Summary - Learning Thing 1 -23

Wow! This class was an adventure, I learned some new things and got to become more familiar with some oldies. There are so many tools that I can take away from this program and use in both the classroom and in my personal life, like I have said before the possibilities are endless. I know some were disappointed that Web 2.0 was not an application/program that you could use with your students, but a multitude and compilation of a toolbox of some really stuff, I on the other hand am a 100 percent tech geek, and was excited to dive into all the technological stuff, I stayed up till 1:00 some nights, just playing around, learning about the different components of this "program". Who know that when you were playing on the computer you were "improving your skills". Really that is so true, most of my computer knowledge is self taught, when you have to learn how to do something, you just do! Yes, there were a few things that took time to figure out, but once I had it figured out it was smooth sailing from that point on. I love, love, love the image generators, I also really enjoyed making the animoto video clips, that is something that I really want to figure out how to use in my class at some point. Social networking is something that I was involved in before taking this class, but I was pleased to learn more about the concept. Technology is ever growing, and in the community of lifelong learners it is increasingly becoming something that we need to add to our repertoire of life long learning skills. I have found myself using the Google Reader a lot more than I though I would, I check it everyday and am thinking about subscribing to more blogs (suggestions would be great!). I was suprised at how easily the majority of the stuff was easy for me to complete--- guess thats what I get for being a tech geek :0.
This is going to sound crazy, but it took so long for me to start the classm becuase I didn't know which link to click on to get the directions. I signed up for the social network site, before I had instructions to do so or before I created my blog. I did not realize that the "23 Things" link to the site was the instructions for the course, I thought it was a link to another blog. Luckily I had a friend enrolled in the class and she told me where I could find the directions. Once I got started, though, I did not encounter any real problems. It would have been nice to have more direction to where the directions were located.
I would 110% particpate in another discovery class, it is the most intriguing staff development, and I have taken more away from this than I do most classes.
I plan on sharing and showing some of what I have learned to my fellow teachers, and coming up with projects we can do to utilize these tools, because like us, the students need to be exposed to them, afterall, they will be more prominent when they are adults than they are now.
I plan on keeping up with updates of happenings on the Web 2.0 through the use of Google Reader and blogging ...if anyone knows of any could blogs about 2.0 -- please share!
Enjoy exploring!

Learning Thing #23

Creative Commons...what an interesting way to look at the copyright law. I loved the video clip it from the various "Disney" movies that explained the ins and outs of the copyrighting laws. I like the way Creative Commons works, it gives us a little more freedom, without taking credit away from the original creators. Common creative give individuals the right to use "copyrighted" material for some uses. It is meant to be used with the copyright, not to fight against it. Creative commons gives individuals permission to use work that has been copyrighted. Instead of being displayed with a © it is also marked with a cc mark. This is a really great tool for teachers and librarians alike to be aware of, we know what we can and cannot copy without breaking the ever feared copyright law(s). Check out my animoto that I created using pictures from flickr ..that were licsenced with the cc logo!

Learning Thing #22

Podcasts are a neat tool to be used on the internet, I am not a big fan of podcasts. I am oldfashioned in the sense that I would rather read about something rather than listen to someone talk about something. The one that I found was sort of cool -- it is actuall a video podcast Google Reader (11): "GeekBrief.TV | Video Podcast"

(I listened to the top 10 gadgets episode).
I really didn't like any of the podcast search engines that were provided, so I went to my iTunes account, and felt much, much more comfortable using this search engine. Once I had the name of the podcast, adding it to my Google Reader was very simple, and then I embedded the link to the podcast from the Google reader.

I don't think that I will be using podcasts in my classroom, why they are a neat piece of technology, with everything else that I want to do, podcasts would take to long to create and listen to. (Podcasts jurt aren't my thing).
I have a subscription to the one that I listened to, I may or may not listen to it in the future, I will probably see what the topic was before I listened.

Learning Thing #21

To turn off music that automatically comes on when you open the page, scroll to the bottom and click on the pause or stop sign. Happy viewing!

