Thing 23

I did it! I have completed 23 Things and I did it way before the deadline. Good for me. I'm usually one of those students who is waiting to the very end and has to spend the entire night before the deadline scrambling to finish my work. Not this time - this time I was focused and determined not to fall behind. I guess I had a little motivation from a friend of mine in my department. We motivated each other to finish and even used our PLC time to get things done. So what did  I learn? I learned a lot and I thought I already knew a good amount of techie stuff. I mean I am a computer teacher. I should be on top of these things and for the most part I was. New to me were RSS readers, social bookmarks and podcasting. These three items I either had no clue about or never really felt the need or desire to learn more about. Out of these three my biggest delight was social bookmarking. I have My Delicious account up and running and every day since learning about it I have tagged several websites to my account. My goal is to add every site that I have bookmarked previously to my  Delicious account.  I know I have wasted an enormous amount of time looking for sites I once encountered but can't seem to find even with my bookmarks. Something was definitely not working for me - but that probably no longer exists. I will continue using my wiki, blogging personally and professionally, embedding videos via Slideshare, uploading photos through Flickr, being entertained through RSS feeds and sharing information through GoogleDocs. I will continue my Web 2.0 learning beyond this last post.

Thing 22

Here is a link to my wiki. This is something I use daily for each of my classes. I use it to post daily assignments, class information, deadlines etc. Check it out!

thsbono.wikispaces.com

Thing 21

Since the beginning of the school year I have been using a wiki to manage my classes. It has been wonderful. I have created five different pages and I have them all linked together so all my students can toggle back and forth between them. I use a 'home' page to for each class that lists contact information, upcoming events and deadlines. Then each chapter is broken down into course objectives, lesson plans, class assignments and instructional videos. Each class has slightly a different look than the next. I can honestly say that creating this wiki took a little getting use to but once I found the perfect layout I was off and running. I will definitetly be using wiki's from now on.

Thing 20

I'm still having a hard time with podcasting and I'm trying to be open-minded here. I checked out EPN and Podcast Alley. I subscribed to few podcasts through Itunes and still did not find anything that was interesting or helpful. It seems like you would have to spend a lot of time weeding out the "junk" before you found any real useful information. I guess if I come across someone who is down right hilarious like Howard Stern then maybe it would be worth the effort but as of right now I will stick to the other web 2.0 tools I have encountered.

Thing 19

I guess I just don't get it. Podcasting that is. The several podcasts I listened to were boring and not very entertaining to say the least. (I will try to give podcasting another chance later but for now the verdict is out & it is not positive.)  So now everyone with an opinion and some basic technology and a lot of free time can create their own podcasts for people to listen to. Why? Why would I would to spend the time to subscribe and download to these - am I that bored? I guess I'm a little old school when it comes to mindless chatter. I like my radio. You are turn it on and it works - no downloading necessary.


Ok - I won't be unrealistic here. I can definitely see a few places where podcasting could come in handy. Perhaps being stuck on a long flight to Japan.  Don't they offer movies on those flights?

Thing 17

Productivity Tools


I've been struggling to find a really good productivity tool that I could introduce to my class. I've used mysticky to create sticky notes on websites. However, what I wanted to do with these sticky notes was not feasible. I browsed through Library and thought it would be a neat tool for my two boys to use. They have to keep track of all the books they have read but after realizing there was going to be a fee charged later I decided to scratch that from my list. Next, I checked out bubbl.us and Remember the Milk. I downloaded the App to my Iphone and found the functionality of the App pretty nice. My only complaint was I already had several App's that did the same thing. My problem is taking the time to enter the all of my "to do things" in the App. I did a little more research and found out that you could text your to do list through your Twitter account. This is where I had to stop. I was not about to create another account to have another set of to do lists floating around that never will get done. I did not create a Twitter account - this is one I can't get on board with. A little more digging and I found the option to actually add to your list by talking through your smartphone. Here is the catch. A fee! It is an additional 3.95 per month to use Jott which will allow you to call and directly add to your "to do list" through Remember the Milk. I knew there had to be more, and I wanted more but I'm not willing to pay for more.

Thing 18

I have been using Slideshare since the beginning of the year. I upload all my powerpoint presentations for my accounting and programming classes onto my wiki site. I love using Slideshare instead of loading the presentations via Powerpoint. Using Slideshare does not allow the students to send the entire presentation to the printer, which tends to happen a lot in my classes and eliminates the students from copying the PP to their personal drives. The only downfall I have encountered with this site is the time it takes to convert the PP into an embedded slideshow. If I'm behind in my lesson planning I can't always count on Slideshare to convert in time for the beginning of my class. Once I figured this out I have uploaded all the files that I need for the rest of the semester and when I need them I simply go onto Slideshare and embed the slideshow onto my wiki. It is very easy to use and one of the better sites available.

Below is an example of PP converted into a Slideshare presentation.

Ppt lesson 10

View more presentations from Linda Bonofiglio.