Bean Counter Class: July 2008

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Thing # 23 Summary of 23 Things

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? My favorite discoveries were Blogs and Image Generators.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I have many more options for both teaching and learning!

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I had no idea what I was getting into. This has been really fun, but sometimes frustrating. I had many connections with other teachers from other schools. I found many more ways to search on the Internet. I found many things I can use in the classroom.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I think it would help to have optional lab times. Karen Harrell had a group of her co-workers and friends get together for helping/sharing time at Barnes & Nobel. It was very helpful. Kudos to Karen!

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Yes!

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? Wow, what an eye-opener!

Thanks for the opportunity!

Thing # 22 Nings

I lost myself for another few hours playing with Nings. I might be able to use this with all my accounting students. It would be fun to get them going on a Ning and then be able to hear back from them when they become real CPA's.

Thing # 21 Podcasts

Making a podcast was as easy as pie! However, Switchpod doesn't seem to be working today! I will try to put my podcast on my website! This will be a very effective way to communicate with parents and students.

Thing # 20 Teacher Tube

I found many videos on accounting. We could watch some of these videos during class time. The students could look up videos on their own for a review!

Thing # 19 Awards List

That was fun!! My two favorites were www.zillion.com and www.imcooked.com. Zillion is a real estate website where you can find the value of your home and see a bird's eye view of it. Also, you can see minute by minute mortgage interest rates. Imcooked is a website to share recipes on! Fun!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Thing # 17 Google Docs

This is a great resource for those who do not have the latest Microsoft Office Suite. It is very user friendly. I would probably never use this since all of my co-workers use Office. I will be suggesting it to friends and family members.

Thing # 17 Rollyo

Rollyo was very user friendly. It was very useful in finding many more websites on your favorite topics!

Thing # 16 Wikis

What a perfect way for students and teachers to communicate! It will be great to use this in BCIS projects this coming year. I especially liked playing on www.pbwiki.com.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Thing # 15 Web 2.0

It is so exciting to see the direction libraries are taking. When my students do research papers, we use a computer lab. Books could never keep up with the exploding amount of information that is available. Accuracy and truth are the biggest problems out there. Some of the information is questionable and students tend to take everything at face value. Blogging may have great information and opinions, but doesn't always have the facts.

Thing # 14 Technorati

Not my favorite. Technorati seemed much more complicated and over-run with advertisements. I much prefer the tagging on Del.icio.us.

Thing # 13 Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is all set up and ready to go. I love this concept! I had no idea that such a thing existed. My students do research in BCIS class, so I will be able to introduce them to this website!

Thing # 12 Community Through Commenting

I am having too much fun for this to be Professional Development!

My biggest pet peeves about posting are typos (I'm an old typing teacher!) and silly replys like "Me too" and "Thanks". Same goes for e-mail.

My favorite sight to post on is Cruise Critics. My husband and I love to cruise. I was able to find two other people cruising on the same ship we will be on in July.