Thing 12

I use Google about as much as I bathe.  I am constantly using Google for research, random questions, and since I do not like adding pages to my home page, I go to Google to shortcut it.  The two tools that I decided to use were google translate and google calender.  With the google translate, I am kind of disappointed I did not know about it sooner.  This would have been a great tool in high school while learning Spanish.  It is a great tool that if I have students or parents where English is not there first language, this tool WILL be extremely useful.  Also, if students are not clicking with a foreign language, this website would be beneficial for practicing. 

I am new to the google calender, but I am all for it now that I am signed up.  I created an account and typed in something just to see how it works.  This can be useful for educators in maintaining organization rather than a bunch of post-it notes with important dates.  If anyone is like me, I have a paper calender with post-it notes on almost everyday.  The calender can be created and posted within a blog for students and parents to easily access.  The teacher could provide important dates that are within that month and due dates for assignments as well.  I am considering converting my paper calender into this google calender.  Less writing and more typing, yes please!!!


Here are links to my creations:
https://www.google.com/calendar/render?gsessionid=OK

http://translate.google.com/#auto|es|Hello%2C%20my%20name%20is%20Ariel.

Thing 11

I absolutely LOVED edublog!!! It had a column on the side of topics to pick from, then it lists the people in ABC order.  That is definitely my cup of easy!!! I love web pages that do not take you through tedious methods to get to what you need.  This web page was set up very well, anything I wanted to know or read on was right there in order.  Topix was another interesting one.  It was very informative on news and discussions that were occurring in the city I am in.  This would be a VERY useful tool if I were to plan to go out of the country, or an unfamiliar state.  This website could show me the gossip about a town that I would want to know, before I even got there.  How cool is that???  Technorati was the most confusing to me.  It provided a lot of options on what topics to pick, news, celebrity, politics, and such.  It probably had interesting blogs provided within it, but if I did not have an assigned topic it would take me a while to figure out what I wanted to look at.

Thing 10

RSS and newsreaders frustrated me at first.  I was trying to "sign-up" and some how I was already signed into the google reader without even knowing I had signed up.  This caught me off guard, so I literally signed out and retyped the website to make sure I was seeing it clearly.  Some way or another, I already had an account prior to this "thing."  Once I moved on I also realized I had website links that I had already been following.  I think this formed from websites that I have blogged on or repinned stuff on.  I like the fact that you do not have to click 100 times to get what you want or back click a million times to get back, everything you are interested in is right in front of you.

For educational purposes, I could see using this as a form of limited research for my students.  I could gather educational websites they can add and use for research projects.  That would allow supervision on the internet and a more hand-on approach for students.  Teachers could use this for their personal use to finding quick research for lesson plan ideas or fun projects for students.  Linking and making connections amongst other educators can open the doors to many opportunities for teaching.

Thing 9

The links I used to process my images were comic strip generator and image chef.  I must admit that this has been my least favorite "thing."  Anytime I tried generating stuff it froze my laptop and half the time would close out on me, or click to something totally different then what I was doing.  However, there were a few that I liked.  The comic one I could use as a daily humor on education for my children to lighten the mood everyday.  For them to use, they could take a lesson we plan to cover and get in groups to create a comic series on it.  That may help engage them in what they are learning and help them remember key aspects if they make funny notes about them.  I also posted the "post-it note" because I use those for everything, literally.  Those will definitely be a vital material for me when I begin teaching.  When I was in school, we had a teacher who used post-its for almost everything.  Mostly they were on her desk for memorandums, but sometimes she would give them to us for group projects.  Using blogs with students and parents, I feel a computer generized post-it would stand out on the page if you had something important to relay.

Thing 4

Most everybody uses some form of Social Networking.  Whether it be texting, facebook, twitter, or email; communicating with other people is important.  Building relationships within those social networks can expand your connections with anything.  In today's society, networking is bringing about numerous ways of communication.  It is important that we become aware on how to communicate properly via internet.  Most professors are going to email you, it is important that you know how to properly communicate back.  Talking on the phone has become way more advanced then putting it to your ear, there are head sets, text messaging, emailing, etc. that will effect how the person receiving the message takes into persepctive.  The video Professor Wall showed us in class over powerpoints sums up some key points when using the internet as an effective tool for communication.

