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.

Thing 17 Tagging & Bookmarking

I found all the bookmarking sites very interesting, easy, helpful, useful...and to think I had never even heard of these 2 weeks ago. I'm really glad I took this course, as I didn't know how much I didn't know. I have been using (and loving) del.icio.us for two weeks now, and have told a lot of people about it. None of them had heard of it either. Anyway, I can see both similar and different benefits for each of the different bookmarking sites. I can see how this would be very helpful with research. I do a lot of research when planning lessons, and plan to really utilize this tool. I hope it is something I can get started with all the art teachers in Mesquite. If we had a staff development on it, I bet everyone would see the possibilities it had to offer. Libraries could use the bookmarking sites as an easy shortcut for people researching any topic. What a time saver! I'm also thinking about using it on my classroom computers by bookmarking lots of interactive art sites the students can use when they have free time, or as part of a research assignment.

Thing 16 Get Organized

I chose iGoogle to create a start page. I love most-things-google, as they are user friendly. The google pre-set options were endless,and it was very easy to add my own links. I love having the local weather and the hottest youtube videos at my beck and call (does anyone say that anymore?) I also added links to my bloglines page. I had difficulties trying to add some other sites, such as my local library, amazon, and del.icio.us. I was having trouble with my internet connection today, so I will continue trying to add more things to it. If I can get my e-mail added to it easily, I will use it as a home page.

I'm not too keen on the online to-do lists because it is inconvenient for me to print off my laptop with my current home set up, and I need a to do list that travels with me in the car to stores, on errands, etc.

I also used joe's goals to set up a weekly goal planner, which I will use for a few weeks to see how I like it. I tried setting up My Stickies, but it did not work. I'll try it again later.

I set up a google calendar. It was very simple,and I like the flexibility of views, switching between daily, weekly, or monthly. This could come in handly for me so that I don't have to carry my calendar around with me, but then again, sometimes I need my calendar with me at places other than home or office, such as in meetings or at the doctor's office when making appointments. It will also be nice for my husband and children to be able to access my calendar, and even add their events to it, so we will all know what everyone has going on. I'll try keeping up with the online calendar for a few months to see how functional and convenient it is to use.

I think most of these tools are more helpful to me to keep my personal life organized, but crosses over into school. Many of my students do not have access to home computers, so I hate to put a lot of assignments, etc. online. I can see myself using the online calendar, goal planner, stikkies (if I get it to work), and the google start page, if I can access my yahoo e-mail easily from it. I would recommend any and all of these to friends looking for online organization.

Thing 15 Wikis

Wiki's seem very similar to a facebook or myspace site, except that other people can edit and add to the site. It is a very cool entity, and I would think that kids would really like creating a wiki with their friends, clubs, classes, etc. I created one for Mesquite's art teachers, and hope to develeop it this summer so that it can be a place for our group to share pics, videos, lessons, or whatever. I can see a lot of uses for it. Often a teacher will create a lesson or find a great website that they want to share with others. We have been using e-mail for this, but the wiki sounds perfect for this. I found the Wetpaint site to be easy to use, and very flexible. I also added a comment on the 23 things sandbox regarding podcasts, which is also very quick and easy to do. I am pleasantly surprised at how user friendly all these web 2.0 sites are!

Thing 14 Flowcharts

My understanding of flowcharts is that it describes a sequence of events. Mind maps are more about defining relationships between parts to a whole, and sorting and categorizing objects. They are both visual descriptions of an idea that enhance understanding of that idea. I created an art media web using bubble.us. It was really cool and easy to use, and I think very easy for students to use. I think I could use this during teacher instruction instead of drawing them on the overhead, and if the students did the typing, they would be better engaged in the topic. We brainstorm ideas for artwork frequently, and an online web would be a great tool for these. I also opened an account in Gliffy.com and created a classroom management flowchart. Again, this was very easy to use, and was very flexible in choosing tools, colors, sizing, etc. Both these sites would make includiing flowcharts and mind maps into any lesson very simple, both as a teacher tool, and as an assignment for the students to do independently, or as a group. I only have 5 classroom computers, so this would have to be a computer lab assignment if assigned to the entire class. I really feel that using online flowchart/mindmapping software with a projector would be an easy way for me to implement these online tools into lessons more frequently, and would increase understanding of topics and relationships.

