Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

So, Is it the End or Only the Beginning?
I would have to say it is the beginning! I have learned so many different tricks and web based tools that I never knew I had access to. Doing the 23 Things has really opened my eyes. I will be using a lot of what I learned here throughout my career. It really surprised me how the concept of the 23 Things came in full circle. The only way I would say to improve it is to update with technology as it does so. Doing the 23 Things encouraged me to create my own blogs at the beginning of the semester and hopefully I will maintain them. Sometimes it is difficult being so busy. I plan to at least blog when something I find to be very significant happens. Thanks for the great semester!

Thing #23

My knowledge about copyright and Creative commons has really grown this semester. It is something I have to be sure to follow as a student and a teacher. Sometimes it is so convenient to incorporate something that is not yours into your lesson and some never get caught. We have to be sure to be good examples and show the students how to properly do it and to obey the laws ourselves.

I looked up 23 Things and I found it is based off of the 43 Things website. This is very ironic but I am sure planned that the twenty-third blog about creative commons is about this whole project,23 Things, being a prime example of the creative commons. This was very interesting to find out and there have been many interesting and helpful things I ahve learned from 23 Things blogging.

Thing #22

I personally did not like LiveBinders. I created my binders and struggled, I did not find it to be user friendly. I guess for those who enjoy this tool would use to better organize.  Maybe if I was doing a research paper this would come in handy. I would be able to put the web site links I used in here and be able to find them later. This would be good in your classroom to have your students put certain sites they used into an open binder. Maybe even include it with a work cited page.

Thing #21

Using Animoto was probably the easiest thing I have ever done! Signing up was very easy and making the video was even easier. I really wish it did not cost money to make long videos but my 30 second video turned out great! I really enjoyed this website. Here is my video! 23 things video

Thing #20

I use YouTube on a regular basis, more so for entertainment.  It can be used on a school libraries in a variety of ways. It can show book trailers or students presentations. The possibilities are endless. I love YouTube and although there is inappropriate material there is also very educational material. I am not sure if you wanted educational videos in this post but I thought this one was hilarious! I guess in a way it could be educational. Either way, I thought you may find it funny. Everyone in my house did! It is called 

How animals eat their food....

Thing #19

I am a member of many online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Teacher Pop, Good reads and I am sure there are others I am forgetting. Nothing was not interesting to me, I will do anything that I can stay on to procrastinate. I browsed around on Teacher Pop and it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. I actually spent quite a bit of time reading things on there. This is definitely something I will use later on when I am in the field.

Thing #18

I have used Facebook for many years and here is my Facebook profile. I am fairly new to Twitter and here is my twitter profile. I am more of a Facebook fan! I have to admit I get pretty addicted. I do not post as often as many but I love getting on and catching up with everyone. It is important for educators to stay up to date with technology and social media. They need to know what the students are into. Facebook is good for schools to network with each other. Your classroom can have a page for the parents or for other teachers. Facebook is more user friendly but Twitter uses hash-tags and that is very cool itself! Both of these social networks are very addicting and enjoyable to use.

Thing #17

I joined Delicious and was not a fan of it. I could find what people said about bookmarks and it was helpful but this was not something I could get into.I am sure it could be helpful but it does not suit me. I do not know that I would use it in my classroom but it is good to add bookmarks to and be able to access them anywhere.

Thing #16

I chose to use iGoogle, I chose this one because I am already a Google user. I did make it my permanent home page. It shows notifications from different things I am signed up for and news and weather in my area. I was able to add a long list of things I am interested in on the page as well as decorate it with whatever theme I like. I love the Google calendar because I  can download it to my phone and have it send me notifications. I did not care for the to-do lists because I am stuck on my sticky notes. Maybe one day I will use it but right now I like using paper or just adding things to do to my calendar. I would suggest people using Google calendar.  There are so many tools on it to make your life easier.

Thing #15

I have used Wiki's for a long time. Teachers always say not to use them as references and I don't but I do go  there to read a brief description about whatever it is I am researching. Wiki is good for quick information. Maybe a student asks a question that you do not know how to answer, you can wiki it to get the general information. It is quick and easy. I know to never quote it because one of my teachers pulled up Wikipedia to show us how something can be changed. She clicked edit and she typed something off the wall into it and I understood right then. This would be smart to show your students so they are aware and know that it is not a reliable source. But, it is a quick and easy place to gather information for your own knowledge.

Thing #14

I chose Bubbl us and Mindmeister as my two types of flow charts. Both of these charts had the same idea. The idea is to have a main idea and have supporting ideas branching off of it and it can go on and on. These  are great for brainstorming projects or for papers. You can adjust the bubbles to be wherever you want them positioned. Both of these were very user friendly but Bubbl us was better. Mindmeister took me a few minutes to figure out but Bubbl us does not even force you to create a log in. They allow you to test it on the home page.  I had no idea things like this existed although I do not know why I never thought to look for them. This is defiantly a useful tool that I will be taking advantage of!

Thing #13

While exploring Google Docs and Zoho I found Google Docs easier to use. This is my opinion anyways. It seems to be very reliable and a growing piece of technology. I could definitely see this web based application putting something like Microsoft office out of business! I actually use Dropbox and I may switch to this application. I really loved it. I created a document in it to test it and I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Since I had to create s document I created my Wedding to do list for April! because I had to make that as well. This could be used in the classroom among students because they are able to collaborate on the same document on Google Docs. The document can be shares with the students working on that document and it can be the groups effort.