Friday, March 19, 2010

Final Post

This experience has been one of the most positive things that has happened this year. I was introduced to multiple tools that I had never heard of, as well as ones that I had always wanted to explore.

These tools have affected my personal and professional life. For example, I use Google Reader every morning, I check Twitter every afternoon, and instead of writing down lists of websites that I want to check "someday," I've saved the URLs in my Delicious account. I also used Weebly to complete my Alternate Evaluation Project: I designed a website about how/where students can publish their creative writing.

The tools also have changed my teaching. In my Creative Writing classes, students used Weebly to design personal websites for their writing, and they then shared these with the class. This was a quick and easy way to make their writing feel more authentic and be more accessible. In my Journalism class, the students created their own Google Reader accounts. These accounts enable them to remain updated on current news events. I also plan to use Animoto in my classes, where students will create videos that reflect the content we have studied.

After completing the 17 Things program, I am inspired to find new ways to reach out to my students, and I am also interested in exploring some of the tools in the future (for example, I'd like to use Flickr to publish personalized photo albums, and I'd like to upload family interviews to Animoto). I feel more confident in using new technology, and I feel like I have a better grasp on what is available in such a vast pool of information.

I have recommended this program to all of my colleagues, and I would love to complete this program again, with new tools or the same ones (I feel like there is still much to explore). I appreciate all of the hard work that Alicia and my colleagues did as we completed this project. I learned so much. Thank you for the experience!

Finally, here are some of my words to describe this program: Cutting-edge; Stimulating; Inspiring; and Innovative.

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