~Thing #19~

Social networking for educators can help them keep in touch with their students even better as long as it's education-centered and appropriate. For example, a Facebook group used solely for educational purposes would be a great use for social media. In my news class, we had a group on Facebook so that it would be easier for all of us to get in touch with each other, view the rundown whenever we needed, and to assign last minute stories if needed.

I am, almost unfortunately, a part of many online communities. First and foremost is YouTube. Afterwords I am also a part of Tumblr, Instagram, and Wordpress.

The sites I mentioned are appealing to me because YouTube is video, Tumblr is a social culmination of blogs, Instagram are pictures from friends, and Wordpress is blogging outlet that one can also follow other blogs on.

I find it interesting that it recommended teachers to try Google+ mainly because I don't think anyone ever uses Google+ for anything.

~Thing #18~

If there is a social network that I actually like, it would be Twitter. I've used Twitter since about 2007, and ever since it's something that I frequently update. Unlike Facebook, the average Twitter user doesn't use it as a diary, political campaign, etc. People more so use it for quick, witty thoughts, long rants, or random thoughts. Most of the time, they're quite comical, especially if you have a handful or more of friends to follow.

My twitter is http://twitter.com/LK___

FOLLOW ME! haha

It's important that educators understand social media because it is something that will be around for a long, long time. People use it to keep in touch more than texting each other some times. Therefore, it is something that students will continue to use. On these sites are things that you would never even guess about a person, but lo and behold they post it on their Facebook.

Hashtag searches can be fun because there are a lot of comical people on Twitter. For a classroom of high schoolers or college, having a twitter as a class would be a good tool to use. It can help keep everyone updated and connected easier than a group text or email can. On Twitter, there is the ability to create a "list" where only certain users are on the list, and once you view that list, you only see those tweets on your dashboard. I think that would be the most useful thing about Twitter for in the classroom.

~Thing #17~

I can see the potential of this tool in the classroom, though I prefer to use StumbleUpon. This would be a good discovery assignment where the student has the liberty to choose any random website from a list of tags to write about.

This is also a tool that makes it easy to bookmark interesting websites. Tags are an important part of web business. Teachers can take advantage of this to help liven up their lesson plans. Perhaps they could find an interesting website through Delicious or StumbleUpon and use it as part of the lesson.

~Thing #16~

I used Symbaloo as a start page because it seemed the most concise and quickest start page to use. I will probably not continue to use Symbaloo because I don't really need a start page. I don't mind taking the extra time to access each individual website/app that I need to. However, I personally prefer the Google Chrome start page that it offers because there are so many and they are easy to use without a clutter of information.

I've been using Google Calendar for a while now because I like how select people can view it as well as edit it. In this way, synchronizing schedules is quite easy.

There is one app that I've used occasionally called Think. It's for Macs and it blocks out all applications other than the one you have selected to use, i.e. Word or Pages. I would recommend it to others if they've got a big paper due, but some person on Facebook or another social media website kept bugging them.

~Thing #15~

I honestly do not really like Wikipedia unless I am in need of quick information that could plausibly be true.

Editing the page was a little bit frustrating, mainly because once converted to source the font size changed and everything squished together making it hard to read.

I don't think I would use(create) a wiki ever unless I absolutely had to. I think it's interesting that many people can edit a single wiki page as long as they have a log-in.

~Thing #14~

Click the images for a giggle, perhaps

I used Gliffy and Bubbl.us . I chose them because I wanted to explore the different methods of brainstorming. I don't really brainstorm before I write or create anything, so this was particularly hard for me to do. In the future in my classroom, I will show my students these tools and possibly have a workshop with them because I know there are people who work better after brainstorming. Using these fun and interactive tools, maybe it would encourage more students to try brainstorming and perhaps more will discover how much they like it.

~Thing #13~

Google Drive File

The students could work collaboratively on a drawing or a presentation as a class because through Google Drive they can all access a file and edit it. For example, one powerpoint could be edited by every single student in the class by simply sharing it through Google Drive.

I prefer Google Drive over Zogo simply because I'm more familiar with Google Drive and I tend to use my Gmail more than any of my other email accounts.