Thing 16

Well since on a previous Thing we learned about igoogle,  have had that as my home page since. I love it. I have a notepad on there where I put things coming up that I need to do, I have quotes, weather, horoscope, news, etc. Nothing better than creating your own home page. I reviewed over the online calenders and I picked the 30 boxes to sign up for. I actually really like it. I am such a visual person, I am not good at judging time when I am handed dates, I am better at looking at a calender. This was perfect. I will definitely use this tool way more often. The to-do lists I didn't think were very necessary to me. I could see why people like them, but I have lists I can make by hand, my 30 boxes calender, or on my igoogle home page already. Overall I did like the ideas of all of these tools.

Thing 15

I can definitely understand why wikis are useful in the classroom. A person can change information and add to information. I think I could use wikis for my classroom. I would have to look at them very closely beforehand, because information being changed by the public can be a beneficial thing but on the other hand, can throw a student in the wrong direction. Overall wikis do appear like a useful online tool.

Thing 14

I played around with a few of the mind maps and flowcharts. I used the Bubble.us mind map. I really liked it. I could definitely see me using this in the near future. I am such a visual person this would help me not feel so overwhelmed with my thoughts on things I need to get done or projects that are coming up. I could easily explain a certain concept with a class by using this mind map. I also looked into the Gliffy flowchart. This one was a little confusing at first, but contains a lot of detail I could personalize myself. I think I'll look into flowchart.com here soon, I just did not want to wait for the invite.

Thing 13

I have never heard of Zoho Writer before today. I can see how this online and offline web-bases application would be so helpful. It is a pain when you have to change the format from one document program to another. I have a mac and when I transfer a document to a pc sometimes everything is not how I set it up, from the writing to the spacing. I think I will still use Word, but when I need to send something to another person and they have an account I most likely use Zoho. I just showed a friend this application because she doesn't have Microsoft Word!

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.