Thing 23: Reflection

Who knew that the web and so many opportunities out there? I have learned a ton this summer as I explored the web. I feel that now I have a little better grasp of what the Internet has to offer. At this moment, I am hoping to add "blogs" to my curriculum this year. We shall see if we have the time to make this happen. If I do end up using blogs in my classroom, google reader will be key to helping me keep track at what my students are doing.

This summer has given me tons of tools that I hope to incorporate in my classroom this year. Whether it be blogs, google reader, slideshare, etc., I now have a starting point in which to explore web 2.0 deeper.

Thing 22: And Much, Much More

In this category, I think the Widgetbox was my favorite. I posted a fishtank to my "igoogle" and a waterfall to my facebook page. It reminded me a lot of adding "stuff" to my igoogle page using their gadgets.

Last week in training, I came across a new tool to explore. I wanted to include this link in case any of my followers were interested. This site allows you to create "comic strips." It could be a creative place to do a book study....

http://www.toondoo.com/

Thing 21: Celphone Apps

About a year ago, I owned a Blackberry Storm; however, I recently switched to a different phone. If I wanted to use the Internet on my phone, I could pay a small fee for a data plan. When I had my Blackberry, I had it hooked up to facebook. I also used it to stay on top of the Texas Rangers.

Another way to send text msgs. from the computer is to go to your cellphone provider's webpage. For example, Verizon offers this feature (which I have used in the past.) I first heard of this type of program when I was teaching in South Korea. I never tried it over there b/c their website was written in Korean. Here is a link to Verizon's page that offers text messaging:


https://text.vzw.com/customer_site/jsp/messaging_lo.jsp

Thing 20: Webinar

I know several teachers who have had the chance to use webinar, or something very similar to webinar, in their classroom. I think a program like this opens so many opportunities for our students think outside the normal educational setting. This would give students the opportunity to meet with other students/classes across the United States and even the world. I think a program like this would work well in a social studies class.

Thing 19: Digg

Personally, I am not a fan of Digg. Maybe it was the pages I looked at, but I found the comments posted on several of those pages to be quite rude. The story I looked at had to do with the new Iphone from Apple. I noticed similar comments on other articleas as well. I am not sure if I would use it in the classroom because it will be difficult to control what the students see/visit on this site. I think it is important to teach our students proper etiquette when posting comments on web sites. This is one of the reasons I would like to use blogs with my students next year.

After looking at it again, I can see why this site is appealing to some. The news stories in and of themselves are insightful for the most part. It is a great place to stay on top of the news, entertainment, sports, etc. All on one page! However, for a simple-minded person like me, it can be overwhelming. It is a page that I will share with my friends and family, but I will probably not use it that often.

Thing 18: Glogster

I think this web 2.0 site will be one that I must explore more before I feel confident in using in my classroom. With so many unknowns about how next school year will look, I really didn't know what to create that I could use next year. If I do use it, I will explore how to add videos and audio to my glog. Here is a link to the start of my glog:

//http://nebvoid.edu.glogster.com/english101/

Thing 17: Open Office

To be honest, I was very disappointed with what Open Office offers. This past school year, I tried to use Open Office Writer and Open Office Impress with my students for a tech fusion. I ended up not using these programs...my main problem I had with them is that they did not offer clip art. Clip art was essential for the assignment, so I explored a different avenue. I have played quite a bit with Impress in making ppt. presentations. When I used Open Office Writer, I created an acrostic poem. I played around with the formatting and borders when workign on my acrostic poem. I will probably not use Open Office Calc very much, but I really don't use Excel that much either.