Thing 22

Social networking has become a major force in the lives of our children. Sites like Facebook have become a key link for students to organize, connect, and communicate school and extra-curricular activites on a daily basis. Since networking has become an established way of life for our students,the use of a social networking site like Ning, would be a very comforable educational tool for them to use. Networks could be set up for classes, clubs, and special events.

Thing 21

I like Pageflakes as a personalized information gathering site. I'm sure that I will use it much more than my standard RSS feed. It could also work well as a technology resource page for my tech students or as a classroom resources page.

Thing 20

Google docs is a great tool for sharing information and for collaborative work. I have been using it for a while, beginning with a collaborative project with the 4th grade classes. I created a spreadsheet for the students to share between the classes so that they could collect data in their classrooms about spring break destinations. Then, as each class came to the technology lab, I simple pulled up their spreadsheet and the students where able to use the data to create graphs representing the results. I have also use google docs to share information and collaborate on a project with other staff members. Google docs will be very useful for any project involving sharing, from writing stories and poems, to sharing notes and data.

Thing 19

I have found that YouTube has a wealth of videos for education. I have already used it for instruction (there are some excellent videos about robotics). My students have used some YouTube videos in their Movie Maker projects (I donwloaded and converted them to avi files for them.) Of course, YouTube can also be fun! Here is one of my favorite episodes of "I Love Lucy!"

Thing 18

Some thoughts about podcasting...

Thing 16

Goal setting in a public way would not necessarily be beneficial for me. I am self-motivated and usually don't need coaxing and cheering from others to achieve something. If I do need encouraging, the most helpful way for this to happen would be from my family and friends and not from random people on the internet. I can see a use for this site in the classroom to help a team of students collaborate and encourage each other to accomplish a task or group effort/performance/event, etc.

Thing 15

I think that the Library Thing is very cool, not only for me personally, but for my family of voracious readers. After exploring the site, I emailed the link to one of my daughters. She is an English major, I'm sure that she will love it! She infact responded, "you have found the dork in me."