One More "Thing"

I cannot believe I actually worked my way through these "23 Things".  I am actually sad.  Now I can take the time to go back and dig deeper into each thing and discover even more.  Although I got bogged down with a couple of 'things' I realize the struggle was a process I had to go through to learn how to learn in this tech savvy world.  I'm just glad I could go at my pace.  Whew!   Now that I am familiar with these things, I am by no means finished learning.  I can see so many applications for my teachers and students and I will share the ideas I have in hopes of sparking interest and ideas beyond my own understanding to enhance learning.

Some of my favorite discoveries were Delicious.com, Wiki's, Image Generator, Podcasts,

 Google Docs, and Google Reader and RSS feeds.  I learned to embed video and photos inside a blog post and a document.  I have a little more understanding of the digital tech talk and can carry on a decent conversation with those who talk tech.  I like that.

The only thing I was disappointed in was that no one read or commented on my blog posts during the course.  I had about 5 total comments but that's all.  There was no interaction from any of the "teachers" of this course.  I was a little confused about that.  I did feel as though I was totally on my own except for the emails from Mary Woodard.  Maybe that is the way we were supposed to feel, I'm not sure.

I am hoping there are more "things" to discover and when they become available MISD will continue this course with a Wiki to learn about these new things.

Since I have worked my way through all of these things I intend to go back to each one and continue my discovery about them.  I want to be sure I have done all of the activities in each thing and learn more about how I can apply them in our classrooms.  My Google Reader and RSS feeds will be a great way to keep up with new ideas and technology.  I'll continue to scan and read those feeds.

I will be continuing my blog but it will branch out in a different direction.  My blog will become a way for my teachers to learn how to use the various ideas I discovered on "23Things".  I want to reach out to them and help them incorporate these tools in their classrooms. I will be posting this blog url into my email when I actually create a friendly "Try this" post.  I want to support them in their journey of using technology, not burden them with too much to do.  I want to share with them the idea that when we use the technology we motivate our students and they learn in different, better ways then our traditional ways of teaching.  The internet and social interaction is the only way we can plug in to our kids and have them want to learn.

This has been the best staff development class I've ever taken.  The possibilities only as limited as our imagination!