Thing#23

1. What are your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite exercise was simply setting up the blog! My daughter also set up a blog and we have had a great time with this activity. I plan to set up a classroom blog site for my 6th grade students and parents this year.
2.How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I have to confess, I would not have explored most of the activities that were offered in this program on my own. Taking the 23Thing challenge (yes it was a challenge!) made me step out of my comfort zone and into the "Library of the Future!"--I feel so much for confident using and talking about the applications and software.
3.Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Exploring the NING network was totally new and unexpected for me. Making your social network instead of using something already done makes more sense for academics.
4.What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
The only improvement that I would suggest would be to make sure each year to update all sites and maybe change up the activities as new ones come available.
5.If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Yes! I also plan to talk it up to my collegues this fall and get them to try it next year.
6.How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
23Things is a must for any 21st century educator!
7. Go Forth and Comment!!

Thing#21

I worked on this part of the the 23Things for a long time! I like the outcome but need to play with this program before using it with my students. I can see that students will really enjoy this and it will give them much more ownership in their projects.

Thing#22

Using Ning, teachers could make a great district-wide networking site just for Social Studies! All teachers could join and share/discuss the curriculum pertaining to our specific academic topics. Ning allows the freedom to create a site that caters to individuals interested in a narrowed down subject.

Thing#20

I will use this for my school blog!

Thing#19

The Web 2.0 Awards site has a great layout that is easy to use and fun to just click and browse. It is like one stop shopping! Students will find it makes a search more streamlined and having choices ranked will enable them to pick and choose the best for their needs.

Thing#18

I really liked the Open Office program. I never played with it much before -- that's another good reason to take this 2.0 challenge. The fact that it has the free software that our students can use at home plus the ability to swap files with other software with redoing all your work is very smart. I am adding the CALC application to my resources for this school year--easy to allow students access to graph / chart making for our demographics lessons.

Thing#18

Cool! I made a Rollyo search for my 6th grade students--map making and geography sites. I added it to my blog page. Rollyo is another useful tool to keep students from wasting time on "google" everything!