19- Social Networks

I love looking at many of the social  network out there but I cant imagine being part of  all of them. I just cant imagine anyone having the time. I had a myspace for a while but deleted that. I do have a facebook and twitter account. I love my facebook but never use my twitter account. I dont even know my password anymore. I love the idea of Teacher Pop. I think it will be a great site to use. It looks like a great site for interaction and get suggestions from other teachers.  I will keep this in my links to be able to use it in the future. Its nice to be on a site with many of the students your in class with!

18 Facebook/ Twitter

Social networking seems to be our future. Its such an easy way for a person to get information and also keep in touch with their friends. I have both Facebook and Twitter! I do not use my Twitter account but I am addicted to Facebook. I check Facebook multiple times a day and it has made communication with my friends and family so much easier! Being a military wife has gave me friends all over the country and I love that I am able to see their children grow up and what fun things they are doing at their base!

Teachers should support the use of Facebook as it would be one of the easiest ways to make a classroom page and talk to their parents and students. Facebook isnt as secure as i think it should be but a teacher should still be able to communicate on it. They could put pictures of their students up and classroom progression! 

17- TAGGING

Tagging is a great way to keep organized on the website especially when you are looking at many items in one day. I love the idea of Delicious. I used Delicious and clicked on the site for educational technology but kept having problems trying to access any information. I finally was able to get Delicious to work and liked how much came up. I like being able to see what others think and their links! I will have to keep this page in my favorites and keep going back to it to find information! 

I have used pinterest which in many ways is a tagging website also. I have used Pinterest to tag many educational ideas, craft projects and even recipes! I love being able to put it in its own place so i can look at it later.

Both  of these sites would be great for teachers to use. So much information in such a little time. They could get decorating ideas or even lesson plans for their classroom!

16 more 2.0 tools!

While playing with 2.0 tools i worked on my start page, online calendar, and to do lists. For my start page i tried Pageflakes first but kept getting error messages so i landed up using IGOOGLE. I thought I could use this to make my day easier. I get on google all the time! It would be neat to make it all mine but unfortunately it says next year you can not sign in to it anymore.
For my online calendar i used the link from Igoogle. I thought why not since I am already here. Make things so much easier. I dont think i would use an online calendar as i like to have one written out that i can take places with me. I know people use it on their phone but i am not that interested in using my phone for it. I like having my little one that i can carry in my purse, book bag or car.
For my to do lists I used Remember the Milk. I loved the name and since my children are obsessed with milk i am constantly at the store buying some. It should be easy for me to remember. I liked using this site but again i dont have an Iphone so i dont think it would work on my phone. I do need a better way to do to lists so I am going to give it a try and see how it will work!
The backpack seems like a great idea for the person who is very organized. I don't find myself doing this as i dont like to check the computer multiple times throughout the day. I do use Diigo as i was introduced to it in class but besides that I dont find myself using these kinds of technologies.

WIKI'S

The Wiki is a great way to communicate to others and to change information on the site as needed. I am sure every college student has heard of Wikipedia and even used them during their classes. This is an excellent Wiki page. As a teacher they could use wiki's to communicate with their students. They could post assignments, rules or information on their site. This would be a great way for communication and hopefully keep lines open. I personally am not sure I would use this site but will keep it saved. I know in the future I will need to keep my lines of communication open and this might be easier than making a full webpage etc. I was able to play with this site and made an account under Sandbox. I used #9 online generator as my first page. I liked being able to play with everything. It was easy to do! Here is the link for the page i made!

http://apsu23thingssandbox.pbworks.com/w/page/11343369/FrontPage

14- Flow charts

When i first started using these I realized I do not like making charts. I began with Bubb.us.  I began trying to make my own mind to map for my unit on Habitats. I thought I could make it easy follow for the students. It does make it easy to follow but I would much rather use the whiteboards at school than this chart when explaining it.
The second program I used was Gliffy. I played on this site for a while. I really did like how many different charts you could make witth this program. If I was one to make a chart i would use this program. I like having so many choices. I played with the flow chart and tried to make a new seating arrangement for my living room. I enjoyed this as I can see what I am making right in front of me.

