Thing 12 and 13: Discovering and using YouTube

There are so many videos on YouTube. I did a search for some educational videos and found this one by, Taylor Mali:



There are many ways to use YouTube in the classroom; however you must closely monitor students if you chose to let them use it. I would recommend the teacher using it more than the students. Teachers can search for short videos to introduce a book, topic or a video on how to do a certain task. YouTube has pretty much all the videos you can think of.

Thing 11: Web 2.0 Tools

When I went to the Web 2.0 tools website I was amazed to see how many tools there actually are 300-500! I explored GoAnimate.com. This tool lets you type in what you want two characters have a conversation. I created an animation about Constructed Response Tests:

GoAnimate.com: Constructive Response Test by Ashley Milam

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Thing 10: Online Productivity

Zoho is very similar to GoogleDocs, which I have used before. However, Zoho seems to be more user friendly and easier to use. It was very helpful to have the information section tutorial available to provide what the entire program can do. I was able to create a document but I couldn’t figure out how to publish it and upload it into my blog.

Thing 9: Playing with Wiki's

The Technology Poppers for Clasrooms is a great place for people to post their ideas for technology in the classroom and to view others ideas. I was able to go into the discussion section and type my technology idea, GoAnimate.com. GoAnimate is a neat idea that allows a student or teacher to present a little of information in a unique and different way.

Wiki's are a great resource for teachers and students. Teachers could easily set one up and have her students each post something about a topic they are discussing in class. Or a classroom could create a Wiki about a book they are reading, and as the class moves through the book students could post thing on the class Wiki. 

Thing 8: Wiki's

I had herd of the word wiki before but had never really known what they were. This tutorial helped me learn more about them. I found out that they are somewhat like a website. However anyone is able to add or delete content form it. The word wiki means, fast, which is what the wiki's are supposed to be. They allow a group of people to collaborate all of their work or ideas into one site.

The site that I found most useful for teachers was Educator wiki's. It has complied wiki's from all different types of teachers. I looked at some of the wiki's located of this page and a lot of them are technology teachers, that have compiled many web 2.o tools together to share to everyone. Some of the wiki's are teachers that have a page about there own classroom, they post videos and other classroom information for others to see.

Thing 7: Image Generator

I was very interested to try out some of these different picture generators. The first one  I looked at was Wordle. It lets you combine all sorts of words into one big picture sort of like a collage. You are able to type out a list of your own words you want it to combine or you can copy and paste in a url address of your blog and it will bring in words from your blog to combine and use for the wordle. This site would be great for the classroom. students could use this to compile words after reading a book, or create a collage using words that describe themselves. Here is my Wordle:

The next image generator I explored was glogster. A glogster is almost like an online poster board but with much more! You can add text, images, sounds, and videos to your poster. It is very user friendly and great for the classroom. A teacher could easily create a gloster to represent and tell about a book the students are about to start reading. Also, you could create a class page all together.



Thing 6: RSS and Newsreaders

Here is a link to my Blogline!

I had never herd of blogline before this. This website walked me through setting up and adding things on my blogline. Once I figured out what I was doing and how to follow sites, it was really fun! I added lots of educational websites. Some are bogs from other professionals in the education field, talking about their experiences in the classroom. Some sites are specifically for teachers and give educational websites that they have found to be helpful. I also added some news related sites such as USA Today.

Thing: 3, 4 and 5 Photos and Images

Thing 3:

Here is a picture of my horse Clayton. I have had him for about six years. He lives at a barn in Katy and I usually go out and ride him two or three times a week. We compete in jumping at local shows around Houston.



Thing 4:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preservationnation/3888328076/

I found this picture of the Flickr site. It is a beautiful picture of Sea Island Georgia. This only shows a small part of the land but you can see how pretty the tress with all the moss hanging off is. Over the summer my family and I went on a vacation here. This picture brought back memories of how beautiful the land there was.

Thing 5:

I have never heard of mashups, mappr, or any of these other tools. I explored many of them and found some fun 3rd party sites. All of these are great technology tools that could easily be used in the classroom.

I created a collage of some different types of animal with, Smile Box. It is a pretty easy tool to use. It lets you create a collage of different pictures and it also allows you to add music to it.

Customize your own free photo collage

Thing 2: Blogging

I have successfully created my first blog page! It was a bit difficult to set up, but once I explored the many options I had it has become relatively easy.

I have been viewing other people’s sites that have previously taken this class, to look for new ideas and see if I am on the right track. I am still trying to find out how to change backgrounds and colors.

Thing 1: Lifelong Learning

As I watched the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners I noticed that I have some strong areas and some weak areas.

I believe that my strongest area is habit No.1: Begin with the end in mind. When I start any activity or really any task I can usually set a goal for myself and figure out what and how I want to accomplish the task. Throughout the task I keep the end in mind, that that really motivated me to accomplish it.
On the other hand, my weakest area would have to be habit No. 3, viewing problems as challenges. When I problem arises I tend to become frustrated and discouraged. I need to work on looking at problems as just a small bump in the road that can easily be fixed. 
Here is a link to my Learning Contract!