Thing 8

Mashups!! I love them!! All of these tools are really cool. I use these tools to add pizzaz to the digital photos. One great way to engage students in their work is to allow them to be creative and personalize their work. Most of these tools can be used in both electronic and print resources. I'm attaching a photo that I added a stamp frame to with the Big Huge Labs website. He's my nephew and loves to wear that goofy hat when we visits me. :)

I'm a mashup addict... so here are a few other sites that you want to explore to manipulate photos:

• Tuxpi.com
• Fodey.com
• Dumpr.net
  

Thing 7

Not too much to reflect upon for this task! Creating a Flickr account was super easy and a great way to share photos! There are many ways to use Flickr in education. Here are just a few of my ideas:

• share photos from field trips
• showcase classroom activities
• share photos from extra-curricular events (sporting events, dances, fundraisers, etc)
• utilize the photos that are already posted to enhance your curriculum

The only advice that I would share is to make sure you have photo release forms signed and on file for any student that may be in the photo. Make sure you know who you're photographing and that you obtain parent permission to post it on the Internet! And never include the students' names with their photos... gotta keep the kiddies safe!

Thing 6

Flickr is a well known photo sharing site. The feature that I like the best is that you are able to perform an advanced search and only search for photos that are licenses under creative commons. It also has a link to the "rights reserved" showing exactly what you can and cannot do with that artists photo.

Since March 2 is Bon Jovi's birthday and he just performed in Detroit on March 17, and it's way more fun to watch him than something educational, I chose to search for a picture of Bon Jovi and post it here on my blog. Enjoy!

Making sure I comply with the creative commons request.... citing the photo!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/qnibert/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Thing 5

Bloglines is a very easy tool to manage your RSS feeds. I really like that you can subscribe in three different ways. The easiest way is to use the Easy Subscribe Bookmarklet because it finds the feed for you!

Gathering content for the classroom is always the toughest job that educators face. Daunting tasks such as this is now much, much easier using Bloglines!

Thing 4

Bloglines appears to be an easy to use aggregator. I currently use Google reader as my aggregator as I have an iGoogle account and everything else is in that one spot. It will be interesting to see how Bloglines compares to the Google reader.

RSS feeds are a phenomenal tool that allows teachers (and other people!) to DO more in LESS TIME! Subscriptions to the news sites, podcasts and any other topics of interest are handled way more efficiently using the RSS feeds.

Thing 3

Setting up your blog properly is imperative when working in education. Since I'm not a classroom teacher, I use my blog as a way to deliver professional development content to our teachers. I do not have comments turned on, as I don't want it to be a feedback forum, rather, the "one-way" push of information. The teachers utilize the blog as a resource for how to sheets, tips and tricks and relevant web sites.

Things 1 and 2

I am participating in 23 things as a way to enhance my skill set with the Web 2.0 tools. I am a district professional development specialist. Although I am familiar some of these tools, I would like to learn more and experience them first hand.

Creating this blog was a very simple process. Like most Web 2.0 tools, it was very intuitive and user friendly.

Web 2.0 tools need to be integrated into the classroom. Our students simply need alternative ways and "hooks" to engage them and KEEP them engaged in learning. Just keep in mind.... we aren't changing WHAT we teach, we are changing HOW we teach...... Take baby steps!