Thing #18

I already have a MySpace and a Facebook account for quite awhile. Although I have both I very rarely ever use my MySpace account. Mainly because most of my friends primarily use Facebook so I do too. Facebook is great it helps you stay in touch with your friend and family in a very convenient way. I can send messages, write on their wall, or just click on their wall to see what is going on. I really enjoy using facebook and it has come in as a very good communication tool as well. I am not saying that I could not see educational implications for Facebook, however we have been addressed by several different people not to allow students to be our friends on facebook accounts. Although, it may be a way to get in contact with parents about activities or for other reasons. My Facebook

Thing #17

Ok so this activity had a lot of little hiccups in it. First, the link for the YouTube video said the video was set to private. So I went to the Common Craft guys website and found the video to watch it (which was very good and made lots of sense). Then Furl has been replaced with Diigo. So that hyperlink takes you straight to Diigo, which is fine we are using that in here. Then lastly Ma.Gnolia has shut down because no one was using it. So after all of that I guess it is Del.icio.ous and Diigo. Both of these seem really neat. I think because I was introduced to Diigo first I am a little partial to it. However, that is not to say that Del.icio.ous is not good. Both are great. I think the concept could be particularly useful in a classroom either through teacher to teacher relationship or teacher to student relationships. The idea of putting web resources that will help either our students or our fellow teachers seems like a great idea. Reading list or really any kind of list we want to make. We already are using this tool in our technology class through the website of the day assignment. Social Bookmarking can have a variety of uses the world wide web is the limit.

Thing #16

For the start page I just went with my iGoogle start page. I did look at PageFlakes (which was having technical difficulties) and Netvibes, but I have been using iGoogle for awhile and I like it the best. The gadgets are easy to add. Also, I love that I can easily get to my Google Reader from it.  It is set to my home page on my computer already. I feel as though I am repeating myself a little from previous blogs, but online calendars can be extremely useful. There is not a limited to how much or what you can add to it. It is extremely organized and you can have reminders set for your convenience. The only thing I said that could be a bit of a hassle is one if you need to look at your calendar and you are not able to access a computer or if you have an internet connection that you have to connect to; it can be a little annoying to go through that process just to be able to look at your calendar. I really like to do lists so the To Da list was pretty cool to me personally. I like how you just type what you need to get done and it is automatically formatted with the check off boxes. Plus you can rearrange the list in order of importance very easily. Out of the other tools I thought MyStickies were a really neat idea. The concept of them is that you can paste sticky notes on webpages and save them so that when you come back you can see the notes or flags you have posted. This would come in extremely handy during researching assignments for school.

Thing #15

I'm honestly not so sure how I feel about wikis.  The wikis that I looked at were really neat. There were lots of good ideas like the library sites, book reviews, and the organizer for the trip. I could see where this could come in handy in a school setting. Students could use it for learning activities.  However I found it very difficult or just a hassle to try to edit the sandbox for APSU 23 Things.  I hope I did it right I am not a 100% sure that I did (which is partially why I am not so sure how I feel about wikis). However, I will say if I used them more often than maybe I would love them. I just would prefer blogging over using a wiki. The concept that multiple users can use it is neat, but you also have to be careful because that means more chance for vandalism or scams.

Thing #14

Flow charts and mind maps are two tools that could be fun any easy to utilize in the classroom. They could be used either independently or cooperatively. Although, I have to agree I think mind maps are more useful to use independently. I choose Gliffy and Mindmeister to explore. I really like Gliffy, there are some neat features on it. Sure a traditional flow chart can be made, but there are more options like floorplans, swimlanes, venn diagrams, and more. My only complaint about Gliffy is the stupid reminder at the bottom of your template on how many days your free trial is available. So this would have to be paid for if any long term use was intended.  Mindmeister seems a little bit more confusing to figure out how to use, but once you do it is not difficult at all to manage.  One use for these mind maps could be an aid to writing a research paper. It can easily be used to organize your thoughts and see a clear direction for the paper. I think the flow charts would come in more useful in the classroom. All the colors and the technology could make it more interesting to the student than the traditional pencil and paper flowchart.

Thing #13

I find that probably the biggest appeal to Zoho Writer would be the avoidance of paying the software price for Microsoft Office.  Personal  preference I would rather have Microsoft Office; however, I do realize that it is not cheap to buy. Even the student version is expensive. The reason I personally prefer Microsoft Office is just because I've been trained how to use it and there are a lot of neat features to it. Plus you get all of the software programs not just Word and Excel. Now that being said Zoho is a nice tool to have available to the public. It is not at all difficult to sign up for a free account. Then using the actual program is not difficult it function very similiar to Microsoft Word there are a few exceptions. After searching around the program it is not that difficult to figure out how to use all the different tools available. Some of the appeals is how easy it is to share documents with others. Another plus is avoiding the file formatting problems that can be common when trying to share a documents with others.