Thing #17

Hmmm...what is there to say about the website Delicious. I had a hard time figuring it out due to my ineptness in technology. I've read others' posts that said that they loved it and that it was great to use. If only I had their skills...Oh never mind. I went back and tried it again. It is an awesome website. I like how when you type in something in the search bar and other peoples' bookmarks popup and they give you an option to view them and decide if you would want to bookmark it to save it for later.

Thing #16

Well where do I begin. iGoogle is actually pretty neat. I forgot that I actually had an account setup for it when I signed up for a gmail account forever ago. I like that I can personalize it to match my personality...granted it is just the my main profile for iGoogle but still. I mean, who doesn't like to express themselves in anyway--within reason--that they can. I cannot express how cool online calenders are!! I am now addicted to them because I live off of the one I have on my phone. I try and try to use actual planners, like book and pencil, but it never works out. I always start out strong with the 'I will do it!' mentality but it never lasts long. Like maybe a week at the most. I really, really, really need to get better with 'to-do' lists because I always lie to myself and say that I will remember to get it done...yeah right...I never remember whatever it was that I promised myself to not forget till the last minute. I'm pretty sure my horrible procrastination wouldn't be all that bad. It's definitely one bad habit I am having a hard time to shake. I liked the Sticky Notes because I am always on my computer so it's a lot harder to lose actual reminders that are in my computer...the actual little yellow pieces of paper never stay in place for very long or they always get jumbled up....

Thing #15

I like the concept of being able to add your own comments or tweaking someone else's work. I'm not meaning that in a mean way, but sometimes there are posts you see that have a word spelled wrong. So of course you would want to "help a sista' or brotha' out". I mean if I had posted something for the world to see and I had said or spelled something wrong, I would like for someone to either let me know or just fix it for me. Lord knows I am not the greatest speller in the world. That's just a minor example of what I find interesting about the wikis.

Things #14

For the mind map portion for this assignment, I used the bubbl.us website. I tried that one out first and I actually enjoyed it. It really is quite simple to use--though it took me a minute to figure it out because I am tech-challenged at times--and a little fun. I don't know why I chose the topic I used to do my 'brainstorm', but it just came to me and I just went with it. Here is a sample of what I did:

(I apologize in advance if what my 'brainstorm' says offends anyone--this is just what I wrote)

As for the flowchart section I used the flowchart website...yeah....didn't like that one at all for it was too complicated for me to use. I mean I did get something done but it was the most basic option I could do. I tried to do the family tree or the brainstorm template...didn't go over so well. Mainly because I didn't know how to get it to work or get it started. No matter how hard I tried. So I ended up just using the vertical timeline template. I did like using that one, mainly because it was really basic. Here is a sample of my handiwork:

Yes there is an option to make it all colorful and pretty, but I didn't realize it till after I saved it. Oh well, it gets the point across.

Thing #13

Zoho Docs is a pretty cool website. I like that it gives you more options in spicing up your text and so on. It even allows for whatever you write to be edited by others and will let you know if something was revised by someone else. Like if you shared a word processed document or a spreadsheet of some sorts it will let others make corrections and give you advice on what to say in your, for lack of a better option, a lesson plan or something. Meaning that your fellow teachers could let you know if they have tried what you are planning to do and can tell you what they thought worked better for them. Or maybe even just comment on it and say that they never thought of that and want to give it a shot themselves. I also liked the concept of using the Zoho Show. I thought that was a pretty niffty, yes I said niffty, feature. After clicking the tab it provided a short film telling us what we can do to share your presentations, how to fix it or make it stand out.
In the Google Docs I was exploring around and I actually found an old document I did in high school that I shared with a friend. We were working on a project and we needed to send documents back and forth to each other. So my friend had sent me the document and I had no idea how to get to it--I needed this document (high school days) about six years ago. But it all worked out in the end. I think that it was cool that you could also have someone else edit your work. Like at the top of the page it next to the "Edit" option it said, "last edited was made 6 minutes ago by greeneyesHEK". Granted that was myself that had "edited it".  I tried messing around with the document and it wasn't as easy to work with as it was on Zoho Docs. However, I like that you could make a quiz or something and you could possibly have your students create a test of an assigned book they read or from a chapter in a text. Then have other students take the test and then create a spreadsheet from the results of their "quiz". 

Thing #4

If you want people to like and comment on your blog, it's only right that you do the same for them. It'd not right to expect everyone to just "worship" what you have to say. It's not only gracious, but also nice to do the same for others. It also allows the opportunity to learn something new. Like they could post a link to something similar to what you posted so you could either get some new ideas or the better what you have said. Because there is always the chance of being misinformed and people have the tendency to state misguided information. So it is always nice to give little inputs here and there. Also, commenting instills a sense of community. As though you belong to a certain group.

Blogs I commented on:
Mallory Johnson Thing 12
 -She made a post about using the Google Calender and I did the same thing.
JoBeth Turner Thing #3
 -I commented on it because I liked her concept to how she thought blogs would be useful for when she becomes a teacher.
Karalina Roelle Thing #6
 -She posted about one of the links given for that blog assignment that I hadn't had the opportunity to try and she was very informative about the process of it.
Stephen Smith Thing 9
-I really, really liked the little creations that he did for his blog. I could picture them clearly in my minds eye as something I would see on a classroom wall.
Lacy Jack Thing 4
 -Okay, her blogs are simply awesome! I love how she used a numbered picture to go along with every "Thing" post. So very creative!!
Pintrosity
 -I found this blog via Lacy (above). I mean, I was so obsessed with her blog why shouldn't I check someone else out that she liked. I'm glad I clicked on the link because it led me to a bunch of cute photos and ideas to try.
Health Food Blog
 -But of course I had to find a blog that was somehow related to some of the health topics I've discussed. I found some really good recipes on this blog that I am eager to try.

Thing #12

Okay, so lately I've become heavily reliant on my calender on my phone due to the fact that my life has become crazy busy as of late. So finding another style of calender to try was pretty neat. Granted I did have a hard time trying to figure out, still can't, how to link the calender I already have on my phone to the to the new one I was attempting to create on Google Calender. I really like the concept of it and I could see it being used to link teachers schedules together so that everyone can keep posted as to what the others are doing. Like see what field trips each other takes so that they can get some ideas. The other thing I tried was the Google Alerts. I've set up alerts to receive updates whenever the following has some new information (School Library Learning 2.0 & Healthy Diets). Which will be nice because the first will be helpful in finding information that would apply to my major and the second would help me further along my mission to bettering myself.