Thing 23 - ("twenty-three" - ENGLISH)

My word: USEFUL

I was actually taken back at first when I found out it was intended just for librarians. I thought to myself, "What did I get into?" Then, after doing a few of the things, I felt a whole lot better. I had to think about libraries. Why were they created? How do we use them? In this time of change from recent changes, libraries do need to evolve quickly. As a teacher, schools need to evolve just as quick. If Web 2.0 directly impacts how information is gathered, created, and shared, then preparing students for that future is a must.

23 Things On a Stick not only lifted some of the fog from Web 2.0 for this individual, but it made my technology skills useful again. My abilities with using the internet and other applications have evolved because of the activities I did here. My knowledge and comfort level are back like it was three years ago when talking about "what's new" on the Web. When that unpredictable day of change occurred, the day where my knowledge was now considered the old way, I became stunted. Not understanding or the fear that comes from that is no longer the anti-motivator, but has become the exact reason my commitment is stronger than ever.

I truly enjoyed the things where I got to immediately use the applications available on other sites. Be it with editors or creating files to share, the direct usefulness was valuable to my learning. I also liked being connected out there. Receiving a message from a librarian I have never met was cool. Then, contacting and being contacted in the social networks was a fun experience that I will continue. Sharing picture files and making them available for all was a first for me. Even playing online games connected me real people out there that I would have never met and probably will not ever meet in person, but we met. That's cool.

Thank you for the experience and having me be pushed by your objectives and outcomes to try out some new things that I avoided or did not even know about.


Get a Voki now!

Thing 22 - ("zweeanzwanzeg" - LUXEMBOURGISH)

I will...

1) Keep Google Reader as my home page. This will have me continue using this page as my main source of gaining information from around the Web. I will keep this updated by adding new, relevant to me RSS feeds. I will also delete RSS feeds that are not so interesting anymore.

2) Use more productivity tools supplied by the Web for school work and personal work. Ta-da List and Backpack are two that come to mind that I can start using this summer or in the fall.

3) Photoshare more often on Flickr using more pictures that I take. I did not realize how easy it was. I took some sweet photo of The House on the Rocks this summer that would be cool to add.

4) Enhance my communication skills in the classroom to the parents by placing some of my slideshows on my teacher website this fall using Zoho Show and Slideshare. I will have better access using the school's PC compared to my Apple at home. I look forward to sharing what the students are learning in the classroom with the technology provided by our district and Web 2.0.

5) Continue using Facebook to stay personally connected with friends. I recently just chatted with a college friend through Facebook's chat feature. I have not seen him in over two years. This really gives me an opportunity to stay in touch with people I have not been doing that with. I also have been connected with old high school friends. Reading what is up with them has been quite entertaining.

6) Look at online games to better educate myself, but I will NOT play these games regularly. I am proud to announce it has been a week since I played Puzzle Pirates. I will continue seeing the positives gaming has to offer, but I will also continue to challenge students and parents to better develop self-control when it comes to gaming. It is not the absence of, but balanced infusion in one's life where I see value.

Thing 21 - ("dvadesetjedan" - CROATIAN)

Well, here was another area that I have not really jumped into. I joined the 23 Things On a Stick Ning at Ning.com. This was probably my first online community besides the others I joined through this assignment. I placed my beautiful badge on this blog and one more widget (a music player) that I could not get working. If you know how to get songs onto that widget, please post a comment with the instruction.

I then went and checked out the other ones listed in this thing. I love movies! So, I thought I would join Filmcrave.com. It took me awhile to fill out my profile. I actually look forward to sharing my thoughts on movies. It will be interesting how engaged I get within this community. I will do my best to show my new Web 2.0 version of ME. I love talking shop about movies, their story lines, and the acting and directing. So, hopefully this may lead to a new interaction for me.

If the security is there, it would be cool for students to interact with each other based on interest. I think we promote this in the classroom by actual person to person interaction. It would be cool for students to meet other students in a safe way using the web and sites like these. It would be good to find out if there is such a thing like Filmcrave for students and other interests.

