Thing 24: The Final Frontier

This definitely was a journey but an enjoyable one. I honestly never realized how many useful tools there were out there on the world-wide web. It was nice to have a program that allowed me to tap into several of them that can help me in my future career as a teacher.

My favorite discoveries in this program included all the photo sharing programs, such as Flickr and Animoto, because I love to have pictures of everything. And in the classroom, parent permitting, I would love to keep a yearly photo journal of all the activities we do in class so parents are able to be involved when they aren't able to be there physically.
This program has affected my lifelong learning goals in the way that I feel a little silly not knowing about so many of these sites. It has made me want to explore and create more than ever because there are so many wonderful tools to make my future classroom a warm, loving, and educational environment for kids to be open and grow. I have had a taste of what is out there and I want more!

There were several unexpected outcomes to this program because I learned so much, not only with the sites listed on the blog, but on sites that I found while working on the others. I was able to take-a-way a wealth of knowledge and physical experience with these program, so when I go into teaching, I will be knowledgeable and ready to present these sites to my students for assignments. I honestly do not think there is anything I can think of changing in this program. No part of it was absolutely dreadful and dull and I learned something with each individual assignment. It was well formatted, wonderfully instructed, and I didn't even feel the need to ask the instructor additional questions because it was extremely instructional.

This program will influence my practice as a teacher because I will be able to keep up with the newest innovations in technology, which will also benefit my students. My future students will be growing up in a world that requires ten times more technological intelligence than when I was in school. So understanding these programs and knowing how to properly instruct my students on how to maneuver them will be a wonderful experience.

Keeping up with Web 2.0 will no doubt be a challenge because it is ever growing, but I will do my best to keep up with most or all of the websites I have explored and find ways to create new and interesting assignments for students to keep them interested and excited about school. Symbaloo, once of the sites discussed, would be a wonderful program to help with this. I can bookmark several of the sites on one page and make it my homepage so that I can access them with one click of a button.

Where do I go from here?

I like the idea of placing a blog URL into the signature on your teacher e-mail or even sending out a letter at the beginning of the year with the web address so that parents are able to keep up with what is going on in the classroom. The majority of parents loved to be informed and involved in what their children are doing and learning, especially when they aren't able to be there physically, and this allows for them to access the class from anywhere. Even parents who are overseas in the military would be able to see their kids building their first science project or decorating the class for Halloween or winning an award for Spelling.

The options are LIMITLESS! And the more I type about it, the more ideas come flooding in. The opportunities are endless and I can't wait to get started!

Thing 23

"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."

This is located in the credits section of the 23 Things blog and it is extremely important because it gives credit where credit is due. Crediting sources is just as important on a website as it is in any document you create. Plagarism comes in many forms and crediting an edited work helps to prevent any complications. 

*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006). 


The above credit is located at the bottom of the blog page, allowing for credit to the original blog that has been edited to our specific needs.

Creative Commons licensing will be something I use often in the classroom because there is such a wealth of knowledge on the internet and so many templates available to teachers. When using a program or template created almost entirely by someone else, but editing small aspects to fit you and your class, you want to make sure that you supply to credit to the original. Creative Commons can assist with that.

Thing 22

Live Binders is another new online resource that I got to explore and I can see how it can be very useful. The three binders I created were:
Classroom design
Special Education
Elementary Lesson Plans


My Classroom Design binder includes websites that have wonderful ideas for cheap and fun ways to decorate a classroom, as well as websites where you can buy items for your class. LiveBinders can be used in the classroom because you can allow students to have an online binder to keep important documents or websites that you use often. You could also supply them with a subject area or specific idea and instruct them to search the internet for websites pertaining to those topics and placing them into their binder. Then they could share them with you for grading or share them in front of the class.

Thing 21

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Animoto was a fun and really easy to use website. To make videos longer than 30-seconds, you have to purchase the type of video that you want to use. But to me, 30-seconds is long enough. The upload and sharing process was extremely simple to operate and if you wanted, you can add text to the video alongside the images. I chose to make a video using the "Life's a Beach" video template and I added photos from our trip to Mexico a couple years ago, since it fit the theme. 

Teachers could create videos for the classroom using this program and add in information just like Powerpoint. Teachers can make videos on any subject or maybe just make an end of the year video from pictures of all the fun activities and events the kids took place in for the parents and kids to see.

Thing 20

Youtube has become an essential part of many classrooms because you can find videos on nearly ANYTHING. You can search historical documentaries, nature videos, or just informational videos on whatever you are currently studying. I chose the video that I did because I am currently studying Special Education and Autism is such a large part of that. The video attached above is about a family learning how to raise their son with autism and the struggles and wonderful moments they go through. I always find these videos touching, inspirational, and educational. The components to this website are very user-friendly (which by this point you should know is very important to me) and as a teacher, you can create an account and add videos to it that you want to share with your class. 

Masher is a website where you can create videos by mixing photos, videos, music, and text. This could be great in the classroom because you can assign a project to your students to take pictures of their family and life and create a video and put it to music to present to the class as a beginning of the year get-to-know you project. Also, you could assign students to work in groups and gather videos and pictures of historical events or science subject and then create a video that they can add informational text to.

Thing 19

Aside from Facebook and Twitter, I honestly never realized that there were so many social networking sites out there. In this age of technology, it is wonderful that teachers have the opportunity to use these resources to reach out to their students and parents on a different level and keep in better communication than we have been able to in a long time.  I have been a member of Instagram for a couple years now and I love it. I love to take pictures of my animals and their crazy antics and just have a network where I can keep and share pictures from fun events in my life with friends and family. It is not necessarily a social networking site I would consider using in the classroom because it is difficult to add text information. 

While looking through the sites, I found Good Reads, which is a social networking site devoted to sharing book recommendations between friends. I think this is wonderful because I love to read and I am often looking for the next wonderful thing to feast my eyes on. However, I am often baffled as to what to read because there is so much out there and I could spend hours at the book store reading the backs of books just trying to find one to read. This site allows me to create a profile and read others recommendations of books and communicate between others as to what I enjoy and let them help me in the search. 

Thing 18

I used to have a Twitter account when it first came out and I used it a few times but I really didn't find the appeal in it. Now a days, it seems to be every single place you look. If you watch television, even the news, you will probably see a #hashtag pop up at some point during the program. Even public figures, such as actors and sports players, are getting in trouble with the public over what they put on Twitter. It seems silly to me, especially since you are limited to very few characters to type with. 

Since it had been so long since I used Twitter, I completely forgot my password and username so I made a new one. I enjoyed looking into the hashtags that were related to special education, like the Center for Autism and Living Autism. I think Twitter can be very useful when looking into programs and being able to see what they are up to at a quick glance. 

My Twitter Account

It is extremely important that educators understand social networking because it is such a prominent aspect to our society today. Every kid, all the way from 5th grade to high school and maybe some before, use social networking. Understanding the aspects of it and how it works will benefit how teachers relate to their students. I didn't necessarily gain anything from Twitter that I didn't already know, and it just is not a social networking site that interesting me, nor would I really like to use it in my future classroom. Classrooms applications could include a Twitter account created by a teacher where they update it daily with assignments or quick notes to students and parents about activities. You could even post a question nightly or weekly and require a response from your students.