Well, it’s been a mind-boggling experience (but fun!)  I’m amazed at all we have discovered that I had no idea was out there!  I can’t wait to play with all this some more during the summer.  I feel confident that those of us completing the course understand the importance of educators adapting to this quickly changing Web world.  My mind is racing with potential future changes (What will become of copy write laws?, Will we eliminate the need for thumb drives and other storage devices?, Will all hardware become shareware?, etc…)  I am concerned, however, that our colleagues who have no interest in this course will be left in the dark (therefore leaving their students in the dark!)  I’m certainly not the most technologically-savvy person, but I’m willing to explore for my student’s (and my own!) benefit.  The more we can adapt to these changes, the better we will be able to reach our students and engage them enthusiastically.  Education, like other areas world-wide, is going to change dramatically because of technology.  We may not like all the changes, or any of them, but we can’t avoid what is happening “out there.”  Kudos to Shelley for keeping us ahead of the curve!  One amazing phenomenon that I noticed:  within hours (literally) of the IT department granting teachers access to You Tube, all the students knew about it.  They immediately began coming up with videos, and innovative ways to use them, for my classes!  This enthusiasm tells me that we’re on the right track in trying to meet them on their “playing field!”

Am I missing something here?  I enjoyed my little foray into Ning in Education and Classroom 2.0, but I’m not sure I found it useful.  Considering the size of the Web, I was surprised by the small number of members.  I found some interesting discussions of questions, and I would probably post on Classroom 2.0 if I wanted advice.  I do wonder about the quality of responses to questions.  I noticed several posts that began with, “I’m not a classroom teacher, but…”  I would feel better soliciting advice from people I know.  I think I would enjoy Ning personally, assuming I had the time to network for fun and needed a life.  I see the appeal of networking for teens, and as a teen I’m sure I would have been a huge fan.  I’m not convinced, however, that the classroom is the place for this type of activity.  Maybe I’m old and narrow-minded, but I can’t seem to imagine the usefulness in my science class.  The final report from the National School Board Association is a must read!  I think we all need to be aware that social networking is the outlet for nonconformists (no big surprise here) – and we all need to take this into consideration if we are to be responsible, much less excellent, educators.

I love this tool!!  My husband (who is a full-time college student) and I are constantly having trouble moving documents among computers.  We have disks, thumb drives, computers in 3 locations, and all kinds of chaos!  This appears to solve the problem!  I actually uploaded and edited a Power Point presentation I had created.  Google Docs doesn’t have the creative options for presentations that Power Point does, but it would be great for transferring presentations and quick edits.  This might also be an option for students who don’t have Power Point at home and can’t open the presentations I post to Edline.  I created a year-end survey for students, and I can’t wait to try it out.  This seems like a super-quick way to tabulate survey data.  I have been kicking around an idea for creating a “newsletter” from our class about our activities.  This would be a great collaborative way to use Google Docs so that all students could add to the newsletter.

Originally, I liked the idea of Pageflakes for personal use, but I discovered that I can’t get exactly what I want on the page. For example, I wanted to include links to my most frequently visited sites (my blog, the Sandbox, etc.), but I haven’t quite figured out how to do that yet. Any suggestions? I did manage to create a personalized Pageflakes page for my own use. Check it out! I think this is a great tool for creating a research site for my students to use, like the example we viewed.

Well, this has been an interesting exercise. First of all, even with my search set on “safe,” I was dismayed at some of the language/content that came up. Definitely not for 6th grade! I also found it very difficult to search for items I wanted. The best (visually) frog dissection video was the dissection of a live frog – as an adult, I don’t want to watch that!! Many science videos that seemed promising from the title were so poorly composed that they would bore students to death! Ironically, one of my students is doing a project on the effect of emotions on heart rate. He wanted to use some YouTube videos to create emotion in his test subjects. Check this one out! I did find a video on TeacherTube that goes right along with this class. I think you will find this interesting.

Download Video: Posted by jsdt4 at TeacherTube.com.

I also found a video on how to make classroom posters using Microsoft Excel. The content is good, but the quality of the video stinks!

Listen to my podcast (keep in mind it is my first!!)!!

I have some difficulty enjoying this task, perhaps because I am a visual learner. I actually am interested in podcasting, because I keep waiting for my favorite radio talk show to be available on a podcast (I currently have to record it on a programmable MP3 player.) With all of the available technology, it seems more interesting to me to make a video or narrated slide show. I also thought that the podcasts were not very well organized or easy to search.   I subscribed to one that includes video, but I actually subscribed through iTunes.  I downloaded the “States of Matter” podcast from Dr. Carlson’s Science Theater.  It reminds me a bit of Bill Nye in a United Streaming format.  I still feel that there are better ways of reaching the same result…

As a lover of lists, I actually found my self creating one in spite of my reservations.  I feel that my personal goals are very private, but it was enlightening to put some thought into what they actually were.  I was glad to see that others shared even some of the more obscure goals with me.  Interesting, inspirational, scary (one person’s goal was “I want to stop cutting myself.”)…for use in a classroom – I don’t think so.

Being the ultimate multi-tasker (this comes from being the mother of three small boys, in case you were curious), I love this online conferencing!  I viewed Step-by-Step: Building a Web 2.0 Classroom by Drew Murphy.  Although his presentation was geared toward IT professionals, it helped me clarify in my mind what I needed to know, in order of importance, about Web 2.0.  I highly recommend it, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed by all of the things we have learned!  Best of all, I cleaned out my desk while viewing!

Once again I became totally engrossed in a site – in this case, for no real useful purpose except that I LOVE to read.  I started entering my books (although I really have no idea why) and just couldn’t stop.  I don’t think I will really use this site in the classroom, except maybe to search for a resource book.  I can see how literature teachers could use this to spread the love of different genres among students.  My main interest is to have a “wish list” sent to my phone while I’m in the bookstore – gotta learn how to do that one!  I may end up chatting with other readers, since my interests are a bit narrow (science fiction/fantasy/horror – YIKES!!)  That will have to wait until summer!  I’m also always looking for good recommendations from like-minded readers!  If you’re interested, here is my library so far – but it is only my top three favorite authors (so far!)