YAY! the end! *one more thing*

When I first started this blog I thought I would never finish! The tasks seemed like they'd be too complicated and I would never figure it out! Well now that I have finished, I totally loved every bit of it! There were so many great things that I can't even begin to respond to them. The only ones that didn't grab my attention were the flowchart and mind bubble websites; these just weren't as exciting as the others. They were great websites just nothing that I would use. I really think that I'm going to periodically look at the 23 things to just refresh my memory of all the activities. 

I never even though of lifelong learning goals until they were presented to me at the beginning of this process. When I take a step back and look at the bigger picture, I see that everything is a learning experience and I should try to make an attempt to learn something new everyday. Whether it be from students, colleagues, parents, friends, or a woman in a store, I hope to learn something from someone or some thing. 

I really didn't expect to learn so much from Web 2.0. I had no idea that there were so many things to explore on the internet that could be useful for educators. There are so many ways to exchange information and gather information from other people or resources. You can create so many things on the internet that can be saved for later use or presented a wide range of viewers. Its a great concept and I am so glad that I have been exposed to these advantages of the internet. 

I hope to use all of the things I have learned in my future classroom. A lot of times you hear of teachers having students that have to educate them on technology but I hope to be the one who is educating the students on up-to-date technology and information and maybe even being ahead of the game. The only way to stay ahead of your students is why making sure you know all the ends and out to what is new and what is out of date and how things work. Maybe I will be able to be successful in this aspect. I plan to regularly check back with the many resources that I have been exposed to in order to stay in tuned with Web 2.0 and all the new features. It will be difficult because it changes so fast, but as along as I stick with it, it shouldn't be a problem!

Thing 23?!? Already!?!? *thing 23*

Creative Commons can be very resourceful for people to preserve their work and still regulate how it's used. Instead of making it where no one can use an author's piece of work, they can decide whether or not they want people to be able to recreate their work or share it in any way or be able to receive profit from it. Teaching how to properly use resources from the internet is very essential in today's classroom. Most student's are getting their information for projects and papers from resources off the internet and they need to know when they can use things and how they can use them or when they can't use them at all. It is also crucial for teachers to know the Creative Commons laws for their own research they will do over their teaching career. So many things are made to be hands on and easily accessible on Web 2.0 that it's not hard to see what can be used and what can't but at the same time its so easy to just take things that aren't your own. As long as you pay attention to these laws, you won't have to worry about the threat of plagiarism and having faulty work or research.

Double Deuce! *thing 22*

I searched through Education Podcast Directory and followed the links on the side on the page. I looked through several categories searching for a podcast that interest me as well as kept my attention. This website was easier to navigate than some of the others and felt user-friendly. I found a podcast called "Science on the Wild Side". This particular podcast caught my attention by its name, first off, and kept it when I found out that the artist or narrator (not real sure which it is) was rapping in each one about the wild animal or place that the podcast was saluting too. It was really interesting and would keep student's attention easily. This podcast could definitely be used in the classroom that's for sure. I'm not real sure if creating a podcast is something I'd be too good at, but I do enjoy hearing what other people have to say. I might one day change my mind about podcast but it just seems like too much for me at the moment. I actually might try to keep up with this particular podcast, my only problem is remembering all of these things. I have the same problem with social networks and blogs.

7 times 3 *thing 21*

Well ain't that the coolest thing! Animoto is an awesome video creating website. Its super easy to use with it's step by step instructions. You add your own pictures or videos to the video website and choose from a selection of music. The only thing that isn't the greatest is that the music isn't an easy selection. You can't just add music from your own itunes library, you have to choose from Animoto's own music. It wasn't easy to choose sense I didn't know any of the artists besides the Classical artists. This is why I chose Mozart! Oh well, there is ups and downs to everything and it can't always be perfect but either way this website can be used in many different ways, I just hope that I can remember to use it for other creative things. My video is a collection of pictures from my trip to Edisto Island, South Carolina this summer. There are pictures of Magnolia Plantation in Charleston and also picture from the beach at Edisto. Hope you enjoy it!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Two Decades! *thing 20*

Youtube has everything! Anytime you need to hear a song or watch a show or any sort of video of anything, you can ALWAYS Youtube it! I believe that Youtube can be and is used as a verb just the same as Google is. Everyone always says "just Youtube it!" and everyone knows what they're talking about. I probably go to Youtube once a week to look up something. Youtube can be very useful in the classroom for many things such as research or in lectures to demonstrate topics or give additional information. The video I thought was worth putting in my blog is "Stalking Cat". Its so funny and creepy to watch you just have to pay attention. I've found myself watching it many times! Hope you enjoy it if you haven't seen it!

