Thing #14

I chose Gliffy.com for flow charts and mindmeister.com for mind maps. I like Gliffy because when you create a chart you get to chose the  type of chart you want to use.  I played around with the vin diagram and I think I can use it for presentations. The only thing that I did not like about Gliffy.com was that there is not an option to add to the already created outlines for the flowcharts.  If there was something about the outline that I didn't like I could not change it

What I liked about mindmeister.com is the ability to create as you go.  The diagram starts with only one cell the middle and you can type in them and add more parts as you build your own mind map!  I think that it would be easy to accidentally create a mind map that makes sense to me (because I made it) but it not make sense to other people.  So maybe very simple mind maps would be best.

The only way to create charts that I knew of was through powerpoint.  These tools are so much better!

Thing #13

    THING #13

     Zoho writer reminds me a lot of Microsoft word, that I am very used to.  It has all the same features plus a few extra.  I liked that Zoho writer has a "share" tab. It also has extra web based features.  I think that Zoho writer is an effective site to use when you write; however, Zoho took a very long time to load on my computer so that is a down side to web based productivity applications.

      I also explored  Goggle docs and made a  Google docs drawing.  I thought that it worked really well and I noticed that Google docs is what a few of my professors use in class.  Students could use both Goggle docs and Zoho in class.  I think that they might think it was fun to make a Google drawing together.  I prefer Google Docs over Zoho but both are great web based productivity applications.  However, I think  Zoho writer most resembles Microsoft word that they might be most used too.

Thing #12

My Google alert
 I chose to explore Google alerts because I do not usually just search the internet for information unless I have to for my classes.  With Google alert, Google does the annoying part for me!  I typed in a few things that interest me, and I automatically get news, blogs, and useful information about it sent straight to my e mail.     It might be the mostly useful thing that I have signed up for so far.  I could also tell Google alert to alert me for  certain kinds of  new educational games, 2.0 tools, or many other things that have to do with education.  So it could be very helpful for educators.

My Google Calender
 I also chose to create a Google Calender account.  I am supper terrible with writing down events in my planner so I really think putting all my events for each week in Google Calender is awesome.  It even notifies me by txt an hour before I need to get ready to go!  Google Calender can also be helpful for teachers.  Teachers have to many IEP meetings, parent teacher conferences, staff meetings, and personal events that I'm sure can really add up.  So a Google  Calender is a  big help for the hectic lifestyle that comes with being an educator.

I had  trouble making my calender public so I took a screen shot of the things that I put in for this week.

Thing #11

Google Blog Search was definitely the easiest for me to use! It was the only search tool that I did not struggle with understanding how to use.  I found that Topix.net not to hard to use and I was able to add a few blogs using it.  But I still thought that it was a little confusing.  Technorati gave me fits but with the tutorial I kind of figured it out, but I do not like it.  I found one really interesting site called funnypicdump, and it had a lots of ridiculous things that people had submitted from the Internet.  This site made me laugh!  On Topix.net I entered my zip-code and found dozens of feeds that have to do with my hometown.  I read an article about an incident that happened at my old high school. I think that is a feed that could be useful for me to see on my Google reader.

Thing #10

I like that RSS puts all of the blogs that I chose and want to see in one place.  I am always for anything that can save me time.  I am not sure how students could use RSS or  news readers in the classroom, but I think they are great for teachers to use.  I subscribed to a few teacher blogs and they are full of ideas that are great for almost any classroom.  I think teachers should definitely use RSS to read educational blogs to keep up with new neat ideas.  I know I will be looking at them to get ideas for the future :).  I also like RSS, newsreader for personal use too! I subscribed to a fitness runners blog which I love.  Some days I need a little extra motivation to go run.