Thing #13, Online Books

Storyline Online has some good picture books, read aloud on video. Lulu and other online book publishers make it much easier for ordinary citizens to publish books and other stuff. I don't quite grasp the concept of Wiki Books, with free educational textbooks that anyone can edit.

Thing #12, Tags, Delicious, Diigo

I never use the Bookmarks feature of my computer because somebody at my house has hundreds of sites listed there, and I figure I could never find a new bookmark. So, I can see the value of Diigo and Delicious for cloud-bookmarking, with access from any computer. Diigo's features of highlighting and post-it notes seem like they could be very useful in a classroom setting.

Thing #11, Gen Y

Although I'm usually pretty skeptical of generalizations concerning the generations (the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, etc.), I have to admit that today's young people did indeed grow up with certain technologies and are much more comfortable with them than the rest of us. A post on Blog Catalog ("The 5 Key Ways I Believe Our Education System Needs to Change So That Future Generations Can Succeed") sums up some of the points we've been reading about: Collaborate, stop lecturing, technology instead of textbooks, quality research instead of quantity research, and there's no need to learn the "long way."

Thing #10, Wikis

As I study all these "Web 2.0" technologies, I wonder which of them will become established parts of life (as Wikipedia has become) and which will be quickly forgotten. Which will be time-saving and practical, and which will not be worth the effort? I use Wikipedia as much as the next person (a lot!) for looking up simple information, but I wonder to what extent other wikis will become part of the classroom and the workplace.

Thing #9, Web 2.0 Application Exploration

Here are five sites that I'd like to use in the future:
Boo.com - A travel site, with a variety of reviews, photos, weather reports, and information on hotels, restaurant, and sights to see.
Monster.com - An alternative to Craigslist.
Bing.com/maps/ - A variation on Google map and Yahoo maps.
Revolutionhealth.com - Plenty of information on a variety of health topics.
Tweetscan.com - Type in a subject, and see what Twitterers are saying about it. This could be an excellent time-waster.

Thing #8, Free Technology

There's way too much stuff here, but here are five sites that looked good:
Wiki Field Trip - As you move the cursor over a map of a city, Wikipedia entries appear about the local sights - right at the exact location.
Teacher Tube - A variation on Youtube, but everything is appropriate for teachers and students.
National Geographic Kids - An excellent resource for science, geography, etc.
Hulu - Lots of TV shows, movie clips, etc.
Who Wants Pizza? - A fun way to study fractions.

Thing #7, RSS Feeds

Sometime in the past 24 hours, my wife (my computer guru) used the term RSS and I asked her what the heck she was talking about. Hey! Now I know! I guess I already started doing the RSS thing (but didn't know it) when I signed up for Google Reader in Thing 3 (or was it Thing 4?) I can see how it can be a time-saver. I can also see how it can be a big time-waster, if I get too carried away with it. How to use it in education? I don't know. I'm not that far along yet. Maybe I'll know after I've done 23 things.