Through the readings I feel the most important findings were being humble and being controversial.  People want to hear life lessons or stories.  If people can relate to what you are writing, they are more than likely going to spark an interest.  I know with me, I look for something to link to that hits home, rather than something I have know experience with.  Also, there are tons of people out there who love a good argument, make your discussions controversial.  Who knows, maybe you will learn something new from someone else's perpective.

The 7 people I chose to follow are:
1. Allie Burkepile
2. Stephen Forrester
3. Erica Paredrez
4. Daniel Cozine
5. Nick Caudill
6. Janelle Ferrier
7. Colby Moates

I chose these people because I have had classes with them.  Choosing people I know, or can at least place a face with a name to makes me feel more comfortable establishing blog posts with them.  As I was looking through some of their blogs, I noticed I shared similiar ideas with each of them.  That is very important to me when posting on someone's comments.

Thing 8

Using the Mosaic Maker I created this collage on diversity. My standard I picked for livetext focuses on cultural diversity for 6th grade Social Studies. I found this source very neat in creating a collage that children can physically view and come up with ideas and questions about what is right in front of them.  This will definitely be useful for educators. You can take ideas and place them into a collage format to give a more visual perspective. This is a neat way to engage children into today's society and how it is continuously changing. I think that sharing photos online is okay, as long as it is limited to education resources only. Anything can be placed onto the internet without being censored, educators need to be cautious as to what web pages they allow their students to explore on for research purposes. Another way I think this could be useful is at my work. I work at a daycare and we are required to post pictures of diversity within our classrooms, this would be a neat tool to use to create a collage for me.

Thing 7

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58697642@N07/5402166798/
This picture belongs to egw320 (January 30,2011)


As I searched around on Flickr, I had no idea of what type of picture I wanted to blog about.  I searched off the wall things until I finally decided to do something that means a lot to me.  Here on campus, I am involved in a sorority called Chi Omega.  Every year we do "Wings for Wishes" in order to gain money to donate to the Make A Wish Foundation.  Make A Wish Foundation for those of you who don't know, grants children who are terminally ill one last wish.  Each year we have tons of community involvement in getting this one day organized to raise thousands of dollars.  Last year we were able to have a wish grant party with the child we granted all of the proceeds to that we raised.  The picture posted above is from a different Chi Omega chapter in a different state, however, we all have the same philanthropy in helping adopt a child from the Make A Wish Foundation and granting them a wish.  I am so excited for this April, because our goal (which will happen) is to grant TWO wishes to two different children.

Implying this web database seems like a good tool for students.  As I was searching like a crazy person to find a picture, I ran across pictures that I thought "hmm..this could be useful."  This website has tons of images with quotes, motivational and inspirational messages, and pictures from all over of different ethnicities and subject matters.  This could be a very useful tool for research and projects, or even to clarify on a particular subject.  A lot of the times, a picture can be worth a thousand words, versus an explanation.

Thing 6

The web tool I decided to use was a very familiar one, but extremely useful; http://www.youtube.com/ I absolutely love using youtube, it allows anyone to share videos online, either from their hard drive or record it using a Web cam.  I will definitely use a lot of videos for educational purposes in my classes.  Videos are available for almost everything, literally.  Not only for my purposes, my students could use this for research projects and presentations.  Another way this could be useful beyond group projects, for students who have a difficult time reading, they could find the book on youtube and listen to it rather than read through it.  There are endless ideas educators could imply with youtube.  If a teacher wanted to create a weekly video for parents to see, you can have the parents add you on youtube and post the videos the students create every week.  Youtube is a free database that students could use for many different sources.  I found a video I think will some up the limitless ideas students can find.

Thing 5

Schools of the future have such an amazing opportunity ahead of them with using Web 2.0.  New generations are changing things about social networking with social life and education purposes.  Incorporating Web 2.0 into the school systems is a genius idea.  The internet is used billions of times during the day for email purposes, homework, research, and much more.  Today's children need to know about Web 2.0 and how it can further them with education.  Educators can guide children with presentations, powerpoints, research generators, and new ways of learning beyond textbooks and lectures.  Children normally learn better when they are provided with hands on materials, why hold them back from becoming more technological advanced.  School 2.0 in my opinion, is a new and better opportunity to advance schools with technology based learning.  This will not only open the doors of learning for students, but for educators as well.  The world today is advancing at a fast pace, it is up to each educator to provide students with reality when it comes to learning things that will matter in their futures.