Thing 23

Finally, Thing 23! I know that technology evolves so quickly and as an educator I really need to keep up on it all. The article by Hargadon really depicts the changes well. Even now, the social networking that was once huge that he mentioned (My Space) has been virtually replaced by Facebook and Twitter. Knowing how to roll with the changes and engage our students is so important. Technology has changed how students play, interact, and learn. We had a read-in during March and this change was so apparent when the majority of my students came to school with their Kindles, ipads, and other readers! I asked questions and they were more than willing to show me how they work and teach me! I think the big take aways that I got from this experience are to keep myself updated through feeds and ed. tech. blogs and professional developments, to keep playing (that is how I learn), and to encourage more creation from my students in my classroom.

Thing 22

My wiki and my blog are different in a few ways. The blog can be repsonded to, but the wiki can be added to. I think the wiki is more of a collaborative tool. I think teachers are more apt to use a blog before trying a wiki. Maybe it is a stepping stone? But technology is always changing and it seems that collaboration is key. I would definitely use the wiki with other teachers, and would like to attempt to use it with my class.

Thing 21

Wiki's are an excellent way to collaborate with others. During Grad school we used a wiki to share our tech based lessons with our classmates. We also had to create our own for future classroom use. I have reservations because of the montoring involved, but after seeing so many interesting ways to incorporate them into your classes, I may reconsider.

Thing 20

I can't install anything on my school laptop, so I have had to subscribe to podcasts that I can play easily. I wanted CNN daily updates but they have stopped creating them. So, for my students I subscribed to CNN Student News. I found that searching for podcasts was very time consuming. Also the first link to the educational podcast search engine didn't work any longer. I think networking/sharing with other social studies teachers would be helpful for finding worthwhile podcasts.

Thing 19

Podcasts are pretty interesting, I like the idea of using them for personal information as well as using them for classroom resources. I think the Merriam-Wesbster's is great for both! I would imagine my students would enjoy making podcasts as a way to show what they have learned too. I listened to the students from Mr. Coley's class and I thought it was a great way to give students a real voice. I could use this with our International News assignment since they all love to present.

Thing 18

Aztec Inca Maya Power Point

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I really think this site is going to be useful for me and my class! I just typed in Incas and was surprised how many great presentations came up! What I need to figure out now is how to add and subtract slides to fit my curriculum. I also will be uploading my own presentations to share.

Thing 17

I really like the Flashcard site. They are easy to create and my students really like using them and the quiz feature on the Smart board. The site offers research that explains how studying the flashcards helps learning. It is also nice that you can share your cards with others and search their database for pre-made cards.

Thing 16

We rely on Google Docs for a lot of things at school already so I feel it is pretty useful. I like that we all can log-in and input our data and share. I have also used Zoho (an online document service) before Google perfected their sharing tools. It really is beneficial to have access to all the tools and documents whenever you are away from your main computer. Most students have their own email and know how to log in, I just would worry about the students that do not have access to the internet.

Thing 15

I was shocked that I had 750+ feeds in my Google Reader. Honestly, I am not going to ever have time to go through those. I unsubscribed to a few of the news feeds and hopefully that will make it more manageable. I tried to subscribe to the Free Press and it wouldn't let me, but I am fine with that. I added the tag subscription to my delicious account and I really hope it doesn't do what the Reader just did because that was overwhelming!

Thing 14

I love social bookmarking and wish I would've been using it a long time ago! Every time my home laptop crashes I have to spend so much time re-finding all my favorite sites. This would be great for sharing with our colleagues and students too! I really like the easy button to add the websites, that makes it very convenient!

Thing 13

Social bookmarking is an excellent idea considering we use several different computers. Tagging is a good way to organize your resources and it is useful for others as well. The only downfall to tagging is that someones idea of a particular word/tag may different than your own.

Thing 12

I enjoy the gadgets, had several on my blog already. Some are great just for information, or others, like the voki, can be educational and encourage interaction.

I think social communities are great for networking or keeping in touch with family and old friends. For students I think it makes them less social in real life if all they do is interact online.

Thing 11

Commenting on a blog is fine as long as you have something to add to the discussion. I took several online classes when I was in Grad school and we were required to respond to posts. I always tried to be one of the firsts to reply because usually it became repetitive after the first few posts. I have had students respond to questions on my blog before and although it gave some a "voice", it usually was the same couple students that gave thoughtful responses.

Thing 10

I love Schoolhouse Rock and it does make my students laugh at first at the "old" video, but they always end up singing it! I have a YouTube down loader for videos that I want to have on my computer, which is nice for all the reasons that I mentioned in the previous post.

Thing 9

YouTube is a great resource for any classroom! You can find almost everything from old school shows and international debates to silly videos that just make you laugh. I have seen a change in the wait time to load a video since it has gained popularity though. I try and download the videos to my computer before I use it now to avoid that. If I download it to my computer it helps to avoid the unavoidable inappropriate user names and comments. I also dislike the ads that are on there now.

Thing 8

I used the website BigHugeLabs to create this card. I love these type of sites and find myself spending way too much time there! I really think students would love to create their own cards. They would give them a different way to show that they know the material and it would be fun for them.

Thing 7

I think flickr would be great to use for sharing photos with my class. I do think it would be wise to keep family/personal pictures private though. I could take pictures of our field trips and share them with my classes. It would also be beneficial to find interesting pictures for the various units we cover to engage them. I did find it hard to find and download photos that were labeled with the creative commons license, which means my students would too.

Thing 6

I uploaded this picture of Chichen Itza because we are studying the early civilizations of Mesoamerica in class. My students could respond to this photo with details of the ceremonies that occured here. They could also come up with ideas of how to use it now.