Thing 20 - ("dalawampu" - FILIPINO)

I have been avoiding Myspace and Facebook for many years because of two reasons: (1) I am a teacher, (2) I am a male. This school year our school district really made an effort to immerse us in Web 2.0. I then created my first Facebook page. I left it blank for many months. Typed in a few words on my profile. This summer, after recently (since starting 23 Things on a Stick) I start accepting invites from friends and started checking my Facebook page once in awhile. It just started to spread from there. I think that your name showing up on people's pages helps them connect to you. I have been in contact with people I haven't heard from in over 10 years.

I think it is one of the most powerful social networking sites. It does connect you because of how it shares how you have been contacting other people on your site. The web grows from there....almost uncontrollably.

I joined the 23 Things On a Stick Group. It was cool to find it there. I made a short post and left it at that. A lot of people posted sharing their experiences with 23 Things On a Stick. Those were cool to read.

Thing 19 - ("on dokuz" - TURKISH)

I found this podcast from the Minnesota Public Radio Podcasts on Jack White's facemelting abilities from Facemelter with Jill Riley and Brett Baldwin. Jack White is one of my favorite artists and I was quite pleased to find a podcast on him.

I have used podcasts before. To me, they are the auditory version of what Blogs had to offer. Ownership and the ability to share your perspective to the world instantly. I think one weakness and maybe a reason why it hasn't caught on like Blogs is a lot of people do not like to listen to themselves (smile). That is just true. Typing out your thoughts avoids that discomfort. Another reason might be the control factor when engaging someone else's content. When I look at someone's Blog I can skim, read thoroughly, or even print it for later reading. A podcast makes you sit through the entire thing for that set amount of time. Sure you could skip forward, but you do not know what you are missing then.

Podcasts are quite novel in the classroom for elementary students. Having the students listen to each other is very cool for them. Posting them on a website for the world to listen to is great, but requires permission. I have used it with poetry before. I did not post them on a website, but the students had the chance to listen each other throughout that week. I look forward to trying to figure what else I could do with podcasts in the classroom.

Thing 18 - ("achttien" - DUTCH)

I have used YouTube many times before this. So, I decided to go try Google Video. It is quite similar. It does link to other sites like Shout if a video was taken from that site. It is too bad these files are so large for some school district servers. To my knowledge, I know teachers have access to YouTube in our school district. I used it before for some background content for students (great for Science and Social Studies). I am unsure if students have access. I will have to check if Google Video is available to teachers or not.

The video I selected is Demetri Martin (found on Google Video and then linked to Shoutfile). He is a comedian that I found online searching for comedians last year. I found his name when I searched for comedians. I then went to YouTube to see if there was any footage. He cracked me up and still does! I recognized him from the Daily Show when he had a recurring role on there a few years back. After laughing and enjoying his clips, I decided to see if he was still doing standup. I found him doing a show down in Missouri at Truman State University in Kirksville. So, my girlfriend and I decided to do a sudden road trip to go see him live. It was well worth the trip. The college theater was jammed packed with a great audience. It was the best standup show I've ever seen. My friends and colleagues laughed at me for driving over ten hours round trip to go see a comedian. I just smiled. Spending time with my girlfriend is always worth it. Laughing together for almost two hours with Demetri Martin will never be forgotten. This is all thanks to a search tool, YouTube, and contacting the college through email about how to get tickets.

Thing 17 - ("sedanbaest" - BOSNIAN)

I have used these tools before for my graduate classes. It does save amazing amounts of time searching for materials to use. I did create a folder a long time ago for my class where I placed content I found for my research paper. Where I found trouble was in the amount of materials I had to go through. The productivity was great....almost too great (smile). I had to be real picky and more specific in some of my searches. These tools, back then, seemed like the future for libraries. It felt like why was there a need for paper bound resources when they could easily be accessed from a screen and gathered by a printer. I can still recall walking up and down the aisles in my undergraduate college library searching for articles. How far we have come in such a short amount of time.

