So for this thing I needed to reflect back on the entire list of all 23 Things.  I have learned so much, maybe even too much.  Some of this was overwhelming as I didn’t know about most things that we were experimenting with, but once I had gone through the “things” some was a bit clearer for me.  I have found some thigns I will definitely be using in the future, while I have also found some that I will definitely not be using in the future.  To this point I still do not understand the whole thing with the creative commons and pictures, but I do like FlickR.  I am planning on starting a blog in my class and hopefully over time I will be able to jazz up using all the various tools I have aquired in this course.  Podcasting may even be somethign I choose to incorporate.  I am not a complete fan of it, but think it could be a neat tool to inegrate into my class.   I also liked finding videos on YouTube to ehlp enrich my lessons on various subjects.  It is nice to present material in different ways in order to reach all learners.  I have enjoyed having my eyes opened during this course to all the technology that is out there and now just have to start to implement it more into my daily routines!

           Classroom 2.0:

I think this is a great resource that I will use whenever the spare time arrives.  It seems as though you could spend hours on this site and whatever you wanted help with, somewhere out there someone will help you.  I have realized how many people are out there and are doing some really neat things with technology and their classrooms and it inspires me to want to try more and more to incorportate technology within my own class.  It seems like no matter how “stupid” or “crazy” my question is, someone will be able to answer it for me!

            As for Twitter —- I AM NOT A FAN!  I think it is a crazy thing these days.  As if peopel facebooking and staus updating isn’t enough, now you can update every second using twitter.  My husband recently decided to check it out, thank goodness it was just a check out and slowly was an abandoned cause!  I can see how in a class setting it would be useful, but maybe not until more of a college or upper highschool level.  I think it would be great to have a page and have students comment on a certain topic, but then again why not just use a blog?  I personally think Twitter is just a little too much…!

For this week’s Google Reader post i had one that really caught my eye about the Kindle. I have been debating for months about getting an e-reader.  I think I have finally decided on getting the new Kindle.  My birthday is coming up, so it seems like it would make a perfect gift.  The price isn’t too high and seems like it would be a great fit for me.  My question is at what point will children stop buying books and switch to the e-readers?  This is still def. a new piece of technology, but I would assume that at some point this will be the norm and books will bethought to be antiquated by the younger generations.  That being said, I will still by certain books in print because I will want to hold on them for one reason or another.  It seems like it will be similar to the casette:cd relationship or even the vhs:dvd relationship.  For now I hope to be a Kindle user by the end of the month!

So I know that we don’t have to create a pageflakes page, but I did take awhile to look at samples and explore.  I don’t understand exactly why I would want to use this instead of just creating a blog or a wiki?  I just don’t get it!

I know that is a lame thing to say, but it’s true!  Blogs and wikis make sense to me and this just did not.  Maybe if I would have created my very own, my viewpoint would be different, but at this point it’s not.

This week had us experiment and play around in Google Docs.  I worked with Kimsey and Missy and made a schedule for our first week back to school.  We are able to view and give input as well as make it more fun.  We created a table and slotted in the set meetings and then the time we have to just work.  We then added some images and links and colors.  We had to change the page setup and margins as well.  I really like using Google Docs for some things, but not everything.  I think one way we could use this is for our weekly newsletter.  Rather than always sending e-mails and attachments we could just make modifications through Google Docs.  Another thing I think having lesson plans created in Google Docs would be great so that you can collaborate on your teams’ plans each day/week.  I also think that for myself I could use Google Docs to keep track of things that I like to do at school, but also work on at home.  This way I don’t have to mess with saving and attaching all the time, but can access the various documents anywhere!  You can also use this with your class in a similar manner to this course.  Maybe for a big project, they have to check off once they have completed each step along the way.  My biggest complaint is that there are only a small amount of fonts to use….!

   So when I first saw this Thing about YouTube I was actually excited, because I acttually know how to use it.  But I have to admit that I NEVER search on it.  I always watch videos that other people send to me.  I am jsut never the sender, but the sendee. 

          When I started searchign for How To’s I had a great time.  I finally decided to search for “How to Survive,” just to see what popped up.  I had alien attacks, bear attacks, knife attacks, without ac, and the list went on.  I was amazed at what people actually post.  I then search for the 50 states as that is something we spend quite a lot of time on in 4th grade.  There are so many videos and I never even thought about looking here.  Here is one I found on 50 Nifty, It is the song, but it even has lyrics and is in a video, which is always eye-catching to students….50 Nifty United States  Some other great ones are the clips from Schoolhouse Rock.  There are so many out there for grammar, social studies, and even math!  A favorite of mine is David After the Dentist.  Each time I watch it I always laugh!!

         As for TeacherTube…I didn’t like this!  I was so overwhelmed with all the ads that I had trouble determining where I should even begin my searching.  I am sure there are some great things out there, but I feel more comfortable with YouTube and realized how much on YouTube can actually be applied to my class itself.  I just have to search and check out the videos as some are not completely on target as they may claim.

         I do plan on using more YouTube videos in class, as I was able to find a ton out there without spending a great deal of time searching.  I can only imagine what I could find if I spent more time and knew what I was really looking for!

Here comes my podcast….don’t listen (i don’t like myself recorded)!

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Okay, so because I told you not to listen, you probably did.  I do think that podcasting is neat and I mgiht try to incorporate it in my class.  Maybe by having my sutdents record a podcast for a story they write or even if they did something in drama class.  I am not completely comfortable with it, so I would have to work on my end first before introducing it to my class.  I do think it is easy to just record, but as for the adding effects…I am not quite there yet!  I feel as though I am inundated by all this techie stuff and am slowly able to process and sort through.  This has now been officially added to my list of thigns to attempt to work with.

I don’t think podcasting is for me…well at least not yet…

It seems like a great tool to have and be able to use, but for me it also seems like another thing to have to keep up with.  I have enough trouble keeping up with my own things and my Google Reader on top of that.  Now to have to also keep up with checking my podcast collection just seems to be overload for me.  I do thin it is a neat tool.  I subscribed to YouTube and to one about learning Hebrew.  The language one is so hard because it is all audio — yikes!  The YouTube one is just entertaining.  I guess I just need to continue to explore and be more open minded to just give podcasting a fair chance!

This thing is so much fun!!! I love to read and I always forget what books I have read.  I have even admittedly bought the same book twice and started reading it, only to find out about 20 pages in that I have read it before.  This would be great to keep track.  I also liked the piece with reviews.  I just finished a book and when I looked at the reviews, it was interesting to see what other people thought.  One group that stood out to me was the Name that Book group.  There are so  many times that I can tell you everything about a book, but just can’t remember what the book actually is.  This would solve my

problems!

Mmm Mmm Good!  This site really is delicious!  To go to my bookmarks please click HERE!

I like the idea of this because it makes it so easy to find the site I want even if I am not sitting at my computer.  I always look for new things at home, and e-mail the links to myself to then open at school.  This way I can search a site at home and then have easy access to it at school.  It doesn’t matter what computer I use, so it just makes life a bit simpler.  I am all about simplicity, so this is right up my alley.  I will definately 100% use Delicious in school on a daily basis.