Thing #12

I had an igoogle page already. It wasn't my home page, but it has links to news, weather and after playing around with it, I have decided to make it my homepage and see how I like it. I created a igoogle calendar. I think this could be a great tool for students to keep up with homework assignments, test dates and due dates on projects for their classes.

Thing #11

Feedster: Wasn't able to connect at first so I googled it and it came to a page that basically said feedster was a dying feeder? So I chose not to explore it anymore. Google: When I searched the school library learning 2.0, I came up with the 23 things in several different search engines. I had signed up for in the previous thing to google reader and I like how when you want to add a blog through Google blog that it asks you where you want it. This makes it very easy to subscribe to blogs. Bloglines was very easy to use and gave a variety of blogs to follow. Topix: Was probably the most confusing it required more to sign up than the others, which quite frankly I found annoying. I did like that it went straight to news about Clarksville. *What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Useful feeds in my google reader that I like is that I was able to pick topics and it gave me feeds to all kinds of things. I love to cook so I subscribed to a bunch of those. There is so much out there that I can see where it would be easy to get caught up in following a massive of amounts of feeds. For me signing up for so many feeds is just a little too much information overload. I don't necessarily have the time to keep up with all of this. I understand that they keep up with what you want to keep up with, but I can also see how you could get caught up for hours reading all the feeds.

Thing #10

I chose Google Reader, it uploaded the blogs I was already following which was nice, so it will make it easier to follow them without having to click on each separately. I was able to subscribe to bundle feeds which was nice. I think it will be a good tool for the classroom if I can find feeds that integrate whatever content I am teaching. Teachers can use this by finding feeds relevant to the classroom. Personally it will keep me updated on things that I am interested in. My favorite is being able to subscribe to Seattle news and blogs, that is where my family is and it's nice to have a feed that takes me to the latest news and information. Currently I subscribed to a lot of blogs as I weed through them though (time permitting) I will be able to narrow it down so I don't have so many to look at.

Thing #9

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

Well after playing around for a LOOOOnnggg time. I decided I liked the comic generator best. I was able to take pictures I already had on my computer and add special effects to them, which I thought was the best part. It took me awhile to figure out how to get to the picture I wanted to use. The site saves your previous uploads, and kept going back to the first picture I uploaded. I finally figured out you had to use original for the most recent pictures that you just uploaded. It was fun once I figured it out. I think this is fun for personal use, but not sure how all this picture making is useful for a classroom. It is a little to time consuming for that and not sure how I could tie it into content that needed to be taught.

Thing #8

I used mosaic maker to create this. I used an album I already had in Facebook. It took me awhile to get it the right size for my blog. I ended up copying the image after I re posted it to Facebook to get the right size. The other mosaic was huge and I couldn't get it any smaller through the mosaic maker. I will have to go back and figure that one out? Any suggestions. I am finding all the picture stuff pretty cool. I can't wait till I have more time to play with all this and get started on making albums for my kids.

Thing #7

woods akira Originally uploaded by haileyknowlton

This is a photo of our dog Akira in the river behind our house. I found this experience with Flickr both enjoyable and very frustrating. It took me forever to figure out how to post this picture and I am still not sure I did this right, but it is there. I am very excited about the snapfish aspect of this. I am horrible about putting photo albums together of my kids and after seeing what I can do at snapfish I am very excited. I take pictures all the time with my cell phone and send them to my email and then upload them on my computer, but I never print anything just usually post it to my facebook account. I am most definitely going to use the this resource to actually get some photo albums made. How wonderful that they will do all the work and just send me photo albums already done. I have a feeling I will be taking a lot more pictures and uploading them and I can't wait till I get my first album done for me.....As I stated earlier I have only used Facebook to host my pictures, but this is so much better, because of the Snapfish aspect. I am not to concerned about the privacy, because I will make all my photos private.

Thing #6

I chose Im cooked. http://www.imcooked.com/index.php I went to this site first because I love to cook and I am addicted to watching the Food Network so I wanted to check this out. My intention at first was just to watch for personal use and not to write about it in my blog, because how does making food have anything to do with a classroom? I then realized that this could be used in a classroom. I am a special education assistant for CMCSS and my first year I worked in a Life Skills classroom, which is for the severely handicapped. One of the life skills they work on is how to prepare simple meals depending on the severity of the disabilities depends on what they can do, but I realized that this site would be a great way for them to see how the process works. Most of the recipes of course are too complicated, but I actually found one where a guy gives a complete tutorial on how to make a marshmallow and peanut butter sandwich. I also realized this could be used in High Schools that still offer cooking as an elective.

Thing #5

School 2.0 means that the internet has become a way of life for many and that we need to embrace it and use the tools available out there. I like the description used in on of the articles that web 2.0 is an attitude not a thing. I am beginning to realize how many tools are out there on the internet to be used as I go through this class. Scary, I use the net a lot, but I am leery of many aspects. I have crashed my computer a couple of times from getting virus' on the internet, so whenever I am asked to download something to make something work (like the video on web 2.0) I cringe and cross my fingers that something won't happen to my computer. I do agree that as educators we must start using the tools available. Students already use so much technology daily and to not utilize what they already know how to do is a shame, but school systems especially poor ones will have a hard time keeping up with the technology especially since it changes daily. I envision a future where students will start carrying around their own personal computer to class, a very distant future, but one that will eventually happen.

Thing #4

Commenting on blogs creates a sense of community, because then people actually know their posts are being read and getting feedback from others is nice and it is interesting to find out what others think of your opinions. I suppose if no one ever commented on someone's blog that person might just give up on their blog. I think reading about the etiquette in blogging was important, because we do need to be careful on how we respond. Differing opinions is important, but we also remember that everyone's opinions don't always match and that while we may not agree with someone's thoughts we should be respectful of them. I found the 10 techniques to get more people to leave comments very interesting, while I am still up in the air here on whether I like the whole blogging thing, it was insightful. 1. I commented on T. Chad Peterman, because I appreciate the fact that he also didn't know what web 2.0 meant and that he is like me just getting to understand all that the internet has to offer. 2. I commented on Dsmith, Thing 12. She is very innovative and I appreciate the insights that she has to offer to what she did when she works on her things. 3. I commented Xayarath 23 things. First I did to congratulate him on his new marriage and I love the fact that he could view his photos so quickly and not have to wait to see them. I really think Flickr is a great tool and I am looking forward to exploring it more. 4. I commented on JAS thing #11. I too have not used technology to it's fullest and appreciate that others struggle with all that is offered out there. 5. I commented on Brokaw Spring 2010 to congratulate her on being done with all 23 things...WOW!!!