Final Thoughts

I have thoroughly enjoyed having the excuse to spend SO MUCH TIME checking out all the wonderful Web 2.0 capabilities through this course. I know I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. There is just so much out there. The only thing that got me away from the computer sometimes was the fact that several of the sites I went to charged fees or required more signing in, and I already have more logins and passwords that I ever thought I'd have. Plus I did need to eat and sleep.

The best thing about this course was finding so many cool sites that I would never have looked for before. The worst thing is knowing that every day there are hundreds of new sites being created, so you really can't keep up with it all. For that reason I would definitely sign up for another project like this one in the future.

Podcasts

I love YouTube and have used the "Dewey Rap" and the "Gotta Keep Reading" videos with my students this year. Those are so well done and the students LOVED watching them. Thank goodness our school district unblocked the YouTube website this year.

Hopefully I will be posting some of the videos I make at school on TeacherTube at some point. Right now I'm not comfortable posting videos featuring students, and the ones with teachers use copyrighted music so we can only use them in school.

Unlike some others I didn't have any problem setting up a NetLibrary account. They must have fixed their "issues." I could read Anne of Green Gables at my computer or download it but The Lightning Thief was not available.

I am more a reader and a watcher than a listener, so audio podcasts are not my favorite thing. I still haven't gotten into audiobooks and don't even listen to music when I'm working, although I do listen while I'm driving so I can loudly sing along. I already had the KERA podcasts in my RSS feeds so didn't add a new one although I did find several very interesting ones.

Love YELP!

I played around with many of the sites on the Web2.0 list and this was my favorite. Their slogan is "Real people, real reviews." You can put in your hometown and words like sushi or haircut and get great ideas from people on where to go. You can also put in the name of an establishment and get reviews for it. My husband and I just tried a brand new restaurant in Grapevine and it had two reviews already on this site, both of which I agreed with. I can't wait to try it for services around here and for restaurants in towns I visit.

Experimenting with ZOHO Writer

I am experimenting with ZOHO Writer. I will attach an image, use some color and add this to my blog. Looks like it works great. I probably will never use it again though.

This is a very special tree at our ranch in Clay County, Texas.