Is it the end or only the beginning?!

This is only the beginning for me and my use of technology! In all honesty I had a lot of fun with the 23 things this semester. I enjoyed using Flickr and YouTube, but by far my favorite learning activity has been creating this blog as a whole. I have enjoyed the writing process and discovering new technologies to use in my future classroom. I cannot wait to discover other fun ways to incorporate these exercises to my teaching, and my own personal learning as I myself continue in my education. I am surprised at how much I learned about programs and technologies that I did not even know existed. I thought I was pretty technologically savvy, but now I realize that I only knew it at surface level. I do not think that there is anything that needs improvement, because I think that everything is explained well and is very informative. I have found it very useful to keep updated with the RSS feeds that I have decided to follow. I am ecstatic to jump into the process of teaching with all of the tools that I have been given, and I will definitely teach my students as much about technology as possible. My resolution is to write a new post on my blog once every two weeks. Just to stay updated with everything, and to keep delving into the world that is technology. This experience has been a great and exciting journey.

Thing 23!!!!!!!

Yes! Finally, I am on my thing 23! Our Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog was originally an idea based off of this link http://misd23things.blogspot.com/2008/05/about-learning-20-23-things.html
I found this information under the blog post titled About Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers.

Creative Commons is an amazing resource to have as a future educator. In the future I will be checking on this website for resources that I know I am allowed to use, and the proper credit that I must pay them in order to use them. This is a source that I will teach my future students about so that they too can do the right thing and give credit where it is due. It is important to learn from an early age that it is wrong to play off someone else's ideas as your own.

Thing 22 :) Almost there!!

Livebinders is an amazing organizational tool that helps organize tools, websites, and sources into one consolidated place. I love this website, because it is like having an actual binder without having to carry it around or keep up with it over a period of time. I made three binders one for my educational technology. In this binder I placed links to sites that we have been using like Diigo, Livetext, and Austin Peay. In the second binder, I titled it Sped 3000, I placed resources and informational sites that will help me with my Special Education research paper on visual impairments. The last binder, I included a link, I entitled Educational Sources and Sites for Teaching. In this you will see that I have tabs for different links. One for teachers, and the other a tab that has sites for the students. In the future I would love to have binders for the classes I teach and keep up with important documents, and helpful resources over the years.

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=372063

Thing 21! :) My Animoto Video

I love projects that involve saving memories! This website is not only a great personal attribute, but is also an educational tool that can be used in classrooms. I could make videos about what ever subject I am teaching and have each student look at them. This website was extremely user friendly, and I might even purchase a better membership, because I really liked the way it worked. Here is a video of some photos that I have taken this past year.

My Animoto Video

Thing 20 :) YouTube!!

I love YouTube, and I am one of the biggest fans and supporters for it. It is a great web source where one can find anything from the latest music videos, news clips, t.v.shows, and even educational videos. I love watching music videos on a playlist while I am studying, and the little commerecials are not even that bad to sit through. All in all I think that it is an amazing source if varying information, and can be useful in the classroom. I am posting this video by Julian Smith, because although it is not educational, it is commical. I felt as though all of us could use a laugh this close to finals. I hope you enjoy!

Thing 19!

Social networks are expanding and growing more everyday. Almost everday there is something new that comes out for social networking. Whether it be through updates on Facebook or Twitter, or new sites like Pinterest. Social Networking is by far the most popular form of technology use as of today. I myself am not a fan of Facebook, so I do not have one, but I do know that everyone always looks surprised when I say that I don't have one. Although I am not a fan of Facebook, I am an active member of the Pinterest community, and I have slowly become addicted. Pinterest is a place to find things that interest you in categories and when you find something you like you re-pin it and add it to your boards. I love the idea of Pinterest because I have found so many cute ideas for crafts and projects that I can use a future educator. As for teacher pop, it was fun to comment and post on, and I think it is a neat way to communicate between fellow teachers.

Thing 18- Let's Tweet!!

