Reflection

I enjoyed participating in 21 Things for the 21st Century. I felt like I was given an abundance of technology resources to use in my classroom and also my own personal use. I like the element of doing the tasks at my own pace and on my own time. That is very accommodating to teachers that have a busy schedule. The tutorials were easy to follow and I would definitely recommend  this class to other educators.

Web 2.0 tools

Wordle is a great tool you could use for a variety of things in the classroom. I like the idea of making "word clouds" from text that you have created. I could use it in writing for an adjective lesson or in reading for characterization. Letterpop is an interesting tool. It could be a great way to communicate more with parents. Instead of just the traditional way of sending home a newsletter, with Letterpop you can communicate using your newsletter with email, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed in an easy way. Slideroll is another great tool to create slide shows. Students could use this with making presentations, I could use it with teaching a variety of lessons, or just making a slide show of pictures of my class. Webspiration seems like it would be a good tool to use in your classroom. Student could use it to write essays or reports. It would probably be too difficult for primary level students, but could be beneficial for higher grades.

Skype

Skype is a great tool to open up your classroom to the world. I feel like it would be very rewarding for my students to connect with other students from other countries. It would be a great and fun way to learn about cultures, history, authors. The ideas are endless.

Play Week

I loved looking at these tools for "Play Week." Shelfari was interesting. I liked browsing Mrs. Matzat's page. It's a great way to see recommendations from other people and a way to learn about books that I haven't read. Big Huge Labs/FD’s Flickr Toys was very fun to play around with. I made a jigsaw with a family picture. Jing is also a nice tool. I can see where Jing could really be helpful to educators.

Picasaweb, Animoto, Photo Peach

Wow! I had a lot of fun playing around this week. I take lots of pictures, so I could spend hours creating things using these tools. I will definitely create a quiz for my class using Photo Peach. I could see them really enjoying that. I would love to be able to use Animoto with class pictures that I have taken throughout the school year.

PhotoPeach

Family on PhotoPeach

Animoto

Family
Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Picasaweb

Ellyson

Picasaweb

These are photos of my family!

RSS and Google Reader

Google Reader makes it so easy and convenient to keep up with your favorite blogs. I love how you can organize them into folders too. What a great tool to stay connected with blogs. The best part about it is the time you save!

Diigo!

I love Diigo and was very impressed! I have used other social bookmarking in the past, but Diigo has really impressed me. It seems like you are able to do more with it. I love the highlighting and comment part of it. This is very cool. I'm not sure how I would have my second grade students use Diigo.  I am excited about using this new tool for my professional and personal use!

Blogging

I would use a blog in teaching because I feel like it engages the students in writing as well as converstaion. It is a way for students and teachers to reflect. I also could see how it would be a faster way for students to receive feedback.

This is one of my favorite blogs. I love all of lessons that Mrs. King creates and shares.
http://shenanigansinsecond.blogspot.com/