Thing #23 - Summarizing My Thoughts

Sooo, the online survey is not responding; I'll go back to it tomorrow.
I finished - I can't believe it; it's been quite a ride and I look forward to continuing to hone my very remedial skills; on to better and smoother products!
My thoughts:
1. My favorite discovery - that I can actually do this and that at least one "thing" (podcasting) is something that my college aged daughter can't do! Score one for mom!!
2. Lifelong learning goals - What's not to continue? So much of this can be used personally and professionally, and think what new tools are coming along.
3. Unexpected outcomes - how easy some of these things are to use and, on the other hand, how important it is to write clear diections when explaining how to complete an activity ( I mean some of the vendors, not the 23 Things)
4. Improvement - maybe take a look at the 23 Things; some seem more geared toward library specialists than teachers; also assume that many people know nothing about these items; some of the directions seemed to assume some previous knowledge
5. Participation - I would consider another discovery program; it just depends on the topics; it's a great way to work at your own speed.
6. 23 Things is fun, thought provoking, frustrating, scary, but one of the best activities I've completed in a long time - all of those adjectives are what learning is all about - and the outcome is worth it.

I'm off to comment and start thinking about all of the places this can be used in schools.

Thing #21 Podcasts/Vidcasts

After much confusion, and several tries with the internal and an external microphone - here it is - my first podcast. Warning - they are vacation pictures! We met our daughter who had been in summer school at the University of Cadiz, then had ten wonderful days in the south of Spain. I hope it works, and I haven't given up on downloading YouTube, but it will have to wait, as some other things have crowded in on it. With more practice, this could be lots of fun for kids - and teachers, too!

I hope you enjoy Postcards from Spain.
http://media.switchpod.com//users/kathy.crain04/PostcardsfromSpain.wmv

Thing #22 - Nings

I know I'm doing things out of order. After looking at Things #21, 22, I realized I don't have time to complete 21 before leaving on vacation - so it'll be done when I get back; maybe I'll bore everyone with vacation pictures on the podcast!
Nings were interesting; I spent most of my time on the Teacher Ning. There are lots of people who apparently spend lots of time on the computer! I think it could be a help when looking for lesson ideas or asking a question of the world "at large". I also think a Ning could be set up for a class or grade level. I'm not sure how much time I'd spend on an official site like Teacher Ning - I'm usually so far behind that I don't don't have too much time for blogging, etc. It would certainly be one of the tools I use, but there are a number of ways classes/kids/teachers can communicate as groups, so I'd pick the best one for whatever I was doing. I do see that it might work as a Facebook type of thing, but more specifically.

Thing #20 - Adding Videos

Well, I'm giving up on this one. I've just spent two hours on a Saturday morning trying to upload videos from You Tube and Teacher Tube to my blog with no success, and they were two really good ones. I've copied down then names and if anyone can help me do this, I'll edit this post and add them. I need to move on to other things - I can't sit here all day on a Saturday - the rest of my life calls. This could be such a great resource for teachers and students, but at this point it's not working. I hope others are more successful. I'll try again at another point. Neither video would load. I've printed out the directions, copied, pasted, with no results. Frustrated hardly describes this!

Thing #19 - Web Awards

I had scanned ahead on the 23 Things list a little bit, so I have been using one of the award sites on a personal level to help plan our vacation to Spain. I used the "travel" entry on the list, then found "gusto" - a great site for reviews of places by people who have recently been there. I even found a picture and a review of the hotel where we'll be staying in Seville; it was a bit older, but still gave us a good idea of the hotel. There are no comments on Cadiz, where we pick up our daughter and begin our trip, but who knows, we may the first to add a review for that city! The comments on Gibraltar and Marbella have been quite helpful in planning what we want to see/do and how to manage it. We plan to explore this site in the future.

Thing #18 - Productivity Tools

Open Office was very interesting and might be a good option. I liked it better than Google Docs. The advantage I see to these tools is that they might be a little easier than Microsoft, and they don't expire. The disadvantage is that it's almost assumed that everyone uses Microsoft, so you have to change over to another suite from what's installed on your computer. This one bears consideration; I think I need to play with Open Office more before I decide.

Thing #17 - Rollyo

This was not as easy as I first thought. I tried using it to organize information about our upcoming vacation, but I supposed I didn't understand all of the details -- I'll go back and try again. It did, however, give me lots of sites in a hurry. I think with practice, it could save time and be used by others in a group to quickly access information. On this one, I think the frustration is me, not the site. I'm not giving up. Here's my very short Rollyo creation; my next try will be to expand it.
http://rollyo.com/kathymc/travel_in_spain/