Is it the end or only the beginning?...

First of all, I just want to thank both of our wonderful teachers for being so patient and supportive. I have loved every step of this process! At first I was a little more intimidated by the Things..but as I progressed I learned to enjoy the challenge of each lesson.

I really can't even pick one "thing" that was my favorite..there were just so many favorites along the way..the RSS feeds with Google Reader, my Delicious account, and Library Thing-- all are definite daily habits now. All things Google...I loved the image generators and the mash-ups...they were fun tools I probably would have never found on my own. The pod casts and finding what a gi-normous variety available to us.. 100% Free..especially the NPR library and the ones available from America's best colleges. There is absolutely no reason to ever ever stop learning in our lifetime! And I guess the best thing I've gotten from this is the fact that it has taught me that my computer is not just for email anymore... haha!

The most surprising thing that I learned from this experience is the fact that blogs are not just for personal use...they are for business as well. I felt so very naive to the fact that this entire blogging world was going on without my knowledge! But now that I know about it...well my life is not going to be the same. My network of information just grew exponentially.

My last thought is a request actually. Please, please look into continuing on with thing #24-infinity! The computer world is constantly being upgraded and made more relevant..it can be overwhelming to try to find these new things on our own...help us continue to explore and learn together...it is less intimidating knowing someone is with you cheering you on and encouraging you to stretch and take it to the next level...

So thank you again...it was great to read what all of you wrote..I am addicted to blogging and the whole blogging world..and it's a great addiction to have!

Thing #23 Ning-credible

I was so impressed with Ning. I watched the video of the creator of Ning and was anxioius to tour the site. I started with Classroom 2.0. Wow! It's hard to believe that he only started it a little more than a year ago! It's amazing how many people are in his network, all learning from and teaching one another. Very impressive. I also want to check out Ning's Christian alternative to MySpace. I'll need to go back to Ning to find that...it was mentioned in their article, 7 things you should know about Ning.

Most applicable to us though was the sub-topic within that article; Implications for teaching and learning..
"For today's students who spend countless hours on Facebook and MySpace, faculty participation on those networks is often seen as an intrusion into a private domain. Ning provides an avenue for instructors to take advantage of social networks in a neutral setting, offering functionality and an experience that are familiar and comfortable to students. By creating social networks around academic topics, or even about specific projects for a course, an instructor can facilitate a strong sense of community among the students, encouraging personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence."

I couldn't have said it better myself!

So, there you have it...my final "Thing".

I gotta badge..

Thing #22 Facebook

Well I never would have created a Facebook account on my own. I will more than likely delete my account in about a week. I just feel too..exposed. I like the idea of a blog because you have a little more control over who gets access to your writings/pictures personal information. I really didn't give that much information about myself. Information such as address and email address was MOST DEFINITELY not going to be provided. Call me paranoid, but these are scary times and I don't want to invite trouble. I think that for the younger generation, it is a wonderful way to stay in touch with all your friends that have gone off to school. I think it is even great for singles who are trying to make that love connection. But for anyone else...I think blogging is the safer alternative.

On a personal level, as a parent, I think this is something we all should familiarize ourselves with. I think we should help our kids sign up (when/if the time is right), in order to make sure they are using Facebook/MySpace in the safest possible way.

The only educational advantage I can think of would be to see what your students are talking about. I don't know or understand how you could find their facebook page, because when you sign up (if you are honest) you are automatically grouped with people you work with or went to school/college with etc. I did not investigate MySpace enough to see if this was the case as well. This really, has been the only Thing that I am not interested in pursuing in any way. But I still found it interesting.
OK...I'm off to make lunches for my kiddos.

Thing #7C..Google Reading

I love to skim all the articles in my Google Reader. I just wish I would get into the habit of doing it more often. It tends to get overwhelming otherwise. Whenever I sit down to the computer now..it's as if I have this treasure trove of things to do. I'm like a kid in a candy shop..rubbing my hands together and wondering what to try next :) I tend to forget my Google Reader. Yet whenever I return to it, I'm lost for at least an hour wandering through the postings available.
For this blog post I chose an article about Google Chrome as oposed to Mozilla's Firefox. The writer preferred Google Chrome for it's speed and potential. I decided to try the same experiment and see if I agreed. I really have not been impressed with Firefox, but my teens love it. So I want to be fair and get more input from them before I just remove it from my life..haha! Ok..enough about me, I'm going back to my reader now...just a few more postings left :(
It's sad really.

Thing #21

Wow! I love Google BookSearch! As we continue to be educated in all things Google I am more and more impressed. They have such vision! Among other things their mission statement says: "...we want to make it easy to find relevant books. books we coul not find any other way, such as those that are out of print." I toured the site and came upon this micro site and I am excited for both Google and all users everywhere for what potential this site will offer! I hope to use this feature alot in the future!
I also really had fun with Google Notebook. I can see where this will come in handy for all kinds of planning. For instance with Christmas coming up you can use it for gift planning, or decorating/entertaining ideas. Christmas tends to get overwhelming if you don't have all your planning organized in one place. So I can see the value of this. It would be great for vacation planning, for highschool students searching for the college of their dreams etc. etc.
I also went to the Lab for the pages in progress, I looked at the Quote site but was disappointed to see that it was only politicians who were the quotables. Maybe if they expand that to all famous folk, that would be a little more interesting. Also used Google Calendar and iGoogle for the fun of it. The more I learn about Google the more I love it. Once you've gone Google-you'll never go back haha!

Thing #20

I enjoyed playing with Google Docs. It is very user friendly. I dabbled with presentations. I also experimented with the spreadsheet option. I don't think I would ever use the slide presentation, but you never know. It is great to know it's there if you need it. The one I would use most, would be the word document program.

I think that the option for collaboration, would be the only reason I would ever use google docs. I watched the video at the beginning of this exercise and learned why email ties up alot of copies of the same document. Collaboration efforts would benefit by the fact that everyone can access revision history.

I can see this put to use by students working together on a presentation. It would also work for the individual student, when revisions are necessary throughout the paper. For instance, an English paper that the teacher has asked for revisions at several stages. I also think you could use google docs. for organizations like PTA or other non-profit organizations. When certain people have information they are responsible for and others have different information etc. they could use the spreadsheet option to add their info. and so on.

So, once again, something I had no idea existed. Free!! Gotta love it.