July 27th Class Email:
Good morning, and welcome to the final week of 8 Things!
It looks as though everyone was able to edit the class spreadsheet in Google Docs, and I enjoyed reading some of your ideas for using it in your professional and personal lives. Be sure to take a look at other participants' blogs to read their great ideas!
This week we'll be wrapping up the course with social bookmarking. There are many social bookmarking sites out there, but we'll be using Delicious. In order to complete Thing 8, you must explore Delicious, create your own account and save at least 10 bookmarks to it, and blog about your experience. Please be sure to include your Delicious username, or a link to your Delicious page in your blog post! I'll be adding links to your Delicious accounts to our class page. Please also be sure to check out the 8 Things Delicious page at www.delicious.com/sisd8things. There you'll find links to relevant articles, tools, and pages from all 8 weeks of the course.
Please remember that this week's post is due on FRIDAY instead of Sunday! Please take the time this week to check over each of your 8 blog posts and to make sure that, in the comments to each post, I have noted that you have completed each Thing. If there is a post which you need to further develop or add to, please do that before Friday.
After you have completed all 8 Things, you will receive an email from me noting that you are finished with the course. This email will provide you with a link to the course survey. Please follow this link and complete the survey. This is the first time I have facilitated this course, and your feedback will help me to determine how effective it was, what needs improvement, and how I might change the course for future participants. After you have completed the survey, you will receive a course password. Please write down the password, submit your survey, then send the password in an email to sisd8things@gmail.com. When I receive the password from you, I will email you with your certificate of completion.
After you have completed the course, your blog is yours to do with as you wish. You may want to continue to use it for your students or classrooms this year, or you may wish to leave it as it is. After everyone is complete, I will be moving links to all of this summer's blogs to a "graduates" section of the 8 Things website to serve as examples of coursework. The 8 Things site will remain in place online, so if you need to refer to any of the videos, articles, links, or other materials from the course, you will be able to. Also, the 8 Things Delicious account will contain links to all of the same materials. Although the course ends Friday, I will be happy to continue to help you as you begin to integrate the tools and skills you acquired this summer in your classrooms. Please don't hesitate to contact me in the future if you have questions or need assistance!
Thank you all so much for your participation this summer. I have so enjoyed learning with you and reading all of your great ideas for implementing the tools you've used this summer into your classrooms and other professional positions! Enjoy your last few weeks of summer, and feel free to contact me with any questions!
Krystel