*** Thing # 23 ****

Yea!! I made it! Number 23!! I was a little worried that I would not finish when I could not get on from my parents house for 10 days!! But I did it!! I have learned so much cool stuff. I think that photostory will be one of my best friends this year. I also love the image generators like framing, cartoons, comics.... They will be a lot of fun to use plus make things more interesting and fun. I plan to keep looking for blogs and networks of interest to me. I also want to find some of the daytime radio talk shows podcast so I can listen after school and keep up with stuff going on.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to learn so much in a comfortable format!!
I loved it and hope to see more next summer!

Thing #22 Ning

Ning is a pretty cool tool. At this point I am not into social networks but I can see the potential especially for older kids and networking among teachers. I like the way you can easily make your network focusing on your specific needs either professional or curricular. I liked the scenario described in the description of Ning. It could be a very powerful experience for students. Using the teacher networks is a great way to share ideas, get ideas solving a problem and just 'talking' with others in your situation. I did not try to make one but I did visit several teacher ones and found them very interesting. There are some that are mostly sharing ideas, some kind of complaining about stuff and others just sharing experiences. A lot of potential!

Thing # 21 Podcast and Vidcast

I enjoyed looking at/listening to the podcasts and vidcasts. I think there are big possibilities with both of these. The can be used for oral reports so it doesn't take up so much class time. - also helps with anxiety for some kids. Kids can record their podcast, then teacher and other students can listen at their pleasure and leave comments. Same for the vid casts doing very creative projects. It will be very helpful in making how to's info video books and the like that can be used as needed. I made an ABC book. What I would like to do with my kindergartners would be to have an older kids or a volunteer to help the kids find the pictures they want for an ABC book, then as a group we would pull them into photostory, then have each child record their own "A is for ..." sentences.I think it would be really cool. The really great thing is that it is so easy to do. It just takes time to find the pictures your want. I would also like to try scanning in pictures the kids make (or use ones made with Kidpix) and use them for a vid book.

Thing 20 YouTube and TeacherTube

YouTube and Teacher Tube have a lot of really cool videos that could be used in the classroom. It is pretty easy to find clips that illustrate concepts or ideas.
Here is one that demonstrates a Magnet shooter by a kindergartner.





Here is a nice photostory from Teacher Tube about the national symbols.



I also saw videos of people reading stories, books, singing songs, explaining concepts either to the teacher or to the students.
A lot of really talented people out there. If people in our district create these we need to be sure to spread the word. One of the problems I have here at home is annoying and very hard to watch. Sometimes the second time is faster but not always. Will it down load faster at school?
But I do think they are very useful in teaching. Older kids could have this as a product choice. Those who like this kind of thing would have a ball. I know my oldest niece would have!!

Thing # 19 Web 2.0 Awards list

Comiqs: create comics out of stock or your own photos, add speech ballons and title. Easy, fun. just used stock photos and made a simple Kitty cartoon for fun. Very easy. Could use to make a writing prompt, summarize a part of a story, tell about a setting, give facts about places or things, in a language class it could be used to practice labeling or simple conversation. Here are 2 comiq strips I made that could be possible products.

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flamings are birds from turtletracs on Comiqs


USA Landmarks from turtletracs on Comiqs

Thing # 18 Online Productivity tools

I looked at both Open Docs and Google docs. They seem basically comparable to Office. One of the neat things about Google docs is that you can share your documents as you are working on it and not have multiply copies of your original streaming all over email. Open doc did not have a clip art gallery that I could find but I guess I could find pictures I want and have them saved, but I do like having a bank of picts at my fingertips. They both have spell check and option
s to change font, color, size, add tables, graphics... Some things are not as easy to do in the free applications as it is in Office. So now that I have rambles a along a little about each, I think they are ok for a free version of these productivity applications. I think people who do more complex things in these would need to see it they will work for them too.

Thing # 17 Rollyo

Rollyo is an interesting tool. It would be really great if you are working on a big research project and need to go back and forth to the same resources a lot. I do not use specific sites enough -although this year I might- to make groups of sites to search. I looked at one person's rollyo to get an idea nad I say she had differnt kinds of recipes as different catagories. Interesting. I will keep this in mind this year and see if I can find some uses for it in my classroom/life. I made a search for some places I like ot look for things for my classroom.

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