#23 Week 9 Yippee!

SLL2 has been a challenging learning experience that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I wish I had had more free time to play with some of the new tools I discovered here. Blogs, RMS feeds, wikis, and image generators are a few of the tools that I am already using.

I set up a wiki for the library techs in our district to use for collaborating on our district library presentation for the school board. (Tomorrow evening, in the midst of school closure discussions, so we will have quite the audience!)

As I am short on time again, I will not do this last post here the justice it deserves, but I want to be done!

Working at my own pace was great - it allowed me to delve into subjects as deeply as I wanted to, and move on when I wasn’t interested. I realized how much I don’t know about technology. On the other hand, I realized how much more I know, especially now having completed SLL2.0, than many of my co-workers. I am hoping to be able to encourage some of them to give this or Classroom Learning 2.0 a try1

Thank you all for your hard work in putting this program together.

#22 Week 9 eBooks and Audio ebooks

I love audio books - well at least when I was commuting to school I did. I will still look forward to visiting the World eBook Fair from July 4th - August 4th to download my choice of free audio books! Maybe by then I will even have an iPod to play them on.

As for the Gutenberg Project - WOW! 1000s more reasons to sit in front of my computer! This is great for students when funding is close to, or nonexistent. I saw that Flatland was in the top 100 downloads - a book that I purchased last year for a math class. And several other books that have been on my reading list for years are listed. I could spend way too much time wandering on these sites!

#21 Week 9

I just read an email that said this is the last week for winter2.0 fun! ack! I really want to finish this program this time.

So I have been looking at podcast sites and listening to podcasts. I saw a very interesting idea at Education Podcasts Network for elementary podcasts of 1st graders stories being read by the authors and the parents were very impressed. What a great idea!

My husband listens to a radio show regularly that is also podcast, so if he misses a show he can go download the podcast and still hear it. Technology - what wonderful stuff.

Here's the one I liked best - I found a podcast by Avi talking about his Newbery winner - Crispin. He is one of my favorite authors! I found this by doing an audio search for children's authors on yahoosearch.

#20 Week 9 YouTube

There is an amazing amount of stuff on YouTube - like most of this technology, it is a bit overwhelming.
I also went to TeacherTube and watched the two most viewed videos - Pay Attention and Did You Know by Karl Fisch, two videos that carry a powerful message about learning and technology.
I am glad that I have the opportunity to complete this FREE online learning program. It is REALLY making me see how much I don't know about the world of technology, and also that the possiblities for educational use of these 2.0 technologies are mind boggling.

#19 Week 8 Library Thing

Library Thing is pretty cool. I added about 15 books Ihave recently read to my bookshelf. It was interesting to see that some of my books were on LOTS of other folks bookshelves, and some of my books were only on a few peoples' shelves. I shall go back and add tags to my books (I guess that would be the cataloging aspect - duh) It will be easier after looking at tags that other folks used for my books.

I also like the suggestions for books to read based on what I have been reading. This could be great for those kids who "want another book like Harry Potter, or Hatchet," etc.

I would LOVE to put all my personal library books in Library Thing!

#18 Week 8 Online Productivity Tools

Zoho is so cool! I think the word processor and spreadsheet are at least as easy to use as Excel and Word. This will be very handy, as I seem to be forever emailing files so I can access them from home or work. Zoho will also come in very handy for working on that presentation for the school board in April. We can do the ppt online! I really like this one.

#17 Week 7

I visited the sandbox and added the Famous Author page. I have also created a wiki for our school district's library techs. We have been asked to do a presentation for the school board on April 1, 2008. Very timely, as with the poor state of CA's budget for next year, the district will again be looking at saving money by cutting our hours, if not positions. The wiki will let us collaborate without meeting face to face, which is hard to find time for.

After so many of these exercises I have felt so technologically illiterate. On the other hand, I am probably the only staff member at my school that has a wiki! And (I am guessing here - it would be interesting to verify this) maybe one of three that even knows what a wiki is!