Thing 14

I know that I am posting out of order............but I have gone through many of the things and just not been able to cpmplete my post when I did them.

About delicious.......not using it. Not that I do not find it useful, but I have personal issues with yahoo. Someone led me to diig through another post, and I have found that I am comfortable using that. It even has a area of their site dedicated to teachers. I have found many interesting items on there already. I have bookmarked several things to search and explore over the summer. I have plenty of things to work on this summer to help improve my overall tech skills. Now, just to actually get through them all, and take care of my usual summer chores. I am hoping that as I come back in the fall, I am ready to head into classes with a new found skill area to use with my students. I think this will be most interesting as I co-teach in my English class. We have enough difficulty getting through to our lower level English students. Maybe an infusion of technology, as well as, the other new things we have in the wings will get the students interested and engage them more in their personal learning process. Now, on to see how some of these other things will be useful to me......and those I co teach with.

Thing 17

Ok.....I cannot get the question to copy in here.....how un-techie is that. Am I reverting backward or just having a bad day........we shall see. I went through the sites in 17. Those were some new ones that I had never heard of, but a couple that are similar to others that I have used. I have used webspiration with my students for writing/concept mapping, etc. What I love about that site is it lets the students move from the concept map to an outline....therefore making it easier to turn what is in the outline into an actual paper. Last year, my co-teacher and I used it for a major assignment with our students and we were pleasantly surprised by how much better their papers were. I also looked through remember the milk. I have the out of milk app on my android phone and the online version. I have only been using it for a short amount of time, but love it. The idea of library thing is great. I was just talking to my husband about a similar type of application, online or on my phone. I haven't been able to find one I like that I can access both ways, and does exactly what I want it to do. I will be looking at everyone else's post on this topic to find ideas about similar things that others have found out there.

Thing 11

What do you like / dislike about leaving comments? How did you feel when you received your first comment? Why do you think commenting is so important in online communities? What might this mean for students who share their writing online?

The idea of leaving comments is not new to me. It is something that I do on facebook, so it isn't really all that different. The thing that bothers me about leaving any comments, anywhere, is that it is hard for people to get some things through comments. Things like humor, sarcasm, and other emotions are sometimes hard for people to convey in comments, or others to pick up on. I think that receiving comments is helpful, because good comments can help you look at things in a different light/from a different perspective.

Thing 13

So delicious.......and bookmark/tagging! Hmmm?! I love bookmarking and the idea of a way to better organize sites that I want to return to through tags, etc. I think that it would make my life so much easier. It would also make sense to have it be public because then I could allow my fellow teachers to have access, but I could possibly also allow my students to have access to the information. This would allow them to access information that may help them when they are attempting to do homework, study, etc. at home. It would likely be helpful to parents also. So many times I hear from parents that they have difficulty helping their student because the information is nothing they can recall from their high school days. If parents can access the information, they may be better able to help their student. School work/homework could then be a more collaborative process. Ok.........my issue with delicious; it is run through yahoo. I recently had my yahoo account highjacked and it has caused issues for many people who were sent emails because they were a yahoo contact of mine. So, I would love more information on any other possible site out there that is like delicious, because my trust with yahoo has been broken.

Thing 9

Ok....I know that I am posting out of order, but several days sitting in jury duty has thrown me out of wack. I have done parts of 5-8 but have not completed them in order to post on them. You Tube is something that I access and use regularly. Commenting on You Tube is very easy. I am surprised by how much I enjoy you tube. I enjoy it for several reasons. I like looking back at old tv episodes and commercials. I also like many of things that I can lead my students to on the site. Educationally speaking, one of the biggest areas that I use it for is math. I have found that it is very easy to type a specific area of math into the search engine and find numerous videos that show how to do specific types of math problems. My niece is doing virtual high school and has contacted me several times for help with her math. I have been able to help her using You Tube videos. We can both watch several videos on the type of problem that she is having an issue with, then if she is having trouble, I can help guide her from my house, using the information in the videos. Through an open chat between the two of us, and using You Tube we have gotten her through several math areas. I have also told my students about using this to help them at home. I know that some of them have done that. Their responses to me have been very positive about the experience. My biggest issue with the site is how they let students post things like fights that have happened. I have seen how it causes social issues within schools, because within minutes of a fight happening, it can go "viral". That viral video always seems to bring the issue into the school social setting and creates larger issues. Other than that, I think that You Tube is a great site that has a vast array of ways that it can impact the classroom and education in a positive way.

Thing 5

I am trying to search and subscribe to some blogs. I have found several blogs that are of interest to me in one of my favorite areas......writing. Of the several blogs that I have found that I like, I still cannot figure out how to add them to my blog library/rss. I can add them to my facebook page....YEAH! But, that is not really where I want all of that information going. I love that I am finding so much information that I am interested in. Now if I can just get it to this place where it is easier for me to read and keep up with. As I said before, I will keep plugging along. Maybe by the end of this course, I will actually get it.

Thing 4 The RSS

Ok.....I like the idea of the RSS. However, I am afraid that I will get overloaded. My favorites list on my three different email accounts is already too much for me to handle. I also have had trouble figuring out how to find where the stuff is to read that I have subscribed to. Sometimes when I get on, I have no trouble finding it. Other times I have no idea what I am doing. So, like the rest of this techie stuff............I will live and learn. I know that it will come with time. It wasn't that long ago that I could not text or IM, and I just came to that realization. Onward I go.

How do I feel about blogs

I definitely liked looking at the different blogs out there and seeing the information available. I have a few concerns about blogs. My biggest concern is security. Not just for my students, but for myself also. I have family members who are in a huge mess/fight because they have had their identity stolen, and I have seen what can happen to people. These family members are not even computer/internet users, at all. So I worry about exposing myself and my students. My other concern is availability. I know that students have different levels of access to the computer and internet. I have students who have phones with everything all the way down to students who have no phone or internet access outside of school, unless they go to the library. So I worry that students will not have equal access, therefore hurting those students who cannot get the access that the other students can. I can easily see already how the children from homes where their exposure is limited seem far behind those where it is not. My other issue, is for my own children. While I do not mind them spending some time on the computer/i-pod/video games, etc., I am not comfortable letting them spend hours on end electronically tethered to the world. When they are, they are not outside moving, they are sendentary.......and tend to want to move from the computer straight to the tv. I also feel that it inhibits their interactions with people on a one-to-one level. Having a back ground in Speech and Language Pathology, I know how easy it is for one to loose social communication skills. My son already has some issues in those areas, and I do not let him spend a ton of time on the computer, etc. The more time he spends absorbed in these things, the less time he spends interacting with others, which will only further inhibit his growth. I think as time goes on, and everyone has more equal access, I will likely feel better about some of it. I will always be vigilant though with my children. I feel that I have to provide them access to the technology so they can function in this world, but my job, first and foremost is to protect them.

The beginning

Why am I doing 23 things? I am trying it for the second time. I tried last year and got lost early into the program, and gave up. My technical guru husband finds it frustrating that I cannot do much in the way of taking care of myself in this digital age. So I am here to learn. I am learning for myself, so that I am a better teacher and parent, as I also help my children with their school work. I am here as a Special Educator, looking for ways to make life easier for my students who have difficulties with learning. I am here as a person, because I hate feeling left out. Every day, I feel like there are huge chunks of the world just passing me by because I do not know what they are talking about. As I reflect on what it is that is passing me by, I have come to realize that it is technology. It is about time I catch up before I am lost and have no way to find my way out.