In Closing...

Well, like everyone else has said, I learned a lot by doing these blogs. I was surprised time and time again by all of the useful resources we studied. I'll be able to utilize nearly every tool we learned about as I enter into my teaching career. I enjoyed a lot of the exercises like Animoto, Mosaic Maker, and others. The only negative one would be the "Creative Commons"- but only because I found it a little boring. I definitely understand the importance of learning about Creative Commons... it just wasn't entertaining like a lot of the other tools. Overall, I learned a lot with this exercise, and I look forward to taking advantage of (and building on) my new found knowledge in the future.

Thing # 23

At the bottom of the "23 Things" web page, there is a "credits" section that says the site was borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons license. I never would have though twice about all that mess before taking this class. Because we've already created a project pertaining to Creative Commons, this wasn't necessarily new to me, but it was a couple of months ago. Through Creative Commons, I'll have a better understanding of what it takes to borrow, share, and utilize documents or programs created by other educators. Perhaps I'll eventually create something that I want to have a Creative Commons license on, so I can share my work with other teachers.

Thing # 22

I listened to a couple of obscure podcasts that I came across (though not throught the podcast directories listed). I chose one by a guy named Steve Gorman, who lives in Nashville and is the drummer for one of my favorite bands- The Black Crowes. His podcast is primarily sports related, but he talks about pretty much everything. The other podcast was about a book series that I read, and it obviously contained discussion about the books. Neither of these are education related, but I have listened to educational podcasts before (and created one thanks to 3040) and think that it would be a fun and different kind of exercise for students to do at school. This of course depends on whether the school I'll be teaching in even has the resources (which it probably won't). The directories listed in the "thing" had too many options, and I couldn't get anything to really work, so I just used google. Podcasts are something I have heard about for a long time, but didn't know exactly what they were until I had this class. It's one more thing that will come in useful in my life, professionally and recreationally.

Thing # 21

Well, I could see how someone could spend hours using Animoto. I'd like to have longer than 30 second videos, so I may have to upgrade. This is great for personal use or as a way to upload images into an interesting slideshow pertaining to whatever you may be teaching in your classroom. I really enjoyed this "thing", it may be my favorite yet. I created a video using pictures from my first trip to Iraq, and uploaded Velvet Underground's song "Oh Sweet Nuthin" from my personal music library to use as my background music...I've attached it below.
Iraq Video

Thing # 20

I love Youtube. It's like Michael Scott, from the TV show The Office said, "when I discovered Youtube, I didn't work for five days." Youtube is awesome, and it can be used for a multitude of reasons. I personally use Youtube for pleasure, watching hilarious videos of new reporters losing it on live tv, learning how to play songs on the guitar through a video lesson, watching clips of movies, etc. You can find just about anything you can imagine on Youtube. I lose track of time so easily while on the site, that I purposely refrain from getting on it if I have something to do or somewhere to be. Youtube would be great to utilize in a classroom, because I could find videos, songs, etc that pertain to whatever I may be teaching, and it would also be a good way to get students to wake up and pay attention. Like I said... Youtube is awesome.

Thing # 19

I'd probably be more prone to use social networking sites like these, as opposed to the "big 2" (MySpace and Facebook). Teacherpop is a good one, and seems like a good way to get and give help within the world of educators. Like I've said many times now, I'm thrilled to have help from experienced teachers who know what they're talking about- it will make my job that much easier. I'm very, very big into music and movies, so I can see myself delving into social networking sites relating to these two areas, but I could probably waste a lot of time in them, because I easily lose track of time when it comes to discussing those subjects.

Thing # 18

MySpace and Facebook have been very popular for quite some time now, and really are a great way to keep in touch with people. I first became aware of these sites the first time I was in Iraq, because so many of my friends created them while deployed to stay in touch with people from back home. It's important for us to be familiar with social networking sites because they are very prevalent in today's society. As educators we could utilize the sites as a means to give and get help from other teachers, and also as a way to post information for students who may have forgotten what was due in class, etc. I've strayed away from creating an account at either of these places because I'm not real crazy about the whole thing, I feel like it's just a way to spy on people (and yes, I know the information is voluntarily put out there for people to see, but still). Regardless, I definitely see the positive effects that having an account at one of these places would have, and I'm sure I'll create one as I begin teaching.

