880321 Click to listen to my voice thread.

Comment 1 / Slide 2: Share your thoughts about Web 2.0 and 21st Century learners. Do you believe the world is changing for our students? Do teachers (and schools) need to consider and address these “shifts?” How can we teach students to be responsible, effective users of these tools?

Comment 1/Slide 1: I could not find the slides so I went ahead and created my own and recorded my final thoughts. Here’s Suggestions/Slide 1: How Can I make this course better? What changes need to be made? What course would you like to see in the future?

880327 Click to listen to my voice thread.

I was not as impressed with Ning for education. It did not seem quite as organized as some of the other sites/tools I have used. I also was not very successful with the topics I was searching. I do not know how much I will use this tool. I use social networking sites already. I do see the benefit of networking both personally and professionally. I will definitely try using this source again when I have more time to play.

After exploring Page Flakes and setting up an account, I think this tool would be best served for my personal use, at least in the beginning. I am not sure which is better, a page flake or a wiki or both? I guess at this time I am a little overwhelmed with all of the tools and technology I have learned about. I need to read more and research more. I am sure there are many people that can offer advice.

I really enjoyed using Google Docs. It was very user friendly. I do not have to carry my jump drive around all of the time. I can save everything to google docs and it is organized all in one place for me. The other benefit is you can invite others to view the document and or change the document. One idea I have is to assign group work as homework where the students can access the document and work together. As for presentations, I may start creating slide shows for new sections that the student may review at home before class. As for spreadsheets, again, I could have the students work collaboratively using this tool. For instance, during lab, if the students have data, it would be great for them to have a place to put all the data together. All members of the group can see the data and use it for their lab reports and or lab questions. I have so many ideas now for the 2010-2011 school year. I wish we could have completed this class over the summer of ’09. I definitely would have incorporated many of these tools into my classrooms.

Teacher Tube is not a new tool for me. I have used it quite frequently to find short videos that show biological processes, funny songs, or even some lecture notes to incorporate with my own. When I taught the lesson on photosynthesis, I showed my students the following catchy video to sum up everything. While it was simple, it has stuck with them and will help them remember the fundamentals.

viewVideo.php?video_id=49549

I enjoyed reading about and listening to Pod Casts. I have to be honest, I never thought about incorporating them into my lesson plans before. I have shown others Pod Casts, but never my own. I see the benefits of possibly incorporating some Pod Casts into my future classes.

I have listened to Pod Casts but have never created my own. I found one site called http://Snacks4theBrain.com which has pod casts from different scientists with current and interesting information. I could see incorporating some of these pod casts into discussions during class time. I enjoyed using the Educational Podcast Network, as well as, PBS Pod cast. In my personal time I have listened to NPR Podcast. It is convenient in that you can be working on something else and listening to the Pod Cast from the computer.

Love http://librarything.com! Being that the library was the very first place of employment at 14 years old, this website is incredible. I can see so many benefits to this site from leisure reading to group discussion on a topic or book that you are studying in class. Online book discussions as opposed to physically getting together. It is extremely convenient. I found a group for Twilight fans! I think I may have to join.

Love Delicious. Again, another tool my husband has heard of and just laughed at when I got so excited. I love having everything so organized and easy to scan through! I know that I did not have to write an entry right now, but I just wanted to express how pleased I was with this site.