In the meantime, I thought I'd celebrate my own Rockin' Web 2.0 'New Year' Countdown, so put on your party hats and let loose...
Note: In the spirit of April's Top Ten List, (Thanks, April! I loved the format!) I decided to start at 10 and work my way down. In my countdown I've included mostly the highlights of this course and some keypoints that I've learned from my peers along the way. Thank you all for sharing and playing with me over the last 3 months!
10. Online Learning - This was my first course using an e-learning system (ie. The infamous Blackboard). An online learning environment provides the best opportunities for a learner; it gives you a community of learners to share and learn from, fascinating discussions that provide prespectives I wouldn't have considered, the opportunity to connect with your instructor easily and the convenience of working at your own pace (sort of) and on your own time. Will Richardson's dream of the Web 2.0 educational system of the future works for me!
9. Discussion Questions - OK...I have to be honest here...I dreaded these bi-weekly assignments on Tuesday nights (yes, I'm the last minute girl!). But the information I learned doing my own research and reading, along with the unique ideas and angles that my colleagues shared provided a wealth of valuable websites and interesting discussion topics. One of my favorites occurred one night when Darryl and I were reading and sharing our thoughts at the same time. We shared some "chatty" banter back and forth making the sometimes grueling work of reading and replying a lot more fun! I was grateful that our class was divided into smaller groups as I never would have been able to keep up with more than 5 other classmates' discussion questions and I felt a little closer to those peers in my group!
8. My yummy Delicious bookmarks - This tool has been my saving grace since the week we explored it as one of our Web 2.0 tools. It's almost like I don't know what I did without it! I'm using it as a PD tool as I check out the bookmarks of some of my favorite edutech experts. I organize my research and readings for each weeks' discussions and blog postings using my delicious account and I'm storing away some great sites that I don't have time to explore now...but that I hope I'll investigate at a later date. What can I say, I love it!
7. My very own igoogle page! - I came across the personalized homepage idea during the week we were discussing how to organize ourselves on the web. I chose to go with igoogle simply because most of my accounts are with Google but there are many others. What a great tool and a serious highlight of this course for me. I love my igoogle page with all my add-ons: my facebook account, my delicious bookmarks, access to my blogger dashboard, my Google reader, Winnipeg weather (YUCK!), a Youtube search outlet and much, much more! '
6. RSS feeds and my Google Reader - Reading my feeds on a daily basis (or so I try) has got to be one of the most rewarding professional development strategies I've ever come across in my 15 years of teaching! I learn something new almost everytime I open up a new feed. This will definitely be the tool to keep me on my game with learning technology and feeding my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 in education. However, this wasn't one of the easiest post to write about as I'm still struggling with how this tool could be used within the K-8 environment.
5. Flickr, where have you been all my life? - Wow! This site is loaded with resources for a teacher, a student...anyone for that matter. I've used Flickr so much already! I've uploaded my students' artwork and created slideshows for the parents on our class blog (Group of Seven and self-portraits), I only allow my students to use the creative commons search in Flickr when they are looking for images for projects and I access it myself for my own blog. A true highlight during our photosharing exploration!
4. Wikispaces and more! - So this was actually my second choice for the tool I would like to introduce to my staff. I really feel like I have just scraped the surface with the potential that wikis have to offer. My students in my book club absolutely love playing on our Myrcamania wikispace that I created for this course. For most of them, this was their first experience using a wiki (and hopefully not their last!). Christine's post on her choice of wikis for PD provided some great resources for me to pursue further. I like the idea of a class yearbook wiki? Whatta ya think?
3. The ABC's of Blogging - I have to be a little narcissistic here...I am quite proud of this post! It's a definite highlight for me. I worked so hard on this one and even my sweet, dear husband (who was away on business) read my post from afar and sent me a comment telling me it was my best one yet! Not only do I love this post but I truly believe in the power of blogging, blogs, bloggers, the edublogosphere and ever other word that you can make with "blog" in it. They're blogilicious! It was my tool of preference and believe it or not, I've already got two more members of my staff blogging! VICTORY!
2. Buying a logitech headset - You think I'm crazy, don't you! It all begin with podcasting and then moved onto Voicethreads or maybe I just like hearing the sound of my own voice... but I knew I was hooked! I felt like such an expert walking into Future Shop. I was quickly bombarded by an eager salesclerk asking if I needed any help. My response? "I'm looking at purchasing a quality headset with a USB drive to use for Voicethreads, podcasts and Skype!" The revelation? I never would have even known what those things were two months ago and now I can actually create them...with my own headset!!
1. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson - Let's face it...without this book as a guide and bible for me throughout this course, I think I would have drowned. Not that reading it was such a highlight but the information within its pages was priceless and will continue to be a source of inspiration when working with Web 2.0 in education. I look forward to reading Will's Weblogg-ed posts and have just recently found his wikispace too.
I guess I could have started my countdown with 20 because there were definitely more highlights to this course...discovering Joyce Valenza's virtual library, learning how to create hyperlinks, making my first avatar, becoming a member of two Nings and so much more!
However, with every good New Year countdown comes the hangover...
So my lowlights aren't that bad...in fact I believe they are quite manageable!
Becoming a student again has been a challenge for me... I struggled with balancing my family time, prepping for school, reading/researching for this course and having any personal time for myself. Time was a factor that was NOT on my side! I really wanted an opportunity to play with these Web 2.0 tools further once we had discovered them.
I guess that takes me to my continued learning and integration of Web 2.0 tools in my classroom and professional learning. I am so anxious to begin using these tools in more depth with my students. In fact, thanks to Jes's post with the link to Langwich's blog, I've registered myself (and my class) in the Educator's pro account with Voicethread and we're going to create voicethreads around our literature circle novels on the theme of Friendship. The students are so excited (and I'm sooo nervous)! I'm going to "practice what I preach" and loosen the reigns, as my students and I will be learning together! I won't be the "expert" in the room with all the control and believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to it. I guess that's what is in store for my New Year of 2.0!
Let me raise my glass (one final time) and make a toast...To a great set of classmates and a helpful, knowledgable instructor...Have fun with your new arsenal of tools, making new connections and discoveries along the way! May you have a healthy and happy 2009! Cheers!
My husband has informed me that New York and my beloved Times Square is going to have to wait for another year...oh well...I guess I can always check it out online!
