Thing 23 What a Ride!!!

      Seems like only yesterday that Dino introduced us to a concept called "23 things" and I must admit I thought it would be easy.  Boy was I wrong.  It was a lot harder and took a lot more time than I thought it would.  Some things were easy to do, others took a lot more time, but all of the challenges were great.  I learned that the web has so much more than just moodles and google.  I even learned many new things that google has to offer.I am now Linkedin, have been Ninged, Wiki-ed, and Widget-ed and have yet to figure where all of these names have come from.

     I envy my many colleagues who have such a flair for writing.  I really enjoyed reading their blogs. Their creativity surprised and delighted me, some made me laugh out loud so hard that my husband kept asking me what I was doing.  I think he doubted I was actually doing homework!  I want to thank the entire tech team for challenging us and helping us along the way.  It proved to be a greater challenge than I had ever anticipated.  But I am so glad that I stuck with it and finished all 23 things!!!

     I have started a page to remind me of my favorite challenges. I particularly liked developing a "prezi"  and can't wait to try another.  Another favorite that I will definitely use again is tonebee because love having a different tone for special callers on my phone. Finding a new source of pictures using Flickr will be a huge bonus for my students and myself.  I am going to experiment with podcasting this summer to hopefully use with a student (Who leaves for an extended amount of time) next year.  I would still like to have grade 8 use voice thread about their multigenre topics and hope to start this in May.  My eyes have been opened to the vast array of tools that are out there just waiting to be used.  Now there is truly no reason for any topics to be boring again--with all of the different ways to present the material!  Just when you think you have learned something new...something else comes along.

Thing 22--Our Choice and Wow what Choices there are!

We are almost done with this project and now we get to choose which Web 2.0 element to use....I thought wow this will be a simple one.  Little did I realize that there are 68 pages on just one site alone.  Now what to choose...After about an hour of checking many very interesting sites I found one that I could really use---www.ToneBee.com.  It is a site that allows you to cut a song that you already have in your library to ringtone length for your phone for NO charge.  It is a great tool for those of us who do not have internet connectivity on our phones.  It allows you to make your own ringtones from your own music.  Using www.Zamzar.com to convert my iTunes to mp3 format I now have a vast selection of ringtones to choose from.  I must admit for many of you this would not be a big deal, but for one who loves music and hates the programed ring tones on her phone, this site was made for ME!  Now if I can just find my computer size reader that holds my phone card I will have a ringtone for almost everyone!!!  I am still thinking of possible uses in the classroom, and it might also work for student photostory projects where short bursts of music might be needed, but I am sure we can come up with somewhere to use this very easy to use site.

Thing 21 Twitter,Tweets and Retweets?

Sure sounds like Spring is here with all of those Tweets!! I signed up for a twitter account several years ago, and would receive these emails that people were following me...several from our parents. I kept thinking why? And what was I suppose to say? and when was I suppose to do this? I do not have phone capabilities, and forget to even check my twitter account. So I started once again. There were several tweets from people I had never heard of, and I think they were directed at someone else, or least I hope they are. I deleted their comments and noticed that I can follow many other people. I am not sure when I will have time for this, but it is an interesting tool.

A Prezi for my Students!

I can not get my prezi to embed but if you follow the link it seems to work.  It took some time to figure it out, but I think the students woould get a kick out of trying it.  Some I'm sure will make us dizzy watching it, but many will do a great job with it.

mollusca on Prezi

Thing 20 and Slideshare

Here is a slideshare that I found about society in 2010.

Digital’s Emerging Role In Unconsumption

View more presentations from Resource Interactive.

I had a hard time finding ones specifically for science from the slideshare site. I have used a wonderful site that I found last year that has PowerPoint slideshows that have been used by teachers. The stie can be found at: http://www.pppst.com/science.html

Thing 19 Podcasts....Going where no man has gone before....so say the guys from the Naked Scientists

I had already downloaded some podcasts for my iTouch and listen to them when ever I find myself in a wifi free site. One of may favorites are the two guys from England who do a podcast for the BBC called the Naked Scientists. Their British humor comes through in every episode. I enjoy listening to them, but my students have a harder time keeping focused when there is nothing to watch. Ted is another one that I like to listen to occasionally.  Sometimes I will listen to podcasts when I am driving as there are no other distractions to interfere.  I have found that many on iTunes seem to be more entertaining to listen to, but maybe they are just the ones I am downloading.  

When thinking of how this could be used in school I have come up with a couple of ideas.  Students could use podcasting to explain different concepts possibly to students in other classes or in different sections.  Students love to record and hear themselves, so why not use it to learn or educate others. The students could also use podcasting to help themselves learn a concept better, because when you have to teach it to othersyou must really understand the concept yourself.

Thing 18 - Make your own Wiki

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki...I set up a wiki for grade 8 to use on their electricity project. Each project has a page to talk about, but I am not sure how they will use them. I am thinking that a moodle page might work better. So I am going to rethink how I could use a wiki. I wish that we had better access to the computers so that we did not have to reserve them for an hour when we might only need them for ten minutes or so. Some students have their own computers at home, but many share computers with other family members and do not have access all the time. Some have iPod phones or other phones with web access that they could possibly use, but it puts some students at a disadvantage to those who don't have one. Does anyone have an idea of how I can use a wiki with the 8th grade?

The Machine is Us/ing Us Dance version from Wooster College

Web 2.0 in the Middle School Classroom

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Web 2.0 in the Middle School Classroom

View more presentations from Erica Roberts.