Thing # 17 Social Bookmarking

After creating my Delicious account, I see the bigger picture behind social bookmarking. I never thought about how you bookmark stuff on your computer, so when you go to a different computer you can't see those bookmarks. Wow, that is a huge inconvenience that social bookmarking takes care of. Teachers could use tags to bookmark resources for each unit they teach. This would be something you could connect to that cool Wiki I talked about in my previous account. So that if a teacher needed a lab for determining molar mass, teachers could look at resources others have posted, and pick the lab that best fits their needs. Teaching really is about not having to recreate the wheel, so why not collaborate and share recourses, it just makes everyones life's easier. I could see this being useful in my classroom as well. A common question I get in my class is, "why do we need to know this?" I could have students who ask this question bookmark websites that connect what we are doing to real world situations. Students could tag these bookmarks and compile many reasons that what I am teaching them is relevant to them.

Thing # 16 Get Organized

I chose to look at a UStart homepage, simply because this was the easiest of them to remember the name of. I liked how when you first opened the homepage it included things like, weather, a monthly calendar, and top news articles. I typically use Safari on my computer and it comes with a homepage that links to all your top viewed websites. UStart was very different, containing a lot more information than just your most viewed websites. I didn't like how you had to link all the websites to your homepage. I liked how my Safari homepage would automatically do that based off my most viewed websites.

Using 30 Boxes I created a monthly calendar and added a few dates to it. The calendar was really easy to set up and use, but not very convenient to my lifestyle. I need a calendar in front of me that I can pull out and check at any minute. I think managing this online calendar would be more of a hassle than its worth.

Zamzar is a very helpful tool i will be using in the future. This website allows you to convert one file type to the next. There are 4 simple steps to turn a file into a different format, just upload the file, click the type of file you want it to change into, type in your email, and click submit. They will email you the fine converted to the correct file type. This will be very useful when you have a PDF, but need to convert it to a Word document to be able to type on the document. There are many times I can think of off the top of my head that knowing about this website would have been really helpful.

Thing # 15 The Wiki

Before thing #15, I had seen Wiki's and heard of them, but didn't realize how many possibilities there are within them. I visited the examples of Wikis provided, and enjoyed seeing how others used Wikis in a variety of ways. My favorite was the Resources for History Teachers Wiki, which allowed teachers to collaborate resources for teaching history. I learned that edited material could still be viewed at a later date, which made me feel more Wiki friendly. At first it scared me to think someone could just come delete my work and replace it with theirs, but then I realized the importance behind the collaboration on Wikis. I added text on the APSU 23 things sandbox from a previous post on my blog.

What I find most interesting about the Wiki is that there is a built in tool that can track each edit that is made. To truly collaborate you should be able to discuss why someone took it off your Wiki, and why they replaced the text with what they did. I would be interested in creating a Wiki for chemistry teachers in CMCSS. This would allow us to share resources and activities that works in our classroom. We could talk about how we taught lessons and receive input in what worked or didn't work for other teachers on the same pacing.

Thing #14 Go With The Flow

I love using flowcharts in my notes, because they help students visualize which topics relate and what makes them different. I always just drew the flowcharts on the board, because I had trouble getting them in a presentation the way I wanted. The above flow chart was made using Gliffy very quickly. I could use this website to create flow charts for my notes, screenshot them into my presentations, or print them off and have students fill in extra information on them. Bubbl.us is a mind map creator. I feel like this would be more beneficial to me as a teacher when planning out my instruction for a particular topic. It gives me more freedom to make changes as I go and interconnect my thoughts. Students could also use this program though when brainstorming or coming up with information they know about a particular topic. Both flow charts and mind maps are very useful in the classroom.

Thing # 13 Google Drive

Google Drive Discoveries 

Below is a screen shot of the Lesson Closure quiz I made using Google Forum

I believe one of the best applications of Google Drive is the ability of students to collaborate on the same document. That eliminates one person doing all the work compiling the information. Each student can now be focused on their part of the document, and then edit or make suggestions to other students' work on the same document. This will also probably motivate your slackers to get their portion done, because everyone can see your progress as you work through your part of the assignment. I really think Google Drive is creating applications that will benefit teachers in the classroom.

Zoho seemed more business focused. You also had to pay for this application after a 14-day free trial. I felt like Google Drive was easier for me to use. I am already familiar with gmail, so I found all the buttons I needed pretty easily. Zoho may not be affordable for a school system to purchase for each student. Google Drive is a much better choice for public school educators to use.

Thing # 12 Google

The first google tool I chose to investigate was Google Scholar. In previous classes where I had to find specific articles or articles on a specific topic, I typically ran into trouble. The majority of the time I would find a title and an abstract that really interested me, but couldn't locate the full text. Google Scholar could come in handy as an extra database to check. The search engine is really easy to use. You can search very generally in the main search bar, or narrow your search parameters by using the drop down arrow to a more advanced search. You can use Google Scholar in almost any classroom. Basic more elementary uses could include searching for any article and teaching the student how to correctly site the work. More advance uses of Google Scholar in the classroom would be researching a particular topic and writing a correctly styled MLA or APA paper.

Next I decided to use Google Plus Photos to backup my wedding pictures. I had to download the app for the program, the upload all the pictures. Uploading the pictures took awhile, but it was something I needed to do and totally worth it in the end. Google Plus Photos links similar pictures together and plays them as a loop. This was really neat with our wedding pictures because it liked pictures together of us walking down the isle and our first dance. This would be really neat to use in an educational setting especially in a science class. A student could be in charge of taking pictures of the process of a chicken hatching or a science experiment, and then load them into Google Plus Photos. It would create a quick look of the experiment and could be shared with anyone. Enjoy below a screen shot from my Google Plus Photos creations, or click the link above to enjoy them all!

Thing #11 Finding Feeds

Through searching for blogs to add to my RSS feed, the options were endless. I found the Google Blog Search to be the most helpful and easiest to use. Others were harder to find the blogs I was searching for. When using the Technorati blog search, I typed in "Chemistry" and all sorts of blogs came up that were not chemistry related. I added a few blogs to my RSS feed, either about chemistry research and development or instructional strategies for teachers. I enjoy reading chemistry research in hopes to find an article written on a high school student's level. The above image was what I found on a few blogs. All i had to do was click on that logo, and select Feedly as my RSS reader. It automatically took me to a link where I could subscribe to the blog on my Feedly account. Other blogs were not so user friendly.

Some unusual blogs I found were lots of relationship blogs from my keyword, chemistry. Just by getting on social media, I found many links to my friend's blogs. I never really took time to read them, but now that could also be something I ad too my RSS feed.