Thing 13 Zoho

I created a couple of test documents. I'm not feeling too creative today, and this test document explains why.

The one I titled uses, briefly discusses some used I thought of for using zoho.

I can see some uses for the word processor for myself, but honestly don't think I would use the other zoho tools, such as the spreadsheet, but there are other online softwares that I currently exploring, such as Photoshop, that I plan to use on a regular basis. Zoho was very simple to use, and I plan on trying it out this summer- maybe as a companion with Picasa or flikr posts.

Please leave me a comment and let me know if these links work. Thanks.

Thing 12 Google Tools

After looking at each of Google tools, I chose to explore the picasa album and alert tools. I already use Picasa to store/organize photos on my PC at home, but I understand that the software cannot be saved on macs. I saved a few pics on the online Picasa site for sharing. I think this is a great place to share photos of family events (our upcoming 4th of July bbq) with my sister who lives in Calif. who misses a lot of family gatherings. I LOVE the slideshow feature. It could be used to share pics of students at work in class to share with parents. Lots of fun uses. Again, as with Flickr, this could be a helpful tool to create an online gallery of student artwork. It could also be used for my advanced students to collect reference images for them to use in their artwork or research on artstyles or artists. I also explored and created some google alerts for myself and my kids. I chose "mesquite isd", and "whitmore manufacturing", which is my husband's employer. I also chose a couple of my kids' favorite celebrities. I think this could have a variety of uses at school, such as keeping me up to date on favorite contemporary artists, and exhibits at area art musueums or galleries.

After exploring the google calendar and notebook, I can see uses for these as well. I want to see how well they work on my mac at school (with all the filters) before I set up anything extensive.

Thing 11 Blog Feeds

The method I used most of the time was going to some of my favortie bookmarked sites and look for blogs that were already set up on those sites that I never even looked for before. I added a few of those to my blogline. The search tool that I found easiest was bloglines search tool since I was already set up on blogline and familiar with it. I found Technorati a little big for my purposes, so did not spend too much time on. Same thing with Topix.net. I already added the Dallas Morning News to my blog lines, so I'm not really interested in another news feed. I added several art educator blog feeds to my blogline that I had not found in previous searches. It is good to know that different search sites provide different sites to choose from, so that in the future, if I'm looking for something specific, I know there are numerous feed searches to try. I also found googleblogsearch very helpful with my topic searches and was surprised to find that you can add a topic, such as mesquiteisd, and google will e-mail you whenever news on that topic comes up.

Thing 10 RSS Feeds

I chose Bloglines to set up 15 blog feeds. Once I got started, it was hard to stop. It was very simple to use. I still can't believe I have never heard of this stuff before. I can see how this will make my life easier, and MUCH more plugged in to current interests/news. I chose several art educator blogs, which will provide new lesson ideas and teaching strategies/tips. I also chose a new word of the day so I can increase my vocabulary, and a cartoon for a quick laugh. On a personal level, I chose a health/fitness/diet link to help stay motivated to create a healthy lifestyle. I also chose a link that gives up to date art competition/contests that I can share with my students who are interested in entering. I'm sure I will continue to discover new uses for this tool.

Thing 9 Image Generator

I used "Grafitti It" at http://www.signgenerator.org/graffiti/ to create a sign for my art room, as the students think this stuff is pretty cool. It was very easy to create by editing the text, then choosing a background. The hard part was ajusting the spacing to get everything to fit centered on the page. I could see using these sign makers for bulletin board displays or signs to use around the classroom.

I also played around with Monopoly Card Generator at http://monolpoly.game.cards.txt2png.com/ to make some reward cards to use in my classroom. These would also be fun to make to hand out to friends at parties, or to create a new game for the classroom.

