No Thing: Ning

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New 23things

I'm officially addicted! I've been googling "23things" to find other groups doing similar exercises. Some of them are for public librarians and others are for school librarians, so they are even more relevant for me. Here are a few of my next explorations:
http://bookvideo.ning.com/ is a ning to promote books and reading.
http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/ is a ning for school media specialists.
http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com/ is sponsored by the Minnesota Library System.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php, in which one can create a trading card to then post on a blog
http://k12learning20.wikispaces.com/23Things is a wiki that incorporates 23things exercises.
http://tametheweb.com/sljlearning20/ is School Library Journal's version.
http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/ is the California School Library Association version.
http://librarystream.wordpress.com/about-the-learn-more-series/ is the "Learn More" series by Steve Campion.
http://sociallibraries.com/libr246-12/assignments is a grad level library sci course called Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools offered at San Jose State by Meredith Farkas. There are very thoughtful questions to consider while investigating the tools.

Thing 23: The End or the Beginning?

How has your thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thing 23? Has this program changed how you view the Internet or how view teaching in the digital world? What plans have you made for using these tools in and out of the classroom? How will you continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools? What are your big "take aways" from this experience?
First of all, I have shared this final you tube video with 8th graders last year and I still get goosebumps watching it. I believe that non-linear text and the Internet have radically changed how we communicate with others. This course has enhanced my knowledge about the Internet. As another blogger stated, this is just the beginning. I can't wait to delve into more 2.0 tools that I've encountered along the way. I plan to continue posting about these new "things," such as http://www.43things.com/, http://www.mediaconverter.org/, and http://www.quarkbase.com/.

Aside from the educational aspects, these tools are powerful for family connections. My own family is scattered across the continents. I envision a family wiki to share recipes, reunion planning, photos, and more.

I've already changed the way I teach since beginning this course. I'm co-teaching with a 6th grade ELA teacher on a personal narrative project that we have transformed into a digital storytelling project. I believe that it is not enough to ask students to write and be graded by teachers. Students learn that by using digital tools, their experiences may be shared with a broader audience. Students are using flickr creative commons photos for their projects. At first I was hesitant that they would find inappropriate images, but they have been great about staying within their boundaries of the assignment. We plan to post some of their final projects online.

One way that I will continue learning is to stay current. On my blog, I've added a list of blogs for 23thing concepts, so that I stay up-to-date with these sites. While I am also using bloglines, it is handy to have these related-blogs on my own 23 things blog. I've shared my blog address with other staff members and look forward to sharing at staff meetings. I'm looking forward to building networks on flickr and delicious. After years of reading blogs, it's great to participate instead of lurking. The most important aspect about these tools has been the social networking features. I have searched for other media specialists on blogger and am beginning to stay in touch by becoming a follower on their blogs. I'm learning to tag my work.

As a technology problem-solver at work, it has been a pleasure to learn about technology that actually works well and is practical. Ultimately, I hope to create my own version of 23things for a student unit.

Thing 22: Create a Wiki

How does a wiki differ from a blog? When is one more appropriate to use than the other?
A wiki is an authoring tool that others may be asked to join and contribute to its content. A blog may ask readers to answer surveys or be interviewed, but it is not usually authored by a group. Both offer widget features, including embedding videos. I experimented with teacher tube tutorial videos for Photo Story 3. I also added a "tag cloud" and uploaded an image of our school.

As with any technology tool, the question should be asked, "What is the purpose of this tool?" A wiki might be useful to share information in a group. For example, the wiki I created is designed to showcase technology projects at school. Teachers may be invited to elaborate on their projects or to upload examples of student work. It is currently a work in progress. When students have completed their projects, we may decide to publish a few examples. Visit us at
https://centralmiddlemediacenter.wikispaces.com/

Thing 21: Wikis

Describe a wiki you found that inspires you to create one of your own. What hurdles might stand in the way of your using a wiki? What would it take to remove the hurdles? Is it worth the fight?
http://bear-den.wikispaces.com/
This is a teacher created wiki for Mr. Klingman's 8th grade social studies class. Our teacher's are required to use Front Page to create websites. Some are exploring Moodle, which also has a wiki feature. By comparison, wikispaces has more diverse features. The teacher imbedded a video from video streaming. There are documents for class assignments, pdf files, activity sheets, and more. It is an ambitious site. While learning to use a wiki seems less time consuming than Front Page, it still involves layout, preparing documents, deciding on activities and purpose. Only district sanctioned websites are linked to the school website. An advantage of a wiki for posting class assignments is that the teacher may create it anywhere. We are currently re-evaluating our guidelines to reflect newer technologies, such as wikis.

