The End or The Beginning

Well we have come to the end of our incredible technological journey, and I'm about to sign off. But before I go I was asked to answer a few questions.

Here we go, one last time *tears*

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
  I absolutely loved the Animoto and the Mashups! They were lots of fun and not even the slightest bit difficult.

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?
  To be honest, it hasn't. But that is ONLY because you were already preaching to the choir. I absolutely love learning and always have! I will just keep on keeping on, but I thank you all for the encouragement to keep learning. I shant be discouraged by becoming complacent in my knowledge :)

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
  I was surprised to learn that I am not as technologically deficient as I had previously thought. Oh, don't get me wrong--I'm still pretty bad. But I have gained some confidence that I can learn to use technology with just a tad bit of practice.

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
  I found this program to be too general. It would be nice to have more specific grade level oriented classes.

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?

   I will thankfully be more capable at utilizing technological resources. However, only when    apprrpiate. To be honest I beleive that when it comes to a literature class the novels come first. you must read them. It simply will not do to replace the novel in my classroom.

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.

       I will be keeping up with my RSS feeds! It's just so gosh darn simple how could I not?

That's all for this semsester! Keep up the good work everyone!

Happy Blogging,

Adriana Victoria <3

Thing #23

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

Well folks, here we go Thing #23!

For this final Thing I was asked to find a Thing on the APSU 23Things blog that proved that information had been borrowed from another website. As I began to scroll down, it wasn't long before I came back across Thing #21. Right below the activity it says;

(originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)

Thing #22

Livebinders are a great tool and I love the idea behind them. I love having all of my information and resources stored in a way that is accessible from nearly anywhere.I would use a tool like this to allow my students to have unlimited access to the resources inside the binders. They could review material on their own time and even practice concepts. I really do think this is a great idea. However, I hate this site. No offense to the site makers, and I certainly do not wish to start up a large brouhaha. However, I have tried to create a nice binder but I am unable to view or navigate it in an efficient and effective manner.

I must say it is quite disappointing. But, it is likely that this is simply not my forte and not at all the fault of anyone else.

If I did possess the needed prowess to create functional binders I would Have them labeled efficiently. As an English major I find a lot of useful resources that I need to keep organized. Because of the wealth of information out there I would categorize my binders according to:

1. Grammar
2. Language and Devices
3. Literature and Genre

I think these would be a good start to collecting numerous resources but also keeping them separate and easy to locate. Also I would implement the use of tags.

If you would still like to see my failed attempt at making a binder the link is posted below.

Better Luck Next Time!

Language and Grammar

Thing #21

I absolutely love love love Animoto! Really this site is awesome! It took me all of 2 minutes to make a 30 second video. I decided to use a series of photos of my friends and put it to a Christmas theme and it came out great!
To create a 30 second video it is absolutely free, and I think everybody should go ahead and give it a try. It's a lot of fun, and if you don't like the first video you can just click "remix" and the site will do all the work for you. It's that easy!

Check out my video below and leave comments!

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Thing #20

"Ohhhh Yooo-Whooo!" Just kidding. What I meant to say was "Ohhhh Youtube!"

Well I'd be highly surprised if you didn't know what youtube is. I often refer to it as "thebomb.com" because where else can I watch senseless videos that waste my brain's space in such an amusing manner. But, as is always the subject for this blog, how can I apply this site to education?


Well......there a probably a million and a half tutorials on youtube and a lot of them are pretty gosh darn good. So, students could definitely search for videos to help them in nearly any subject area. The only thing I really can't stand about youtube is shoddy work. You know what I'm talking about, when the picture is all pixilated and it looks like video game graphics from the 70's. But I really do love youtube, and when I first saw the subject for this blog I immediately thought of the perfect video. So go ahead and take a looksy!

"Besides it's absolutely free!"

Thing #19

So, this time I around I will give you my take on online communities.

An online community is similar to social networking, but it has a very specific purpose or topic. For instance TeacherPop! is a community of teachers and future teachers on the web. I am now a member of this community, and I think it's pretty great. You can post questions and start discussions that other members can comment on. It's an excellent way for people with similar interests and concerns to communicate and learn from each other.

I also investigated the Bake Space community and now that my tummy is rumbling I know that I will be back to learn more and hopefully gain about 69 pounds from eating delicious goodness.

I highly recommend you guys check out these sites or go find some that interest you. They're a lot of fun, and with Christmas Break coming up you're bound to have more free time on your hands.

Leave a comment & let me know what you find!

Thing #18

I was probably one of the last of my friends to join Facebook my senior year of high school. This is because I hate change and am honestly kinda lazy and technology has long since been my nemesis. But I trudge on through these blogs and find that while I do not succeed every time, it's nice to be gaining a better technological foundation.

So as far a social networking goes, I am on facebook but am fortunate enough to not be addicted to it. However, my facebook is purely social and therefore private and I will not have it implicated in this educational blog. I do however have a twitter account because of this class and you may view my profile at the following link Adriana's Twitter. While I have never posted a single tweet, I do see the potential to use this social networking site in the classroom. It is important that teachers know how to relate to their students and incorporate the things that students are already using to help facilitate learning. Teachers can use twitter to search for educational feeds to help them gain insights on what other teachers are doing elsewhere. They can converse and follow each other and ultimately become more knowledgeable educators if they use the site properly.

I didn't really learn anything this time around because I already knew how the sites work. I prefer facebook for social reasons--socially twitter is just an easy way for stalkers to know your every move. As far as educational purposes go, I think twitter has the upper hand. It is much more legitimate when it comes to easily locating true sources that interest you. Facebook tends to have a lot of pages that are not what they pretend to be in this respect. But then again, what do I know? So you tell me! Because I admit that I am an extremely biased party in this debate :)