Thing 6

I am fortunate to have an iphone and did upload some of the educational apps mentioned. The astronomy one is quite good and will help enrich our third grade Greek heroes unit. My daughter prefers the Lemonstand game, she compares it to some of the SIMS games that are so popular.

I was excited to learn that there exist a cable that can connect the iphone to the computer screen or projector. Even if it only can do pictures and videos, I still feel the possibilities are worth exploring.

Use pictures and videos to share and document assignments that are not pencil and paper.
Use picture taken to insert into powerpoints to illustrate how-tos etc...
I plan to trying sharing a book over the docking station I have in the room.

I worry that what is so cool about many of the apps is controlling through the touch screen and that will be lost in a group of children if it becomes too large.

Thing 5

I guess I am just to wierded out to be a Facebook user. All I entered was first, last name, email and birthdate. Suddenly, many parents from my school are on the page waiting to be added. How did they know? How was every single person they showed someone from my elementary school? OK, I'm better now. Not that I don't love the parents at my school. I just don't want them looking at pictures from my private life, a few barriers are a good thing!

Twitter didn't do much for me either. Tried a couple of celebrities like Oprah and Suze Orman. Just can't see the need and though I see the value in quick exchanges and sharing information, I just don't think it is worth the risk. I noticed the SBISD tweet mentioned some of the dangers.

Back channeling seems fine. If it helps people stay focussed, I guess it is a good thing. I know this is the wave of the future, but you just don't have to jump on every wave.

Thing 4

I guess I just demonstrated the advantages of having lessons and ideas like School Tube available on line in my comment, the audio section of the beginning lesson plans goes so well with our own 3rd grade science curriculum. What a great way to think about sounds and to add some technology to that unit!

Posting student work has the obvious pride factor. We all love to see something we've done well out there for others to see and comment on. The ability to share work with others far away from the student is also a wonderful idea.

A final note about the up loading. Incredibly easy! I used a video done on an iphone this summer. It literally took it straight from the phone to YouTube. I titled it Idiots on the Beach. I will try to insert it into my Blog like we did in 23 thins.

Thing 3

The Blogs and articles about Skype and VOI's like Skype were excellent. I particularly related to the comments on class management when things go wrong with technology. I would imagine that early trials would need a back up activity at the ready.
The cross cultural aspects are amazing to contemplate, but for me starting a little closer to home, perhaps with a dramatically different grade level (3rd talking to 7th) who is learning the same topic ( volcanoes, come to mind) might be a little easier.
One of the commentors mentioned how the show and tell lesson format worked really well with the camera, I've a feeling like all things new it is best to start simple and expand from there. The key is to start!

Thing 2

These various tools have been great fun to explore. The Wordle would make a great cover page for a report. I also plan to use it at the beginning of the year, by having the students write sentences about themselves and then use Wordle to form a ME cloud. Glogster poster ideas were excellent. It would be my hope that by eliminating all the collecting, cutting and pasting involved in most posters, it would open avenues for more creativity. I've already used animoto in the classroom last year. My students were overusing powerpoint and it gave them a fresh way to share information with the class. Bookr was new to me. My first thoughts were to use it in describing the many cycles that occur in the sciences. I also think it would be a great device to share a non-fiction book report or a review.

Thing 1.

I left the cartoon and utube videos from 23.5. They still look pretty cool to me. The video on connectivity of the learner was alright. I enjoyed the cut outs, but it was a little hard to stay focussed on the content. I was a little concerned about the aspect of people looking for answers just talking amongst themselves and never really finding the expert. I realized at the end, that this would be the responsibilty of the teacher to make sure the learner has the tools to use his networking capabilities to find the person with the answers. Well, we are off!