Thing 20 - YouTube

The YT video I decided to embed is hilarious - it's about the perils of powerpointing your audience to death....I wish I had his speaking skills..AND his powerpoint skills...LOL OK, maybe not so much. I found TeacherTube to have TONS more than the first time I played with it. I can't wait until You Tube is unblocked!

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

It's stuff like this that freaks me out and makes me crazy because I feel like I'll never catch up: "There are about 500 2.0 tools on the web. You have explored just a few so far thorough this series of activities. "
Anywho, I explored LuLu and shared it with a budding teen author that hangs in the library with me every chance he gets. Everyone has a book in them, as far as I'm concerned. Whether or not anyone else would want to read it...different story, but at least we know that self-publishing is an option, right? I also looked at WriteBoard - I could see using this and I could see kids using it for group projects.

Thing 18 - Open source stuff

Love the free part. Love the Google part. Love that I can just hop on and not worry about version this or that of popular Microsoft software. Like the powerpoint knock-off but had problems importing clips but I'll deal and learn to love it. Did I mention it's FREE??

Thing 17 - sandbox

Now "sandbox" is the perfect descriptor for these wikis. I play in a couple of sandboxes - one that is professional and one that is a creative outlet. Both are equally gratifying and easy to get to. Sometimes I forget to make my way there but once I'm reminded, it's always a good feeling to connect.

Thing 16 - wikis

I've been a big fan of wikipedia since way back. From a professional point of view, I've suggested to students that it's a great place for ideas, keywords, concepts when starting a new research project. I do not however, suggest that they use it as an official cited source (yet) but that's only to keep my teachers happy. They STILL think wikipedia is the devil even though I've pointed shown them how useful it can be and that it is monitored more closely now. And besides....you can find just about ANYTHING on wikipedia. Love it. By the way, pbwiki.com looks like a great place to easily start up an educational wiki...

Thing 15 - David Warlick

Now. If we were going to use "authority" correctly...it would be to label David Warlick apparently. What a find! Could you imagine having him on your faculty? He's probably inspired me the most out of any of the blogs I've sampled recently. He's not preachy and his ideas are do-able but just far-fetched enough to challenge me. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do…” Christopher Morley

Thing 14

Who knew that there are two faces to tagging? Technorati's philosophy and Joshua Schachter's philosphy of the purpose of tagging is polar different. I also learned what "authority" is...I personally think it should be called something else...like "connections" or "taps" because it's the number of times your blog is linked. I just think "authority" lends a false air....of well....authority. Maybe I'm being too literal again....