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??

Thing 23

W ow, there were times I thought this moment would never come! But it did and I am so glad I participated in 23 Things.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

Doing things I never would have done on my own, such as creating an Avatar (that was really fun), posting my own blogs, and learning what that "RSS" thing meant on websites.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

It has affirmed that we are NEVER too old to learn new thing!

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I discovered many new tools, some of which were: Google Notebook (really liked that and want to use it soon), del.icio.us, and technorati.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

Nothing really, except maybe offer some face to face times. There were times, I needed to talk through some of the activities with "It's All Relative" to make everything work as it should.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

YES!

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?

It made me feel as though I can keep up with my children in technology!

Thing 22

Nings... I looked at the Ning for Teachers. I found it somewhat interesting. I looked at the lesson plans and unfortunately, I found very little for integrating technology. I read several of the postings on the home page and found most of them to be interesting. I'm not sure how much I will use the site, but I know I will visit it again.