Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/#e835546

This will be fun to use with students as they present lab topics. I may also use it to name and explain equipment we use in the laboratory.

http://apbio126.ning.com/

Someday I may use this Ning with my AP class, but right now we're all too busy for another site to have to check.
I would start the year with it rather than add it in the middle of the year.

I have my students blogging in Moodle about what happens in class each day. We're still working out some "bugs", but so far this has really been helpful to students who are home sick or out for the day. The biggest problem is to help the students remember when it is their day to blog. Some of the blogs are so well written that they read like lesson plans and some are weaker.

Big 9-1 Blogging

I am experimenting this year with a blog in each of my classes. A student is assigned to each day and blogs a summary of what happened in class that day. I am using the blogging tool in Moodle. There have been some wonderful blogs by students who have practically written full lesson plans with example problems and encouragement to their peers. The main problem is getting the students to remember when it's their turn as they only blog every 28 days or so.

Thing 23

I have really enjoyed this process. I am so glad that I did this during the summer so that I could go off on those hour long tours of sites that took me off task. I also really enjoyed learning how to use the various "Things" in this course and could take my time to really learn what I was doing. I will definitely use many of the "things" that I learned during this course and I will share this with my students......I will probably share that I know how to do what they've been doing for some time!

I don't think that this class has changed my mind about what is important.....I know that I need to be (and want to be) technologically competent. This class has reinforced that conviction in my mind and has given me some new tools to use that will really help in my professional life.

I would even love to be ahead of the students and be able to introduce them to some of the wonderful educational tools in Web 2.0. So yes, I would be interested in the 23 Things Part 2 class!

Thing 22

Ok so it's easy to get lost in uTube for quite some time....... There are really some wonderful video clips on it that I use in my science class. Often though I find my videos from universities. I like to use video clips for demos which are too dangerous for me to do in the classroom or are too expensive for me to purchase.
I also love the animations which show biological processes and make them much more understandable. I show this video clip to my AP Bio students at the beginning of the year with the music http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html It's really fun to watch and I assure them that they will understand the video by the end of the year. Toward the end of the year I play this version http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html which has a voice over identifying the parts and the process in the cell. The students are amazed at what they have learned after the second playing.
Honestly, I think that some of the video clips and the animations for science have really helped explain some very difficult concepts. They have also helped me to understand topics better so that I can explain them in a variety of ways.

Thing 21

I signed up for Twitter before I left for the NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association) meeting in New Orleans. They were going to be sending out Tweets about the meeting and updates while we were there. Of course I waited until just before I left and I made a mistake and had either checked a box or unchecked a box, so I didn't get the updates on my cell phone while I was at the meeting. Fortunately the other communication techniques worked well and I learned about the unscheduled appearance by Secretary of Education Duncan. When I got home I fixed the settings and now I get tweets from the NSTA.
I'm not sure about the value of Twitter for my use at this point. I did enjoy the presentation you (Ron) put on the 21st thing about Twitter. It gave me some other uses to think about. I really don't want more texts coming into my cell phone, but could use the Twitter site for more information. I do use facebook so I feel much other the social networking part of this is covered and I have the news feeds coming into my Google reader. I'm thinking that there could be information overload at some point. But, then again.......