Thing 8 more flickr fun

chris a la warhol
Originally uploaded by teacharttx

I created "chris a la warhol" using fd's flickr toys on Big Huge Labs called warholizer. This tool intriqued me because I teach a lesson similar to this using students photos and iPhoto. Warholizer was much quicker and easier to do, but doesn't allow the user as much creative control over the outcome, but this could sure be used in my curriculum. I am learning so much about computer art, that I have decided next year I'm going to dedicate an entire 6 weeks at the end of the year to computer art for my advanced class - as long as we can get in the computer lab or a class set of laptops. The kids REALLY like working on computers, and are not afraid to explore. They are also a lot more open to posting their photos online than I am. I discourage my own children in doing this, but all their friends have their pictures online, so I think I'm fighting a losing battle. The most I'm letting them post is partial face shots, because of the online predator threat. For my personal artwork, I am concerned about copyright infringement. Other tools I explored were the mosaic maker, jigsaw, calendar, and bead art, and I plan to do much, much more. The opportunites are endless as to the uses in an art class. I get permission already from parents to publishimages, so I'll just have to keep track of that and make sure I keep on top of it. I can see us using flickr to share images we create, expecially ones we create using online tools. I think this could even turn into an online gallery for our school, which the other art teachers would probably find intriguing as well.

Thing 6 Web 2.0 Awards

After reading other's blogs, I decided to try out del.icou.us, because I'm always emailing websites from home to use in my classroom. I do most of my surfing research from home due to the security blocks at school. When I finally find a site I like, it would be great to save them to del.iciou.us to access from anywhere, even on vacation. I also like the way I can add my own tags to it, and save it with hilited text. what great features! In class, I have been making handouts that list specific sites for students to visit. I have a set of classroom computers, and now instead of getting on each computer and setting up bookmarks, or making handouts, I can just set them up in del.iciou.us for students to access interactive art sites that they can go for for assignments, or if they have free time. A few of the sites I used this year in class for students was translating their names into Chinese to include in their artwork, as well as researching Andy Warhol for a computer art assignment.

Thing 7 Flickr!

grounded again II
Originally uploaded by teacharttx

Flickr is flexible and user friendly, although I did have trouble adding the photo to the blog. I tried adding the photo from a url, but it didn't work- I'm sure I was doing something wrong. So I tried creating the blog in flikr, and that seemed easier. I can think of a lot of uses for flickr. I could post pics from my classroom for students and their parents to see, as well as student artwork to share with other teachers in the district. My students are always wanting to see my personal artwork, and this is an easy way for them to access the images. On a personal level, I can post family pics to share with family and friends living far distances. We are currently remodeling our home, and I plan to post some pics soon to show off our handy work.

Thing 5

Maybe I've been living in a cave, but the term "School 2.0" is completely new to me. I knew our school/district/world was encouraging and implementing more technology into education, but I really had no idea that so many opportunities for this were available to us, and for free. School 2.0 means to me, that the physical walls of the school are no longer the boundaries for learning, but that reading, and most importantly, writing, will occur in a much broader environment via the internet. I know from personal experience taking college courses that many assignments/tests are now done online, but didn't realize this was trickling down into our childrens' educational experience. I think the future will bring a much more collaborative educational environment, where students from all over the planet will be learning together and communicating with each other, by sharing what they have written, or thru blogs, podcasts, etc. I think that the face of education as we know it today will be completely different in 5 years. Students are demanding to be taught on a more technical level, and it is becoming more difficult to inspire and excite them by teaching with traditional methods. I, myself, am all for it, but I'm sure a lot of teachers are not, as it is going to require teachers to become better trained in technology just to stay ahead of their students.

Thing 1

My experience so far is that learning to blog is both exciting and scary. Once posted, your thoughts are out for the whole world to see (I must remember to proof read!). I'm very excited about the possibilities that blogging can open up for me both personally and professionally. I do not consider myself gifted with technical abilities, so I just forge on and hope things turn out right.

