THING 13

I made this using dumpr.net. I feel that in a classroom this could be used to improve the look of a presentation to students. This would keep students more engaged. I could also see students using this site to edit photos. Some may be photos of their own, others could be photos set aside by the teacher. For example, students editing a photo of a beach and then writing a story with that beach as the setting. Below is a link to dumpr.net if you would like to edit your own photos!

THING 12

Flickr may be the most interesting "Thing" I have done so far. This not only has potential for my professional life, but for my personal photos as well. Ever since creating a Flickr account, I have been brainstorming different ideas I could use for my classroom. One, is for a social studies (specifically geography) class to have students bring in digital pictures of different places in the world, upload them from a USB memory card, and post them on flickr. This would create an interesting database of pictures that students could take pride in.

Thing 11

http://www.slideshare.net/ametrick/education-20-presentation

I viewed this off of the Slideshare website. It is a nice supplement to the "23 Things" course we are all currently taking.

The other reason I chose this was to illustrate a use for Slideshare in the classroom. Slideshare can be used a good supplement to a lesson. It can be used to reinforce what was taught in the classroom. If I am teaching about a certain genre of literature, a slideshare show on different stories within that genre would be a nice way to show the students what is out there that they may choose to read.

THING 10

Google docs could be useful both for work with your students as well as collaboration with your colleagues. I created a very short survey that asked colleagues about their most difficult topics to teach in ELA.

I could see the usefulness in creating a variety of documents and being able to keep your materials organized. Google docs is something I will be sure to take advantage of in the future.

THING 8

I liked this "thing" because it is an easy way for me to keep websites relevant to me both personally and professionally. It will be useful for when I find resources useful both to me and to my students. Often times, a URL may be a difficult one to remember, and if I save it to my favorites on my home computer, it is inaccessible from my computer at school. The only alternative I have at that point is to e-mail myself the URL. Delicious.com saves me the trouble and allows me the benefit of saving my bookmark to a site and retrieving it anywhere.

THING 5

Web 2.0 shows just how quickly our world is becoming more unified, how technologies are becoming more advanced, and how truly revolutionary ideas are getting a platform. We are in an age where sharing information has become remarkably simple. When I think about something like this in my classroom, it opens a lot of doors for my students. A lot of articles relating to 21st century literacy discuss a student's opportunities to put their work online and receive feedback on it from students across the country. Opportunities like this make it an exciting time to be a teacher.
It is amazing to see the evolution from web 1.0 to web 2.0. One of the more startling examples is the transformation of power from the online Encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia. This can sometimes be a hindrance when teaching students about using good sources. Although Wikipedia is a good source in a pinch, the idea of anyone being able to edit information still makes it a source that many ELA teachers attempt to stay away from.

THING 4

As I viewed the material relating to the 21st century in the classroom and where we are headed, I found myself thinking back to how it was when I was a student. I now teach 6th grade. When I was in 6th grade, the year was 1993-1994. The most advanced thing we did on the computer was play Oregon Trail. We had primitive word processors that did not offer spell check, and you were required to tear off perforations before turning in a print-out. We had no e-mail or internet. Our computer screens were small, and even getting on them was a major task. There was one computer lab in the entire school. When I went home, the 16-bit Super Nintendo was my high-tech source of entertainment.
Nowadays, I am finding that students often times know just as much if not more about technology than teachers do. They are better informed, and have a variety of technological inovations to help them. Kids go home to video games with internet access connecting them to a world of entertainment.
One thing remains the same: Technology can fail, break down, or malfunction. It is at times lke this that teachers must remind themselves that they are not IT professionals, and still have many traditional methods to fall back on.

THING 3

Blogging is a tool that could have incredible potential in a teacher's classroom. In my classroom, an ELA classroom, I could see incredible potential for it. Notes from my classroom, items to study, as well as helpful sites for students are all options I could have. Although blogging could be useful, I would fear that not very many students would take advantage of it. I would also fear that they would respond in a negative way such as posting negative or inappropriate comments about my classroom blog.