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 :)

Thing #17

Now we enter the realm of social bookmarking. Don't know what I'm talking about? Don't fret, Dear Readers. It is oh so simple. Social bookmarking is this awesome tool that keeps users updated on the latest news articles or websites that they find interesting. We used to add cool websites to our "favorites" lists on our computers, and we soon saw how quickly that mess got out of hand. Now we can sign up for a website such as Delicious and begin bookmarking websites from any computer and accessing those bookmarks from anywhere! The bookmarks are brilliantly organized by tags. Next other site users can search for tags and come across your bookmarks. This results in a social networking aspect that allows users to follow each other and stay connected on what other users are finding interesting.

I enjoyed making my Delicious account and do plan to use it for fun, but I can definitely see the obvious uses for education. Teachers can share their insights and websites from virtually anywhere. You can see things from a different perspective from a different school system. Teachers can set up an account and bookmark websites that students can browse through as a review tutorial before major tests and exams--thus eliminating the use of class time to go over material that not all students need to reexamine. I think it's actually pretty awesome. And if I can use it, you can too!

Thing #16

This Thing is all about ways to stay organized--which is something I could honestly use both as a student, an employee, and even as a member of my own family. Really, my sister is ridiculously active in high school, and I never know when her events take place. She and I should both start using these super awesome tools on a regular basis.

I decided to go with Pageflakes and was not at all disappointed! I have never used an online tool like this before in my life, so let that be a testament to how easy it really is (If you've been reading a long you already know how hard this technology mayhem is for me). The first thing I did was set up the weather feature because I feel like knowing the weather is either gonna make or break your day. No question about it. You ever have a crappy day because you didn't know that it was going to be 30 degrees in the morning and 80 in the afternoon. Yea, sweating is not cool. And don't get me started on the "to bring an umbrella or not" debate. Weather is important, it is a must have feature. Along with current news relevant to your area. Next I decided to get to organizing myself and create the calendar. WONDERFUL experience! I put in little notes, events, and reminders. It was amazing, and then I linked up my email because I always forget to check my emails and miss out on cool stuff all the time. Overall, it's a really great tool that I absolutely love. My only problem is that I think I will eventually get too busy to keep up with it. I mean, I have all these features built into my smartphone, and I never seem to have the dedication to update my stuff even though my phone is always withing 5 feet of me.

Nonetheless, these online calendars are a wonderful tool that I will simply have to make myself use. As a student I know how easy it is to get off track and how teachers work themselves into a tizzy trying to figure out how to correct the now void calendar/syllabus. Having an online calendar is so much easier to edit! You don't have to scribble things out, you just edit them to suit your needs and go on about your life. It's a great time saver and is so useful.  If you do not already use a tool of this sort please go check some out and find what works best for you! Let me know how it goes!

Thing #15

Wiki wiki wiki! That is NOT only the sound a DJ makes when making the club "jump". It is also a very interesting tool used for education. The idea behind wikis, made famous or infamous by Wikipedia, is that users can review, edit, add, or retract information from the wiki. This results in a huge collaborative project which can be incredibly helpful to users wishing to gain insight and perspective. The problem is that incredibly rude people like to post incorrect information as a joke, and some people just plain don't know what they're talking about and unknowingly post crappy information. Thus the dilemma! My advice is to be careful and double check sources.

The wiki I used APSU 23Things Sandbox allows students in Education 3040 classes to showcase their previous blog posts. You have to sign up, but once you do you can just dive right in. I, along with many others, used my Thing #8 post because I think it's cool and has pretty pictures. It's okay to be a little vain when showcasing educational tools! Overall it was a lot of fun, and I can see future students using wikis as a sort of forum. It can be taken as an assignment grade, and every student would have to post an idea or opinion on the current novel being read in class. I would certainly give them all guidelines to help keep them on track, but it could easily be tweaked into a lively discussion board!

What do you think? List your ideas and whatnot below!

Thing #14

This time around I explored flowcharts and mindmaps. Both of these are really great tools that can be used in the classroom to increase learning and participation. For example, flowcharts can be used to clarify directs or as a checklist to complete a project (or even the writing process?). Mindmaps on the other hand is just glorified brainstorming. But, I kind of love it. It's a lot more fun than scribbling on a piece of paper trying to decide on a topic. I have to write a proposal for my English 1100 class this semester and I decided to kill two birds with one stone and begin brainstorming.

Students can do the same thing when hashing out their ideas before writing their papers. I created this one using bubbl.us. I found the site to be really enjoyable and easy to use. In just a few minutes I was using keystrokes to create new bubbles and saving myself loads of time. I chose this site because I was interested in the mindmap concept and getting to know it better. It was fabulous and I highly recommend you all check it out.

Leave your comments!

Thing #13

Ohhhhhh snap! Here we go again, back into the world of tools I have never heard of before this post. What's on today's menu? "Zoho" and "Google Documents". Am I excite? Well.....um here we go. 

So, I found the Zoho website to be a pretty interesting one and it has lots of really neat apps you can use to create a plethora of different documents. For example, if you just so happen to have a hankering for getting organized you can use Zoho to make a calendar or a planner. I gave them a quick look over and found them easy to navigate and simple to use. I, however explored the writing tool in depth and let me tell you--it was super easy. It is so much like Microsoft Word that I wonder if there may be a lawsuit going on due to some copyright infringement. In any case, anyone who can operate a word document can definitely use this site. It is so comparable, and it's free so go ahead and save yourself some money. I love Microsoft Office, but it is pretty expensive. 

The Google Documents quite honestly gave me headache. I used the drawing tool and failed at every turn. Now it could have been the computer, but more than likely it was user error. With that in mind, I have heard from others that they absolutely loved this tool. So, don't let my failures sway you--in fact feel free to laugh at my atrocious drawing. It is pretty bad. I tried to create a neat poster that made school look inviting, and it looks like this school ran out of funding--further evidenced by the very shady-looking sidewalk. Nonetheless, I'm sure that students could use this tool to create fliers and other such documents for both in and out of class activities. I, on the other hand, will stick to Microsoft's Desktop Publisher.