Thing #23

My favorite discovery on library to play was my creation of my blog. Creating my blog was a very proud moment. Although much of this project seemed very intimidating for someone who does not consider themselves computer literate I am proud to report that this journey has been well worth it! Creating my photostory of my mission to Costa Rica was another proud moment. Much of what I learned will be very beneficial to me both professionally and personally.

Working on library to play 23 things has really encouraged me to take on the challenges of technology. I learned that with a little determination I am able to complete the task at hand. Not always as quickly as I would like but the mission can be accomplished! I am looking forward to learning more in the future.

My unexpected outcome from this program was leaving the journey
with a thirst to search for more ways to incorporate technology in both my professional and personal life.

While Library to play 23 things is a great program to use to challenge yourself to learn more ways to use technology it is very time consuming. The only suggestion might be to have less things to complete. Without a doubt this was well worth my time and I am truly appreciative of the opportunity. Many thanks!

I would definitely consider completing another discovery program in the future. Completing 23 things has definitely prepared me for the next challenge! To sum up my learning experience it is well worth playing!

Yeah I did it!!!!

Thing # 22

After viewing the various Nings I really liked Ning for Teachers. This is a great social networking tool that I know will really benefit my teaching. I love that you can collaborate with other teachers from all over the world. This is a great way to get new fresh lesson plan ideas and collaborate some of your own great ideas as well.
I am looking forward to using Ning for Teachers this upcoming school year!

Thing #21

Using photostory was fairly simple. I was excited to be able to showcase some of my pictures from my Mission in Costa Rica. The only disappointment was not being able to use the song I wanted to play in the background. I am big on music and the music really helps tell the story. I look forward to continuing to use photostory both professionally and personally. I am hoping to continue trying to upload the song I wanted to my story soon. Stay tune!




Yea! Success at last got the new song uploaded. Enjoy!

Thing #20

I searched Teacher Tube as I had never navigated through this site. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised how helpful this site could be to me professionally! You can find a video on so many helpful things in any content are. I loved it! I searched videos on science for kindergarten as our curriculum for this upcoming year has much more for us to teach and I can use all the help I can get. One of the videos I found was on plants. Listed below is the video. Happy video searching!



http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=96565&title=Growing_plants

Thing #19

Searching through the Web 2.o Awards list was a great find! The possibilities are endless. There were so many great tools to use that I found myself navigating through many more than I probably should have. I truly think I could have done this all day! Some of the many great finds were as follows-Craiglist,Mango Languages, Urban spoon,bookmarking,mapping applications,live maps,google earth, delicious, and the list goes on and on! The nice thing about this site is everything is categorized and organized so you can easily find the tool that you are searching for.

Their were many sites that would work well in schools and libraries and would be helpful in various content areas such as Google earth, Delicious,Mango languages, Mapping applications, collaborative writing,twitter,etc.

One of the many sites that I really enjoyed was I'm cooked. This is a great place to get online and create your own cooking video. I thought his would be a neat idea to do with my kiddos who love to cook. You also get great ideas for cooking great meals! I also enjoyed Urban Spoon which is a great search for restaurants and provides reviews from critics and food bloggers. Picnik was another great tool for making your photos fabulous with easy to use powerful editing tools. I can't wait to try this tool on my photos from my trip to Costa Rica!

Thing #18

In my exploration of Open Office I was amazed at all of the great benefits this online software program offers. It does everything you want your office software to do the way you want it to. Most importantly it is easy to use, easy to learn and it's FREE!!! I especially liked the fact that you can install it on as many computers as you like or make copies and give them away to family and friends. One of the best features is the support you can receive in your own language. The "no secret" approach allows anyone to look at the program and suggest improvements or fix bugs. In my opinion this is a great way to keep the software current. Installing the software is simplistic-it contains all the software you need- no worries as to which version to install. The best gift of all is it's already installed on our laptops! Microsoft office obviously can not beat some of these great features as it is costly. You are not allowed to download as many versions of the software on your computer-probably a max of three downloads. You also do not get free upgrades for the new version that comes out- Microsoft Office will provide you with a price break when purchasing the upgrade. You also can not create pdf files on Microsoft Office which is a needed feature when sending files from one computer to the next!

Thing #17

Rollyo is a great way to create your own search engine! I loved the simplicity of it all. All you have to do is pick the sites you want to search and it creates a custom search engine for you! With the new changes and updates to our science curriculum this will be very helpful! I used this discovery as a way to get a head start on great sites to use as resources for science. The best part is the safety feature which allows you to create a site that kids can navigate through without worrying that they will view unwanted sites. Can't wait to continue using this as it is actually user friendly and helpful all rolled into one!