Thing # 19

Thing 19

After being accepted into the teacherpop Ning I uploaded two photos to the Ning. (I will also upload both photos to my blog) I also commented on another post. I found that the Ning is useful for more than my networking with other teachers. I began to think about how I could use a Ning for the students. If you created a Ning for students use then you could allow for networking inside a school or grade. Use of a Ning allows for a safe place for students to use online resources outside of class to talk about school. A Ning could also be used as a school newspaper. This would allow students, parents, and faculty to upload and update the Ning about events and other things happening inside the school.

Photo One is a photo about numbers and education.

Photo Two is about hashtags on Twitter related to eduation.

I find that the social media world is very broad. There are so many sites that involve that use of social media. I really like Pinterest which is a social pin board. It is similar to teacherpop. On pinterest there is an education board where teachers and other professionals can pin different websites and ideas for others to see.

One of the suggested sites that I explored was Project playlist. I really liked this site. It was useful and neat. I liked the variety of music that I could listen and stream.

Thing # 18

Thing 18

Social Media
Twitter

I just recently joined twitter since I started my newest job. We use twitter as a promo tool. Which can also be used inside the classroom. Teachers can have a twitter account for the classroom. The students whom have a twitter can follow the class and see assignments and reminders about due dates and more!


Facebook

I am not a fan of facebook. In the past year facebook has changed in my opinion. It went from a tool to help communication to a tool that is dangerous for some to use. Kids can be bullied on facebook and twitter. Facebook has become more of a website to record all your life, an autobiography.

Both of these sites allows for faster and easier communication with students parents and faculty for schools. Even though these sites can be used as a tool for education they still must be used with caution.

Thing # 17

Thing # 17

Delicious

This website was a different experience. At first I was not sure what I was sharing or saving I was just clicking. As I was clicking around the site I started reading neat articles. As I searched the educational technology on the site I found that the resources that came up were extremely relevant. I also searched math to see what appeared.I then found neat sources that provided awesome ideas and thoughts. I can read what other people said about the sources before I open it. 

Stumble Upon

I have the stumble upon app on my phone. I have used stumble upon previously. I would use this app to search for different categories and not specific materials. When Pinterest came out I slowly stopped searching with stumble upon.

These tools could be useful to help teach students how to research. Tools like these open the door to creating a way to categorize the internet. 

Thing #16

Thing # 16

This blog post asks me to create a start page, online calendar and to do list. 

Start Page--

I choose iGoogle to create a start page. I choose this site to create a start page with because it is the search browser that I use and also my e-mail. It seems more practical to use the browser that I already use to organize my online materials. I will continue to use google and now that I have created my start page I will set this start page and my home page on my personal computer. I like having this start page as a tool. 

Calendar--

I again choose to use google to create a calendar of events. Google provides all of these tools that help create simplicity for the users. Since google offers a way to organize my self and an abundance of tools to help keep me organized. Calendars online offer alarms and reminders for the events that are scheduled on the calendar. Reminders provide a way to plan and remind yourself at one time. This agains allows my work to be simplified. 

To Do List--

For the todo list I did not find these tools as useful as the tool I currently use to list all the things I must complete. I currently use notes and reminders apps on my iphone. These two apps together provide me organization with the To Do List and the Calendar combined. I currently do not plan everything everyday that I need to do. I use the to do list concept for long term planning more than everyday planning.

 I think that all three of these tools are tools that simplify the life of a teacher. If these tools are brought and explained to teachers I believe that it would allow teachers to plan with organization. I would suggest that everyone have a online calendar that connects with a smart phone or just on a computer that is used daily. 

Thing #15

Thing # 15

Wiki to me before this blog exploration was just a part of the website wikipedia, nothing more. I always dismissed the idea of using anything with wikipedia because I can not use the information in my school work and provide a creditable resource.

After watching the video and exploring the examples provided from 23 Things I have a new insight to a wiki. A wiki is not at all what I thought it was. It could be beneficial to students and a tool for teaching. This would have came in handy when I was in high school. I was apart of a organization called FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America). In this organization I competed in Digital Video Production with two partners. We had a video to make and the easiest way to share information was through emailing each other documents all the time. When one of edited the document we had to send it back to everyone else. It was hard to keep up with which document we needed to be using and several ideas seemed to disappear. If we would have had a wiki we could have shared documents easier and communicated more efficiently. This could be tool taught inside a project of a media class in high school even inside other classrooms. Teachers could use this tool and make a project out of it. Students could work together to plan a school field trip. I did not create my own wiki but I think wikis are beneficial to students.

Thing #14

Thing 14

For thing fourteen we explored the use of mind maps and flow charts.

I enjoyed exploring these websites. I am a very organization person. I tend to make a lot of lists for myself when studying or organizing my time proficiently.

In the photo above I showed how I have organized my assignments for the week. As I complete the assignment I can remove it from the chart. This is a simpler way to keep up with my assignments. I currently write out my assignments in my planner by due dates. With the use of this site I can see all my assignments for the week on one simple page.

On the Mindmeister page I was just clicking and adding bubbles and I began to think about how I could have the students create their own notes and charts from a lesson with simplicity. All the tools I have came across this semester make a teachers work easier.

Thing # 13

Thing 13

I found that using the Zoho writer to be just as easy to use as sending an e-mail. I have never used this program before. I have used google docs before in high school. I took web design and as a class we set up google accounts. We then shared goggle docs to share HTML text that we discovered and thought would be useful for the rest of the class. This was a very exciting experience inside the classroom. Google Docs allow for students to have access to networking inside the classroom. I have also used google docs for a project outside of the classroom. I was in FBLA in high school and competed in digital video production with two other people. When we started the project we ran into an issue of a member not having Microsoft word and could not open documents that we had created. I suggested typing our materials inside a google doc and then we could all add or change the document and it would never be lost! The judges at the competition were very impressed with our tools to create the video because they had never used google docs. I personally can think of many different ways to use these tools inside the classroom with sharing, grouping and inspiring the students to make their own discoveries. I personally prefer using google docs over Zoho. I prefer google docs due to the simple fact that I have more experience using google docs. In zoho I created a document with an image of me and my mother with pretty fonts telling the date, and google docs is easier for me to do that with than zoho was.