We're baaack... Part 2

Apparently, our overall "fun theme" for the year will be based on The Simpsons. When the show started, I definitely wasn't a fan. I can't say that I watch it glued to the TV now (actually, I don't think I watch much of anything glued to the TV screen!), but I do appreciate more of the humor. And, in my own personal form of 'preja vu' (deja vu that happens before you knew about it being deja vu), I named the blog that my students will use 'Doughnut Drive'. That's the name of the hallway where our classroom is... and on one side of our blog is a great picture of Homer Simpson trying to eat this huge doughnut! I just loved that!
Okay, so right about now you're waiting for me to tell you how all of this ties into web 2.0...
The videos, the homer simpson tie-in, are all available to people to use because of web 2.0! Schools have always shown "inspiring videos" during in-services. But, in the not-so-distant past, those videos were put together by people who were assigned this as a job. People who were usually in marketing or PR, maybe an AV department. An ordinary teacher, person, parent could not have done this just 5 years ago!
I love the amount of information that is out there and available. I like being able to go to Google and type in a few words and find all of this information. I love being able to go to the website for my University, and looking at the entire selection of journals that is available without ever leaving my futon and my cat. I've been attending Johns Hopkins in various forms (with some breaks) since 1999. My first master's degree is from Hopkins in transition planning & severe disabilities. With luck, I'll finish a second degree (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study, another 30 credits) in curriculum design and assistive technology at the end of Fall semester. I've never set foot in the Eisenhower library on the Homewood campus. Not one time. I used to go to a closer community college library, but now I don't even have to do that. I just load up my VPN software, type in my password, and convince the library's computer that I am really in the library.
Lovely. Absolutely lovely. And now, I'm going to go fix a slideshow in Slide Share, and then finish & post the final project for my graduate class this semester.