Thing # 17

Del.icio.us was pretty interesting. I can see how having a resource like this would be very benefitial in the classroom. It's nice to know that as you find interesting material or valuable resources that pertain to your subject area, you will be abe to bookmark the pages. Using the "tagging" feature is a quick way to find material that may be new to me, and is also a nice feature to be aware of as I begin my teaching career.

Thing # 16

I created a customized start page using iGoogle. It was fast, easy, and pretty interesting when it was completed. I'll have to mess around with it a little bit more to get it exactly how I want it, but I'm impressed so far. I'm probably not going to make the one I created my permanent homepage, because my wife and I share our home computer, so we'd have to create one that includes both of our preferences- which wouldn't be too hard to do if we get around to it. The online calendars can be useful because you could pull them up from anywhere you have internet access. I love being organized. Creating "to do" lists or just getting everything in order is usually the first thing I do before starting any project. I may borderline on being overly organized- so I found these tools pretty useful. As far as the online "to do" lists, I kind of feel like there is too much work involved with them. I make to do list all the time, but that's all it is... a list of stuff I need to do. I like carrying it around with me and marking it off one by one. Simple and effective. Many of these tools would come in very handy as a student or teacher. I find that in order for me to be successful, I have to be organized, and tools that will help me be organized are great to have.

Thing # 15

I think the wiki concept is a great idea. It's a cool way to share and edit information, but I also think it has certain drawbacks. The fact that ANYONE can edit information is what makes wiki's so unique, but that same aspect could have some negative consequences. For example, I use wikipedia quite often to look up whatever subject I may be interested in for personal use, but if I'm doing actual school work, then I would want to stray away wikipedia, simply because all of the info may not be exactly correct. As far as getting general information goes, wiki's are great and actually quite fun. I added to the "sandbox" wiki about lifelong learning habits. It was cool to read through other people's thoughts, and know that I'm not alone in a lot of my ideas and concerns.

Thing #14

Other than my time in the Marines, I've never really used flow charts before. I used the flow charts during my enlistment as a means for learning how to troubleshoot and repair radios. They really are good tools to use, and could be very beneficial in school as well. I could see flow charts being utilized in math classes. I'm terrible at math, but I think if I had a chart that kind of guided me along- it would be very helpful. The mind maps are basically brainstorming tools, which could also be really nice to use in a classroom. I remember doing brainstorming activities a lot in elementary school, and this seems to be building off of that basic concept, and bringing it into today's technology filled world. I checked out both Gliffy and Bubbl.us. They were both pretty cool and easy to use. I also like the fact that you don't have to go through the whole process of setting up accounts in order to test them out- this made it easier for me to choose which ones I actually WANTED to create accounts in.

Thing # 13

I actually found Zoho Writer to be a pretty useful tool. I like the fact that it basically acts as programs that I'm familiar with, like Microsoft Word, but can be accessed from any computer. I like having all of my work downloaded on a thumb drive or something, but it can be easy to misplace a thumb drive when I'm working on the run, or on multiple computers. Zoho seems like a pretty fail safe way to keep track of your work. Another nice feature is the fact that you don't have to worry about having your file in any particular format, which can also be troublesome when emailing Word documents back and forth between colleagues and professors. Overall, Zoho seems like it has more advantages than disadvantages, and I'm sure I'll be able to utilize it from this point on.