Twitter has grown into a social media force to be reckoned with! At this point it is almost at equal popularity with Facebook, if not it has surpassed it. Twitter and Facebook are forms of social media that most educators at the beginning were skeptical about using for educational purposes. It is understandable because the main purpose in creating these sites to begin with was for interacting with friends and staying connected with what is going on in their lives. Although these are some uses and although they can have negative effects like cyber bullying, they can also be educational and useful technology for the classroom. I did not really learn anything new with Twitter, I have had one before but got rid of it. I was not enjoying it as much as others, but I can also the educational things that come from it. I think that Facebook definitely offers more features, but that Twitter is more educational. They can both be used as tools to keep parents informed on what is going on in the classroom, but also as tools for finding educational resources.
@ShelbzRogers is my username!

thing 17 !

Bookmarking makes it easy to find things when you need to save them for a later time, or when you are in the middle of researching and are working on finding articles and outside information over a period of time instead of one setting. Well, the site Delicious has been created to help us all with this problem. Through the site you can join for free, and make an account. Through this account you can search for anything in particular and the information will pop up in order of most relevant. Along with each source are the tags that show what words were related to your search. When searching educational technology in Delicious most of the tags were the same. Some were science, education, technology, research, and resources. Plus, you can see comments left by other users on the relevance of the resource and whether or not it was helpful. I think that this is a resource that I would tell my students they could use on their own time, but no one in the classroom. It is something that I myself will definitely be using in the future.

Thing 16!

Customizing a home page never really seemed interesting to me, until I learned of the different benefits and tools that iGoogle had to offer. It is intriguing to me that I can set up one page that has everything that is geared right towards the user. I can add my favorite music groups and other interests, and add widgets or tools that I know I will use. From now on every time I get on the Internet I am not just brought to a generic home page that has useless information, but instead I can go to straight to things that are of interest to me. This could be a useful tool for computers in the classroom because I know exactly what my students will see when they open up the Internet on the homepage.
The use of calenders and to-do lists through these applications and widgets will be extremely beneficial to me as a future educator, because I can give the parents and students fun and creative calenders and check lists to keep them up to date on what is going on in the classroom, and also when assignments are due.  I recommend exploring all of the above tools, because they are all great and useful!

Wiki thing 15!!

Oh Wiki! I am glad that now I finally know how to describe a wiki, and what it actually means. I have heard of wikipedia before, but most of the time it is in a negative light. This activity has shown me many postive aspects of having wikis and how they can be useful in the classroom. I had a blast adding things to the Apsu 23 Things Sandbox page, and just enjoyed being able to play around with different aspects of the web.
I think that wikis could be useful in the classroom. I could set up a wiki that had links for the parents to follow, and that also allowed them to add links to other tools and information that they though might be useful in the classroom. It would be a creative way to get the parents involved.

Thing 14! Yay!

I love the process of brainstorming! I find it a time to just relax with no pressure and think of any ideas for a project or subject that I can think of. I have realized that for me it is easier to do the brainstorming process with visuals because it helps me make my ideas flow easier. Another benefit for doing this process is that it makes life easier when you move through the next phases of the project. In essence, it helps you stay organized and keep everything in order. This is a huge plus for me, because I tend to get side tracked sometimes.
I created an account for both Bubbl.us and for Flowchart.com . Honestly, I loved both sites! They were both completely user friendly, and neither one of them cost anything. In my opinion they are both pretty much the same thing, the only difference I feel is how they are presented. I am actually in the process of writing a ten page paper for another class this semester and I am using these sites to help me organize my thoughts as to how my ideas connect. So far, it has been extremely helpful.
As for future use in the classroom, I will most certainly be letting my students know about helpful tools like this. If they are good at brainstorming the rest will follow. I could use this to show them helpful example as well. All in all, a great experience on Thing 14!

Thing 13 :)

Back to blogging I go! Wow first off when comparing the two resources, I hands down prefer Google Docs to Zoho. Although Zoho seemed to have more applications to offer, many of them were not free and they also were not user friendly. It took me way too long just to simply follow the dierections given in our 23 things instructions, so by the time I finished that part of the assignment I was mentally exhausted and done. Google Docs will be a great collaboration tool to use for students when they do classroom group projects, because it allows them to all work on the same document without having to be together at the same time. So they can collaborate at different times from different places. It is a really neat tool to use. I made this to show the different subjects that are in the standard I choose for my project.

