24?

My feedback is that this whole blog thing was fun during the first 12 but 13-23 we didn't have barely any time at all to work on it and it became more of a nuisance  In future classes, I suggest that the 23 things are due at the end of the year. It's a lot of work. And it takes probably at least an hour per post.

Thing 23

Creative Commons refers to copyrighting. Online it is very easy to copyright because people are constantly using photos, music, documents and all of this has to come from somewhere. The important thing is is that you have to give credit where it is due and you also have to teach your students this too.

http://resa-23things.blogspot.com/

Thing 22

Lacy's LiveBinder

The website that we're looking at is called Live Binders. I didn't have a whole lot of time to look through everything but I think that this would be a good way to submit homework and just like it says, keep a binder. You can use it somewhat as an agenda to keep up with all the work that you have to do and as a teacher, you can submit homework for students.

Thing 21

Miguel

Animoto is a site that can make videos. Only problem is, you have to pay for it. You can do a free sample but it only allows you to do 30 second videos. You can do the same thing that this program does on Windows Live Movie Maker that comes with most computers.

Thing 20

I'm very well known with Youtube. I love Youtube. This is one of my favorite videos. It's Hero By: Enrique Iglesias but it's performed by Sean Berdy. Anyone who watches the tv series Switched at Birth will know who Sean Berdy. He's deaf and does this very sentimental video in ASL (American Sign Language). 

Youtube has a lot of features. You can upload videos or watch other videos that others have posted. It also has a new feature called Wigs. Wigs is where people can post mini series. I've only watched one of them, called Blue. It was very interesting. I'm intrigued to see what else Youtube comes up with.

Thing 19

Teacher Pop is the website we had to join this time. I agree with some of the posts on there. It is a lot like a special facebook for teachers. I think that it's a lot more professional and a better way to communicate with other teachers than the informal facebook. 

I don't like this type of "teacher pop".

I am a part of a couple of online communities. I'm a part of facebook and I used to be a part of an online community called DII (dreaming in ink). This was a community that helps writers become better. I'm also about to join a community that's a roleplay that helps you become better at creative writing. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of online communities. I think there's something for everyone out there. Then of course, there's the ones that we've had to join for this class. In a way, blogger is it's own community too.

I'm not sure if I'd use it right now but I think that Teacher Pop may be of use later on. 

Thing 18

Lacy May Jack's Facebook

I don't think that social networking is all that important for teachers to have. I almost think of it as something that teacher's shouldn't have. Not quite, but almost. Mostly because social networking can get people into trouble. You have to watch what you post, like, the pictures that people are posting of you, etc.

There's not any reason that I would say that teachers SHOULD have social networking. The only thing I can think of is if they want to stay in touch with their colleagues and students.

Twitter, I think is probably one of my top 10 worse sites ever. The only people it benefits, in my opinion, is celebrities.

I can't see any way either of these would be useful in a classroom.

Thing 17

Delicious is a social bookmarking site. I think that this could be useful in a classroom as a place to keep links to important websites and a good resource to find websites also. I also think that it has a place in personal use to find articles and such that are of interest to you.

Thing 16

I used igoogle i think that it's useful because it has different features like the weather, date, time, calendar, gmail, and the news. The only thing is, and this refers to every thing like this even the online calendars, you would have to remember to check it every day and eventually that gets very tedious if you have a lot of different sites for everything. I think that it's useful, but I wouldn't make it my homepage. I don't like it that much.

The online calendar I tried is called 30 Boxes. I liked the calendar, but remembering where it is online is a problem, like I said. It's hard to remember those kinds of things sometimes. Especially, after we've learned so many interesting things on here.

To-do lists, I think, are useful. Especially the sticky notes. I already had those on my laptop and I use them all the time to write down things so I won't forget.

I also downloaded the google desktop. I like a lot of google products and I think that it's interesting because it brings important things like the weather, the time, the sticky notes, all of this right to your desktop so you don't have to go everywhere online looking for everything. I would recommend this to people.

Thing 15

Making us learn about Wikipedia is a good idea in my opinion because it is a big part of the online community and a lot of people use it, including teachers and students. Although, I didn't really learn anything that I didn't already know about it. Though there are a lot of good aspects about Wikipedia that I like, it's not a very reputable source. The fact that anyone can change the information makes in unreliable because you don't know if the information you're taking from it is true or false. This is why teachers today do not allow students to use Wikipedia in citations or in the classroom. 

