Finally

This 23 Things project has given me a lot of insight into the interworkings of the internet and it has provided me with good resources.

However, I am very hard to persuade and I must say that overall I am still not impressed with what the internet has to offer. I think for one that it makes people lazy; which is part of the reason why there are so many rampant health problems. Humans were not designed to sit in front of a computer screen all day.

I know this may seem contradictory, especially with the huge variaty of social media available, but humans are highly social creatures and I feel as if alot of modern technology has made people unsociable. You see it all the time nobody knows how to act towards other people when they are together face to face because they have become so dependent on their games and computers and phones, etc.

Psychologically technology is ruining the human species because it prevents us from properly socializing which goes against the very nature of what it means to be human.

I know I may be the oddball out but I really just do not understand the appeal of maybe about 90 percent of all modern technology but that is just me. I do not mind being the wierd one because I am happier knowing that I have not gotten sucked into the hype that is the internet age. I guess when the world comes crashing down and there comes a day when all of this modern technology is no longer available I will already know how to function without it. :)

Thing Twenty-Three

Find an example or attribution that shows the Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original. Now that you know about Creative Commons licensing, how will you use it in the future as a teacher?

Well on the main page of the Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog it says and I quote: "Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006)."

I think I will use Creative Commons always, because, students have to know how to appropriatly use material that they find during their research so that way they can avoid getting into serious trouble. Especially, with the internet because the internet has become a way of life to the younger generation but most of that generation does not understand how to properly use the internet and it is up to teachers to help teach them how to use the internet properly.

Thing Twenty-Two

I looked into the livebinders site and played around with it for a little bit but I did not even bother wasting my time making up a binder or anything like that on it. Because, as the website name suggest it is a binder the only difference between a physical binder and the binder on livebinders is that one is physical and one is digital. And to be honest I have always hated binders; like one of the biggest things I always dreaded every school year was hearing the teacher say "You must keep a binder and it will be taken up as a grade."

I don't know why but I can never keep anything straight in my head when using a binder set-up I have tried for many years and have failed miserably; and I am pretty sure if you haven't guessed my resistance to technology thus far it does not make for a good equation.

Binder+Computer=A complete failure. :)

Thing Twenty-One

Animoto

If this were a free site I would totally be all about using it. It was just so simple to use and I literally made this cute 30 second video using pictures of my son and it look me less than five minutes to do it. But, since you have to pay to actually use all the features of the site I will probably never use it again because I can't afford it.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Thing Twenty

What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to your library website?

I love using youtube it is a fast and simple way to access music and videos and the site is so easy to use; just type in what you want to watch or listen to and bam it is there.

The video I choose was a Horrible History video titled "Strange Tudor Laws". Horrible Histories is actual an older British TV show but what I really love about it is that the facts are extremely accurate and that it is super hilarious. They make history relevant to a modern viewer and they make people want to learn.

Thing Nineteen

Are you a member of any online communities?

Are any of these social networks appealing to you?

What did you find that was interesting and that you might use later?

I am a member of a few online communities, as mentioned in the last post I am a member of facebook. Other communities I am a part of is allrecipes it is my number one place to go to for recipe ideas. I am also a member of Wilton it is my number one place to go for all my cake sculpting needs. :)

Out of the social networks that were listed in the 23 things blog that I found appealing was the crafsters.org site. I am way to crafty for my own good and that site actually looked promising and just on the main page I seen a ton of ideas that I would like to try. So I am probably going to check it out more in depth.

Thing Eighteen

Why is it important that educators know how social networking works?

What new insights did you gain about these popular sites?

What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored?

Which site had the most useful features?

Can you see a classroom or school application for any of these sites?

I have had a facebook for a long time and I had a myspace before that and I hate social media sites and the ONLY reason why I have one is because I was a military brat and I have lived in other places and social media sites are the most practical way I can keep in touch with friends that live far away; because it allows me to keep them up to date with my life without having to be on the phone all day I can just tell everyone at once. Other than that social media sites do nothing but irritate me. They are always having problems, they make the computer run slow, they are always getting virus, etc., basically they just aggravate me.

As for in relation to educators they are useful for connecting teachers together and it gives a great opportunity to provide an outlet for parents to reach you and it gives your school a chance to promote itself. However, I think all teachers should NEVER add students, at least not until they have graduated and they are ADULTS. And I do not think there is any reason why it should be used in a classroom setting at all.

Thing Seventeen

Social bookmarking, bookmarking in general and tagging are all useful in that it you can catagorize all your information and be able to recall it quicker; or find information quicker by looking up a particular term. I do use tags a little bit, but from what I have found by using tags to look up things is that more often than not I wind up with information totally unrelated to what I need.

For example say I want to look up pictures of Native American tribes, which I do quite frequently because that is my field of study, so I see that someone has tagged say Cherokee 9 times out of 10 the second I click on that tag I am going to be presented with a picture or an article about a jeep. Although I can understand that because the names of the tribe and the jeep are the same. But, it has happened to me hundreds of times where say I click on a tag of "Dog" and get like a cat or something.

Tags are useful but not reliable in my book.

Thing Sixteen

Which start page
did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent
home page?
How can the online calendars be useful to
you?
What about the to-do lists—helpful, too much
work…?
Did you find a
tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Which tool(s) would
you recommend to others?

I have acctually tried the vast majority of these websites in the past; prior to this assignment; and I acctually like alot of them. But, let me tell you I am hopelessly unorganizable, if that's even a word. I think for normal people these sites would be very helpful and that I may even encourporate them into my class because I think it would be benificial for students who spend most of their day on the computer anyway to at least have a to do list or calender of some sort on the computer so that they are more organized. As for me I am still in search for an organizational method that will work for me. :)

Thing Fifteen

How might you use a wiki? What did you find interesting about the wiki
concept?

I do find the concept of wiki's interesting, but I do not think I will ever use them. For starters it has been drilled into my head by virtually every teacher I have ever had DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA or similiar type sites for information. And teachers say that for good reason. You do not know who is posting what on wiki-based sites and there is no credibility to the information, at all. I do like the idea of a free trade of knowledge but I also like to know that I can rely on that knowledge in a classroom setting.

Thing Fourteen

Describe the tools you chose and why you chose them on your blog.

The first site I looked at was bubbl.us which was pretty cool. I liked the set-up because it was really simple and it didn't have an outrageous ammount of features. I did like that the mind map is a chart that can follow the natural progression of thoughts. And with me being a history major I could find some use for these types of charts as there is a ton of information that I need to keep in order.

The other site I looked at was gliffy which did offer alot of really cool stuff. But, there was to much to try to navigate through and I didn't relaly find it to be very user-friendly. But, they did have a lot of charts that I would be interested in using if I had the time to navigate the site.

Thing Thirteen

Explore the site Zoho and test out the Zoho Writer feature and explore Google Docs. Compare the two web-based productivity sites. Which do you prefer? Why?

Basically, I do not like either. Microsoft Word and Excel can already offer me most of the features that Zoho Writer and Google Docs can. So, why would I want to learn how to use two new sites when I already have a program that I am familiar with. I mean granted Zoho and Google offer more features but if you ask me Microsoft Word and Excel offer to many to begin with.