Is it the End or Only the Beginning?

       My last 23 Things blog post! It's been a good ride. Long, but good. I learned a lot. I also found a ton of awesome tools, tricks, and tips, as well as multiple cool, useful, websites. I really liked the Web 2.0 websites that we got to explore from thing #6 and will definitely be checking out more of those websites. I also really enjoyed the image editors and video makers. I really like making media like that and expressing my creativity that way. This assignment has definitely impacted how I will teach and handle my classroom as a future teacher. I will always be looking for new technology and websites to use and keep the class interesting, fun, and ever changing. I'll keep up with Web 2.0 changes by saving the link of the embedded list of websites in thing #6. It looks like it changes practically every day, so I'll check out what's new that way. Thanks for a great class and a great year! I might even keep using this blog or create a new one. I really enjoyed posting things like this. Thanks again!

-Steven Baldwin

Thing #22

       So this was kind of a cool assignment too. I'm not sure if I will use this tool very much yet, but it might come in handy. I feel like sites like Diigo might do the same thing as LiveBinders, while it does have some other features and uses that Diigo does not. I did create three binders like the assignment required though. They are titled, "Teaching Tips" "Teaching Videos" and "Educational Technology". Here is an embedded look at my "Educational Technology" binder.

Educational Technology

       I would use this site to make binders and then have my students review the links listed inside of the binders to learn and discover new things that might be helpful to them and their educations.

Thing #21

Make your own slide show at Animoto.

       So here's a video I made with Animoto. It was really fun and super easy! It's pictures from the 2011 World Series. The music is from, "The Natural Sound Track". The end product looks great and the song I uploaded from the soundtrack goes great with the transitions. And the best part? It's free! Will definitely be using this website again!

Thing #23

       We learned about creative commons in class actually, so I already had a pretty basic understanding of the idea before starting this "thing". I definitely like it way better than plain ole copyright laws. The internet is an ever changing social beast that shouldn't be chained by copyrights. It should be tamed and regulated with creative commons, but free to roam and grow and be enjoyed by all. (nice metaphor huh?) Since this is my belief and mindset about the topic that this "thing" covers, I, as a future teacher, will use creative commons over copyrights anyday. I want people to use my work and make changes to it so that it can be even more useful to them. That's the point of the internet in my opinion. It's a tool that should be shared. That isn't easy to do with a bunch of people saying, "mine, mine, mine" with all of their works.

Thing #20

Here's a video from YouTube that gives a little insight to what we as future teachers have to look forward to. Enjoy!

       YouTube is ranked right up there with Google and Facebook as one of the online giants. Because of that, everyone and their momma has used YouTube. So why not apply it to the classroom? There are many different ways of doing so. You could upload a video of yourself teaching a lesson that your students could watch at home and take notes on, or have them watch a video in class about a topic you are discussing to maybe help them understand it better. You could even center an entire lesson around a YouTube video and use it as a conversation starter between you and your students. The possibilities are endless.
       I like YouTube, but am not an avid user like most. It is a huge time-sucker and can bleed you of all ambition and productivity for an entire day or even weeks in some extreme cases. The site is easy to use and even makes finding videos after your original search as easy as looking through the suggested videos on the right-hand side or at the end of the video you just watched. It doesn't get much easier than that. In fact, that's how I found the video I embedded in this post. I watched the video that was embedded into the 23 Things instructions for this "thing" and this was a suggested video that popped up at the end.

Thing #17

       Social bookmarking is so much fun. While I personally have an account with both Diigo and StumbleUpon already, I love the idea of social bookmarking. I get on StumbleUpon all the time and even have the app on my phone. Whenever I get bored sitting in a waiting room and Angry Birds is starting to get stale, I pull up StumbleUpon and start "Stumbling" through websites for hours sometimes. I love how easy it is to just like the page and share with friends. If a friend visits a site you liked, it even tells them at the top of the page! Plus, it's interactive and always changing. It looks at what pages you like and dislike and targets your stumbles to pages that you personally would find interesting, fun, or cool.
       These tools of social bookmarking are so handy. I can definitely see uses for it in the classroom because I used Diigo in this very class! We had to post a link to a webpage in a group folder under Diigo and then give a presentation about it. I also used Diigo to save links to other webpages that I needed for this class like WebQuests and more. The possibilities for social bookmarking in the classroom are numerous and I think we've only scratched the surface!

