Thing #17

Well, my favorites list looks like the old way (shown in the video) so I will definitely be using Delicious. My favorites have been disorganized and frustrating for some time and it's time to get organized. I tried to take this course my first semester but it was "sold out", it would have been helpful to have taken this class closer to the beginning than the end for sure. Social networking sites are definitely a plus for teachers, especially new ones. I know that I will need all of the good resources that I can find and it will be nice to have an excellent site to save to as well as to search from any location.

Thing #16

When I first started using a computer, Internet Explorer was the only option that I really knew about and my main email account is still msn.com. Then I started using Firefox and decided to use it strictly for my schoolwork. I wasn't happy with IE too much anymore, so I started using Google Chrome for my personal stuff. In essence, I use 3 different home pages for different reasons, just like 3 main file folders.
Since my IE's homepage is just AOL's homepage, I decided to replace it with Igoogle, feeling sure that I would like that better. There are so many things that I like about Google, I feel that I can't go wrong with it and it will remain my homepage for my Internet Explorer.
I chose MSN Calender to try out. I liked that it had the weather for each day and a tab to create a to-do list. If you put everything on your calendar then a to-do list is sort of redundant to me. Right now, my life is not too complicated so it's easier to keep a hand-written calendar and to-do list. Once I start teaching, I am sure that I will keep these things with me technologically. I think that I had referred to a Franklin planner being used in my former career before this sort of technology was available. These tools are the new planners and necessary for efficiency.

Thing #15

I thought that "wiki" was a term exclusive to Wikipedia. I knew about some of these other sites but didn't know that they were called wikis. I feel that Wikipedia is much more reliable than when it first started, but I know not to take it as the absolute honest last word on anything. I would think that a Wiki would be a great collaboration spot for teachers to share lesson plans and standards for their grade level. That would be a great resource to have district wide.
I had trouble with the sandbox. I tried to edit someone's post by changing the colors and it didn't work. The only thing that I could really do was move the image around or change its size, so I abandoned that attempt. I put in my smile generator but got no further than the editing box.....I couldn't figure out how to make it show up on the "front page"......Hands in the air, sign me.....Technically Challenged.

Thing #14

I chose Gliffy and Bubbl.us to play with and compare. I liked them both, it seemed that bubbl.us had a less formal look to it while flowcharts were a bit more rigid and "official" looking. Gliffy gives you a much more professional looking product than Bubbl.us, so my target audience would determine which to use. Both mindmaps and flowcharts are useful for lesson planning and for a student's organization of concepts. It is much easier to make these things with these websites, I have used MS Word to do this previously and there is no comparison. I see that Gliffy has a floor plan option that might be useful for classroom layout plans. Overall, I feel that I will use both of these in the future.

Thing #13

I found Zoho Writer to be very similar to MS Word and would certainly recommend using it to anyone. There is really no point in purchasing a software program when you can access something so similar for free. I had only heard of Open Office as a substitute for MS Word, so this is a great option.
I liked the Zoho Writer better than the document writer in Google Docs, perhaps because Zoho is so similar to what I'm used to. I tried some different things in Google Docs and I hate to admit it but I was lost. This drawing was the best I could do. I tried to paint it but that didn't work.
I did like the fact that Google Docs automatically saves your work and I can see how easily this could be used for group projects. My preference is Zoho, it was more user friendly for me!

smile

Thing #12

The first thing that I looked at and experimented with was Google Calender. It was simple enough and took me back to the days when I used a Franklin planner. I suppose that everything that I kept up with in that old planner could now be kept up with in a small ipad. I can certainly see the ease and advantage of that, but I do like the old fashioned way (pen and paper) as well. I tried to put in some cute little icons on my Google Calender but couldn't get that to work. Google Calender could certainly be useful in the classroom when communicating with others, as well as helping me keep things straight and organized.
Google Calender
I tried Google Translate next and I am simply AMAZED. I had no idea this was available, where have I been? Absolutely beneficial when working with ELL's and I can see it being used for various subjects when foreign phrases come up. I put in "Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai" and got "Lark, lovely lark Lark, I am going to pluck". This cracked me up, I remember that song from childhood and the Target commercial has brought it back to me. I sure didn't know that it was about plucking a bird. Live and learn!
Google Translate

Thing #11

I started my search by reading the Cool Cat article and then continued to the Edublog's website. I chose to look at the 2010 Best Educator blog of Teacher Tom. He shares an interesting viewpoint on various subjects and I enjoyed reading his posts. I found it odd that at the end of his posts he says that he works hard on his blog and asks for donations. As I continued to look at Edublog, I got into the nominees for 2011 and long lists that were not categorized. I decided to leave and look elsewhere.
Google Blog Search turned up "TBA", short for Teaching Blog Addict. This blog has over 5000 followers so I decided to look around. I liked that it had subjects listed by category and looked into the Math section. There were a lot of posts and freebies here, some very good ideas. Each of these posts led me to the individual poster's blog.....so I guess that this is some sort of blog portal. I subscribed to this, a very good resource! I noticed that this blog also had an icon for Pinterest, which leads me to suggest to all of you to sign up! I have found some great teacher blogs and resources here!
On Topix, I mostly found governmental issues and when I searched for teacher blogs I found articles about teachers getting into trouble with their blogs, not actual blogs. Technorati didn't have an education section and it was hard to find a teaching blog, so I cared for this website the least.
Google Blog search was probably the easiest to navigate, but to be totally honest, Pinterest is just as easy and my favorite for find teaching blogs.