Tag this :) …. Thing 17

I love the idea of Del.icio.us. It’s like someone else has done all the hard work for me and I can simple use a tool bar to search for anything my little heart desires.  In reality it’s a great concept but what I consider a great website about a subject maybe junk to someone else.  If you over look that It’s a great resource for a teacher or for my future  students, I could look at websites that are bookmarks to help me brainstorm about future lesson plans and for my student I could tag website to share with my students.  It can help to save time.  

Can you teach an "old dog" new tricks? ; Thing 16

On teaching this “old dog” a new trick ; I begin by creating my personalized homepage.  I chose iGoogle because of all the wonderful things Google offers. Previously I had been using Yahoo as a homepage, I know you can customize it but I have never taken the time to do so. Once I created my new homepage I actually set it as my homepage, which was weird at first since I have been an avid yahoo user for so long. To be honest at first I found myself falling into old habits, I would barely glance at my homepage before I would navigate away to some other site but once I “got the hang of it” I have found that I like my new homepage that has all of my favs right there in one covenant place. It sure does cut down on time. So its here to stay!

As for the calendar and to-do list, I can see their appeal HOWEVER its not for me.  I am old school, I keep an organizer/ agenda that I carry around with me and add as needed.  Having them on the world wide web can allow for easy access from anywhere, which is great and as a teacher I could use one of these programs to keep my classes activities/important dates where the student or their parents could access it to keep the student on track.  Which is great but it just seems like too much work for me right now, it’s a lot easier and convent to tote around my agenda and a pen so I guess you just can’t always teach an old dog new tricks :)

Wiki wiki wiki....... Thing # 15

When something sounds sOoOOoOoo simple it’s normal to good to be true. I found this to be the case with this “assignment”.  I am a fan of Wikipedia, it’s a great website full of a lot of information that is constantly updated you just don’t get that with those dusty old encyclopedias.  The only problem with this is anyone can add or delete information which could lead inaccurate information. For example I am a far cry from a history buff; frankly my lack of knowledge in this subject is quite embarrassing. So if I were to add or edit based on my own educated guess I assure you I would be spreading inaccurate information.  Let’s say I thought the south won the Civil War, don’t worry I know better,  but the point is millions could easily access this incorrect information and believe it to be true because EVERYTHING you read online is TRUE, lol. Well back to the assignment……. My attempts to adding to the sandbox were frustration to say the least, but wiki’s could be very useful in the classroom for projects like a classroom encyclopedia or a “group” study guide, note sharing, ect the list can go on and on. Wikis allow students to work together to lean with technology. However wikis are no good to me if I can’t figure them out!  I’ll have to keep trying.

Going with the Flow........ Thing # 14

This Blog was a lot of fun to “investigate”. I started my journey with flowcharts and I experimented with Gliffy. This website is VERY user friendly, well so far.  It’s as simple as drag-and-drop shapes, choosing colors and inserting text.  The possibilities are endless with this website one can use it for anything from flowcharts, to floor plans to diagrams. This is a great website for both students and teachers.

I also played around with Bubbl and all I can say is………. WHERE HAS THIS WEBSITE BEEN ALL MY LIFE! I experimented with this site to make a mindmap. I found it easy to you, the hardest part form me was deciding what I was going to create my “map” around.  I defiantly will use this site in the future to help organize my notes for studying purposes.

Zoho WHAT?!?......... Thing # 13

​What is Zoho? is it just a funny word? Or s it more

Zoho is................. Documents, Power-points presentations, Calendars/ planner, Spreadsheets, Chat rooms and much more. Its like Microsoft deluxe available through the worldwide web. I know the assignment was to explore writer but I spend some time exploring the applications offered through Zoho. As a  future teacher I found this website exciting! There are a lot possibilities for Zoho in the classroom ad students. As the teacher I could use Zoho to presentations for students who miss class or to lead an online discussion in a chat room. 

Having these programs online allows for easy access for students. With programs being updated constantly having these applications online allows for a student to extremely comfortable with one "version" of a program opposed to having to learn different programs at school and home. This eliminates zip drives and "lost" documents through email. benefit is for students who can't afford  these programs can access them from any computer and they can pick up were they left off without all of the hassles.

​In short, Zoho is an application that I could see using as a future teacher HOWEVER I would want to spend more time getting acquainted with it.

*note* After MANY attempt I tried to sync my Zoho with this blog to share with you what I had written in Zoho (the above) but I can't figure it out. It seems simple but I must be missing something. So here is what I created in Zoho, sorry about the sizing that's how it pasted over.

Thing 12; Google ROCKS!

What did we do before Google? Other then actually doing my laundry, cooking dinner and running my daily errands Google can do EVERYTHING in between and it can help you to do things in a more efficient matter.  Each of these tools could easily help in the classroom but for the purpose of this blog I am going to talk about iGoogle and Google calendar.

I must admit I have used Google for the standard search but I have never really explored everything Google has to offer.  IGoogle is a great way to have a lot of personalized information all on one convent page. It was simple and quick to set up. I did the 30 second set up, picked a background, and added my interests.  I love that I could link it to my Facebook, keep up with the top news stories, weather, view new recipes and I can have cute little turtles swim around my homepage.   It’s a great way for a teacher to have a lot of information right at their fingertips anything that helps you be more efficient.

That brings me to Google calendar, which I could add to my IGoogle. Google calendar is an easy online organizer that one could share. In the classroom a teacher could keep all important school dates, test, homework dates, field trips, birthdays and any other dates you choose on their calendar for easy access for the students and their parents. Or  Google Calendar could be used on a more personal level to organize our agendas and help with planning meetings with administrators, parents, and fellow teachers.

With google the possibilities seem endless, what can I say Google Rocks!

Thing #11; Define a good feed.....

If you need an expert on finding a bad feed, I think you can safely say that I am your girl. I tried all the suggested search tools and used the suggested key words “school library learning 2.0”  out of Google Blog search, Tioix.net, Syndirc8.com, and Technorati I found Google Blog search to be the easiest to use. However I found that just like doing a search in the popular search engine you will be giving a lot of feeds that aren’t really relevant to what you were looking for.  I found a blog I found interesting through Google I thought I had subscribed to it successfully but then when I went to my reader I realized I must have “missed” a step. Hunting down the same blogs again was painless and took no time at all.  I found a few blogs that I found appealing so I guess it wasn’t all a waste but I think this exercise my require more “play time” because I don’t feel like I have mastered the task of finding good feeds.