Thing 12

Google calender and iGoogle was awesome! The calender was neat because I could keep track of all my due dates, this is especially useful for when I begin teaching. iGoogle was very neat, I set up so many different gadgets on there. There are gadgets like the weather, quotes, calender, notepad, and news. I even made this my home page now!

Thing 11

This activity actually helped me a lot finding blogs and websites that used RSS feeder. I think I would use Google blog search and Topix.net the most often. Google blog search was awesome in just typing in a subject you wanted to find more about and it presented a list of blogs you could consider. It was really easy and since everyone knows how to use Google itself, it was not much different at all. I found another vegetarian health blog and change.org was very interesting. I subscribed to change.or/education...I think every teacher should! I thought Topix.net was really neat! I can see how some people wouldn't find it as useful because it's mainly news that is local. But I could not subscribe to theleafchronicle.com or a weather site so this worked out perfectly. I love reading news that is going on where I live and this was the perfect site for anyone who is interest in that. I couldn't see myself using syndic8.com or Technorati, not necessarily because it wasn't a good site but just isn't anything I am really interested in. I think I will keep those in mind and look around them more when I have the time. Maybe there is portion of those sites that I just haven't discovered yet.

Thing 10

To be honest I have never heard of an RSS feeder, but now that I think about it, I have seen that RSS icon before. It was confusing at first to subscribe to site that I wanted. Many sites that I visit daily unfortunatley do not subscribe to RSS. But I do think I could use the Free technology for teachers while I become a teacher. I do think I can use this in a classroom, there are so many sites I will have to visit daily with little time and this Google reader will make it much easier. This is a big time saver! I subscribed to just a few things now. I did ABC news and even a Vegan blog I am constantly on for recipes! These "Things" we have to do really makes me more apt to use the technology around me everyday.

Thing 9

I used Smiley face generator http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/. It was neat you do have to mess around in the spacing part of your text. I chose that quote because I believe physical activity is very important to a child especially while they are in school. Child obesity is a very important subject and is increasing. Schools are not able to support many physical education programs today, and this is a growing problem that I feel very concerned about. Anyway, I do think I could use these generators to make very useful cartoons and signs to show to my class.

Thing 8

This word is self-explanatory. Educate! I used Spell with Flikr http://metaatem.net/words/. I think I could use some of these creative ways to display lessons in a classroom. It is interesting and once you play with the options a little bit you'll get the hang of it. I am comfortable with sharing pictures online. Just follow one simple rule, don't post something that you obviously wouldn't someone to see. But really, pictures do say a thousand words, and if sharing a photo or two of mine will get the message or lesson across I'm all for it!

Thing 7

Flickr was interesting. I have had friends in the past that talked about their flickr accounts but it never occurred to me to make one of my own. I don't know about anyone else but I had serious problems uploading a url into this, especially one that was going to allow me to use it in the first place. After an hour and a half of messing with it, I just chose to make my own account and use one of my photos. This photo is me during my cycling class here at apsu. I really enjoyed this class since my boyfriend and many friends inspired me to start building and riding my own road bike. It's a new hobby that I've been really enjoying the past year. Flikr is a good site but until I can understand it more will I then decide if it's worth using in the classroom.

Thing 6

While I was browsing the Webware 100 winners I came across Diigo, the website is http://www.diigo.com/. This seems like a very interesting site that I believe I can use personally when I become a teacher and for my students for higher grade levels that may be doing research. It is a site that can collect and access information from any computer. Once you find a site you want to use later on you can add digitals highlights and interactive sticky notes. There is a part on this site that is called the "cloud" or "My library"  where all the items you collect go into on the diigo server, which helps you access this anywhere and on any computer even the Ipad and Android. The highlighting process can become very detailed. It's very good to show to a class when teaching. There is even a Diigo educator account! You can create a student account for the entire class. I'm excited and about to make a personal account right now.