Thing 23

This has been an exciting and yet exhausting course. Before beginning 23 Things, I had little knowledge of what Web 2.o had to offer. I struggled with many of the tasks, but was impressed with my ability to complete all the "'things" without going totally crazy. The tutorials were a big help!!! I have learned so much and I am so glad that I took this course. When I browse the Web now, I feel so much more educated when it comes to the language, terminology, and symbols that I come across...I know what it means!!!!

I know that I need a little more practice before incorporating some of these tools into my classroom. I know I want to start by adding a blog to my current web page with pictures and videos so that I can communicate more effectively with my students and my parents.

I think technology is very important for student success. Districts need to spend more time and money training staff with the necessary tools that would allow them to incorporate some of the things that Web 2.0 has to offer. It must also take a strong commitment from the staff, who may feel that there is already too much on their plates.

I will be sure to mention this course to my friends and colleagues. Thank you!

Thing 22

The link to my wiki is http://speechclassisfun.wikispaces.com/

I enjoyed using wiki and I think this is a great opportunity for educators to share our ideas with other teachers and others people who are interested in a specific topic. I am hoping to utilize wiki via my school web page in hopes of reaching parents who are concerned with their child's speech development.

Thing 21

One Wiki I found interesting was the Arbor Heights School District http://arborheights.wikispace.com/ . I felt it was not cluttered and it was easy to browse. It was also nice to see that parents appeared to be involved as well.

I also browsed a few sites from the Examples of Educational Wikis. I thought some of the school districts did a great job and it was nice to see that many were being run by the students. I also enjoyed looking at the pictures that some added to their site.

This would be a great tool to incorporate in any school district. I agree that it could increase collaboration between staff and it would increase student involvement with both their peers and with staff. What a great way to continue classroom discussions via the Wiki. I also like the fact that you can access a Wiki from any computer. The only downfall is the monitoring. It would take a dedicated staff to monitor regularly.

Thing 20

Since I enjoy watching Nova on PBS I decided to subscribe to it using iTunes. I like using iTunes because I am familiar with it and it's directory and iTunes store is easy to navigate. I did browse some of the educational sites that were recommended and found some I did like and others not so good (too long or narration boring). I am looking forward to incorporating podcasts with my students. I really would think my students would get a real thrill out of hearing themselves on the computer. The only downfall is that many of my students do not have access to their own computer.

Thing 19

I had a lot of fun browsing the many podcasts that were recommended. The first one I checked out was Mr. Langhorst's Web Classroom http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/blog. One part of the site I especially liked was his oral review of a test. What a great thing for students to take part in. This would really be good for struggling students who may miss important information regular class time and any other students who want the extra study time.

The other site I enjoyed was Storynory http://storynory.com/ I thought this might be cool for students when they are learning about fables etc.. I thought the narration of the stories were pretty neat. I think students might like the idea of hearing someone else read for a change.

Another site I enjoyed was Jamestown Elementary http://slapcast.com/users/Jamestown
How cool to have students do their own podcasts and have other people listen. What a great way to build literacy skills!! This would be great for my speech students.

Thing 18

I choose this slide show because I thought the pictures were fantastic. I really enjoy photography so this was very cool for me!!! I was amazed that I was able to embed the slide show with no trouble. I think I am learning something :)

Fantastic Photography

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: grandes paisajes)

Thing 17

The sites I browsed were Zoho Show, LibraryThing, 30 Boxes and Knowtes. Zoho Show looks like a great site if you want to do a power point presentation. I like how it helps you make decisions on layouts etc.. I really like LibraryThing. I know that I will go back and revisit this site. I like that you can get recommendations on books, you can tag your books and explore other peoples tags. 30 Boxes looks good too. This might be a great site to help you get more organized at home with dates etc.. When browsing the Knowtes site, I thought this would be a great tool to help students study for a test. I played around in it for a little bit, it was a little busy and I got confused at times, but with a little more practice, I might find it to be beneficial for myself and my students.

Thing 16

I can see how beneficial Google docs could be in the classroom. It would be nice if students could upload their assignments (if they have computer access)into Google docs and their teachers could make comments or corrections. Much faster feedback and less tiring than regular e-mailing. I think this would also be a great tool for collaboration between teachers.

Thing 15

I had a hard time adding a tag from the Delicious site into my Blogline account. I could not find the same page that was on the instructional video to start the tagging process. I played around for awhile and did finally figure it out. Once I did, I was able to add the new feed to my Blogline account with no problem.

I do not check my feeds regularly so I was glad that we were asked to go back and organize our feeds. I want to make more time in my day to check these feeds on a more consistent basis and edit as needed. I am becoming more familiar with RSS since starting 23 Things and I am impressed with myself that when I do become frustrated that I have been able to complete the tasks.