I'm excited about learning all the onlines tools, and hope they will prove relevent to my job or personal life, and hope they will be quick, easy, and convenient to use so that I will actually use them on a regular basis.

Thing 4 Comments

Commenting helps create a sense of community by sharing common interests and experiences. The interaction between comments allows a dialogue to occur, allowing all parties to share and learn new things.
Blog comments must be relevent, intelligent, and nice. It is also important not to let some online meanie get under your skin and destroy your confidence inthe process.

The seven blogs I chose to read/comment were:

1. coolcatteacherblog – I chose this blog because it stressed the importance of not letting mean, vicious comments destroy my confidence and deter me from expressing my thoughts and opinions.

2. ten commandments of blog commenting by brown thoughts blog– good advice on the etiquette of blogging relating to basic common courtesy ; be relevant, nice, or if you can't, go to a different blog
3. Commenting using an alias vs. your real name - from Blogging Basics 101 was about how choosing a blog name is really a personal choice. It seems many start out as anonymous, and as they become more comfortable with blogging, they begin using their real name or a combination of real/alias.
4. Technocricket – this blogger is ahead of me in the course, and seems to be more techno savvy than I, but after reading his/her comments, I am looking forward to learning flickr, and del.icou.us sounds very useful to access bookmarks between school and home, which had me using e=mail to accomplish the task.
5. Ictbailey’s blog inspired me to explore flickr with her photo alphabet. Since I teach art, I’m hoping to use this site in a variety of ways with students, as long as the school doesn’t block us. I'm up to 4 digital cameras in my art class, and we use them more and more every year.
6. lovingsummer’s blog was chosen because I also LOVE summer. I share the author’s misgivings on the amount of time this course will take, simply because it is so much fun to learn and explore new things, but in order to meet the deadline, I feel it is necessary to somewhat skim over things I would have liked to explore at greater length.
7. Michael says - the blog discussed youtube, of which I am already familiar, thanks to my own children. I want to learn how to download movies to the site and use the site in class. I have found several videos on claymation and sculpting that I wanted to show in class last year, but the school blocked them.
8. Teddy bear blog sounds really excited about learning new things, which I can relate to. Sounds like this will be a rewarding experience for everyone.
I chose these blogs because something in the blog names spoke to me, and I was able to relate to all of them on some level. After reading the comments, I am really pshyched about learning everything I can about online tools.

thing 3 blogging

I could see myself using blogs for two purposes. The first would be to communicate with other art teachers within my district to share what we are doing in class, offer tips, ideas, and share what I have learned in various staff development, etc., and encourage others to do the same. Right now, we occasionally do this through e-mail, but this could be taught during one of our staff developments to teach everyone how. The second blog I would use is to share news with students and parents. I think it would be fun for this to be a project for my advance art class to create an art newsletter for parents/students to let them know what we are doing in class, or upcoming events, etc.

Thing 2- 7-1/2 habits of effective lifelong learners

The habits are very common sense, and if applied, would help more people reach more of their goals. I think we do a lot of these things already without knowing about it, but the habits help us become more organized and reinforce what we are already doing to make us more successful. I plan to implement some of these strategies into student goal setting in my classroom. One of my goals is to learn to how to blog. I'm hoping this will become something that can be used between myself (teacher) and my students and their parents, and/or between myself and other art teachers in our district. I am constantly introducing more technology into my work and home experience, and am excited about learning about new and free online tools available to me. I feel my largest obstacle is time constraints and interruptions, so my plan of attack is to schedule 1-2 hours early in the morning each day before my family is awake to work on the 23 Things. That way time will not slip away from me and I will be able to finish in the allotted timeframe, and also avoid interruptions.

I have always been an advocate of lifelong learning, and I tell people all the time that I have learned more after I became a teacher than I did during college. Teaching others forces me to always learn new things as well as reinforces my learning, especially since I repeat the same lesson 5 times each day.