Thing #9

I mostly played around with the image generator Image chef.  It was easy to use and had some really fun options. .  I used a photo frame with snow on it to make it look like me and my sisters were sitting outside while it was snowing.  Then I used another frame to put a white water rafting aid on the side of an old building.  I even placed my boyfriend ,who was home schooled, in a yearbook since he had never been in one before. Then I gave him perfect attendance.  All I did to create them was find a template that I wanted, then I uploaded a picture that I thought fit.  When I got the finished product I just saved the new image on to my computer. It did not take long at all.

I think that image generators can be used both in the classroom and personally.  A teacher can make up her own signs for her classroom using an image generator.  Also, a teacher can teacher her students how to use image generators to get them familiar with technology and uploading images.  I think students would have a blast doing it.  For personal use you can use them in what ever way you would like.  The sky is the limit.  You can attach products from image generators to emails, Facebook, Powerpoints, or just play around with them for fun!

Here is the link to Image chef... HAVE FUN http://www.imagechef.com/

Thing #8

I created a puzzle picture using Flickr photos and I love it! I wish I could choose where to put the missing puzzle pieces though.  It kind of took away my boyfriend's dog banjo's leg away and my neck, but that is okay. I also used spell with Flickr. I had never heard of mashups before but I think they are fantastic because they put two really neat web 2.0 tools together to make one SUPER neat web 2.0 tool. My favorite part is that they are so incredibly easy to use.

I think that students would really enjoy using mashups in class for a fun twist on assignments or to get them into using web 2.0 tools.  Students could make a creation on Mosaic Maker then share with the class their Mosaic and why they choose the pictures that they chose.  I think sharing photos on line is fine.  If you do not want other people seeing your photos then do not share them.  That's simple.

Thing #7- A hamster's distress

I began looking through the pictures on Flickr and found so many amazingly cool, beautiful, and funny pictures. A lot of the ocean landscape pictures gave me Spring fever because I really love going to the beach during the summer!  But this picture of a hamster taken by vrot01's photostream ( Tom from Texas),
  just called my name for some reason.  I want to let him out of his hamster cage because that is what I think the little guy wants.  I also think that Tom did a very good job of capturing the hamster's distress.  It really makes me want to sit around all day and snap pictures of my hamsters. HA!

Flickr is a really fun photo sharing cite that I would use.  I think the tags are a little confusing but they are a great way to help organize pictures.

vrot01's photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrot01/8494163143/

Thing #6

The 2.0 tool that I chose to explore was the website Grammarly.  This website is very neat because it is a grammar checker.  Microsoft word and lots of other things just as E-mail contain spell check but many times my professors mark my papers for grammar errors. Grammarly is a solution for Grammar errors! Grammarly is easy to use.  All you do is paste the text that you want to check in the box and then push the button. I typed in the sentence "I is goin to the walmarts" just to see if it really works. Grammarly found 4 critical writing issues with in that sentence and told me what they were.  That sentence contains a pronoun agreement  error and a subject-verb agreement error and two misspelled words.  It also checked for plagiarism which is very helpful.  I like Grammarly and think that  I will use it agian.  Grammarly could absolutely be used is a school setting.  A teacher could ask her students to check their book reports, or any writing assignment on Grammarly before they turn it in.  If a student turns in an assignment with a lot of Grammar errors, a teacher could ask the student to type it into Grammarly and to tell her what mistakes he made as a teaching method.
http://www.grammarly.com/?q=grammar&gclid=COnkrcOIw7UCFQ3NnAod-yUAZw

Thing #5

     "Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press" is a powerful statement made by Steve Hargadon in his article "Web 2.0 is the Future of Education".   This really caught my attention.  I thought about how I use printing press everyday.  Most of the things that I read have been printed, all my school books  have been printed printed.   The invention of the printing press effects my everyday life.  Then I thought if the web has made the same impact.  My immediate answer was no way!  I avoid computers and the internet as much as I can.  BUT THEN, I realized all the things that Web 2.0 tools can teach that regular print on  paper cannot.  Print on paper can not be as interactive as an educational website, or teach students in the same way.   The "50 tools that every teacher should know about" article  made this even more obvious.  Print on paper can not do all of the cool things that garage band, gaggle,Kidblog, mindjet, moviemaker and so many more, can do.  These tools can help take education to a higher level and I  now really do agree with Steve Hargadon.  
        To me School 2.0 means using technology to take education to a level that it has never been before.  This means that schools will begin to make many changes.  Future schools will be very technology based and use the worldwide web to explore new ideas, and to educate students in new and more effective way.  Future graduates will be well prepared to enter the technology based work world.
     

                        

Thing #4

     Commenting on other people's blogs keeps blogging interactive and fun!  Blogging would not be interactive at all if no one ever commented.  The cool cat teacher blog said "If one is an expert, I guess they may just want to keep their "wisdom" on their own blog, but the true conversation participants are those who contribute to the discussion wherever the blog posting is."  I really liked this part of her blog and really thought it was true.   Blogging is definitely more than just posting on your own blog.  Also, I enjoyed reading the 10 techniques to get more comments,  I never thought about asking questions or being totally open ended in my blogs until I read this.  It gave me some new ideas.  
       I chose to read and comment on  Sherry McNeily's and Kanika Wallace's  thing #2 posts honestly because I sit next to them in class.  It was fun to see parts of  their personality in their blogs that I do not get to see in class.  Their post made it very easy for me to comment on them.   I really agreed with Autumn Kirkland's thing #3 post and that is why I chose to comment on it.  I also think that discussion blogs for literature classes would be a fantastic idea.   I read and commented on Sarah Hammontree's thing #8 and Ashley Hartling's thing #6 because they are both a lot farther ahead than me, and I was curious.  I commented on Sarah's thing #8 about her puzzle picture because it was so adorable!  I  want to catch up to thing #8 so I can see the trouble that she was having.  Ashley's thing #6, I actually plan to use to make birthday party invites for my little sisters sweet 16.  I liked telling her that in my comment.  I am excited to use smore.com.  
    The other 2 blogs that I chose to comment on were Misty Wallace's "Pray" blog and a teacher blog called "teaching in high heels".  Misty is a friend of mine that is a missionary, so I loved reading her latest blog.  The teacher blog had a picture of "Sight words chant sticks" I told her through my comment that I loved her ideas and would love to use them one day and thanks for sharing her ideas!