Thing 14

I found tagging and bookmarking to be relatively easy. The videos were a big help and easy to follow. My biggest problem was in labeling the tags for each site that I bookmarked. I wanted to come up with something that was specific to the site but not real wordy. I know that I could use social bookmarking in teaching. This is a great way to share ideas and information with both students and teachers. I would like to introduce bookmarking to my fellow speech therapists in my district in hopes of sharing great sites that provide new and exciting therapy ideas that would be beneficial to our students. I am hoping that Delicious turns out to be a good tool that would enhance productivity at work and maybe at home (I have already introduced this to my husband and he has his own account).

My user name on Delicious is: patsyslp.

Thing 13

Tagging is a great way to organize all of my sites so that I can find them again easily. I can't even remember how many times that I have found websites in the past, and then can't find them again when I need them. Sometimes, I save a website in "my favorites" for one bit of information, then I can't remember later what was so important about the site that made me put it into my favorites. Now I can assign key words to the site, or even put notes into it to remind me what to look for.

The important things to remember is that all of the tags are public, so others can see them. I also think you have to think about using the right words in the tag so that I will be able to find it the easiest way.

Thing 12

I really enjoyed this "thing". I was able to embed this aquarium widget on the first try without reviewing how to do it or running to get some help from my husband (the techno genius). I do not currently belong to any online communities. I have many friends who belong to MySpace and Facebook and are always asking me to join. Now that I am feeling a little more comfortable with blogging I might just join them.

Thing 12

This was very cool. I had a hard time choosing what to post.

Thing 11

I am not a fan of posting anything that people can read. I get real nervous as if I am saying something wrong or stupid. I really enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and I do enjoy getting comments. I think the online community is an important tool for sharing ideas and staying connected with people you might not see on a daily basis. I also think it is a good tool for students and it is a way for them to receive feedback from teachers and their peers.

Thing 10 "Baby Sign Language"

I found this video to be very cool. I took a sign language class 2 years ago and it was very tough.

Thing 9

This lesson was fun. I am familiar with YouTube and have searched for videos for entertainment purposes. I was not familiar with TeacherTube and SchoolTube. I found these sites to be very interesting. I searched for videos that were related to speech therapy and was surprised at how many interesting videos I found. I will definitely explore these again and hopefully I will gain some valuable information that I may use for my students. I believe that YouTube is accessible at my district. It would be a great tool for learning if it could be monitored or filtered for appropriate material.

Thing 8

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ This was very fun and time consuming. Wow, there were soooo many cool things to choose from. I can see incorporating whole class projects with many of these online image generators. I really loved some of the games that I found which you could make up with either classroom pictures or of specific curriculum items...the possibilities are endless. What great gift ideas too!!!

Thing 7

I was surprised how easy it was to upload my pictures using Flickr. Very easy to follow directions, especially for someone who is not very "techno savvy". Flikr could be very beneficial in the classrooms. Students could share their experiences with other students (field trips, class trips, family trips etc..) The only problem I would see is copyright and privacy issues. I think viewing should be limited and monitored.

Thing 6

I really enjoyed looking at the pictures in Flickr...so many to look at!!! I have some friends that use sites similar to this and they send us pictures all the time. I think this a very cool way to save your pictures but I would pick and choose which pictures I would have public.

Thing 5

I really had a hard time with Thing 5. The video directions were very helpful which I had to review more than once. I was very surprised when I was able to subscribe to two different blog sites and it appears that they work. Yeah!! I am excited about checking my blogs later to see if they STILL work. I know that I will use RSS for work as I found some interesting sites where speech therapists share ideas for therapy, recommended web sites, books, etc..

Thing 4

This is my first time using Blogline. I had never heard of RSS before and I am hoping that once I get the hang of it that it might help me stay organized. I am not sure how I will use this with my students, but I think this would be a great tool to help share information with other speech therapists in my school district and with some of my friends in other districts. I also like that you only need to go to one place to access your sites and you can use any computer...what a time saver. I continue to be overwhelmed with the whole process, but I can't wait to get to the next "things" to see how it all works!!!

Thing 3

I am hoping that I might incorporate blogging on my school web page to show links (which I already do) to a variety of sites that would help my students with carryover skills. Not only would they have access to the site, they could comment on what works and what doesn't work. I think blogging could be a valuable tool for parents who have speech or language concerns with their child. I could share information, provide different links to helpful websites, and possibly gather information from other speech pathologists. I currently visit a few different web sites that use blogging to share information from speech pathologists from around the country. I have found these sites to be very beneficial when I am looking for new ideas. I have never commented or shared and information, maybe because everyone can read them. I am finding that it is very important to share information and comment on another colleagues ideas.

This is all new to me. I am hoping that I learn some really neat ways to increase my use of technology with my students!!! The majority of my delivery of service is small group pull-out (speech therapy). I have been doing push in lessons in the kindergarten and first grade classrooms for the past 4 years so I am anxious to see what I can bring new to these students.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

I joined the 23 Things Course because I feel I need to be more in touch with todays students. It was a real eye opening experience when I read the article and watched the video. It is amazing how fast technology has grown and we as educators must "catch up" if we are to meet the needs of our students. I am really excited about learning new ways to use the computer..not just for checking my e-mail!!!