Thing 17 Delicious

Delicious is an awesome bookmarking site. This site allows you to collaborate and share web links with others very easily. I can see many uses for this application in the classroom. I would make a shared reading list for the students, where we all could make recommendations for great books to read. This site is also a great way to share favorite web links with others. This is a great way to enhance learning for all students in this Learning 2.0 era!!

Thing 16

I chose to use Google Sidebar. Unlike a homepage, the sidebar is always there. You can keep track of the time, weather, news and my favorite....EBAY. I just stumbled across this application, however I would recommend this to anyone having to keep track of many things at once.

Online calenders and "to do" lists are great if you have an enormous amount of things to keep up with. I usually just make a list on a spreadsheet if I have too much to remember. Seems like a lot of work setting up the calender and lists.

Thing 15...wikis

I have never heard of Wikis before this class. I always wondered why they called it Wikipedia and why you shouldn't take everything for truth on that site. Well now I know....anyone can change or delete content!!!! That is crazy. Having said that, I do believe that wikis can be very beneficial to education. I think it would be an awesome way for students to collaborate and share information...all in one location. Its like the entire class having ONE blog. Awesome!!

I added a copy of my post about online image generators to the 23 things wiki. Check it out if you like APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki

THING 14

I tried Gliffy and Bubbl.us. It seemed like you could accomplish the same things on both sites, however I found Bubble.us to be a little more complicated. Flowcharts are an awesome tool, especially when you are teaching visual learners. These sites make it very easy to incorporate flowcharts into your instruction. Teachers should always look for new ways to improve their students learning experience. Thumbs up!!

Thing 13: ZOHO

Ok...I know it has been a while since I have written in my blog, but I have been really, really busy....lol....no excuses!



I checked out this Zoho Writer site. At first, I thought that it was going to be just another cheesy Microsoft wannabee site. WOW....was I wrong or what?? This application is awesome. I played around with the ZOHO Writer and it was just as easy and Works, but has alot more features. I love how you can share the document with someone else and allow them access. They can add to the document and make changes in real time. Talk about collaboration!!

Thing 12

Man....I did not know that Google offered so many different tools. This class is worth more than the tuition!! I just set up my Google Alerts:

http://www.google.com/alerts/manage?hl=en&gl=us

I set up alerts for the following:

Special Education

Secondary Education

Teaching Careers

I also set up a Google Calender. This was very easy and is going to be very helpful as my responsibilities increase. Here is a snapshot:

These tools have so many uses when it comes to education. I will be able to keep up with timely information as well as keep up with my schedule. Being able to look at your entire week at a glance is very helpful!

Thing 11

I found Blogline very easy to use. You need to make sure you have your search set on "feeds" or you won't get what you are looking for. I found Topix and Syndic8 more confusing and more limited on what I was looking for, however they may be useful for others. I added the following feeds to my Google Reader:

National Association of Special Education Teachers
American Education News Site
Chicago Business.com

When searching, I found it helpful to see how many subscribers there were. That helped me to narrow my search a little. This is an awesome tool....I think I'm hooked. If I have 200 feeds that I am subscribed to, is it still helpful in saving time? I guess we must have "balance" in everything we do.