Where do I go from here?

I have really enjoyed making this blog (well I would have enjoyed more if I did not have other classes). But I truly have learned so much about emerging technologies. I now feel so much more confident about technology in a way I never thought of before. This blog and the "things" have open my eyes to so many potentials. I will no longer be scared of this technology, but I will just read the "how to do" and make the technology myself. I really enjoyed making the slide show, the collage of pictures, my wiki, and putting the you tube video on the blog- I have always had to just input a link which would bring up the entire you tube page. I will most defiantly be using this blog in the future. I wish we could continue to receive "things" (could entitle 24 things and beyond!) so we can continue to discovery new technology and add it to our blog to keep as a reference. I will just have to create my own 24things and beyond! to continue my pursuit of emerging technology.

Thing #23

We are more alike than different-you tube
You tube is full of documents, movies, music, etc.. that has all been altered, shortened, extended, added to and the list goes on and on. I will use creative commons in the future and now I actually know what the small double c's actually mean ;o)

Thing #22

MY LIVE BINDER

My live binder took me a little bit to figure out, but once I had added a couple resources to my binder, I was getting the hang of it. I figured out you can change the background color and even add notes to the side of the resource. For example; on one of my youtube videos- I wrote beside it- Great video for all to see. I also figured out that you can actually have google add some tabs for you by typing in the key word and it will auto fill. I have to admit this is a pretty neat tool. This would be a great tool to add to a classroom blog for parents and students alike. This would also be a great tool for a teacher website for teacher to constantly add and update different resource. I really like the fact that you can make your binder private, but can give someone the "key" and they can unlock it and see whats inside.

Thing #21

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

OMGOSH how easy was that?! I have to admit, when I "scoop" other peoples blogs I have dreaded this "thing" because I just knew it was going to be too complicated for a non-computer gal like me. Boy, was I wrong! I simply uploaded my pics, picked my music, and typed in a text. I will so be using this for years to come. Can you imagine the possiblities? Teachers can show end of the year presentations of the students to the parents. and how easy to make a short 30sec video for the students birthdays to show in front of the class to make them feel special! really really glad I did this "thing #21".

Thing #20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_-P4t2jR1g      I chose this particular youtube video because I think it is a great tool to show typically developing students how people with disabilities are not any different than you and I are different. The production in called "we are more alike than different" and that is so true to everything I want to be an advocate for as a Special Education teacher. I personally love you tube, I think there are many useful videos to show to students to help tie certain project, lessons, or assignments together as a type of visual demonstration or example.

Thing #19

 Well I of course joined TeacherPop- because I do what I am told :) and I also check out yelp.com. I really like Teacherpop- its nice to have a social networking group of individuals going through the same process I have gone through. I also will be using yelp. What a great way to see what others think about a place you are about to attend, eat at, etc... I looked at restaurants in my own town, and I have to admit the reviews were pretty correct.

Thing #18

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=63704468&ref=tn_tnmn Well like most college students and really most anyone these days- I already had a twitter and facebook account. I personally do not prefer twitter. I am not interested in a play by play of others lives, facebook gives me more information than I need sometimes. lol. However, I can see many uses for facebook pages. Just like the college of education facebook page- it is a great way to bring a group of people together for a common interest. This is a way to engage your student, parents, and fellow staff members. It is also good to at least have some knowledge about these social networks, because the majority of your students and parents will be using these sites.

Thing # 17

I hate to admit it, but I really did not think Delicious was anything more than a glorified google search. You type in a word and you get all "tags" that match that word. With google search you type in a word and you get all documents that match that word. Now, granted delicious is probably a more narrow search which makes searching for the right document a little easier. As a teacher it would be nice to have all your ideas stored in one place and be able to share those ideas with others, but I do not think I personally will use this. I will stick to my stickies and favorites tabs ;)

Thing #16

I choose to use netvibes.com just because I was already pretty familiar with google and wanted to try to something else. It really wasn't that different at all. It seemed to have more news information, but it was already set up to show certain news feed, where as with google you have to suggest or pick certain feeds, which netvibes also offered as well. I would defiantly continue to use my google, nothing worth switching for with the netvibes.

I use the google calendars, in fact I think I wrote about it in one of my previous blogs? Anyways- I had my school schedule set up with the google calenders and every different class was a color coded onto the specific days with specific times. I also had it set up to alarm when important assignments are due- like the 23 things :) but a word of advise for assignments like the 23things- don't have the alarm the go off just a couple days before lol!

My last "tool" I choose to explore was MyStickies.com This was really easy to use. Its basically like having your bookmarks or favorites right there in front of you. However unlike favorites or bookmarks- you can write notes on any web page. It is a really useful tool- I just hope I remember to use it and I am still trying to figure out if there is a way to set your already saved "favorites" onto mystickies? or if I will have to go to each page and "stickies" it myself?