Thing 12 :) Google is more than just searching?!

Wow, I had no idea that Google was an official verb in the dictionary! Well I can see why now. Google has so much to offer on top of being the number one search engine. I was amazed at all the unique tools that it offered to it's users. I used the Google alerts as my first choice. It is a tool that sends you alerts about whatever you type into a search bar for it to find information on. For example I did Vanderbilt basketball, because I am a huge Vandy fan! With this alert system set up, once a week they will email me all of the top news stories that talk about Vanderbilt's basketball team. The second option I chose was to use iGoogle. I loved the fact that I could make my homepage so adorable and have it set to bring up things that interest me. These two options are something that everyone should try, and could be useful in the classroom. The alerts I could use as an educator to keep me up to date on things going on in our community, or even on new legislation that is being passed for education. As for using iGoogle, I could use it to have my homepage set on the classroom computers, so that I know what the students will see every time they open up the web. All of the tools that Google offers are useful, and I look forward to exploring them further.

Thing 11!

RSS feeds are so easy to use, sometimes it is just hard finding ones that I really want to keep getting updates from. Well, thing 11 really helped with that problem. I used google reader's subscribe search to find feeds that I wanted to follow, but I also used the award winners list to find some that I thought were interesting. I thought that both techniques were user friendly and both were beneficial. I like Technoarti the best. I feel like it was straight forward and offered a good variety of feeds to follow. I do not think that either method was confusing. Pretty much everything on here has been user friendly, so it has all been smooth sailing. I really like the Cool Cat Teachers Blog. I love her posts about new technology and their uses in the classroom. I really did not find any unusual ones to follow, but I am sure I will run into some at on point. As far as finding other ways to locate feeds, I am not sure I found any other way. I probably will just use the ways that I learned through this activity.

Thing 10 :)

Rss and newsreaders are super helpful when it comes to following websites and other blogs. Instead of having to look at each individual website you can subscribe to each and connect it all through Google reader. By doing this all their updates are shown on one page and you can look at only things that you specificaly want. This is so awesome becuase I do not have to individually lookup things myself. It takes less time. This new techonlogy will be useful in the classroom because if I set up a blog I can link other helpful resources for parents to it as well.

Thing # 9!

http://www.imagechef.com/

This was a really fun blog activity to do! I never knew that all these generators were out here, and how helpful and creative they could be. I choose to create one for Valentines day because it is this week. I did the picture of the beach because summer is the best time to go, and I wish I could be there now! These generators are so user friendly, and can add creativity and personality to anything. This tools would be great to add fun things to any school website and even a classroom blog. I would like to start using them personally in emails to friends and family to just add some spunk and thought into it, and to let them know I was thinking about them.

Crowded Much! Thing #8

Crowded Much!, a photo by Shelby Rose :) on Flickr.

Thing 8!
Wow if I was not already frustrated, I think this did me in. I am having a hard time stting up all of these accounts for everything and trying to connect them all to share information and pictures with eachother. Once I figured it out the rest of the process was not too hard. This picture is from a conference I went to in early January of this year. There were over 40,000 people there! It was such an amazing experience. I choose to use the puzzle app because I thought it had great symbolism for what the picture means to me. This conference helped me piece together different things in my life, so I thought this was fitting. Haha I think I just made a puzzle joke! I would definately think that there are many opportunities to use these applications in the classroom. You could make puzzels for projects or different learning activites, but this is also a great way to make personal things for friends and family. I think that sharing pictures is great as long as you do so with responsibility.

Flickr Thing # 7 :)

I love taking pictures and viewing other people's pictures as well. So, I pretty much loved this assignment! I am so amazed at what new sites come out, and all that you can do with them. I have heard about flickr before, but I never have seen it or really understood what it did. I posted a photo of the Library here at Austin Peay because I pretty much feel like I live here. I took this photo while actually working on this assignment. It was not too hard figuring out how to upload the picture, I simply just had to read the instructions many times and follow them closely. I think that Flickr is actually a very user friendly website, because it has many links and tips to help users get started. I have never used any other photo sharing sites, so I do not really have anything to compare to. I feel safe having my pictures in public, becuase if it is something I do not want others seeing I simply just will not put it on there. I feel like it's as simple as that. Also, I can always put my sharing settings on private to avoid the issue of something happening.

