Thing 23 - Final Blog

Overall the web 2.0 course was fun. Some of the tools were great some not so good. Voicethread and podcasting was hard to me. Some of the things could be used in middle and high, but not elementary. You could modifiy alot. It would take alot of time to find things for elementary students. Some of these tools would be great for Special Ed. kids. I know I will use some alot. I like the idea of doing presentations and slideshows and then e-mailing these to a teacher. Getting feedback and then making corrections. The student can do these with me at school, alot less homework and I know the assignment will be on time. I like google reader, getting all the resources and them being in one place. I can find these quickly.
My next step, is to keep up with all my new e-mail addresses, some how. Thank you Mrs. OBannon, for this great learning experience.

Post 22 - 2 web 2.0 sites

You gave us some great sites. I chose http://www.creately.com This could be used for the students do do diagrams to use in writing. The students could draw a picture and write about it. No more drawing their own diagrams. You could e-mail this to another teacher for their approval, if doing inclusion. I also chose http://www.rockyou.com The student could use this for presentation. In third grade the students have to do a timeline of their life. This would be great to let them do this on. You could then share it with the teacher, then she could put it up on the smartboard.

Post 5d

What a great resource to teach the Civil War! This shows animated movement of armies displayed on a map. This is better than pointing to a map and say this is where it happened. There are captions describing the strategies of the armies and results and even the consequences of each battle. This would be great to start a discussion. A great supplement to classroom instructions.

Post 21 - Pageflakes

I like setting up my pageflakes. I like everything on one page (links to my other accounts.) I plan on using it as a daily reminder of my meetings and to look up my schedule, cause sometimes I get asked to cover other classrooms, and I forget that I am somewhere else at the time. I can use this as a weather up-date so the kids can decide if the temperature is good for playing outside. If I need a rescource fast I can bookmark and find it fast. Research will be faster, because I can bookmark my favorite places. I enjoy (myself) seeing what time it is in other countries. So, I will use pageflakes often.

Here is my page link: http://www.pageflakes.com/default.aspx

Thing 19- Podcasting

My podcasting experience was easy/hard. Once I figured this out and get use to using it, then I would share with my students. My students are hands on and just listening to a lecture would not work. I know using a podcast would put feelings to there stories and they would enjoy hearing their voice on the computer. I would use podcasting in my classroom to do presentations, study guides and language arts and writing projects.

Thing 18 - Podcast

Podcasting can be used successfully in the classroom. I never knew what this was till I took this course. If the student is doing homework and forgets how to do it the way the teacher taught it, they can pull this up as a refresher. I pulled up the by students, Ms. Edmision's weekly podcast. English/Reading - Grammar Girl's Quick Tips, Health Fitness Rocks. I found the Math folder to be very helpful.

Thing 17 - Plurk

My first impressions of classroom 2.0 was good. I found some very useful things. I really like to explore new things. It may not be a "Facebook" but its a Plurk. Yea! I could use ning as an electronic pen pal to teach writing. In microblogging a teacher can get every student involved, even those who are shy. I can see microblogging used in middle, high and college, but would be hard in elementary schools.

Post 16 - Social Networking

I don't have a "Facebook" or "MySpace" page yet. But I need to join the 21st century and beyond. I wonder if doing social networking takes away from actually talking to people. Oh Well!! Using it in the educational world can be good. You can actually communicate with teachers in other school districts, or other states. They may have resources that I don't have. Having a PLN just to use as an educational resource would be good and very useful.

Thing 15 - Google Document

I have learned so much about Google Doc. I can see it being used in our classroon alot. We can keep track of how many books each kid reads on the spreadsheets. We can even do an About Me for them. I really saw no disadvantages to Google Doc.

Post 5c

I found a great link in my google reader.http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/how-to-enable-google-earth-flight.html It's a built-in flight simulator for fly over tours. This could be put on a smartboard for the whole class to see. When world news happens finding the place and showing the place means more. Its also a good, fun way to explore geography and topography of the earth. What a great teaching tool.

Post 14 - Youtube Experience

I enjoying using Youtube. When I see something on the news I love to go on Youtube and watch more. Youtube also lets us see things that happens overseas more clearly. You get to see both sides, not just one. It is not censored, so we get the real stuff. Teachertube is incorporating the everyday use of educational ways in a broader picture.

Thing 13 - Voicethreads

I have never experienced voicethreads. I can add their voice to their presentations. I can let them read to me and then let their parents (if have an account) pull it up from home. This will let the parents see the improvement of their child. There is so much you can do with voicethreads.

Thing 12

I chose to experiment with http://polldaddy.com/. This will let my students do their own polls and enjoy getting the results. I also chose to do http://doingtext.com. This would be great for taking notes and editing them. Projects could be done on this. The students could do book reports, and we could do proof-reading and corrections at the same time.

Thing 5b

I checked my Google Reader this morning (7-13-09). I loved the article on "What They Said and What They Mean!" This was on Sotomayor confirmation hearings. She is a strong lady. I like what she said about family, her journey to get there, and her love for her country. I wish her well.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl508/

Thing 12: My Slideshow Experience

I really enjoyed creating my own slideshow. I chose to do mine on weather. In 3rd grade science, we study weather. When my kids do a project, since using the computer is alot better than writing, we are able to do a slideshow. It's alot quicker and alot easier. I can do a slideshow
on our fieldtrips and field day activities. I am really looking forward to doing this.

