Is it the end or only the beginning? - Summary

It is just the beginning for me! I am sad that I have completed all 23 Things. I have been pushing myself to make sure that I completed all 23 Things before the end date. (We have Freshman orientation coming up this week and I was getting nervous!). There is still so much to explore and do. I have a list of things that I am going back to look at again or to work on and my list keep growing.

I have enjoyed each of the discoveries and exercises. I don't really have a favorite. If I had to rank or prioritize the Things, the productivity tools would rank #1 followed by pictures/images. I found value to me personally and professionally in each Thing. Some of things I knew of or about but others I knew nothing. I needed the structure to go in and actually do. I feel even stronger about my knowledge about the web and I feel I can apply this to my classroom and my personal life as well.

For 9 years I have been working on areas I need to develop to be selected as an ETF with this district. This program is going to help me become what I want to be. The easiest habit I said in Thing #1 for me was using technlogy to my advantage, I now know that I haven't been using effectively what is out there for me. I am going to be better than before. The hardest habit for me was to play. I have definitely played thanks to the structure of this program and I have planned to go back and play some more.

I guess the biggest surprise is how easy many of these Things are to do and how beneficial they can be to today's students. To set up a wiki or a blog was very easy. An unexpected outcome was I wondered how to keep up with everything I was very overwhelmed by this until I learned about readers. I don't have to go check in everywhere, I just check my reader and see what is new. I loved reading everyone's blogs. It gave me some additional ideas and I love sharing.

The only improvement would be in what is wanted in our blogs as we reflect on our discovery. It seemed we were seeing the same applications of the discoveries over and over again.

If there was another discovery program would I participate??? That is a definite, YES! I appreciate the time it takes to put this together. If I had to go out and do this on my own I would not know where to begin and I would probably not learn anything. I liked that the information and options were brought together and have been looked at by someone known. This helps weed out the unnecessary and weak stuff. I like the discovery lesson where I have to "do it". I also loved being able to do this on my own time at home as well. Other reasons I why I would participate in another discovery program are: it was easy, fun, informative, and valuable. The most important reason why I would participate in another orogram is I want to learn more!

Now that I have the knowledge, I hope to have a class wiki and blog set up for my students and parent. I want to also set up for students to access photos. I think this is a good place to start and then I will go back and revisit and build after these are established.

In my reader I have subscribed to a couple of feeds on developments in web 2.0. I have my reader on my homepage so everytime I get on the computer I can see new posting and easily learn new things.

Thing #23 - Creative Commons

On the side bar is where you find where the Credit is given for the 23 Things blog. This is what it say:

Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

This area is an area that should always be checked with our resident expert, the librarian. We just always need to remember to give credit where credit is due. No one likes someone to get the credit or the reward for what hard work we have put in. As a teacher we must teach our students to do this.

Thing #22 - Podcasts: no iPod needed!

I didn't find a podcast that I want personally to subscribe and listen to as I am a visual-kinesthetic learner and anything just auditory doesn't work well with me. The podcast that I listened to and subscribed to was Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing Podcast. I thought this might be useful to the auditory learners in my class and would be something I would put on my class wiki. I actually found this podcast on Learn Out Loud and Podcastalley. Learn out Loud was the easiest directory to use and you got more information initially without having to click on the name. Making my own or class podcast might be in my future but being visual, I am just not that thrilled about it yet.

Thing #21 - Animoto

This was a very simple and fun Thing to complete! It was easy to do with the step by step directions given. I can see my student having a great time using Animoto for an introduction or closing to a presentation! I haven't done much with music on my computer and that will be something else I need to do

Thing #20 - You too can YouTube

This video is actually of my daughter and her 2 fellow officers at officer camp in June 2007. That is why I chose it! The one thing most frustrating was finding it. I knew it was there but finding it took some work! I am signing up so I can keep this and a couple others I found in my favorites to go back too when I want to. The secret is when you find a video you like check out what else that person has in their favorites. That is how I found the specific one I wanted.

Definitely I can see how these can be used at school. It just takes time to locate the video that is worthwhile and connects with the lesson you need. That is where having an account to save will come in handy.

Thing #19 - Beyond MySpace: other social networks

I joined MISD 23 Things on the Ning network. It was very easy to do! I set up my page, put my Avatar as my picture and commented why, added a badge to my blog and uploaded pictures!

I just glanced at some of the other networks - but at this point I don't want to get anymore involved than what I am! I want to work on my Facebook and MySpace and see where that goes and I will continue to check in on the 23Thingsters to see what is going on there. My best friend had invited me to be a friend on Tagged.com and I need to check that out some more as well. I haven't done a thing but sign up. Is there anything on the Web 2.0 that adds time onto the day?!?!? Because I definitely don't have enough hours to do all that I want to do! :)

The crafts community, baking community and school community may be some of the ones to check out later. I thought about maybe doing one for all of the CTECs and facilitators for the district. It might be a great way for us to keep in touch with each other.

Thing #18 - Explore social networking

I was planning in setting up accounts to both MySpace and Facebook even before this course. It was purely selfish motives! My daughter will be leaving for college in a couple of weeks and I thought this would be an easy way to stay in touch with her and her friends as they move on in life. This was importatant to me because this is one of the first things she checks on the computer. As a teacher we need to know about these sites because it is probably the first thing our students do as well when they get home. I haven't learned anything new about these sites and I probably will learn more as I continue to participate in them. The only difference I have seen so far is MySpace has all of the splash and glitter and Facebook is more "business". School applications??? - I haven't seen any so far.
Here is by MySpace. I am working on Facebook but have run into some glitches when trying to confirm my account. I haven't given up yet! Got my Facebook page working! Persistence!