The End is Now

Though the road was hard and the nights were long, I have survived the 23 labors of the 23Things. I enjoyed making a video and utilizing image generators. I learned about the use of Mindmaps and LiveBinders; I even learned that there is lesson material available for my grade level out there in cyberspace. I only wished the 23 Things were not as demanding as it was sometimes. Possibly cutting in half would do the trick. 12 Things is easier for a college students to do alongside 5 hours of work a day. As a teacher I would the knowledge I gained about blogs to design my own future class blog so I could help students with questions outside of class. The Web 2.0 tools as vast as they are ever-changing, and so too must my attention to the importance of them. Using RSS feeds I can keep track of important news as it happens and with blogs at fingertips no student of mind will be left behind. I cannot guarantee that the 23 Things will make me a great teacher, for only I can decide that myself.

Thing 23: The Orgin and Development of 23Things

The 23Things was developed by Shelly Paul in 2006. Her idea was "inspired" by Helene Blower's Learning 2.0-23 Things program designed to teach public librarians how to become familiar with Web 2.0 tools. Shelly Paul saw this idea as a good way to help educators too to become better adapt at using Web 2.0 tools as well. This is an example of useing of another individual's work modified to meet another's needs. Shelly Pauls 23 Things is totally legal as it is using only the idea and not the actual wotk based from an idea as explained in the Disney Fair Use video. Such an method of modification is common in the Creative Common community as people share and edit photos and videos in a close-knit community devoid of heavy legal consequences of copyright violations. As a teacher, I see Creative Commons as a good source of images and educational material that can be easily used without worrying over the possible fees or jailtime I could face by using another's work. My students too would benefit knowing about the Creative Commons licensing as they would be able to use images in class projects.

Thing 22: Noob of LiveBinders

The three binders I created were Sound Effects, Lighting, and Imagery. All three binders were designed to help provide me a foundation  to teach the Media standards required in 10th grade English. The overall controls for the LiveBinder software was indentical to Microsoft Word making it easy to use. I, however, could live without it seeing it as more time to waste on a limited teacher's time. Though I enjoy the idea that you can access and edit your binders at any computer with an internet connection is quite neat, I still prefer the old typing in Word or making rough drafts for unit plans by hand. I am just old school like that. The Sound Effects LiveBinder is unfinished and more of a rough concept that could be redesigned at anytime.
Sound Effects

Thing 21: Animoto

Animoto was fun while it lasted. The simple video producer service was perhaps the most stress-free item I have worked with during the whole 23 Things activity. Not only could I use clips from my FaceBook, Flicker, and Picasa accounts they had an entire library of images, videos, and music I could use to create my short video. So enjoy my creation :)

   

Thing 20: YouTube

I LOVE YOUTUBE!!! There is nothing I can say against the video site if I wanted too, expect the fact a lot of videos are simple reactions to other videos but that is of little concern to me. YouTube offers over a million videos ranging from the obscene to the very educational. It is also extremely easy to use and you can even build your video library and upload videos of your own to share with the world. If applied to my library website I would encourage students to build a video library of videos that they could use as references for exams and quizzes.

Thing 19: Social Networking

Social networking is a hobby and time consuming task sometimes. I am a member of FaceBook with around 180 friends though I only talk to about 3 of them during a week if that. One site that appealed to my interests was IMDB a movie site dedicated to critics and movie lovers alike. Teacher Pop is only I believe is best suited to my career as a teacher, since I will need to ask and to borrow ideas for my unit plans from someone.

Thing 17: Bookmarking

With the vasts of information floating around in cyberspace it is no wonder why people struggle to find the right source they need. Bookmarking is a great way of cutting back on endless internet surfing for a simple answer to everyday problem. Bookmarking services like Delicious utilize a system of site tagging to pin-point precision.

I could use this tool of tagging to lead students to resources for extra lesson material and projects. The best part of this tool is that I can be on any computer anywhere there is internet service bookmarking sites of interests for myself and my students. Teacher should use sites like Delicious to help provide additional resource for lesson plans for their fellow educators and provide comments on the usefulness and relevance of each resource to the various subject areas of education.

Thing 16: Web 2.0 Organizing

Technology can be a bad thing if we become too dependent on it. Web 2.0 tools serve a nice way of keeping ourselves on track with current events in the form of calenders, new feeds, and personal webpage tools. However, when we begin to rely on to-do lists than we have reached a problem.

Using a personalized homepage helps insure that I have your necessary tools at your disposal may it calenders, weather apps, and even quick e-mail access to help limit waste of time for myself and that is why I use one myself. Calenders are useful for me since they contain my daily schedule events me and remind me of any important dates for a week or month. I am not that irresponsible to rely on a to-do list for I have a brain. If you need a virtual to-do list then you probably suffer from Alzheimer's. Also the time to make a to-do list is a complete wasted since you could have already completed the task in the same amount of time it took you to write it down.

Of all the tools I evaluated Zamzar is the most impressive. The ability to convert files to alternative formats is a most for those seeking to use a document on a different computer without the same supporting software such as the various versions of Microsoft Word. I would use this software to insure that multiple versions of lesson material is able to sent to my students so they can study without fighting warnings of software incompatibility.  

Thing 15: Wikis

Wikis are a strange and interesting. I am familiar with Wikipedia.org and Wikipedia.com that allow users to add and edit information on postings from individual users. Posting into a Wiki myself was a weird and annoying. The image that I wanted to add refused to appear once I saved it and return the view page, strange.

Wikis used for an educational purpose are not too bad of an idea. I could assign students to work in groups researching, post, and editing each others' information in order to educate the class over a selected topic in a jig-saw activity.

The most interesting and most worrying concern of my mine is the possible misinformation people post on Wikis intentionally or not. As the internet is renowned for spam and "flaming" acts, it is not hard to imagine the possible dangers a Wiki could posse to the reputation of people.

Thing 14: Minds Maps

Organizing one's ideas is not only time consuming, but take a toll on one's mental state. Web tools like Bubbl.us help alleviate stress and saves one time in having to debate how to design and construct a project or lead class lessons. Unlike flowcharts that portray ideas in chronological order, mind charts visually display key concepts and their each own extending branches of related ideas. That is the reason I prefer Bubbl.us over Flowchart.com

I really enjoy the Bubbl.us mind chart organizer because it allows me to create a visual representation of my thoughts and ideas in preparation for class projects and class discussions. It also allows me to tweak and develop my ideas further than the traditional outlining method used in the constructing of unit and lesson plans.