Thing #24

Wow, it's the end! Learning about Web 2.0 and the many tools available to educators has been very enlightening! My favorite tools include Animoto, various social networks, GrammarBase, Google Drive, Google Scholar, YouTube, and the PDF and file converter. I can see myself using them in my classroom for actual lessons rather than simply for fun and classroom decor. Not saying lessons can't be fun, but you know what I mean. :) Keeping this blog has made me realize how much technology has taken over the education field. I'm not saying it's a bad thing but we are far beyond blackboards, dry erase boards, and that old school overhead projector machines (remembering the ink getting all over my hand as a lefty I will not miss those!). As far as the sites where students would need their own log-ins such as Edmodo, I hope to keep those at a minimum. Someone I know whose daughter is in middle school has NUMEROUS log-ins for different subjects. I would hope in the future teachers would collaborate and use the same portal where all subjects are in one tight-knit area. Sort of like D2L. ;) Our students are growing up with this technology and it's up to us as educators to stay on top of the latest and continue learning and growing through training and various professional development.

Thing #23

I'm still shocked that I never knew about Creative Commons before this class. I know when I was keeping a blog when I homeschooled, I would do an image search and grab a picture to go with whatever I was talking about. Sometimes I would link back to it and sometimes I wouldn't. I know that's not a good thing. Although in my defense I never claimed a picture to be my own, but I know now that doesn't make any difference. As I'm typing this, something came to mind. A few years ago I took this amazing picture of my daughter face to face (there was glass between them) with a polar bear at the Memphis Zoo. It's precious and one of my favorite things. I was so excited that I threw it up on my homeschool blog. Unfortunately I never thought to copyright it and a year or so ago I saw some random person had it on Pinterest. I know they weren't necessarily claiming it to be their own, because if you see a cute picture on Pinterest you tend to just save it. I reckon I should look into copyrighting it, but I don't know what the statute of limitations is on it or if there is one? Moving on... The one example I saw that the 23 Things was based on someone else's work was the following note at the bottom of the page: Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006). The idea itself was based on this website, but it was tweaked enough to be different that it didn't no infringe on anyone's original work or idea. The 23 Things is also similar enough to the 43 Things that a note such was this was necessary.

Thing #22

Secondary ELA

Truth be told I did not care for LiveBinders. Maybe after seeing all the other bookmarking sites and learning about RSS feeds, I don't feel like I have room in my life at this point for another such site. I didn't really care for the layout and it didn't seem the most user friendly. I like the idea of it being a browser within a browser, so you don't have to worry about opening a link under a different tab so on and so forth.

Thing #21

I really enjoyed using Animoto and it was so easy!! What a great tool to use to compact your memories into one entity. I tried making the video on my very old computer that still has Windows XP (Ha!) and that didn't work too well, but it went smooth as silk on a Mac. I used a bunch of pics of my girls from 2011 when we lived in Memphis. Wow! I forgot all about a lot of these! :) I can see myself using this more for personal than teaching, but if I did use it professionally it would be good to put a bunch of pics together from the school year and maybe email it out for students to have. A virtual scrapbook if you will.

Thing #20

Like any red-blooded American, I love YouTube! I am a big stand up comedy fan, so I enjoy watching and listening to my favorite comics.  I also listen to my favorite songs and create playlists without having to purchase music. If I do this on my phone then I most definitely have to make sure I am connected to WiFi, because I have more than once been charged for going over my data. ;)

I've seen firsthand the frustrations teachers can have with YouTube regarding the firewall most school systems have on the computers.  If they are able to access YouTube they have to do their best to bypass the inappropriate ads.  Thank goodness for TeacherTube! Not only is it appropriate for schools (obviously) What personally drives me crazy about YouTube is that is appears that most people are only trying to get their 15 minutes of fame by making a video that can possibly go viral or becoming the next famous pop star (a la Justin Bieber) rather than posting quality videos for the sake of sharing them with the public. Although I am fully appreciative of touching videos posted on YouTube that have gone viral.  This one above is of a woman whose mother is suffering from Alzheimer's and she catches on video a moment when her mother recognizes her.  Try to watch it and not tear up.

Thing #19

As far as other social networking sites, I mentioned in my previous post that I'm also on Instagram. My username is bobbi_jo1015. I like that you can sign up to have it post to other social networking sites at the same time such as Facebook and Twitter. As far as the list on the 23 Things blog, I didn't care for the food sites like Open Source Food and Tasty Kitchen. I belong to enough food and baking blogs as it is. :) For the film sites, I am already a fan of IMDB. I always enjoyed looking up my favorite movies and reading the random trivia. I had also heard of Yelp before, but never checked it going. Click around I rather enjoyed it. You can review different restaurants and businesses on Yahoo which I've done several times, but I like the look of Yelp but better. I signed up immediately (you can find me here ). My boyfriend and I typically don't like to eat at the same place more than once so I could keep up with the different places we come across. :)

Thing #18

I have had Facebook for about five years. Obviously we all consider Facebook a great way to keep in touch with people who live far away and reunite, in a manner of speaking, with those we have lost touch with years ago. I'm able to keep up with relatives I haven't seen since I was a kid and I have stumbled across a couple of childhood friends which has been wonderful. It's a bit of a joke that no one will go to high school reunion anymore because we all have Facebook and we know who got fat. Ha! Thankfully over the past five years I have been smart and I know for a fact that anything I have put on Facebook would not question my integrity as a prospective educator. A couple of teachers I work with have created Facebook pages primarily for their students. It's a great way to post reminders about homework and any links that may be of interest to them. It's also fun to share photos of recent school events where students could also tag themselves if they so desire. As far as simply photo sharing, Instagram is a great one as well since that is a very popular app most people have on their smartphone. I signed up for Twitter several months ago and truth be told I never really got into it. I already had Facebook and, frankly, I wasn't in the mood to keep up with another social media account. My handle on Twitter is @bjcaulfield82, and you will find there's not much there. I thought I would sign up a while back to see what all the fuss is about, and I reckoned it would have been fun to follow various celebrities I'm a fan of. At the end of the day though it just seems to be another social networking sight to keep up with. On occasion it would be a good thing to use if you want to keep followers up to date in real time, and I've see Twitter used just for that. For my future classroom I see myself more using Facebook and Instagram than I would Twitter.