One Last Thing

Well I have finally reached the end of the 23 Things. I can definitely say that it was a worthwhile journey. I have improved my technology skills greatly and have been introduced to a lot of different tools and resources that I didn’t know were out there. Some of my favorite “Things” were exploring Flickr, finding Web 2.0 sites such as HistoryPin, Animoto, and the organization tools that will help me when I am teaching. I believe going through the 23 Things will definitely help me in my teaching career. There are tons of resources out there for teachers to take advantage of and doing this exercise exposed me to many of them. The only improvement I would make to the 23 Things is to keep things more up to date and current. Technology changes so fast so some of the tools and links were a little out of date. But regardless of that, the program was very helpful and enlightening. I plan on trying to stay up to date on new web 2.0 developments that will help me in my teaching career and I may continue my blog once I start teaching.

Thanks for reading! So long for now!

Thing #23

As a teacher, it is very important to know what you can and cannot use in the classroom. Creative Commons provides an easy way for people to protect their creative or intellectual works while giving the creator the ability to determine how and in what ways their work can be used by others. Creative Commons allows teachers to share their ideas and resources with others while still maintaining their ownership of the material.

The example of attribution on the Learning 2.0-23 Things for Teachers blog is below:

Credits

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Thing #22

I thought LiveBinders was a bit confusing to navigate at first, but once I figured out what I was doing, it was not so bad. I can definitely see the usefulness of LiveBinders for teachers and the classroom. LiveBinders provides a way to easily organize and store websites and online resources to use in the classroom. Rather than trying to remember where you found a site, you can save your sites here for future reference. LiveBinder can be used to direct students to specific sites and provide them with easy access to various resources. It is also nice that you can search other people’s binders for resources as well. The three binders I created were:

1)      Social Studies Resources

2)      Lesson Plans

3)      Class Activities

Here is the link to my Social Studies Resources Binder: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=858934

Thing # 21

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Using Animoto to make my own video was super easy and fun! It was not hard to do at all. The tutorial video made it very easy. I decided to make a video of some photos from my vacation in Hawaii last summer. What a great and creative way to share photos with your friends and others. I can definitely see myself using this website again. 

Thing #20

While exploring YouTube, I came across a fun channel called “History for Music Lovers”. These teachers rewrite the words to popular songs and create music videos about certain historical events to make teaching history more fun. The video above is about the Trojan War set to the song “Tainted Love.” These videos are very creative and fun and would be great to use in my future classroom.  YouTube is a great site for teachers to utilize. You can find videos relating to just about any topic.