Thing 14

First, I decided to look at flow charts. The sites that are posted for flow charts are Gliffy and Flowchart. The one I looked at was Gliffy. I'm not all that big on flow charts and this site was really hard to navigate. If I had more time then I might have enjoyed the different parts of the website, but it's definitely overwhelming to a beginner. It's a lot to look at. Though, if you had to do a lot of flow charts then I can see where it could come in handy.

something funny for all you drinkers out there

Second, I looked at the mind maps. The sites that are posted for mind maps are Mind Meister and Bubbl Us. The one I decided to check out was Mind Meister. I got so caught up in that. I thought it was very neat and I had to literally stop myself and finish this post or I'd be up all night playing with it. I like it a LOT more than the flow chart.

In both flow charts and mind maps, they both have a lot of information and they're all connected. Flow charts, I think that you come to some kind of conclusion, but in mind maps it's just a way to organize information. I think that mind maps are a lot more fun than flow charts, though everyone is going to have their own opinion on that! 

Thing 13

Okay, so I first looked at Zoho, but I didn't have time to explore it. Then a few days later I was in my dorm and remembered I had a Spanish Composition due the next day. Well, just recently I had broken my laptop and had to get the hard drive replaced and lost Microsoft Office. It's a long story, but I haven't been able to re-download Microsoft Office yet and then I remembered about Zoho. This really helped me because, it being really cold outside, I didn't want to walk all the way to the library just to type out my paper.

I think that Zoho can be a really useful tool, one that I will most definitely use again! (At least till I get Microsoft Office replaced.) Though, I do agree with the statement that I think eventually software will be replaced by everyone just accessing it online. It's a lot more convenient because if your computer crashes or you have to switch computers a lot, like from home to class or to work then you won't have to bring your laptop everywhere you can just access it online.

This is my document on Zoho: Ropa Entrevista.

We looked at Google Drive in class. I think that it's definitely an interesting website, especially for teachers. I think that it's very useful because you can put a test on there and get immediate answers from your students and have all the answers in one place.

Students can also work collaboratively on this by making surveys for class projects with the "form", but they can also use the "document" for papers, "presentation" for group presentations, "spreadsheet" for graphs and "drawing" for more creative projects.

This is my document on Google Drive: French Culture. There's only one question because I didn't have all that much time to work on it.

I think that Google Drive and Zoho are very similiar. It's hard to say which one I like better because I haven't had a lot of time with them, but I'd have to say, as of right now, I like Google Drive better because it's easier to navigate.

Overall, I think they're both something I will use in my profession and I also think that they can be used for everyone, not just teachers.

Thing 12

My favorite out of the Google apps are Picasa and Google Translate. These are particularly fun for me. Picasa you can download onto your computer and it automatically updates every single picture on your computer and then allows you to "tag" people in it and then eventually learns peoples faces and can identify them for you. It's particularly useful if you're trying to find a picture of a certain person. You can just go on there and it will show you every picture of that person that is on your computer.

Google Translate is another favorite of mine (remember, I'm a French major) because it helps if you're in a hurry to translate or you're in class and you don't know a word so you just google it on your phone. It's very useful.

Picasa doesn't have a lot of educational use, in my opinion. It's more for personal use on your computer. Most foreign language teachers hate Google Translate and other online translators because for one the student isn't doing his/her work but expecting the answer to be handed to them and another the translators don't always translate correctly. With this said, I think there's a time and a place for it. You have to use it effectively.

Overall, I think that Google has a lot of apps that are useful and enjoyable online. You just have to spend a little time using them to figure them out, but when you do then it's worth it.

Thing 11

I found the http://www.google.com/blogsearch the easiest to use. My things with websites is that if I click on it and I automatically don't understand it or it doesn't look interesting then I'm probably going to exit out of the page right away, but with the blogsearch it was easy to use and I like that you can just type in whatever kind of blog that you want to see and it pops right up with suggestions.

I typed in something broad and basic, trying to get a wide variety of blogs. The first thing I typed in was "cats". There wasn't anything that interested me; so, i typed in the word "food". The first blog that I saw was this, Gizmodo: 20 Amazing Photos of Food as Art. This was very interesting to me and I didn't have to go through a hundred blogs to find something that I liked.

Another way that I use to find different blogs is when you're viewing your blog then at the top in the left hand corner is a button that says "next blog". If you use that way you can't control what kind of blogs you get but I think it's kind of interesting to see all the different kind of blogs and to sift through them and find the ones that you like.

