My Thoughts - The 23 Things

So here we are, at the end of this journey. I enjoyed exploring these sites and tools. My favorites are RSS feeds with Google reader, Google docs, TeacherPop from Ning, YouTube, and Podcasts. I hope I had a little more time to explore these tools. The program makes me realize how important a good tool can help me to be more effective in my teaching. To keep up with web 2.0, I will subscribe to RSS feeds, for example, Learning 2.1 blog to find new tools related to education and connect with my colleagues through social networking so that we can share the latest information on the technology.

I have been using some of these tools in my teaching. I will continue maintaining my blog in a regular way and expanding it with different categories related to my teaching and my own study. I will never quit learning because it is part of an educator's life.

"Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself." - John Dewey

Thing 23

I read about Creative Commons and now I understand better of using the information obtained from other resources (including Internet of course). I will be cautious of using intellectual properties that belong to other people. I will also use Creative Commons license to protect my own copyright while sharing my resources with other people, and I do appreciate if they acknowledge the credits of other people. I find it particularly important to understand this list of things before licensing my work. As far as what was the Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog modified from, I think Dr. Wall mentioned on the very first page of the blog that "This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006)."

Thing 22

I added ESL Podcast RSS feed to my Google reader. I went to Educational Podcast Directory and browsed to I listened to the English as a Second Language Podcast directory. ESL Podcast 556 – Scheduling an Appointment http://www.eslpod.com/website/show_podcast.php?issue_id=8332436#

The site at www.eslpod.com provides many good resources for ESL teachers and students. It has so many Podcasts in different topics for ESL. I am going to explore more and maybe use some of this in my class later. I may also create a podcast with my students some day.

Thing 21

I had great fun with Animoto. I have seen some video editing software before but I never used an online video editing application. The clips Animoto makes look professional and attractive. I followed the instructions on the site to upload 10 pictures and pick up a song. I was able to create the following video from pictures of my trips. I hope you will enjoy it!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing 20

YouTube is one of my favorite sites that I frequently visit. It has so many interesting videos uploaded everyday by people all over the world. The videos are not really very organized even though it has a classification system. Also I think the privacy might be a concern for some people. The following is a clip that shows what is going on in a kinder-garden ESL class. I really enjoyed watching these adorable kids learning their first couple of English words and making short sentences. As commented by the author, he was actually trying to "entertain more than teach" since it was on Friday.


Sure I can use YouTube in my teaching. For my ESL reading class, I read a story about using your brain to control a computer, and I searched YouTube and found the video clip about this research and how it helped a real patient. Here it is!

Thing 19

My joined the APSU teacherpop group at Ning and left comments on the Educational Videos. I also uploaded a picture to my profile. I checked some other social networks mentioned on the site. Classroom 2.0 seems to have a large group of members and I am interested to try it some time. See the map above for how many visitors they have and where they are from. It seems most of the visitors are from the United States and Europe. I am a member of Facebook but I like the idea of special group, for example, social networking site for educators better. Another site I explored is GoodReads which allows Facebook sign in and has a very good organization of different genres. Each book has a rating and related reviews that are helpful. I can quickly search for a book and share with my friends. I will come back to visit this site later.

Thing 18

My Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/people/Ling-Wang/1601957649
I think you will need to register to see my information. I added my friends and colleagues at APSU to my friend list. Why is it important that educators know how social networking works? Educators may use social networking to connect with their peers and share teaching related information. Facebook and MySpace have brought significant impact to people who are using Internet for social networking. Almost everyone I know here has either Facebook or MySpace account. There are also some new comers like Twitter. I like Facebook better and it is getting more popular. It is easy to use, has most useful features like blogging, images, videos, etc, and can be integrated with other web 2.0 tools. Well, although Facebook is intended for use with personal life, I think it has grown into a business more than just sharing information and pictures. For some reading topics, I ask students to explore a real story and they may set up a social networking account to share their findings. Anyway, I think both Facebook and MySpace are good sites that can be used by educators and students for sure.

Thing 17

Social bookmarking is a new term to me. I explored http://delicious.com/ and had some interesting discoveries. It actually took me a while to figure out how it works. I clicked on the tabs on the top for different categories: fresh or popular. The Explore Tags tab shows many top rated sites including Flickr. I did a search with term "ESL teaching" and it returns many useful bookmarks. I think it definitely can be used for ESL teachers for social purpose or knowledge share. My experience is very enjoyable.

Thing 16

I added and re-arranged widgets on my new iGoogle homepage. I set up a Calendar with MSN calendar. I like iGoogle because I already tried this tool before and I have it integrated with my gmail account. It has so many useful widgets I can customize. I think online calendar may help me organize things, make schedules, and track due dates. To do lists should be combined with calender. I will definitely recommend MSN online calendar to my friends. I will encourage my students to try it as well. I know some of them already have iGoogle set up.

