Is It The End Or Just The Beginning?

Here are my personal thoughts on 23 Things. Overall it was a helpful exercise. It executed what was necessary for this course which is a strengthening of usage of technology for the classroom. There were plenty of ideas and helpful tools shared throughout the Things. At this project's closing, here are my final thoughts:

This is a sixteen week course. Limit 23 Things to 16 Things and have one Thing due each week (this can be checked at anytime by seeing the submission date). I am not saying to drop 7 Things. What I am saying is maybe drop one or two that may be outdated or redundant, combine a couple of the easier assignments, and make this an assignment that can be kept up with and managed throughout the semester. This would almost eliminate the issue of students waiting until the last minute to complete these assignments, and most likely doing a less than outstanding job at completion. That is my two cents.

To conlude, I enjoyed many of these Things. Animoto was outstanding. Pageflakes is now a permanent homepage on my personal laptop. Social networking was a given, but please look into Google+ instead of so much weight on Twitter/Facebook. Just a thought. YouTube is essential for those who aren't as familiar with it. Livebinder was awful, but that is just personal opinion. I liked that Wiki was recognized and included. Frankly, I don't think it's the evil website tool that many at university level like to make it out to be, though I do understand not using it for a major research assignment. Thing 14 was another project I found relevant, but confusing. I can only imagine how difficult some of these Things are for people who lack basic computer skills and knowledge. Thing 12 was a great area for learning much more about Google (again Google+ can be touched on in this area). Thing 9 and Thing 8 were fun and were interesting as far as creativity for teachers. Thing 4 was a given, but may be a good learning tool for those new to social networking and blogging.

All in all I learned a lot from this course. The instruction was incredible. The only other improvement would perhaps be to make sure the 23 Things align with what LiveText assignments we are currently working on or getting ready to cover. Otherwise, keep up the great ideas. This obviously took time to put together, and I certainly learned a lot. I will walk away from this course a better expert at powerpoint, word, excel, and flikr, just to name a few. Thank you.

Thing 23: Creative Commons

This Thing should be way earlier in the list of Things we do for this course. We learned of Creative Commons some time ago, and I now religiously use it to locate photos for my school projects, so that I know I'm "safe." What I mean by safe is that I am not wrongly taking someone else's work off the internet. I am taking work that someone has granted others permission to use.

Dr. Wall asked that we locate something on her blog of 23 things that was good use of Creative Commons. I hadn't realized at the time of doing Thing 21 (Animoto = Animazing; yes, I've renamed it), but sure enough she had borrowed that entire exercise from a different website. At the very bottom of the exercise she said this:

 (originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)

I was able to click on the link to find the original assignment. She gave credit where credit was due, and did the right thing, as we've been learning in this course. Creative Commons is easily accessible, as I've learned here in this course, on both Flikr.com and basic Google Image Search. Sadly, I was unaware of it before this course. I knew of copyright laws, obviously, but this is an area that should be taught to us college folk as freshmen. It's never too late, however, and I will know for the rest of my college career (and real life that follows) how to legally use others' work without worry of breaking any laws.

Thing 22: Keepin' it Together: Livebinders

LiveBinders was an interesting (and somewhat time consuming) assignment. Frankly, I can see how it would be helpful in a class setting, and I can see how it can be beneficial to schools and parents, but it was a more difficult, timely task.

How it would be helpful is obvious: like a webquest, you (educator, school board member, parent, etc) choose the websites that children can go to. This weeds out unsafe websites. It also weeds out unnecessary websites.

I created three main folders: Eclipses, The Moon, and The Sun. I will hyperlink Eclipses since the embed instructions are not working for this assignment. I added folders and sub-folders based on where they fell in comparison to the main folders. In all, it's a very convenient tool, but much easier to use for a child than for the maker, which is to be expected with the research that had to be done, and the safety precautions that had to be followed.