Thing #16

       After I created my online calendar for this "Thing" I went ahead and started looking through the links of other tools that I was supposed to explore. Then I saw the link to LifeHacker. I LOVE that site. It has so many helpful tip, tricks, and tools, to literally HACK LIFE. I've been a long time visiter of that page and has made my life so much easier. Everything from putting a glass of water in a microwave and heating it before cleaning to make cleaning it out a sinch, to flipping hangers around when I wear shirts and pants to see what clothes I wear and what clothes I don't so I can sell them or give them away to Goodwill. That website has so many little tricks that make life a cake walk. I probably won't make LifeHacker my homepage, but I will definitely keep visiting for new tips and tricks. This website is definitely useful to others either at home or at school. I recommend that everyone visit it and learn a thing or two.
       The online calendar was nice but I feel like I won't really use it that much. I already have a calendar on my phone and hanging on the wall of my room that I write events and due dates on to help me keep things in order, so another calendar is probably the last thing I need right now. As for the to-do-list, I feel like that is too much work to keep up with also. I think that's one thing that I will still do the old fashioned way, with paper and pen. It's just way more satisfying writing it out and then crossing the things off as you go. Plus I don't have to get on my computer or phone to check it. The ideas are good, but I just feel like they aren't quite as practical as the real things.

Thing #15

       Wiki's are wicked cool. So I am personally a big believer in wiki's, especially Wikipedia. I can't tell you how many arguments wikipedia has settled between me and my friends and how many papers I've turned in using references I found at the bottom of Wikipedia articles. While I do understand why teachers generally bash the site, I've found, more often than not, that the articles are actually pretty accurate. Wiki's allow people from all different backgrounds, with different skills, mindsets, and knowledges, to weigh in and write about something that they are very well educated about. They're collaborations of people's brains! Everyone's heard the old saying, "two heads are better than one," well how about 2,000 heads that all know a whole lot about one specific topic?!
       I, as a teacher, would create a wiki page for my classes to write. It could be about anything. Just let them write about whatever they feel like they are "experts" in. This would encourage writing, creativity, social interaction, and help improve their grammar and spelling because they know that the whole world can read that article including their friends and family.

Thing #14

       I choose to sign up with bubbl.us and flowchart.com for my two accounts that I was required to make for this "Thing". I chose bubbl.us because it was fairly simple to navigate and create "mind maps". This site will be very handy for me as a teacher/coach because it will give me a way to organize the chaos that is my mind. It'll help me stay on task and keep my plans in order.
       I choose to join flowchart.com because any website that has what it does in its URL must know what they're doing. They too were easy to navigate and get started and offered many different kinds of flowcharts and ways of making them. This will be good for making graphic organizers for students so they can follow along in class and make them think and analyze information right as they hear it.

Thing #13

       After looking at both Google Docs and Zoho I like them both for different reasons. I feel that Google Docs is good for students because they can directly share their work with myself our their fellow classmates just by sending it to their individual Google Accounts. Google Docs also works hand-in-hand with Google Drive which is like an online flashdrive, and is similar to Dropbox. This is useful because students can create a file with Google Docs and then save it in Google Drive and will have it on any computer they sign in to. This way a student can start working on a paper or powerpoint in class in Google Docs and can save it to their Google Drive account and access it at home and continue working on it without having to have any special expensive software like Microsoft.
       I personally prefered Zoho over Google Docs simply because it offers so many more apps. It can help me be productive or advance a business I might run on the side of teaching in the summertime. I feel like Zoho has a much greater amount of potential in that category. On the other hand I am already fairly familiar with Google Docs, so there is that to consider. Since this "Thing" required me to make something with Google Docs and post a picture of it, here's a picture of a soccer lineup I made using Google Docs Drawing app for my old intramural soccer team.

