Thing #7C..Google Reading

I love to skim all the articles in my Google Reader. I just wish I would get into the habit of doing it more often. It tends to get overwhelming otherwise. Whenever I sit down to the computer now..it's as if I have this treasure trove of things to do. I'm like a kid in a candy shop..rubbing my hands together and wondering what to try next :) I tend to forget my Google Reader. Yet whenever I return to it, I'm lost for at least an hour wandering through the postings available.
For this blog post I chose an article about Google Chrome as oposed to Mozilla's Firefox. The writer preferred Google Chrome for it's speed and potential. I decided to try the same experiment and see if I agreed. I really have not been impressed with Firefox, but my teens love it. So I want to be fair and get more input from them before I just remove it from my life..haha! Ok..enough about me, I'm going back to my reader now...just a few more postings left :(
It's sad really.

Thing #21

Wow! I love Google BookSearch! As we continue to be educated in all things Google I am more and more impressed. They have such vision! Among other things their mission statement says: "...we want to make it easy to find relevant books. books we coul not find any other way, such as those that are out of print." I toured the site and came upon this micro site and I am excited for both Google and all users everywhere for what potential this site will offer! I hope to use this feature alot in the future!
I also really had fun with Google Notebook. I can see where this will come in handy for all kinds of planning. For instance with Christmas coming up you can use it for gift planning, or decorating/entertaining ideas. Christmas tends to get overwhelming if you don't have all your planning organized in one place. So I can see the value of this. It would be great for vacation planning, for highschool students searching for the college of their dreams etc. etc.
I also went to the Lab for the pages in progress, I looked at the Quote site but was disappointed to see that it was only politicians who were the quotables. Maybe if they expand that to all famous folk, that would be a little more interesting. Also used Google Calendar and iGoogle for the fun of it. The more I learn about Google the more I love it. Once you've gone Google-you'll never go back haha!

Thing #20

I enjoyed playing with Google Docs. It is very user friendly. I dabbled with presentations. I also experimented with the spreadsheet option. I don't think I would ever use the slide presentation, but you never know. It is great to know it's there if you need it. The one I would use most, would be the word document program.

I think that the option for collaboration, would be the only reason I would ever use google docs. I watched the video at the beginning of this exercise and learned why email ties up alot of copies of the same document. Collaboration efforts would benefit by the fact that everyone can access revision history.

I can see this put to use by students working together on a presentation. It would also work for the individual student, when revisions are necessary throughout the paper. For instance, an English paper that the teacher has asked for revisions at several stages. I also think you could use google docs. for organizations like PTA or other non-profit organizations. When certain people have information they are responsible for and others have different information etc. they could use the spreadsheet option to add their info. and so on.

So, once again, something I had no idea existed. Free!! Gotta love it.

Thing #19- Voice Thread

Well this was an interesting exercise. As always I was impressed with the teachers that found uses for this in the very young classroom setting. The A-Z library project was adorable. I also was very entertained by the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote antics, complete with Chalktalk on the VoiceThread website. The younger students seemed to be the most at ease with the chalk and the talk haha!

Once again I think something like this would be wonderful for the student who has trouble expressing themselves on paper. Working in CMC, I see how many students struggle with writing projects. This would be a great way to get around that problem.

It would also be a great way to stay in touch with long distance family members. My sister lives in Atlanta and has 5 wonderful children that are similar in age to my children. It would be a very fun and creative way to keep up with each other.

Thing # 18 I can YouTube too!

I've been watching videos, videos, and more videos. I've learned how to have smokey eyes watching a video by Sephora makeup. I've learned how to stuff a turkey, and how to become a ninja...pretty funny, long story. I think I've learned how to embed a video onto your wordpress blog, and hopefully on your blogger account. It was great going back in time to watch the Ty-d-bowl man yahchting around the toilet tank, oh those were the days :)


So my video of choice was a cute and educational video by Animaniacs. How great for teachers to introduce a very dull subject. The hyper animaniacs singing the names of the countries as fast as lightening..so hopefully my youtube tutorial will work...


OK...just a couple of lessons from this experience. The first video I embedded from youtube was great and it worked..BUTwhat I did not notice until I was watching it with my 11 year old son was the little cursor permanently etched into the corner of the screen was in the position of giving everyone the finger!! So needless to say my "cute" video was more than a little inappropriate. I had to go back and delete that html and re-copy the same video from a different source. I am still a little unhappy with this one because if you scroll through the selections that are also offered by this contributor..there is a video about Godzilla..who cares. I only wanted the animaniacs video but I got more than I bargained for.

Well I'm out for the night..I'm YouTubed out.

Thing #17-Podcasting

This is a topic that I am a little more familiar with since I have owned an ipod for the last two years and have subscribed to several podcasts regularly. However, I had no idea how many other sources were available to subscribe to. I enjoyed checking out PBS and NPR. I especially enjoyed the site called Skip the Tuition. What an opportunity it is, to able to hear elite college classes across the country..like Harvard, Yale, MIT, UCLA!

I also was very impressed with the educational podcasts that were selected. I especially liked the format of the 60 second Science podcast. "This'll only take a minute." I loved that! I also really liked the music and the sound effects that they used. The other one I listened to was Grammar Girl-Quick and Dirty tips for better writing. Both podcasts were short and informative. Which lets you know that you don't have to be intimidated by the 30-minute format. Just 60 seconds of information and you learned something in an entertaining way.

The other thing I walked away with is the fact that you don't need an ipod or mp3 player to view the video podcasts! I had never given this a thought!! I would always steer clear of any videos because my ipod does not have video capability. But I tried out a couple of video podcasts from NOVA and Jean Cousteau etc. I was impressed..who needs TV? There is so much available to read and watch on the web, you could literally spend all your free time in front of the comp screen instead of the TV screen.

