Thing 14

Delicious is incredible. I love spending time and looking up sites, tagging them for future use. It appears to me that you get much better web sites than oing through a regular search engine. At first I was confused about the term social bookmarking. I now fully understand how social fits into the term. You can go in and check others bookmarks. I actually spent so much time on this assignment. I got caught up in all the incredible web sites and the vast amounts of information out there. This could be addictive. I found a lot of information for school but a great deal on my hobbies as well. I just used my email address for my username. mhutch3865@woway.com.

Thing 13

Who thinks up all these terms? Blogs, wikkis, tags, mashups? It is a whole new language. Right now trying to remember what each is without looking it up is tough. I get blogs because this is our reporting mechanism for this class. I think tagging will be wonderful. I can't tell you how many sites I have listed as favorites and then I wonder what I wanted them for. The other down side of the favorites is when you lose your hard drive and you lose all of your favs. It will be nice to put them on a web site to keep track of them. I am looking forward to spending some time on delicious and tagging away.

Thing 12

I put a gadget on my blog. I now see where people find some of the pictures I get from emails about cute animals etc. Where do people find the time to search all of this stuff? I could literally spend hours doing this. I found one of the sites I get recipes from that could be a gadget as well. I did the rainbow pictures to keep my OZ theme going.
I know that many students use facebook and social networking sites. I also understand that I am from the "old school" but I do have a facebook account. I think young people need to be very careful about what they post. I don't think they realize how far these pictures they post can go. I am all for sharing pictures but when they display pictures of themselves doing illegal or inappropriate activites I think they have crossed the line. I also realize that what is over the line to me doesn't even phase many of our youth. Honestly, when I read some of the comments people post on facebook, I often think to myslef, why would I care that you just took a shower or you just finished doing your laundry. I guess I have too many papers to grade and school related things to do to post my every action. I do think you lose a great deal of personal interaction with web communication. I like to read people's expressions or listen to their tone of voice and that can be easily mistaken online. Okay, I'll stop rambling and move on to Thing 13.....

Thoughts about Thing 11

Reading and commenting on classmates blogs was fun.  I feel very inept at making comments on these blogs that involve web 2.0.  I can make comments but I don't feel like I have enough knowledg or experience to help too many people.  I am learning and I loved seeing what others have done.  It is amazing to me how different they all look.  I guess that is what makes blogging so interesting.
Off to learn about widgits....      

Thing 10

This was a great "Thing" to learn. I have always wanted to know how to download video clips for class.  As I was searching on YouTube, I found several really good clips to use in my class.  I also searched teacher tube but I must admit that I found the ads on teacher tube most annoying.  I am really enjoying learning all these new techniques.  I have asked my grown sons several questions about what I am doing and they keep saying, "Mom, I've never done that before."  Now that could be that they don't want to help me but I don't think that is the case.  I am enjoying this so much.

Thing 10 (video embedded)

This is a great video on Piaget's Stages of  Development. 



This is a video clip that I would definitely use in my class that I currently teach.  The music is well done and I think students would watch it. 

Thing 9

Well, thing 9 proved to be quite entertaining.  I watched Carol Burnett clips for quite awhile.  I did find some wonderful clips on types of children's play that will be great to use in class.  Would also be a good assignment for students to find educational clips as part of an assignment.  I often get emails from people that are linked to a utube video but haven't really spent time searching utube or teacher tube until now.  This could be habit forming.  Very nice tool for my technology tool box. 

Thing 8

Thing 8 has been interesting and challenging.  I have created some awesome projects.  I made a motivational poster but did not post on my blog because I would have to pay or join to improve the resolution.  I made a sign using Flick speller, and played memory and suduko.  I also made a collage but I can't get it to upload.  I think the file may be too large.  I can see many uses for some of these creative tools.  Memory games for the preschool children would be great.  Assignments can be made for making posters or you can even beautify your classroom.  I am gong to move on to thing 9 and hopefully will be able to come back and upload one of my creations. 

Thing #7

I have spent a good part of my day on this thing. I loved the idea of searching for pictures and loading them on my flickr account. However, I have had a terrible time trying to upload my personal photos. Photos I have searched on flickr have uploaded fairly quickly. I went into upload my personal photos and it takes forever and then I get an error message. Not sure why, but it has been most frustrating. Finally uploaded five successfuly so I could tag one for 23 Things and then it didn't show up. I will look later to see if it successfully loaded to RESA 23. I absolutely enjoy learning new things but when I run into snags such as this, I get so frustrated. I think it would be a neat thing to do with a class, but I am having a difficult time figuring out how to incorporate it into my particular content area. I am going to try uploading pictures on a different computer and see if it is quicker. On to Thing 8.....

Photos of interest to me

I chose these two photos to upload in keeping with my theme, Thoughts from Oz. I was born and lived the majority of my life in Kansas. My family moved to Michigan in 1995. I have always loved watching the movie, "The Wizard of Oz" and since I am a Michigan transplant, my attachment to Oz has given me an identity. The really ironic thing about all of this is my mother's name is Dorothy and no I 've never had a dog named, Totto. This was a very fun assignment from 23 Things. I spent a great deal of time looking at pictures. I did find when I did the Creative Commons Licensing option it limited the number of pictures you could use. I enjoyed perusing the pictures. The thought of storing my photos there is a good idea. I always worry that I am going to lose all of them if something happens to the computer hard drive. I have burned many of them on disks, but that can be a hassle as well. I think this is another great tool for students to use for power points or their own blogs.

Thing 4

Well RSS is an interesting addition to my knowledge bank. I like being able to click on and check the blogs I want to follow without looking them up each time. Seems like an efficient tool. I can see how this would help organize student blogs you might want to follow. I can't believe how many blogs are out there!!!! WOW