Thing 15

Thing 15 is all about Wikis! 
A wiki is a collaborative website that allows users to easily add, remove, and edit information. The best know Wiki is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia. Educators could use wiki to create a homepage for their classroom. Teachers could create a home page to plan fundraisers, field trips, food drives, and homework information for the week. In a couple of my classes in college I have had teachers require us to check their wikispace instead of using elearn or the school website. Professors do this because unlike the school site that is updated every year/semester a wikispace can stay forever with the same content and assignments. Teachers could use wikispace to create a online scavenger hunt. Teachers could also create a wiki to provide information or resources for a research paper or project. I created a space using wetpaint.com. My space is at http://kaylareneecrouch05.wetpaint.com/photos/album/205090/DIY. My space is about Home decor and Do it yourself crafts!

Thing 14

Thing 14 is about Flow chart and mind maps. Flow charts are great tools for staying organized. Mind maps are great tools for illustrating thoughts. I visited WWW.bubbl.us and created a brainstorming document about my blog. Bubbl.us was free and is a great way to record your brainstorming without using pencils and paper. Bubbl.us organizes all your brainstorming ideas in one place. The other website I visited was Gliffy.com. On Gliffy.com you can create many different types of graphic organizers and floor plans. Gliffy.com was a great tool for again, staying organized! Staying organized is important for a teacher so that you can use time effectively and stay on track!

Thing 13

Thing 13 is about web based applications. This means applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. Google Docs and Zoho Writer are some great tools for publishing documents. Zoho Writer enables the user to create documents without the need for installing software to your hard drive. Some really simple ways you could use this in your classroom could be making newsletters or assignments such as writing projects, crafts, or worksheets. Google Docs differs from Zoho Writer in that Google Docs collaborates between users to allow communication. These tools would be helpful in sending work to students who are sick or unable to attend class. I created a sample assignment on Google Docs to get a good look at how user friendly all of its features are. The link is provided below

.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g237HsjZtdRnXDAuhXmjNnWvkKybNG8SYiFPYfZ2y54/edit#

Thing 12

Thing 12 is probably one of my most favorite technological topics.....GOOGLE!
Google used to be just a search engine, not anymore! I have an android smart phone that is powered by Google. The first step in entering the Google world is to set up a Gmail account. I have a Gmail account because of my phone. Go to Gmail.com and set up a Google email account. After you have done that you can set up an IGoogle homepage on your computer, customized to your design of background and content within news feed. Google offers a variety of features. There is the Google calender, Blogger, Shopper, Translate, Reader, and so much more. Google makes it easy to set up your own blog, remind you of events, shop online (safely) and save all your pictures in one place. The best part is if you get stuck somewhere in the process of accessing any of these great tools, you can Google how to do what it is your trying to do. Google teaches me something every day. If I don’t know something, I Google it and most of the time I find what I am looking for. Google could be a very powerful tool for a teacher because you can access so many webpages, calibrate your calendars (classroom and personal), set up a classroom blog, and safely back up your pictures so they don’t get lost. Google is a great resource and I am so excited to see what new features it acquires.

Thing 11

Thing 11 is about finding blogs and website that are appropriate to follow.
Google blog search is a great tool to help you find blogs. Topix.net, Technorati, and other Edublogs award winners are great resources when it comes to finding blogs. Personally I am obsessed with Pinterest.com. Pinterest helps you find great blogs in the education category. That’s how I found most of mine. I found a couple of great teacher blogs, kids is a blog dedicated to educators and parents of school-age kiddos. Google makes it really easy to find blogs in any category that you're interested in.

Thing 10!

Thing 10 is about RSS and newsreaders. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. That means it is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. The best way I know how to use this would be to set up a Google reader account. If you already have a Gmail account then you just need to go to Google reader and sign in and subscribe to any blog or news site that you like. I love this feature because it put all of my favorite websites and blogs in one place, and even better it tells me when they post new stuff. Basically this site surfs the web for you. I think that this is a great site for consolidating all of your sources into one place. In your classroom you could subscribe to tons of teacher blogs and bag, borrow, and steal ideas to help your students learn from those sites.

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