Thing # 9

I found the Google tool to be the most beneficial. It was easy to use and I was able to find lots of useful information. I went to Topix.net and it took me straight to a page with Houston information. It would have bits and pieces of useful information. The discussion section was full of disgusting remarks. Technorati continues to be my least favorite. I think maybe I just do not fully understand how to work it.

Thing #23

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the things I worked on. I have learned how to use so many new tools that are going to benefit me and my students. I am also very glad I have the 2.0 tools awards list so that I can continue to learn about and use other tools. I know if I had not had to do this project I would not have ever learned to use many of these tools.

Thing #22

Nings was not my favorite thing. I did not actually find much useful information out of it. On the teacher ning I found a blog I thought would interest me but when I clicked on it there was nothing more than a title. One thing I could see myself using the ning for was to get new ideas. The teacher ning had a tab for lesson plans. I always enjoy reading other teachers lesson plans and finding a way I can make them work in my classroom. It helps me to keep new and creative ideas and learning experiences going in my class.

Thing #21

I can see many reason to use this in the classroom. It was so easy to create this video. This would be a great way to introduce a concept to student. It does not take up much time and it is something that would be entertaining. I could see using this if you knew in advance you were going to have a substitute. If there was a concept you really wanted to be able to teach you could record it and have the substitute play it.

Thing # 20

Teacher Tube is a tool I have not used before. I can see many benefits of this program. Students learn in so many ways it is always great to have as many different learning experiences as possible. There are times that no matter how many ways I explain something I may have a student that still does not understand. This allows the students to hear explanations from other teachers as well. Students need to be entertained just teaching the students does not seem to be enough anymore. Video clips are always a great way for students to learn while being entertained. My students love to watch clips on United Streaming so I know they will enjoy this as well. This is a tool I will use this year.

Thing # 19

Now I am starting to sound redundant because every post is starting with "This is great." Once again this is a great tool. There are so many 2.0 tools to use and even though 23 things has introduced us to many there are so many more. This tool is a great way to find tools you may not have known about. I like the way it is broken into categories. I also like how specific the categories are. Then in each categories it gives you so many different choices. I like that is does not only give you 1 or 2 choices. This way you have a few and can find the one that works best for you. People have so many different preferences 1 or 2 choices would not have been enough. This is something that is also laid out simple enough students could easily use it.

Things # 18

Googledocs is something I have had a lot of experience with in this course. I find it to be very helpful. My group used it for our final. We were able to break up parts and all work on the powerpoint at the same time. THe great thing is that as we each worked on it the changes were saved on each of our computer. This saves you from having to email the work and copy and paste it all onto one document. There is only one document. You can also track what is being done and you can work from anywhere. This tool can make group work so much easier to do. This takes a lot of the hassle out of group work. There are definately kinks that need to be worked out, but it is something I will continue to use.

Things #17

Rollyo was another site I found to be very helpful. I created a few different search engines. I made one for shopping, news and education. I do love to shop online and I always do it from the same places so this is going to be very bad for me! I generally use the same websites for lesson ideas. This will be great a having them all at the same place. This will be another tool I will be able to take advantage of.

Select...ShoppingSearch The Web

Things #16

I really enjoyed reading about Wikis. I know we talk about them alot but this exercise really helped me to fully understand what a Wiki was and how it worked. I found the librarian teacher wiki veryhelpful. Something like that would be one way I could use a wiki in my library. I liked that it had must read books set up by age level and genre. That would be something the students could really benifit from. I also liked the book trailers site. The copyright information would be a way to benefit your teachers. A wiki in your library could really have a never ending list of uses for your students and staff.

Thing #15

After reading about Library2.0 it tells me that in my field I am going to have to always be up to date with the lastest trends in technology. I think it is great the way the library is changing. Our world is changing and so are our students. If we want to keep out students interested in the library we are going to have to have a library that they can relate to. Kids are becoming more and more technologically advanced everyday. Coming into a library and using an automation system will be no big deal to them. Most of them alreay have blogs or are familiar with blogs, tagging, google, flikr and many of the other things we have been discussing. One of the articles did make the point though that libraries are people. I think it is alwasy important to remember that no matter how much technology takes over in our lifes we have to continue to keep human interaction a part of everything we do.

Thing #14

These sites have made me realize how important tagging can be. Tagging helps to make searching much easier. I did not like this site though as much as I have like others. I really enjoyed de.li.cious because I was able to find so many websites with great lessons and information on them. I like Flikr because I am always looking for images to use. I however do not honestly see myself reading that many blogs. The ones I would read are going to my Google account now. Technorati was a neat site but I did not find anything spectacular on it and honestly think I would choose any of the other "things" to use before I used it.

Thing # 13

This has been my favorite thing so far. I have found so many amazing things. This thing took me forever because I found myself stopping and working on lesson plans for when school starts because I was so excited about what I was finding. This is the first way teachers can use this tool. It is great way to find wodnerful ideas for your classrooms as well as share ideas. This can be a great resource for research because of the tagging it allows you to do. I loved this thing!

