Activity 7

Although some of it feels like another version of Facebook or Myspace, Google+ could have some interesting uses, especially the hangout/chat feature.  However, without a webcam (which I don't currently have) the hangout seems less interesting.

Activity 6

Not sure about twitter as a useful tool yet.  I can see why it's fun and if you have a community of followers it might be interesting to tweet relatively often, but overall, it seems more time consuming than convenient.  As with many of my concerns at the start of this class and with web 2.0 in general, not sure that I have the time or will to make this a true part of my everyday experience right now, either professionally or personally.  Learning about a lot of potentially great tools, but for them to become useful and for me to become proficient (or perhaps more aptly, for me to be able to make them useful and not just a novelty) seems like it might take   more time than it is ultimately worth.  Still working at it...

Activity 5

Right off the bat, it is a bit disarming to have to sign in to each of these apps.  With the spread of information, how much is too much for allowing apps to "access your email or other information"? I'm also not a big fan of signing into an app using facebook.  Although I have a facebook account, I am not really a facebook "user" and thus don't really have an interest in letting others see what I'm doing.
Having said that, there are at least two of the downloaded apps that seem useful.  I love google dictionary.  The ability to highlight a word and then just click it for a definition rather than typing it into a website like dictionary.com is timesaving and quite useful.  Additionally, I can see a lot of uses for creately.  I'm often looking for an easy way to create a diagram or flow chart for my students to use as a mind map and this app seems far easier to do so than the unwieldy process of doing it in Word.  An app that could be useful but ironically will not be for me is todo.  While it seems like it can be helpful to keep all of ones tasks organized, my sense as I played with it was that I needed to be organized to use it.

Activity 4

The use of Google Docs has already become omnipresent in my classroom.  Students have created collaborative paragraphs building on each other's ideas as they write.  Additionally, I can easily see how a form can be created as a quiz rather than a survey.  Students would need access to computers or tablets to make it user friendly but it could certainly be a quick way to get a snapshot of understanding.  Finally, the revision history feature of google docs seems like a great tool in helping to teach students the process of revision and writing.  For me to be able to see how students edit and revise their work will allow me as a teacher to narrow in on the skills that they most need to work on.

21st Century Learner Video

Reflections on Web 2.0 and 21st Century Learners

I'm struggling with this in a variety of different ways.  Most significantly, one of the dramatic shifts to 21st century learning is allowing students to set the direction of much of the content of the course.  However, in a content driven curriculum, such as U.S. History, there is not  a lot of room to let student choice/research set the agenda or direction that the course will take.  In my opinion for example, students need to learn about the Battle of Gettysburg (simplified, but merely an example).  What if however, a student driven course chooses to bypass the Civil War entirely as being "old news", unimportant, or uninspiring for further study (hard to imagine, I know, but I suppose it could happen)!  Does the 21st century U.S. History classroom/teacher allow this to happen?
Further, another difficulty to consider is the notion of a 21st Century Learner learning for learning's sake.  This assumes a lot about the mind of the average American teenager.  Is it possible for instance that technology and immediacy has made the teenage mind lazy and complacent, rather than curious and engaged?  I'm not sure yet.  Still trying to work it out.

Reflections on Lifelong Learning

1) There are 2 habits that will be challenging to employ moving forward.  The first is beginning with the end in mind.  Too often I find myself looking at technology as something that is cool, playing with it, and then forgetting about it when it comes time to apply it in my curriculum.  Beginning with the end in mind will force me to look at what it is that I want my students to accomplish and then searching out the piece of technology that will help them to do so.  This will make technology much more useful in my curriculum but also requires foresight and planning, not two of my strengths.  Similarly, using technology to my advantage is also an area where I expect to struggle.  Again, the notion of using it and allowing the technology to make work simpler and less time consuming, rather than the opposite, is something that I've struggled with constantly over the last several years.
2) The habit that will be easiest for me as a lifelong learner is creating a learning toolbox.  I usually am able to have a variety of skills and abilities that allow me to continue to learn but as stated above, struggle in finding the opportunities to use them.
3) I think dealing with the two issues stated in number one above will be most important for me to deal with.  Otherwise, I will come out of this course with more tools in my toolbox but little sense of how or when to use them.