23 Things Summary

Wow, I'm not sure what to do with my free time now that this is over. Ha! Anyway, I really am super glad I took this course. I learned a great deal of useful things that I plan to continue to use, both personally and professionally. I also passed on some helpful "things" to friends and family. It was a great experience. I use del.icio.us daily now, as well as am getting rss feed e-mail alerts. I will continue to use flickr, picassa, and I want to explore photobucket. I will probably use animoto again, as part of a classroom assignment, and at home. I am enjoying using the MySpace, and may even start a FaceBook. I have even created a blog with SparkPeople, an online healthy lifestyle tool. One of my learning goals was to get up to speed with some of the online tools, and use more technology in the class. I feel more confident about implementing technology into my classroom now, but I will have to test out the district's filters to see what we can actually access from school. I think the course was pretty well organized, but I think del.icio.us should be one of the first topics learned. I would take this course again to further explore the web, because I'm sure we just barely touched on all that is available. I plan to continue exploring web 2.0, and have bookmarked a lot of sites to explore more later, including the learning 2.1 blog site. I hope to create a blog for my class, and also create an online gallery for student artwork using flickr.

Thing 23 Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a new concept to me. I now understand a bit more about the different levels of copy rights. I just always assumed if a person put his/her work on the internet, they were taking a big risk of it being copied. I thought it meant they were giving permission to others to use it, as long as they were given attribution. I discovered that Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License. (I copied that from the assignment page.) I think all teachers need to teach their students how to cite information correctly and make sure they give credit where it is due. In art education, copying from the masters used to be the only way art was taught. But things have changed. Now students are encouraged to create art from real life experiences or their surroundings, or from their own photos. As a teacher, I discourage copying images from the computer, or other sources. I do encourage them to use them as inspiration, or a starting point, but no more than that. To put it bluntly, it isn't art if it isn't original.

Thing 22 Podcasts

I have a Zune mp3 player that has been receiving podcasts from Joel Olsteen for several months, but I never really looked into exploring all the podcasts available online. I can't believe how many there are!!! I tried subscribing through the podcast websites, but they kept going to itunes, which is not where I wanted to save them. Since this is something that I REALLY plan on using on my Zune, I went though my Zune software and subscribed to several podcasts: The Teachers Podcast, With Class and Teachers at Risk (lectures/inteviews on successful teaching practices, and Pottery Pod (pottery techniques). I also got Art a Go Go which is talk about current events/trends in contemporary art. I listened to an episode on The Teachers Podcast called Global Learning, regarding methods children all over the world communicate about their learning. I could see them creating podcasts as a product for an assignment, such as artist research. I think it would be fun for the class to listen to each other's podcasts. I'm going to continue to research how to get Zune set up as my default for podcasts so I can subscribe through different websites.

Thing 21 Animoto

I think Animoto is fun, useful, and user friendly. I did experience a learning curve the first time, but I think it is great tool that can be used at home or in the classroom. I had trouble completing the blog information correctly, and when configuring the video, it purged about 6 pics I had wanted to include. I can see implementing this as a classroom project such as when presenting research on an artist, or even with the student's digital portfolios that they make. In the classroom it could be used for an open house video, or end of year video for the class, or as a digital scrapbook for art club. Lots of uses! I think it would be a great way to share family vacations or events with others online.

Thing 20 You Tube

I had discovered YouTube months ago. I was looking for demonstration videos to using for sculpting or clay techniques. Unfortunately, at the time, the school's system blocked the video, so I could not use it in class. I visit YouTube from time to time, and am always entertained. My kids show me videos on it alot as well. Her is a video link for a one minute painting that I enjoyed. I was going to upload some claymation videos my class made in the spring, but we ran out of time at the end of the school year to wrap up the videos. I did not want to publish an unfinished video. Too bad. They were really cute. I plan on starting the assignment earlier next year so we can be sure to finish and put them on YouTube. I think the kids would have fun showing them to their friends and family.

Thing 19 Beyond MySpace

Once again, never heard of Ning. Also, again, it was a cinch to sign up. I never took the time to look into all these social networks because I thought it would be complicated, and time consuming. I should have realized if kids can do it, I should be able also. I signed up with 23 Thingsters, and loaded some photos of my kids. I do not have a lot of photos on my computer to work with, so plan to add more later. I also added the badge to my MySpace. I also sent a comment to C. Toogood since we teach on the same campus. I found many ning sites to sign up with, but decided on the art educator site. There were also some others related to art, authors, & cooking, that I plan to look into further. This is a great site for those with special interests. I plan to tell my friends and family about it.

Thing 18 Social Networks

I have been thinking about creating a myspace for a couple of years, but just never got around to it. All three of my children have myspaces, but I'm having trouble getting them to add me as their friends. I have seen all of their sites, and there weren't any problems, but I guess they don't want me dropping in anytime unannounced. Anyway, the process was easy, and I did get my teens to give me some pointers. I still plan on adding some more pics, videos, music, and a background, but I need to work on more "things" at this point. I have also been concerned about the legal aspects of a teacher using a myspace, but I think one can be smart and limit who they allow as friends, and it's just common sense to be careful what one posts online, whether is is on myspace or somewhere else. I think my students will think it's cool that their teacher has a myspace, and judging from my own teen's attitude, they probably won't want me looking at their sites. One of my biggest concerns regarding social networks is the sheer mass quantities of time I see children spending on it, and is contributing to our childhood obesity/diabetes epidemic. I also worry that online socializing is interferring with developing real life friendships.