Thing #18- Youtube and Teacher tube

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!" Brandi screaming loudly at the amount of time she spent on you tube. Oh my goodness I have to get some self control. I did find several videos that I like and could possibly use during staff development week. I looked up videos about classroom management and leadership. I also found some inspiring videos that we all love to watch.
Then I went to Teacher tube. There I looked for some "how to" stuff. I found this video on using templates in a Google Doc. This is probably an upcoming "thing" but I've already used google docs so I was interested in this video.

Thing #17- Podcasts

Podcasts were a new endeavor for me. I always knew what they were, but I'd never taken the time to explore them. First, I tried finding podcasts of interest using the Education Podcast Network. I did find the weblogged site listed here, but I already had that in my google reader. Others that I found interesting were no longer working so I moved on to other ways of finding interesting podcasts.
I use itunes often, so searching through itunes was easy. I found two podcasts that I subscribed to. I'm very interested in psychology and how the mind works so these two podcasts will feed that interest daily; Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files and 60 second Psych.
I also browsed several administrative websites that I frequently use and found an educational podcast called The Whole Child Podcast.
I plan to sync my iphone daily to my itunes which will allow me access to these podcasts while "on the go." This will help me listen and learn knew things throughout my busy schedule.

Thing #16

I've now spent some time exploring Library Thing. I enjoy reading and I read many, many, many professional books throughout the year. My problem is reading for pleasure. Once I make the leap into a new book (for pleasure) I do nothing else. All I do is read, read and read until it's finished. Dishes go undone, laundry is ignored and my family longingly awaits the end of my book. So, because of my "sickness" I don't read for pleasure very often. I did enjoy exploring the site and reading the reviews. I know I could easily find a new book to obsess about on this site.
Teachers could use this site to find books that relate to the subject or topic they are teaching. I noticed many children's books are also cataloged and reviewed. I would have loved this resource as a classroom teacher.

Thing #15

Delicious is very cool! I created my account at http://delicious.com/brandikl. I like that you can have access to all your websites from anywhere. This would have helped me out many times. I plan to eventually move all my bookmarked sites here. Then I'll bundle my tags for better organization.
Delicious makes it possible to share your links and even network with certain individuals. This feature would be beneficial to a group of individuals working on a project or problem together. An example could be our campus problem solving team. If we network and subscribed to each others tags then we could all benefit from all the sites devoted to interventions.
I'm certain delicious will be my new bookmarking tool.

Thing #7a

I've been fairly diligent about looking at my google reader, but when I went to it this morning I had over 300 items not read! I know the culprit, it's TMZ, my celebrity trash gossip is cluttering my reader. Oh well, I simply marked them all as read and moved on.
I did find a very interesting story about how our brains are affected by reading and learning in a digital world. Everyone taking the 23 Things course should read this story. It directly relates to what we are learning. Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains this story really has me thinking and somewhat concerned. Researchers have evidence that reading/learning on the internet actually rewires our brains. With hypertext, flashing ads and other digital distractions we are becoming weaker readers. This is a scary thought, since reading comprehension is already a problem facing our nation.
Of course, no solutions were given just the scary statistics. However, it is my opinion that as educators we have to find a good balance between integrating Web 2.0 and digital media into education without abandoning what we know works. Reading a good "old-fashioned" book is not a bad thing.

Thing #14

More exploring...I'm definitely one of those that gets sucked in and spends way too much time exploring. Most of my time just now was spent at PollDaddy.com. This is a Web 2.0 tool that I can use in my current position. Often times I need input from our teachers on various issues. This site offers a great way to create a survey. Now, I'm still trying to figure it out, so I don't know for sure, but I think I should be able to email the survey to my staff. I think we are advanced enough that most teachers will embrace completing a survey or poll on the computer. I'm really trying to complete more tasks digitally and use less paper. Go green, right?

Thing #13

First, I used the mashup Spell with flickr.

I liked using this mashup, but I'd like to be able to save it directly as an image. If it's possible I can't figure out how to do it.
Next, I played around with Image Chef. This mashup is probably my favorite since it is easy to use and you can save the images directly to your computer.
Finally, I used the Glitter Text Effect Maker. This was a fun application and I know my teenage daughter will love using this!