This activity took me a long time because I had so much fun playing with all of the tools. I love the JigZone site and spent over an hour putting together puzzles. LetterPop will probably be the most useful to me as I gather materials to share with others in an appealing way. Eyespot is another site that I found that will be extremely useful as I create video materials to help promote the school. I know we were supposed to review two tools but it was so much fun!

I have visited the Online Conference site several times but tonight I actually listened to a wonderful overview of Second Life. It can be found at http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=164 .

Kevin did a wonderful job going into tremendous detail about this new virtual world. This experience actually made me feel somewhat more comfortable with the teen version. I also realize that there are some wonderful components that we cannot dismiss.

I enjoyed playing with the various picture sharing slideshow sites. I decided to create a pikistrip comic of my children. I hope you like it!

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I enjoyed exploring Flicker and I must say that I learned much about the different types Creative Commons permissions. I also enjoyed exploring the various types of projects that one can create with Flicker.

I do a lot of work with internet safety so I selected a picture that I could use at a later time.

The depth of the explanation of Creative Commons has helped to add clarity to my understanding on this topic. I am excited about the resources that I am able to find from images to video clips for use in the classroom.

I love the Open Educational Resources site and the Creative Commons Search site.

Wiki’s, Wiki’s, Wiki’s Oh My! I love working with Wiki’s because they are so easy to edit and modify. As I was looking over the examples that were provided, I found several that I thought were well organized and easy to navigate. My favorite was the Math 12V Outcomes Portfolio Wiki because it was so detailed and informative. This type of resource can really help clarify important information for students. I also enjoyed the FHS Wolves Den Wiki which contained varied resources and amazing depth.

My impression of Wikipedia has certainly changed over time. A few weeks ago our school was banned from making edits on Wikipedia for the duration of one year. Apparently, some of our students were vandalizing the site by editing the site with inappropriate language.  (The last edit involved the usage of the word “poopie head” in place of a famous singer) We were able to track down the 6th grade offender by using the reporting feature of our bandwidth monitoring program and it actually turned into a tremendous learning experience. The student was required to write an apology letter to Wikipedia, and everyone else was reminded that where you go and what you do does or can come back to you. I think I read somewhere that inaccurate information is usually corrected within seconds so the site is actually gaining validity. To be honest, it is the first place that I go to learn about a new topic and I imagine it is the first place our students go as well.

Although I have had a Google Reader Account for some time, I have never taken the time to set up a feed on a topic search. This is an extremely helpful feature for me since I continually research the latest software, internet safety topics, new hardware, etc. as part of my job. I also think the reference sites to search great educational blogs like the Livemocha site was helpful to see the top 100 educational blogs.

I have had a Google Reader account set up for quite some time but I enjoyed adding Shelley’s list to my list of feeds. The Techlearning blog entitled “Evaluating Technology in the Classroom” was particularly interesting to me as I am continually seeking ideas to improve the technology integration at our school.

Two of the questions raised helped me as I am in the process of creating a survey to assess technology usage.

1. Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in New ways?
2. Is the technology creating new and different learning experiences for the students?

I think I need to slow down from time to time in order to assess, reflect and communicate with teachers to determine the direction we need to take to work smarter.

I especially enjoyed the writings of Patrick at http://itc.blogs.com/patrick/2005/02/5th_grade.html. I think Patrick took the opportunity to share his thoughts and feelings and was in turn encouraged to “press on”. I think that the encouraging responses to Patrick’s writings could possibly be life changing.

Complete a blog post reflecting on your initial thoughts about Web 2.0 and its role in 21st Century teaching and learning. Consider the ways in which Web 2.0 tools might change (or have already changed) your professional practice. How might you be able to use these new tools to to engage today’s “digital learners?” Why would you want to? How might you be able to use these tools to support your own learning?

Most of us are in this profession because we love to teach. We want our students to be engaged and excited about learning. I see Web 2.0 as something that I cannot dismiss if I truly want to do everything in my power to help teachers reach students. I know it will take time to sift through the piles of tools to get to those that cause to me pause and think, “wow, this is awesome”. I have already explored many new tools that have illicited that type of response from me. The use of video and audio tools will help us as we work to address different learning styles and get our students excited about the learning process. I also think that the connections, reflections and increased proficiency that I am experiencing in my professional life are worthwhile. Setting up blogs and wikis are much easier than creating a webpage, I love important infomation coming to me through RSS or being able to find previously saved information through my Delicious account to name a few. As a former math/science teacher, I would rather solve a problem or puzzel than to write a blog but I see this as an essential part of my personal growth and development.