Thing #18: Twitter

     I have never used Twitter before and never thought I would ever have an account.  I am not into the whole "hashtag thing" that is so popular right now.  I created an account solely for this assignment.   You can visit my page (or Twitter account) by clicking @Susseducation.   I did not understand Twitter or what it was used for until doing some research.  The video Twitter in Plain English was very informative.  I also found this blog,  8 Sure-Fire Ways To Tick Off the Twitter verse by Jennie Cromie, with some great advice.   I also found this blog to help teachers with hashtags, The Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags For Education.
      It is important to understand social networking and their outlets.  The students we will teach are constantly on social networking and talking to each other with various social networking sites.  As teachers, we need to know what sites they are using and what draws them to those sites.  We need to understand their "language" and use it to our advantage.  Reach out to them and use the technology tools that they love to teach them what they need to learn.
      I look forward to exploring Twitter more and how to use it effectively in teaching and communicating with my students.  I am sure there is a lot more to learn and I look forward to the exploration of that knowledge.

Thing #17: Tagging and social bookmarking with Delicious

      I created an account on Delicious, which is a bookmarking site that is very popular.  I was surprised by how easy it was to create an account and start adding links.  I really like this and think it could be a very useful tool for my profession as a teacher.  I also think it will be helpful for my students in my classroom.  I could create a special account for my classroom with specific links that were useful in our subjects.  The students could log into the single account to have access to the links.   They can also explore to find other links that could be useful for the project we are completing.
      Part of our assignment was to search "educational technology" and I was very disappointed not to find any current information on Delicious.  The newest was October 2011.  Then I clicked on how many people saved or shared the link and was able to find other people that saved the link.  When I clicked on their name, I found some great educational information.
      All-in-all it seems to be a good resource.

Thing # 16

     For the first part of this assignment, I had to create a customized start page.  I used Symbaloo.com to create my start page.  I really liked the format of the page and how easy it was to navigate. It was very easy to create.  It gave me a few options for ad-ons and I like the EDUtools option, which had edublogs, school tube, flickr and teacher tube (to just name a few).  This was great to have all these tools in one location.   I then began to explore a little more.  I searched for several different items and was disappointed not to find a few.  I did like the option to create your own tile.  I think that is a great option.
      The next part of the assignment was to create an online calendar.  I currently use the calendar on my iPhone and google calendar, but am always looking for a better way to organize my extensive calendar. I originally wanted to try UpTo.com.  It is an App for iTunes, etc.  I decided not to try it after I read several reviews that said it kept crashing.  I did not want to put a lot of work into a calendar for it to continually crash and have to start over.  So, I decided to try 30 Boxes.  It was easy to setup, but it is very similar to the calendars I currently use.  I will explore it  more, but do not think I will use it long term.  I was really hoping to find a calendar that would allow me to easily store my various calendars separately, but also have one view of events.  I did not find this calendar to do what I needed. I will most likely continue to use the two calendars I have already.
     The last step was to pick an additional tool that might be useful in my classroom.  I think that using a PDF converter could be a useful tool for my classroom.  I have needed to use one personally and professionally several times and I believe I will have the same need as a teacher.  This converter is free for basic use, but you can also sign up for a membership (starting at $9 per month) for added benefits.

Thing #15: Wiki

     I have learned more about Wiki this class than I ever wanted to know.  I did not like Wikipedia before and still am not a great fan.   I do not like that anyone can change, add or delete information from a subject, item or post.  Knowledge does not matter when you are posting on this website.  I can  edit the information whether I actually have the knowledge base to make the changes or not.  My nephew used to use this site to research information for papers until I informed him of the truth about the information that can be gathered from the site.  Please don't understand, I am not saying that all the information is bad, wrong, false or misleading.  I am saying that there is no basis on whether or not the information is actually true and can mislead students trying to research topics.
     I understand that a positive point is that it is a great example of the sharing tools on the Internet.  Probably the most know and, per the website, the largest.   I do have to say that I did like that you can set up a wikispaces to share things for your school, class or organization.  Sharing lesson plans, book lists, etc. on wikispaces is a great tool to get information out to fellow teachers.     I did find some interesting pages through wikispaces that had some good information.

     Truthfully, I do not know if I will use wikispaces in my classroom.  I need to research it further.

Thing #14 : Mind maps and Flowcharts

     For this assignment we had to explore mind maps and flowcharts.  We needed to understand the difference between them and when to use each one.
   
     I did not know what a mind map was before this assignment.   After reviewing the sites suggested, I decided to use bubbl.us to create one.  After reviewing several examples and exploring, I decided to try making my own.   In the future, I would like to use one of the existing templates to complete one.   It was very easy to navigate and manipulate.   I look forward to exploring more in the future.

     Here is my example of the mind map I created.

     Flow charts were more familiar to me because I had used one to create a calling list.  I did not know all the options for flowcharts until this assignment.  I decided to use Gliffy to create a flowchart.  I really liked that it had so many options for figures and shapes available for the free version.  Of course, there are more options with the Pro subscription.   It was very easy.  I did not find any templates for Gliffy, but I may not have been looking in the correct place.  I plan to explore this site more to see what else it has to offer.  Templates would be a great addition to the site.


     Here is my example of the flow chart.

Thing #13 Google Drive

     Hello everyone.   Today the assignment was to watch this video about Google Drive and explore.  I was surprised at the options that are available for Google Drive.  I knew about it, but never really explored the options.  The first part of my assignment was to create a blog post using Google Document.  Here is the link for my post called Google Document.  
   
     The next part of the assignment was to use one of Google Drive's tools to create something and I created a Google Drive quiz.  I had some fun with some of the multiple choice options.  It was very easy to create and I will use it again.

     The last part of the assignment was to explore Zoho and compare the two.  I liked Zoho also.  I was amazed at all the options available as well as chat options.  I created an account (which is free, but it looked like some options could cost money) to explore.  It was a little more difficult to navigate than Google Drive, but I think it could be very useful.  I am not sure which I would say is better because they are so different.  I can see a positive for using both websites and will enjoy exploring them both more in the future.

     I highly suggest that if you have not explored both websites mentioned above, that you take the time to do it.