Thing 15

I followed the instruction and added some comments at apsu23thingssandbox. The following is the link. http://apsu23thingssandbox.pbworks.com/Blogging%2C-Avatars%2C-and-Commenting
I have used Wikipedia for a long time. At the beginning, I don't really know that everybody can add and edit Wiki, which may make the information unreliable. However, I still think it is a good idea to share the knowledge and collaborate online. I looked some web sites of schools and libraries using Wiki, for example, Westwood Schools and I was impressed how they have been using Wiki in teaching. The current site has classes for 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. It has a well organized calendar which is updated with current event. I'd like to try this in my ESL reading class some time. I believe my students will like it since most of them are active learners and I am sure they will enjoy writing their own Wiki and share their knowledge with others.

Thing 14

I created a simple flowchart with Gliffy which has a very simple user interface but a large collection of shape library. I think flowchart can be used in my teaching to show order of selecting the reading strategies. Many of my students are going to take TOEFL later and I think a guideline shown in flowchart may help them to remember the key steps when working on a reading question.

For mind map, I enjoyed using mindmeister. It's a good to have ideas connected in a way. I checked the examples for the education category and found many interesting mind maps. To me, this is a great tool to get my "thinking" organized, get my ideas laid out and connected, and help to discover some surprising patterns. I will ask my students to try this tool when they take notes or make a plan, either for study or for fun. I think it will help my students to be more active about the topics, and I may ask them to share their drawings.

Thing 13

I opted to explore Google docs instead of Zoho Writer. I am writing in Google docs now. Google docs uses an interface with a menu and a toolbar. which allows users to access standard document editing features such as font type, size, and style. It can insert image, table, drawing, link, and even equations like MS Word. It supports CSS and HTML too. Above is a screen shot of what I typed in the Google docs editor.

The presentation is easy to use as well. Above is a sample I created with Google docs. I can pick up different themes and add multiple slides. It can be shown in full screen similar to PowerPoint except it sis done online. It allows me to add speaker notes too. I will let my students try the presentation some time.

Finally, I imported a sample Excel file to Google docs Spreadsheet and created a chart from the data as shown above. It surprised me how much features Google docs has integrated into this online spreadsheet application. It is not as powerful as Excel but it gets the basic things done quickly and easily.

Thing 12

I have set up Google alerts with search term "ESL Reading" and have it delivered to my gmail. I will see what I may receive and how relevant the emails are. I also created a personal search homepage with iGoogle but I haven't figured out how to share it. It seems I need my friends' gmail addresses.

I also followed the link to Google Notebook but found it is being phased out by Google as it says "Google recently stopped development on Notebook, which means it's no longer open to sign-ups by new users or being improved." I think it is replaced by a better tool - Google Docs.

I think all these tools are useful in an education setting. I will ask my students to try iGoogle and we may also use Google Docs for presentation, group discussions, and the built-in spreadsheet feature is awesome!

Thing 11

I explored more blog searcher engines like Google Blog Search and Technorati. Both have great features to help users to locate the blog/RSS feeds they are looking for. I also played with some other tools and here are the answers to the following questions.

• Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
  Through the search engine, e.g., Google search in the Google reader.
• Which Search tool was the easiest for you and which was more confusing?
  Although I am a fan of Google, but I like Technorati better because it seems to be more organized with topics and it has ranking of popular blogs.
  
• What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
  Well, I found very interesting (and amazing) pictures and useful articles for my teaching. I believe there will be some more discoveries when I keep exploring this new way of collecting information.
  
• What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
  I haven't had chance to try other ways or use tools besides those given in the instructions. I know there are a lot more out there. Right now, I think looking for the RSS feed icons is one of the most efficient ways.
  

Thing 10

newsreader is something new to me. I followed the instructions and created a free account with Google reader. I checked other RSS readers but I chose Google reader partially because I already have a gmail account and I like it. I also added the following 5 feeds using the discover and search tools of Google reader:

• Education News - The New York Times
  
• The Reading Teacher from AccessMyLibrary.com
• ESL Magazine
• Cool Cat Teacher Blog
• Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers

I like the idea of making a personal magazine through the newsreaders. Sure I can use it in my personal life. I have quickly found some useful feeds that I may use in my ESL reading class. I think it is important for teachers to keep updated with the news in education especially those closely related to their teaching.

Thing 9

I used Comic Strip Generator given in the Discovery Resources to create these comics.

I made a fake magazine cover with a cartoon panda. The other one is from a famous Japanese cartoon Machine Cat.

I think comics may enhance the student's interest on some topics, good for elementary school or any level of education is used properly.

