Thursday, December 8, 2011

Thing #13

Both Zoho writer and Google docs are much like microsoft word. The big difference is you can save your work with these two web based programs and retrieve it from any computer with out having a thumb drive. With Microsoft you either have to save your work to a removable device or email it to yourself to be able to retrieve it from a computer besides the one it was created on. You have the capabilities to share your work and authorize others to make adjustments with Google docs. I was not very successful in sharing my zoho or Google docs document.

Thing #15

It would be neat to use a wiki in the classroom and have the kids work on it throughout the year editing their existing information and adding new material. This would be a good way for them to be able to look back to the beginning of the year and compare where they were to where they are at the end. I was so intimidated about APSU 23 Things wiki. I was making it so much harder then it was. It pays to read instructions. Wow when I went back to or discovery exercise and read it again it took me no time.

Thing #14

The way I think of mind mapping is grouping ideas together, you start with a broad topic and place subcategories around. A flowchart is more of a order, moving from highest to lowest most important to least important. For my frame of thinking like the mind mapping worksbest for me. I would use Bubbl-us, if I want to set up an account I can or I can use it without setting up an account. With needing to wait for an invite with flowchart.com I chose Gliffy for the flowchart. Gliffy was not as easy to use as Bubbl-us.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Is it the end or only the beginning

I have found many tools that I intend to continue to use, but I am so loving the Animoto. Come to think of it as much as I did not want to do this blog I have enjoyed it too. I would like to keep the blog going, but that will be dependent upon time. Livebinders is another good one. It is a good place to organize worksheets, lesson plans for future use. I have full intentions to keep this and use as I finish school and use in the classroom. It was fun to play with YouTube and the mashups. There were so many other fun adventures. I have to admit with the overwhelming work load at times I did not see the purpose in some of the task, but I am glad I pushed my way through them. This has given me so much confidence in technology.

Thing #22

Worksheets
I used my binders for worksheets and lesson plans. This would be a good place to store worksheets for busy work and extra help for students. I will use this system to store lesson plans and worksheets for my class. The file system is a good place to have lesson plans, you can store many plans and build upon them. Students could use livebinders to file resources and references for projects. You could also have them store documents from the web that could be help when they are at home doing their homework. This is a cool system and I like that I can keep them private or share with whom I chose.

Thing #19

Almost 2 years I have been on facebook. I know, I know it took me a long time to get hip with facebook. I enjoy facebook and the fact that I have connected with many people I have not spoke to in years. Other sites that I have recently joined are diigo, twitter,pinterest, and teacher pop, back in the day I had a myspace. There could possibly be more, I just can not recall any other ones at this time. Pinterest is an awesome place to look if you just do not know what to cook tonight for dinner.Other then setting the twitter account up I have not been back on twitter, I prefer my facebook. I am sure I will be frequenting teacher pop.I like the teacher/education social sites, and I am sure as I go further in my education and get closer to the class room I will become a member of many of these sites.

Thing #23

To my understanding our project 23 things was adapted from the website 43 things and 43 things you (or I) might want to do this year.
Already the first place I go when I need images for a project I go to flickr under the creative commons list. I for see me using this for all images. It is too risky to use material that is copyright. I am one who does not like to take risk when it comes to legal issues. Creative commons is an amazing site for ideas. I will use creative commons for ideas with lesson plans and will direct my students to creative commons in their work.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Just a note about Thing #21

Today I went  by to see Dr. Wall and at the time she was not in, but luckily I seen a fellow classmate that is a huge help. Thank you Melissa! 
As you see my video is in the post, yeah! This was super fun and made me smile. I can not say enough good things about Animoto.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Thing #21

Well I have not completed this assignment due to the fact I can not share my video from Animoto I had to embed it instead. Tomorrow I plan on going to Dr. Wall's office and find out what I am doing wrong. Also, I could not get to my flicker account, so I used pictures from my facebook. I am so glad we had to do this assignment, I love this tool. I posted my video to mine and my husbands facebook. I will definitely being using this tool again. Once you upgrade and have the capabilities to do longer videos you can begging taking pictures throughout the school year and at the end of every year put a video together to share with the parents. I thought doing the video would be difficult, but it was simple. The only problem I ran into was with the sharing through blogger, but I will get that figured out tomorrow.
Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Thing #17

As a personal preference I like to bookmark my link by using my favorites. However, today I was at the store and I wanted to get the ingredients for a candy recipe that I bookmarked in my favorites on my computer at home and had no way to get the recipe and it will have to wait for another day. I do see how bookmarking websites can be handy and useful, but with all the options you feel overwhelmed. Also I do not want to bombarded with other peoples interest. Bookmarks can be helpful in the classroom. Useful websites can be bookmarked under a user name for the classroom and when they are doing classwork or homework and run into problem they can look up bookmarks to that subject and try to figure it out on their own. As for educational uses social bookmarking sites have their benefits, but on personal use I think it is just another bookmarking tool.