http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=636955009
Facebook & Twitter
I think that it is important to know how social networking works when you are a teacher because it is so prevalent in both teachers and students lives. It's really hard to ignore something that it such a big part of people's daily lives, so why not use it to the teachers advantage? I learned about how they worked and operated, and what the functions of each were. I disliked the way that Twitter "flows". It just doesn't make any logical sense to me and it's almost pointless unless you're famous, but that's just my opinion. I think that for an educational purpose, Facebook would make more sense than Twitter. On Facebook you have so many more options for groups, editing, privacy, and etc whereas on Twitter it is really just following people. Twitter, however, may be better used if the teacher only uses it to notify students of important information (although you can still do this on Facebook). I believe that you could potentially either of these two sites, but you have to be careful in doing it. The students have to be of appropriate age, administrators should give it a "thumbs up", and parents should be more than aware of it's use. I don't know that I would use either, but who knows what will happen when I actually become a teacher.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Thing #17
For this thing, I decided to look at a few of the bookmarks, but my favorite one that I found was Glogster. It is a website that you can go to and make your own poster with your own ideas, words, pictures, fonts, etc! I found that Delicious.com is a pretty neat website filled with great resources for anyone, not just a teacher. However, if you are a teacher, you can find plenty of great ideas on here. Instead of going into a search engine and finding more misses than hits, this will be almost dead on and give more options geared toward what it is you're looking for. Each thing on the website has been given multiple tags to make finding them or sorting through them much easier. Teachers can and should take advantage of social bookmarking sites like this one because it makes things simpler (and that's what we all want, right?) I think that education revolves around a lot of peer interaction and sites like this makes that happen easier. This is a good tool for both teachers and students.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Thing #15
Wiki
Wiki was a pretty awesome website/ tool! I really enjoy the use of collaboration between users. It was easy after I figured out how to edit it in the first place. I like that every person can change things to the way that they want them to and be able to portray their personality on the website. This way, a whole class could work on a group project and the teacher could easily know who did what and who did not. I would use it to do class projects or even to just discuss assignment directions and so forth. I thought that it was interesting how I was able to do whatever I wanted to the document even though we all had access. Great idea!
Wiki was a pretty awesome website/ tool! I really enjoy the use of collaboration between users. It was easy after I figured out how to edit it in the first place. I like that every person can change things to the way that they want them to and be able to portray their personality on the website. This way, a whole class could work on a group project and the teacher could easily know who did what and who did not. I would use it to do class projects or even to just discuss assignment directions and so forth. I thought that it was interesting how I was able to do whatever I wanted to the document even though we all had access. Great idea!
Thing #14
I chose the mindmap: Bubbl.us and the flowchart: Gliffy.
I liked learning about both of them, but each offers different things. On Gliffy, I was allowed to pick everything, and I mean everything. I chose the style, shape, width, and etc. When I switched to Bubbl.us, I was given almost everything and I have to say, I liked it this way better. It adjusted and changed color when I needed it to. Editing and adding was easier this way.
A mind map is for creating and adding words and ideas that surround one general idea or word.
A flow chart is for multiple ideas that go together to make thing flow easily.
I liked learning about both of them, but each offers different things. On Gliffy, I was allowed to pick everything, and I mean everything. I chose the style, shape, width, and etc. When I switched to Bubbl.us, I was given almost everything and I have to say, I liked it this way better. It adjusted and changed color when I needed it to. Editing and adding was easier this way.
A mind map is for creating and adding words and ideas that surround one general idea or word.
A flow chart is for multiple ideas that go together to make thing flow easily.
Thing #13
Zoho Writer:
I was a little skeptical about using this tool going into it. I thought, "why would I use an online word document?", but once I opened it, I saw the reason. This looks and acts similarly as my Microsoft Word on my own computer. The difference is, Zoho Writer is online, so I can save it (not email it to myself or worry about putting it on a flash drive) and sign in on the next computer and continue working on it or print it out. This works much better for me because I freak out and check my mail or flash drive 10 times before leaving for school to print it or whatever else I may need to do and sometimes it STILL ends up being the wrong one. This would also keep me from having like 20 different documents/ drafts for just one assignment. Very easy to use and it even gives you an entire run through of all the things you may want or need to know before beginning. Also, I can still have more than one document open at a time and just switch back and forth by using tabs. Great tool!
Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e2ccZ-EoNydUxn2QpOBj--1GkV40fYP7bG9jv3oArIg/edit
I enjoyed this tool as well. What I liked most about it was that it saves my document automatically after any changes made so no more shut down/ surprises on something I have spent so much time on. I am also able to access and edit this through the internet. Also, more than one person is able to work on this at once. A teacher could take a group project/ assignment and have them use Google Docs. The privacy can be changed to where each student would be able to collaborate on ideas and go in and physically change and add things to the document. This could put a stop to one or two students thinking that they are the ones doing all the work because all members will have access to the document. This is a great idea, especially in classes.
For my own personal use as well as use in a classroom, I would most likely go with Google Docs. It does everything Zoho writer does and more! It automatically saves, can be used by multiple people, and can be shared with whomever or whatever the user decides upon. I think the automatic savings is what pulled me in!
I was a little skeptical about using this tool going into it. I thought, "why would I use an online word document?", but once I opened it, I saw the reason. This looks and acts similarly as my Microsoft Word on my own computer. The difference is, Zoho Writer is online, so I can save it (not email it to myself or worry about putting it on a flash drive) and sign in on the next computer and continue working on it or print it out. This works much better for me because I freak out and check my mail or flash drive 10 times before leaving for school to print it or whatever else I may need to do and sometimes it STILL ends up being the wrong one. This would also keep me from having like 20 different documents/ drafts for just one assignment. Very easy to use and it even gives you an entire run through of all the things you may want or need to know before beginning. Also, I can still have more than one document open at a time and just switch back and forth by using tabs. Great tool!
Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e2ccZ-EoNydUxn2QpOBj--1GkV40fYP7bG9jv3oArIg/edit
I enjoyed this tool as well. What I liked most about it was that it saves my document automatically after any changes made so no more shut down/ surprises on something I have spent so much time on. I am also able to access and edit this through the internet. Also, more than one person is able to work on this at once. A teacher could take a group project/ assignment and have them use Google Docs. The privacy can be changed to where each student would be able to collaborate on ideas and go in and physically change and add things to the document. This could put a stop to one or two students thinking that they are the ones doing all the work because all members will have access to the document. This is a great idea, especially in classes.
For my own personal use as well as use in a classroom, I would most likely go with Google Docs. It does everything Zoho writer does and more! It automatically saves, can be used by multiple people, and can be shared with whomever or whatever the user decides upon. I think the automatic savings is what pulled me in!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thing #12
Google Alerts
I had never heard of Google Alerts before today. Well, maybe I had heard of it, but I had no idea what it was. I just assumed it was kind of like a calendar, but it's so much better! In my free time, I like to check on things in the news; celebrities, happenings in the world, politics, etc., so this was great for me. I chose to make a Google Alert for Syria. There is a lot happening over there and I have been trying to follow it, but it is hard because once I have time to look, I have missed a lot of information. Google Alerts helps me out with that problem. I was able to set up how often I want emails sent and that I only want the best information. I have already learned of new things happening there just by starting this alert. This can be used in class rooms for group projects. The students can choose a subject and have news updates on it sent to their email instantly so they do not have to spend quite as much time searching for it. It would, however, have to be a subject that is "hot" and in the news often. Great tool for sure.
http://www.google.com/alerts
iGoogle
iGoogle is a great homepage- type system. I was able to choose things that I found interesting, a cute theme, and my location. This way, I get my weather, things occurring near my area, and also, the things that I liked (news, entertainment, music). I went ahead and made it my homepage because I enjoyed it so much. It also gives me shortcuts too many things. This is going to make being on the internet less of a time consuming thing. I can get on, check my email, see the news, check the weather, and then get back to reality! This can be used in classrooms, but I only really see one way. The teacher can create a page with their school email and allow access by the students and they can (with permission) upload things that go with that weeks lesson. It could also be a good resource when talking about recent topics. Very neat tool.
http://www.google.com/ig
I had never heard of Google Alerts before today. Well, maybe I had heard of it, but I had no idea what it was. I just assumed it was kind of like a calendar, but it's so much better! In my free time, I like to check on things in the news; celebrities, happenings in the world, politics, etc., so this was great for me. I chose to make a Google Alert for Syria. There is a lot happening over there and I have been trying to follow it, but it is hard because once I have time to look, I have missed a lot of information. Google Alerts helps me out with that problem. I was able to set up how often I want emails sent and that I only want the best information. I have already learned of new things happening there just by starting this alert. This can be used in class rooms for group projects. The students can choose a subject and have news updates on it sent to their email instantly so they do not have to spend quite as much time searching for it. It would, however, have to be a subject that is "hot" and in the news often. Great tool for sure.
http://www.google.com/alerts
iGoogle
iGoogle is a great homepage- type system. I was able to choose things that I found interesting, a cute theme, and my location. This way, I get my weather, things occurring near my area, and also, the things that I liked (news, entertainment, music). I went ahead and made it my homepage because I enjoyed it so much. It also gives me shortcuts too many things. This is going to make being on the internet less of a time consuming thing. I can get on, check my email, see the news, check the weather, and then get back to reality! This can be used in classrooms, but I only really see one way. The teacher can create a page with their school email and allow access by the students and they can (with permission) upload things that go with that weeks lesson. It could also be a good resource when talking about recent topics. Very neat tool.
http://www.google.com/ig
Thing #11
I decided to add two more awesome RSS feeds to my google reader:
Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog http://everything-everywhere.com/ and
Photo Shelter Blog http://blog.photoshelter.com/
I really enjoy using the Google Blog Search. This could be because I am so very used to using Google. I find it to be very simple; just type in something and BAM, results. Change up the wording a little bit, and new results arrive. I think that Topix.net was most confusing. It wasn't difficult to use, but I just found that I didn't really know what was going on. Yes, it was more about recent topics and etc., but when searching for something specific, I didn't really understand what the results were. I didn't really find much using this tool. I found plenty of feeds that I think will be useful. I want to bake more and be more crafty. The others are for things I would love to do and places that I want to go. Some are for inspiration and enjoyment. I do have a feed about special education that I find interesting and hopefully I can use it when I get into my career.
Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog http://everything-everywhere.com/ and
Photo Shelter Blog http://blog.photoshelter.com/
I really enjoy using the Google Blog Search. This could be because I am so very used to using Google. I find it to be very simple; just type in something and BAM, results. Change up the wording a little bit, and new results arrive. I think that Topix.net was most confusing. It wasn't difficult to use, but I just found that I didn't really know what was going on. Yes, it was more about recent topics and etc., but when searching for something specific, I didn't really understand what the results were. I didn't really find much using this tool. I found plenty of feeds that I think will be useful. I want to bake more and be more crafty. The others are for things I would love to do and places that I want to go. Some are for inspiration and enjoyment. I do have a feed about special education that I find interesting and hopefully I can use it when I get into my career.
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