Today I am blogging on the fly. I am at JFK airport using my iPad and their wifi. Three weeks ago I never would have guessed that would happen. I am heading home after a great vacation. I got my nephew excited about Vokis and he now has one that we put on both of his blogs. He's only 8 so it's pretty silly but that's okay. My videos were a hit with him and his sisters too. I think we would have done some together if we had had more time.
I just finished reading my first ebook. I am an avid reader but I was't sure how I would like reading an ebook instead of a traditional one. I liked it. I will still be sticking with traditional books from the public library for most of my reading (I am on a teacher salary after all) but maybe indulge in an ebook when traveling.

Videos and More

So far I have made two videos using sites from the challenge. I had fun doing both and can definitely see practical implications of using videos like this with my students. My first thought was that history lessons could work well. I could see using these kinds of videos at the beginning of a unit to engage students in the topic. I could also see using this to have students make their own movies at the end of a unit to show what they have learned. This could be done across subject areas. The ones that I made were what popped into my head at the time.
When I saw the soda and burger I immediately thought of the new food plate the USDA came out with a few weeks ago and away I went. In other news my parents have upgraded to an iPad 2 and gave me their first generation iPad. I am having lots of fun finding good apps for it. One of the first I added was Flipboard which has a place for me to access Google Reader on it.
I am finding good elementary curriculum apps as well which I am looking forward to using with my students.

Another kind of video

This is one I made using Go!Animate. Very easy to do.



GoAnimate.com: Fun with food-Tech Challenge Video from Go!animate by jennync

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Trying New Things

 I am having fun trying some of the things for part 3 of the challenge. My Voki is  posted on this page to welcome everyone and below is a link to a little video I made on xtranormal.com.


http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12221892/what-you-need-to-know-if-you-want-to-be-president



I am definitely going to try more of the ideas.

A Family That Blogs

 Read an interesting article this morning about a family who really embraces social networking -especially blogging. Here's the link:

http://on.wsj.com/mdLlkH

More Online Adventures

I set up a Google Reader account today.I wasn't familiar with it before the Technology Challenge. It is pretty neat. Now I will have to start using it to follow blogs I subscribe to.
I am also on Twitter. I have been on Twitter for a year or so. I rarely "tweet" myself but I do like to read the tweets of other people and organizations. I follow around
80 individuals and organizations but I don't read all of their tweets. Many are news related such as CNN.Some are education related such as Education Week.Others are friends or family or just for fun. I have 18 followers.A few of those are friends but several others are organizations I follow that now follow me.
It intrigues me that they would do that. I am not sure what they are looking for but in my case they are probably not finding it since I don't tweet a lot. I do sometimes look to see what is trending on Twitter and then find out why. That can be interesting.

I Am a Blogger!

I have thought about blogging but never tried it. I am excited that the DPS Technology Challenge is motivating me to do this and am looking forward to everything else I will learn.
One of the blogs I follow is my 8 year old nephew's on Pokemon. I wonder If I will be able to convince him to follow mine. : )