Is it the End or Only the Beginning?

I have to admit that I feel very accomplished to have finished all of the 23 things on top of the many assignments that are also required for Education 3040! I have had fun along the way, although some of the "things" were not as easy for me as I had originally hoped. There were definitely times that I got frustrated when links would not work properly or when videos or pictures would not upload into the blog. With all of these things in mind, I have acquired a large list of educational websites and understanding of web 2.0 tools. I was forced to create and navigate through multiple websites that I may not have done, had they not been mandatory for this class. That being said, my favorite discovery exercises out of the 23 things were the Animoto and the Youtube exercises. This program has encouraged me to seek out and explore new and emerging technologies to implement into my teaching. Anything that can be fun for the students and promote learning is a great asset for teachers. The only thing that surprised me about this program was just how easy it was to maintain a blog. For some reason, I have never really had the desire to blog. I suppose, it was because I expected them to be extremely time consuming. However, when I got started with blogging, I realized just how easy it actually was to "blog" and also the positive educational benefits that blogging with have for me in the future. I plan to keep up with many of the web 2.0 tools that I have learned by way of the RSS feeds and through websites such as Diigo, that can store many of my documents, bookmarks, and important sites.

Thing # 23 - Creative Commons

The Original 23 Things

After searching Google for "23 things for teachers" and "creative commons," it wasn't long before I found where 23things originated from and how APSU adopted this program for teacher candidates in their program. The criteria set forth in the first 23 things program was created by Helen Blowers and implemented in 2006, with about 352 participants. Blowers has designed the program to be utilized by other educational institutions under Creative Commons. The specifications of use are found here.

Now that I know about Creative Commons and have completed the 23 things, I will strive to educate my students on proper internet etiquette. In the future, I will actively be searching for material that is secured through Creative Commons and follow the legal channels to set the right example for my students. It is important to give credit to the original creators of a work. I believe morally, the majority of children and adults alike understand that plagiarizing or "stealing" is wrong. In many cases I think that many people are just not aware of the things they should not be doing. Educating students on what is ok and what is not, when borrowing ideas or different works on the internet, will help to foster and not hinder the potential of collaborative learning. The more information they have, the more confident they will become in what they set forth to accomplish with these online tools.

Thing # 22 - LiveBinders

Live Binders are a great way to organize important documents, pdf files, pictures, or even educational websites for later use. Creating an account with Live Binders is free and easy. The only thing that I found a little complicated was the further organization options that it offered to you within the folders. I did not feel that the tutorial was "self explanatory" and as easy to use as some other sites such as Diigo. I still was able to create three different Educational binders and load documents and websites to each one. The first binder that I created was named Educational Links. This binder is designated for all of the many educational sites that have been presented to me in Education 3040 through website of the day, diigo, and the 23thingsblogspot. Many of the websites that have been suggested, I would actually like to document for future use. I felt that LiveBinders was a good way to try to accomplish that. The second Binder that I created is named Education 3040. This was created organize different documents and website links that I use on a daily basis with Education 3040, such as Livetext and wikispaces. The last binder that was created is named Sped Education Report. This binder has all of my APA paper resources uploaded to it. LiveBinders is a good way for educators to keep things organized while continuing to compile multiple documents, educational tools, and websites to their repertoire. LiveBinders can be used inside the classroom as well, by students accessing a list of sites that the teacher may have previously compiled in a binder that is available for their use. Many different lessons can be taught through fun and interactive websites on the internet. All a teacher would need to do is find relevant and appropriate websites specific to the curriculum's needs and compile them together in a Binder and then make that binder available to the students.

As far as successfully loading an icon of one of my binders, it wasn't working for me. However, I was able to post a link to my livebinders account and present all of my binders that I created.

http://www.livebinders.com/shelf/my#

Thing # 21 - Animoto

My Animoto Video

What a fun website! Animoto is a great website that allows you to create free 30 second long videos with your uploaded pictures and music. I didn't find this task hard at all and I enjoyed going back through some of our family photos on my computer. I will probably use Animoto in the future, because of its ease of use. However, after creating my video, I did have some problems with uploading the "embed" code into my blog space. I was able to link my video to my blog with the "blogger" option, but it would not post my video in the blog. I was able to work around this issue by downloading my video to my computer from Animoto's website and then uploading the video to my Blog through the import videos section. My only complaint is that the video is small and I can not resize it when I "download" to my desktop, unless I want to "upgrade" my account with Animoto. This cost money, so I think I'm pretty satisfied with my free video! Other than these small little issues, I did enjoy creating a personalized video with family pictures and music that really meant something to me. Animoto would be a great site for teachers to create short clips, full of pictures of the children engaging in educational activities throughout the year. Parents love to see what their children are actively doing and learning while at school. Capturing that interaction and displaying it in a beautiful way for them would be wonderful.

