Thing #23

I enjoyed the 23 Things program. My favorite discovery during the program was the mashups. There are many different possibilities, and it is easy to incorporate Flickr into the activities. I know my students will love being creative while designing their mashup that coordinates with our lesson! I also enjoyed creating a rollyo. I will use this tool multiple times during the year to help monitor and limit the material that my students find while researching on the web.

Incorporating technology into the curriculum is something that I am very passionate about, but I was starting to feel that I was using the same technology and activities each year. As a lifelong learner, I wanted to learn more this summer, and this self-paced online program allowed me to do this at my own convenience this summer!

I was surprised at how easy it was to create a blog, and I even created a personal blog from this experience. Each activity is something that I can take back to my classroom and use with my students this year. I thought that we needed a lot of external technology to use in the classroom, but this program showed me several different things to do with my students with the computers that we have in the classroom.

This program was designed very well. I think the only thing that might make it better would be to encourage students to comment on each others' blogs more often. I have not taken the time to read through every one's activities except for the discovery exercises that required us to do so. I learned a lot from reading other people's blogs, so it might be beneficial to incorporate more opportunities to do this.

I hope that more learning opportunities like this are available in the future. I would love to continue to learn more. My learning experience with 23 Things was beneficial to me and ultimately my students since I learned so many amazing, interactive activities that will allow me to incorporate technology into my classroom!