I created a moodle wiki for my technology team so that each role in the daily broadcast was defined. Each student was assigned one section of the wiki but could also comment on the others. I noticed that many student created wikis are not interactive, despite that feature being available. It seems to undervalue the purpose of a wiki.

http://cff-photostory.wikispaces.com/Copyright+Free+Materials
This is a very useful wiki that provides sources for copyright free materials to use with Photo Story 3.

Other wikis I am interested in:
http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page this is Library Success: a Best Practices Wiki

http://calcurriculum.pbwiki.com/ is the California Libary Association wiki for web 2.0.

Wordle

I came across Wordle in my blog travels. Wordle generates a "word cloud" from text that you provide from either a listing of words or a website, blog, or even your delicious account. There are other options, such as text and color. Once created, you may save the image (giving credit where credit is due) and/or share it with others on the Wordle site. The Wordle blog discusses educational application. Here is one I created using our "23things" blog. It is important to read the licensing rights when using this. Wordle.net by Jonathan Feinberg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To learn more about Creative Commons, go to my previous posting, Thing 18: Slideshare.

Thing 20: Searching for Podcasts

Include in your post the name of at least one podcast to which you subscribed. Describe your experience using the various search tools. Which do you prefer and why?
I subscribed to "A Way with Words: Public Radio's Lively Language Show" using itunes and following the directions from RESA's Searching for Podcasts. I selected this podcast because I used to listen to this show when I randomly listened to National Radio. I never took the time to find out when it was scheduled and appreciate that I may listen at my convenience.

I also searched for podcasts using Podcast Alley and the Educational Podcast Network. While I like indexes, I prefer searching using search terms. Of the three, I prefer itunes because I am already used to using other features of itunes and I like the visually graphic organizing aspect of it. I also enjoy reading the reviews before selecting to subscribe. Educational Podcast Network seems to have respect in the educational world, but I discovered that many of the student works listed were no longer active podcasts.

I also subscribed to TechTeacher Podcast, which I found under "Information Skills" in Educational Podcast Network. The website for the podcast had a link to subscribe to its podcast via itunes. I selected this podcast because it has timely topics related to web 2.0 tools.

Finally, I subscribed to "American History Before 1870: Gretchen Ann Reilly" which is a college level podcast. I found it on itunes and selected it because my minor is social science and I miss working with our social studies teachers when we participated in a national American History grant.

Thing 19: Podcasts

Which podcasts did you find interesting? Identify one or two podcasts and describe how you would use them in your teaching. (Be sure to include links in your blog entry to the podcasts mentioned.)
http://www.northville.k12.mi.us/hillside-imc/podcasts/2007-2008/reading-roundup/podcast3.htm
This teacher podcast is produced by Sue Spaniol at Hillside Middle School in Northville, Michigan. It was of interest to me because the podcast highlighted new mystery books in the middle school media center. In general, it is an opportunity for all students to hear a booktalk beyond the school walls. I was surprised to learn that these were books I did not yet have in my own media center.

http://mrmayo.typepad.com/podcasts/
These student podcasts were produced by Mr. Mayo's Class from Silver Springs International Middle School. I liked the layout of the blog so that the reader had an understanding about the podcasts. I listened to a few related to grammar and parts of speech, such as "Helping Verbs." I believe that other students would find these appealing because the voice is a student voice, not a teacher voice.

In general, podcasts add another dimension to teaching. Students have an opportunity to listen to new voices. Like other mediums, audio skills reinforce learning. In order to utilize podcasts effectively in teaching, I believe follow-up activities are important.

Thing 18: Slideshare

What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might Slideshare be useful in the classroom? out of the classroom?
I just attended a workshop on Fair Use and Copyright, but the presenter did not provide an online version of her .ppt presentation. I conducted a search using the term "fair use."The presentation I downloaded was created for a 7th grade class, which is also my audience. Slideshare is useful because it saves time in creating the presentation myself if I find a topic similar enough to one I wish to teach. I'm a firm believer in sharing resources. However, like everything else on the web, evaluation of information is necessary. The howto presentations may be useful both for classroom and home use. I conducted a search using "howto moodle" and found one relating to creating quizzes on moodle. We recently held a workshop on this topic, so I emailed the link to one of the presenters.

