Thing # 4

Why Commenting is so important?

Commenting is so important because it allows people to share ideas and stay informed. If blogs were only one sided you would not be able to see others perspectives on a subject matter. The sharing of ideas helps us grow academically and personally.

I will come back at the end of the course with the information of the blogs that I have commented on.

Thing # 12

I set up an iGoogle account and loved it. I am going to use it as my homepage from here on out.  It was fun selecting a theme and selecting gadgets to use. I applied local weather, news, and jokes. I love to keep with all these items. Google has so much to offer other than just a search engine. I also checked out Google calendar and found to be useful. I like that I am able to keep up with all my activities in one place. iGoogle and Google calendar are both useful tools that teachers can use in their personal life and in the classroom. Teachers can post activities and homework assignments on the calendar and access it right from their computer. The iGoogle tools allows teachers to set up their homepage with items that interest them and relate to school activities.

Thing # 11

Finding Good Feeds

Which search was best for me?

I found that the Google search tool was best for me. It was easy to use and did not have a lot of items on homepage. I really liked that there was only one place for me to type in my interest.

Which was confusing for me?

I looked at Topix and Technorati and there were too many options and items to choose from on the homepage. I like it when all I have to do is type in my keyword and not have to waste time looking for the place to type in the keyword.

Thing # 10

I am not big on surfing the Internet. I did set up a Google Reader account and subscribed to several different things. This is not something that I would really use in my personal life. To me it is similar to adding something to my Favorites. Maybe if checked a lot of different items online it would be more beneficial. There is one thing that I liked about it and it was that I was able to look at posts from different blogs at the same time. I do like to read education blogs to get ideas so I would use this as an easier way of keeping with them.

Thing # 9

I used ImageChef  http://www.imagechef.com/ for this exercise. I really enjoyed this activity as much as I did the last. I have never used any type of image generator so this was a new experience for me. This website provides many different templates to check out. These tools would be so much for the classroom just to put a little excitement and color into lessons. I love the beach so I thought it was pretty neat to use a beach scene where the water washes over the sand.

Thing # 8

I think this was my favorite Thing to do. I enjoyed uploading my pictures to see what it would look like. The puzzle and mosaic maker are my two favorite. I love to scrapbook and the mosaic maker is similiar. I think for the classroom it would be fun to use all of the different mashups for classroom pictures (with parents permission of course). I think kids would love to see themselves in different ways.

Paws Thing #7

Paws, a photo by nwilliamson2 on Flickr.

He is the new addition to our family. I thought creating a Flickr account and setting it up was user friendly. I did have some issues sending this photo to my blog. I think it could be a useful tool in the classroom but I am not sure right now what I would use it for. It is great for sharing photos with family and friends. I have friends and family scattered everywhere so I may use it for my personal use. I am still unsure how comfortable I am posting photos on the Internet. I am so afraid that someone will misuse the photos and the Internet is forever. I set all my settings to private so it should be okay.

Thing # 6

The web 2.0 tool I decided to use was the GoodGuide. This tool allows consumers to check how green and safe products are that they purchase. I found it to be pretty cool because you are able to type in a product that you buy and it breaks it down into how it effects society, the environment, and health. It even has a mobile app that you can use while your shopping. It makes it possible to make a decision right there in the store before buying. The only set back that I saw was that sometimes it does not always have the items that I purchase on there.


http://www.goodguide.com/