Thing #19

       I am currently a member of Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Path, Instagram, Snapchat, Foursquare, Foodspotting, and YouTube. However, I am always interested in other social media sites and being involved with them, so this "Thing" was really interesting for me. I especially was interested in the food social networks like Open Source Food or Tasty Kitchen
       I am not currently a member of any of the social networking sites that were mentioned in the post above but I'm sure as my career progresses I will join many of the teaching and education social networks to learn from my fellow educators and to bounce idea's off each other.

Thing #18

       As a member of both Facebook and Twitter for many many years, this "Thing" was a breeze. Facebook and Twitter are very important for educators to use. By adding your co-workers and fellow educators on both Facebook and Twitter we can bounce ideas off each other, learn tips, post videos, and post links to certain helpful sites to aid our fellow teachers. Twitter also is becoming a source of instant news. When events like the Colorado theater shooting, Sandy Hook shooting, and the hurricane in New York, I was able to follow along with facts and happenings in almost real time. So instead of waiting for the evening news at 10 after things have been watered down and edited, I am getting the news from eye witnesses and first-hand accounts of what they are seeing, hearing, and feeling as fast as they can tweet. It is such a useful tool and allows the user to connect with people instantly all over the world. Both of these sites are very easy to used and navigate. So much so, that both of my parents are on these sites and use them on a daily basis. So with all that being said, here's a link to my Facebook profile and to my Twitter profile. Feel free to check em out and follow me on Twitter and add me on Facebook!

Thing #11

       So since I didn't create a Google Reader account because the service is being retired by Google, this assignment is a little tough to do. Instead of subscribing to blogs I'll just talk about which blog search engine I liked the most and which was easiest to use. My favorite blog finder was Technorati it was easy to use because it was broken down into categories of interest and also had a search bar in case you couldn't find what you were looking for in the multiple tabs they had to look through. I personally liked thumbing through the technology tab. I'm always interested in new and useful technology and am trying to find creative ways to apply it to education.

Thing #4

       Commenting is important to the blogosphere because it creates a sense of community and interaction between posters and readers. Commenting helps people bounce ideas off one another and gives feedback to the writer. This helps the writer adapt and to better write for his intended target audiences. People like getting feedback on their work. How would you feel if a teacher handed you a paper you wrote back to you with nothing written on it but a letter grade? Wouldn't you want to know why you received the grade you did, or things that need improvement, or things you did well? The same goes for bloggers and their readers. WE WANT FEEDBACK! It helps us improve as bloggers and will make us feel like people are actually interested in what we might have to say. With that being said, I'm a firm believer in practicing what you preach, so in order to lead by example, here's a list of seven blogs that I personally visited and commented on. Feel free to follow the links and read what they wrote and what I had to say on their blogs. And feel free to comment on this post or any other one of my posts!

1) Michelle Terry
2) Meghan Wagley
3) Alexandera Tolbert
4) Pam Hankins
5) Jennifer Watt
6) Mr. B
7) http://www.techsavvyed.net/

Thing #10

       So this "Thing" wanted me to make an account with Google Reader and subscribe to 5 different feeds. However, when I went to create my Google Reader account, it notified me that the site was being retired on July 1st of this year. So since that is only half a month away, I decided to not register with Google Reader. Instead I did a little research as to why Google was discontinuing this service that seems to be very popular and used by many. Here's what I found: Google Reader Shutdown
       This article explains that Google has decided to retire the service because we as consumers have changed the way we read and recieve our news. Instead of sitting down at our computers everyday to read our subscriptions, we reliy more on Twitter and other smartphone apps to get bits and pieces of our news. With this in mind, the author of this article believes that, Google might be changing the way their Reader works and might make it smartphone friendly or more accessable for their users. I hope this is the case because I'm very interested in using this service and subscribing to articles and using this service to my advantage as a teacher.
       I could use this service as an educator to stay up-to-date on new technologies available for teachers with pages like Free Tech 4 Teachers and can also subscribe to pages that are relevant to subject material and even current news and issues that I could discuss with my classes. I know that I didn't complete the assignment as designed, but I hope this eefort is enough to get credit for this part of the assignment!

