For my two tools, I chose igoogle and the google calendar. First of all, I love igoogle! It's really easy to set it to your own settings. It allows you to see you email, the weather, and even your social websites from this page. It has a section where you can connect it with your facebook. I don't really see a huge educational use for this in my classroom. Since I would be teaching 3rd grade mathematics, I suppose I could use it for the search engine, but overall I do not see a huge significance for it in the educational field.
As for my second tool, I believe the calendar could be very helpful in my life as a teacher. A teacher's life can be very chaotic. A teacher always has something that is due. Google calendar is a great way to keep up with the huge multitude of things a teacher must juggle from day to day. On my calendar, I simply just mapped out my solid weekly schedule to see how it worked. It schedules things in thirty minute intervals, which was a slight problem for me. Some of the things I do, like class, are scheduled on fifteen minute intervals, not thirty. Otherwise I found it to be wonderful to keep up with my daily schedule. The last thing I found interesting was that it let you see your schedule by 1 day, 4 days, a week, and a month at a time. It makes it great for people who plan day to day and for people who plan way ahead of time.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Thing # 11
Which methods of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
I found that simply using the websites topix.com and technorati.com were very beneficial in finding newsfeeds. There were so many different categories to chose from! They were certainly filled with more information than I had time to explore.
Which search tool was the easiest for you?
Topix.com, I found, was rather simple to locate things using the links towards the bottom. They had lists of categories that you could click on to help you find what you are looking for.
Which was more confusing?
To be honest, none of it was really that confusing for me. The only problem I had was with a website called syndic8.com. The only reason I had issues with that website is because it kept saying it was offline, so I couldn't access it. Although, I must say using the edublogs as a resource wasn't extremely helpful for me.
What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Any unusual?
I found a lot of cool feeds on these websites. You could find things about politics, cooking, businesses, or any other thing you could imagine. All of these could be useful because they could each teach you something about how to do something or simply inform you of new things going on in the world. As for the unusual feeds, I found a few that seemed to be people's desparate attempt to find a mate. Those were a little...awkward.
What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
I found that by simply using the google search bar, it would take you to more than enough sites to help you locate newsfeeds. Although it could be more time consuming than the other methods simply because you have to sort through some of the random irrelevant things, overall, it was pretty useful.
I found that simply using the websites topix.com and technorati.com were very beneficial in finding newsfeeds. There were so many different categories to chose from! They were certainly filled with more information than I had time to explore.
Which search tool was the easiest for you?
Topix.com, I found, was rather simple to locate things using the links towards the bottom. They had lists of categories that you could click on to help you find what you are looking for.
Which was more confusing?
To be honest, none of it was really that confusing for me. The only problem I had was with a website called syndic8.com. The only reason I had issues with that website is because it kept saying it was offline, so I couldn't access it. Although, I must say using the edublogs as a resource wasn't extremely helpful for me.
What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Any unusual?
I found a lot of cool feeds on these websites. You could find things about politics, cooking, businesses, or any other thing you could imagine. All of these could be useful because they could each teach you something about how to do something or simply inform you of new things going on in the world. As for the unusual feeds, I found a few that seemed to be people's desparate attempt to find a mate. Those were a little...awkward.
What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
I found that by simply using the google search bar, it would take you to more than enough sites to help you locate newsfeeds. Although it could be more time consuming than the other methods simply because you have to sort through some of the random irrelevant things, overall, it was pretty useful.
Thing # 10
What do you like about RSS and news readers?
I think it is absolutely wonderful simply because it allows you to bring everything you love together. Whether it's your favorite news feeds or friend's blog, it allows you to keep up with the latest on everything. I really liked the comment I saw on one of the RSS. It said that this was like TiVo for your computer. I think that would sum in up rather well.
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your future class or personal life?
I am someone who likes to at least to attempt to keep up with the latest news, especially with the upcoming election. This would be a really cool tool to follow my favorite commentators. As for my classes, I think it would be great to use for tools that I think would aid my students in their classwork. It would also be great for me to use in case I wanted to keep updated on things that my affect my class, such as weather updates or even school board updates.
How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this technology?
Aside from the previously mentioned ways teachers could use RSS, I think a teacher could also use it to their advantage by creating a webpage to communicate with other teachers. If you have a fellow colleague who may need some of the same information that you have, they could simply access your webpage and see everything that they need. It could be an important communication tool among teacher to share websites that they have found beneficial in their own classrooms.
I think it is absolutely wonderful simply because it allows you to bring everything you love together. Whether it's your favorite news feeds or friend's blog, it allows you to keep up with the latest on everything. I really liked the comment I saw on one of the RSS. It said that this was like TiVo for your computer. I think that would sum in up rather well.
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your future class or personal life?
I am someone who likes to at least to attempt to keep up with the latest news, especially with the upcoming election. This would be a really cool tool to follow my favorite commentators. As for my classes, I think it would be great to use for tools that I think would aid my students in their classwork. It would also be great for me to use in case I wanted to keep updated on things that my affect my class, such as weather updates or even school board updates.
