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!

Thing#16

I added my post to the Sandbox! I am excited about trying the Wiki tool with my social studies students, fellow teachers, family, and friends! With the students and teachers, I want to try the making of lists and collaborating on topics. I can see this drawing the students into the collaboration process because it is not pen and paper--they can work at their own homes and all get to say/post information. I wish I had completed this assignment earlier--it would have made so much more sense when my friends and I were planning a group vacation!

Thing#15

Watching the "Vision of Students Today" video was so eye-opening that I showed my husband and we were both amazed as well as intrigued by the statistics. I am starting to think more about the learning/information gathering styles of this generation. My experience in college will be so far removed from the one my daughter and my nieces / nephews will have....I am so glad that I decided to join this summer Library 2.0 challenge!

Thing#14

I could not find very much on libraries, learning or the LibraryLearning 2.0 on Technorati. Using the tagging tools is however very helpful when you want to cut out the "surfing" and get right to the information at hand.

Thing#13

Tags will be very helpful when my students need to access information sites and are pressed for time. Also very helpful for my fellow teachers--and me! I will not need to look up and send my information via email--just check my tags on Delicious.

Thing#12

Three important items jumped out at me about blogging: ask questions, try to be open ended, and interact with the comments from your readers. The two personal blog sites that I searched were mainly news blogs. The TimesofMalta because I was interested in the information that the Syrian government is banning the face veil (niqab) in university settings. My world cultures students are fascinated by the cultures from the Middle East and this blog will generate some interesting comments. I enjoyed the blog from Gibertian World (the IMovie is one thing I plan to use next school year.) and the Young Adult Literature blog (the Library Thing is great.). Also the Vive la Francais blog had used TeacherTube and YouTube videos to enhance the presentation of curriculum. I also enjoyed Tory's Wild blog and Mrs.T's History Story!

Thing#11

Library Thing is fabulous! It is a little like the Selfari site that the students use. This could become very useful for me personally because I am a member of two book clubs. One at school and one in my neighborhood mom's group. Both groups are constantly looking for new and interesting book ideas.

Thing#10

Today I explored the online image generator. I loved the Image Chef generator at :

http://www.imagechef.com/ and I added a cool image of "love" for geography to my blog! I tried the cartoon maker generator but found that the number of possible cartoons were a bit much. The Smile generator was fun and I thought that students could make their own "smiley sign" to place on their ISN at the start of our year. Very cool and custom!

Thing#9

In searching and playing with the blog posts, I found that the Technorati blog tool was very easy to navigate and appealing to the eye. The top 100 blog posts were fun to surf. (Found some weird stuff out there!) The Atomic Learning blog post was not so easy to look at or use......I think that the sudents will be a little turned off by the busy, no nonsense nature of this post. The one new site that I added is the Huffingtonpost.com.

Thing#8

The RSS format seems like a more streamlined way to keep the sites I use every day easier to access. I will use this in my personal life more than at school although I can see using it with students to gain quicker access to sites that I want them to tag as important. The RSS cuts down on search time. Having this set up in the library will totally save time and energy! Research blogs, author's blogs, acceptable use sites--this will really benefit the student pressed for time and computer access!!

Thing#7

The Google resources that I preferred to work with are Google Earth and Google Scholar. The earth tool has so much potential --just allowing students to make "real time" observations on current events, see 3-D maps of certain areas of study, and become more aware of non-profit and public benefit organizations that are working for special causes around the world. In World Cultures we study the cause and effect of global issues and this tool along with the Google Scholar will be most helpful getting the point across! The Google Scholar tool will enable students to perform and retrieve searches for written materials that can help round out our study of the various cultures and landforms in our curriculum. http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html

Thing#6

As I viewed and played with the sites/mashups I realized that the Map Maker will be a fun addition to my 6th grade World Cultures classes. I am always looking for something fun and educational to add to our discovery of the world. The Map Maker tools and the Trading Card Maker will be a more "techie" way to use vocabulary and recognition skill review!

Thing#4

My blog is finally posted! A bit out of order but going!!

Thing#5

Today I am working on the Creative Commons part of Flickr. Just like the students I work with, I spent a lot of time "surfing" for the perfect image! The photo I chose portrays a creature that is a big vacation "NOT".........beautiful but very painful to touch! My family and I are about to start a summer vacation to Padre Island (where I grew up!) and know that the jelly fish and the man-o-war are just part of the territory.

Thing #3

I made my avatar. I think that she shows the "whirled" connection to my World Cultures class!

Thing#2

I used the article on Lifelong Learning and the 7 1/2 Traits as a checklist of habits that I utilize daily and a checklist of those that I REALLY need to include more of in my day to day life. I am very good at the "tool box" and the "playing" habits but the "goal setting" habit needs more work!!!