Thing 15

The apsusandbox was pretty neat! I really liked being able to see what people in my own class and other classes have been busy doing on their own blogs- it was also a little intimidating because you realize your blog might not be as "awesome" as you thought it was. lol. I dont really like being able change other people work, I don't know- it just doesn't seem "right". Now just changing font color or size, doesn't seem like too big of a deal, but to actually change the wording just felt wrong, lol. I blame our teachers for this because if we have heard it once, we have heard it a million times, about the negative aspects of WIKIpedia and how anyone can change anything and it may or not be truth. BUT I do like being able to see every ones work in one place- because it gives me great ideas to do things on my own. kinda like wikipedia- where you read the content but then follow the resources links to make sure its "fact".

Thing 14

Gliffy

Bubbl.us

I looked at the first two- Gliffy and Bubbl.us. The flowchart (Gliffy) was really cool, it had so many possibilities... and you could even make floor plan, along with several different types of diagrams ( I wish I would have known about this website in Math 1010- when we were making the Venn Diagrams). I have to admit I was not nearly as impressed with Bubbl.us (mind map) which really just made a type of flowchart with bubbles.. nothing really that the Gliffy couldn't do. I would like to make a chart of my family tree, which Bubbl.us would be great for, but other than that I really wasn't impressed :/ 

Thing 13

Zoho was a really neat website. It is a great website to store all your documents in one place without having to carry around jumpdrives and so on. The Zoho Writer was very similar to microsoft word, but I actually found it easier to nagviagate through. The links were simple to access and of course the best part... FREE account!

Thing 12

My Calendar :) The calendar was very simple to make- just select the day and times you are making a task for and then type in your agenda for that time. The only thing I really did not like was the fact that it was only in 30 minute intervals. So for a time when I had a class from 11:10 to 12:35 I was unable to put exactly what my time slot was. No a huge deal, but still a problem. This would be great for a teacher to have pulled up on his or her computer at all times.. you can easily see what you have a slot open for, like a parent teacher conference or IEP meeting. It highlights the time you have used already so it makes it very easy to tell what time you have available. I also REALLY like the fact you can make this public so your family, friends, students, parents, etc.. can see exactly what is going on and when things are due, going to happen, or coming up! Really think I will be using the calendar in the future.

my alerts! alerts! alerts!
I also set up an google alert that will send me an email everyday for one of blogs (day in Washington) this way any new laws or news about Special Education, I can be sure to receive. This is a great tool for those teachers (like myself) that forget to check their blogs and miss out on important information. I am more likely to check my emails as opposed to several different blog sites.

Thing 11

So of course using the Google Blog Search seemed the easiest to me. You simply type in what your looking for and in just one click... it is there. What I did find interesting was the Topix.net. First of all it took me by surprise when it instantly pops up where I live and shows the little map. I had no idea you could so quickly find blogs that have anything to do with the zip code in which you live or type in and lets just say some of those are personal blogs and do not have very nice titles. Oh my! Technorati- well I will be honest- it looked...umm..busy... so I back out of it and then noticed that there was tutorial on how to navigate through the site and I figured that was too much work when I already had other sites that should essentially, do the same thing. I also found that just going to google search (not blog search) brought up the same search results with just some non-blog search results included. So to give one answer to two questions... Topix gave the most useful (bc it was information from my own town and schools) but also the most unusual because like I said above, it showed personal blogs and lets just say it stated a person's name and called them the town... well I will just leave it at that.      

Thing 10

My 5 different feeds:
The pioneer woman
Compassion International
The Cool Cat Teacher

Day in Washington

Journeys with Autism

WOW! That video on RSS/readers was very helpful... I really should have watched that before I set up my google reader. I am so much more likely to now see the blogs I am subscribed to and see new information like the blog Day in Washington which gives new information or laws going on in Washington in the world of special education. As a future special education teacher this is a great way to ensure I see all new post. This would be good for the classroom to teach the students how to see their updated blogs as well. I was also really exicted to now know what the orange symbol that I posted below means. Its like this secret little world that I am slowing discovering. This makes it so easy to now quickly view new information all in one place and making sure I do not miss anything.

Thing 9

The generators were very simple to create. For the ImageChef.com I literally just selected the photo I like (the bowl of soup) and then I just typed in the text what I wanted it to display. This would be something fun to change everyday as a welcome greeting to a blog or even on the smartboard to welcome the students in each morning. 

For my second generator I simply uploaded a picture of myself then I chose the template I wanted to have my picture appear in. This would be a great tool for a student of the week or even on a classroom blog page to display art work. Many of the templates could have the students work look like it was displayed on the statue of liberty or Times Square! The students would love to see that!

Thing 8

This is my mashup using Flickr and Mosaic Maker together.These are pictures of my family and the warrior dash which was one of my latest self accomplishments. This started out very fun to make, but I quickly got frustrated when every time I needed to edit something it began the program all over. I did like the fact I could use my pictures from flickr to "sync" with the Mosaic Maker to quickly generate this collage.  Otherwise this is a very neat creation. I would use this to upload my students creations (i.e. art projects) or pictures and then I could create this mosaic to display for all to see. You could even make a bingo board out of it using the letter creator version. Its a quick and easy way to have several pictures together at one time.

