Thing #18: Not so Facebook anymore

Alright, I had a Facebook but recently deleted it so my link no longer exists but I used it extensively and just decided that it wasn't something I cared to have anymore as I had a lot of "friends" that I actually did not talk to anymore. I also decided that I didn't need to generate random posts about my life to a public forum. However, I do feel it would be advantageous for teachers and administrators to understand what evidently 41.6% of the U.S. population has and uses. There is a pretty good chance that the majority of every student in a given school will have either a Facebook or Twitter account and more than likely both. Since, 42% of the U.S. population has  a FB account creating one for a class in which classmates can interact, receive updates, or use a discussion forum would potentially further learning and social interaction, well online "social" interaction. It however, will never replace real world "social" interactions that are important for student development.

Thing #17: mmmm.....delicious

Easy to use, and powered by something I already have log-in info for, Yahoo!. As far as classroom use, potential for research but the information seemed to be mainly opinion based so I would say there is a greater potential for the teach rather than the student for an everyday use. Although students may enjoy it for personal use for topics they enjoy. I could definitely see these style tools used for planning lessons, or gaining knowledge of fun interactive activities in classrooms. I actually plan to keep in touch with this website to check out fully its potential advantages in my own classroom in the future.

Thing #16: On-line productivity

So I had already created an igoogle start page and although useful, slowly just stopped using it. I think I usually quit using them because they get cluttered and always look unorganized, kind of jumbled. As I had stated previously online or real calenders just don't stick with me, I forget write things down in them, so to-do lists are right there with calendars. I guess instead of writing things down, I ask my wife because her memory is great and mine not so much, guess that's why I forget to write in calendars and to-do lists. But if used to their potential I can see the potential benefits. But for me just not practical....yet.

Thing #15: The Wiki-experience

I checked out the Westwood Wiki since it was a class wiki and posted my image that I generated to the 23 thing sandbox. I kind of like the idea of a wiki for a collaborative tool between say all history classes of a school year. It would be a way they could collaborate and teach each other while I watch the content being displayed and can track those that contribute. It will teach the students how to work as a team in situations where the students might not get to work with someone face to face. I think wikis have gotten a bad reputation because of unprotected public wikis but ultimately they can be a great asset for a classroom.

Thing #14: Go with the Flow - Not Quite

Alright so I decided to check out Mindmeister.com and Gliffy.com. This is just my opinion but MindMeister was just complicated for something simple. I feel like there are too many options to make your mind map "pretty" without focusing on the important thing, user friendliness. I like to think I'm fairly computer savvy and like things to make my life a little easier but at the end of my run in with MindMeister I just felt it would have been simpler to use a flow chart or a graphic organizer on MS Word or something.

As far as Gliffy.com goes it just didn't seem like something I'd use very often, however I did enjoy the fact that I did not have to create a login with my email and a new password in order to use the website. But for me just eh, not my style I guess. However, I did think it would be cool if the tools would let you create your classroom outline for our future project but it was office center and not classroom centered.

Thing #13: google docs - 1; zoho writer - 0

I know zoho's the underdog and everyone loves the underdog but sometimes they are the underdog because they're just not gonna be as good. Nothing against zoho.com but you're just not google. Google already has the following and the other tools necessary for success. No need to create a new login or any new email subscriptions. Google is like the walmart of Internet needs, one stop shop.

This is definitely useful for classroom collaboration between students and or teachers. Anything that is done with google docs can be shared with anyone that the author chooses.

Thing #12: better late than never

So I already knew Google was for much more than searching for things. So I just set up a calendar since I haven't done that yet. Nothing is on my calendar because as in the real world for me, I buy calendars and never use them. So my virtual calendar is free but still not used, I don't really know why either. But never the less here's my link to my calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar/gp?hl=en#~calendar:view=m

Even though I don't utilize calendars fully right now, I'm sure once I'm in full swing teacher mode I'll live and die by my calendar. So an online version would be beneficial to help keep parents informed and there's no relying on a student to bring the paper home I can email a parent directly bypassing the potentially forgetful student.

Thing #11: Exploring the World of RSS Feeds

Create a blog post about your experience that answers these questions:
*Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
*Which Search tool was the easiest for you?
*Which was more confusing?
*What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
*Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
*What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?


So I don't know if its my browser or not but I never went to a website that had the little orange feed symbol in the corner but I did just add a RSS feed gadget to the sidebar of the blog using the URL. I guess that's the same thing but that was real simple. I chose to follow CNET, teachinghistory.org, and classroom20.com. The CNET should be pretty interesting to see what the new electronic innovations will be. I used Google to search for "good RSS feeds to follow" and found some lists. CNET was on there and I said "hey that should be interesting." 


That about wraps up adventures in RSS feed land.