Thing #19! Getting closer!

I am a member of Myspace and now TeacherPop :) I find both of these networks appealing, however I will probably shut down both when I become teacher just because I do not want my students coming into my personal life. I want to keep that professional boundary. However, if the teachers in my school decide to use a social network to correspond, I will be a part of that as social networks are important in communication and collaborating.

Thing #18

I actually already have a myspace and have been meaning to make a facebook. HOWEVER! Once I become a teacher, everything like that is getting deleted. Facebook, myspace, youtube accounts, whatever. It is just too much when you have students begging to be your "friend" and it is neither professional nor intelligent to allow students into your personal life.

Now that that is out of the way, I think that social networks are important as it is a gateway to social communication and can be important part of communicating with co-teachers. I like myspace and facebook well enough as it is a great way to find new friends and keep up with old friends. I like the privacy settings and have my myspace page set to private. I think facebook has the most useful features, but I like myspace more as I have more experience with it. And, unfortunately, no. I can see social networks as a whole as being informative and can use in a classroom and school application, but as for myspace and facebook. Flat out, No. That is more trouble than needed. I have seen teachers fired over adding students as friends to myspace or facebook.

Thing #17

Del.icio.us is a good tool to use for bookmarking and tagging. You simply type in a subject, and bam! I do not particularly care for bookmarking and tagging but I can see the use of the tool in the classroom as a teacher can tag or bookmark a web page at any time and then his/her students can see the web pages to do research projects or group projects. Or the students can use the bookmarking/tagging tool for their own research sources and papers. The teacher can also use it for purely personal or professional use. It can be used on any computer, so since teachers have to work just as much at home as at school, this tool would be available anytime on any computer for the teacher. I think that bookmarking and tagging is wonderful, even if I don't use it that much :P

Thing #16

For my customized start page, I chose iGoogle. I absolutely adore iGoogle and all of its features and widgets. I use the online calendar, to-do list, the weather, date and time, quote of the day, and the daily horoscope for my zodiac sign on a daily basis. My iGoogle is my homepage for my laptop and it is a great home page as I get to choose what I want to see and use, and there is not any annoying ads or clashing internet pages. The iGoogle online calendar is useful as it allows me to plug in important events into any time or day I want and then sends me emails the previous day letting me know that that important event is happening the next day.

The iGoogle to-do list is something I use two times a day. The first time during the day, and the second for the night, as I have two different two do lists that I want to accomplish for those two times. The to-do lists are extremely helpful as I have a lot on my plate, especially since it is the end of the semester. Both of these tools I use at home for doctor appointments, dentist appointments, important family events, and so much more.

I would recommend iGoogle as a whole, the tools online calendar and to do lists are just the toppings.

Thing #15

I think wiki is an excellent idea! As the youtube video stated, it can be used in groups, such as classroom groups, correspondence between teachers about a project, field trip, or certain assignment, correspondence between the principal and the teachers, and so much more! I can see teachers using wiki for all of those reasons that I listed above. HOWEVER...I have never found Wikipedia reliable, and it makes me nervous that anyone can go in and change the wiki web page. Therefore, I will probably not use wiki in the future as it is not that reliable. I could post something for a group project, and a student or random person could go in and change everything. Like i said, wiki is a good idea, but I think that they need to put a little more privacy on it to make it safer and less apt to an outsider changing it.

Thing #14

I chose Gliffy for my flowchart and Bubbl.us for my mind map. Bubbl.us was my favorite out of these four. It was easy to use, and I could see myself using it for telling the plot of a story in my literature courses and telling relationships and stories between and behind the stories of characters. For Gliffy, I preferred Bubbl.us to Gliffy, but Gliffy had some very good uses, such as making a flow chart for cause and effect and topic and subtopic information. I will definitely use Gliffy and Bubbl.us in my classroom as it will help my students understand the topics I will discuss in my future classroom. As I will be an English high school teacher, one example is:

Thing #13

I created an account in Zoho Writer, and explored the site. I created two different test documents and was suprised at how easy it was to use Zoho. Zoho is just like Microsoft Word, except easier to use and transfer from PC to PC. How you may ask? It is on the internet! But! Only you can see it! Therefore, say you forgot to print off your report for an important class and the teacher said that today was the deadline, no exceptions. No problem! Simply ask for a restroom break, run like a mad man with ants in his pants to the computer lab, print, and head back to the classroom, calm and confident. Also, Zoho allows a file, image, document, or any other device needed from any computer to be put onto a Zoho file. I was impressed with Zoho.

Jessica