Thing 2 of 11.5

With 4 things on Thing 2 I am beginning to wonder how many things are really in 11.5 Things....

Wordle was lots of fun. Right off the bat I thought that when I was an 8th grade remedial reading teacher this would have been a great way to teach stated main idea. I think it would be a great way to use to access prior knowledge and look at key words in a passage to make sure further comprehension was developed. Students in 4th grade might have fun making Wordles out of some of their TAKS writing prep they do. It would be easy to see if they are over using a word in their writing. I made one from the pledge since the kindergarten start learning that and I see the kinders in the library from the beginning. Nothing like starting a little word recognition right off the bat!

Voicethread was very cool. It took me a minute to understand that some of the shared voicethreads had more than one slide. I happened upon a 10 year old's trip to Washington DC. Wow, he learned a lot on his trip! I think it would be awesome to use with students especially if they are studying other parts of the US or world. The element of others commenting on an idea. I was also hooked into viewing one slide where an educator had a picture of a man sitting in the park with a laptop and simply asked "Is this the classroom of the future?" There were at least 20 comments from other educators all around the globe and every imaginable answer. Very interesting.

After Voicethread, I found Bookr to be a bit boring. It would be a great alternative to ppt for some students. Sometimes in flickr it is hard to find the picture one wants so it would be nice if a user could upload their own photos. It might be a simple alternative to the ppts that the 2nd grade do on birds every year.

I have used animotos and voki this year at school and think they are both great. I love the idea of using a voki for an email. Maybe then teachers would "read" their email. I will need to try that this year.

Thing 1 of 11.5 Things

The video is great in the way it simply explains a very complex thing which is learning that students will be doing in the 21st century. I thought it was very important how at the beginning the video it addressed that the student would first build a basis of knowledge and learn how to evaluate websites. Then proceed on to building a network of his/her learning. I loved the term Learning Architect for the teacher at the end and I certainly think a librarian could be many of the roles listed as the teacher at the end. We certainly can be the Network Sherpas (I like that term, too!).