RSS occasionally, but not regularly. I know once it becomes a part of my routine, I will be more diligent. I enjoyed adding a few news feeds (and refreshing my memory on how to:-) )and plan to check more often.
Today I did read some interesting feeds on a blog I follow about the itouch phone. It makes me think that education blogs might actually be helpful to me!

Thing 14

My delicious username is millersarahk. I like delicious and have been using it for awhile now. It is very convenient because you can access all of your websites from any computer!
Professionally, I haven't used delicious that much as my school assigns every faculty member their own laptop so I always have my internet explorer bookmarks available at school and home.
However, personally, I like using delicious as I end up using a variety of computers including my two home laptops and school one.

Thing 13

Tagging is a great way to organize websites (sort of like putting them into folders). In fact, I have found some great websites that were tagged by other.
The only disadvantage I see (and for me it doesn't really matter) is that many of my co-workers like their "privacy" and would feel uncomfortable allowing other people to see the websites they use.

Thing 12

I love my new widget kitty. She is so cute and play with and feeding her is a wonderfully fun waste of time:-).
Regarding other online communities, I do belong to fb and am a past myspace subscriber. However, I am only "friends" with people I know in real life. I use it as a way to stay in touch with friends and family, thus enhancing my "face to face" contact with them.
The reason these types of sites are so popular is b/c they are fun and a "good" way to waste time while on the computer.

Thing 11

Posting and receiving comments obviously allows the transfer of information and feedback between a variety of people. However, some of my friends have been checking out my blog (I linked it on fb after I posted my friend's pictures from Flickr) but they haven't felt like creating a login to "publish" their comments. It would be nice if there was some universal way to comment on blog, news stories, etc online. I often want to post on NYTimes.com but don't feel like creating a login and going through the whole process of creating yet another password and username to have to remember.
Thing 11 also forced me to check out other people's blogs (besides the ones I follow). I enjoyed reading how various people plan (or have) applied the "things" to their curriculum.

Thing 10

Everytime I would try to download a video, it would end up timing out in the middle. On the Zamzar site, it said it was going to take 32 minutes to download my video. I'm not sure why as I had a strong, high speed connection.

Additionally, when I attempted to add an already downloaded video onto my blog, it took FOREVER to "process" the video and ended up timing out.

However, I was able to easily embed a previously downloaded United Streaming video. This will offer my students an opportunity to rewatch video clips shown in class or for those who were absent to make up work.

Thing 9

I LOVE youtube and use it at least once a week.  In my personal life, I often watch videos that my cousin posts of her cutie new baby:-)

Professionally, I use youtube (not restricted at my school) to use the Schoolhouse rock segments.  While I have the videotape (so archaic!) of America Rock, it is much more difficult to cue up to the correct spot.  Instead, I use youtube!  I have also shown other movie clips from youtube as well.  It's a great resource.

Thing 8

This is a "puzzle" I made from a photo of me and Eddie.  While it looks cool, I'm not sure how/why I would ever use tools like this in the classroom.  

And having students use these tools (for I'm not sure what...a project?) would only create a lot of wasted time while they played with all of the features.

On a different note, today on NPR, there was an interview with a professor who used clickers during lectures to make sure his class of 100 understand the concepts he presents.  In such a larger setting, clickers would be great but I have 14-16 students and I can't imagine not being able to gauge their level of understanding.  However, the interviewer made a good point.  Students are often required to "power down" when they are in the classroom.  While I am always interested in more and better ways to incorporate technology (my favorite is using webquests), thus far, I have not found many of the "things" applicable to my classroom.

Thing 7

Flickr is a nice site to save pictures that you want others to be able to access too

 as well.  However, I am not exactly sure how I would use it for my classes.    The only time I have never used Flickr was to view my photographer friend's photos.  

I am interested to read other people's posts on how they will be using it.

Thing 6

Flickr is a great tool that I have been using for awhile. It offers students a wide variety of photographs.

The photo that I downloaded it a retouched photo that my friend Kyla Dorsey posted to show the changes she can make to photos to change their original look.

I decided to also post the original photo so you could see the differences.

Enjoy!

Thing 5

I like bloglines and it seems easy enough to use. I particularly like the bloglines button I installed in step 3. It is by far the easiest way to subcribe to blogs.
I wonder how easy it will be for me to install the bloglines button at home as I use Safari on my MAC (home computer) and Internet Explorer on my work PC.
I am interested to see what blogs other people found helpful. Thus far, I have only tagged news blogs to follow.

Thing 4

Bloglines seems to be a very useful tool to track not only other people's blogs, but also news websites that I like to visit daily. There are so many blogs available that it is difficult to sift through all of the material. I look forward to using this new tool to track new educational ideas.

Thing 3

I think my students would enjoy posting assignments to a blog, but I wonder how much more they would get from electronically posting responses than to turning in printed ones.  I think I would have to require them to respond to at least one other student's posting in order to guarantee that they would read various other responses.  I wonder if the students would simply restate what other's already said.  For instance, in class, my kids are often in their own worlds and end up "participating" in discussions by saying the same exact same thing another student already said, 5 minutes earlier.  However, through a blog, perhaps it would offer them a chance to pause, process and then type a response, providing students with a different mode to develop critical thinking skills.

*Side note: would "the internet wasn't working" become the next "my dog ate my homework" excuse?

Thing 1 and 2

Cellphones in the classroom? This would open up a whole can of warms...from texting "ChaCha" for answers to taking photos of tests.

Not sure what I think about this...

Additionally, not all parents are willing to give their middle schooler's cell phones. By using them in classes, we, as educators, would not only be endorsing the usage of cell phones but also requiring parents to provide their students with them.

As I think about this, I am currently monitoring a study hall for some of my 7th graders. They just went crazy when I suggested that we start using cell phones in the classroom. One student, a high performer I must add, said they could all get iphones and "play games" during class.

I don't want to get stuck on cell phones as both the video and article focused on more than just this piece of technology.

Over all, the integration of technology into the classroom is a great idea. I have taken our schools training on "clickers" in the classroom (remote answering devices) but have been hesitant to use them. I prefer my students to answer questions about history in a more thought provoking format of short answer or essay questions and thus feel like I have good technoligical tool without a way to APPLY it to my subject.

I guess what all my rambling is about is that technology needs to be effectively integrated into the curriculum to accomplish specific curriculur goals and NOT just for the sake of technology.