Thing #12

       So this "Thing" was designed to help you explore Google and learn all the possibilities available with it. Luckily for me, I was already familiar with these tools and tricks and use them frequently. I have the Google Translate app on my phone and have used it numerous times. It is very helpful and handy for everyday situations. I also use Picasa Web Albums already, also for my phone. Pictures that I took with my older phones were automatically saved to those albums and are automatically uploaded onto my newest phone for me to have access to whenever needed so that I don't lose any old memories. Here's a link to Google Translate and here's a link to Picasa Web Album
       I could use these tools for many things in the classroom. I could use Google Translate to translate documents that I find online that may not be in English or to translate homework and assignments for my ESL students. I can use Picasa Web Albums to save pictures I find or take of historic sites or locations and events to help them visualize subject material.

Thing #9

       Here's a couple images I made for this assignment. I used imagechef to make them. It was so easy and really fun. This will definitely come in handy as a teacher to spice up PowerPoints and to help my pay more attention in class. This is creative and unique and will help me keep my students' attention.

Thing #8

       So if you can't tell yet, I'm a bit of a St. Louis Cardinals fanatic. So I figured since my blog's theme goes along with that characteristic about me, why not add another post that makes it even more clear? Here's a photo mosaic I made in less than ten minutes using Flickr and a tool for Flickr that grabs pictures from the site that fit the search terms you type in. So I typed in "Cardinals Baseball" and these are all pictures that Big Huge Labs' Mosaic Maker found on Flickr and mashed together to make a cool collage of Cardinals baseball. I loved how quick and simple it was to use. I will probably use this multiple times in my life for making gifts or greeting cards or anything really! It will also come in handy as a teacher! I can just set the dimensions of the mosaic, type in a topic we're covering in class, and boom! Instant collage of pictures from WWII or The Great Depression or anything else!

Thing #7

       This is a picture of a trading card of the best shortstop to ever play the game of baseball. It was posted on Flickr by selro4me Ozzie Smith was a 14-time gold glove winner and had an electric personality that could make anyone smile. This picture shows him doing his signature back-flip. He would do it every time he took the field making him an automatic fan favorite. He was truly that rare combination of someone who understood that baseball was a game and was made to have fun, but was also INCREDIBLY talented and played it better than anyone else out there. I found this image off Flickr by simply typing in "Ozzie Smith" and after doing a little digging found this one and thought it was a perfect display of him and his personality. Flickr was very easy to use and had a LARGE amount of pictures under any topic I tried looking up. I plan to use it a lot more in the future. Especially for visuals in teaching. Here is a link to the picture as well: Ozzie Smith

Thing #6

       So for this "Thing" we had to select a web page from Web 2.0 and I selected PowToon. Here's a link to the page so you can check it out for yourself: http://www.powtoon.com/home/ Anyways, this cite was so cool! Everyone gets bored listening to dull, boring PowerPoints and everyone loves those cool doodle drawing animated videos. Well this site allows you to do it yourself for free. It even walks you through the steps and is easy to figure out. I even used it to my advantage and used it to make an animated PowerPoint for a LiveText assignment for this class. It looks professional and is easy to follow along with and requires no clicking or talking, it does everything for you and is much more enjoyable to watch and listen to than my boring voice! Haha

Thing #5

       So Thing #5 makes me think a lot about the future of our schools and the education system. The listings that we had to read were very interesting and made many good points. The internet has only barely scratched the surface of its potential. If more people would post their ideas and thoughts online instead of just browsing through and reading, the internet would thrive with amazing ideas and people using other people to develop incredible products and tools that could change the world forever. I feel like it is our job as teachers to really encourage that mindset to our students and to push them to think creatively and not settle for what is already put in front of them but to push the envelope and try to find better and easier ways to do things and then make them known to the world in order to accomplish great things.

What does School 2.0 mean to you?

       School 2.0 means that students learn anyway they can. Whatever way is easiest and most effective from them, that's how they should learn. With all of this vast amount of technology available to us at our fingertips we as teachers can use it to our advantage to help our students grasp material and truly understand and learn it.

