Thing # 19

I am a member of LinkedIn because someone requested that I joined but I have not been able to explore that website very much.  TeacherPop was the social community that I was most interested in while exploring the different websites.  I sent in a request to become a member of so I am awaiting me acceptance and then I can really get in there and start exploring.  I did see some of my classmates post that the website had turned out to be really useful to them.  I really liked that you can create a community of people with the same interest  this can be beneficial for educator to share and exchange ideas and approaches to different situations.  This would also be great for new and experienced teachers to learn from one another.  I can see myself using this website a lot throughout my education with fellow classmates and when I FINALLY become a teacher.  I liked that this site wanted information so that it could link you to other education websites that you might also be involved in.

Thing # 18

I think that it is important for educators to be "in the know" if you will about things that their students will be involved or interested in.  Some elementary student and most all student who are in middle school and up have one if not multiple social networking accounts.  There are also other important aspects to websites like Twitter and Facebook.  I know that my mom has been contacted through Facebook by on of my brothers teachers.  It was about an issue that they had already talked about and my mom told his teacher to feel free to update her through Facebook.  As a teacher I would not use Facebook to contact parent unless they requested it.  Facebook allows users to message each other privately without being '"friends".  I would personally no friend me students or parents while involved in my classroom, I am professional and completely appropriate but I feel that it is none of my business what they do daily.  Teachers could create a Twitter account or Facebook page just for the classroom.  Teachers could tweet reminders, schedule changes, school closures, and other news.  A fan page for a classroom would only allow parents to like the page and not interact so it would be similar to Twitter because is simply send out messages.  Teachers can also like or follow educational pages or news feed to get the latest news within education.
 http://www.facebook.com/carrie.uffelman
https://twitter.com/#!/cauffelman

Thing # 17

I have never heard of social bookmarking, it is a simple and easy to use resource for teachers or anyone for that matter.  Similar to bookmarking things in your computer Delicious allows you to tag different websites so that you can go back and find them anytime.   Unlike on your computer you can access your chosen bookmarks from any computer.  Teachers do a lot of work at home and in the classroom, bookmarking allows you to find new web 2.0 tools on the Internet anywhere and share with your class.  Delicious also displays the websites that has been tagged by other and their descriptive labels placed by those users.  Teachers can organize the websites in one place so that they are easy and quick the access in case plan A doesn't work out.  I found a great site that offers educational video's, the plagiarism video stuck out to me because in upper elementary grades students need to understand plagiarism so they can prevent it.  This would be a great video to show students during writing.  Teachers are always looking for effective or useful ways to educate their students and by bookmarking these website teachers will always have access to them.  Teachers can also bookmark websites that offer guidance and assistance with classroom management, technology use, going green, saving money, learning styles, and many more problems that teachers deal with every day.

Thing # 16

I chose Google Calendar, I already use Google Calender because I am a forgetful person and anything that will help jog my memory about upcoming events or deadlines can be helpful.  It is very easy to put in events and there are many different views that can help you see what is going on in a day, week , month, or year.  Google will send you e-mails to remind you of events.  I have not made it my permanent homepage but I think that that would be a wise thing to do because everything that I would need to check in a hurry would pop up without having to type in a web-site address.  I chose Zamzar as a useful web-site that would be useful for home or school.  There has been so many times that I will work on project on multiple computer and some files will not open on certain computers.  Zamzar allows you to convert you work so that it will open on any computer.  I think that it s great that you can also keep downloads, and send other files much like Dropbox which I use very often.

Thing # 15

I have always been aware that Wikipedia could be a unreliable source because anyone could get on there and add their thoughts or opinions. I now completely understand how easy it is to edit or and things to wikis.  I think is most cases wikis are a great source to share and discuss ideas or events.  In some cases much like Wikipedia is can be dangerous to those who are unaware of the source of the content matter and the ones that want to abuse the privilege.  As and educator I can think of  few different things I could do with this, I think it would be a great way to discuss, plan, and share ideas with teachers that I would be co-teaching with.  Another great use much like a blog would be a place where parent can go and see what we are doing in class, I could put pictures up from class a copy of worksheets or permissions slips.  If there was an incident a school or in class that was appropriate to discuss with all parents I could also past that to the wiki.  Parents who are not able to be involved in the classroom could get involved outside the classroom.  If parents want to share information about local events for children or ask about homework help.  This is a great way for teachers and parent to collaborate to create the ultimate learning environment and experience for student.  For student who are in upper grade that want to collaborate on homework or project a wiki could serve as an open forum for students to communicate at home.

Thing # 14

I choose Giffy to explore the flowcharts and Bubbl.us to explore the mind maps.  I looked a Giffy first because I am more familiar with flow charts than I am mind maps.  I am currently in a reading class so I map a rough draft of a graphic organizer of my books characteristics and how they connect.  I found this site very easy to use and basic.  One of the tools I saw on here that was interesting was the floor plan tool.  Bubbl.us was a really fun site that had so many different options.  This site gave you more room to create your own things.  I created a family tree with this site and it was fun.  When I was done each generation was color coded and connected correctly.  I am not an expert on my family tree but I got up to the fifth generation and there was still plenty of room to add more.  I also liked how the site let me minimize some of the connected "bubbles" temporally.

Thing # 13

Zoho Writer is a great program that can provide people with a word processor that it online and always available.  I know that when I am using a computer without a word processor it is difficult to homework.  I had no clue that there was a free program that could let me creat a document and save it so that I could open it anywhere.  I have a dropbox account where I can save and share folders and files with other users but I can not create documents.  I found that a lot of the Zoho writer tools where dated compared to the microsoft word processor that is downloaded on to a computer.  The basic set-up was the same but minor tools and detail differ.  The copy, cut, and paste tools where located in the tool bar instead of right clicking.  It was very useful but would take some time getting use to those few minor differences.  I also explored Google documents which I found a lot more familiar and useful. Google is something that everyone used but I think the tools it provides is commonly looked over.  There are a lot of ways that students can use Google documents to collaborate with out sitting down and working together.  This could provide students a way to share and discuss ideas and thought anout a project.  All students could look through the progress instead of relying on one person to get it done on time.  Students could creat graphic organizers for projects.  This would help teachers assure that every student has the chance to do their own part.

  https://docs.google.com/drawings/pub?id=1TT52E2gEBRuN-vgzmrr-WzGbhlqpQK8ORq6DldCVtZ4&w=960&h=720