Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

I have to admit that this has been an extremely eventful journey. There has been a lot to process, but it has been worth it. I will continue to use this blog to go back and refresh my memory on some of the useful tools we learned to use. I probably won't use them all, but I know that Animoto is my favorite. Thanks for the journey.

Thing 23

I search the web and found that 23 Things is common in a lot of career fields as well as education. I think it is a great learning opportunity that can be used everywhere. Creative commons licenses are great in allowing people to share great ideas. I will definitely use it as a teacher. I can use it to tweak learning exercises to the needs of my classroom. Here is the link of another sire that uses the 23 Things. http://resa-23things.blogspot.com/

Thing 22

I see the benefit of using Livebinders for an educator, but i'm not sure I really like it that much. I plan on using it more to see if I become more comfortable with it. It seems difficult to get the hang of in the beginning. I'm sure that it just takes a little time and effort.

Your First Binder

Thing 21

Animoto is absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed creating a video with old family portraits. I only used the free version, but I am certain that I will buy the upgraded version. I see the potential to use it to create gifts for family members. I also see the potential to make a classroom video for your students. It will be something they can keep forever.

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Thing 20

Youtube is an outstanding site to use for education. I have actually used Youtube videos from KhanAcademy before as study guides. I think their are many great videos, but I enjoy watching those from Khanacademy on Youtube. Bill Gates was so impressed with these videos that he added them to his charitable foundation. I watched the entire story on a recent episode of "60 Minutes".

Thing 19

Teacherpop is a site that will be very beneficial in the future. I can see myself using this site with fellow teachers to share knowledge and information. It was very easy to navigate, and the only problem was waiting for my membership to be approved. I will definitely use this site to communicate with others in the education world. I also joined project playlist, and I like it very much. It allows a user to create a playlist of their favorite songs. You can also share music that you have on your computer with others. Music relieves stress, and I like this site.



Visit TeacherPop

Thing 18

I have both a Facebook and Twitter account. I can see advantages and disadvantages to using them as an educator. I will just go with the disadvantages because I would never use either as an educational tool. I like my privacy too much to ever consider adding a student as a friend or follower online. I think a line must be drawn to keep your personal life separate from your professional life. Here are links to my pages.
http://facebook.com/roy.d.lanejr

https://twitter.com/#!/RoyDLaneJr

Thing 17

Delicious is a very interesting site. I find it to be a lot like Pinterest, but I like it better. I think it would be very beneficial for a teacher to use this tool. It would be a great way to relay educational sites to your students during non-school hours. It's a good way to communicate without getting too personal. I recommend Delicious to teachers and non teachers. It's a great site for everyone.

Thing 16

I chose iGoogle as my homepage. It is extremely user friendly, and you can design it to your liking. I used the calendar app provided by Google to create my online calendar, and I added it to my homepage. The homepage and the calendar are both very useful tools for an educator. I recommend both to anyone that needs help getting organized. In the to do lists category, I looked at Jott. It is an extremely complicated but useful resource. I found it took a little more work to figure this out, but it was worth it. Jott has many useful tools that are designed just for education. It is worth a look to see if you might use this resource.

Thing 15

I found it very interesting to learn more about wikis. I knew very little about before this assignment. I have always been told that Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source because of the changes that people can make. I found the APSU 23 things sandbox wiki to be very entertaining. A wiki can be used by a group of teachers that are working on the same project. I wouldn't use a wiki with a large number of users because of reliability issues. The concept that a group of people can do research all have the ability to make changes is very interesting.

Thing 14

The mindmap that I chose was bubbl.us, and I chose it over Mindmeister because you have to pay for Mindmeister. I liked the mindmaps that can be created at bubbl.us, and I really liked that it was free. I think it would be great to allows students brainstorm and create a mindmap, and I believe it can be a very useful tool to help students retain information.

I chose Gliffy for my flow-chart site. It was very easy to sign up, and it was free as well. This would be an excellent tool for a teacher. It can be used to teach students the proper flow of anything. I plan on teaching Biology, and I would flow-charts to explain cellular reproduction as well as many other topics.

Thing 13

I found that Zoho had some really interesting apps, and I will definitely be using it on a regular basis. I tried the Zoho Writer app, and it appeared to be very similar to Word. I will continue to choose Word over Zoho Writer because I have more experience with Word. The major benefit of Zoho Writer is the fact you could create a document on a computer that wasn't equipped with Word.

I have used Google Documents before, and I really like this site. I created a small presentation that is very similar to a PowerPoint presentation. The two are extremely siimilar, but I like the fact that Google Documents saves your work automatically.

Thing 12

I chose to explore iGoogle and created a homepage. I like how it allows you to tailor the page to your likes and interests. I set it up for sports, music and cooking, and I chose the background colors that I like. I then added a few gadgets that I found interesting. I also explored Google Calendar and found that I could add it to my iGoogle homepage. I find these to be very useful tools, and I will most likely continue to use it.
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en&source=mpes

Thing 11

I found it very easy to simply search from Google Reader. I found Technorati to be the most difficult to maneuver, but they all really were simple though. I liked Topix.net the most because it pulled up information based on my location. I feel that is beneficial in following local events. I found Education Etc. News that is continuously updated from thousands of sources around the country. I will definitely follow that from now on.