I do not see a quick application for third graders, but I do see how teachers can use these productivity tools. Be it in our own researching or just to gain added information on an issue or topic these are wonderful tools for teachers.

Thing 16 - ("saisprezece" - ROMANIAN)

Where was this when I was in college? In my nature, I am a bit of a procrastinator. I have slowly learned how to overcome that challenge. Usually, that late night working on a project the day before it was due was a reminder enough to change my ways. I checked out the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator. Both seemed to offer the same thing. I sort of had some disagreement with the layout of time. From experience, I do not like to finish the project 1-2 days before the due date. I try to have the project finished before the 1-2 days it is due (we'll see with 23 Things On a Stick). I typed in different time spans and sometimes the suggestion would be to write the first draft the 1 day before it was due. The finishing touches would be on the due date. The minimum of days I gave were 7. 7! Sometimes I felt the research and organization of the project were given too many days. Some 3 days went by in the suggestion before any writing. Now, I might be completely wrong in disagreeing with that, but I do.

This is very useful, though. I think something like this provides an outline and a foundation for all students (young and old) to start from. Then, individually people can adjust for their work styles. The content and links under each step were the most helpful. Those details give knowledge I wish I had when I was younger.

Students are given projects to finish as young as kindergarten. Sure, the project might include a lot of gluing and cutting, but it is still a large project that needs someone to accomplish steps to finish. I see these websites providing a visual and a map of where to begin. Its structure is clear and easy to use. I look forward to playing with it with some school projects next year.

Thing 15 - ("tizenot" - HUNGARIAN)

I am now angry. Angry that Thing 15 exposed me to Puzzle Pirates because it revealed I need a life. I played that darn, stupid game for well over an hour. I did every puzzle trying to help my pirate self-esteem of being a "novice" and "able" to being at least "respected" in that world. I joined up with two crews and kicked some major cartoon pirate "booty". I order a hat, boots, and a jacket so I would not look like a home less, wandering hobo (that took all of my pieces of gold that I earned). I even was disappointed some captain made me walk the plank because during our sword fight against another crew we lost. I was like "what the", but then I left my body and looked down at it from the heavens. It was a sad sight.

I yelled, "GET UP AND GO OUTSIDE! IT IS BEAUTIFUL OUT THERE!"

I love video games. I quickly learned after my Sega in high school that I could easily pump in the hours on these gaming systems. I then promised myself to not own one in college. The game systems came out and I stayed away. I did have chances to play the Playstations and other new and advanced boxes of entertainment, but I never owned one in my home. My skills did drop. My friends enjoyed shooting me over and over again in Bond 007, the scores for Madden were like 63 to 6 with me being the 6, and they would laugh that once I figured out one combo move in any fighting game...well, that would be my only move again and again and again and again. Computer games would slip onto my Apple in college. I would play for hours sometimes when everyone was asleep in the dorm with no class in the morning. Thank goodness they were really old games like Populous and Galacixa that never kept my interest.

Now, I am an adult. Matured and wiser. And I am still frickin' addicted to playing video games......aye, ya matey. There are many online games, free or at a cost, that have caught the world...children and adults of both genders. One thing that I noticed about some of these games is their format to keep players playing. Having the players collect things and gather levels to be a greater character. Making this possible, but not too easy and not too impossible. Also, giving the player the ability to have some ownership over the character's image and look. This is just to keep them playing....keep me playing.

To be preachy, I do not blame the games out there for the list of negatives people come up with about gaming. It comes down to us as people to be in control of ourselves. To self-evaluate and act on good judgment. This is not a natural progression, though. I strongly feel that the youth out there needs exposure and practice at balancing this sort of entertainment. They need guidance and an opportunity to have some decision power in how they fill their day. "They will play all day, Jon!!" Then, they need to build a greater concept of who they are. As adults, we often dictate and order when children do things. Eventually they will rebel from this. We need....we, as adults, need to do what the games are doing with our youth. Give them the ownership of creating their character, give them opportunities to collect knowledge and experience, but make it not too easy or too difficult to gather, and let them enjoy playing the best game out there.....life.

