I think that the practice of social tagging and book marking is becoming much more common. I had not heard of any of these sites however I do like the delicious site after searching for educational technology so many different things came up and you get to not only see the sites but see other users reviews of the sites so you can differentiate what has been effective and what hasn't.
I think another site like this that has gained in popularity would be Pinterest, I use that site a lot and it very similar except you can bookmark and tag or "pin" and they say so much more than just websites you can pin almost anything you can think of. I have used it in the past to gather ideas for writing lesson plans, I think it will be a great site to be able to use as a future educator because there are some many ideas on there that fellow educators have shared, lesson plans, activities, worksheets, just so much that can be helpful in the classroom.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Thing 16
I used igoogle for my home page. I use Google for almost everything else so I just figured it would be the easiest to use for this activity as well. I like that it really only took like 10 second to get a homepage up and running and then I could change it to make it the way that I wanted it after that.
For the online calendar I choose to use 30 boxes. That was easy enough to set up but I don't think I would every really use it. I have a calendar set up in my email that I use that is already right there in my email that I check many times a day and to have to go to a separate location to check my calendar only seems like an unnecessary step.
While the to-do list seems like it would be a great helpful tool and it may be for some to me I just think it is more unnecessary work. I think it would take me longer to create the to-do list than it would to actually just go do the items on my to-do list.
The tool that I like the most and would probably continue to use is the igoogle home page because I can customize it and make it my own, I can have the information that is important and relevant to me and eliminate all of the other clutter from the page.
For the online calendar I choose to use 30 boxes. That was easy enough to set up but I don't think I would every really use it. I have a calendar set up in my email that I use that is already right there in my email that I check many times a day and to have to go to a separate location to check my calendar only seems like an unnecessary step.
While the to-do list seems like it would be a great helpful tool and it may be for some to me I just think it is more unnecessary work. I think it would take me longer to create the to-do list than it would to actually just go do the items on my to-do list.
The tool that I like the most and would probably continue to use is the igoogle home page because I can customize it and make it my own, I can have the information that is important and relevant to me and eliminate all of the other clutter from the page.
Thing 15
To be honest I didn't really care for this activity. While wikis may be great for some people to use I just don't really care for them. I am not a very big tech person so I was a bit confused by just adding something to the APSU sandbox wiki thing and I am still not sure I did that right. I can't imagine having to try and create and manage one to use in a class. Wiki is not for me except maybe to read through and gather information and ideas.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thing 14
The two sites I looked at were the Gliffy.com and mindmeister.com. I actually liked both sites on Gliffy I looked at the flow charts and on mindmeister the mind map. Both sites were easy to navigate and use, however mindmeister was more interactive and gave more on screen tips as far as how to proceed and create the mind map. It was a bit more user friendly.
I can see myself using both programs in my classroom though, but for different reasons. The flowcharts would be great to use when explaining consequence and rewards to students If they do this then an arrow to what happens. It makes it easy for them to follow it and see what to do. I can see one specifically for classwork If i finish then follow an arrow to what to do next, if I don not finish follow the arrow on instructions to see if its homework or work for later.
The mind map I loved and could see us using it to help with comprehension and expanding on what we are learning that is a great graphoc organizer to use for children to gove them a visual of the material we are using.
Both great tools and will come in handy!
I can see myself using both programs in my classroom though, but for different reasons. The flowcharts would be great to use when explaining consequence and rewards to students If they do this then an arrow to what happens. It makes it easy for them to follow it and see what to do. I can see one specifically for classwork If i finish then follow an arrow to what to do next, if I don not finish follow the arrow on instructions to see if its homework or work for later.
The mind map I loved and could see us using it to help with comprehension and expanding on what we are learning that is a great graphoc organizer to use for children to gove them a visual of the material we are using.
Both great tools and will come in handy!
Thing 13
I have never tried to use any of these web based apps before so this was a new concept to me and I was a bit intimidated by the idea of trying something new after having used Microsoft products for 15 years now. I am one that thinks if it isn't broken why fix it.
I was actually surprised by the Zoho docs site. For the most part the documents, spreadsheets, and the presentations all seemed very similar and just as easy to use as the Microsoft programs. While they may not have all of the same bells and whistles for me and what I use them for they would be sufficient. I also liked that all of your items no matter the type are all together in one easy to navigate folder. You don't have to search you entire computer looking for one thing they are all together in one place.
Going forward this may be a program I will continue to use especially for school. Not having to transfer documents from one computer to another or worrying about where my flash-drive is will eliminate hassle and stress.
I was actually surprised by the Zoho docs site. For the most part the documents, spreadsheets, and the presentations all seemed very similar and just as easy to use as the Microsoft programs. While they may not have all of the same bells and whistles for me and what I use them for they would be sufficient. I also liked that all of your items no matter the type are all together in one easy to navigate folder. You don't have to search you entire computer looking for one thing they are all together in one place.
Going forward this may be a program I will continue to use especially for school. Not having to transfer documents from one computer to another or worrying about where my flash-drive is will eliminate hassle and stress.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Thing 12
Google tools are great! I actually used to work for the Internet company called kgb where people could text in questions and get a text message answer back in return; we used google translate often. We would get questions asking how to say a certain word or phrase in another language and with google translate you could just type it in and get an instant translation of what you were looking for. It works great you can translate to or from lots of languages and it is simple to use!
I am also a sports fan I follow the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins so I have Google alerts set up so that I can keep track of my teams on a regular basis. It is great for baseball they play so many games and I can't always check the scores so I get an alert about the game. I also love getting alerts about the Vikings to keep up with team news so that I know the latest about trades, or player information.
I am also a sports fan I follow the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Twins so I have Google alerts set up so that I can keep track of my teams on a regular basis. It is great for baseball they play so many games and I can't always check the scores so I get an alert about the game. I also love getting alerts about the Vikings to keep up with team news so that I know the latest about trades, or player information.
Thing 11
For me the easiest way to find a blog that pertains to the topic I am interested in is to just Google it or Bing search it. While the other sites that were listed may be great they were kind of foreign to me, so it was easiest to just stick with what I already knew.
Google Blogs was the easiest search tool to use all you have to do is type in the topic you are interested in and then skim through the listings until you find one you are interested in reading further. The Technorati search tool was the most confusing to navigate, they had a lot going on on their main page that were distracting and it made it harder to search for what you were looking for.
Some of the useful bogs that I found pertained to teaching, there are a lot of blogs with great information and ideas in them about things to do in your classroom, decorating tips, activities, management techniques. Other blogs I found interesting are parenting blogs, I have three children each different in their own ways and so it is always easy to do a google search and find a blog that relates to what is going on with them. It is nice to see that there are others out there with the same things going on and to get their perspective on the situation.
Google Blogs was the easiest search tool to use all you have to do is type in the topic you are interested in and then skim through the listings until you find one you are interested in reading further. The Technorati search tool was the most confusing to navigate, they had a lot going on on their main page that were distracting and it made it harder to search for what you were looking for.
Some of the useful bogs that I found pertained to teaching, there are a lot of blogs with great information and ideas in them about things to do in your classroom, decorating tips, activities, management techniques. Other blogs I found interesting are parenting blogs, I have three children each different in their own ways and so it is always easy to do a google search and find a blog that relates to what is going on with them. It is nice to see that there are others out there with the same things going on and to get their perspective on the situation.
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