Thing 12: Google.

I would absolutely-without-a-doubt die if Google calendar wasn't available - I use it for everything! Along with attending school full time (and doing a ridiculous amount of observation hours), I'm a babysitter/nanny/house & dog sitter for six different families, and I also have an active social life. I couldn't do any of this without my phone, which has Google calendar. Seriously, it's the best invention of all time. I'm most likely overstating it, but it is awesome. Users can create different calendars within a main calendar to keep the different areas of their lives separate and the best part is the calendars can be color coded, which makes it easier to keep them separate from one another. Users can also share their calendar with their contacts, allowing them to see their schedule and sometimes other people can modify the calendar.

Another service of Google that I love is Google docs, now known as Google drive. It's basically an online word processing program, which users can access from anywhere to create or modify existing documents. Users can also share their documents, allowing other people to read, and possibly modify, them.

Google calendar and docs can be extremely helpful to a teacher who has their own classroom. Teachers could set up a classroom calendar to share with students and parents, which would allow them to post important dates, such as due dates, field trips, school breaks, and fun days in their classroom. It would also be a good communication opportunity between parents and teachers. Teachers could make any worksheets or handouts in Google docs that way they always have access to them and they could even allow parents access to certain documents. Overall, Google services do some amazing things and could be an awesome resource in the classroom.

Thing 11: Finding Good Feeds.

Finding good blogs to follow can be very simple. Using the Google blogs search, I quickly find multiple blogs that are of interest to me. I found it easiest by just searching a topic. Broad simple searches come up with a large amount of results, while more complex and specific searches come up with a smaller amount. You can truly find anything with Google. The one I found most confusing was Technorati. I found the site a little confusing to navigate and really didn't find as many results on it as I found on Google blogs search.

While searching for blogs to add to my RSS feed, I looked for recipes, do-it-yourself projects, and teacher/educational blogs. Another way to finds blogs of your interest is to look at the people who comment on the blogs you already read. Users tend to comment on things to relate to them. I've found some of the best blogs that way!

Thing 10: RSS Feeds.

I don't have much experience with RSS feeds... actually this is my first time messing with them. I can see where they would be useful, but I can also see where they would be annoying. For teachers who follow educational blogs - or any blogs for that matter- RSS feeds would be useful because every post from every blog would be right there. They would be able to quickly find that one post that has that one project or idea, which they think would be awesome in their classroom. On the other hand, when following a ton of blogs, the bloggers update on different schedules and therefore, the RSS feed would constantly be updating and it might be hard to keep up with. Personally, I don't think I'm going to be using RSS feeds anytime soon; they seem overwhelming and slightly confusing.

Thing 9: Image Generators.

 

The online image generator I used for both of my pictures is Image Chef. The sticky notes would be helpful as reminders in the classroom. I choose a sign and put "halfway there!" on it, because the semester is halfway over. Image Chef has a variety of pictures that a user can choose to personalize, and each picture has different options; some have more than others. I think online image generators would be useful in the classroom. Teachers could use them to creatively display important thoughts or rules for the students in lower grades. Students could use them for assignments or projects. Personally, I think they are fun to mess around with, especially the ones where users can change the effects on text. I was hoping to use one, but I couldn't get it to work :( Overall, online image generators are an awesome tool that can be used for great things in the classroom. 

Thing 8: Flickr Mashups.

Flickr mashups are really neat! I used Spell with Flickr to create this. A teacher could use them in the classroom to display important words creatively, and this would get the students' attention. Students could also use this to spell out something for a project. Other than that, I don't know what purpose it would serve in the classroom. I think more people would use it for personal use. Creating a mashup with your own photos would be really awesome, because it would have a lot more meaning to the person, than using random pictures found online.

I think sharing photos online is a great idea! It's a good way for friends or families to stay in touch with one another when they don't live close. If a person is a photographer, its a good way to get their work seen by a lot of people. However, people do have to be careful when sharing pictures online.

Thing 7: Flickr.

Eric  Lafforgue 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41622708@N00/3777132543

Elephants are one of my favorite animals and that's what I choose to look for while exploring flickr. I do have a flickr account and use it on a regular basis; however, I've never really explored the website, besides how to upload photos, so I choose to do option one. My experience using the flickr explore area was good. I found the site very easy to navigate, and I found this picture using the map feature. I thought the map feature was very cool, and using it in a classroom would be excellent. It displays a map of the world, and the user is able to search a specific area of the world, and they are also able to narrow down the subject of the photos within that area. When I did my search I typed "elephants" in the the search for box and "Africa" in the taken in box. It was very simple. Everything I searched for on flickr came up with a bunch of different results, so using this in the classroom would be beneficial for the children, because they would be able to see different views or ideas of the same object, place, event, or person.

Thing 6: YouTube.

The site I choose to explore was YouTube. I was super excited to see it on the list, because I use this site on a daily basis. YouTube can be used for many different things: listening to music, figure out how to do something, watching funny videos, and there's even videos for teachers to use in the classroom. Teachers can find ideas for lessons, ways to set up their classroom, and general helpful videos. Students can use YouTube videos for research and projects. It's amazing how a simple website can have so many different uses.

Thing 5: Web 2.0

In a nutshell, school 2.0 is everything. Students use a variety of different methods to find information. This includes the lessons in the classroom, the internet, books, people - everything is a learning experience. Web 2.0 is extremely important in schools now. Instead of being able to research information, as in web 1.0, students are able to interact with the websites while researching. Now there are educational games, videos, blogs, and more to students and teachers to find the information they need or want.

Many universities are to the point where students can earn an entire degree online, without ever setting a foot on the college campus. Some private schools provide the students with iPads or tablets for their books and homework, but the students are still required to attend class. In the future, schools are going to become more and more dependent on technology. Everyone uses it and there isn't a way to get around it. Personally, I love technology and think it's a good thing.

Thing 4: Comments.

Commenting on other people's blogs is very important. It creates a sense of community, even when the people are in different cities, states, even countries. Commenting allows other people to add on to the original idea and tell about their experience with it. When commenting, users need to be respectful and write something meaningful.


For thing 4, I commented on Amanda Blankenship's thing 3 post, Amelia Downs' thing 3 post, Vanessa Green's thing 12 post, Derek Cooke's thing 12 post, and Tammy Cruz's thing 1 post. I choose to comment on Amanda's post because I thought she had some really good ideas for using a blog in the classroom. I thought Amelia had really good ideas as well. Vanessa and Derek pointed out some of the great features Google has to offer. Vanessa talked about Google calendar and Derek talked about several of the features, including the calendar, documents, and iGoogle. I thought Tammy's post was very well written. She mentioned that she had a hard time viewing problems as challenges, as do I, so I thought her post would be a good one to comment on.

Outside of the class, I decided to comment on View Along the Way, where Kelly documents her and her husband's journey to redoing their new home. I've been a long time reader of this blog, and she is absolutely hilarious! I decided to comment on Kelly's post How to Clean a Paint Roller: the Quick & Each {Kinda Messy} Way. If you paint and always have trouble cleaning the paint roller, I would definitely check out her post!  The second blog I commented on outside of the class is Chocolate Therapy, where Sarah blogs about her love of food and post mostly recipes. I thought mini cake batter cinnamon buns sounded good, so that's what I choose to comment on. I might attempt to make them over fall break!