Thing #16 Wikis

The only thing close to wikis that I am familiar w/ is wikipedia. I'm planning on using wikis for a group project. My students will love it b/c they can coordinate w/ all group members and be able to gather facts quickly. The best part about wikis is that if a student thinks a fact or statement is incorrect, then they are able to edit the paper. This is an easy way to see that all team members are contributing to the project.
I do have concerns w/ having little control over editing. I can see some of my students getting into "editing wars" and making derogatory comments. Same thing with the content that is being discussed. How do I manage that? Do I include myself to the wikis page so I can manage what is being written???

Thing #15 Library 2.0 and the future

As society changes so does education. This is another example of how education is changing. If we as teachers are going to stay abreast in our teaching then this is another tool that we need to adjust to. Technology is our future. Since I've graduated from college -which wasn't too long ago- technology has changed rapidly and will continue to change. During my high school research paper I had to do it the old way (going to the school/public library, pulling books, using note cards, etc.). This took a lot of time and frequent trips to the library. It would have made my life a lot easier if there was Library 2.0 back then. Library 2.0 is the library of the future. Students are already technologically advanced and this will keep students engaged in their learning/research. My favorite thing about Library 2.0 is that it eliminates trips to the library.

Thing #14 Technorati

Technorati has cool features. I love the fact that it covers almost every topic of my interests (business, politics, sports and medical). Even though there wasn't a "medical tag", I could simply choose a topic in the search engine and varies topics would pop up (articles, blogs, etc). That allowed me to skim through headings that appealed to me. The best part is that I can see blogs that I can either lurk or chime into to get information needed or even leave my opinion about the topic. It is nice to read comments from everyday people and not critics who get paid to write reports. Tagging will still help me organize all of the information that I need to refer back to at a later date...

Thing #13 Tagging

At first I thought tagging was the same as a bookmark, but now that I understand it, it is better than a bookmark. Just like it is described social bookmarking. Bookmarks get too messy and tagging you can socialize w/ a group. del.icio.us is a user-friendly site. This can easily be introduced to high school students who have a lot of research to do. I will use this when my students have projects to do...

Thing #12 Creating Community Through Blogging

Blogging can be very overwhelming and intimidating if you have never done it. Once you learn it, it is like riding a bike...really easy and can be fun...all you have to do is have an area of interest! I agree w/ the articles...make it meaningful. You want to sound sincere and in return have polite comments on your blog. Last thing you want is a "know it all" commenting...so keep comments real, polite and open-ended. It's just like our classrooms, we want a community dialogue going not one student dominating the entire discussion.

I too am a "lurker" unless I have something genuine and polite to say about the conversation. I view a ton of medical, sports and news blogs. Most of the time when I'm lurking it's b/c I want to quickly read "updates" on a topic. Having said that, when I do respond - which is quite often - I am very polite and sincere about my comments. The comments that I had to respond to were over 3 different medical issues and 2 were sports.

Thing # 11 LibraryThing

This is a neat way to get connected with other teachers teaching the same books as you. LibraryThing can be used to compare notes about a novel and other interests. It was easy to create and account. Once that is done you can add titles, reviews, and connect w/ other users regarding the same interests in books. The group forum is neat. You can talk in the groups forum or oversee conversations taking place in the forum.

Thing # 10 Image Generators

This was a simple and fun process. You can do so much with these image generators it almost scary. This can be used in all content areas.

http://www.imagechef.com/ - You can make a photo frame by adding your own photos into fun/cute picture frames. It allows you to add text to the photo/frame.

http://www.smilebannergenerator.org/ This site allows you to fill in a personal caption into a cartoon speech bubble above a happy face, write your name to a happy face styled font and write a personalized message right into a clipart image of a smilie face character holding a sign.

http://www.bighugelabs.com/ With this site you can put someone's face or whatever you choose on their very own collectible trading card or make a whole deck of cards and create a card game.