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.
Monday, March 16, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thing #10
I am the most excited I have been yet after learning about RSS. I already follow several blogs, and I am always frustrated with having to check each one individually. Sometimes, I forget to check and will come back to notice there have been several new posts. The best part about this all is, since my personal blog is set up through my Gmail account, I already had Google Reader set up and I didn't even know it! I went to Google Reader, and it showed all of the blogs I have subscribed to. I just can not believe that this existed and I had no clue. I will really use this to my advantage and start subscribing to more sites, and checking the Reader will apart of my daily online repertoire. This is going to be a huge time saver.
After reading some of the information on RSS and education, I can see how using one could be useful in the classroom to monitor the online behavior of students. One of the examples from It Really Is Really Simple: RSS for Educators was to monitor when students make updates to a classroom wiki. It would also be good if the class was following different blogs or other sites for some sort of projects to keep tabs on any new updates.
After reading some of the information on RSS and education, I can see how using one could be useful in the classroom to monitor the online behavior of students. One of the examples from It Really Is Really Simple: RSS for Educators was to monitor when students make updates to a classroom wiki. It would also be good if the class was following different blogs or other sites for some sort of projects to keep tabs on any new updates.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thing #9
image chef
I browsed through so many of these sites for a long time. These three were my favorites. I tend to pride myself on my wit and cleverness, but this was the best I could come up with. I am a little disappointed I couldn't think of something better, but these will do. There were just so many to choose from. Some of the options were a tad confusing. They didn't have a clear way of uploading a photo, so I started giving up on them. On the first two, the site said they couldn't generate me a html code because of some technical issue with the website, so I just saved the images to my computer and uploaded them through Blogger.
Students would have lots of fun creating these and I am sure there are tons of neat ways to use them in the classroom. Again, with Literature students could use them to show their understanding of a book and a character. With some of the sign generators they could create picket signs if there was a controversial issue with in a book. For instance, in the novel The Giver, the students are introduced to the world of a Utopian society. They could create picket signs protesting the world of sameness. They could use the news story like I used in my third picture to make news flashes about literature such as "Breaking News: Ophelia Perishes From Drowning" for Hamlet. These are only a few ideas off the top of my head, but by being creative, the student can show just how much they understood the literature by showing character's motivations and major plot points.
Students would have lots of fun creating these and I am sure there are tons of neat ways to use them in the classroom. Again, with Literature students could use them to show their understanding of a book and a character. With some of the sign generators they could create picket signs if there was a controversial issue with in a book. For instance, in the novel The Giver, the students are introduced to the world of a Utopian society. They could create picket signs protesting the world of sameness. They could use the news story like I used in my third picture to make news flashes about literature such as "Breaking News: Ophelia Perishes From Drowning" for Hamlet. These are only a few ideas off the top of my head, but by being creative, the student can show just how much they understood the literature by showing character's motivations and major plot points.
Thing #8
I could definitely see myself using the comic strip in my Literature classroom. Students could find photos that resembled scenes in the stories they read and narrate their dialogs, or create alternate endings to stories and such. I am interested in continuing to explore these different mashups and finding uses for them.
As for myself, I love creating new things, but I don't have the artistic abilities to do it myself. I think I will use these for my own enjoyment on a regular basis just for fun.
I also do not see any problem with sharing photos online. I am a big fan of sharing communities. I believe in recycling goods among friends, sharing music, and now photos. I like the culture that this creates and I am happy to be apart of it. The way I see it, I understand artists want to be paid for their work, but if I can find free beauty, I'll take it!
Thing #7
Well this is my first photo using Flickr. I started this weird ritual of taking pictures of my food when I started using these lunchtrays. I bought them because they looked neat and reminded me of being in school. I really started using them when I decided they might be useful for portion control to try to lose weight. Not only that, but they help me eat a variety of different kinds of foods I normally don't eat enough of like veggies and fruits.
The site was fairly easy to navigate, although not everything was as intuitive as other websites I use. I had to look at the instructions for several things such as how to post this to my blog and how to attach photos to a group. Other than that, it seems pretty easy and fun to use.
I could see using this in a classroom for several reasons. One could be to build an inventory of stock photos for students to use for powerpoints or other online activities. As an English major I could start taking pictures of things related to the literature, such as if I visited an author's home or I could take photos of images from different novels (like a picture of a mocking bird for To Kill a Mockingbird). This way I would know my students had a controlled spaced to find appropriate pictures- and I could use them for my own web creations.
I currently use Picasa and Photobucket. I only use Photobucket to store items I want to post in other places such as online forums. I use Picasa to organize my own photos for just my viewing. I will continue to use these programs for my personal use, but I could see myself now using Flickr for the purpose of sharing. I kind of like the idea of putting all of my quirky tray pictures on Flickr, in case anyone other than myself thought they were neat to look at. I don't have a problem sharing my photos- as long as they are photos I choose to share with others.
The site was fairly easy to navigate, although not everything was as intuitive as other websites I use. I had to look at the instructions for several things such as how to post this to my blog and how to attach photos to a group. Other than that, it seems pretty easy and fun to use.
I could see using this in a classroom for several reasons. One could be to build an inventory of stock photos for students to use for powerpoints or other online activities. As an English major I could start taking pictures of things related to the literature, such as if I visited an author's home or I could take photos of images from different novels (like a picture of a mocking bird for To Kill a Mockingbird). This way I would know my students had a controlled spaced to find appropriate pictures- and I could use them for my own web creations.
I currently use Picasa and Photobucket. I only use Photobucket to store items I want to post in other places such as online forums. I use Picasa to organize my own photos for just my viewing. I will continue to use these programs for my personal use, but I could see myself now using Flickr for the purpose of sharing. I kind of like the idea of putting all of my quirky tray pictures on Flickr, in case anyone other than myself thought they were neat to look at. I don't have a problem sharing my photos- as long as they are photos I choose to share with others.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thing #6
I recently discovered urban spoon . This website allows people to find restaurants by city. When going to the address, the websites automatically populates the city by the users ISP. From there they can choose to narrow the search field by either surrounding cities, type of food, or just search an alphabetized list. However, if the user wants to find a restaurant in a different city than where they live, they can choose any other city in the United States. The website also lists the top voted restaurants in the city and has feedback from users who have been there. Once a person has selected a restaurant, they can see the phone number and address of the establishment and then click on a hyperlink to a map for directions.
This site would be great for new comers to a city or for someone looking for something new. The website is easy to use and navigate. However, my only dislike is that the alphabetized list does not have a short cut to search by letter. I was interested in seeing just how detailed the list was and searched for some obscure restaurants in Clarksville, one being Silke's, and I had to scroll through all of the 100+ other places to find it.
This website could be useful in a statistic class, math, or even economics. Each restaurant lists a percentage of how many people liked or disliked it. A math teacher could use this to find averages of restaurants liked in Clarksville. Each restaurant also lists the expected price, so students in an economics class could figure out a budget for a family to eat out on.
This site would be great for new comers to a city or for someone looking for something new. The website is easy to use and navigate. However, my only dislike is that the alphabetized list does not have a short cut to search by letter. I was interested in seeing just how detailed the list was and searched for some obscure restaurants in Clarksville, one being Silke's, and I had to scroll through all of the 100+ other places to find it.
This website could be useful in a statistic class, math, or even economics. Each restaurant lists a percentage of how many people liked or disliked it. A math teacher could use this to find averages of restaurants liked in Clarksville. Each restaurant also lists the expected price, so students in an economics class could figure out a budget for a family to eat out on.
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