Thing #23

Yea!! I made it. I started to have my doubts, but with a few folks that were cheering me on I was able to focus and get it done.

My favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey were learning how to blog, discovering mashups, the cool tools from Google, RSS feeds (who knew all that info could be gathered in one place...), Library Thing, Rollyo, Google Documents and Ning. I have created a place for my family on Ning to gather and share family history as well as plan future reunions.

This program had totally expanded my understanding of and approach to using the Internet. I really get the whole “collaboration” thing (even though my school has a very frustrating filter that will discourage it....). I will use much of what I have learned in my classroom, as well as in my personal life. It has revived my desire to learn more...

There were many take-a-ways and unexpected outcomes from this program. I was surprised and delighted on a daily basis. Coming into this program, I was completely unaware of the power of what is “out there.” I have never thought that there was much that was on the Internet that would be useful in my small pull out program for remedial readers. However, the use of collaborative word study projects, book reviews, motivating clips and posters, video casts, and much more will find a place in my room this year.

I have been very impressed with the Library2Play program. I wish I had even more time to peruse all the sites suggested, but will get back to it over this next year. I also wish the format was not one that is blocked at school so I would be able to share just how wonderful my experience has been, as well as my own blog.

If you offered another discovery program like this in the future, I would definitely choose to participate.

I would describe my learning experience in the one word, collaboration. I would probably not have finished without the support of other players. Now I hope to carry that spirit of collaboration back to the classroom with my box full of new tools.

Thing #19

I spent some time perusing the Web 2.0 awards list trying to find sites that would be useful in my setting at school as a Reading Specialist. I had high hopes for .Docstoc thinking that if someone else had a better document outh there to share it would be great. However, I had to really search to find anything helpful. I will revisit.

Next I looked at all the collaborative writing sites, but decided that for me Google Docs is still the best and simplest way to go.

I will recommend to my son that he check out the emplyment and jobs section....

The PEERtrainer seems to be a good tool for health and weight loss. As a person who always wants to lose a few... I found this free site to have lots of potential.

There do seem to be lots of intriguing sites that when time permits I will investigate further.

Thing #18

Had I known that there were at least two free document tools, I would not have just paid megabucks for Microsoft Office. I am impressed with both Open Office and Google Docs. I like that anyone can use these regardless of income. Both are easy to use. One of the problems I have had in the past with my Mac was the inablity to share documents with PC users. The different platforms available on Open Office is appealing.

I chose to work with Google docs for this exercise, but plan to get back to Open Office at a later date. This had applications for school as well as in my personal life. My husband, who is now working in Singapore, sometimes runs documents he is working on by me. Using google docs would not only speed up the editing and revising process, but we could do it in "real" time. I was just now explaining that to him. I told him that we could be talking on Skype and editing his document both at the same time. He was impressed..... Again, this would work well in a school setting. The ability to share documents interactively will foster the idea of collaborating on projects.

What amazes most so far about google docs is the templates that are available. Software always comes loaded with them, and I guess those can be updated online, but I got perusing the education templates and am very excited about what is available. I am going to share the student schedule, student cover letter, research paper and resume templates with my college bound son.

Back on the task for Wiki's, I tried to make a collaborative word study project. I just wanted to have a little project for kids to become more aware of suffixes or prefixes that are already in their own vocabulary. I had hoped to take the primary concept of a word wall and expand it to include multi-syllabic words. I think using a shared Google document might be a simpler way to go. It would be an open ended project to add to all year long. When I get it put together, I will add it to this post.

Okay, I have made my Google Doc Word Wall, now let's see if we can get there from here!