Thing #12

I set up an iGoogle page. I have been reluctant to set one up in the past, because I thought it looked cluttered. I like to have my internet space clean for easy access. However, after setting this up, I can see the pros. I like that right at my finger tips I can find information such as the weather and movie times. I also never know what is going on in the news and that information is right there, too. To be honest, I do not know how I would use this in my classroom. I can't imagine having all of my students create their own page, because I don't know which of these tools they would use for English purposes.

I also looked at Google notebook. I could see using this in the classroom. Students could set up accounts and share information together for a variety of reasons. If students were doing a group project they could collaborate over the web at home, and they would have a place to store information electronically instead of trying to keep up with it on real notebook paper. The tutorial also suggested using this for personal reasons such as recipes. I like cooking and sharing ideas. This would be a neat way to stay connected to friends and create a virtual cookbook with one another.

Thing #11

I found this "Thing" to be the most overwhelming. I did not really feel some of these resources were easy to use, and I felt like I was drowning in information overload. However, I did like Technorati. I thought it was the easiest to search for other blogs. Some of the other sites such as Google Blog Search and Topix felt like the information was all over the place, and with Google, there were not very many options to search by. Technorati felt intuitive and the search categories got specific enough. I like reading blogs about people's day to day lives, and with the other sites all I could find were blogs about either the new, celebrities, and the like.

With Technorati I found The Happiness Project which is a blog written by a woman who is striving to do and share everything she discovers in life to find happiness.

I also like browsing throughout Blogger. I have searched by Clarksville and actually stumbled upon people that I know. I would rather use these search tools than some of the other sites, just based on my interests.