So many wonderful tools to explore! For Thing 8, I looked at Skype in the Classroom and spent some time on the "Skype an Author" network. I've been wanting to connect with an author in preparation for a National Library Week Skype event, and this provided me the perfect venue! I went through much of the alphabetical author listings and made notes of authors I thought would be interesting to my students, along with the grade level they are appropriate for. I looked for authors who offer free "meet and greet" Skype sessions. I will definitely be using this site again!!
The second tool I explored for Thing 8 was Slideshare. I had heard about this at a conference, and welcomed this opportunity to further explore the tool. I will definitely be using this tool as well - I love the fact that users can upload existing Powerpoint and Keynote presentations into the site. I teach a Digital Literacy class which uses both platforms, and presentation day has always been difficult due to the different platforms. Slideshare will solve that problem! I'll just have all of the students convert their projects and use this site to display class work and projects. So easy!