Learning Thing #21

That was the coolest thing thus far --- I want ot go take more pictures so I can make more videos. I think it would be a really cool way to make a slideshow of your students. Enjoy the video I created (the video is posted above this post). I was able to take pictures from my vacation and compile them into a slide show. I took music that I had previously bought (downloaded) from iTunes, and uploaded it to my pictures, the program did the rest. I think that this would be a really cool thing to use in class projects. We do a slide show for our sixth graders at the end of every year (its their last year in elementary school) and do a slide show, how cool would it be to do a full feature video and have the music and pictures synced automatically. I even used some of the other applications such as flickr and image generator to add some special effects to my pictures before I posted them to Animoto. Thanks for sharing this awesome site! I really enjoyed playing with this feature -- I look forward to experiementing some more. Enjoy my creations.(one is posted above this post and the other is on the side bar).




To turn off music that automatically comes on when you open the page, scroll to the bottom and click on the pause or stop sign. Happy viewing!

Learning Thing #20

Ahhh -- the creation of YouTube, it is a commodity and I love it. I actually have used a few clips that I have pulled from youtube. The studnents think that it is "cool" that something they are learning is coming from youtube. The things that I have pulled were some clips from the old "SchoolHouseRock" video, as my school library does not have a copy of it. This is a video from youtube that I have used - how a bill becomes a law - the picture isnt that great - but it sure explains things! Here's another : Conjunction -- whats your function?




This is just one that a friend sent me that I thought was funny !

Goofin on Image Chef

Learning Thing #19

Okay. I signed up for the 23 thingstes network. I have left comments for Kimberly, Sharon, and and requested for Phil for a few friends. I am currenlty a member of myspace, which is a great site to keep in touch with friends, old and new, facebook.com, which I rarely get on, flixster, which I have a link on myspace page, its got some cool movie quizzes when I have nothing better to do with my time or when I am wasting my time! I think social networks are a good thing, you just have to be careful as to how much personal information you give out, especially on the ones that you cannot mark as private and anyone and everyone can view. I am also a member of project playlist (that's the thing you hear when you are on my page :0) I also joing the Classroom 2.0 ning, and the good reads ning. I think that there will be information come available along the way from the different social networks that I will be able to use in the future. Look forward to meeting some of you out in the social networking world!

Learning Thing #18

Okay. Let me be honest on this one this assignment was actually very easy for me -- I already have a myspace account and a facebook account. I guess you could say I am in the generation where that kind of stuff is prevelant. The orginal reason I signed up for a MySpace account is to exchange pictures with my sister when she moved away from home -- and through the course of having an account I have gotten in touch with numerous people from high school -- its been interesting. The facebook site -- I have -- but don't normally get on -- I find that myspace is easier to use and more user friendly. I know some teachers are uncomfortable with having a myspace account - but it can be set to private, and you can use a picture (icon) for your display picure -- and no one knows who you are. Mine is set to private and to become my "friend" you have to either enter my last name or my email address. For those of you that set up a MySpace account my email address is amhbas@yahoo.com -- look for me and request me to be your friend :)

Learning Thing #17

Social Bookmarking - I like it! I have sites that are saved on my laptop -- that I want to open at school, on my desktop, or when I am on a differnt computer. It just makes since - you can "bookmark" your sites to one place. You can identify them by the tags that you have placed on them -- instead of having to search and search for them. The bookmarks are an innovative way to organize the stuff you want to bookmark. Installing the del.icio.us toolbar was simple. I plan on using the social bookmarking in the future.

Learning Thing #16

Woohoo! I set up my iGoogle home page! I choose to use iGoogle because it seems that most of the applications we have been using are or can be linked to Google in one way or another, so it seemed to me that iGoogle is the only thing that made since! Google was already my home page --so now it is just formatted to my liking
:-)
I chose to use the 30 boxes calendar to do an online calender -- I think it is just a lot of work - especially since I already set one up on Google!
I also downloaded the cute PDF --- I really could have used this a few days ago, we had a document that needed to be submitted in PDF file, and we could not get Adobe Acrobat to download, this works so much better and so much faster!
The to do list seem like a little overkill considering that I already have two calenders that are lmade, which has my schedule --to do list on the web seem like a little much. I am sure that if I had a zillion errands to run in one day, I could create a list and send it to my phone. Other than that I really didn't care for the to do lists.
I would definitly reccomend the PDF converter to others, and the calendar if someone asked :-)!

