Week 9, Thing 23!!!

As I look back on this journey I have to admit that the first few "things" peeked my curiosity and I had alot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed setting up my blog and avatar although I spent WAY too much time with the details! Flicker was awesome...wish I had known about it earlier. I can forsee hours and hours of time spent making tags, sets and collections I am sure the outcome will be well worth it! Then came Mashups and RSS feeders which became a bit more challenging for me. Rollyo stumped me and then Hurricane Dolly hit. After a long interlude I came back refreshed and ready to tackle Del.icio.us. I survived and then hit the downhill when I arrived at Zoho Writer which I know will be very helpful.

I am now aware that I live in a world of technology and there is much to be learned. There are many sites and tools I came across that I look forward to going back to and some I am not sure I will EVER revisit.

My goal for the upcoming year is to implement at least one of the tools I havediscovered in my classroom and one in my personal endeavors. I look forward to more workshops of this kind.

Remember ... Dare2Dream!

Week 9, Thing 22 Ebooks and Audiobooks

Audiobooks are wonderful for children and teenagers with learning differences. It allows them to eliminate the frustration of reading while allowing them to comprehend the content of the material. These are great for people like me who dislike driving long distances by myself!

While browsing eBooks About Everything I found the audiobook, The Truth In Words which I THINK I could use in my class. Unfortuantely the information on this book was limited due to work in progress.

Definitely a good resource!

Week 9, Thing 21 Podcasts

I browsed throught the religion & spirituality podcasts and found "The Heartburn Cafe" at http://feeds.feedburner.com/heartburncafe
The description says that it is geared toward teens and young adults. It offers guidance and advice about life's most difficult issues. I found the intended message good but it was was too much extra conversation making it too long!

On a lighter note...I liked Wine for Newbies. My husband and I like to read about and try different wines. I believe this site could help us get started on this new experience.

Week 9, Thing 20 You Tube

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch's gave his last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” on Sept. 18, 2007. I saw the clip on a television special and was deeply moved. He is an inspiration and role model! He told of his recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and prognosis of death in a matter of months. He spoke about what he would want the world to know to the world about himself if he knew it was his last chance? Randy died on July 25th, 2008.

His book "The Last Lecture" is one everyone should read!

Week 8, Thing 19 LibraryThing

I remember the days of getting our school library automated...endless book searches and visits to the Library of Congress. I'm so glad we are fully automated now.
Creating a book list was fun. These are some of the books I have read in the past. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my best all time favorites!!

Going through my booksalso reminded me that I have a stack of that I had intended to read this summer but never got around to it!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dare2dream

Week8, Thing 18 Zoho writer

Ahhh. This seems a bit more familiar to me. I really think I will be able to find my way around with this much easier!! I use WORD and spreadsheets every day. I hope to keep a running calendar for my students that we can all update. My students go out to service sites every day and it is important that we all know when there will be a change in schedule to an absence, holiday or school activity. HmmmI'll have to experiment!

I would also like to use it for their auto-biography. It would cut down on alot of paper! This tool I am excited about!

Week 7, Thing 17 Sandbox Wiki

I played in the sandbox and easily posted to it. QUesting Beast is quite funny.

I investigated the other sites and I am now trying to figure out a way to create a Wiki to use in my class in place of my semester project. I will need to do some furthur research adn play a bit more!

I'm glad to find out that Wiki's are not the danger zone I was led to believe.