Thing # 22

The titles of my LiveBinders are Literature in the classroom, Shakespeare, and Grammar in the Classroom.  
"width:75px; height:78px; background-image:url(http://www.livebinders.com/images/binder_icon_private.gif); border:0px; margin-top:4px; background-repeat: no-repeat">    <a href="http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=695757">    <img src="http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=http://www.slideshare.net/teacher_richard/creating-a-literature-rich-classroom" style="width:60px; height:60px; border:0px; padding:0px;margin:11px 0px 0px 13px;" />    </a>    </div>    <div><a href="http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=695757">Literature in The Classroom

I would use LiveBinders in my classroom as a way to allow my students access to things I think will be useful to the students. LiveBinders is a convenient way to control what the students are viewing and wont have the inherent dangers of searching on the internet.

Thing # 19

<embed wmode="opaque" src="http://static.ning.com/socialnetworkmain/widgets/index/swf/badge.swf?xn_version=124632088" FlashVars="backgroundColor=0xFFFFFF&textColor=0xFF1A45&config=http%3A%2F%2Fteacherpop.ning.com%2Fmain%2Fbadge%2FshowPlayerConfig%3Fxg_source%3Dbadge%26size%3Dmedium%26username%3D0r1q8anlsae92" width="206" height="174" bgColor="#FFFFFF" scale="noscale" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"> </embed><br /><small><a href="http://teacherpop.ning.com">Visit <em>TeacherPop</em></a></sm

The only social online communities I am apart of are a couple of special interest forums. Outside of Facebook I do not join that many communities, because I am not comfortable with talking with people I do not know in real life over the internet. Being a cook I was very interested in the food themed social networks, it is an easy way to find recipes you may want to try. It is also a way to meet like minded people that you may have more in common with than just cooking. In the future I may one day use the education centered networks, that way I can maybe find new things to try in the classroom. 

Thing # 15

I was an early user of Wikipedia, so I am very familiar with Wikis and how they work. Wikis are an easy way to catalog information  that a group can come together and edit. I could use a wiki in my classroom to catalog what is going on in the classroom and the School as a whole. I could make articles about lessons that are being taught in class.

Thing # 23

I will use Creative Commons in my classroom to make sure it is legal for me to use an intellectual property in the classroom. Being a prospective English teacher I would want to use certain I.P.'s in my classroom, but I do not want the school district to get into any legal trouble. That is why the Creative Commons licenses are important to understand and look for. It is very important, in this era of rampant litigation, to protect yourself's against any kind of copyright infraction. People who create intellectual property are very cautious on how people have access their property.

Thing # 21

<object id="vp1M8Ah1" width="432" height="243" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1354301770&f=M8Ah1El4uy1HtAWQkRPUOA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options="></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed id="vp1M8Ah1" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1354301770&f=M8Ah1El4uy1HtAWQkRPUOA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="243"></embed></object><p><a href='http://animoto.com'>Make a video</a> of your own at Animoto.</p>
Animoto was a surprisingly  easy experience. The moment i went to the site it asked me to link my Facebook account to Animoto. After I linked the two accounts it prompted me to use my Facebook library photos to make a video. I was able to select the photos and the music it then edited the video on it own. This was an easy and fun experience.

My Animoto video.

Thing # 20

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qlOfZL_J5fo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

YouTube is a great site that has an easy to use and you can find videos rather easily. The video above was the third video on the search return. However, caution must be used when exploring YouTube in the classroom because the returns can bring up something that is not appropriate for students. YouTube is best when the videos are pre-loaded before class so the students can only revives relevant information.

Thing # 18

It is important for teachers to know how to use social media because it remains an important aspect of our culture. Keeping in touch with students to see if their is any out of class problems affecting a student. Cyber bullying being a negative side of the new social media websites that can be very traumatic for a student.
I have had the privilege of living in tech savvy household and I have used theses sites since there inception and I understand there concepts.
I feel that Facebook is the most useful for teacher and there classroom, as you can set up a group on the site that you can invite the students to join.

Thing # 17

Delicious is a very good resource for organizing bookmarks for use latter. It is a good way to bookmark websites for a teacher's classroom. If the students are old enough you can set up a way for the students to share links with each other. Being an active member of Delicious is a good way to contribute to the community and make it easier for people to find relevant links. Delicious can work both in the classroom and for personal use as well. Having students look at interesting websites with relevant content to the lesson can help them learn.

Thing # 16

I have chosen iGoogle as my start page, because I have a Google account and it was easy to start an iGoogle homepage. It appealed to me because it has a wide variety of widgets I could move around and chose from. This way when I start my browsing session the first things I see are productive and relevant to what I am doing.
An online calendar can help me stay on task because I have an easy to read document of when projects are due. This way I will never be lost in the due dates for my projects.
I always have the hardest time maintaining to-do lists. They do have their uses for some people, but I just find it more trouble to maintain 
The sticky notes program was very useful for my home life. I spend a lot of time on my laptop at home and having the notes available on my computer helps me stay on task.

Thing # 14

I chose to use the mind map, bubbl.us. It is an easy to use way to categorize your thoughts when you are organizing a  project. The website allows you to make topic ideas and then you can build on those ideas with  bubbles that chain of the original topic.
I can use this program when I am writing a paper and need an easy way to organize my ideas.

Thing #7

Flickr is a very good website for finding pictures that interest you. They have it designed for you to find the kind of photo you want by using simple keywords. It is very user friendly that does not cause much frustration, even for those that are not so web savvy.