19 things and counting... *thing 19*

The only social networks that I am apart of are facebook and now TeacherPop (pending still). I've been a part of facebook for a while now and it has awesome features. You can do pretty much anything on this network. TeacherPop can be very useful. Being able to exchange thoughts and ideas with other educators is great. And the fact that TeacherPop was started at APSU is also beneficial. I don't use facebook very much anymore so it doesn't benefit me as much as it could. I still like I waste more time than anything. TeacherPop, on the other hand, can be very useful for me it just depends on whether I use it appropriately or use it at all.

18th century *thing 18*

I used to be really in to the whole social networking thing, or better yet, facebook, but here recently I have stayed away from it. I feel like it can become really addicting and distracting, especially when you are supposed to do a majority of your school work on the computer. It can also cause a lot of drama for friends and relationships if its not used appropriately. It can also be a source for cyber-bullying. Social-networking is a great idea as long as its used right. Since this was my first time logging on to my facebook account in quite a few months, a lot of things had changed since my last visit. There are plenty of cool features to keep a mind busy for a long period of time. I think social-networking would be as beneficial to a classroom as a blog would be. From a personal standpoint, I really don't see the point in using either one of these just because of all the other resources and applications out there. It could possibly come in to good use one day, but nothing significant enough to think of now! 

FACEBOOK LINK!

17 again! *thing 17*

Being able to access things that you have bookmarked from any computer makes researching and viewing certain topics really easy. This could help in the classroom when you have bookmarked a certain web page at your home computer and need access to it on your classroom computer. All you would have to do is pull up the delicious account and access your bookmarked pages and pull them up for your students or fellow teachers to view. I'm not real sure if I would use this personally, but the thought of it sounds good! I would be more prone to try and remember the specific site or just write it down. Having so many different accounts on so many different websites is too much of a hassle for me. This idea is great for all the people who love their internet access!

16 things and counting... *thing 16*

I choose to go ahead and reorganize and change colors and other things on my already made iGoogle homepage. I have been using this as my homepage since the previous thing that had iGoogle on it. I really enjoy it and use a lot of the features that are on it daily. The online calendar could be useful for always having access to your calendar instead of worrying about keeping up with it you can just log on to it on the internet. I probably wouldn't use it much because I already have a hard enough time keeping up with my calendar I use now. The online to-do list is a cool idea but I think its too much work for a simple task that only needs a pen and scratch piece of paper. Most to-do lists are good mainly for when you're going to the store or around the house and its way more convenient to have a piece of paper rather than logging on the internet. But some people do benefit from this things on the web, just not me.

15 shmififteen! *thing 15*

Before this exercise I didn't know that Wikipedia was a "wiki" and there were other features like this. Wikis give you another to share and exchange information on the internet without being stuck to something. Wikis are applications that allow users to change information or post new information. Things in the world change all the time and so should on the information on the internet, so the convenience of being able to change it yourself and also check past information without having to register with anything is pretty awesome. Wikis give schools and libraries different ways to share ideas and information. Making a wiki site would be a good idea for a teacher who had a lot going on the classroom. It would give the students other means of sharing notes and helpful information for whatever may be going on and the teacher can also add information to enhance the student's experience. The only disclaimer I would have with using wikis is that it could be hard to trust some information sometimes, especially if you are looking up something for a research paper or a crucial topic that has a lot of different heartfelt views. But other than that, I think wikis  are a good idea.

Quatorze! *thing 14*

Templates for mind maps and flow-charts are pretty nifty for anyone who can't get something started. A mind map can help when you are trying to brainstorm for either a project or a paper. These mind map websites give you an idea of how your ideas show flow. Flow-charts can be used for many things such as presentations and projects to present a flow of an idea or sequence of something. I explored Gliffy and Bubbl.us which were two good websites that can benefit me or anyone else with a project or presentation that they are having trouble getting started.