Thing # 20 - YouTube

               

I enjoyed completing Thing # 20. Browsing through YouTube was fun and entertaining. However, this assignment turned out to be very time consuming! There are a multitude of videos on YouTube that you can watch that are related to a specific topic search. YouTube is convenient in that it allows you to subscribe to different people's posts and be informed of new uploads that you may be interested in. Personally, I am subscribed to ThePianoGuys because they are absolutely wonderful musicians and I admire their talent and desire to inspire. Having the option to subscribe to their posts is really helpful in keeping up with their music. The only thing about YouTube that I do not care for is the random vulgar material that will surface as you are searching. I'm an adult and I can completely disregard these occurrences, but for curious children, the obscene material can become a negative distraction.

I chose the "Words Hurt" video because I felt that it speaks strongly against Bullying in the school atmosphere. I have always been appalled by the mean things children can muster up to say to one another and the horrible repercussions of those hateful words. I was very fortunate to have not been bullied as a child, but knew children who were... I have promised myself that when I become a teacher, I will be a huge advocate of trying to prevent and dissolve school bullying when it arises. I refuse to tolerate or allow hateful or ignorant behavior in my classroom. Throughout my life I have learned that words are very powerful and can be used to uplift and inspire. However, they can also be used in powerful ways to harm and destroy. I want to instill in my students the importance of acceptance and differences. Life is too big and colorful to be so narrow minded.

Thing # 19 - Teacher Pop & Social Networking

Completing Thing # 19 was pretty interesting, as it opened my eyes to a couple of new social networking sites that may be very helpful in the future. At the moment, the only social networking sites that I am an "active" member of are Facebook and Twitter. I signed up for TeacherPop and I am waiting for an approval. So in the meantime, I will finish the rest of Thing # 19. I browsed through some of the recommended social networking sites that were on apsu23things.blogspot and I signed up for Course Cracker, Craftster, and Yelp. I think that Playlist is also a fun concept, but I decided not to venture further into the site because of time restraints. I will most likely create some playlists with the website's free music and upload them to one of my social networking sites at some point. I signed up for Course Cracker because I felt that it would be a good social networking site to find other educational majors or even influential elementary teachers to converse with or observe. The site allows you to have a "page" that you can somewhat customize with helpful information, such as a calendar, assignment docs, and other things such as photos and videos of class projects and activities. The main thing about the site is that it is interactive and offers you different avenues of communication and the sharing of ideas with other educators.

I chose to sign up for Craftster because I love to make and create things. Curtains, Blankets, Pillows... I totally make my own. I also love the idea of buying crafts and creations by other individuals. I personally think there is just something more authentic and special about handmade items. I was curious about this site because it allows users to share and browse through free patterns and projects. Only time will tell if I will find any good craft patterns, but I will be optimistic about the experience. Last, I chose to create an account with Yelp. Yelp is a helpful social networking site that allows you to "review" and browse through a multitude of reviews from other users. I was interested in this feature because I travel a lot and I am a firm believer in regarding the experiences of previous customers! This site allows you to read reviews of local hot spots and restaurants and get a better idea of the atmosphere of a place before you plan the night. This is a great advantage when planning an adventure out of town as well.

http://static.ning.com/socialnetworkmain/widgets/index/swf/badge.swf?v=201204042201

Thing # 18 - Social Networking

It is important that teachers are familiar with social networking sites, because it is an assured thing that most all of their students will be incredibly fluent in them. In this generation, the majority of young people have a facebook or twitter account. These large and popular social networking sites have become a highly utilized and preferred form of communication. Facebook allows you to keep up with old friends, family, and even certain groups. By having a facebook account, you stay connected to numerous individuals by way of messages, posts, activity invites, instant messages, blog links, feeds, pictures, and a new feature that they have implemented... the timeline. Teachers must be familiar with these sites if they want to better relate and connect to their students.

I didn't necessarily gain any new insights about Facebook, as I have had my account for some time and use it on a daily basis. I am familiar with most all of Facebook's features and thoroughly enjoy the many options of sharing and communicating that it has to offer. Many of my friends married military and my brother is military, so Facebook is great for keeping in touch with them while I try to maintain my own busy lifestyle. I do not use Twitter on a daily basis and am much less familiar with this social networking site. However, I do see the benefits of using Twitter for the influx of educational information that it provides, given that you add appropriate influential educators!

Although Social networking sites can be helpful in staying connected and may serve to be useful for teachers in communication with other educators, students, or parents, these sites can subject users to a multitude of sometimes uncontrollable and inappropriate behavior. I don't know how many times I have encountered an inappropriate post from someone. Unfortunately, it seems that many people like to air their dirty laundry on these social networking sites....for the world to see. I have no tolerance for people who bad mouth others on these sites as well and usually delete them immediately, as these types of post are not what I want to read first thing in the morning! All in all, I think that it is still important for educators to understand what social networking sites are and how to utilize them. As long as the user understands the responsibility of the content that will be readily available to them and how to "customize" filters to their liking, I think that social networking sites can be very useful to them. For example, creating a classroom group limited to your students and/or parents could be a productive learning tool.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/rebecca.sloffer