Thing 4

This is where my mind needs to stretch. How would I use a blog with students? Some possibilities include: book reviews, an online book club, surveys, and maybe a review/survey of best research sources.

I think that the students would love to post book reviews to a blog. I think I might have to proofread the review first, though. To enhance the book reviews, it would be great to have an online book club. People are so busy that setting a certain meeting time is really hard, but they would probably have time to check in to a book club blog at their own convenience. I would really like to survey the classes on several different topics. For instance, a survey on the ease of using databases, the user friendliness of the library website, and even some schoolwide topics.
These three uses would be the most meaningful to me and that would encourage me to actually put them into practice.

Thing 3

Using the Avatar site in Yahoo was actually a lot of fun. Choosing the appearance and other extras was definitely under the heading of "play". Exporting the image into my blog was a little challenging, but it was do-able. I even returned to the Avatar site and made some changes which was really simple. I felt confident enough to help others, but in a week don't ask me anything. Also, watching some of my colleagues using Apple laptops helped me learn some new techniques.

Thing 2

Life long learning is one of the best kept secrets of anti-aging. The more open we are to learning new things, the better the quality of our lives will be. The students in Mesquite ISD are continually being reminded of life long learning. They are surrounded by faculty and staff who attend workshops and take graduate level classes.
I think that the powerpoint in this section would be a valuable tool for our ICT and AVID classes. The content of these classes focuses on learning how to be the best learner the student can be through many avenues. Technology, note-taking and research strategies, and higher level thinking skills are emphasized, just as they should be for a life long learner. For me, the easiest habit of a life-long learner is habit 2, accepting responsibility for my own learning. I enjoy reading and researching for myself. The hardest habit for me is to use technology to my advantage. I do not go to technology first whenever I am looking for help or information. You would think that I would use the computer freely when I run into an information problem; I still rely on the printed word for most of my information. Just being aware of the 7 1/2 habits is a good start; putting them into practice will be my challenge.

Thing 1

Although this whole task seems daunting to me, the explanation was clear and hopefully the explanations for the remaining things will be just as clear. I'm hoping in working with Web 2.0 tools that I will be able to see applications for myself and my students. I also hope to have fun; I'm not good at playing around with technology normally. Setting up my blog was a little time consuming because I think my laptop was running out of juice. Once I changed computers, creating the blog went like clockwork. I am a little worried about having my thoughts "out there" for all to see; I feel a little exposed.