Much2Learn

I am very glad I signed up for this course.  Though I found the tasks to be fun, challenging and educational, I also experienced some confusion and frustration along the way.  While completing the various tasks and trying new things, I learned new ways to implement technology in the classroom and look forward to continuing my exploration of Web 2.0 tools and sharing what I learn with others.  I am now better prepared to help my students and teachers learn to use some of the Web 2.0 tools I was exposed to during the last 10 weeks, some of which I never knew existed.  Thanks so much for offering this course.  It was worth the effort…

This Thing was another very interesting activity.  I must admit that am quite the novice to this type of technology, having only used Skype to talk long distance with family and friends and not yet taken the leap into Facebook, Myspace and the like.  Thus, making my social networking skills quite limited.  It is just so mind-boggling right now to try to make sense of it all, but I think there is great potential for using this in the classroom and engaging students through these technologies.  Keeping students interested is the key to helping them learn and what better way to do this than with what they are already comfortable using with their friends such as iphone,  ipod & the new ipad technology.   If we, as teachers, co-teachers and assistants can incorporate their technology into the classroom, our jobs will be easier and we can learn from them as well.  I look forward to exploring how to use these tools with students this year and hopefully, through hands on staff development workshops I can become more comfortable interacting with and using these Web 2.0 tools in the 21st century classroom.

Thing 7c was more good practice skimming through the myriad of information shared on the web daily.  My favorite is coolcatteacher.  She always has interesting posts. Another of great interest to me is Grammar Girl.  This site covers everything grammar related, from punctuation to swear words…  I plan to share this resource with my Language Arts teachers this year.  Then there’s the Uclick site where I like to begin my day with the daily jumble.  Google Reader is a good resource for having info come to you.  All you have to do is find the time to check it out…

I, too am put off by the ads and their distractions from the initial goal…  Even so, I did take a quick look at Pageflakes and the alternatives, Protopage (examples) and Netvibes.  Hopefully, the business community can work out something for the education community, so it can be more easily used in the classroom…  Am I being too optimistic?  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I remain hopeful…

Yes, you can certainly get carried away while surfing the net…

My observations regarding Google Docs…  Initially, I was a rather disappointed in Google Docs when I uploaded a Word document that had a picture in it.  Google Docs seemed to have trouble converting the formatting correctly.  Also, the preview wasn’t as good as it is in MS Word’s application.

Then, I tried creating a new document in Google Docs and downloaded it to my computer.  The download went smoother than the upload and the result was much better.   Word and Adobe handled the formatting great, with no editing necessary.

Even though I encountered some formatting problems, I think this is a powerful tool and has great potential for use in collaborating with students and teachers on the web from the classroom…  It has many possibilities for use, from the classroom to personal use.

YouTube Scavenger Hunt…

I checked out several videos related to education, how to make something & then just for fun.  Since I had trouble getting the videos to embed, I did it the old fashioned way…

iPad in education with this video… Apple iPad is here

just for fun… Best Buffalo Chicken Dip Ever!

how to make… CraftSanity on TV: Making a Valentine’s Day bean bag game

Another fun Thing!  A bit trickier than Thing 17, but with determination and perseverance, I did it!

In my podcast, I thought I’d share a recent visit with my “favorite” Aunt in Lake Charles, LA.  Her friend’s 90th birthday was July 25th, so she asked me to help her give her a birthday party.   Listen to my podcast to hear how it turned out and learn how to make a “Toilet Paper Cake“.   Perhaps, it will inspire you to make one for someone special…  To see the “naked” cake click  here.   Post a comment if you’d like the recipe…

toiletpapercake

I loved this Thing!

First, I subscribed to  Grammar Girl podcast is a wonderful classroom resource for students and teachers!  It is a Writing/Language Arts/English teacher’s dream… At the homepage, there is a button that allows you to listen to the podcast or read the articles.   You can even choose to do both – simultaneously.  I encourage you to give it a try…

I also subscribed to CarTalk, a  Radio podcast of personal interest to me.  On Saturday mornings, I enjoy reading “Click ‘n Clack“, a car tips, advice and troubleshooting newspaper column in the local  newspaper and thought it might be fun to subscribe to their radio podcast.  It’s written by two brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozz.    It works great in iTunes & is even more entertaining in podcast form than just reading the column…

external image LibraryThingWhatBookshelf.gif

What a neat concept!  The Internet never ceases to amaze me.  If you can think of it, somebody has put it on the  net.  The LibraryThing is great for bookworms.  In hindsight, I wish I had known about this years ago, so that I could have organized all the books I have read with LibraryThing.  This tool would be useful for students to use to chronicle their required readings during the entire school year…

While taking the tour, I did a search on a book I’d read recently, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron.  By just typing in Dewey, a search found 96 results.  Clicking on the Details button informs you that it has been translated into 11 different languages and Chinese, which was not on that list.  I enjoyed reading the book and highly recommend it for all the world’s cat lovers, especially poignant for our tender-hearted librarian friends…

When I found out what Delicious was, I was very glad to be taking this course.  I am always forgetting where I saw something or it is bookmarked at home, but not at work, so this was an exciting Task to complete.  Here is the link to my Delicious Account:  http://delicious.com/23student