How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this technology?
Aside from the previously mentioned ways teachers could use RSS, I think a teacher could also use it to their advantage by creating a webpage to communicate with other teachers. If you have a fellow colleague who may need some of the same information that you have, they could simply access your webpage and see everything that they need. It could be an important communication tool among teacher to share websites that they have found beneficial in their own classrooms.
Thing # 9
For my sign image, I just simply started clicking on random signs under the sign generator. I saw one about caution, so I looked up the word danger. When I saw this one, I knew I wanted to use it because as clumsy as I am, I need to wear one of these signs at all times.
The second photo was fun to make, but it was made to be a little more personal. The fireworks surrounding it represent my favorite holiday, Independence Day. It may seem silly, but I think Independence Day was meant to be a day to be thankful that we are free to dream and free to live. Love, faith, and music are all huge parts of my life. Without love, I believe life is too miserable. Without faith, I believe life is impossible. Without music, well, I'd simply go crazy =D.
These image generators would be best served for simply decorating or fun activities in the classroom. They may not necessarily add a whole lot to teaching by themselves, but it may help me spice up some of the subjects that may be a little dull. These generators are great to use personally so I can decorate anything I do on the internet or maybe even projects I have to create.
Thing # 8
This was probably one of my favorite things to do. I played around with several of the application, but the one I included was from the mosaic maker. I absolutely adore outdoor pictures, so I found this one very fun to use to make a mosaic of outdoor photographs. Although I do not have an image from it, I also really like Mappr. It could be a great way to get children involved in things like Geography to add a little more life to the subject. These sites could be a great way to encourage children to get creative on their projects. It is important to get the important information in a project, but every child still needs to learn how to be creative with it. As for my own use, I could use it in my future classroom to create the maps like I mentioned earlier or simply to show my own creativity in my lectures. In my personal life, I would simply love to use this to experiment with photography. I think photograph can tell so much, so I love knowing that there are different types of technologies out there that I can use to show that.
Thing # 7
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elbisreverri/69186190/
I found flickr to be a very interesting website. It allows you to look up things by the date, by the group, or even by tags. Tags are often used to connect one type of photo to another, like photos of sunsets or photos of animals. The picture I stumbled across was found using the date finder. I clicked on December of 2005, and this was one of the many photos I found listed under it. This is a photo taken in Belgium of a tunnel under the river Scheldt. I was simply drawn to it because of the cools color effects. My favorite thing about it was simply that it was part of another country. I love seeing photographs of other countries, so I enjoyed this photo very much. I think this website is a great way to see the world through other people's eyes and a way to simply see the world. I don't really think it'd be a beneficial thing for class, but it'd be a fun way to share photographs from any fun things you can come up with.
I found flickr to be a very interesting website. It allows you to look up things by the date, by the group, or even by tags. Tags are often used to connect one type of photo to another, like photos of sunsets or photos of animals. The picture I stumbled across was found using the date finder. I clicked on December of 2005, and this was one of the many photos I found listed under it. This is a photo taken in Belgium of a tunnel under the river Scheldt. I was simply drawn to it because of the cools color effects. My favorite thing about it was simply that it was part of another country. I love seeing photographs of other countries, so I enjoyed this photo very much. I think this website is a great way to see the world through other people's eyes and a way to simply see the world. I don't really think it'd be a beneficial thing for class, but it'd be a fun way to share photographs from any fun things you can come up with.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Thing #6
XMARKS.COM
Xmarks.com is a website about simply bookmarking items on the web that you like. I found this website to be very interesting. If you make an account, you can bookmark any websites you may need at your home computer, for instance. Well, if you go to school and can't remember the website from whichyou had gotten your information, all you have to do is log back into your account on this website, and you will have every single bookmark you had from your home computer. This could be a very beneficial website. Since many of us will be using the internet as part of our lessons in class, we will need all of the help we can get keeping up with the multiple websites we like to use for class. We could also have our students use this application for things like research projects or papers that are required for class. It may help them stay more organized when trying to get information from multiple sites at a time.
Xmarks.com is a website about simply bookmarking items on the web that you like. I found this website to be very interesting. If you make an account, you can bookmark any websites you may need at your home computer, for instance. Well, if you go to school and can't remember the website from whichyou had gotten your information, all you have to do is log back into your account on this website, and you will have every single bookmark you had from your home computer. This could be a very beneficial website. Since many of us will be using the internet as part of our lessons in class, we will need all of the help we can get keeping up with the multiple websites we like to use for class. We could also have our students use this application for things like research projects or papers that are required for class. It may help them stay more organized when trying to get information from multiple sites at a time.
Thing #5
What does school 2.0 mean to you?
School 2.0 is meant to represent the new age of technology in schools. School is taking on a whole new life due to the new advances in technology. Examples of this would include smartboards, blogging, social networks, or any other program that schools are beginning to use as a way to communicate the lessons with children.