Thing 10

RSS and newsreaders are definitely a good tool to have if you're into blogging. Like I said before, you need a blogging community to get a lot of readers and feedback on your blog and by using this tool you can see when blogs are updated and that gives you more of a chance to be able to comment on their blogs and hopefully get some feedback yourself. I'm not sure that I would have a lot of use for it unless I kept a blog myself. But a lot of teachers do have blogs and to keep up with others they could use this RSS and newsreaders to do that.

Thing 9

www.imagechef.com

I liked these, they were very light and fun to play with. My favorite site was imagechef because the first two were hard to understand and the last one - well, I'm not really all that into smiley faces.

These could be useful to use on school websites, blogs, powerpoints, flyers... they could be used for a lot of purposes to make things seem more fun and interesting (as long as you're not in a VERY professional situation, like a press conference). The students will like them and pictures (if used right) can make a powerpoint or anything of the sort a little more interesting, because it makes it to where you're not just looking at a page of words but the pictures break it up a little so all the words aren't so overwhelming.

Thing 8

 I thought that these Flickr apps were interesting, but I couldn't figure out how to put them on here so I tried each picture at a time and it took me a long time and was very annoying. I probably wouldn't do it willingly on here again. I think that they can be used to add some fun types of images in a classroom setting like on slideshows and things like that. In a personal setting you could use them for flyers, blogs or websites.

Thing 7

Byron and Lacy, a photo by lacymay31992 on Flickr.

This was my first experience with Flickr. I'd heard of it, but never used it. It was an okay experience overall. It wasn't that hard to figure out and reminded me a lot of Photobucket and Picasa. Though the thing I like on Photobucket and Picasa that I didn't see on Flickr was an editor so you can edit your photos in unique ways before you post them. I think if I spent more time with it I'd like it more but on a scrunched time frame I didn't have a lot of time to "play" with it. 

I uploaded some personal photos, photos of my little brother and I and photos of my boyfriend and I, but I think that Flickr has potential to be used for more. I'm not exactly sure how I could incorporate it into the classroom, but I'm sure I could eventually think of some ways to use it in a more professional environment.

I don't mind having my pictures public. If I minded then I wouldn't have posted them. These photos were already on Facebook and that's public. I think that if people don't want others to see their pictures then they shouldn't post them online, but most people want others to see their photos. Photos are memories and almost everyone wants others to see a glimpse into their life and what better way than through pictures? 

Thing 6

The tool that I selected is called Smore. It's a tool that's used to make flyers easily. The tool seems like a good idea. It's a good way to save paper and seems more efficient with the ever-growing technology in our society. Plus, people are more apt to post something online then they are to go out and post flyers.

The  thing that I thought could be added to the site is I think it would be more effective if there was a place where you could select your state and then your city and see what people are advertising in your area. This would organize the site better because who wants to see what's being in advertised in South Dakota when you live in Tennessee?

I think this could be used in a school setting to advertise for school bake sales, school fundraisers and events going on in the school. And if they would divide it up into states and cities then people could easily find their school and see what's going on.

Thing 5

I think that "School 2.0" just stands for the idea that schools should adapt to the new expanding technology. In my opinion, it's sort of inevitable. School's are going to bring in new technology because it's available and is, in some cases, helpful to student learning. School's are already adapting to this in assigning students with homework that has to be turned in online, papers that are assigned that need online resources, and by bringing in computer labs and smart boards.

The only problem that I see in this is that not all students have computers at home. I think that if schools are going to make it required that students have to do online research or homework then they should provide each student with their own personal laptop so that way each student has a way to do their homework. Some schools have already started doing this and I think that it immensely prepares students for college and beyond high school because once you get out of high school you will be expected to know how to work computers, internet and technology effectively.

I think that in the future we will all be required to know how to use and understand a vast amount of technology, far beyond what we can even imagine at this day and time; and I think that students will know how to use it at a younger age, but I think that it's going to make some students rely more on technology rather than on their own brains. So, students will either benefit and add the technology to their knowledge or they will depend on it and not be as smart. I think it's up to each individual (and how they raise their children) to use technology in an effective way and not depend on it so much that they don't know how to think for themselves. 

Thing 4

In the blog world there are different kinds of blogs and I'm not just talking about the topic of your blog. There are blogs that are used for personal use (which are not made for the public eye) and then there are blogs where every blogger dreams of thousands of people coming to read about your personal words and interest. But in the real world, it's actually very hard to get people to comment and actually take an interest in what you are interested in. You not only have to be a good writer but you also have to have a topic of interest, not just something that interests you but something that interests a wide variety of people. 

