Thing 18

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1633603630

It is important for teachers to know how social networking works because there is a lot of important information for teachers on social networking pages. In today's world, everything is done through technology. Most everyone has a Facebook, a Twitter or both. This is the main means of communication and staying up to date with current things. Facebook is my favorite because not only can you communicate with people in more than one way but you can also go to pages for your school, organization or job. I did not really prefer Twitter simply because it is mainly only about reading about the constant updates people post. This, to me, does not really seem like an academic resource. I do not think that Facebook or Twitter should be used for classroom purposes. Even though Facebook does have certain things that could be used for educational purposes, it is mainly used for social media and there are far more sites and tools out there that would be better suited for the classroom than Facebook.

Thing 17

I liked Delicious because all you have to do is copy and paste the URL of the website you want to come back to and bookmark it in your stack. This is very convenient because if you are somewhere else on another computer and do not remember how you got to a certain website, all you have to do is sign in to your Delicious account and go to your stacks and there it is. I think this would be used mainly for personal use, but I can see how one could incorporate it in classroom use. If there is a certain website that you need for a lesson or activity and do not have time to write it down you can simply bookmark it and come back to it later. I think that this would also be useful to me now when doing research for papers. I get so frustrated when I find a very good source and the next day I can't remember where I got it. This would make it so much easier because you would have all of your sources right there in one place.

Thing 16

For my start page, I chose the new updated version and chose a really cute background. I will most likely keep  this as my permanent setting. I really like the new version because it is much easier to see everything. It has the weather, Gmail, News, Popular movies, a Youtube searchbar, Jokes and Recipes. This is very useful because everything is right there in one place and easy for you to access. I think something like the calender would be very helpful because it is a good way to organize everything in a neat way and you can print it when you are done. I think something like the to do list is a little to much work for what it is. For a calender, it is necessary because there are different dates and times for things. With a to do list it is just simply writing something down. I would much rather just write it down then go through the trouble of making a list online. I would definitely use the calender in the classroom and at home. My life is hectic enough now as it is I can only imagine how much crazier it will be when I am actually teaching. The calender will definitely help my keep up with deadlines, important events, conferences, and other important dates.

Thing 15

I really liked the Sandbox wiki. I liked all of the wiki's because you can post your ideas and see what people think about them. You can also view what other people have posted and it may give you fun ideas for your classroom or newsletters. I also liked the teacher library wiki because it included many helpful links for teachers. I found it very interesting that you could edit a main page, and when you clicked the edit button to add what you wanted, you could also just delete what other people had posted if you wanted to. I did not really like this about it but other than that this seemed like a very helpful and useful tool for teachers.

Thing 14

I chose bubbl.us and mindmeister. I really liked bubble.us because you can start with one idea and branch off into many others. This makes writing papers and organizing ideas so much easier! I always struggle with organizing my thoughts and what I want to put in my papers and in what order. This makes it so easy to do that. I really liked mindmeister because it gives you so many options. You can choose from twelve different top templates, or choose a template from nine other categories like Business, Education, and Entertainment. Both of these were very easy to use and were both free. I will use this when preparing for my reflections paper and a research paper for another class that I have this semester. I will definitely show this to my students because this can be a very useful tool for students when writing their papers and organizing their ideas.

Thing 13

When comparing the two sights I immediatly realized a couple of things. First off, the Zoho sight had a lot going on and was really confusing to navigate. I didn't really know where to go or what to click on. School projects and assignments are stressful enough without the added aggravation of not knowing how to navigate a website. Google Docs, on the other hand, I liked. I have used it before in my Education 2100 class to communicate and collaborate with classmates on a group project. I like it because it is simple and straight forward. Even a first time user can navigate this website easily and successfully. Students can use Google Docs to collaborate on projects. They can make spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and tables. These can be very useful for projects.