Thing 16

Getting organized can make any difficult task a lot easier. There are start up pages that can make your job a lot faster. I have igoogle as my homepage. It is wonderful. Every morning I wake up and look at the news, weather, horoscope, calendar, and tv shows on one page. This appealed to me from the beginning. Having everything together is easier, faster, and free. I have my personal calendar that lets me know about my assignments that are due so I wont fall behind. I also have google reader which has everything I subscribe to in one page.

I also explored mystickies. I just did an annotated bibliography, and this would have helped me a lot. I kept on going back to webpages because I forgot why I thought they were important. This made my project a lot longer than it should have been. Mystickies lets you add information about a webpage as a sticky note would. When you go back to it you know why you used it and why it was important. This tool will be great for future research projects.

I also explored chalksite. It can be used as a great online workspace for classrooms. Sharing, collaborating, and homework assignments. Usually universities utilize these features like blackboard and D2l, but I want my future high school students to have this experience. Workspaces can be created for each class and students would be organized.

Thing 15

Today I understood what a wiki is. In short a wiki is "an online community encyclopedia." I even created a wiki page on wikispace. The page was created for my own personal use. I have a lot of pictures. Its like my own personal collage. I am writing about my family, friends, and love ones. So when I am finished they could read it. I always hate when you have not seen a picture for so long and then you ask what was I doing. That's what I am using wiki for to add my comments and see what my family can add about that particular image. I may be surprised when there comments are added.

While pursuing my undergrad all my professors would tell me stay away from wikis, and I did. My professors did not like wikipedia because everyone can change it. Some students were using it on their research papers and having incorrect information. I missed out on a lot of creative tools because of it. Now I realized that wikis can be used to benefit students. As long as its monitored it can work. For instance, I explored our apsu23sandbox which has some interesting feedback on what we have done over the semester. I added information to the google page. I love my google reader. I use it everyday. I keep up with the blogs I follow and the podcast too. The ideas are great and the collaboration becomes easy because of the wiki.

I will utilize wikis for my students benefit. From time to time all have them post assignments, and make the class comment on our own sandbox. Instead of reviewing it in class they can review their peers assignments and comment on them. Their ideas and opinions will be shared and we will collaborate as a group.

Thing 14

This is my flow chart that I created with Bubblus. This application is very simple to use. Once I got to the page the bubble was already waiting for an idea. Now to come up with the idea.

I figure I would create one for Halloween. I love Halloween. The candy, costumes, everything. I wanted to see what my mind would come up with in a minute. I wanted to see what I thought about. I know I could add more things, but I wanted to see what my mind would think in a minute. I realized I focused on the costumes the most. It may be because I am thinking of ideas for my husband. He does not like Halloween, but he promised he would buy a costume with me. I think if the computers are available in class this would be a great tool to free write. They can practice their writing skills with an interactive tool. It would be cool to see what students came up with. I think students would like it as much as I did. They can change colors, and make it as huge as they want it.

Thing 13

Having the technology that is needed to succeed in a university is seldom inexpensive. There is always the latest lap top, Word version, and Microsoft. Not to mention if you will buy a PC or a mac. Keeping up with it is sometimes very difficult. It gets worse when you finally understand the application and they "upgrade it." This happened to me with the latest word. I knew word like if it was the back of my hand and then it was changed in 07. Not kidding, when I say it took me half an hour to begin typing a paper because they moved everything. It was because I did not realize that the bubble on the left hand side was the new file tab. Although some say the new application made it easier for me it was more difficult.


I think Zoho writer and Google Docs will finally be its competition. One company may finally lose their monopoly. I explored both sites, and they are easy to use. Not to mention they are free. No need to worry if computer crashes, because your documents are online. I have my research paper in google docs just in case anything happens to my computer. Better safe than sorry!!! Also since they are online you can access it from any computer. I think the best feature is the instant collaboration when the documents are shared. This feature can put a smile on people's faces in terms of group projects. Everyone can share and collaborate. I hope that schools begin to use this feature because then students would not have to spend so much money to keep up with the latest word application.

