Collecting Animoto Inspiration through the Social Web

I started writing this post about 35 minutes ago, and yet I'm still here on the first sentence. Something I find myself doing each time I sit down is continuously exploring other peoples blogs and getting so deep in thought (and experiencing minor "Blog Envy" of all the fabulous idea I find other teachers using) that I forget that I started writing my own post!

So...getting down to business I found a link to an Animoto video I liked in my search. I like it for three reasons:
1) It seems simple enough for students to listen/watch/actually LEARN something new
2) It seems simple enough for ME to understand how to create!
3) A wonderful visual for all my active and visual learners!

Community Unit Vocabulary (from Sara's Blog, Spring 2012 Class Blogs on EDUC584's site)

I'm still in the collecting stage of my Animoto. I'm thinking about all the terms I need to add and the images that will go well with them. To be honest, I'm getting very excited to start my Animoto!

If you're looking for Tips to make your Animoto better look through this site for helpful ideas!

If you ever thought that the surfing the internet was a solitary activity you may to rethink that. Richardson (2009) spends a whole chapter in Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts discussing the Social Web as a tool for communication, collaboration and building social relationships. You are never alone on the internet and with the relatively recent boom in communicating through Blogs, Wikis, Twitter accounts and Facebook there is always a person to talk to, a post to comment on or a picture to share.

In the world of teaching there is no such thing as an original idea. A new lesson always comes from someones old lesson or a conversation with colleagues or a textbook read on the topic. The Social Web that we all use so frequently is making it that much easier for educators to share their ideas and collaborate with one another. Until most recently (well...about 10 minutes ago) I was pretty skeptical about using Twitter as a personal or professional tool. Yet, I have to admit after reading Tales of a First Year Teachers latest post I see that using a Twitter account in the classroom can be pretty seamless.

There are so many accessible tools that help in making your life easier. One of those is Diigolet. It makes bookmarking seem so 1999, organizing all your favorite sites into one library that no matter where you are you can access with ease.

Now I admit, I just mentioned a lot of different sources and that may seem overwhelming to some of you (and some days to myself as well!). But just remember, they're simply suggestions of how to organize yourself before tackling all that the Social Web has to offer you!