Thing # 23- Other Social Networks

I joined Classroom 2.0 and surfed around the site a little. It's definitely a wonderful tool for networking with other teachers, not just in the US but around the world. I read one thread about a teacher in Connecticut who is looking for other classrooms to collaborate with, and a English teacher in France was highly enthusiatic about the project. There were teachers who talked about using Voice Thread in their classrooms and I just learned about it last week! This is an awesome tool! I signed up and now have a homepage.

Thing #15 Delicious!

First let me say that the URL name is kinda weird, but the concept is right on target. Just recently I discovered spellingcity.com and shared the site with my colleagues. How much easier would it have been for me just to add it to my delicious list and share? I am always adding sites to my bookmarks bar and just like the video says, it can get a little disorganized. Delicious makes it so easy to organize them. All it takes is a 2 quick clicks! I'm sold. To view my delicious bookmarks click here.
BTW, this is my dog Tootsie in her Halloween costume.

Thing 7A More Google Reader- AKA RSS Overload!!!!!

I've been following the blog Cool Cat Teacher, and she had the link to the following article on her site; Social networks and kids: How young is too young? I was surprised to see FarmVille listed as a socia networking device. I truly just think of it as a game. I don't particularly care for FarmVille, but I am totally addicted to FarmTown. lol

As much as I love technology, I don't think kids should spend hours online on social networking sights. They need to be outside playing, or engaged in some activity that challenges them mentally or physically. Leave the social networking sights to old women like me who are addicted to Farm Town!

Thing 18 You Tube and Teacher Tube

I watched a video on Curriculum Base Reader's Theatre, which talked about making Social Studies material come alive with dramatic flair. The author gives instructions on how to adapt reader's theatre to different content areas.

I am very familiar with You Tube. These days I can't imagine someone not being familiar with it. I don't think everyone realizes that there is a lot of educational content on the web. I first realized this a year ago when I was taking an Educational Technology class for my master's degree. We had to search and view several videos which explained how to create wikis, blogs, etc. and why they were so useful.

Thing 7B Google Reader

While browsing my feeds I came across an article, Educational Video Games Mix Cool With Purpose, in the NY Times about video games that have been developed to help improve and test children's critical thinking skills. These games are being used in school curriculums, in after school programs, or at home. One of the students even said he preferred these problem solving games to Halo. One of the games covers core elements of science curriculums that are being tested as part of NCLB. The students are inside a 3-D national park where the fish are dying, students must interview local interest groups, test water samples and figure out what is happening to the fish. After reading about these games, heck, I wanted to play them!

Thing #22 Social Networking

I have been using Facebook and Myspace for quite some time. Adults really don't use Myspace anymore. It's more of an elementary age social networking device now. My teenager doesn't even use Myspace anymore. I love Facebook because it gives me a way to interact and keep in touch with people that I live far from or haven't seen since high school. When I first started using Facebook, I didn't like it as much as Myspace because it wasn't as "cute." You couldn't put cool images, songs, and pictures on Facebook. Now I don't care about those things because it's more about the networking or communication.
I don't know that I could see an educational use for either of these except for communicative device. My Facebook page is set to private, but click here to see my public profile.

Thing #19- Voicethread

Again, I am just amazed at all the technology that is out there that I knew nothing about til I took this course. The Library A-Z was absolutely adorable! What a fantastic way to integrate technology into the 1st Grade curriculum. I tried to view the Multimedia Venn Diagram Voicethread. It would play, but I couldn't get sound for some reason. But I could tell that the students were comparing and contrasting the heart and the skeletal system. This is a fantastic resource that can be used for many projects; novel study culminations, writing projects, social studies activities, such as historical event comparison contrasts, etc.