Copyright, Fair Use, And Creative Commons

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: creative_commons fair_use)

Thing 17: Online Productivity Tools

Give a review of the tool you explored - what worked, what didn't work, how might it be used either in or out of the classroom?
I was glad to see LibraryThing featured here as it provided me with the opportunity to revisit the site. LibraryThing is very much like delicious for books. It is a book lover's dream to social bookmark. You create an account, enter book titles from your collection, tag them, review and discuss, and network with others either individually or in groups. It has a local feature to learn about book-related events by entering your zipcode or address. For home-use, visit the store to purchase your own $15 barcode scanner. There's even a wiki. I'll revisit it when we get to that topic. Want to know more? Here's what others are saying.

I set up an account in 2006, added one book, and never got back to it. Now that I have bloglines going smoothly, I've learned that an excellent way to keep up with web 2.0 tools is to subscribe to their blogs. I've added librarythings AND thingology blogs to stay informed. I've observed many, many upgrades to this tool and I'm so impressed. For example, one feature is book reviews, which may be added to outside libraries. We already have this feature using Follett's Destiny, but for a small, budget-conscious library, this would be excellent. I also appreciate the community involvement aspect. The blog invited members to physically meet to have a non-profit library cataloging party. What a great idea! As a media specialist, I'm appreciative of the statistics to the site. Regardless that I have a widget from shelfari on this blog, and a widget from Visual Bookshelf on Facebook, I was curious to visualize the LibraryThings version.

In a school or classroom setting, students would have a forum for communicating about the books they are reading and to see what others who share their interests read. This would extend book club time. Statistics about students book choice states that the primary reason for selecting a book is peer review.

Thing 16: Google Docs

How might you use this tool in your personal and professional life? What issues come to mind about using this tool with students (ie, they need email addresses to log-in)?
This tool would be useful to me professionally when I am collaborating on projects with classroom teachers. We rarely have the opportunity to meet in person, so creating our teaching documents online together would be beneficial. Often we begin school improvement brainstorming during half day inservices and wait months to continue. Google docs would provide an opportunity to continue brainstorming. Our media specialist group will be working on updating curriculum based on new AASL standards. This would be a useful method to share lesson plans and update curriculum.

In my personal life, my son who is in graduate school has sent me papers to review and this seems a more efficient way to edit and share, rather than saving a word doc and then editing it in red and emailing it back.

Currently, our district does not allow email. However, if we at least teach students about this tool, they may collaborate on projects at home. As usual, students will need to respect others and follow district guidelines. Moodle e-classroom also has similar tools. The interface on Moodle is not as user friendly as google docs. The other problem with moodle is that students who are teaming on projects are at a disadvantage when work has been saved under one student's name and that student is absent. Google docs would have the document available to all users at any time.

This is an addendum: I just came across a new feature of google called google sites. With this feature, collaborative projects may be coordinated on one site using google docs, blogs, and other google features. Here is a video about it. If you cannot view this video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KnC2EIS5w

Thing 15: RSS Revisited

Is RSS becoming easier to understand? Do you recognize new benefits of using this tool? Do you remember to check your feeds regularly? Has it become a habit (or obsession!) yet?
It's a good thing we revisited Bloglines since I haven't been back there lately. Initially, it was overwhelming. Each visit brings an added comfort level. There are still many features left to explore. It would never have occurred to me to integrate delicious with bloglines. I choose "23things" as my tag to track on bloglines. Will it become an obsession? Everything I've learned from 23things will become an obsession. I can't stay away from delicious . Today I learned how to add other people's bookmarks as part of my network. I've added booktalker, who is Nancy Keane, a well-known presenter in the library world. From booktalker's list, I learned about visuwords, an amazing visual dictionary tool.