What does it mean for schools of the future?

       I think I sorta said it in my last response, but I think that we need to evolve our teaching methods and standards in order to improve education. Now students are taught, here's the question, do the work, and give the answer. Oh! and the answers are in the back, but don't look! When really we should be encouraging them to look up answers to questions. We should be encouraging our students to use the resources available to them so that they can solve problems they don't understand because that's how problems are solved in the real world and that, is what we spend years of their lives trying to prepare them for. So are we really preparing them if we are discouraging them from working smarter not harder? Aren't we really handicapping them from being competitive from the rest of the world?

Thing #3

       So Thing 3 looks pretty easy so I'm gonna go ahead and tackle it head on.

Ways I Could Use Blogs as a Future Teacher:
       I could use blogs to help my students learn by finding good blogs that are informative and easy to navigate and written by people who are well educated in the topics we may be discussing in class. I could also use it to post assignments or links for my future students to use in order to help them better grasp the material being discussed in class. I could use my blog as a way for parents to stay up-to-date with classroom activities and how their children are performing and maybe anything funny or exciting that might have happened in the classroom that day. That way they could avoid the dreaded exchange between their child and themselves of, "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing." I'm sure there are even more ways to use a blog to my advantage as a teacher but these are only a few. Feel free to comment with any additional ideas!

Thing #2

       Second post in the same day! Plugging right along! For Thing #2 I have to answer a few questions about my blogging experience thus far so here we go!
       Question 1: I have zero previous experience with blogs other than having a general idea of what they were. Up until this class I have neither written nor read a blog.
       Question 2: The name of my posts will just follow along with the 23 Things assignment so that they'll be easier to grade and the name of my blog is simply The 23 Things.
       Question 3: Creating the blog itself was fairly easy. Customizing it to how I liked it took a little more time, but I am really enjoying it thus far.
       Question 4: I decided not to use an avatar for my blog. I opted to use an actual picture of myself that I had done my senior year of high school. I want people to see the real me. Not a cartoon.

Thing #1

       So this is my first post for this assignment and I went through and reviewed the 7 and 1/2 Habits online tutorial that was developed by the training specialists at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. I found myself agreeing with some of the ideas that successful lifelong learns believe but also disagreeing with some as well.
       For instance, I agree with the idea that attitude is everything. It's hard to make someone learn who just doesn't want to. The old saying, "You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink," is true when it comes to a student's attitude towards learning. I also liked the, "I Will. I Can. I Do." Mentality. Having a positive belief in one's self makes the learning experience easier and more enjoyable. It's also our duties as teachers, to give students who don't have that kind of confidence in themselves, to give them positive reinforcement and feedback to help boost their confidence.
       The idea that I didn't really agree with was, "It's never too late (or too soon) to learn something." I think that in some instances it IS too soon to learn certain things. For example, we're not going to have our Kindergarten and First graders learn Sex Ed. or the graphicness of the Holocaust and genocides. But other than that aspect of the slide show I liked the general premise of it all.
       Furthermore, I think the habits that I would find easiest for myself to do are Habits 6 and 7 and of course 7 and a half. Habit 6 is using technology to my advantage. I feel like I already do a good job of that now. For example, I'm writing this assignment from my cell phone using the blogger app because it's more convenient and faster and spell checks every word as I type it. Habit 7 is teaching and mentoring someone else. I find that I learn best when I'm teaching the information to other people because I makes up ways to help them remember and in turn, help me remember also. And habit 7 and a half is play and that's easy for everyone to do.
       The habits that I think I might have the hardest time with are Habits 4 and 2. Habit 4 is "Having confidence in yourself as a learner." All my life I've thought I was smart, but have always been surrounded by people who were smarter and did better than I did. When I'd make a good grade on an assignment and they'd make a better grade, it would really lower my confidence. Habit 2 is accepting responsibility for my own learning. Growing up I always saw learning and going to school like something I HAD to do. With that mindset I always thought whether or not I learned was my teachers and parents responsibility, not mine, so that would be a whole mindset that I would have to shift away from which would be hard to do after 20 years.