Thing #16

I liked PageFlakes, but decided to stay with iGoogle. The only reason I chose iGoogle is because I am familiar with it and already set up a page from an earlier discovery exercise. I plan on keeping iGoogle as my homepage. Before I moved over to Google I was a Yahoo girl, but I was getting tired of the pointless news feeds and this class introduced me to iGoogle. I have my page set up to get the information and stories that I want.

30 Boxes can be added to Google and facebook, which could be helpful for me. I have a calander that I carry everywhere with me to try to stay organized, but to be honest I never open it. With being able to share 30 boxes to Google and facebook I would see my calander everytime I logged on to my computer. 30 Boxes also has a feature to have buddies who you can share your calander with. This could be helpful for the classroom setting. Rather then having to keep up with events on a weekly basis to remind parents of you could publish the calander for them to follow monthly or quarterly.

For the to do list I liked Ta da list. You can email your list or add it to a RSS feed. It can be a helpful tool, but with the calander I do not see why you would want the to do list. Google homepage has a to do list that you can add to your homepage.

30 Boxes could be helpful in the school setting, because you can set up a buddy list of who can see the calander and you can share with other teachers, parents, and administration of the shcool. It is highly effective to have a good calander to help you stay organized.

Thing # 20

YouTube is a very resourceful tool. Mainly when I have went to the site it was to find lyrics or see the video to a song. However, YouTube is so much more. Recently we have viewed videos in YouTube for the backsplash we did in our kitchen and on how to fix our door knob on our door. A word of caution though, as helpful that it may be, it has its down sides. Unfortunately there are videos on there that I do not find appropriate for me to be watching let alone children. Another down side is you can get sucked in and watch clip after clip for hours. I added this video to my blog to serve as a reminder of the impact a teacher can make on a students life. I look forward to touching a childs life, I pray that it is always for the best. As educators we need to remember that our actions establish the positive learning enviroment of the classroom.

Thing #18

I find that it is important for educators to know how social networking works so they can connect with fellow educators, stay in touch with peers that they completed school with for assistance in the classroom. Having sites such as twitter and facebook that allows us the opportunity to communicate with our entire friend list rather then sending an email after we go through our contacts or search for each persons email makes things much quicker and efficient. Not only do you have your friends for a resource, but your friends friends comments on your friends walls are visible to you, by this you even get more insights and views. As I have found in my personal life social network sites also keep you up todate with the slang language of the youth. Being an educator it is beneficial to know what the students are saying and talking about.
Of the two sites twitter and facebook, I like facebook the most. I find facebook to feel more personable. I do not like the limited characters for twitter. I am not fond of the quick what I would consider blurts of what is on your mind. I enjoy sharing pictures on facebook, this would be one of my favorite features. I also like that if I want I can have a private chat with a friend or send a quick private message.
I could see using facebook to set up a time I would be available to answer questions about homework or other questions students might have. The students could post statuses with questions or concerns they might have about what we covered, homework, or what we will be going over the following day. This gives the opportunity for the whole class to answer fellow classmates questions and gain a better understanding through others post.