THing #11 Web 2.0 Awards

This was one of my favorite "things" so far! Travel IQ game was extremely quick and an interesting way to check my basic knowledge of famous travel places and iconic structures from around the world. Could be a nice ap for kids (if I ever get the iTouch grant $ from Chevron) The Classroom 2.0 site had many new blogs to check out. I joined the one for Goggle Aps. I also have an RSS for their webcasts which are quite frequent. I participated in one 2 years ago with another teacher and found it to be quite simple actually. We merely signed up, signed in and watched. I would like to find the time to participate in more of them but I am assuming that they also publish podcasts of all of them so I could take a look during my "free" time!

Ning is, in my opinion, one of the best sites around. I joined a couple of different ones throughout the last couple of years and continue to find interesting ideas from others in the teaching profession. Of course, the implications for our classrooms are huge (with the exception that students need to be 13 yrs. old which is a problem for 6th grade). I am a member of a couple of teachers' sites and am impressed with the blogging the students do about literature and writing. I am aware of the huge amounts of work that is required by the teachers to maintain and respond to the posts which is a huge issue surrounding this work. The English Ning is extremely helpful. I read blogs from the site and look for ideas and answers to my questions on a weekly basis. We also have a LA Ning from the district but I must admit I haven't checked it out in a while. And I couldn't get on the GRMS NIng which was kind of funny. I am curious who is posting and about what!

Web 2.0 Awards were fascinating to peruse since many of the awards from 2009 were given to sites and products that I have used or have heard of. I was amused by the StarDolls site where you can create paper dolls of sorts with famous people's faces and bodies and dress them up. Kind of like the new Barbie dolls or paper dolls but on line now. Users share their own collections of these dolls too. It's a new world :-)