Thing #17

Tags

     For this assignment we were looking into bookmarking and tags. This was not a particular favorite but it was helpful in some manner. There weren't many resources on this site that couldn't be found on another website such as google. This website wasn't much of anything special. But that's probably because it's not a popular site so it's resources are probably limited by that.

     I do not think that this would be a useful website. There are other bookmarking website that could be use and have more on them, such as Diigo. Bookmarking website could be useful for class research or just activities for the class to find websites then bookmark them on a class bookmarking page. Overall,  this could be decent tool for the class to use, but I do think that there are other popular and advanced websites that could be used in place of this.

     Always,

          M.S.P. <3

Thing # 16

Getting Organized

     For this thing we had to get organized with online tools. The one I chose was iGoogle, only because I am always using Google. It has always worked for me, so if it's not broke... Then don't fix it. I liked how I could customized everything to fit me! I picked a really cute them, but you can't really see it in the picture. I would make this something permanent, but I am currently using Google Chrome, and that has worked great with me so far! 

     

     I think that the online calendar could be very useful, but I rely more on my phone for things such as that. If I go on the computer everyday on to my iGoogle page then I probably would use that application more often. The same thing goes for the to-do list. They all mean well, but I think that they only work for certain kinds of people. Having my to-do list on my computer never really works out in my favor.

    I would definitely recommend iGoogle to everyone. I just love Google though! I think this would be ideal for someone who is constantly doing business on their computer. When I get on the computer it is usually more of a distraction then a help. But overall this is something that is very helpful! I would suggest this to everyone! It's definitely something worth checking out!

Always,

    M.S.P. <3

Thing # 15

Wiki... Wiki... What?

     So before this assignment I did not know much about Wiki's except for Wikipedia. This thing allowed me to learn a little bit more. I went on apsu23thingssandbox and was able to experience using a wiki for the first time after I understood it. I have always been told that Wiki's are bad. I find Wiki's to be very interesting, it just brings to my mind the phrase "You can't trust everything on the internet." 

     But I can see where these can take a part in the classroom. You could set up an Wiki sandbox for your class and put up practice problems. Have students challenge each other, or try and create other ways of solving problems. This will allow students and the teacher to see how the other students are working. It's perfect! This would be a great learning tool, or just a good introduction to learning about computer technologies!

     Always,

         M.S.P. <3

Thing # 14

     For this "thing" I created accounts for bubble.us and Flowchart.com. I played around with these applications and created several different kinds of flowcharts and mind maps. These were very customizable from what they say to what color the boxes are. These types of charts can be used for anything! There were so many tools to create these. I took awhile to get them down pat, but after that it was easy!

     This is a mind map I made about the types of money. Since in this class my ideal classroom is second grade math, money is something that my students and I will be dealing with together! I really enjoyed this activity. These are fun little tools to help give a new twist to learning. Physically being able to see the relations between items would help students understand. No matter the subject!

              Always,
                   M.S.P. <3

Thing #13

     For this assignment, we had to look into other websites with online tools. Such as Zoho and Google Docs. These websites are a lot like Microsoft word except they are online applications. I explored a little through Zoho and I found that it is also a lot like Microsoft word. The presentations are the same layout (which made it easy to use, because I was use to that kind of layout.) You can also make presentations, word documents, and other things that would be needed in a office setting!

     As for using Google Docs, this was also the same as Microsoft word, except they had a thing for drawing online. This was pretty cool, you can make just about anything you want with it. For this assignment we needed to create a picture, so I drew a picture of myself. This was a fun little activity! Hope you enjoy my picture!

     Overall, I think I prefer Google Docs more just honestly because it is google. I know these can me a great tool in the classroom because instead of having kids go out and buy software, you can just go to one of these websites completely free. This is a wonderful tool to have for students to be able to create presentations and papers for free!

                                                Always,

                                                        M.S.P. <3 

Thing # 12

Google Is No Longer Just A Search Engine

     Google is no longer just a search engine. You can just do about anything with google. There is google scholar, drive, calendar, google plus, and so much more. With the advancement of google, you can do just about anything with it. I honestly think that there is no other search engines that compares with Google. 

      One of the products that I played around with was google translate. Google translate is pretty awesome. It will convert any language you want into any other language. I chose to translate a quote from english to Italian. Why? Because I can and I thought it was cool. You can also get it to read aloud the sentence so you can learn pronunciation. This is a good tool that could be used in the classroom in foreign language classes or for personal use!

     Another great tool that I explored was Google Calendar! This is a online planner that can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. You can also sync calendar events from your phone to google calendar and it will send you a email or a reminder whenever you want to. So it is like your very own personal assistant. This will be good for anyone (including teachers) to make sure you know when things are due and when you are suppose to be somewhere at whatever time. You can also share this will co-workers or parents if you wanted to get them involved more with students and the classroom! I really liked this feature and plan on using it more!

This gives you a little idea of what it looks like.

Syncing Calendar with iPhone

     Hope you enjoyed this and that you will also go and explore everything that Google has to offer! Bye!!!!

                        Always,

                            M.S.P. <3 

Thing # 11

Picking Up Good Feeds

     Using Google Blog Search was the easiest search tool for me. Just because google is familiar to me, so I knew how to work with it. I think that Topix was the most confusing search out of all them for me to use. I did not like to format that was used, but overall the search websites that I used were all good in finding information that I needed. 

      One way I found to locate news feeds to follow was when I registered for my account one helpful thing that I found was that it suggested a lot of categories for me to follow. So I got to look through categories of things that I like and looked at specific things in that topic. 

    The easiest way I find to look for feeds is too use google blogs search. This gives a large variety of what I want. Some useful feeds I found were edublogs.org, socialmediaexplorer.com, and mrssmoke.onsugar.com. All of these websites have very beneficial information and advice for my future job as a teacher. A unusual website I came across were homeschoolshare.com. The part it took me too was talking about how to clean a hippopotamus. I found this quite amusing and also very random. Hope you enjoyed this post!! Keep reading them! :)

                        Always,

                             M.S.P. <3