Overview-WHEW!!

 I do not even know where to start. I enjoyed this class so much.  I learned so many new things. I felt like I had to rush through several things because I did not want to get behind in the class so I bookmarked alot of things that I can now go back through and take my time looking through them.  I have been out of the classroom for three years and I cannot believe how much technology has changed during this time.  I feel a huge sense of accomplishment for finishing this class and feel so much more competent on technology in the classroom.  I teach MTA which is a scripted class with no technology for the students.  I plan to get back into the classroom in the near future so I feel that this class will really help me make that transition without being totally lost.  I love the fact that this class is online and I can do it at my own pace.  I usually spent my evenings at home going through the material and then would come back to school to blog about it.  I am just excited that I now know how to blog and wiki.  I had heard these terms many times but did not really understand what they were. 
  I would highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to find new ways to use technology in their classroom.  I will continue to use my reader and will go back and explore things in more depth now that I have finished the class.  I am really excited about my new knowledge :) 

Thing 23-Other Social Sites

 I enjoyed looking through the information on Classrroom 2.0. I even found some messages that I wanted to comment on but I am not a member yet so I am waiting until they accept my membership request.  I think it would be great to get a social networking site together for an entire campus.  We could address topics on campus and it would be much easier to reach out and talk to people without having to email everyone.  The whole campus could collaborate on CIP, doing  book studies,  tutoring, etc.  I think it would be a fun way to communicate with faculty.  It would also be great to create a group of teachers who teach the same subject or class. It would be a quick and easy way to communicate with other teachers and get ideas as well as solutions to problems.  I am looking forward to spending more time on Classroom 2.0. 

Thing 22_Social networks

1. Why is it important to know how social networking works??

•  There are so many social networking sites that it is hard to keep up with them. My favorite is facebook. I will admit...I am a facebook addict. I love talking and catching up with friends from my past that I would not normally have a chance to talk to.  I also love to facebook stalk my own children.  I have learned alot of important things about them on facebook.  I think it could be beneficial to educators to set up a class facebook site (no personal information posted though) to keep students and parents informed to what is going on in your class. It would also offer another easy way for parents and teachers to communicate.

2 What new insights did you gain about these sites??

• I always find new games to play and new people to communicate with. I absolutely love facebook!

3. What did you like/dislike about each of these sites?

• I explored Myspace because I have not even looked at it since I joined facebook. I had to get my password emailed to me because it had been so long since I have been on there.  I like facebook better because I am more familiar with it than I am Myspace.  

4.   Which site has the most useful features?

• I think facebook does.  I love playing games on this site and I love interacting with friends.  It is very user friendly.

5. Can you see an educational use for these sites?

• I think it would be great to set up a classroom page that parents and students can visit.  Most people have facebook accounts so it would be another way to get in touch with parents and keep them informed as to what is going on in your classroom.

Thing 7B-Reader

 I went to my new igoogle page and looked at some of my information on my reader.  I always enjoy checking  for breaking news. Also, I check my reader often to check out reviews for upcoming movies.  It is such a good way to keep on top of things I am interested in. I have even found a few new sites to subscribe to as we have gone through these 23 things.  I usually only check my reader every other day.  I am hoping to have more time to check it more frequently to keep up with it. 

Thing 21-Google

 I am really excited about all of these google tools.  I am now a huge google fan. In the past I have used Yahoo for everything but I am definitely switching to google. I even made my igoogle page my new home page.  You can see it here. It will be great to have all of my information and interests at my fingertips and I really love the big clock on it so I can keep up with how much time I am spending looking  through all of this neat stuff. I am really excited about it.  I also spent alot of time looking at google earth. I was amazed at all of the information you can get from google earth. Of course I had to look up my own address and check out my house. I also looked at my parent's home. This would be a great tool to use to go on virtual field trips. I can see using this along with books so the class can get a better idea of how the setting in a particular story would really look.  You could also use it to go on virtual field trips to places you might not ever get to visit in real life.   I am definitely going to spend countless more hours exploring all of these tools. 

Thing 20-Google docs

 I am so excited to learn about google docs. I can think of so many uses for this in the classroom. Your students can work on group projects and not have to go to each other's home.  I love the fact that you have to give certain people permission to edit your document.  It is so user friendly and you do not have to worry about what type of software someone has. Everyone can use it and everyone can view it.  I created a slideshow  just for fun with some pictures from my daughter's volleyball team. It is neat how you can create it on one computer and pull it up on any other computer to view it or edit it.  I will use google docs for years to come. My favorite part of it is that it is totally FREE!!!

 I also think this is a great way for teachers to communicate with each other about a student's progress.  You can make a spreadsheet and update it as the student progresses through certain goals.  It is a great way for a team of teachers to collaborate without having to meet. It is really user friendly too!!

  I am going to find some time to make a survey and try to send it out. Our librarian created a survey with google docs and I thought it was a great way to get input from other teachers.  I absolutely love google docs and plan to use it frequently.

Thing 19-Voicethread

Wow! Here is another thing I did not know existed. This is so neat. I found several interesting things on this website.  I found a voicethread called Weather. It was a picture book written by an elementary class. It had their voices recorded on the page that they wrote and illustrated. It was really neat to see the pages and hear their voices reading their creations.  I think this would be wonderful for a class to post a class book and have their families and friends comment on their pages. What a great way for grandparents  to get to be involved in their grandchild's education.  I loved the fact that you could go on and leave a voicethread comment about the whole book or about an individual's page.  There are endless ways that you could use this in your classroom. I can also see creating a powerpoint and actually having your voice recorded on the powerpoint.   You could even use Flickr to find pictures and have the students work together to use the pictures to create a story and then have them record their own voices on their project.  I was really impressed with this site.