Thing #16 Library Thing

Well I absolutely love, love, love Library Thing! I love books! I love to read. I love talking about books, and I love reading about good books to read...so yeah! This site was made for me. I know that I have come upon it in the recent past, whether through 23 things or in researching a book I can't remember... I had it bookmarked already.

So now I am an official Library Thingster. I already read at least a book a week...but now after all my investigating...my list of books to read has grown exponentially!!

This site would be wonderful for Reading teachers and English teachers who have assigned a novel by an author who has more than one book to their credit. Then the student could search for which novel they would like to read next by the same author. I know of several students I had last year that loved the book The Giver. They were not readers by any stretch of the imagination, but they found that they actually enjoyed reading this book. I told them if they liked this book they might like other books by the same author. If I had known about this site, I would have taken them to it, and looked up the author right then and there.

OK..I'm going back to Library Thing..I think I'm addicted.

Thing #15 Delicious Social Bookmarking

Ok..I'm truly addicted to delicious! I have been playing with it for hours and had to force myself to stop...you can just keep going and going...it's a never ending string of places and information. Very cool! I didn't have any trouble tagging..or bookmarking...but I did have trouble with the subscription part of it. I tried to "subscribe" to PC World..but when I put the tag in...an entire 7 pages of subscriptions showed up ...No thanks...so I deleted them until I can figure that part of it out.

This will be so much more organized than bookmarking. I have two tool bars with the bookmark option and can never remember which bar has the bookmark I need..so now I will be able to find the website I need by quickly looking at tags...it's just like a filing cabinet!

My delicious user name is Gibzchats. I think delicious would be great for research sites and educational podcasts..the list is endess really. You could use delicious as another search option for any subject. I will be a loyal delicious user from now on.

Thing #7b

Checking out my latest RSS feeds in my Google Reader....
I came upon an article that caught my eye from techlearning entitled Seven Tips for Late Bloomers. It mentioned the fact that no matter what your level of ability you can always learn more. I loved that, because I never want to stop learning. I think you only begin to get old the day you believe you know it all. Once again I am floored by the amazing number of tutorials available for ongoing learners. It's exciting really...it feels like there is an entire world waiting to be discovered..I know I sound cliche but I love this! I really love this stuff! This is by far the best class I've ever taken. yeah!

Thing #14

Well I looked at alot of these and some were easier to use than others..I especially liked the Tada list though. I am having about 20 people over for Thanksgiving and starting to stress a little. The Tada list has little check off boxes when you've completed a task..you can even email your checklist to yourself. Quick and easy..

I also plan on using Weebly.com for a company website that I am in charge of updating. You can use it for an existing domain free! That is wonderful..because the one I have to use now is very technical and not without alot of frustration attached.

Once again, I am amazed at what is available free online. The gliffy website was cool too...I loved the idea of flowcharts and floor plans..you could actually use those for classroom floorplans when we have to make a map of the room for TAKS testing...timelines etc.

OK...I'm off to the Wiki Sandbox

THING #13 Image Mania

Well I have been at this, literally all day. I have been diligently travelling back and forth, between my computer, and the rest of my housework like an obsessed photo maniac. My poor husband has given up on me, and thinks of himself as a 23 things widower..and he's right..haha! The price of of an education in web 2.0 tools!

I could say this was fun, but I would be lying. Parts of it were, but for the most part it was just frustrating! I had to upload my photos over and over again, for some reason. I tried to use photos of sunsets for one mosaic that never worked out..so I used pool photos instead. It ended up being quite good though. I really liked the image generators. Some sites were much more user friendly than others. For instance image chef is great!

I think that mashups and generators would be fun and interesting in lieu of written reports once again. I think students get so burned out on written reports of 500 words or more etc. But if you told them to research a subject using only images and let them present their notes to pictures..well maybe kids would be a little more excited about their homework.

Well, I am exhausted and ready for a nap now..no more computering for me tonight.
I'm out.

Sunset Sailing

sunset sailing Thing 12

Wow!~ This was fun!
I really liked Animoto..and it was easy..very user friendly.

I had fun choosing which site I liked best even though it was a tough decision..but in the end I think Animoto is best for grown-ups..the others seemed more glittery..and teen-agery. I can't even begin to imagine all the ways we will be able to implement this in our personal and professional lives.

Again, I chose sailboats as my theme. My inspiration was my desire to just get away from it all and float off into the sunset...

Here are my photo credits:

Sailing by jphilipson http://flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/
sunset and sailboat by listen to reason http://flickr.com/charlestilford/
Sailboat at sunset by webbmb http://flickr.com/94028658NOO/
Sunset Sailing by rusty one http://flickr.com/bac_clin/
Sailboat at sunset by lapstrake http://flickr.com/lapstrake/
Sailing into sunset by tiarescott http://flickr.com/tiarescott/
Another sunset but this one from Hawaii by Jim Frazier http://flickr.com/jimfrazier/
Sunset sail by Markus941 http://flickr.com/markus941/
Sunset from Diamond Head w/sailboat by ca16938 http://flickr.com/candersen/
Sailing wether by wildpianist http://flickr.com/wildpianist/
Sailboat at sunset by godfreek56 http://flickr.com/borntoworship/
Sailing into sunset by ducktourer http://flickr.com/hodgiemullo/
sailboat at sunset by sskennel http://flickr.com/sskennel/
Dennys Beach Sunset by Don Gato http://flickr.com/dongato/