Thing # 17

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

I really enjoyed the delicious site. It is extremely easy to navigate and to tag preferred links. This kind of site is like a library data base that does not require such strict search options. There is such a vast amount of information just a click away. I can certainly see using this site with my younger students as a way of getting them used to searching for data on a topic.

Thing # 16

http://www.netvibes.com/privatepage/1#science_news

For this assignment, I found the netvibes start up page to be the easiest for me to use. It is nice having so much on one page and not having so many tabs open at one time. This reminded me of the rss feed assignment we did. This is a good way to stay organized. I do not think I will make this page permanent yet. I am still accustomed to navigating around the web when I need to.

http://30boxes.com/?&tz=300&width=1902

I think the online calender can be very useful. It is similar to the dropbox account where you can access you calendar from any computer. I like the feature where once you put in a birthday, it then automatically adds it to every following year. I still use a small physical daily organizer, but i plan on going paperless very soon. I did find the to do lists to be very time consuming, in fact I needed to make a to do list about making a to do list. I will be better off sticking to a calendar for my notes.

Google docs is an excellent resource available to everyone. I have used it several times already to collaborate on group projects as well as personal documents. I have and will continue to suggest this site to my friends and fellow students.

Thing #15

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_%28Chicago%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Museum_of_Natural_History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly

I have used wiki pages as quick references for years. I understand that they are easily edited and so you must take caution with all the facts you read. I think it is a great, free resource for quick references. I usually get a base of information from wiki sites that I then use to do further research on more reliable peer review data bases. I have added a few links to some wiki pages that I think are interesting.

Thing # 14

I first ventured onto the http://www.gliffy.com website. I played with several of the free templates. It was fairly easy to use and navigate around on. I am not sure if this style will be very appealing to my students. I believe the mind map looks more kid friendly and less official looking.

Next, I experimented on the https://bubbl.us/ website. It was even easier than the first site to navigate and use. Both, the flow chart and the mind map can be useful tools in my class room. I can use them to break down long and difficult topics/assignments into easy portions for my students to follow.

Thing #13

 I created the free zoho account. I made a test document of a formal greeting letter to the parents of my future students. It can be viewed by following the link below.

 https://writer.zoho.com/index.do?docId=2998854000000014001&pc=true&wsilent=true

The next task was to explore Google Docs. I have used this site several times before. This is a link to my first Google doc upload for my 2100 class.
https://sn2prd0102.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=AiUfsrDxRUy6bWHBw5BaxPnbxBY5-M8IBn9lU1ZTvSgtyk6Ol_cgitIdLZClRmLbCClB1FH7Cbk.&URL=https%3a%2f%2fdocs.google.com%2fdocument%2fd%2f1nOw6OvtUwFZMOCoCGMtn1osUip_2-dXG7ZrzhU81tRg%2fedit%3fusp%3dsharing

I have to say that I prefer Google Docs over zoho because I am more familiar with it and I do feel there are more options for editing and sharing. Google Docs is also free where zoho requires you to pay for premium services. The benefits to students using Google Docs is limitless. I can create assignments that the students can collaborate on as well as a endless number of interactive assignments.

Thing # 12

I am very familiar with Google. I use the Google Translate to help with my Spanish homework and I also use Google Docs often. I found Google Alerts to be very useful. Google is full of great resources and being able to separate by topic helps refine searches and stay up to date. This will come in handy in my class room to quickly pull up a topic and then search only within those parameters. I can see making an assignment where I ask students to only search within a specific alert area.

Here is an example of one I set up for 2nd Grade Science;
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&q=2nd+grade+science&lr=lang_en

Thing # 11

I just could not believe the number of blogs out there. Blogging is still very new to me. I found that using search tools was very helpful i sifting through the thousands of pages to find useful and fun blogs. http://technorati.com/ was the easiest for me to navigate. It has multiple ways to refine your search and the homepage is not too busy looking. I explored several other search tool sites and I personally found them very hard to navigate.


 I found a blog on emergency planning for schools to be very interesting. In today's society one must always be prepared for the worst. I want to know that if the time comes, I will be ready to protect my students.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/28/taking-action-creating-model-emergency-management-plans-schools-institutions-higher-

One of the oddest blogs I came across while searching for this assignment was a blog about a guy who made a machine to separate oreo cookies. This is just one of many uses for technology and that some people have too much time on their hands!
http://www.inquisitr.com/547184/oreo-separator-physicist-builds-machine-to-scrape-creme-off-his-cookies-video/