What does it mean for schools of the future?
First of all, teachers are going to have to learn to stay on top of the advances in technology. The fact is that advances are being made all of the time. Teachers need to be able to use technology just as well if not better than the students they are teaching. Incoming teachers have an advantage compared to the current teachers because their classes are teaching them how to incorporate all of the new technologies for their classes. I do, however, have one concern about the school 2.0 revolution. Even as I was growing up, technology was starting to show itself in schools. Calculators were becoming more and more advanced, allowing students to do almost any form of mathematics on it. Some of my teachers told me later that many of these students were hurt by this advancement because without calculators, many of them aren't even able to do the most simple forms of math. New technology might make students so reliant on technology that it will leave them helpless if any of our technology ever crashes. We have to make sure that we incorporate technology into the lesson plans, but not let it consume them.
The websites I chose
I looked at the wikipedia article and the article titled, "Web 2.0 is not about version numbers or betas." Both of these helped me to get a better understanding about what they meant by school 2.0 and web 2.0. Wikipedia gives very literal definition for them. It includes what would be considered web 2.0. It included social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted sites, websites, mashups, and folksonomies. The other article helped me to get a view on how people feel about it, and not so much a technical definition. I loved when this website said that the web is like a foundation. It is meant to be built upon. This article discusses how web 2.0 is about the realization of the services on the web, not so much about the software. I completely agree with this. Many services have been available online for a while, but many people are just recently starting to discover them and how helpful they could be in the classroom. Many schools have been afraid of technology because of the cheating possibilities children have. I think they should try to embrace it. If children learn of ways to cheat, then there is more than likely a way to catch them using the same technology.
Thing #4
Why does commenting help create a sense of community?
Commenting is extremely important in order to create communication. If millions of people were to post blogs, but no one was commenting on any of them, what would be the point of writing the blog. Even people who say they are only posting for themselves and not others still have something they want others to see. As each person blogs, commenters are responsible for showing the writer that their thoughts have been seen or heard. You don't have to agree with those thoughts, but when you don't, at least voice why you don't. Once you create a conversation, a sense of community can begin to develop.
Two other points from the reading...
The first important point that I read was involving meaningful comments. I believe some of the most useless things to read are comments like "that's awesome" or "that's stupid" with nothing else supporting why they believe that. Commenting should have some feeling behind it along with words to support that feeling.
The second important point that I read said to remember the power of words. So many people fail to think before they speak, or in this case, post. Sometimes people may post feelings they have, but never truly think about a way to say it without getting negative attention. It's ok to post your opinions when you have facts to back it up. Sadly, however, some people will just go off on a person's blog or comment and say things that may truly hurt someone. For example, politics today is becoming more and more a topic of discussion. A person may post that they do not agree with the lack of morals that are developing in this country and in politics. A person who disagrees with this may overreact and put the person down for simply wanting morals and religion to be more involved and may use examples of hateful things that are irrelevant to the persons initial post. Then, all this person has done is hurt or anger the writer as well as possibly creating anger from others who may read that post. Comments should be meant to make people think about things in a new perspective, not to enrage everyone and cause a fight.
The seven blogs I selected
Commenting is extremely important in order to create communication. If millions of people were to post blogs, but no one was commenting on any of them, what would be the point of writing the blog. Even people who say they are only posting for themselves and not others still have something they want others to see. As each person blogs, commenters are responsible for showing the writer that their thoughts have been seen or heard. You don't have to agree with those thoughts, but when you don't, at least voice why you don't. Once you create a conversation, a sense of community can begin to develop.
Two other points from the reading...
The first important point that I read was involving meaningful comments. I believe some of the most useless things to read are comments like "that's awesome" or "that's stupid" with nothing else supporting why they believe that. Commenting should have some feeling behind it along with words to support that feeling.
The second important point that I read said to remember the power of words. So many people fail to think before they speak, or in this case, post. Sometimes people may post feelings they have, but never truly think about a way to say it without getting negative attention. It's ok to post your opinions when you have facts to back it up. Sadly, however, some people will just go off on a person's blog or comment and say things that may truly hurt someone. For example, politics today is becoming more and more a topic of discussion. A person may post that they do not agree with the lack of morals that are developing in this country and in politics. A person who disagrees with this may overreact and put the person down for simply wanting morals and religion to be more involved and may use examples of hateful things that are irrelevant to the persons initial post. Then, all this person has done is hurt or anger the writer as well as possibly creating anger from others who may read that post. Comments should be meant to make people think about things in a new perspective, not to enrage everyone and cause a fight.
The seven blogs I selected
Kristina McBride's post Thing #6
I chose her post because it was about a tool that I have never heard of before. It is something that every college student and teacher should know exists. I chose to comment on why I thought this application was so amazing because in one of the commenting blogs, it said you should never post a comment by simply saying that's amazing, or that's cool. In turn, I posted how I thought it would have been useful in my own experiences as well as others.
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