Then there's your other problem, how do you get people to take notice of your blog? First you have to tell people about your blog and hope they like it. Another way is to go to other peoples blogs (preferably ones that have similar topics of interest) and you have to comment on their blog. This creates a sense of being a part of a community - a blogging community. If you take an interest in other peoples blogs then they will (maybe) take an interest in yours. 

You can write all you want but does it really matter if no one reads it? 

Also, like it says in this blog, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com, criticize kindly. It's okay to criticize someone if you're being helpful, but you're trying to make friends here, so be nice! No one wants to know if you hate their blog. You wouldn't want someone else to tell you if your blog is the crappiest thing they've ever read so treat others the way you want to be treated.

http://www.problogger.net says that only one in every hundred readers comment on your blog. Do you know how many people would have to see your blog in order for you to get a steady amount of feedback? A LOT! This is where being part of a blogging community becomes handy. The more you read and comment on other peoples blogs on a weekly basis the more viewers you will get and the more comments you will receive also. It's a lot of work, but if you really want readers and comments you have to go the extra mile.

The blogs that I commented on:

• Elizabeth Howell's Blog
• Lesley's 23 Things!
• Jordyn's 23 Things.
• stephen smith's blog
• Karalina Roelle's Blogs

• Ramblings of a doula and more
• Pinstrosity

I commented on a lot of different blogs. First off, I looked at Elizabeth's and Jordyn's blogs first because they had already commented on my blog. I did not "pity" comment on theirs just because they commented on mine but I like to know more about the people who comment on. It's kind of nice to get a glimpse of someone else's life once in a while. 

On Elizabeth's I commented about how I liked that she mentioned using blogs for keeping in touch with others (especially in our community with so many in the military). This interested me because my boyfriend is in the military and everyone likes blogs that they can relate to. :) Elizabeth also writes very well, has a good vocabulary and is humorous with her "gondola driving, sheep herding wizard". These things are some of the things that I like in writers and are things that I like to see if I'm going to be sticking with a blog.

Lesley's blog was very well organized and easy to navigate. This is also something I like in a blog. No one wants to spend an hour trying to figure out what the blog is about, most will just go to the next one.

Jordyn's blog is very "happy". It's a bright color and that kind of draws people into it and gives an inviting atmosphere. She seems like a very happy and optimistic person and this doesn't just make her a good writer but gives you a sense that she would make a very good teacher as well. Being that this is a teaching blog, it will bring a certain type of reader and that type of reader would probably want to keep reading.

Stephen's blog is kind of simple which isn't a bad thing. It was also easy to navigate and even though he says he's a newbie at this it sure doesn't seem like it! His posts are short and to the point and are interesting to read.

Karalina seemed to have a little bit of a problem on her blog as she accidentally wrote her post in the comment section. I did say something to her about this but only to help and never to be mean! Her posts seem gentle and inviting. 

I think that overall everyone's doing such a good job getting through this new experience of blogging and hopefully it will help us with our future teaching experiences.

I started looking through different blogs and it took a little while to find some that interested me. I didn't want to use ones that I had already been following because I wanted to find some new ones to follow. The first one that I came across was the Ramblings of a doula and more. First of all, I have no idea what a doula is but now I'm interested to find out! The first thing that made me interested in this blog is the "flipcard" format. It's got these little cards that flip over and have each post with a picture. It's very intriguing and even though I only had the time to read one post I am VERY interested in reading more and seeing what this "doula" stuff is and reading about this woman's life. Reading about others is always fun for me because I'm a writer myself and everyone has their own story. I'm a firm believer that the more you read the better you become at writing.

The second one that I read is called Pinstrosity. Almost everyone knows about the site, Pinterest. It's a site where you can get different ideas about cooking, crafts, clothing and more. The site is mainly directed towards females and I am guilty of spending way too much time on there. Anyways, what everyone might not know is that there is a blog that posts about different pins that they have tried and if it fails it's called a Pinstrosity. If you're a Pinterest fan then you will be very interested to see how others have tried to copy the Pins and if you've tried some yourself you might know first hand that they don't always come out as expected. Also, if you have a Pinstrosity then you can tell them and they might feature it on their blog.

Overall, I think that blogging is definitely an interesting hobby if you like to write and if you have the time for it. Just make sure that if you do decide to do it to establish a blogging community and don't give up! :)

Thing 3

In today's society, being able to use the internet effectively is essential. Almost every profession, including being a teacher, requires that you be able to use the internet. Nowadays, we use internet in our every day lives and for many different reasons.