Thing 8

I used a mushup - Mosaic Maker by BIG HUGE LABS (BHL) to create a picture collection about my trip to Gatlingburg, TN. I registered with BHL so that I can upload the pictures and they offer more tools and utilities I may use later.


I think Flickr and image mashups like Mosaic Maker could be used in my classroom as well as my personal life. I can upload pictures related to reading assignments for the students and create a nice frame to organize the pictures. I will also encourage my students to try these mashups if they already have social networking accounts like FaceBook. I feel very comfortable about sharing photos online. I have my personal blog which has many pictures of my personal life and my parents, friends, and students can view them and leave comments.

Thing 7

Shanghai

Dali Pagodas, Yunnan

Jianshui, Yunnan

Shaping Market, Yunnan

I explored flickr and had lots of fun. There are so many interesting pictures uploaded by artists and photographers all over the world. I used the keyword "China" and found many sets of photos. One of them is Eric Lafforgue's picture collection. The pictures posted above are just some examples from his collection. Some of them were taken in the Yunnan province, a place in the southern part of China. Many shots reflect the daily life of Chinese people living in that area which has unique culture and tradition. I have never visited Yunnan province myself. I really enjoyed these wonderful pictures! You may access the complete collection at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/sets/72157600348079863/

Thing 6

There are so many good nominees. I am interested in the book category and I found Biblio at http://www.biblio.com/ is a very good tool not just for personal use but for the library at a school as well. The best feature about Biblio is it allows you to search (and buy) out-of-print books and rare books. Some are very cheap, as you can see, while you can also find some quite expensive!

I think it also provides good resources for scholars who might be looking for a classical book as a reference. Well, as far as the search result is concerned, it seems to return to many books sometimes althogh it has a set of filters one can use to quickly narrow the search.

Thing 5

Web 2.0 is a new term to me. So I first went to Wikipedia to get some basic idea about it. Then I realize that although I am not familiar with the concept, I have been using those interactive online tools like writing and reading blogs, watching YouTube videos, etc. I also had some discussion with my husband who knows computer and web much better than I do. He tried to explain a little more behind the scene but I am kind of lost with those technical jargons like AJAX. So I just focus on what Web 2.0 means to the educators, or the so-called school 2.0.

I agree with Susan, the author of the perspective Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators, about the school and educators need to be aware of the change that Web 2.0 has brought to the teaching and learning process. I think students sometimes are more experienced than their teachers with social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. I didn't know FaceBook until one of my friends here told me how good it is. We sure should utilize Internet and interactive web tools to enrich our teaching. In New Literatures: Enrichment or Essential?, David also pointed out the significant role of blogs and wiki, technologies schools may find helpful to improve students' writing, collaborating, and communications.

Thing 3

I read Anne Davis's Edublog Insights which provides great outlines and guidelines an instructor may use to create a reflective blog in education. I used to teach English in a middle school in China but I only wrote something about my personal life in my blog at that time. But still many students visisted my blog to read my posts, view pictures, and left comments. I think it is at least a good tool to build up the rapport with the students.

Now I realize that a blog can also be used in teaching and learning. I am teaching ESL reading class this semester, and I'd like to try some activities, for example, online readings, Internet resources including YouTube videos related to the topics covered in the lecture. The best thing about the blog, I believe, is that it can be created and organized according to these topics with a clear timeline. My students may leave comments and ask questions as well.

Thing 2

I really enjoyed creating a blog. I chose a name for my blog that is part of my email user name so that I can easily remember it. Also I don't want to use my real name for privacy reason. I had no trouble creating the blog when following the three steps. I like pink so I picked up a template with pink theme. I have being using blog for a couple years to share my experience in America with my friends. So I didn't find anything particularly different or difficult.

I also had great fun with avatar. I think the idea of avatar is like the Mii character on Wii. Although it does not have as many options as Mii, I managed to create one that looks like real me, and the way it's dressed reflects my personality as well. I'd like people to tell it is me when they look at my avatar.

Thing 1

The easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. My previous learning and life experience makes me understand how important the responsibility it is for the success of my learning. The feeling of responsibility inspires my strong learning motivation and determination, which usually become the most powerful spiritual support to help achieve my learning goal no matter how many obstacles I have met.

The hardest habit for me is playing. Actually, I am glad to know that playing is a good habit for a lifelong learner and this knowledge makes me feel more relaxed. It might be because of the primary education I accepted is from a country which has a very highly selective educational system. In such a situation, the success of learning is decided by test scores and learning itself is like a competition. In order to beat other competitors, I had to make a very tight study plan and count every minute to realize it. So I always thought playing and learning were contradicted. But right now this knowledge makes me rethink about my understanding of learning. I would like to have a try of how to learn effectively through being a successful player.