Thing # 12

I tried out all of the Google tools, and they all seemed like they would be useful in one way or another. I was most interested in the notebook because I thought it would be a great tool whenever I'm working on projects that require research from several different sites. I was disappointed to learn that they aren't accepting any new "sign-ups" for notebook, so that was a bummer. I also liked the Calendar and Picasa tools. I'm a person who REALLY likes things to be organized, and I keep calendars everywhere... so I might as well have one with Google too. Any of the picture/image websites are always going to be useful for enhancing powerpoints, other presentations, or just for the fun of browsing. The only thing I'm not sure about is why I would want my calendar, etc. to be public knowledge... Sharing pictures with family, friends, and students is a cool idea though. I haven't set up a Picasa page for myself yet, but I plan on it.

Thing # 11

The search tools I think are good are: Google Blog Search and Technorati, but I'm honestly a little overwhelmed by all of them. I can't get Feedster to work at all, but the other ones have such a vast amount of information hitting me right in the face, that I'm not sure I really understand what I'm supposed to be doing. I did some searches for "History Teacher/Education" blogs and other things like that, but my search results would include everything under the sun. I did find some useful things, but it's really going to take a while for me to master these blog searching tools. I really feel that searching through Google Reader for newsfeeds is the easiest way for me to find information at this point, until I get more experience with all of this.

Thing # 10

This RSS/newsreaders exercise was really interesting. I didn't have a clue about RSS before this, and I was honestly a little concerned that it would be difficult to create when I started reading. It was actually fairly easy once I got the hang of it, and I chose to use Google Reader. I could utilize this technology in the classroom by simply keeping up to date with world news and events. I think that is one thing that is greatly lacking in students' lives... an understanding of what's happening in the world around them. Having an RSS feed to news websites will give me access to up to date news that I could share with my class. I also have an RSS feed to the Smithsonian Institution's History website, which has lesson suggestions and teaching guides that are standards based. This website has a lot of projects/lessons that are really student oriented, and encourages them to participate more. I'm sure that there are other feeds out there that would allow teachers of other subjects to get access to the same types of helpful material. Personally, I also created RSS feeds that I could use for my own enjoyment (like an ESPN feed), that may not really be relevant in the classroom but is still cool to have. I hope I remeber to take advantage of the RSS feature, because I'm so used to going directly from website to website, but once I get used to it- I think it will be a very fun and interesting tool.

Thing # 9

I went to the websites that were listed and messed around with each of them. The one I ended up creating an image with was from http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Blimp. There are a ton of uses for the websites in the classroom, this particular image would be a good opener for a first-day class introduction. It could be the opening slide in a powerpoint presentation, or something like that. There were a variety of different images to choose from, so it would probably be pretty easy to find some images that are relevant to whatever you may be teaching that day, and then play around with the image to increase student interest. The sites were all fairly easy to use and pretty self explanatory. Yet again, I found some pretty cool things that I never knew existed before this exercise.

Thing # 8

Well, for my "Thing # 8" post, I used the mosaic maker, and after a great deal of deep and serious thought... I decided I'd make a mosaic of a few of my favorite cartoons growing up. This of course has nothing to do with education, but the application could definitely be a useful tool when different subject matter is used. It would be a cool way to make a collage of great photos to use in a presentation or powerpoint. Since there's an endless amount of pictures out there, I would use this application to find photographs that were relevant to whatever time period in history I may be teaching, and it would hopefully enhance the lesson quite a bit. I actually created another mosaic that consisted of images from the Great Depression (which is what my powerpoint covers). I thought I'd stick with the lighter material for this post. It took some time to get used to how this application worked, but it was a pretty easy process overall.

Thing #7

I really enjoyed looking at all the pictures on Flickr. This website would be an excellect source for finding photos to use in projects, presentations, etc. There are almost TOO many pictures on the website...I spent a lot of time just browsing and didn't realize it. Since I love the outdoors and found a lot of great landscape shots, I thought I'd attach this one from the Netherlands. All I could find about the photographer is that his name is Ben, I couldn't figure out how to locate more information about him. I just thought it was really cool how he captured these animals in the picture, it almost looks staged.