There are so many fantastic photos that can be found on flicker that can be found by using simple key words such has this photo that was taken by C...G.d'Orée*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graindor/8045010021/in/photostream

Thing #4

When bloggers comment on their peers blog it helps build an online community. It is always good to get feed back on the things you post on your blog to make your future post even better. Commenters can tell you what they like about your blog or what they don't like. Commenting also helps get your name and personality out to other bloggers, this helps form a community of like minded people. Community on the internet is very important because they can gather around a cause that you and your peers find important.


I have chosen the following blogs for the same reason; I was intrigued by their writing style and the topics they chose to right about.

http://23dlymon.blogspot.com/

http://krissyparker12.blogspot.com/

http://kathrynvanmater.blogspot.com/

http://dwitter3040.blogspot.com/

http://wyoung3780fall.blogspot.com/

http://marstwentythreethings.blogspot.com/

For my out of class blogs I chose these two because I think they have the most longevity for me as a teacher

http://thetechclassroom.com/

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/


The comments I chose to make on the blogs I have presented are chosen because the post had an idea in it that intrigued me.

Side Note- I have a seen a problem when commenting; when I hit the publish button it erases my comment and does not post it to the blog. I will continue to make comments and try to fix this problem.

Thing #13

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RU7hzEns_lbKX9sRw_dvOwTrQs3yWH2mzS2X3voqeHY/edit

Students can use the web based documents to work on a project simultaneously from the personal computers at home.  Also a teacher can check the progress of projects by logging in and having access to the documents their students are working on. I prefer the Google docs program because I have experience with Google docs and I did no fully understand Zoho.

Thing # 12

Google has come along way since the days of being a simple search engine and have many great tools that are very useful. Google translate being one of the best of these tools, it allows you to translate into all the major languages on earth. I made a translation from English to Polish here http://translate.google.com/#en/pl/I%20want%20to%20be%20an%20english%20high%20school%20teacher%20after%20I%20graduate%20college.
I also set up some alerts that are sent to my Gmail account that will be useful for me. In the classroom google alerts will be nice to have when finding new information for the classroom and Google translate offers a chance at communication among people with a language barrier.

Thing #11

When looking for blog posts it was easy for me to find thee rss feeds by using the control-find function on my computer to see if the blog had the RSS feed button.  I found the google blog search the easiest. It was very straight forward in finding the relevant post.  The technorati search engine was the most difficult for me because of how busy the website was. There were some RSS feeds I found but they were a lot of ones for personal use. I did find a useful literature review blog that is updated somewhat often. Because I am a seasoned internet user I did not find any strange feeds. RSS feeds are an easy way to stay current in the very busy universe of the internet.

Thing #10

An RSS feeder is handy for a teacher because it allows them to get articles or just general information that will be relevant for the classroom. It is an easy way to set up a way to get multiple feeds that will normally need to be found in multiple places that are set up in one easy to find location.

Thing #9

I created the images here http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

This was an easy and fun way to manipulate images. It will allow the kids in the classroom to manipulate in creative ways.

Thing #8

<iframe width="1000" height="700" frameborder="0" src="http://splashr.com/show/fire/japan/25/"></iframe>
This is a mash up I made through Splashr. It is 25 pictures that are tagged with the phrase "Japan".
Using a Flickr mash up is an easy and fun way you can have the students use a keyword that is relevant to a lesson. This program has 25 images that have form of relevance to the keyword that you choose. Sharing photos online is important so as a society we have a shared experience. I may not be able to go to exotic location but with web 2.0 photo sharing I can find images of it that can fill me with wander.

Thing #6

The site I decided to explore was https://www.dropbox.com/, it is site that lets you download their program that lets you use "cloud storage" for certain documents and programs. This is a useful program that lets you access programs from any computer or that can be shared with someone. This can be useful for a teacher to use to give a student missing work if they miss class for any reason, that way the student can stay current with the rest of the class. One fault the program has is that it can be confusing on what files are compatible with it. 

Thing #5

Based on a couple of the articles provided, Web 2.0 is very important for schools in the technology age. Over the past couple of decades computers have become more prevalent in every day life. A direct cause is that younger and younger kids have become proficient with the use of computers. Couple this with the fact schools in increasing numbers have accesses to enough computers that each of their students can use them in some fashion in the classroom. From this "School 2.0" has come into vogue. What this means to me is that a school that utilizes web 2.0 tools successively transforms itself into a school that fits in the modern internet age. As time marches on schools will need these tools to survive as more computers for students gives them unprecedented accesses to learning tools that were not available in the decades past.

Thing #3

This blog can be used as way to record my personal thoughts while I continue my college career. Here I can write about my triumphs and my failures that as a place of somewhat permanence. In the classroom I can use a blog as a way of logging classroom activities in a public forum outside of school. That way parents and students who miss can know what we did that day. The blog can help parents stay involved in what there students are learning and sick students can keep up with what is done in class so they do not fall behind.

Thing #2

I decided to use my real name for posting, because I feel the internet is much safer than it was a few years ago. The internet as moved away from the era of necessary anonymity. Setting up the blog was a very experience for me. The interface of blogger is user friendly and easy to use. I believe that my avatar represents my personality and appearance rather well. I wanted it to represent me as accurately as possible.

Thing #1

The 7 1/2 life long learning tutorial has great advice for learning through out one's life. The hardest habit for my self would be making goals and seeing them through to the end. In my life I have not actually seen much through to the final product, however it is something I am willing to work on to help myself be a better learner and among other things. The easiest habit for me would be using the technology for my advantage. My father is a IT guy and I always grew up around computers and technology. I find very easy to adapt to new technology, so I can stay on the cutting edge and continue to learn using these new tools. Want I wish to learn from using the web 2.0 is how to use what I know about the internet and turn that into a way to make my teaching more effective.