Thing 17

I went to delicious and joined which was an easy task. I don't know if anyone else had trouble locating things with the educational technology tag but I had some trouble there. I did not find any results on the network or but I did find some results under the other links on Delicious. I explored a link called smartboard in the classroom. THis link has made me envious as it tauted all the wonderful things a teacher can use a smartboard for. I have requested a smartboard but was told with the look of the next budget things are not looking well for me. :( I like the social bookmarking site because it is an easy way to share ideas and tweak lessons that could use a little extra ommph :)

Thing 16... High tech we are moving now!

So today I got an education on high tech things to keep me up-to-date and organized! One of the biggest issues I have as a new teacher is keeping college and work schedules! There seems to be so much to do all the time I just miss somethings. The first thing i made was a unique and customized homepage. I like my new page because it allows me to stay up to date and news and things that I would use with my history classes. I like my yahoo customized homepage better then google but I would not say that I am not going to use google though I doubt I make it my homepage. I also was able to update my calendar. I even made a class calendar for students to view at home! I like the to do list I made with Remember the milk. Ironically I created a to-do-list for this class so I wont miss any deadlines this week since I selected drowning in work may not make it on our class poll. I will use the calendar for school for sure! I also know already that I will use the remember the milk to do list for home and school because it gives me dates, events, in a checklist format that is easy and quick to make!

Thing 15

I found that this is now one of my favorite blog projects. Using a wiki was great. I think I will use wikis in my class next year to allow students to get extra credit points for collaborating on their own time about things they like doing and things they don't like doing. I also want to use the wiki for students to create virtual assignments and tours of different locations in Geography and World History. This is a fun and engaging way for students to collaborate. I like that they can collaborate from home, school or even while out on vacations! I was a little confused when I first went to the APSU sandbox but then realized I was locked out while another student was editing their project. Once I was able to complete the edit though it was easy and fun. I like that I can make graphic organizers using the mindmap web 2.0 software and then allow my students to own it by editing the graphic organizers to fit each group and show what they were able to come up with.

Thing 14

Flowchart VS. Mindmap I found personally I had a lot of fun making the mindmap. I used the Bubbl.us to create the mindmap. The web 2.0 program was relatively easy to use and I was able to create a nice mindmap within a few minutes. I struggled a little at first but once I was used to the commands it went smoothly for me. I made a chart for my new students next school year on three basic types of geography that is in our course of study. I was able to change the colors and size of my text. I also enjoyed changing the colors which would have enhanced the appearance on a document camera. When it came to my ability with the flowchart I found myself lacking. i used Gliffy and created the image below. I was able to create a similar chart though it took me longer. I was frustrated and realized that the program was probably not one I would use in the future because Bubbl.us was so much easier for em to use.

Thing 13

The above image is the image I created on google docs. I know that in my school we use google docs to update different tasks and projects teachers are working on or sometimes the students we need for those projects. I also like that I can have my classes colaborate on google docs. For example one class could log-in and create a document like this study guide which my next class will then fill in or add on. I like google docs better then Zoho. I honestly think my preference for Google Docs was because it was easier to use for me. I had a little guess work with Zoho but found I could manuever easier through Google Docs. This may have been true just because I like using google so the platform was not foreign to me.

Thing 12

I used google translator. I like the translator because it was simple, accurate, and easy to use. I think that using this website could come in handy when dealing with English language Learners in the classroom. Another handy use for this in geography would be to use it to show different languages around the world. This site was super easy to use. Once the page loaded I typed my statement in English and just selected the language I wanted it to end in. The second tool I explored was the google alert. I was surprised again at the ease of use. I just typed in my sorority I am pledging with and let it create an alert. Now I get update any time something new happens with this sorority. I think this could be valuable if I used it with country names to get new information, pictures, and feeds on the countries my students are covering in geography.

Thing 11

Honestly I thought this was going to be an easy assignment but i found out I was wrong. I had a lot of trouble opening the links on my mac as embedded. I liked the Technorati website the best. i was happily surprised because on a whim I put in my favorite author's name and found out my favorite book series is about to become a movie series :) On a good note I was also able to find a few sites I would subscribe to and use for school next year when I have more time :)