Clouds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotair2112/235805526/
Tornado: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp/46791089/
Rain: http://www.flickr.com/photos/almaz73/1815415291/
Lightening: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steven-young/2347564270/
Fog: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rutty/354366312/
Snow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/druclimb/387715047/

Post 10

Using Flickr was easy and fun. Seeing all the pictures you could choose from. Getting it from Flickr to my blog was easier than I expected. I chose to do Georgia because we have to learn about it in 3rd grade S.S. Some other educational uses of Flickr would be: story telling, slideshows, presentations, where illustrations are needed, visual documentation, and to teach vocabulary.

Thing 9

Reading up on Creative Commons or CC, was very interersting. We need to keep all this in mind when we ask our students to download things for reports and or slideshows. I know music can make a slideshow more realistic but is it legal! We should teach our students the proper way to do this. I didn't know ccMixer existed. I will be more aware of this from now on, just by finding out myself.

Post 7

WIKI-WIKI! I like this site.After I learned what a wiki was, I enjoyed looking at all the different ones. This first one I chose was http://gowest.wikispaces.com this was very well organized and good content. They used visual maps. I liked the way the contents flowed together. The only thing I would do to improve is to provide more details at the beginning.

The second one was http://kcountingbook.wetpaint.com this was very well orgainzed and visual learning was good. I liked using different objects for each number. Sometimes kids get bored looking at the same thing. If I could improve one thing, it would be to add a caption below each picture.

The last one I chose was http://wiki.woodward.edu/hannalee/doku.php?id=hannalee this was a great job. The contents were great. Organization was great. I love the links explaining the historical background of the book and what the objects were.

There are numerous ways to use wiki in the classroom. In inclusion, my students do alot of timelines. Taking notes is awful. My students could go here and print off notes, so that no writing is done. Making vocabulary lists would be soo easy. Some others are catch up on missed work, FAQ on current units, virtual library and study guides.

Post 6

Diigo to me was very hard to understand and tagging was hard to figure out. But I made it. LOL
It was fun to find new things. I can use this professionaly by printing off things that they can use and to be able to get there quickly. I love to publish things for them and there is alot on there to do. My Diigo bookmarks link is: http://www.diigo.com/profile/dixiebeagle. I hope the rest of this class goes a lot smoother.

Post 5A

When I sat up my Google Reader, it made checking alot more easy. I can acutally check all my post at once. I love keeping up with my new friends on blogger. Also, finding new things I can use in my helping my inclusion children. Finding new things other people have tried and maybe incorporating them with my kids. People out there have the same problems I do, doing inclusion. I agree with the person who wrote about how regular education teachers need to take a course on how to deal with special ed. students.

post 5a

post 3

I read a blog entitled "An Admission". This is so true!! Our children today are "sharing" their families personal "stuff" with all their friends on the internet, examples such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Children who tell personal news sometimes tell too much. Parents should have complete control of what the kids are telling. When phones are used, we as parents, have a better chance of listening to their conversations.

The article asked the question, "What is a friend?" Parents and children have different definitions of this word. What if a "friend" disowns you and they use this information against you and the family?

I agree with the writer about this helping them get closer to their students. Alot of time, we get to know their families and homelife. Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes a bad thing.
We,as educators, can get too "close". Yes, it helps us on why this child is not learning, or having a bad day, but sometimes it is best not to know.

http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/21290

thing 2

The genre of blog writing in general is very wide spread and very truthful. Some comments are funny and the others can hurt the writers feelings. Some are very short and direct and others are very drawn out. Most blogs are different subjects and you are not tied down to one specific topic. You are achieving the common goal of READING! You are reaching a larger span of people. The old and the young. It is similar because the kids are reading and writing. Commenting is expressing your views and also lending support to people who need it. Yes, there is a blogging literacy. If I were to read a teenagers blog, I bet I could not tell you 1/2 of what it means. Blogging affects the way we read and write, we read more for understanding and we tend to watch what we write. Also, blogging sometimes lets our full emotions come out. The kids are more likely to post on a blog than to write on paper. They are more happy to read on the computer than in a book.

thing1-b

The web 2.0 is not for everyone. Students who have computer knowledge are lucky and those who do not are going to be the kids left behind. What happens to those students who need a hard copy to study from? There are plenty of visual learners out in the world today. What happens to those kids whose computers crash and all information is lost and your paper is due tomorrow? If we do not keep up with todays technology we the educators will be left behind, also. We can use these tools to overlap in certain subjects and kids in todays society are more out to use computers instead of learning how to hunt information in libraries. It has a lot of benefits but there is a lot of downfall to it to. Electronics are taking over, what did we before them!!!!

thing1-a

My name is Deborah Wilson. I am a special ed. parapro at Yargo Elementary School in Barrow County. This is my 15th year in special ed. I have been with the same teacher for this long and she has been terrific. This past year I have been doing inclusion in grades 3 and 4. I have been amazed at how the regular ed. classes and the special ed. classes have become one. I am taking this course in order to gain more knowledge from the different people out there who may have different ideas. I hope to gain understanding on how this blogging works and how to make better use of the computer.