Thing 4

Commenting on blogs

Commenting on blogs is an interactive way for communication through the writer of the blog and the readers. It is used to explain your own feelings and letting the writer know how others feel. Not only will commenting help you explain your own self but also lets the writer know they are important as well. It is the best way to create a family or community online. After reading the blogs that was suggested I agree that comments should never be negative or rude as the writer has every opportunity to be there.
I posted on Marianne Spencers blog Thing 9 because I loved her magazine cover she used. I also posted on Alexis Wylie's, Desmond Lyon, Kayla Thompson, and Alexis Wylie. I liked being able to go to their blogs to see what they have found and how they think it will help all of us.It was amazing to see the different projects they have used and which ones they seemed to want to go.  I also looked at Stephanie Moran's blog about flickr. I love looking at other peoples pictures. I also looked at Misty Stehle's site. I loved her site and how interesting and educational it felt. 

12 GOOGLE

As an American I think every single one of us has been on Google and at least done researching with it. I knew there was other tools but never really bothered to use them before this class. 

Google Alerts is a program that I think i will enjoy. I love to be up to date with the news and I think this has to be an easy way to do it. I don't tweet or use my cell phone as many people do for their news so this would be an excellent tool for us who aren't so tech savvy. As i was sitting there playing with it I decided I would set up an alert for Atlanta Braves. It was so simple to do and I had it sent to my Gmail account. 

As a teacher this would be a great way to keep up with the world news.  You can use this in History, science class etc. 

Google Calendar seems to be an excellent way to stay organized. As a parent, student and army wife I need all the ways i can get to stay organized. I think this would be perfect as a teacher and so simple to keep up with.We all need help when it comes to accomplishing the things we have to do. 

Google Translate seemed to confuse me way more than anything else did on here.I personally would not be using this one.

Picasa- is a tool that i have visited before.I do not have anything on there but i do believe it would be easy to use for us all. 

11 FINDING GOOD FEEDS

While doing this blog I found there are so many sites that offer RSS feeds. I did some looking around at the sites you suggested and I have found that I normally would use Google and Topix Net.I use Google often so i find it very convenient to be able to search for whatever i want and come up with the answer quickly. I like Topix net with all the categories and different quizzes they ask. I looked at the Education link and found some interesting topics on there. I had never heard of the article about a 3rd grader being Transgender and thought it was interesting. I will defiantly link this to my site so i can read more from this site. The most confusing to me was the Technorati. I went to the site but lost interest quickly.  It felt overwhelming when i went to it. I looked around the site and went to the site about Halloween and children and also the fact that Google is worth more than Microsoft now.  I did go to the Feed Icons page and looked around. At first i didnt really know what it was all about but after taking a few minutes i discovered you can download the stuff for an RSS.

10- RSS READERS

I have heard of RSS readers before but never used them. I never had a blog before or anything that would really use them. It was very easy to figure out how to do it. Since i was already a gmail member through Google i was already enrolled for my site. I looked around and decided I would follow
                               Free Technology for Teachers
                               Cool Cat Teacher
                               PBS Teachers
                               For Teachers- Yes Magazine
                               Clutter Free Classrooms.

I love the fact that it will be easy to follow someone you have chosen. I dont have much time to sit on the computer and play so the quicker the better for me. I also love to get ideas for teachers about curriculum, classroom decorations and etc. Such an easy way to do it with this. Using this technology would allow me to follow not only teachers from afar but teachers in my school. I can get ideas esp if Im stuck or need new ones.  It always amazes me the items teachers come up with to enertain the children.

9 Online Generator

I played with all the images today and had fun with them. The first image i used was from IMAGECHEF. I had a great time playing around. I chose the beach since im originally from Florida! I was having a hard time getting pictures to download on any of these things so when i found one that i could write on it was simple. All i did was find the picture i liked and drew my name.



The second one I did was from text2pic.com. I made this after playing with many sites and since i love the fall/winter I thought this was perfect! I looked through many different images but knew I wanted to include Christmas! This was really easy to do. Clicked the picture and wrote what i wanted!

The last one i did was from SupportRibbonGenerator. I am a proud army wife so i thought this would fit perfectly!

As a teacher I dont know if i would make anything from any of these sites but they could help by making signs for your classroom or school. It would be easy to do once you searched and found the pictures you liked. 

8 more Flickr

As you can tell i had a good time playing with all the different mashups. I think this is a wonderful link for a teacher because it would be easy to make your own classroom decorations or even boards for the children to look at. I can see a teacher using it for the alphabet, multiplication facts etc. I will keep these links saved so i could do this in the future. As far as sharing photography pictures online i do share our pictures through facebook and email but never to strangers., I try to keep in mind that it would be too easy for someone to get a hold of them and could do horrible things to them. I have all my pictures saved on facebook as you can only see if your a friend of mine.