Thing #16, Get Organized

I liked the look of the Symbaloo home page. It keeps icons of all the things you use on a regular basis right on one page for you. I also liked ustart. The set up is similar to what a Facebook page looks like with little boxes for each site you use and a real time feed of what's happening on them so you don't have to go to each page to look. I could see myself using either of these for my home page. I have not decided yet which one I would like to use yet. I like the website remember the milk. I have to write myself reminders all the time. This has an application you can put on your phone for when you are out. It could be useful for students to use to help them remember their homework, turn in dates, or when a test is coming up.

Thing #15, Wiki Wiki What?!

Wiki pages are in theory a good idea. A way for everyone to share their knowledge with others and everyone can be part of a huge learning community. This ends up not being exactly true. People can post their knowledge but who is to say everything they have written has any truth to it? The problem is that there is almost no way to monitor everything everyone posts to a wiki site and so misconceptions or half truths are out there. Many people think that because they found on a website that looks legitimate that the information must be true, so they end up getting false information themselves. Wiki pages could be useful in making a page for each class so they could share their ideas or things that they have found relating to the subject that they are studying. It is pretty much open for them to post whatever. This is a good thing but it would have to monitored.

Thing #14, Flowing Right Along

I tried out a few flowchart websites to see which were easier to use. The site I  found that was the easiest for me to use was Flowchart.com. It seemed easier to use and to follow. Flowcharts have a set of key points that are organized in a hierarchical way. They show how the key points are related and gives the person looking at the chart an overall view of how it all relates to each other in the bigger picture. I feel like this would be a good thing to give to students to help them follow a process or in subjects where prior knowledge has to be used to understand the next concept. Mind maps flow clockwise from the top and have radial branches. These are good for the thinking process but I do not know that these would be good to give to students because they way they layout are not as easy to follow. The mind map website I felt that was easiest to work with was mindmeister.com. I think flowcharts would be the best thing to give students to learn concepts but students could use mind maps for themselves to organize information.

Thing#13, Test drive google

Google drive makes sharing documents very easy. There is a button on the document you made and you push it and you can make the document public. From here you can pick who sees it and if they can just view it or if they can edit it. This can be useful in a school setting so all students can be involved in creating a document. If the students do not finish their work in school when they are doing a group project, they can share their document online with each other. This makes it easier for them to collaborate in case they can not get together outside of school to work. Many students also already have email or access to the internet, this would make it easier for the teacher to share documents with their students. I tried Zoho but I did not like it as much. It did not seem as user friendly. It seemed more like something you use in business than with children.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V_Oe3E8vK-QHUSjZULwGdfbYZLuv5nt6QBbWFwyg4ZM/pub

Thing #12, Google Me This

I made a daily calendar with Google. I can see how this would be helpful in the classroom to help keep track of activities. If you wanted you could make a schedule and send it out to your students or their parents so they could keep up. I also used Google translate, This is a useful tool for students who might not know a word and do not have a dictionary handy or they need help translating a phrase. Students can not totally depend on this tool though because you do not always get the translation you are looking for. It is kind of like using spell check if you have a real word plugged in there it will translate it but you might have misspelled the word you were looking for and ended up with another word.

Thing #11, Sometimes I get a good feedling

When searching for other blogs or websites to follow I found that using Google Blog Search was easier for me than Technorati. Technorati just seemed to have too much going on. I felt like I had to search through too much stuff to get what I wanted or I did not find what I wanted at all. I might not have been using these sites right so that could have been the problem. I found another site for helping Spanish teachers. I also found sites that just help teachers in general with all kinds of things like lesson plans and making tests. There were odd feeds, some were about comics. I am sure there is a feed for everything out there. You can also find feeds be looking at what feeds friends or colleagues follow.

Thing #10, RSS- it's so easy

RSS and newsreaders make getting your news very easy. You can just subscribe to what you want to read about and the news that you want to hear is sent right to you. No more digging around on the internet sorting through all kinds of things trying to find the information you want. I have subscribed to things that will help me in my personal life and in my profession. In my personal life I want to read about art, authors I like, music, and I have started trying to be more healthy and would like to get more information on these things. I also subscribed to some sites about my profession, I hope to be a Spanish teacher so I am looking for information about this. I am following five different sites that give information about teaching Spanish. I am excited about many of these because they give you ways to keep you students interested in learning and how to make learning fun. I want my students to be lifelong learners, to have a passion for learning. I feel these sites will help give me the tools I will need to do this.

Thing #9, Generator-ator

I chose jibjab.com as my online generator. This site is free to use but you can pay $12 for a year for more content. This site makes e-cards. I have made quite a few cards on this site for different holidays and for just because. It is always humorous what comes out. I think this could be used different little video entries to catch students attention. This website also has a website for smaller children. It is called storybot.com and puts the childs' face in a song like Row Row Row Your Boat,  or little online books. There are also applications for the ipad and iphone.

Halloween e-card I made for my friends.