Thing 14: Delicious

Reflect on how you think social bookmarking can be used in your teaching. Does Delicious seem to be a tool that can enhance your productivity?
Delicious is a powerful, under-utilized tool for our teaching. Media Specialists do lots of co-teaching. This would be useful for planning a lesson, sharing ideas and professional reading with colleagues, especially other media specialists. As a group, we meet infrequently. This is a way to bridge that gap. foxtamar- user name on delicious

Thing 13: Tagging/Social Bookmarking

Is tagging a useful way to organize your digital resources and why? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages? What is important to think about before assigning tags to bookmarks or other Internet content?
This was a useful reminder to me that most of my delicious websites were never tagged. I was excited to simply import my bookmarks so that I had access to my at-work bookmarks at home. Tagging is definitely useful for organization. I've been enjoying the concept of tagging in Facebook, when we tag photos. Tagging in delicious adds a whole new dimension to saving websites or blogs. It is also dangerous, in the sense that one can be so intrigued by the interconnections of social bookmarking that we lose track of time. I remember that when I first learned about tagging, media specialists were a bit worried that it would eliminate the need for information specialists. This is not the case. We know that it is very important to use universal tags so that others will connect to them.

Thing 12: Part II

A Book Widget!
I originally saw this style widget on another media specialist's blog earlier this week and loved the technology behind it. Now I know that it is available on Lookybook.com. It is a great way to introduce a concept or preview a book. The one I selected would appeal to our 6th graders who are studying China this year. Enjoy! Hint: If you click the little eyeballs, you will be able to zoom in/zoom out.

Thing 12: Adding Gadgets

Review the widget you selected. Are you getting comfortable with embedding code? Do you belong to other online communities? Are relationships formed online as meaningful as face-to-face relationships? Why do you think MySpace and other social networking sites are so popular with kids today?

Please take a moment to participate in my poll "Which genre do you prefer reading?" located on the bottom right side of my blog. I'm curious about reading habits. I also invite you to become a follower on my blog. Knowing who might be reading my blog on a regular basis may alter what I choose to write about. I also added a newsfeed gadget. I thought this might be handy for some people who might stumble across my blog.

I belong to delicous, facebook, igoogle and one for keeping track of books. I realize now that they only are interesting when the participants keep adding new information. If they are stagnant, we stop going to the site. The more interactive, the better. On Facebook, I add photos, play wordscraper with other members, and comment on other people's photos. My son and his fiance have a countdown clock on Facebook for their upcoming wedding, plus a list of the wedding party, all of whom are members of Facebook. Some of the gadgets seem more useful for a igoogle page, rather than a blog. I thought about adding one with newspaper covers, but I don't see how this is really interactive, just informative. It may be useful just to show others what's out there if they have never looked at widgets or gadgets.

BTW, I added gadgets to this blog that were easily accessible using the blogger technology. In the next entry, I will experiment with widgets and embed one using the html code. I am very comfortable with both technologies. I wanted to add something on the bottom of the blog page that would fit more horizontally, rather than vertically. I haven't been successful so far. Any suggestions?

Thing 11: Building Community/Comments

What do you like / dislike about leaving comments? How did you feel when you received your first comment? Why do you think commenting is so important in online communities? What might this mean for students who share their writing online?
Comments bring the blog to life and provide feedback regarding the information being shared. Without comments, the blog becomes a journal, which would not need to be public. Comments may also change the direction that the blog is taking. I've read blogs for the past year, but had never left comments before. Once I started to receive comments on my blog, I realized the power of this form of communication. I especially like the features of blogger: becoming a follower of a blog and then going into the profile area and being alerted to new entries. While Bloglines does the same thing, it means taking time to log onto Bloglines. I am now following other media specialists' blogs.

The two articles provided helpful tips to keep in mind when considering adding comments. They will also be useful in creating a tip sheet for students. Students need opportunities to learn in school how to both share writing online and also communicate online. We are doing them a great disservice by not allowing email communication. We do have access to Moodle e-classroom, which includes a forum or discussion thread feature. I hope to utilize it in the near future. Students would benefit from sharing ideas online. It would extend the classroom experience into non-school hours when students might wish to reflect on a topic discussed earlier. Communicating online may provide a voice for quiet students in classrooms.

Thing 10: Downloading YouTube videos

Wow. This is a great feature. Yes, youtube is blocked in our district. I downloaded from Zamzar a book trailer, entitled "American Born Chinese" based on the graphic novel that won the Printz Award (and part of my collection). I am interested in using Photo Story 3 to create book trailers and this is a simple example of one with background music and excerpts from the book, without narration. You may view it below. The process was easy. I saved it as a .wmv format for viewing in Media Player. I'm excited that I may view this at school! In contrast, the youtube video that I embedded in the last post (entry 9) cannot be viewed at school because of the embedded feature.