Learning Thing #15

Okay -- so I decided to be adventerous and create my very own wiki. I plan on using the Wiki for students to do research throughout the year. It was actually very easy to create and edit. I haven't added anything as far as assignments go; but it is definetly something that I will continue to work on. Here is the link to my wiki if anyone wants to look at it and offer any suggestions!
http://snyder6thgrade.wetpaint.com/
Like I have said in my previous blogs the possiblities on the web are increasingly becoming endless!

Learning Thing #14

Okay, so I played around a little with the Gliffy flowchart -- I really didn't care for it. I attempted to create a flow chart for one of my college courses using this site and it just wouldn't work the way that I wanted it to. I also applied for an invatation for flowchart.com, but have not heard anything back as of it, I will try to use it, whenever I get an invatation to join the site. I also used the bubbl account to do the same thing, and felt that it was much, much, much more user friendly. I am sure on this everyone uses what they like --- and I prefer bubbl.us.com --- I am still not sure about flowchart.com.

Learning Thing #13

Learning Thing #13
Wow!  A word processor online, this is such a unique tool.  I can see why some people are saying that a creation such as this one will be the death of Microsoft Word.  Lets see -- sign up was free, there was no fee, like you have to install Microsoft into your computer, it is very user friendly, and you can save your documents....Wow!  It seems absurd why anyone who would purchase word processing software.  My only concern would be, is the program compatible to be opened on peoples computers, when you send the documents through email.  I would imagine so, with how indepth everything on this word processer is.  I decided to take the challenge approach, and am typing my blog in the word processer, and am going to post it to the blog using the publishing feature.  I have already done one ( I posted my rantings about something that happened tonight, using the publishing tool, it was actually quite simple).  It is kind of scary and cool at the same time how everything is intertwined, on the thing that we call the world wide web.   The things that we can do and accomplish on the web are becoming endless possibilities, I look forward to using these tools in class.  Why couldn't students respond and then post their responses to blogs they have created.......I think the possibilities are there, we just have to take the next step and be creative with the tools that we are provided. 

 

Welcome

Why are some people sooo rude!?

    My sister and I decided to go to Red Lobster for dinner tonight -- the service was great, but there were some customers there who were down right rude and inconsiderate.  I was sitting with facing a window with sun shining directly into my eyes.  The two windows right next to our table had the shades drawn, but the window next to it was where the sun was brightly shining.  I got up and politely explained to the customers sitting there that the sun was shining in my eyes and asked if they could draw the shades.  The reply that I got?  No, sorry we are looking out the window, so sorry.  I was appalled, the audacity of people, I didn't know that people could be down right rude!  My sister lives in Virginia, which in a town which is approximately 20 miles out side of Washington DC, she said that is the way people are in the general DC area, and to win battle you have to be rude back.   I just don't understand people sometimes.  :-)

Learning Thing #12

The calander application is a useful application, I think it will help me be more organized having it one the computer, instead of having things written down randomly on paper. I hope the above link works, it should embedd the calender into the blog! The calendar would be a great tool to use, you can set up assignments dates and deadlines for your students, they would of course have to have computers and internet connections available to use in the classroom(you can intergrate teaching the use of technology into the use of the calendar).

Also attached is a slide show I created from Google's Picaso of me and my husband. I enjoyed creating the slide show on the site. I look forward to playing around somemore with the Google tools!

Learning Thing #11

I found that the most user friendly way to add feeds for me was doing a search on google. I looked at the sites that won the awards, but did not really see anything that truly intereted me. I set up a feed to a shopping blog, that is done by the Dallas Morning News, and I set up the cool cat teacher (which was the only one from the award list), but I added using the google reader tool. The Google search tool was by far the easiest to use, while adding RSS feeds. The Syndactic 8, was confusing for me, because I could not figure out how the site was organized, and so it was difficult to find blogs I was interested in. I think that being able to have all your feeds routed to one place, makes it a lot easier, to see when things have been added, this is definitely a tool I will continue to use.