Thing 10

I found setting up Google Reader was extremely simple. I had previously connected my Blogger account to Google, and when I went to Google Reader I found out I was already signed up. I added the suggested blogs to follow, and It instantly gave me the latest from each. This is a tool that can save a lot of time. It can be very helpful in the classroom because the teacher can stay up to date without wasting time by searching. I will use this to keep up with blogs of personal friends as well.

Thing 9

I found a site called Jelly Muffin that is a custom picture generator. I like the many options that this site offered. I was able to create a picture for my girlfriend. The site is: http://www.jellymuffin.com/generators


Myspace Picture Generator


I was also able to generate a calendar on the site: http://www.pageplugins.com/generators/wallcalendar/
This can be very helpful to create classroom calendars.





Cute Myspace Generators

Thing 8

I tried Spell with Flickr, and I thought it would be a great educational tool. The site uses pictures from Flickr to spell out any word that the user types in. I tried it by spelling my children's names. It could be used to spell student names for decoration of a classroom. I see this site as being very beneficial to teachers.

   

Thing 7

I really enjoyed creating a Flickr account. It is a very useful way to share photographs and to interact with others. It was extremely easy to create an account. I simply used my current Yahoo account to sign up. I created a profile picture and my own URL to the site. I don't think anyone will have much difficulty creating their own account. I highly recommend that everyone sign up. Here is the link to my photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roylane/

Thing 6

Picasa is my choice from the Web 2.0 award nominees. Picasa is an image viewer and organizer that allows the user to edit and share digital photos. Picasa was created by Idealab in 2002, but it has been owned by Google since 2004.  

 What does Picasa enable the user to do?

· Organize Photographs

· Edit Photographs

· Create Albums (Regular and Online)

· Order Prints

· Be Creative

· Use Face Recognition Software

· Share Photographs

· Publish Photographs

I have used Picasa for years, and it's the best photo software that I have ever used. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Thing 5

School 2.0 brings about mixed emotions for me. I see benefits of moving from and industrial based economy to an information based economy. I also see negatives in it as well. Technology is something that is great, and we are benefiting from the constant advances of it, but we still need to maintain our industrial sector. I do feel that future schools will be able to offer more information to students, and I feel this is a great benefit of School 2.0. Students of the future will be able to participate in virtual classrooms as well as traditional classrooms. The future is bright for students and teachers alike.

Thing 4

I thinks its important for us to interact with each other through our blogs. We can gain new information and constructive criticism from each other. I also discovered the importance of using proper etiquette while reviewing the information for this post. It is polite to respond to others when they comment on your blog. I have chose to follow the blogs of Robert White, Kayla Satterly, Erin Beifuss, Shelby Rogers, and Dalton Smith. These are fellow classmates, and I hope to gain useful information from them. I have chosen two other blogs to follow as well. The first is http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/  and it covers the needs of students. The second is http://teachers.net/mentors/science/ and it discusses great ideas for science teachers. I hope to gain useful information from both.
The comments that I left for my classmates were all positive. I informed a few that I was unaware of the technology that they blogged about. All of the new technology seemed very useful to students and teachers. I informed others that I agreed with their sentiments in their blog. I am looking forward to the wealth of information we can all share.

Thing 3

I plan to use my blog to keep people updated on the constant changes in the world of education.  We all know that laws and curriculum are constantly changing. I think its important for the public keep up with these changes.  Politics plays a huge role in these changes, and constituents have the right to know how their representative stands on educational issues.  The bottom line is we need to make positive changes to education and not political ones.

Thing 2

I chose the name "Educational Lane" because my last name is Lane and the title seemed catchy.  I really enjoyed putting this blog together because I enjoy using new technology.  I had very little trouble with the design and layout portions of creating this page.  The tutorials were very helpful and everything flowed easily.  This is my first blog and I look forward to the new experience.  My avatar looks somewhat similar to me.  I didn't really spend a great deal of time creating it.  I look forward to sharing my blog and reading the blogs of others.

Thing 1

     I watched the slide presentation "7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners" and easily determined the habit that was easiest for me.  Having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner is a habit that I have always possessed.  I have always felt that I can do anything with the proper training.  I also feel that if the training isn't adequate, then I can still learn the task.  Having confidence makes learning a new task easier because a lack of confidence creates fear. Fear can interfere with one's ability to learn.

     Beginning with the end in mind is a habit that eludes me on occasion.  I tend to jump head first into a task before I map out a plan.  If you begin with the end in mind, then you are own your way to creating a map for the entire task.  I feel that this can complete a project more efficiently.  I think this is a learning habit that many people have a problem with.  If the world would look to the end result first, then we may avoid a lot of problems along the way.

http://www.slideshare.net/LoriReed/7-12-habits-of-lifelong-learners