Thing 14 - ("quattuordecim" - LATIN)

Librarything.com was cool. I can see how I can create a library for students and parents and post this on my website for people to access. Students creating their own login and libraries would be great. It is so easy to setup an account, I can see this happening next year.

I added some popular books to my library (i.e. Harry Potter series). There were some conversations that I read. I think elementary students might actually enjoy this feature. I am unsure if my students could start this right away, but later in the year would be a sweet opportunity for them to look at chapter books in a different way. The different way being instead of reading a chapter book, doing a book report, or just doing it for personal enjoyment, the student could place that book in their own library, see who else did or did not enjoy the book, add comments on their books, and create a library they can share with others. I am sure there is more that I missed, but the more I use the site the more I am sure I will learn.

I did place a randomizer of my library on my blog. Check it out!

Thing 13 - ("treze" - PORTUGUESE)

Thing 13 was definitely cool to look through and find things. I have been using My Yahoo for some time now (like 5 years). It has been constantly changing and trying to improve. I have always been a Yahoo supporter over the Google hoopla. Looking and using Google for these things have made me a believer in Google. It just is better. iGoogle was sweet because of the user friendly applications and tools. Yahoo is trying, but it is just not as easy as Google. I will keep using My Yahoo because of my personal email, but I may change to Google soon. My start page is still my Google reader because I need to practice using that tech. I still do not use it very well, but it being there every time I open up the internet is a good thing.

I think the online calendars are useful, especially planning with a significant other. Currently, my girlfriend and I use a Wiki, but I think, after seeing these calendars, we are going to go use Google Calendar from now on. The interface is simple and so is getting an account for adding more people. This is definitely better than setting up a table on a Wiki.

I did check out Ta-da Lists, but I want to talk more about Backpack (looks like provided through the same company). That looked really cool. I think teams of teachers could use this to much benefit. Microsoft Office just doesn't seem like it is at that level of cooperation. I know some people use the Microsoft Outlook calendars. I used it for a year. I didn't like it very much because it seemed so isolated. I know you can look at other people's calendars and suggest an appointment, but it seems just a busy step that is replacing communicating verbally with people. Backpack looks like a place where teachers could place their agendas and plans seamlessly. TOO BAD IT COSTS MONEY (I know there is a free trial, but come on). I wonder if our school district would pay for it for some of its teachers? Hmmmm...

The other calendars, organizers, sticky notes, and converters seemed good. I think the converters are incredible, because I still remember the day a PC document couldn't be read on an Apple and vice versa. What progress we have made.

Thing 12 - ("divpadsmit" - LATVIAN)

I decided to mix it up with Mixx.com after looking at all of the other sites. What I like about Mixx is that, to me, the layout is easier to read and follow being a newbie to this. I went to Startribune.com and shared an article on teen driving and using a device that could report the speed of the car. It is being developed at the University of Minnesota. I rewrote the description and put in a few tags.

This was all interesting, but I don't see the whole, big picture, yet. I watched all of those videos. I understood how to use the sites and what they are offering in service, but I kept asking myself "Why?" I don't know if I was just being stubborn or close minded, but it seemed to me like a popularity contest of news. That is just weird to me. I noticed similar features and tools like this on other sites. The Startribune website has a most popular and most emailed tool about stories. I guess it does give you an insight on what everyone else is interested in. For me, I can only ask questions.

Should I conform with what everyone else is interested in and read those stories? (I did just finish watching the movie Into the Wild....maybe that is why I asked these questions....great movie, though)
Is this how I want to receive information?
Does my sharing an article say something about me? Is that fair?
How does my participation add to my life?

I know I sound like an old mushroom growing on a pile of pooh, but I am just being honest.

Back to being professional (smile). I do see how this can be applied in the classroom. Students could look at these sites for current events and interact with them either directly or indirectly. Students could be involved on the site (direct) or write essays about what they find on the site for classroom work (indirect). Students could even blog their opinions and viewpoints and share it on the sites (both).

Photo from Flickr.com from Madonnica and Brian's photostream and edited by me using picnik.com.