I tried Zamzar last year when a student saved in Moodle Personal Folder a document file from Wordperfect and we converted it to Word. The problem was I did not know at the time that it would take 45 minutes to an hour. I think I received it the next day, actually. By that time, the student had converted the file at home. I realize now that Zamzar might serve other purposes, such as the youtube video opportunities.

As a bonus, I discovered that I could also link to the Destiny online card catalog detail page of American Born Chinese. Note above link of American Born Chinese. This is a very useful feature, such as when I send emails notifying staff about new books.

Thing 9 and Thing 10 (part 1): YouTube

What do you like or dislike about YouTube? Did you find videos that would be useful for teaching and learning? Is YouTube banned in your building? Add comments to the video you embedded. Why did you select it?
I've seen YouTube before but had not subscribed and therefore, had never rated a video or left a comment. Now I don't feel like a voyeur anymore. I also started a Favorites list and posted a video on my Facebook account. I like the fact that you can share videos by emailing, posting on a social networking site, provide a link, or embed the actual video clip.

I see unlimited possibilities for educational usage. For example, there are videos related to Chinese opera. Students can take a virtual field trip to hear music from countries they are studying. TeacherTube also has outstanding videos.

We don't have access to it at school, which is increasingly frustrating. The students know how to get around the filters, but usually the teachers don't. We can ask the technicians to lift the filter for a particular site, but that is not convenient. The example, News14 with RGH, I am providing here was done by one of our staff, Cathy Gibson, and her former student. We run a daily broadcast at school. Rodney, who is now in high school, has taken it to the next level by producing his own daily news show and posting it on YouTube. I personally enjoy watching my favorite musicians, such as a local guitarlplaying/composer favorite, Laith Al-Saadi. I'm posting a sample of Laith for your listening pleasure. On it you will hear both original music and his rendition of other famous guitarists.

Thing 8: Image Generators

What can I say? This is fun! I created this using Spell with Flickr . I wondered how you created the banner and was so excited to learn how. How do I get the images that create one word to fit on one line? I tried making the images smaller. I also liked the Flickr Montager, but wish I could save it. My frustration with the montage/mosaic was that I wanted images about fall, but sometimes the tags did not match my concept of "fall."

Thing 7

Fall 2008
Originally uploaded by fox.tamar

Here is one of the pictures that I posted on flickr. I uploaded more than 5 pix, but my tags aren't showing up yet. I guess I need to be patient, as they say it may take 24 hours. My only concern about using flickr in education is the lack of filtering. My other reflections about flickr were previously posted.

I created this directly from flickr. That feature is very easy to set up and use.

Thing 5

How might you use RSS in your personal or professional life? Find anything in your searching that you'd recommend to others?
This is a great way to keep up with my favorite blogs. I read blogs professionally to keep up with young adult literature, because we don't often get to go to conferences. I use the information to assist me in my ordering decisions. I enjoy reading author interviews on many of these blogs. An example is Interactive Reader. A group of bloggers also created the Cybil Awards. These are books nominated by individual readers. You can view the nominees on this same blog.

Thing 4 Revisited

How do you handle information overload and how do you think RSS might help with that?
My whole life is information overload! I live for information. Seriously, as a media specialist, I am fascinated by information and the technological ways we share information. As mentioned earlier, I recently learned how to use IGoogle Reader, which is similar to Bloglines. I read lots of author blogs and other library media specialists' blogs to stay current in my field. This will really help. One of the problems was that I had saved my blog web addresses at work. So, then I set up delicious.com so that I would have access to them wherever. However, in reality, I didn't access them at home. I had seen the term RSS several years ago, but did not understand what it meant until recently. RSS feeds will simplify my life. No doubt about that. The question will be which I will like better, the Reader or Bloglines. Time will tell.

Thing 6- Grand Canyon - South Kaibab Trail on the way to the Colorado River

Grand Canyon - South Kaibab Trail on the way to the Colorado River
Originally uploaded by Al_HikesAZ

I've heard of Flickr, but since I already use Shutterfly and also upload photos on Facebook, I never got around to trying Flickr. The photo I chose was taken at the Grand Canyon. It is an excellent example for a school project because it is a beautiful photo, the photographer commented on the photo, and it gives students an opportunity to experience the beauty of the Canyon, whether they have had an opportunity to be there or not.

