Thing 7 of 11.5 Video Resources

Teaching with video has been around for a LONG time (even when I went to school, we occasionally watched a video). It is such a valuable tool. We use United Streaming frequently to introduce or enhance a lesson.

Thing 6 of 11.5 iTouch Apps

Research is a great use for the iTouch. There are also several app I have read about at IEAR (evaluates apps for education). Here a few I liked for elementary: (1) Brain Quest is a fun way to review grade level curricular area material. (2) Just Fractions allows students to add, subtract, and find the least common denominators for fractions. They also plan to add the capability to show each step to successfully solve the problems. (3) The translate app also looked interesting for our students whose first language is not English.

Thing 5 of 11.5 Microblogging

Before today, I never had a Facebook or Twitter account. It is a little weird to have a Facebook due to the fact that my children and all of their friends have accounts. I think I will probably delete my account...but who knows, I may decide I like it. I am not really fond of Twitter (I really prefer NOT to know what everyone is doing every minute of their day), but again, I may be surprised by Twitter. Without talking to others, I'm really not sure of the role of microblogging in the elementary setting, but if any of you have some great ideas, please share! Backchanneling would be a good tool in the secondary setting; instant feedback on lectures, etc.

Thing 4 of 11.5 YouTube, TeacherTube, and SchoolTube

Teacher tube is an excellent resource that provides and online community for sharing instructional videos. As always, it just takes time to find the ones that are useful. As far as uploading student created videos, it is something I want to consider for next year and I plan to start searching for ways other elementary schools have used it.
Below is my YouTube video:

Thing 3 of 11.5 Skype

I can see Skype being useful in the classroom for our students to communicate and collaborate with others from many different places. We will need to buy some web cams in order to fully use it. I wonder if the new student Dell laptops have built in video cameras??

11.5 Thing 2

Wordle - Loved it. Could use it a couple of ways (1) create one with character traits, save it and use it in PhotoStory or another product (2) Copy a newspaper article in the box and see what words are most often used. Did it surprise you?

Glogster - This could be my new favorite thing (sorry PhotoStory). It is so easy to integrate pictures, video, text, etc.

VOKI - I have used this and I like it, but I don't see as much classroom potential as the other items.

Bookr - This something I will definitely use. Do we need to worry about inappropriate pictures on flickr??

Thing 1 of 11.5

This video is where we all wish to be. Getting there is the problem. It is possible, but it will take time to teach students the skills they will need to practice connectivism. Without proper instruction I believe it would be overwhelming to a high school student to attempt to practice what is seen in the video. But, as was once said, every great journey begins with baby steps! Are we ready to begin??