What I have learned

I am still overwhelmed with the amount of information presented in this class. I hope to keep MRod's Classroom going with the other teachers at AHS that took this class. I think delicious is a great tool because I can easily access their blogs all at the same time. I would also like to get Mr. Spencer started on a blog for the Computer Applications 1 class this year. I have some great ideas on how to get the students on line to meet the 20 hour requirement. I would like to have the resources from this class available to me in the form of the class so I can go back and review the areas as I start to incorporate web 2.0 in my lesson plans. I found that, like every professional development, there was too much information presented too quickly. I would like to go back and access the information as I need it so I can master it. I have three preps so it is difficult to rewrite every lesson for each class at the same time. I have the technology available in my classroom and I hope to use it more effectively this coming year.

Professional Development

I would probably use LearnPort for professional development. There were several classes that would fit into teaching computers. Several other classes would reinforce many of the things we learned in this class. The big advantage of online PD is that you can access it at home and work on it when you have time. I found with this class that I put off working on it at the beginning until it became a priority during August. There are many things going on during the summer that take you away from home so it is not as easy as it sounds. You have to be motivated and fit the time into your schedule no matter when you decide to take an online class. I don't have any suggestions for PD right now. The one thing I found with this class was that there are an abundance of resources and I did not always have time to explore each of them thoroughly. I am wondering about accessing all of the websites that were used throughout the 23 things after the class ends. Will these be available for us during the school year?

On Line videos

I think it would be great to use on line videos in the classroom. It takes awhile to find what you want. I spent about 45 minutes looking at the sights in thing 21 and finally went to YouTube and found something appropriate. It is easy to copy into your blog from YouTube but the warning from the first time we copied a video makes me apprehensive about giving students access to YouTube on their own. There would probably be many videos available to use in the business classroom. I would show an appropriate video in class without a problem. I might then ask students to comment on the video on a wiki. I'm not sure if YouTube is blocked at my school because I have never asked students to go on the website. I would assume that it is blocked.

YouTube video

Classroom podcasts

I think the students would like listening to podcasts. It would be a change from the typical lecture to get content to the students. I don't have any specific podcasts now but there were many websites to look at included in this class. I would like to look more closely at those resources during the school year when I am rewriting lesson plans. My students did create a podcast last year. They were somewhat apprehensive at first. They were self conscious about talking into a microphone in the classroom and thought other people were listening to them. They also did not want anyone but me to listen to the podcasts. I think they will become more comfortable the more they use podcasting. I think they would definitely like to use their cell phone to create a podcast. I thought it was quick, easy and very conveniently. The only problem I can see is the long distance phone number. I have unlimited long distance anywhere in the US so its not a problem for me. I think a podcast is a great way to do a follow-up paper on a project. I have not listened to many podcasts before taking this class so I don't have any to recommend at this time.

Podcasts

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Podcasts

I listened to a portion of each of these podcasts:
Mr. Longhorst's Web Classroom
Grammar Girls
The Midas Touch
Internet Safety
The Tech Pod Zone 64 Christmas List
Each podcast was unique. The classroom podcast was specific to the teacher and would be a great way for students to review for a test. Depending on the content, it might be more difficult to make a video but it could be more engaging for the students. It would depend on the quality of speech of the teacher. Mr Longhorst seemed to be a good speaker on the audio.
Grammar Girls was very good to help reinforce the rules of grammar and could be used as a lesson in itself.
The Midas Touch was a story for elementary age students and the speaker had an accent which would probably engage young listeners. This would be an excellent tool for dyslexic students who had trouble decoding more difficult books. They could interact with the content and vocabulary and possibly make their own podcast report on the story.
Internet Safety was ok but some of the comments by the speakers were inappropriate for students.
The Tech Pod Zone was ok also but a little too much fooling around for me, the students would probably love it. The nice thing about this one was they listed all of the webpages they spoke about on the podcast.
It would be easy for me to make podcasts part of my teaching since I'm in a computer lab. I would give the specific podcast in the lesson since some of the lists contained inappropriate content for the classroom. It might not be as convenient for other teachers unless they had a LCD projector in their classroom and could view the vodcasts on the screen. They could always play the podcasts on their computer for students to hear. Sometimes it is difficult to hear the audio on the teachers computer throughout the classroom.