Thing # 12

I enjoyed the article The Ten Commandments of Blogging. I thought it was well laid out, easy to read, and full of usefull information. Two of the points I thought were most important were read before you write and contribute. It is always inportant to read before you write. This will help to ensure you are making a valid point and not just writing something that has already been addressed or making a point that is way off topic. The next point I thought was important was to contribute. It is always easy to write things such as great idea or I really agree with that. Comments like those say you do not have anything to really add to the conversation or that you do not care to take the time to come up with something insightful.

Things #11

I really liked LibraryThing. One of the things I really liked was the recommendations it gave when you clicked on one of the books in your library. I love to read but am not the best at picking out books. Almost every book I read is a recommendation from someone. I also like that it gives you so many recommendations. With that many it would be hard for at least one not be one I would enjoy. This would be really cool to have your students create accounts and be able to use it to find other books choices and to talk with other students about the books they are reading. I went to two of the groups. I went to the Librarians the LibraryThing and the Girlybooks groups. I really thought this was a great way to keep up with people that have similar interest to myself and what they are reading and working on.

Thing #10

This item had lots of fun things to create. I emjoyed most of them. The one thing I did not like was having to create and link so many different accounts. The mosiac maker could be a really neat thing to make for parents of the childs year. I also thought the kids would really enjoy this particular one. The calendar was also neat. We do lots of things with the calendar in our class and it would be fun for the kids to have a class calendar with our pictures on it. The kids would also enjoy the magazine cover. That would be a fun thing to put there face on the cover of a magazine about something we were learning about.

Thing # 8

There are many benefits to RSS. I set up a Google Reader account because I already have a Google account. I like that RSS can save you lots of time going through information. I set up Houston news and weather on mine. This way if there is going to be a change in weather or traffic it will be sent to my account. I will not have to go looking for it or be surprised when it happens. It could be used for a few different things in schools. If I wanted to keep up with the latest information in technology, new books, new authors, or new award winners this would be a great way to have the information sent directly to me. If you had a grade learning about the election this would be a great way to keep up to date information for your students. You can also use popcutlture things such as sports and entertainment to get your students involved in the technology. In the library you could set up literacy circles using a blog. The students could set up an account like RSS and add the blog. Then when people add information to it they would know.

Thing # 7 Google

I love using Google for everything I can. One thing I have recently learned to use is Googledocs. Using Googledocs you can share files and have a groups of people working on a project all at once from different places. Every time someone edits the work the change appears on every ones screen. It is new and there are some glitches. However for the most part it is an amazing tool to use when collaborating. I also set up an iGoogle. I could not believe that in 30 seconds I have my own Google page. I knew you had the ability on other places to do things like that but to be able to do it in 30 seconds is what makes it wonderful. I had not ever seen Google Notebook before. This is something I could see my self using a lot. This would be great when looking for research information or even using it for personal items. I could see my self using this a lot when I want to copy directions to a place.

Thing #6

Mappr- I thought Mappr was a really neat thing. In first grade we do a lot of stuff with Flatt Stanley. Mappr would be a great tool for the kids to use to find images to place on the place Flat Stanley went. It would also be a great tool to use when we are learning about Texas.
Flickr Color Pickr- I thought this was a neat thing but was not really sure what I would ever to with something like this.
Mosaic Maker- I really enjoyed learning about this and thought of lots of things you could use this for. Not that you are suppose to do a letter of the week it would be a great way for students to find objects that have beginning letter, same sound, rhyming, or similar objects. You could find Texas symbols, insects, plants parts, needs, and wants. The list could go on forever with the amount of things you could do with this.

Thing #2

Be Proactive
This is the habit that is easiest for me. I am not one to wait for other people to fix my problems. I understand that when I have a problem I have to start looking for a solution. I am also a great believer in the fact that we affect the situations we are in. If you are hanging around people that are negative you are going to become a negative person. So if I want to be positive and I want to be proactive those are the people I need to be around.

Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
This is the hardest on for me. I am very quick to want someone to understand my point of view before I take the time to understand theirs. When someones opinion is different than mine I am very bad about trying to explain why I am right rather than trying to understand their point.

Thing 1

I really like the idea of 23 things. There are things on here I have never heard of. I would not have known to learn about them because I did not know they were out there. I am glad it is only 23 things and not 43! I love learning about new technology and this is going to be a great way to learn.

Thing #3

Learning to create a blog has been one thing I have found very useful. It is so easy to do and can be used for so many things. I have actually surprised how easy it is to do using the site Blogger. With the step by step directions and the pre-made backgrounds it can not get any easier. Avatars was something I had never heard of. I had a lot of fun doing that. I think I spent much more time than necessary deciding what outfit my Avatar should wear. It was a project I could have had finished in 5 minutes but instead spent an hour on. I did have some trouble inserting it on my Blog. I had to read through the directions a few times before they made sense.

Thing # 5 Flickr

I have thoroughly enjoyed using Flickr. I have had friends use Flickr before to email me photos and always thought that was the main purpose of Flickr. It was not until taking this course that I realized how much Flickr can do. I had grown very tired of using the same old clip art graphics and had begun to Google images to use instead. I had no idea I was breaking copyright laws by doing this. I was so glad to learn about FLickr so I could still find images and not have to worry about breaking copyright laws to use them. I also like the way if there is something I need to do with the photo Flickr lets you know.