It’s OK to be a Geek!

Over the summer I have learned so much taking this K12 Learning 2.0 class.

Some of my favorite things:

Google Docs – Can we finally tell Microsoft goodbye?
RSS feed – everything at my fingertips
Wiki – Now my book club can thrive!
Flickr – I can now show all my favorite pictures with the world!!
ToonDoo – Comic life has a run for it’s money…
Del.icio.us – My computer crashed.. All my favorites are saved!! Oh so tasty…
Library Thing – A book lovers (ME!!) dream come true

SO much more.. I have learned so much and I can honestly say I am SO glad I took this class!

Good bye K12 Learning.. or is that HELLO?

Ning -

I’ve been a part of Ning since I attended iSummit 08.  I joined the Ning network called Global Green Schools.  Global Green Schools is a resource for teachers and students to communicate and collaborate on projects involving environmentalism and sustainability.  The Lovett School is currently building a “GREEN” middle school so this was a chance that I could collaborate with other schools that are going green.

Ning is another great way to show off your technology ideas as well as gain ideas from other educators.  I look forward to using ning this year.

Page Flakes

I’ve been a fan of Google from day one.  The idea of having everything you need or just “snipits” of it is a wonderful idea.  I’ve used Google flakes for a few years now and have become unable to live without it.  Pageflakes really opens up a new world of flaking.  I love the idea of being able to create your own flakes.  This could open up a whole new world if ideas as far as using this in the classroom.  I found so many communities on technology that I could use to help with classroom ideas.

I love how you can create several pages of flakes.  If I need one for my 5th grade class or my 4th grade science class I can customize to my preference.

I have already started a personal one to include all my hobbies, apple computers, gardening, reading and technology!  I’m very excited to see how I can use this throughout the year!

Google Docs.

I’ve been working in technology for 20 years and I never thought the day would come when we could totally get away from microsoft. I love the fact that we now can do just about anything on the computer without spending the amount of money of a car payment for software.
I think my most favorite thing about Google docs is the polling. I love how you can create a poll and have people respond to it, and it automatically updates.
The presentation feature is amazing. I’m going to enjoy using this with my 5th grade this year during our presentation section when we do book reports.
It’s so easy to add new slides, duplicate slides, insert text, place images, movies, sounds.. the list is endless.
I think the most important thing about google docs is sharing. You can share anything, everything or nothing..
Hey.. I think we are going back to the days where our ancestors shared tomatoes for corn?

Google Docs ROCK!

For the love of YouTube!

What did we do before youtube? Was there ever a day when we couldn’t talk about a cool commercial or product then jump on the computer and show what you were talking about? Yes.. but now we live in a world of advanced technology and I LOVE it!!
YouTube is another one of my all time favorites. I don’t think I go a day without visiting it in some fashion. I use it constantly for personal development and to help other teachers learn about technology. If I have a teacher come to me stressed out about something they need to learn, I usually can find a tutorial on Youtube to show them. How cool is that? Way!

Here is a great example of how I learned Leopard quickly after it came out:

If you are living without YouTube.. you are missing out!

Evoca.

I really enjoyed using evoca. It was SO easy and fun to use.  Here is my podcast on how I use podcasting in my classroom:

Podcasting

I have been podcasting since day one.  I think podcasting should be a part of every curriculum.  There are so many ideas on how to use podcasting in the classroom.  I’ve used podcasting for melodramas, poetry, social studies, and even math.  My favorite is last years 5th grade project.  I created a poetry web quest where I had the students learning all over the web about different types of poetry, how it was written, examples and definitions.  I then had them write 5 poems from the list of different types.  When they had completed the web quest and poetry writing I had them pick out one poem they wrote that was their favorite.  We then created a podcast from the poem with pictures, music and sound effects.

Podcasting will continue to be a part of my curriculum!

My all-time favorite podcast is Mac Break weekly from the TWiT netcast site.. Leo Leporte has really enriched my knowledge of technology. Here is the link!
http://twit.tv/mbw

Library Thing

Blogging about Library Thing is just so easy for me.  I think if I haven’t learned anything at all from this class but Library Thing I would be HAPPY.. but that’s not the case.  Library thing is going to be such a big part of my life in the future.  Reading is a big part of mine and my family’s life.  Discovering Library thing has me so excited.  To have the ability to organize my books is just a small piece of the pie that I can create.  I love being able to join groups and do things far beyond just reading.  I started an email book club about a year ago.  My group of friends and I email almost daily comments and ideas about books we are reading.  Library thing is going to allow us to join together there and possibly expand our group.

I’m so excited about Library Thing… I think it’s better than anything I’ve learned about this summer!

ToonDoo – http://www.toondoo.com/

ToonDoo is an amazing tool.  I use comic life with my 3rd and 5th grade students and ToonDoo is going to be a tool added to my curriculum.  It’s like comic life with ease.  I love the drag and drop features and all the pre-made characatures you can use for your comic. 

My 3rd grade students used comic life to display their “Influential Americans”.  They all picked one American they felt was an influence to them or other students and they used comic life to show different things this american had done, where they lived or other important facts.

I can’t wait to use this tool in the classroom!