Learning Thing #10

RSS feeds -- as big as a computer dork people tell me I am, this is one component I have never actually played with. I decided to use the Google Reader, which was really easy, because I already had a google account, which was already linked to my blog, so it made life a whole lot simpler while completing this project. I set up everyone's page to my RSS feeder, and now I don't have to click on each individual page to see if anyone has added anything new -- it was worth the time spent copying and pasting everyones address (I am sure there was an easier way -- but come on its 10:40 and I am on the computer -- I should be asleep!) I like that google reader is user friendly and that I can go to one place to see if their is anything I want to read instead of clicking on each individual page link (that was getting exhuasting!) I think that you could set up a feed in the classroom with links that you want students to read about, or you could have students set up some sort of blog account, and their assignment can be to log onto their blog and post their response (though I don't know how long setting up a blog for each individual studnet would take), but it would be a fun project, nontheless. There are so many things that we as teachers, librarians and administrators can do to take advantage of this technology, we can subscribe to posts that gives us ideas, and take those ideas and use them in class, we can subscribe to news links, and use current news on a daily basis in the classroom, really the possibilities with technology are truly endless. Be sure to checkout my blog rolls on my page -- I will be updating them some more soon!

Learning Thing #9

I uploaded the scrapbook page from http://www.scrapbookgenerator.com/ . I uploaded the magazine cover from http://www.fakemagazinecover.com/ . I thought that the creations were a ton of fun to make. I chose to use my own photos for the images that I created -- it was sooo much fun! I think that it would be a really cool assignment, doing something at the beginning of the years -- the students have to design a logo or graphic that describles them and explain why -- I think it would also be a great activity to use in staff development at the beginning of the year. I think the magazine covers would be fun to use when you go on vacation, and print out pictures on them to display. I think the more I explore, the more uses I will find for the image generators.

Okay so after coming back and playing later, I think that Image Chef is by far my favorite and the most user friendly, things are so easy to create and manipulate.

Picture of Lincoln Memorial

Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

My Magazine Cover

Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

Learning Thing #8

I have discovered a new toy to play with online. I have already created three things, I created a mosaic, a jigsaw puzzle, and a mash up of letters. There are so many ways that these things can be used in school and at home. I think the mosaics could be printed off and used as pictures in your home. I think that students would enjoy creating the phrases (the one's that look like magazine cutouts) for some sort of class project. I don't mind sharing photos online, I think it is a way to let your family and friends know what is going on in your life. I look forward to playing around on these sites some more.

Capital Building - Washington D.C

My creation
Originally uploaded by mandysmailbag

Me and My Sister

My creation
Originally uploaded by mandysmailbag

Learning Thing #7

Flickr is a very cool and interactive site. The two pictures below are ones that I uploaded to flickr, and the put them on my blog, by simply clicking on a link that said "blog picture". It makes editing and creating the pictures a breeze, as well as sending them to the blog a breeze. I also sent, what I think is an amazing picture that I took on vacation to Washington D.C, to the 23 thingsters group. I think that this is most definitely a tool that I will continue to use in the future. I used the picnik site, I felt that there was more things to change your pictures with, but not really anywhere to upload them, like you can do on flickr. I have also used snapfish, as well as uploaded photos to a myspace account. I like to play around and start on projects, sometimes though, I don't finish them. Like I have a scrapbook I have started from the trip to DC,two pages -- that's what I have done. I don't know how easy this site would be to use in a classroom setting, but I will definetly use it in my personal life.

heather, brandon, and amanda at heather's wedding

heather, brandon, and amanda at heather's wedding
Originally uploaded by mandysmailbag

Flowers in Spring

Flowers in Spring
Originally uploaded by mandysmailbag

Learning Thing #6

I am having fun on this assignment -- I want to keep playing. I know the next thing is about Flickr, but I wanted to check out the other picture sites, so I choose to explore picnik - and edit a picture or two. I could see how this site would come in useful doing class projects, students can use it to be very creative. There are some really neat things that you can do with pictures on this site, from changing the colors to adding borders. I wish that there was more stuff to do with this site, I think that you are limited to what you can do on this site, hence the reason it was voted #2 and not #1. On this site you have to upload your own pictures and there really isn't anywhere to store the pictures. The attached link is one of the pictures I created using the website.

