Thing 23

All of the different material that was presented to me over the course of this class, shows me that in the world of education things are constantly changing and will always be changing as something new becomes available. It wouldn't suprise me if some of the stuff we learned here will be obsolete in a couple to five years, having been replaced by something even better. I think that my thinking from Thing 1 to Thing 23 has not changed very much, except that I now know which of the 23 things I will be sure to use in my classroom and which of the "things" I will use from time to time. I also still think that technology is very important to use in the classroom. I think the one trend that Hargadon mentions in his blog post, which sticks out to me that most is from expert to facilitator. I feel that as technology becomes more readily available and easy to use for students, it is vitally important that educators understand all of the technology too. It will become my job to show students how to find the appropriate information and what to do with the information once they found it. Whether they are to create a blog or a wiki, I need to be able to answer their questions and assist them in their endevours. I also feel that the trend from passive to passionate learning could take place through the use of blogs and wikis. By allowing every student to have an opportunity to contribute to a discussion through using a blog or wiki it allows the students to learn from each other as well as myself. I feel that I will need to make sure to keep myself up-to-date on the latest and greatest technological breakthroughs, so I can stay ahead of or on pace with the ever changing Internet and the digital world. I know realize what a great tool the Internet can be for learning, when students are properly guided on their path to knowledge. I think the first way that I will use these new tools in and out of the classroom, will be to set up a class wiki. Next, I will use a daily blog to update my students and parents as to what is happening in the classroom and what is for homework. I will also check Slideshare for more interesting projects to use in my lessons. I like how delicious allows me to save multiple websites on one single website. I will continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools by reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and talking with my more tech-savvy colleagues. Overall my big takeaways from this experience are Wikis, blogs, Google Docs, and embedding videos. Finally crossed the finish line and it feels great!

Thing 22

Well here it is finally closing in on the home stretch. I still do not feel comfortable yet using the wiki. There are many things I'd still like to do, but I'll have to seek out someone who is more tech savvy than I am to help me. I also tried to embed a video from YouTube on my Wiki, the way the video showed me to do, but I had no luck getting it work :( . I do like the idea of using a wiki, but as I've stated before I need to work with my wiki over the course of the next few months to make myself comfortable and familiar with using. I will need the time to make it something I am proud of and want to use regularly. I feel that Wikis are more appropriate for large scale group projects or papers which require collaborative group work. I think a blog is more appropriate when used for brief reflections or comments based on the original post. An example would be reading a book for a book club and you can post what you thought about a certain chapter on your blog and then your other book club members could respond to your comment. Here is a link to my wiki: Mr. Vokal's Wiki

Thing 21

I enjoyed looking at Mr. Armstrong's US History Wiki which I found under the Educational Wikis Link. I enjoyed his wiki, because it was his class website. I like how he had posted study guides,extra worksheets, and had a place for students to submit work. I like the idea of putting the extra worksheets on the website so if a student loses something then it is their responsibilty to get on the website and print one out. As opposed to having to run around and make numerous extra copies. One major hurdle that stands in way right now is the lack of time I have to create a wiki and make it something I am proud of. However, with summer vacation on the horizon, I can see the much needed time coming shortly. Another hurdle I see is if I want to post extra worksheets on the site I would need a PDF printer or scanner to be able to post the worksheets, which I do not have. In order to remove the hurdles, I would have to seek out people who are much wiser about technology than I am to assist on my long way of creating my envisioned wiki. I think it is definitely worth the fight, because I think wiki's would be a great tool for doing an online review for and upcoming test or quiz. I also like how in order to be able to change anything you have to be registered with the wiki site to be able to change or modify anything on the wiki, which would allow me to keep track of potential mischief.

Thing 20

I found the various search tools a bit confusing at first, but once I played around a bit on the sites I was able to find what I was looking for. Unfortunately, the EPN site was down so I did not get to explore the website. I did explore Podcast Alley, and found it was a decent site and offered numerous podcasts. The only thing I did not like about Podcast Alley was the fact that some of the podcasts could be inappropriate for school use.

I preferred using I-Tunes over Podcast Alley because it tell us whether or not the podcasts are "clean" or "explicit," which allowed me to select appropriate podcasts to listen to.

I subscribed to the K-12 Greatest Hits: The Best Ideas in Education. I found it had many useful podcasts (71 in total to date)on topics including, classroom management, instructional strategies, news updates for educators, and how to deal with parents to name just a few.

I also subscribed to Podcast for Teachers (Techpod). I like how it keeps you up-to-date with what is happening in technology in education.

Thing 19

I found the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast to be an interesting podcast.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/

I believe it could a very useful tool in the classroom, by making it a beginning of the class activity in our Language Arts classes. Increasing our students' vocabularies will help them to become more knowledgeable learners and thus hopefully increase their abilities to read and understand text, by having them be exposed to unfamiliar words.

Another podcast that visited was the LD Podcast.

http://ldpodcast.com/

I chose this podcast because I am interested in Learning Disabilities and am hoping to get my Masters in Special Education with a focus on Learning Disabilities. I will use this podcast as a way to help me understand the needs of my student's who possess learning disabilities.

Podcasts are indeed a very a interesting and useful tool to help educators increase their knowledge on a variety of topics.

Thing 18

Rocks And The Rock Cycle

View more presentations from Mr.Thurston

I liked the above presentation about the Rock Cycle because it covers rocks and the rock cycle which is a unit for Science. I felt that it contained alot of useful information and visuals to help the students understand the material better. I feel that Slideshare could be a very useful tool just like You Tube in the classroom. I like how it has presentations that have already been created and allows us to either use the presentation we find on the site. I also like how we can create our own presentations and share them with our fellow teachers. Outside of the classroom this could be a useful tool because of how you can create a photo slideshow to share photos with family and friends. I will definitely be sure to use Slideshare in my classroom.

Thing 17

I explored http://flashcarddb.com/ I found it to be a great website, where you can create your own individualized flashcards. I feel it would be a great way to help my students learn new vocabulary. You can set it up so the students can study the definitions and then click show answer and see what the word is. Also, on the site students can review the words and have to remember what the definition is. The site also allows you to give quizzes to the students as well and let them practice their understanding of the words. It will even give them a percentage of right and wrong answers for both the study and quiz parts. I think this is a very useful tool which will work well in my professional life.