Here's the Flickr link http://www.flickr.com/photos/visbeek/4267275776/

Thing # 6

I love music, so the site I chose to blog about is http://www.pandora.com/#/. It's a really cool site, because you can type in a band or musician that you really enjoy, and the website will compose a list of artists that you may like based on what you entered. The songs will then play, and you have a virtual radio station based specifically on your musical tastes. I could see this site being used in music classes. The teacher could encourage their students to discover new artists that they like based on their favorite musicians. A music teacher could also try to get students to learn about the history of music, and what people from the past have played a large role in shaping music throughout the years. Ultimately I think this site is more suited for personal use instead of educational, but it could be utilized in some cases.

Thing # 5

I read Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators and Wikipedia-Web 2.0. These sites just talked about how important the integration of technology is to the future of education. I believe School 2.0 is about the same thing. School 2.0 refers to the technological trends that our school systems should begin to form. There are a lot of technological tools out there that we can use to enhance the learning experience for students and teachers alike. Blogs, websites, discussion boards, etc. are all examples of the tools that we can incorporate into our teaching methods.

Thing # 4

Well, I've made my first comments on other people's blogs, and I think it went pretty smoothly. It definitely helps to kind of make a connection or network between all of our blogs. If I read a comment from someone else, it definitely makes me want to check out their blog too. Besides being a good way to create a "community", I also thought it was kind of cool to read about the commenting "etiquette". One thing I've noticed about online discussion boards, etc. is that sometimes people tend to be a little rude, or say things that they wouldn't say to a person's face. It's important to get your opinion out there, but to also do it in the right way. I only commented on five people's blogs so far, and they were: Shanna's, Laura's, Pam's, Christie's, and Kenneth's. I'm sure I'll continue to comment, but that's all I've done so far. I commented on stuff these people said mostly because I know who they are (from previous classes), or because they commented on my blog. I basically just read all of these people's blogs and commented on stuff I either related to, agreed with, or thought was a really interesting perspective that I hadn't thought of before.

Thing # 3

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this a little bit better each time I do it. I'm sure that there will be a lot of good to come from this experience. I can see how this would be beneficial, especially to a new teacher who's trying to get as much (good) advice as possible. As far as Thing # 3 is concerned, I didn't run into any hangups when I registered my blog, so no problems there.

Thing # 2

Well, honestly I didn't put too much thought into the names of my blog. Like I said before, I've never done anything like this, so I was too worried about whether or not I was even setting it all up right. Even though it was pretty easy to set up the blog, I just stuck to some basic names for now.

As far as my "avatar", (which I honestly had no idea was even a real word before the James Cameron movie came out) I ended up being boring there too! I wanted to create a cool looking dude, but there was the "coins" issue that I wasn't sure about, and then I couldn't find all the "perfect" elements to create my characters. At one point I was trying to make the comic character Wolverine, I tried a Monopoly man, I even tried Jim Carrey's character from Dumb and Dumber, but I couldn't pull any of them off to my liking, so I stuck with a boring cartoon version of me. Maybe I should have tried a Dog the Bounty Hunter character! Maybe I will...

Thing # 1

I think the easiest lifelong learning habit for me will be creating my own "toolbox", which was Habit number five. I've had a lot of teachers in my life, and not just the scholarly sort. I've also learned from family, friends, co-workers, other military members, and fellow students. I think that it's key to be able to take all of the best lessons I've learned in life, and gather them together in my "toolbox". I'll be able to draw from those lessons as I face different challenges throughout life, and when I reach a new challenge, I'll add whatever else I've learned to my "toolbox". I think I'll be challenged by the teaching aspect at first. I know I'll be able to teach, but I just want to have great confidence in my personal knowledge of the subject I'll be teaching. I'm planning on teaching History, but when I sit back and listen to my History professors rattle off dates and events without thinking twice... I realize I'm no where close to being able to store all of the information that they can. I'm sure all that will come with time.

This is the first time I've ever "blogged", or done anything like this at all. I don't have a Facebook or MySpace or any of that mess, so I was a little behind when setting up this blog. I think I've figured it out for the most part, and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.