Tool #5 Tagging and Social Bookmarking

What a wonderful site. I think of my favorites as a big dumping ground and I like the idea of having an organized site that allows me to do so much. My favorite is that I know longer have to send an attachment on email. That will save a lot of space.
I tried to open a delicious account and it would not let me get in. The Diigo account was much easier. In fact in an instant I had everything on my toolbar. I’ll need tutoring on the delicious account.
The two links I added and Tagged was in the area of RTI and Utilizing Technology. This will be a great way for me to share articles and information with my staff in two big initiatives on our campus.
http://www.newhorizons.org/
http://www.rti4success.org/

Tool #4 Google Docs and Reader

I loved the idea of the Goodle docs. I am having a little trouble getting my documents that I want to share to work, but I was so impressed with what we can do with it. I tried it with our front office staff in revising a responsibilities chart. I was able to view it, but having difficulty getting others to view and make changes even though I gave them rights. I can see this working with so many activities that we actually have to meet to complete. I like the idea that we can get feedback at our convenience.
As far as the Google Reader it is a wonderful tool for my own professional development. I like the idea that it continually links to areas I want to learn about.
I can really see how both of these tools can support a creative way to enhance instruction. I can see teachers putting a writing draft on an activboard and giving rights to all the kids and having them make changes that would automatically be seen by all of them. What a wonderful way to have everyone engaged in the lesson.

Tool # 3 Image Generators

I enjoyed learning how to use the spell with Flickr and Image Chef. I used our school name and our theme for this year. I am still trying to learn how to use the design mode and was not able to move my star image next to my avatar. If someone knows how to do this please let me know. I tried dragging it to the space, but it would not accept it. I liked playing with Wordle and Big Huge Labs.

Tool #2

1. Building an online educational community is a wonderful opportunity for educators to take information they have read or learn about in other formats and connect with other educators that have the same interests. When you have the ability to reflect and share with other it provides opportunities for insight that you may not have been able to come to without this process. We tried to start blogging as a PLN about a year ago and had very little response. I am really excited to see if our new training will have in impact on how many participants we have the next time we use this as a tool to support our staff as a learning community.
2. I agreed that you need to be careful how you comment to others in a way that supportive and enhances collaboration and the other point was to keep the dialogue going through effective questioning that supports reflection.
3. The five blogs I visited and commented on were 11 steppin, 11 Tools 2010, From the Rose, Ms. Leon's 11 Tools, and MaDonna. I loved reading everyones blogs and learning more about what I will be doing in the next few tools.

Getting Started

I am excited about starting the 11 tools activities. It has been a very busy summer and this has been the first chance for me to be able to begin. I enjoyed the videos at the beginning of this activity, especially the one with the kids singing their parody of how we can use technology today.
I am having a bit of an issue registering for Voki to create my avatar. I had to ask the help desk to see if they could get me registered. I decided to go on to this step until it gets resolved.