Learning Thing #5

Wow! There is an abundance of things to do and learn about on the web. We can do so much thing on the web these days, need a phone number? look on the web. need a recipe? look on the web. need an article? look on the web, the possibilities are endless. Web 2.0 is a community where each and every member is encouraged to create and explore and to explore the endless possibilities available to us on the web. There are so many things available to us throughout the world wide web, such as social networking on sites such as myspace, or posting blogs, like the ones on this website. It is important for educators to be aware of all the tools available, becuase most of our students come to us already knowing more than we do. Educators and librarians alike need to find ways to relate the technology to students and to make the technology user friendly for them, ways in which they can intergrate it into their day to day life. Web 2.0 would accurtely discribe my use of the web, everytime that I get onto the web I am creating a post or creating a picture of some sort, web 2.0 encourages users to be creative and to dive into the world of technology. Everything that is related to web 2.0 fosters participation among its users. Most sites that are in exsistence today have some sort of interactive component to them, the facilitates the use of being creative. The schools are going to have to become more open to the use of the types of technology that is being promoted by the "monopoly" of what is the world wide web. We as teachers, librarians, administrators have to facilitate the use of this technolgy, if we want to keep up with the world as it revolves around the world wide web.

Learning Thing #4 -- Always Under Construction

Blogging is an important part of the technology world. In order for blogging to be truly successful, it needs to feel like a sense of community. People have to be able to feel like it is okay to make comments on other blogs. Blogging is an excellennt way for people in the world wide community to build a community of their own. There are blogs out there for just about every subject that one could possibly think of. The individual topics, give the people that are participating in the blog a common poiint of interest. I read the Ten Commandments, and I felt that an important commandment is to read the blog, before providing a comment. I think so often that we as a society have be come so used to scanning what we read. It can be very emabarrising for both the original poser and commenter when the comment has nothing to do with the original post. Humor -- does go a long way. However in commenting you have to be sure that your comment come across as humor, and not as a condesending tone or as being rude. Humor can add something to your comment, but if it is used in the incorrect manner it can take something away.

I have posted comments on the following blogs:

Reese's Readings - Thing #5 http://reesereadings.blogspot.com/
There is such a large abundance of information out there it can be overwhelming! I enjoyed reading your post :-).
I choose to post a comment on this post because I found her post to be intriguing, there is a huge amount of information out there on the world wide web and I agree with her posting 100 percent.

23 Things by Miss Williams - Thing #1 http://missvwilliams.blogspot.com/
I think that "play" is a very important aspect of the life long learning community.
I chose to comment on her posting about life long learning because like her I think that play is an important aspect of the process.


Boog-phil - Thing #3 http://boog-phil.blogspot.com/
You have lots of great ideas for using blogs in the classroom.
I would really like to use a blog of some sort in my classroom, in the upcoming year. I felt that this blog had a lot of creative ideas that could be used in the classroom.

Coach D's corner - Thing#5 http://coachdunlapscorner.blogspot.com/
I think it is important that we are aware of the technology that are students use on a daily basis. Though it can often seem overwhelming!
I think that technology is a very important aspect of the classroom, it is scary that our studnets know more than we do sometimes, that is why I try to learn everything I can about technology, so that I can transfer my knowledge to my students.

Kimberly's Corner - Think #8 http://allamericangirl3.blogspot.com/
Wow! I really like your page you created from flicker. It looks like you enjoyed creating the page as well.
I really liked reading her post on this topic, further more I thought her mosaic was very created and wanted to make a comment in regards to how great I thought it was.

I also posted on a blog that discussed the Twilight Book series -- which I am ready for the next book in the series to come out. The address of this blog is http://www.freewebs.com/twilightserieslovers/twilightthoughtsforum.htm?forumID=1664260&page=1&topicID=1069549 . I thought it also may be important to note that the blog is on freewebs.com, which consequently is not blocked by the district at this time.
Posting: I absolutely love this series. It is full of interesting twists and turns. It is definetly a book that is hard to put down, a page turner for sure. I cannot wait until the next addition in the series comes out...until them I will occupy myself by reading "The Host" a book by the same author.

