Thing 17

Delicious is a really neat tool that has the potential to use in the classroom. You could use this in the classroom to see what your students think about some of the information that has been applied. This is an easy way to create bookmarks and be able to access them from where ever you would like. Teachers can take advantage of this site by setting up a class group and having everyone join and then the class bookmarking websites they find neat/cool to use and you can also share information this way also.

Thing 16

Just like a few other students, I already had a Google home page set up. I like using the Google homepage because so much of what I use is somehow connected with Google. I use a online Google Calendar to keep me posted from where ever I am what I am supposed to do on a certain date, as long as I have internet that is. It is really simple to share calendars with other people and you can add people's calendars to your personal one. To-do list are very helpful but I rather just do my to-do list on my Ipad with the remember the milk app! It is supper easy to use and can transfer information fast to your website account so that you can get your to-do list whenever you want it! One tool I found was from College Ruled. It is where a student can create his/her class schedule and be able to discuss with other students about different things.

Thing 15

Wikipedia is known by most people but a good percentage of these people do not know that there are many of websites that individuals can use to gather ideas and information from other people. So, if you cannot tell, in thing 15 I will be talking about wikis. After trying to edit a page I quickly learned that it is a lot harder than what it looks but once you are in understanding of what, it becomes a much easier process. The way I could use wikis in the classroom is by using them in different group projects. I can use wikis personally by finding how someone taught a certain subject area so that I know how to better my lesson plans.

Thing 14

Mind mapping and making flow charts are great ways to get organized. I recently have been trying out new tools to be able to make these two things simpler to create and not so time consuming. I have tried different tools like ones you down load a program that you have to pay for, but receive a free trial for, like Smart Draw 2012; and I am been trying out websites that you do everything online. The two I have enjoyed the most is Gliffy and bubbl.us. They both have things I enjoy a lot on each of them. Gliffy is a great web-based creater in general. You are able to make a lot of different things from this tool. Not only can you make flow charts and a mind map but you can create things like a classroom layout and a lot of other neat things. Which SmartDraw is a program you can download for $200+ that does everything that this free website does. Bubbl.us makes making a flow chart/mind map supper simple. It does not have too many bells and whistles. I has the most important things without trying to confuse everyone that uses this programming.

Thing 12

In Thing 12, we are asked to check out some of the great tools that Google has to offer.  In the past, I have gotten some experience using some of the useful tools Google has to offer.   The two tools I have used in the past were the Picasa Web Albums and Google Alerts.  The web album is great for easy sharing with family and friends that might not live that close and to be able to give people a copy of pictures you have taken, instead of having to send them in an email or taking them to be printed off.  Google Alerts, when I first tried it out, I ended up not liking it one bit.  The reason for me not caring too much for it was because I had set it up horribly and was constantly getting emails about up-dates that were not relevant to what I had asked to be alerted on.  Since then, I have learned exactly how I am suppose to use it to were for know on I will not receive emails about things that are not relevant to what I had asked for it to.   With this all in mind, the two tools I decided I wanted to use was going to be Google Calendar and the Language Tools.  Google Calendar is truly a neat calendar.  You are able to put in everything you might want on your calendar and be able to share your calendar with friends.  You can link other calendars to your own, which allows you to add the information on to your calendar without having to re-add all the entrees was on the other calendar, which would take up too much time.  When people invite you to different events, you can set your calendar to automatically decline it if you already have plans during the time.  You are able to organize your events with icons.  This is a simple way to add a little fun element into your calendar.  If you are trying to set up an event with a group of friends, then Google Calendar can even help you with that.   Google calendar can be set up to be able to search your friends’ calendar to see when they are all open to be able to have a lunch.  If it gets late and you want to go out with your friends but you do not know who is free, well Google Calendar even has you covered there by allowing you to be able to easily see who is free or not.  If you are trying to plan out that big Easter egg hunt for next year, then Google Calendar has a great and simple way to be able to look at the whole year in a glance.  If you want to know when you next class or meeting is, then you can also set your calendar to tell you this.  As you can see, Google Calendar has a lot of great features and then some.  This is only a few that really popped out at me. Google's Language tools is one of my favorites that Google offers.  I find it most useful when I have come across a website that is not in English.  All you have to do to see it in English is to get the webpage's url and copy/past it on the section for translating webpage on the language Tools area for Google and it will translate the whole site for you so that you may view and read what is on the page.  You can also do smaller translations by just typing in the translate box and pick the language you want to translate from and to.  It is very simple to use and can be a very helpful tool for educators is they have a parent that cannot speak English, which would mean that you would never have to use the student to be the mediator for you which is best.   Finally, they have added a new part to the Language tools since the last time I used it, which is putting in a search term, and Google will look in different languages and give you a list of websites in different languages that have been translated for you to read.  I find that this is an amazing tool for the pure fact that some countries have more information of certain topics in the original language that has not always been translated into English.  This new part of the Google language area, allows you to be able to get German, French, or etc. information from websites written in the home language giving you more websites that you can use for a reference.  There are also a few other features that have been added since the last time I used this but I will leave them for you to check out!  {I did have some awesome screen shots to share with everyone, but blogger was having problems with me adding this post with any Pictures in it.}

Thing 13

Zoho and Google Docs are both great web-based tools that students and teachers can both easily use. Both of the on-line tools are similar in that someone can write a document that Microsoft never has to touch. So someone that is not able to purchase Microsoft Office, they can still have other choices out there for them to do the same work but on a product that is free. Zoho and Microsoft have many similarities but the one thing Zoho has that Microsoft is still working on is that Zoho makes it really simple to be able to share documents with others. Now Google Docs, people can create writing documents, spreadsheets, and a drawing. Like stated before, both are great sites and both of this sites are really user friendly.

Thing 11

For me in Thing 11, the easiest tools given to search on to use was definitely Google Blog Search and Technorati. They were both simply made. The Google Blog Search is pretty much like Google, which leads to having nothing too complex and everyone can just get on to this search and know how to use it without having to watch some kind of tutorial.  Technorati was also had a simple set up allowing people to be able to use the site with ease.  The two Search tools I did not really enjoy were Syndic8 and Topix.  There was multiple reasons that I did not like these two at all.  The biggest reason for not caring about Syndic8 was that once I got to the page, it had so much junk on it that it made it seem confusing.  I like for things to be simple and they went twenty-million miles passed a simple layout.  The reason I did not care too much for Topix is that it took me too long to get a hang of using it.  I like to be able to get on to a search of any type and know the best way to use it and I was not able to do that with the feed finder. I found a lot of neat feeds during my search on  the tool given.  I pretty much was looking for feeds on technology and education.  I did sneak a few blogs in about my favorite pro football team, The Denver Broncos.  These tools are such a great help when trying to find new feeds to add.