Eclipse LiveBinder

Thing 21: Animoto

Animoto is animazing. I'm sharing this with friends this holiday season. I will make more. This was one of the easiest "things" of this blog, seeing how I had not heard about it before this class, and frankly is one of the niftiest little side projects. It would be of use in a classroom as a screen saver, or could be e-mailed to parents after an event such as a holiday party or a field trip. There are numerous obvious ways a person can use it outside of a work environment. It already has holiday themes up and ready for the upcoming winter season. Personally, I stuck to the oldies, as we haven't quite got our Christmas pictures taken yet. Pick your pictures from your computer, Facebook, or Flikr quickly and easily, pick a theme, pick a background song, and you're done. Another great, quick tool for teachers to use. See below titled "Aaron and Me" for direct link to my video.

Aaron and Me

Aaron and Me

Thing 20: You. too, can YouTube

I love YouTube. I'm not just saying that either. Years ago there was a promotional section of short, independent films, and I was sold on YouTube ever since. Some of those videos are still in my top ten when I show others my favorite YouTube clips. YouTube is my friend when there is something I need help with. While the husband was deployed, I YouTubed (see, it's even a verb) how to use an electric drill. Recently, I went a step further by learning how to upload my own video to YouTube to share with others. The reason? I rely entirely on Facebook, and when I couldn't upload a video on Facebook (it was too long, go figure), I was left with having to learn to upload it to YouTube. This is the video I will share with you, my blog reader, today. The attached video is my first, and so far only video on YouTube, but you can expect more. Everyone should YouTube. You learn things, you self entertain, and you share. No wonder it's so popular!

Thing 19: Beyond Facebook

I Ning! Once my log-in was approved, I was easily able to feel my way around this website. The badge was self explanatory, though changing my profile picture wasn't quite as simple as just uploading one. However one must expect all social networking sites to differ somewhat. It's good that it's specifically aimed at teacher and teacher educators, so you know that you are among peers, and it's a one-stop spot to reach friends, coworkers, etc., and get assistance or offer ideas or input to others.

Other options available included music ideas. Project Playlist is a nifty way to enjoy personal picks of enjoyable tunes without the worry of purchasing them. Music can get rather expensive to obtain if obtained legally, and legally is the safe and smart way to go. Another great way to enjoy and discover new music would be Pandora. Pandora is tricky because there is no definitive structure. The next song may be one never heard before, and there's a risk of music being inappropriate if used in a classroom setting, however this may not be an issue when on children's stations or classical stations. I believe the point of this exercise was to expand horizons through networking and see that interest-specific sites do exist. Dr. Wall gave us a few to look at. TeacherPop is great for reasons already mentioned, while the teacher can be a member of other sites for other interests.

Thing 18: Explore Social Networking

Social networking exploded around the turn of the century with a website known as myspace.com, and while it's no longer "top dog" in the social networking area, it deserved its due credit. Facebook and Twitter are now the "in" networks, although Google+ may be the "top dog" of tomorrow. Facebook is an excellent way to keep in contact with people you care about who you cannot keep in contact with personally on a day-to-day basis. I also have a public Twitter account that I use more for business than personal matters. Steph's Twitter They also are wonderful for keeping up with events or topics that interest you personally. While a military spouse, I was a fan (follower) of military-based facebook pages ranging from troop support networks to housewives who were crafty at making military gadgets that I may like to buy or ogle at. As my interests change and my life changes, I follow different pages. I currently follow Austin Peay pages, local newspaper pages, and smaller pages important to more random groups of people, such as pages that follow television shows. I especially love my Facebook and Twitter both because they are free ways for me to keep in touch with my international friends, one of which I met while he was here attending Austin Peay! I keep constant ties with my family in Virginia, Colorado, Georgia, the list goes on and on! I see pictures of people I care about updated and tagged constantly. Social Networking is a must have in a constantly moving world, especially one in which we can keep in touch with those far from us. We must keep up with them, learn to follow them from the luxury of our phones (this is the technology of today), and be ready for the technology of tomorrow so that we are not left behind.