17 things - final post

Wow! I've completed 17 things to chew on. I have enjoyed discovering all the things I can do using technology, and I've enjoyed thinking of ways they can be used to enhance student learning in my classroom. Some things have been easier than others, and some are more practical than others, but all in all, this has been a good experience. I feel much more tech savvy now, and much more comfortable exploring the sites and applications on my own. In the future, a little more direct instruction may be nice. I found myself frustrated at times when I didn't know what to do, however, there were enough people participating that I could usually find someone to answer my questions. To encourage my colleagues to participate, I would tell them about cool things they could do to enhance their teaching. Students spend so much time on computers these days, that it'd be great to incorporate more tech into our instruction - stuff like an animoto video to introduce a topic in an exciting way, using google documents for group projects, so students can work together but not have to be in the same room, or even screen casting instructions for a webquest. This program has made me confident that I am keeping up to date on technology.

Thing 16 - Screen Toaster

Hi there,
I just finished thing 16 - screen toaster. I made a video about how to use the educational website brain pop. It is an awesome site that has little animated episodes about any topic imaginable. I couldn't embed it on to my blog, so here is the link:

http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stUEpWRUBBRFtYQF1bWVJeV1RW

It is also on the RB ning page, if you want to check it out. I don't have a microphone, so I had to use subtitles instead, but I think it still worked out pretty well. This would be an awesome thing to use to help students navigate a website that we use for class.

Thing 17!

I just recently checked out Webware's 100 winner's site - and looked at a few sites. I first explored "Remember the milk" a tool for online list making an task managing. It seemed pretty useful, and would even send you reminders by email, but I didn't think it had much educational value, or much use more than a traditional pen and paper list.
Then I checked out Open Table.com. It is an online tool for making reservations at restaurants, and seeing ratings/rankings. You can save places you go a lot, and view other reviews. I explored the chicagoland area, and it seemed to be missing most of my favorites, so I decided I'd have to wait a while until it's updated before really putting this to use.
Then next site I checked out was Good Guide. It won a best newcomer award, b/c it doesn't have a lot of users yet, but is still pretty sweet. As I explored it more, I got really excited, and decided this was my 17th thing. Basically it is a site that ranks all sorts of products in three categories, Health, Environment and Society. Each category is broken down - The health category tells you if the product uses any carcinogens, reproductive/developmental toxins, or anything that will impact short or long term health. The Environment category ranks their energy management, water management, toxin management, contribution to global warming and air pollution. The society category assesses everything from workplace conditions of the company, to charitable givings and volunteer programs, to customer satisfaction. All of these rankings go to a composite score, and you can search products you use for a score, or browse products for something with the highest score. It mostly ranks food, personal products, toys and house hold products. From the website, there is even a link for some items so that you can find them online and purchase it. There is also an iphone app, so you can access your list of favorites when you're out shopping.
Overall, I think the site is really useful for us to all be mindful of the products we are using. The SEE team and Ecoclub would really be excited about this. (As well as people who are socially conscious).

Thing 15 - Voice thread

I totally love Voice thread! I participated in a group project for an online course at DePaul, where one member of the group had to create a ppt with voice thread to present the work we did collectively, so I'd seen a voice thread project before, but had never participated in creating one. It was so much easier than I expected. This would be great for me or for students to record comments over power points, then post for absent students. It would also be an awesome way for students to share ideas about lab results (like if we posted a bunch of photos of something they did in the lab, like growing bacteria). The only thing I don't like is how funny I sound - does my voice really sound like that?!

Wikis!

Hi! This is my first experience with wiki. I think it could be valuable in a classroom because it combines the websites from weebly with edit-ability from Google Docs. It would probably be cool for a class to create a class website - where they could post pictures of experiments to use in the data section of lab reports, or post questions and help on homework. It would also be cool to make a web quest that students could edit as they go. -Kellie

Animoto

Thing #13 - that awesome new video at the top of my blog! This is a pretty cool site. I'd love to make some bio related videos, even just the 30 second ones to show to my kids. They'd be great to use to introduce a lesson, or to promote a team, or event. It would also be cool for kids to make these. The only thing I had trouble with was the music. It wouldn't let me upload any of my own files, and their music choices were limited. It was easy to put my video in my blog, but it took a few tries to get it on my Ning. I think I finally got it working though :) Enjoy.

Thing 12

So, I looked into Creative Commons today. I think it's a great idea to prevent copyright infringement, but didn't find their website very helpful. When you click on the link to find cc licensed work, it just takes you to a search engine and says - the results of the search may or may not be under the creative commons licensing. This would be nice for students to be able to edit or use others works, while not having to worry about copyrights.

Thing 10

Hi. I've recently completed thing 10 - social networking. I explored the RBTV site, and thought it was really cool! I also joined the RB - 17 things network. I think this could be a cool educational tool. It seems to be really useful for RBTV, so it could possibly be useful for my bio classes as well. I think this would be a great site for an RB sports team too!