Thing 6

The website I chose is called GAIAonline.com.  It is a social networking site but allows users to play games and earn what they call virtual money and different things for different achievements in the games and networking.  Users can also  create avatars much like we did to put on thier sites.  I think that eventually teachers could have thier younger students play these games and get thier virtual money and have fun with it all while learning whatever standard it is they are trying to learn.  Although this might be for the older people, I can see where you could work around and maybe block your students from everyone but your select classroom and it would be fun for them getting to create thier avatars and different things and would also help out a lot with thier learning because they would get practice doing something they like.

Thing 5

The 2 Links I looked at explained what web 2.0 was and then showed how the school system technology director in Philadelphia was using all of these new things to her advantage.  Web 2.0 is the different things on the internet now such as wiki's and things of that sort that better organize a learning community and make things much easier and quicker.  Using social networking sites and blogs like these for example  help make learning easier for the students and makes things much more accessible.  I see much more of this in the future. First of all, I believe that everything in the school will be computerized in the future.  All the students will have like ipads or something and the pen and paper will be no longer used.  I see more social networking sites being used in the education department.  They have already tried to incorportate some of this and it will just get better with time.

Thing 4

After reading the sections on how to comment I was able to find blogs that related to a lot of my feelings and interests and comment fairly easily.  I do find it true that people do like to see other people comment on thier blogs.  It makes you proud to know that other people are reading your blogs and it is also fun to see what other people think about your thoughts.

Thing 3

Once everyone gets the hang of the blogs, it could be real helpful in a future classroom.  It is kind of like the message boards on D2L that we have.  A blog gives the opportunity to let everyone post what they are thinking and gives everyone else the opportunity to comment on their posts and give thier opinions.  It would be a good way to let the teachers see what the students are thinking by reading their blogs and seeing how thier fellow students are interacting with each other.

Thing 2

Getting everything set up and creating the avatar was very frustrating to me but now that is it done hopefully I will get the hang of everything pretty soon.  As far as coming up with my avatar, I just took and step by step and messed around with all the features until I got comfortable with everything.  I guess my avatar looks somewhat like myself but there are differences.  It took me a while to get my posting name and name of my blog and they ended up not being what I prefer but it's ok as long as they are done and I can remember them.

Thing 1

The thing that I found most easiest to me was the step about looking at the end from the beginning and setting goals for yourself.  I have a lot of goals in life and strive to reach them so that step is not one I have trouble with.  However, the one that gives me trouble is using technology to my advantage.  I do not know how to do a lot on a computer and when given a lot of work to do on one, I panic quickly if the directions aren't cut and dry.  Once a person gets irritated and confused computers hurt them more than help them and that is where I definately need to improve my skills.