One Last Thing...

My favorite thing to take from this lesson is the animoto.com video making site. It's awesome app. because it's free and it doesn't require any kind of downloads. It has affected my education because it is something that I will probably use in my own classroom. Teachers and students can use it for educational or recreational purposes. I had the intent of making an educational video, but after playing around with the sire for a while I decided to make comic gold. It had a positive effect on my life because it broadened my technological horizons. I will continue to use the tools I gained from this experience. It was fun, but EXTREMELY time-consuming.

Thing #23 Creative Commons

Yes, it is true...a person can Google life. I simply Googled web. 2.0 23things and wham! There is a blog on blogger.com posted by San Jose State University of the web. 2.0 23things...thank you Helen Blowers for making this semester the equivalent of a place that begins with an h and ends with a l. The university and others (such as APSU) have borrowed the 23things from her, modified them, and used this stuff for different purposes. I don't aspire to use the creative commons in the future in the classroom. I will tell students about it just in case any of them decide that they need a specified copyright...or in case I need one. However, people can set out guidelines/rules/regulations detailing how other people can use their work...It is useful, but not rendered necessary.

Thing #22 Podcasts

I checked out podcastdirectory.com and found a podcast presented by 90.7 WfUV in New York City, New York about Regina Spektor and her new album Far. It was interesting because I saw her perform some songs off the new album November 16, 2009 at the Ryman, but what I didn't know is that it took her 3 years and 4 producers to create the album...it was totally worth the wait. The radio station 90.7 interviewed Spektor about the album and she also played a few songs live...She got the opportunity to work with some amazing producers! I personally have not quite surrendered myself to the podcasting community, but if that was something my students were interested in then I would definitely incorporate it into the classroom. This is a podcast I could possibly listen to regularly depending on the types of music artist they interview and if the artist/genre is played frequently. All of them were simple to use, but I preferred this one the most. I added the WfUV: Take five podcast to my RSS feed...

Thing #21 Animoto

Animoto was a blast and I almost considered getting the upgrade. It was surprisingly similar to the Photobucket Slideshow option but not really...It was super easy surprisingly. All you have to do is mash up a bunch of pictures, add a couple of words, some music, select where the should begin playing on a sound bar, and hit like create or done, or some button with a word to this effect. I would love to use this in a classroom to see what kids would kind of concauctions kids would come up with. I had an extremely pleasant experience using Animoto!

Thing #20 You Tube

YouTube is my counterproductive drug of choice...I love spending hours upon hours of searching through funny videos that will get me nowhere in life. However, there are some really good videos somewhere out there in the far reaches of the world wide web. Some videos deal with live, real life accounts of important/historical events. People can find videos of natural disasters, breaking news, and all sorts of stuff. I just recently used YouTube to find a video about Spina Bifida for a project in my special education class (I am not a special education student, I am just taking a class about special education). I would definitely recommend YouTube to students for research, creating his/her own video profile(s), and entertainment purposes because YouTube can be so hilarious, ha ha. Students and teachers can share, create, and view videos for the sake of higher learning. I don't have anything negative to say about YouTube...it is so multifaceted and simple to use. It seriously has a little bit of something for everyone.

Thing #19 Facebook Myspace

I couldn't beat them, so I joined them...social networking sites are being forced upon us all the time now. I guess for strategical reasons Ning and TeacherPop would be more appealing for the university and to prevent getting hacked. I guess it is for more company oriented and professional public forums. Always good to stay connected...I joined Bake Space because it sounded hilarious...plus who doesn't like food.lol.? A whole social networking site dedicated to the pursuit of culinary. Once again, I wouldn't use any kind of social networking site that is more personal profiles based than simple text and commenting (blog based) because it just leads to trouble. Back to Bake Space...This or a similar site could be used in a classroom setting, a teacher could have students search the site for a new website or something without creating an account that could become personal. Or a teacher could also have students find a recipe to share and post it to a teacher monitored blog.

Thing #18 Social Networking

I have had my facebook and myspace accounts for ages and for the most part, I have enjoyed them thoroughly. This is definitely one of those great power, great responsibility kind of things. I absolutely would not recommend using facebook or myspace in the classroom setting because it can become a bed of trouble. It will have parents and school officials swarming around a teacher in the matter of seconds, I have seen it happen. These could be potentially useful sites in the classroom setting, but human nature definitely wouldn't allow this to happen. Everything in this society has to be misused to be useful I guess. In my opinion, myspace is the most useful because it has the simplest to control and understand apps. I still don't really understand this whole ninja wall, favorite pop diva, and food fight business...too much for a grown to even think of caring about. It is important for teachers to know about social networking, but like I've said I don't think there is any place in the professional realm for these particular types of social networking sites...It has office wars and personal space invasions written all over. I think what the class is doing right now (blogging) is a more appropriate choice. Btw, I am friends with a few of my professors on facebook, and you will find that this is definitely the more tame of the two listed above.lol.