Reflection Island is the last stop on my summer technology adventure. As I think about all the websites and information that I read, it all begins to blur together. Don't get me wrong, the information was informative and helpful, but still overwhelming for a non-tech person like my self. I have to admit that tagxedo website and the sendables website the most. I think the students would really enjoy receiving the different characters available on the sendables site plus it's always nice to get a positive re-enforcement.
On the tagxedo website the students can use their imagination to work on word assocation and get creative at the same time.

Li bro Island was my least favorite island. There was just way too much information for me. The information on this island definitely is geared towards librarians.

Not sure what happened to this blog post. The color changed and I don't know how to change it. SORRY!!!

Get me off Excursion Island!!! Lots of information on this adventure.

The Horizon report makes many good points about the future of technology and the learner.
Its alot to absorb.

There are many neat websites listed that offer various activities. I think my two favorites are http://www.tagxedo.com/ and http://sendables.jibjab.com/.

At tagxedo, I like how the students could use their original wordels from last summer, but now add a twist to their work. I think it is may be time consuming to teach the students how to use the site, but after the inital directions, they would love the creativity it allows. This may spark the interest of some bored students.

At jibjab, how doesn't love recieving something cute and funny in their in-boxes. Everyone loves a pat on the back and what an easy way to send one. The only problem I see is that some students may not have internet access at home, so these messages would have to be sent to a school account.

So I just scoped out Search Island, the list of search engines was a little overwhelming. I do not spend much time on the Internet and had no idea that there were that many search engines. I usually stick with Google and Bing. Out of the lists given, I liked the Open Directory Project search engine the best. I liked how it gives you options to choose from verses having to word search your topic. For me, it is much easier to follow a topic trail than creating my own path. For example, the first page gives choices, and health is listed, then the second choice is fitness, followed by for young people and finally there are several descriptions given to choose from. The easier the better for me when it comes to the Internet.

Okay...Skype is really cool. Modern technology never ceases to amaze me. It just blows my mind that two classrooms millions of miles away can communicate with each other face to face. Using Skype in PE class may be a challege with the number of students involved but I think it would be easy for the regular classroom teacher to be able to incorporate it into their lessons. I really liked the idea of the librarians being able to Skype the authors. With budget cuts and travel expenses as they are, Skype can bring the authors without the cost. It may not be as "personable" as an author visit, but it couold work as an alternative plan.

After filling out the required information, I found that there is only 1 entry for Physical Education and it is in spanish, so I am out of luck at this point. But will keep checking to see if more entries become available.

When I visited Libro Island, Captain Griffith required us to visit several library sites and search to see which we our favorites. After searching through the sites, I decided that there were two that stood out to me.
I liked the: http://http//www.schoollibraryjournal.com/csp/cms/sites/SLJ/Home/index.csp and the http://www.txla.org/.

On the School Library Journal web-site, I liked the blog section that allowed for visitors to be able to post their comments about books that they had read. This helps the reader get a quick glance at the comments of various readers and helps the reader decide if their interest has been peaked.

I was surprised to find out that I could type in Physical Education in the search box and find articles relating to PE. I assumed that there would only be "library" information on this website.

On the Texas Library Association web-site, I liked the reading list section. I had no idea that there were so many awards/lists. This section breaks up the books by grade levels, which makes it easy to find your readers level. There are also numerous books listed on each of these awrdsd lists. I did not know all these lists exsisted, I only knew about the Blue Bonnet list.

Hooray!!! I made it back to last year's blog. I changed my background, checked my profile information, and now I am working on getting a new Voki. So Captain Griffith, I am up and rolling.