In schools today students are also required to use computers, internet and technology. More and more schools are making it required for students to have access to a computer to turn in homework or to do projects, essays and things like that. The older you get the more technology you are required to use in schools.

By using technology, this gives teachers a more wide variety of activities and projects they can use to interact with their students. Blogs are one of these resources that teachers can use. By making a blog you can develop one place to hold different things that can be useful to your students.

For me, I want to become a French teacher, and I could use a blog for a place to hold different links for students to be able to access that may help them with their French. It can be a place where I can update class news or news in general. I can also post videos that can help students learn or French movies, TV shows, or music. Videos are a good form of interaction especially for foreign languages because hearing the language being spoke is necessary for the student to learn.

Blogs can be very interactive if used in the right way and most teachers want this interaction with their students. It assures them that their students are learning and actually care about learning their subject. Blogs help the students to interact because they have to watch the videos, read the posts and comment. Plus, blogs are a lot more interesting and personal than a school website. This will encourage the students to actually go onto the blog, check it out, and interact.

Overall, I think that blogs are a good way for teachers to introduce their students to the internet and to help them become more involved in class and to ultimately learn more and have a fun time doing it. Remember, if students are having fun learning your subject then they're apt to learn more. ^-^

"Thing 2 would like to clarify that just because he wears the number 2 does not imply in any way that he's inferior to Thing 1."

"He says you may feel free to call him Thing A if you like. He will also accept Super Thing, Thing King, Kid Dynamite, Chocolate Thun-da or Ben."

I want to start off with a little bit about me to answer these questions for "Thing 2". My name is Lacy May Jack. I am a junior here at Austin Peay State University. I am majoring in French with a double minor in Creative Writing and Education. I hope to become a French teacher but that's not all I aspire to do in life.

This is not my first blog. I've worked with other blogs for various reasons. I like reading and writing. The genre that I read and write most in is paranormal romances (NOT A TWILIGHT FAN!) and I hope to become a successful paranormal romance writer in the near future.

My posting names are simple and get the point across. This is Thing 2 so therefore the name: Thing 2. I named it Lacy Jack's 3040 Blog because it's easy to remember and signifies that this is for the Education 3040 class, just in case I have to do something like this for another class, I'll remember which one is which easily. Plus, names of blogs and their web addresses can be changed so it's not a big deal what I name it. And since this blog is for work not pleasure writing, I didn't feel the need to go all crazy on the names and such.

Blogger is a fairly easy blog to use, even for people who have never used technology/blogs before. The same can be said for the doppleme avatars. It's all pretty self explanatory. The avatar that I created looks a little like me. There's not many creative options for the avatars so we're sort of limited. I gave it long red hair like myself and a stack of books, because I love books, and I gave it a beret not because I wear them but because I thought it could signify that I'm a French major.

My little brother and I 

Anyways, I look forward to working on this blog because it gives me an interesting way to practice writing and something to write about. I also look forward to seeing what others come with also.

Note: Just a heads up to anyone who reads my posts, I like to incorporate pictures into my posts. I find that this makes posts a bit more interesting and pulls people in, makes them want to read what you have to say and helps your blog look more attractive because it breaks your blog into sections. Readers find it discouraging when they see a ton of words and no breaks for their eyes. :)

"Thing 1 says he's Thing 1 for a reason and some people should just get used to it. It's a Thing thing, you wouldn't understand."

Okay, so I viewed the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners. After contemplating the different habits, I think that the hardest one for me is the Habit #4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. This one seems harder for me than the rest because I've never been all that confident in myself and it's hard for me to think of myself as competent because I often compare myself to others. I want to be the best at what I do but it gets me down when I notice people in my class doing better than me. Though this becomes some what of a problem, it also helps me. It makes me more competitive and struggle to be the best that I can be.

The easiest one for me, would be Habit#7: Teach/mentor others. I have a teaching and motherly nature. I like to nurture others and help them. I often correct people without thinking (sorry to those who hate Grammar Nazi's) and always want the best for others, which is probably why I decided on becoming a teacher.

As for my experience with Web 2.0 tools, I think it's fairly easy. I have used blogger before and technology usually comes fairly easy to me so I'm not worried about any of it.

Overall, I agree that all of these habits of Lifelong Learners are good to have and help people become better learners and in effect, help them become better teachers. You have to learn before you can teach. I hope everyone else had an easy time with blogger as well. :)