Thing 7

Pale Blue Dot aka EARTH 
Upload to Flickr by Andrew Paul Kirchofer


This my friends is us (Earth). As I was searching through Flickr and thinking of keywords of picture I would like to see... Daisy's, Shih Tzu's, the ocean, and then I remembered something we just talked about in church Sunday... The pale blue dot. This picture was taken millions of miles away from Earth and in the orange-ish looking ray on the right hand side is a speck... yea that's us! If you click on the link above (Pale Blue Dot aka Earth)you can see the speck better on the Flickr page and then I encourage you to read what an astronomer said of this picture, but I know you probably won't so at least read this paragraph from him...

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Flickr is a great website for finding any picture you can think of. It would be great for creating worksheets, power points, and even posters. This makes searching the web for pictures a lot easier and now you can save them and keep all photos in one spot without having a million saved photos on your computer and taking up your memory space. I will defiantly be using Flickr more often,

Thing #6

www.goodguide.com This website is an interactive guide to almost any product you can think of! It has a search tool so you can simply type in the product name (example: butterfinger) and it will then generate a list of this product. Pick the one you want and it will then generate a list and grade of this product based on how healthy, "green", and economical it is. So for a Butterfinger candy bar- the information pulled up as followed: It received an overall 4.5 out of 10. A 1.7 in health because it has high levels of saturated fat which can lead to heart disease, for environment it received an 6.3 this is based on how much information this company releases about their product, waste material, etc.. and for society it received an 5.5 based on how this company management system operates and following of policies and procedures.  Then once you scroll down a little lower it gives you nutrition facts such as a butterfinger has 270 calories, 43 g of carbs, and 4 grams of protein. This goodguide works for baby products, household chemicals, really anything you can think of. There is also an app you can download which allows you to scan any product with a bar code and it will automatically display all of the above mentioned information for your product. This is a good tool to help you decide what to buy and what to feed your children/students. You can also customize the product to show you what you want to know, for example what products are gluten free or not- this is a great tool for people with allergies as well.

I could use for this is school settings in a special education teachers class so she can generate a list of approved foods, chemicals, etc.. for say children with autism (that generally need a gluten free diet) but really this would work for any teacher trying to provide a snack for children that may have several allergies. It also helps our school to become more "green" by avoiding or purposely seeking certain products.

Thing #5

Web 2.0 is our current internet... a read and write internet. This combined with school/education gives us School 2.0 and it is making for awesome resource tool for teachers, parents, and students alike. A teacher can now create a blog for her students and parents to access at home- they can ask questions, see upcoming events, and see their progress! This communication and information could have taken days before when you factor in setting up a meeting time, waiting for contacts to me made, and then actually sitting down together. This website or blog etc... not only allows the students or parents to just READ the information (web 1.0) but they can respond, comment, or ask questions (web 2.0).

Thing #4

TeacherinTraining
AbbeyThompson
TonyaHaley
MorganGarton
OliviaRhodes
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
 Special Education Teacher

These are blogs I am following.
Commenting is a great way to encourage others to "keep up their godd way". I personally love receiving comments about my documents. Have comments make me want to have better work, because I know people really are looking at my blogs, document, etc.. I love comments ;O)

Thing 3

I would use a blog in my teaching career to give my students a place to go to see examples of a particular project, pictures of perhaps past students work as an example for my new students, and even a way of better explaining or showing my emphasis on a classroom assignment. I think this would be a great way of keeping my parents up to date and a way of knowing exactly what is expected of their child in my classroom. After reviewing some of the Edublog insights I also loved the idea of connecting my classroom with another classroom across the globe. That would be so neat and such a wonderful learning tool about cultures and diversity without even having to leave the classroom. I also liked her (Anne Davis) idea of showcasing students art work, poetry, etc. I think this would give students incentive to know that once a week I would  showcase one students work. How exciting for that child to show their parents or friends.

Thing 2

I had a little trouble creating my blog, mostly due to fact I'm just not familiar or comfortable with a blog.  Once I got the "hang of it" a little better I was actually having fun picking my background and different fonts. I'm not one to put every thought I have for all to see, but I'm certain this blog will break me of that. My avatar was fun to make, but I wish I could have more choices of clothes (but isn't that all women). My avatar reflects me in someways with the coffee in my hand and a smile on my face. This is how you will find me most days.

Thing 1

I never could get the video to play... I could only flip through the slides and read them. So I will do my best here and I promise to keep trying to view this video, but I have tried several times :/  The habit I am best at is being a mentor or teaching others. I also feel I use technology to the fullest, however even though were are only halfway through this semester, I can tell I have not used technology at all to its fullest potential! The habit I struggle with the most is having confidence in myself as a leader. I like being told what to do and I like to be assured of what I am doing as I am doing it. So the 23 things and the project has been very hard for me because everything I do- I feel like I am doing wrong so I erase it or never finish at all and here I am the day before turning this in and I am just now posting this because I could never get the video to upload. I am gaining confidence though the more I post and finish a thing or project. Hopefully this will only get better the longer along this class goes.