Thing 17

I am a big YouTube watcher.  I love watching my subscribed videos and I always notice on YouTube all of the tags that all of the people use on their videos.  I also think that when you add a tag to something it helps searching for an item easier, whether it be on YouTube or on a research site.

I see huge potential for these resources in the classroom.  It is a great tool for if you are doing a project over something in Social Studies, you can create something on a tagging site such as "Delicious" and to get to the link faster they can type in "Underground Railroad" and it will take the students to the sites, blogs, opinions they are looking for.  Tagging is also a great thing to just use anywhere.  Even if you are looking up something for yourself, tagging is a great tool that is useful in easy research. 

Thing 15

At first I was unable to figure out how I was supposed to post on to the Wiki.  Once I figured it out I was able to put the picture I created on my blog post about Thing 9.  I think that a Wiki will be beneficial for many different things.

You can use these for if your are in a group work project.  I think there are many ways on a Wiki to show your ideas, pictures, and videos to others besides yourself.  The main thing that was great about a Wiki is that you do not have to limit the Wiki to just a few people, you can share it with the world. 

I also discovered the CMCSS Wiki for technology usage.  I thought this was pretty great myself.  I thought the strong point of this Wiki was that you could ask questions in a discussion board and the administrator of the site can answer the questions.

Thing 16

All of the sites that I went through were pretty great, but I actually have "my own page" that helps me stay organized. The "myYahoo!" has many great organizational tools. This has a calendar that you can add upcoming events/assignments in. You can also create special spaces that contain anything you want. I have my calender, stocks, horoscope, show listing, movie listings,etc... I love this site and always use it! I highly recommend this to everyone wanting to stay organized and up to date with things. Here are pictures from myYahoo!

I did explore the sticky-notes.net and thought it would be very beneficial in keeping all of my ideas organized. I am a big fan of sticky notes in real life. I am always writing down things I have to do, and if I am having to record my thoughts while I am on the computer, what better way than to use cyber sticky notes!

Thing 14

I chose to explore the "mindmeister" mind map and I also chose to explore the "Gliffy" flowchart. I really enjoyed exploring the flowchart more than the mind map. I feel as if I could use it more often especially in the classroom.

When you use flowcharts, it is easier to use these as a sequential order for things such as stories and dates in Social Studies. I think that mind maps would be an easier tool to use when dealing with things in detail. You could most certainly use a mind map with telling the climax, resolution, etc... in a story.

These are wonderful tools that would be helpful in the classroom and even outside the classroom!

Along with discovering the flowcharts I discovered on Gliffy that you  can create a floor plan for a house or apartment.  It was so cool with the basic tools they had for you to use and it was easy to use!  Here is part of the house I have created:

Thing 13

This was one of the most informational "things" I believe I have come across.  I knew that google was awesome, but I had never really gone into deep search through what google could do through Google Docs.  I really enjoyed using Google Docs more than I did using ZoHo.  The site for ZoHo just had too much going on for me.  I like to go to a reference sight and know where I am going right off the bat.  I feel like ZoHo is like going to the clearance section in Belk, you start to look...and then you think to yourself, "I really don't want to look through all of this for a blue shirt."  I'm not say ing ZoHo couldn't information friendly but I think it would take awhile to find what you wanted with all the links I saw all over the place. 

Now, when I went to Google Docs, I was very impressed.  I am the secretary for my soroity and I am well aware that i can accept Documents through Google, but I did not know that I could create and accept drawings, spreadsheets, etc...  I feel it necessary to have these great tools especially in a classroom setting.  This not only will help with collaboration between students but the teacher could get involved as well.  This could happen through the comment section in Google Docs.

I look forward to using this type of technology in the classroom.  I really need to reconsider search engine sites for more than just research.