As of now I will use Flickr as more of a personal place to upload photos and share them, but I could try and think of some ways to incorporate it into the classroom. Like maybe having the students find a picture that they feel describes themselves and post it and tell everyone why they choose this photo to describe themselves. Something along those lines, so that it could be educational .

LIbrary Time!

photo.JPG, a photo by Shelby Rose :) on Flickr.

Grooveshark Thing 6 :)

Honestly music is my life, so finding new technology that helps me have music more during the day is awesome! I have always heard about Pandora and other online music sources where you can create a station around a particular artist or song, but I have never seen one like GrooveShark. It is amazing! You can pick any song you want, meaning that unlike Pandora, you can create the exact play list you want with no interruptions of songs you don't like and no commercials. I loved the idea of being able to save them for later so you can just pick up where you left off last. I could definately see a use for this in the classroom. It is a proven fact that classical or lyrical music stimulates thinking in the brain and creates a good learning and thinking atmosphere. I think that with Grooveshark you could have it playing ligthly in the background to help create such an environment while the students are reading or working on homework or even taking a test. You can create a specific playlist just for the classroom and not have to worry about commercials or inappropriate songs coming on. You are controling what they specifically hear. I advise you all to check it out at http://grooveshark.com !!! Your ears will be amazed and so will your mind.

School 2.0

So basically we need to get ahead of technology and use it for our advancing eduaction instead of lettign it hold us back. The internet, or the web is it is called, has stepped up it's importance by going from a place to simply just look-up information to a place where people all over the world are communicating with one another and they are creating information to share with everyone. So it has gone from being a spectator sport to being on the field and interacting. To me web 2.0 is an amazing aspect that we as future educators must get on board. So, what is school 2.0 you might ask. Well in my opinion it is taking all of the ideas from web 2.0 with social networking and collaborations tools, and using them in our classrooms or even for the students to use at home. It is simply to integrate the technology we are given to expand the students' knowledge, input, and interaction with the world around them. It means that schools in the future cannot be afraid to use techonology to their advantage. If it fails then learn form the mistake and move on, but we have to at least try or else we will never know. All of the articles I read completely back up the importance of web 2.0 and how education needs to get on board.

Oh Comments

Blogs are made for communication and interaction. The vital function of the blog is that people from all over the world can communicate ideas and opinions from different cities, states, and countries. This interaction creates a sense of unity and intimacy between the blogger and his or her followers and this interaction centers around commenting.

One of the key ideas I learned about commenting was on Cool Cat Teacher’s blog, and it was simply the fact that by commenting on an important idea or fact you are casting your vote. That it is raising a flag saying that this is an important piece of information to notice, and that by commenting on it you are drawing attention to the subject. I think that this is an amazing aspect to remember because everyone’s opinion should be heard. The other blog I read about commenting was 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog. The idea I liked the most was tip number 4, it stated that you should interact with the comments that are posted on your blog. By doing this, you are helping create that closeness to your followers and you are making them feel important to the process.

For our class I chose to follow Kayla Satterly’s 23 Things ksatterly, Shannah Youngs’s 23 things, Darryl Haislip’s CourtofHaislip, Erin Beifuss’s Mrs. Beifuss, and Rebecca Sloffer’s Sloffer: Education 3040-01. I selected to follow Kayla because she has so many great ideas on how to incorporate what we learn through this experience to our future as a teacher in the classroom. I commented on hers to let her know how much I appreciated her ideas and the new concepts she brought to light. As for Shannah I thought she had a great way of stating her information. I commented on hers because I was intrigued by the idea that blogs could be so much help to an ELL student. Darryl’s blog is so much fun to read, and honestly that’s one of the main reasons I want to follow him. In all of the blogs that have been made I definitely enjoy his as one of the best. I love the way his has personality and character and how the words seem to come to life. I commented on his blog to tell him to keep up the good work, because I was really looking forward to what he had to say next. Erin’s blog was precious and I loved the way it was set-up! It has so much life and character in the formatting that I do not know who would not want to read it! I commented on hers because I loved the way she brought a personal touch and because we had a lot in common. Finally I chose to follow Rebecca because I feel like she has so much to offer. She had personality, spunk, and great information. I commented on hers to let her know that I loved how she brought a new side to the touchy subject of social networks.