I am thinking about a 6th grade project coming up at school. We are doing research about landforms and are teaching students the difference between primary and secondary sources. As an example of a primary source, we will be showing students photos related to landforms. Visual learning is very effective with middle school students. We usually demonstrate Google images for projects like this. However, I can see many possibilities using Flickr. My only concern would be issues of appropriateness. While Google is not foolproof, Flickr might include inappropriate images.

BTW, I had trouble loading the image I saved from Flickr. It saved as a .gif file, but the actual image did not show up when I attempted to upload it. Then, I learned that I could send it directly to this blog from Flickr, so I did! However, while the alignment looks right on the preview, it is not aligning correctly on the published post.

Addendum: I've since discovered flickr's blog. They recently posted a screencast explaining their new feature called "Recent Activity." This is similar to a home page on flickr, with lots of options very well explained on the screencast. To view, click here.

Thing 4

Unfortunately, I have not been success in getting my Bloglines account confirmed. I resubmitted it several times and have contacted their customer support. It's a real bummer, since I have a bunch of blogs I follow and until I knew about RSS, I've set it up under My Favorites and just visit the blogs when I get a chance. Using Bloglines will be so much superior. So, I'll get back to this one. Meanwhile, I did learn how to use IGoogle's Reader in August. I'm looking forward to comparing the two RSS reader systems to see which I like better.

Thing 3

How might you use a blog with students?
I would like to use a blog to share new books in our collection and to post technology tips (also for staff). I've been reading the blog created by the Teen Services Librarian at Plymouth District Library (see my links) and would like to do something like it. My concern would be the comment field. I'd like to think that our students would comment responsibly. When we tried something similar in Moodle e-classroom, there were a couple of examples of irresponsible comments. We would likely need to set parameters and consequences (after all, it's a middle school).

Thing 2

How does writing on the Internet, knowing anyone could read it, change how you write or feel about writing?
Writing is one expression of communication. Writing on a blog, knowing that anyone in the world may view it, is powerful. There is a responsibility to the unknown audience to make the blog meaningful. When you are taught to write for an audience, but you do not know who that audience may be, it is daunting. Do you write for yourself (journaling) or write for the collective learners taking this online class?

In my case, this is my second experience with blogging. The purpose of the other blog was to share information, mostly with family and friends who were invited to visit the blog. While messages/comments from those I knew were appreciated, it was most powerful when a stranger commented on an entry, found it beneficial, and made a connection with me.

I'm also a Facebook user. Check out what Doug Johnson has to say about Facebook as an educational resource.The power of social networking expands when the user chooses to communicate on a regular basis. Communication may take various forms, such as posting information, uploading photos, writing status statements which post as "news," or commenting on other people's "walls." Writing is one expression of communication.

Thing 1- Part 2

Reflections: "Pay Attention" youtube video
I've watched this video numerous times and find it amazing. Our district provides many opportunities to use technology, but in some cases, our philosophy is outdated. We do not allow our students to use email, to use ipods, or to text. We filter out you tube at the middle school level. One of the products we do have available is Moodle's e-classroom features. I participated in a workshop at Oakland Schools this summer and have worked a bit with it with my student tech team. I'm excited to do more, especially with discussions and collaboration.

We also just upgraded our online card catalog to Destiny. Now students are able to access the OPAC from any Internet-connected computer. This changes the way we do business. Students will be able to plan their visits to the Media Center and share more experiences with families at home. Students will be able to post reviews. This also opens up the old discussion about the haves and have nots. We still know of many students who do not have Internet access at home.

Thing 1

What do I hope to get out of "23 Things?"
In my role as a media specialist, I've been a technology cheerleader for many years, teaching both teachers and students research skills using the Internet. I still remember ClarisWorks on the Mac and getting excited about Tom Snyder products on laserdisc. I proudly share with my middle school students that I have a Facebook page, use Skype, and love my Ipod. They are so impressed. Meanwhile, I've never created a podcast or regularly use RSS. That is why I am particpating. Web 2.0 tools emerged quickly on the horizon and I'm no longer one step ahead of my students.