Thing 12

Google is not just a search engine. This semester my google knowledge has expanded greatly. I have been using google pretty much daily now. I read my google reader, I share my google docs and now I have my own igoogle.

igoogle, its your very own homepage, but you add mostly anything. Like for instance, This was one of my quotes for the day. "The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid" Art Spander. It makes you think doesn't it. I once had those calendars that gave you a quote for each day. Its about the same concept but its free. My page also has news, weather, more recipes, even tv guide. It will definitely rain tomorrow, and I am in need of an umbrella. My only television addiction is Bones. One of my favorite shows, and its on tonight. I can not wait.

I even made a google calendar. Helps me remember important deadlines especially for my education courses. Every project is written on the date that its due so I know I wont fall behind. It could also be used to schedule lesson plans for a school year. As a future teacher I can use the google calendar to schedule my classes on a daily basis. Then I know the lesson plan, what will be doing for the next day, and the daily assignment.

Thing 11

I have added some new RSS feeds to my google reader. I try to read them on a daily basis. Its so easy and simple to use I cannot imagine my life without it. I searched in edublogs and found "free technology for teachers." Once I subscribe they had an article on Copyright friendly. Its a wiki link that lets helps you search copyright friendly images and sound resources. As a future teacher I think its important to know the many resources that the internet can give you. With copyright laws its better for teachers to be able to get copyright friendly resources. Then there able to share them with their class with no problem.

I also went to Topix. It gives local news in an instant. Its a great resource to know how your local community is doing. I read many articles on The Leaf Chronicle. The more feeds I get the less television I have been watching. I read about schools, H1N1 virus, more rain. Everything that has to do with Clarksville. I have officially been living here for almost a year and I really want to keep up to date with everything. After all its my new home.

I also navigated through google blogs. Found some very interesting blogs. I like google blogs the best. Especially because it links to my google reader. I got more recipes. I hope they help me. My cooking skills are not that great. I always try something new. I subscribe to more education, news and recipe blogs.

I tried going on Synd8.com but it was confusing. I prefer google instead. Better resources and not difficult to navigate in.

Thing 10

Every "thing" that I accomplish never fails. It always gives me something new that the internet can be used for. I think after I finish all the "23 things" I will have the knowledge that I need to use the internet for my benefit. Thing 10 is using RSS. First time I have ever heard this. RSS means Really Simple Syndication. I used the google reader. Its very simple to use. You add a subscription my typing in the url or any phrase and it will search it for you. You go to the page and then you hit the subscribe button. Then it appears on your left hand side with the new blogs, or articles it has posted. Mine relate to education, recipes, history, news, lifestyle. There all there. There is no need to go to every single one unless you want to comment. Makes life easier when everything is together and there is no need to search for it.

I have already began using it. I have been reading the latest blogs cool cat teacher has and the news from google. Its like being an editor of your own personal magazine. Everything is there. I like the recipes in the myrecipes. I will begin to see if they help me. My husband is a picky eater always trying to find new ways to create meals.

I think teachers can use RSS to stay in touch with the new educational hot topics. To get more insight on there content area without having to search all day. The teacher can also have students create their google readers as an assignment. It can increase literacy because they can select what they want to read. Or have them read latest news that will affect them. It will create a great discussion.

Thing 9

This is a creative tool to enhance any images. You upload any pictures to the templates and the website adds your picture. It is really neat and creative tool. I used http://www.sillyscenes.com/?page=7. At first I was having trouble with the pictures that I chose, they were too large. Also the first webpage I used gave me a lot of trouble. My computer would freeze. I had to search in order to find some that would work. It may have been my lap top. As i said before I need a new one its old in computer years. Anyways, I used the Simpsons template to write on the board and to add a picture. I think that show is hilarious. The movie was not bad either. Image generators is really addicting. I did like six of my own pictures. Once you start you cant seem to stop.
In a classroom you can use this tool because it will collaborate with any project. For instance, maybe I want to get to know my students. I can ask them to use a template and add their picture, that describes their likes and write about why they used it. They can also use comic strips to add voice to anything. I could give them a picture of someone from history and say "what do you think they will be saying." I will probably be surprised to what they come out with.