For my two other blogs I decided to follow You Shall Know the Truth at http://passionateforchrist12.blogspot.com/2012/01/worship-and-leading.html, and also to follow The Teacher Wife at theteacherwife.blogspot.com. I followed the first one because I am passionate about my faith in Christ and I lead worship at a few local gatherings. This blog had great tips and reminders about how to be a great leader, and I commented on the fact that I loved how the tips really brought it back to the main focus, worship.  I chose the second blog because she seemed like just an ordinary woman living her life as both a teacher and a wife, and I loved the different ideas she had to offer. I commented on hers just to tell her how much I loved her ideas.

Thing Three :)

       So if making the blog was hard, at least the registering process was not too complicated. All I had to do was click the link and fill out the form! Easy as pie! This was mostly due to the fact that I paid attention to the directions the first time.

       Blogs are a growing part the internet today, technology, and can be of great assistance in keeping the parents updated on what is going on in their child’s classroom. I will definitely try my best to use a blog when I become a teacher. I think that it would be a great place for the parents to view a calendar about the upcoming month’s activities, ask questions, and even read stories about how the students are participating in the learning process. It would also be a great way to get parents involved with each other. If one parent wanted to start a book club or something for all of the students and parents to join, the blog would be a great place to let others know about it. Also, it is a fantastic way to get comments back from the parents on what they think of certain things.

       I say that technology is growing and changing and we need to use the instruments given to us to make a way for a stronger education system and classroom. So with that, why not use a blog?

Thing Two!!! Oh My Blog :)

I would say oh my goodness but now I have decided “Oh my Blog!” is a better phrase. I have had a blog set-up before for updates on when I was in and out of the hospital, but honestly my mom did all of the work so this was a completely new experience for me. I got frustrated really quickly because technology is not always my friend. When I was making my blog I did not really want to use my full name for the title so I just went simple and titled it 23 things SRogers. I did this out of the fact that srogers is the first part of my email and is the easiest thing for me to remember and for others to recognize.

Like I said technology is not my friend so setting up my blog was not easy for me. I would miss read the directions or simply not understand so I would have to restart from the beginning. What did make it easier was when someone from the class offered to help me. Once they walked me through it, I found the whole process easy.

My avatar looks pretty similar to my lifelike appearance. When I made it I tried to just stick to the basics and my favorite colors. Other than that I did not really go into a lot of detail. I wanted to stick more towards how I really look because I don’t really want to change myself.

Thing One :)

       After I watched the video about the seven and ½ habits of successful lifelong learning it took me a few minutes to think about whether or not I actually used those habits. Turns out that I did not realize how much work should be put in to being a skillful learner. I was always the student who went to class, took notes, did my homework, and that was about the extent of my habits. I always took advanced courses but never really had a hard time in any of them. I recognize now why that was true. I always had a system for accomplishing tasks and staying on track, and I definitely always had a plan to get ahead so that I would never fall behind.

       For me, I would say that habit 2 was easiest to me. Like I said, I took responsibility to have systems and get ahead. I hated when people thought the teacher was supposed to do everything for them. Part of learning is to go outside of the assignments and learn things for oneself.  Learning is work and work takes diligence and practice. This is where my faults lie. I am the world’s worst about all work and no fun when it comes to my own learning style. I am great about having fun for others when they are learning, but when I am doing something myself I have no time for play. Habit 7 and ½ was something I never allowed myself to have. I realize now that I must make time for play or else I will overexert myself and have a hard time keeping up the pace.

       This video was eye opening and will be of great use to all of us as future educators. These habits are something that not only can we instill in ourselves but in our future students. Such habits will deem useful for strengthening our mind and learning.