Thing #15

I have to say honestly that wiki's are not my favorite thing.  I think what makes me super nervous is that people can change what I say into something else.  I can definitely see how they can be used effectively especially in group projects and I loved the San Antonio wiki example!  I think every city should do a visitors guide and allow people to add their experiences.  It would make traveling so much better.  Of course there would be a ton of opinions and you would have to wade through to find what's good and what's not but a well policed site would do very well.  I can definitely see using a wiki for a classroom project or even a study guide for certain skills.  Kids could ask questions and get answers right there on the wiki from other students and from teachers.  This class has definitely opened my eyes to things I thought were "bad".  There are good uses for wiki's and who knows, maybe one day I will break down and start one for my class.  Stranger things have happened! 

Thing #18

I think social networking is very important in every walk of life.  And not just in an online setting.  Being able to talk to people in person, face to face as opposed to Facebook which requires no actual poise or conversation ability, is an important skill.  Many new teacher and some veterans that I have had experiences with have no idea how to shake someone's hand or look them in the eye when speaking to them.  Granted there are also those teachers who excel at interpersonal communication but the lions share dread to have face to face meetings with parents.  

I think there is a definite place for Facebook and Twitter, for example my daughters teacher has a class Facebook site.  She places pictures of things the kids have done and sometimes posts important information.  These tools can be a useful tool to communicate with parents.  I am a bit concerned that it is a public page and anyone who wishes can see my child's picture and find where her school is, but I am sure I am being a bit of an alarmist.  You can never be too careful and I think when I am a teacher I will more than likely have a private, invitation only page.  My Facebook is a private site and I chose to only add people I know.  I am not fond of the constant stream of political posts or the constant look at me profiles who post at least five pictures a day of themselves.  I chose to use Facebook to keep track of friends and family so I can see what they are up to and they can see how much my kids are growing and the things they are doing.  Anyway, all that to say, here is the link to my page.  I think more than likely it will just show a few pictures.  One of my new puppy who loves to play in the water and an old family reunion picture.  http://www.facebook.com/kmesser7

Thing #17

This thing has not been my favorite....maybe it's because I'm tired and hungry.  Maybe I should go back to bed and try again.  Delicious simply would not work for me.  I set up an account which was super easy!  I thought great, this will be a breeze.  WRONG!  Every time I tried to enter info in the search bar it would take me to a screen that said I needed to sign in....I would sign in and still nothing.  It was a vicious circle of me signing in searching and signing in again.  Very aggravating.  I don't know if maybe the site had issues the day I tried or not but I don't have the time to keep chasing my tail at this moment.  I will try again tomorrow and cross my fingers and toes I can have a positive experience.  Maybe I'll try the other sites listed.  Oh well, happy blogging all! 

Thing #16

Google Productivity

I love my Google home page!  I can add or delete the apps I use as I see if they are necessary.  I can see all the information I need to start my day in one place.  I have a weather app, my gmail, the news and even a comic to start off the day with a bit of levity.  I also have my Google calendar on this page.  The Google Calendar is a great tool!  I love the way I can set up appointments easily and quickly.  I can set up reminders for when I need them, whether it's the day before or an hour before or even ten minutes before.  I also added the Google to do list that is simple to use.  These tools have been quite useful in keeping my life organized.  I also have my Google page linked to my Facebook and Twitter feeds so everything I need to know is in one place.  I can imagine this being extremely useful once I begin my teaching career.  Being able to keep track of everyone's schedule and my own will be easy and quick.  

I use all of these tools currently and find them to be a quick simple way to make remembering things and being informed as easy as 1, 2, 3.  I forgot to mention you can also link your calendar to others so your family and coworkers can also see what it is you are doing this week, month, or even year!  Being able to do all this from bed in my pajamas is really amazing!  I am thankful for technology many times over.  

Thing #14

I was playing around with the flowchart site Gliffy and the Mind Map site Bubbl.us, and I have to say I like the ease of the Mind Map much better than the flow chart.  Bubbl.us was very easy to use and didn't require me to sign up unless I wanted to save the map on an account.  I simply went to the site and started a map.  There were step by step instructions and it automatically formatted things.  The ease of use was great and I could add or undo as I made mistakes.  I created a family tree with a map which I thought was cool.  I can see how this would be helpful in many ways within a classroom setting.  As a teacher I could use this to map out the process of writing a paper.  And as the students thought of other things to add it could easily be edited.  I can also see using this site to diagram my process of writing my English paper that is due soon.  The flow chart on Gliffy was a bit more difficult for me because I had to place the shapes where I wanted them and connect them myself.  Because I am not the least bit creative, this was an almost stressful experience.  If I were to use one of these gadgets I would choose to use the mind map everyday over the flow chart.  

Thing #13

   I hate it when I say how easy something is only to have to eat my words.  Zoho was easy enough to navigate and seemed like it was going to be a breeze to work.  I signed into Zoho using my already existent Google account.  I opened Zoho writer and everything seemed to be going well, it really behaved very much like Microsoft word.  I didn't have any issues and I really liked to option available to edit and share and the fact that there was even a merge option to import data.  Then  I tried the share tab.  I clicked the post to my blog and it took me another thirty minutes to make my computer work properly again.  I don't have any idea what happened but it froze my little laptop instantaneously.   Maybe it was a fluke but my husband said if I dared to try it again he was not going to buy me a new computer when I blew mine up.

Below is the link to the drawing I created in google docs.  This may or may not be easier than Zoho.  I think if Zoho had worked properly, it would have been easier but since it didn't I would have to say that Google was the easier site.  I thought having to change permissions for other to view was a bit annoying and unless you had certain peoples addresses you had to make it either public to the entire internet or share the link but I guess there is no harm in that unless you are collaborating on something you wish to remain private.  Even then I suppose sharing would be as simple as having their addresses or sharing the link.  

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1WDHi2rKCopzgz0KKmgHgD_h4WH17r5LwbeKxgeCGwi0/edit

I suppose students collaborating would be as simple as I have explained above, however this collaboration would be limited for some by computer and internet availability.  I think in some instances it would be difficult to require students to use this unless you provide use of the classroom computer and then if they are in class why not collaborate in person.  

As far as choosing between Zoho and Google docs, I think either would be a valuable resource.  I think they were both easy to use and if I could have gotten Zoho to work properly it would have been just as good as Google.  I can see either of these being useful in my career and also in the lives of my students provided they have computers and access to the internet.