Task+10--So+Many+Tools,+So+Little+Time

====You have reached your last task! Congratulations. I hope you have enjoyed at least one of the tools that you have explored. You've had some frustrations but remember that we learn more from our mistakes than from immediate success at everything and that the students you work with have some of these same feelings with the new things we present to them--sometimes things just don't work right for them either. If you have had it up to here with tools, read over this and then choose the Assessment Resources of RSS feature or Web 2.0 resources pages to explore. Or go back and play more with another tool you liked but didn't have time to explore. This is your class and you can choose what works for you. (Incidentally, students often respond well to making a choice within your boundaries.) ==== ==== There are lots more tools that fall into the classification of Web 2.0. Tools will come and go. If you found your own Web 2.0 tools that you would like to share with us, that would be great--just put it on your blog. You can explore Google Reader which is a great way to keep updated on blogs during the school year. You can just go to one spot and find everything there. Or you can subscribe to many of these using Outlook. Your tech coordinator can help you with this. I suggest that all of you should at least subscribe to Free Technology for Teachers. By subscribing what is meant is to use a tool called RSS. Here's another [|Common Craf] [|t]explanation. ==== ====This space will not go away. If you want to go back and review a resource, please do so. If you need a tool for a particular task, please ask. I have many many bookmarks tucked away in my Diigo bookmarks and your technology coordinator will have one too. You have taken a small step along a journey that will take time and energy, but you have begun. I hope to keep this class going for as long as there are people willing to learn. And keep checking and saving Diigo bookmarks and share them with each other. One of the most important things that we are learning about the new digital world is that we are no longer isolated. You have begun to build a PLN or Personal Learning Network. By reading blogs and connecting with others who do things similar to you, both in our own school, our country, and around the world you can learn. Here's Will Richardson, an important figure from the ed tech world, [|talking about PLN's]. ==== ==== What does a PLN look like? It's people whose bookmarks you look at on Diigo or Delicious. It's reading blogs by people that do things similar to you from around the world. It's going to conferences and meeting others and staying in contact. It's joining and adding to wikis or Nings that bring others into your realm. It's going to webinars where you watch people talk about topics you are interested in. It's using tools like Twitter and Facebook; for me Twitter is for professional stuff and Facebook is for personal stuff but you might have other ideas. You might want to expand your PLN to include someone from another culture.I have been in talks and read blogs l[|ike this one]that make a difference in the lives of the children and professionals involved. I joined and early on thought it was a waste of my time, but thanks to people in my PLN, I gave it another try and I find it extremely helpful. So keep on learning. We are all pressed for time during the year but if you devote just 10 minutes to learning something new each day, it makes a world of difference. There's even a set of [|online stopwatches]that you can use (hint--these are great for using with your kids when you are hooked to the projector). ==== ==== There is no official tool for this class. But there are some ideas that I'd like to have you think about as you approach this school year. One is the tremendous resources that are available to help you be a better teacher. The first is the[| Discovery Education] site. The school has invested lots of money in this and there are so many videos that you can download and use with your students because they learn best this way. Plus another cool feature about these videos is that some are marked as editable. You can download them, place them in a site like [|Wiggio] and let them edit them and put them in their own words or add their own touch. And for you, there's the Professional Development Tools. There are often online events that you can join. [|Check this out at] this link. In your notebook, there is information about this. Remember to preview stuff and download it to your computer via a wired connection at home or school. ====

====No class about PLN's can be complete without talking about Twitter. It is the best single tool I have found and is responsible for a lot of what I know.I discovered recently this slideshare presentation about it. It tells some whys along with the how to's. ====

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Here's [|how to join]. And how to find people to follow.
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====There are a number of Twitter resources on the disk that you got for class. And here is a great site to help you learn [|everything you need to know about it] .====

==== And don't forget YouTube. Since video streaming is not always ideal on a wireless network, check it out at home. Many of these clips can be downloaded to your local machine. Ask a tech coordinator to help you with this. Student Access to You Tube is blocked so they need to look at it at home or you need to download it and show it in class. This [|link from Kevin Jarrett] explains how to show YouTube without all the clutter around it. And when you use this tool, you can also edit it at the same time. If you want to download a YouTube video that allows downloading, you can use the RealPlayer extension that allows you to do this or download this software called[| YouTube Downloader] ====

 1 point for a blog entry that you make
==== 1 point for emailing me your thoughts and opinions. How can I do this better next time? What would make it easier for you as an online course? What was good? All that sort of stuff--I won't take it personally but want to improve. Thanks for sticking with it! ====