What girl doesn't like to shop? So when I was thinking about what other blog to post to, I thouhgt I would fine one about bargain shopping, it is definetly a site I will keep using. http://bargainshopperlady.com/
Comment: Thanks for the information, I am going to try to use the coupon this afternoon. I look forward to reading more postings on the bargainshoppinglady.com

I think bloggin and posting comments is an important part of the blogging community.

Learning Thing #3

The world is depending more and more upon technology, so it only makes sense for school districts and classrooms to do the same thing. There are so many ways in which a blog could be used in the classroom setting. A blog could be used to communicate to parents homework assignments are going on or to communicate important events that are happening in the classroom. A blog could be use as a discussion forum when you are reading a book as a class and you can have the students respond to questions, like we are doing for this assignment. If you are not reading a book as a class, you could post short quotes or stories, and have studnets react and reflect on your response. You could have studnets create and produce their own blogs, this helps the student work on their technology skills, writing skills, as well as communication skills. A blog could also be used to set up a modern day "pen pal" system in the classroom, students could communicate with students from anywhere in the world. Blogs can be used to discuss assignments, to do individual assignements, to do group assignments. Blogs can also be used in the school to discuss things that are going on around the entire campus, like when big events come up, or when the students have an opinon they want to share. The uses of a blog or endless, I would love to use it in my classroom, as I am certain my sixth graders would love doing it, I just have to figure out which method of blogging fits best into my classroom.

Learning Thing #2

Well I decided to keep the name of the blog and the address of my blog the same, so that they are easy to remember. I came up with the name "Mandy's Mailbag". Mandy was my childhood nickname and I thought that "mailbag" would be a good play on words, since posting a blog is kind of like sending a letter out to all of your friends at the same time. Settin up the blog was pretty easy for me, I wanted to create my own profile using html code, but it was taken to long and I was getting tired, so I just decided to use on already in exsistence --- maybe I will change it one day. Creating the blog was actually very simple for me, as it is not the first one I have done, I think that they are fun to write and to read. You can find and learn interesting things just by reading words that someone else has typed. The funny thing about the Avatar is that I already had one created from something else I was working on, only thing is I had to change the background and clothing to match the season, didn't really think that a wool jack and scarf would do well in the heat! I think that my avatar is a pretty close representation of myself, though I just recently chopped my hair off and highlighted it, so the hair is a little off. I chose to do one that looked like me, because I think it is fun to try to create a character that looks like you and defines you. I chose the flashy background, not to be flashy, but to have some fun with the avatar. Didn't one of the habits say to have fun?! I am really enjoying this class I look forward to doing and completing "more things"!

Learning Thing #1

I never meant to wait this long to get started on this class, but I lost the login informaiton and left to go out of town to see my new nephew -- who is the cutest thing. I am excited about joining the online learning community in doing this journey. I finally had a momen to seat down and get started, and now all I want to do is play on this thing. You could say I am a bit of a "tech geek", so you could say that the habit that comes the easiest for me is using technology to my advantage. As I am typing this I have three other windows, doing three different things, including downloading a movie to watch later tonight. I also have a website that I created for my classroom that has links, blogs, and pictures uploaded to it. I enjoy playing with technology and creating new things, I enjoy the mission when I am trying to figure out something new. For example the first time I downloaded a movie it took me an hour to figure out how to get the movie to play on the computer, but I figured it out. I guess you could say that my "main" toolbox is loaded chalk full of technology information. The thing that I struggle with the most is viewing all problems or challenges as obstacles. I know it may seem like in the previous part of my blog that, that is not the case, however, technology is something that is going to have challenges. In general I find it hard to view problems as learning oppurtunities, I find myself getting frustrated, instead of enjoying the learning process. I look forward to being a life long learner in all the things that I enjoy doing from technology to cooking to reading to teaching others. Teaching others, I have learned from experience is foremost the most important aspect of continuing the process of being a life long learner. Remember -- Life long learning --- you are in the driver's seat!