Wow! If I thought I was overwhelmed before...this did it! Not in a bad way, just as the blog said...sooo much information, tooo little time.
I started first by looking at widgets, specifically, yourminis. I thought I had a vague understanding of widgets and what they were, but I realized I have no clue. Looking through this sight, I just felt like I was missing something or one step behind. I couldn't really find a way to help. So, I gave it. Well, I gave up for now... If anyone can help explain widgets, I would GREATLY appreciate any info!
After that experience, I decided to try something "fun". I went to music and discovered Last. This is a sight that is free. You have a radio player and can set up a music library to listen to music. It seems like just about every music genre is on there with every big name as well as unknown but tagged as the same categories. You can also upload(if that's the right term) from your own music library from your computer. You also have the ability to tag anything added to your music library...and we know how helpful tagging is. :) There are multiple options on this site to listen to the familiar as well as discover new talent. It's great!!
As far as a connection to school and the library... it's there! :) Music is a drive for all people in many different ways. In the classroom, you have the ability to find and play music that goes along with any unit of study. Any brain research will tell you, that there is power in this. As far as personal, I love it! I can hear music that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. If you're a music lover, then this site is worth checking out...
Friday, August 1, 2008
Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools
This is very interesting. I think one of the pros to this would be that it's free. When you buy a new computer, you wouldn't need to also purchase Microsoft office to have word, excel, etc. You could use this and it is compatible with everything else.
Looking at Open-Office: the pro is it has most of the features that we are used to with Microsoft office. The con is like office anything saved is on that computer only. You can't have multiple users edit it or find a document on any computer.
Looking at Google Docs: the pro is that documents are saved on your web page so that you can access a document on any computer. Also, you can set it up so that multiple people can read or edit something. This is great for group presentations. The con is that it doesn't have quite as many features and options as open-office does.
Ultimately, I guess you would have to decide what your purpose is as to which would be best. For myself, I really like google docs. I had explored this in an earlier thing. I like that multiple people can work on a document without a bunch of emails or having to meet.
Looking at Open-Office: the pro is it has most of the features that we are used to with Microsoft office. The con is like office anything saved is on that computer only. You can't have multiple users edit it or find a document on any computer.
Looking at Google Docs: the pro is that documents are saved on your web page so that you can access a document on any computer. Also, you can set it up so that multiple people can read or edit something. This is great for group presentations. The con is that it doesn't have quite as many features and options as open-office does.
Ultimately, I guess you would have to decide what your purpose is as to which would be best. For myself, I really like google docs. I had explored this in an earlier thing. I like that multiple people can work on a document without a bunch of emails or having to meet.
Thing #17: Rollyo
http://rollyo.com/dkcliett/cliett1/
Above is the link to the rollyo search I created. A huge thanks to Bruce Goodner for the great video he made. Watching it made it very easy to understand and see the potential for rollyo. Rollyo will be a great place to set up search engines for students that are secure for the research. It will be very handy indeed.
Above is the link to the rollyo search I created. A huge thanks to Bruce Goodner for the great video he made. Watching it made it very easy to understand and see the potential for rollyo. Rollyo will be a great place to set up search engines for students that are secure for the research. It will be very handy indeed.
Thing #16: Wikis
This will be a savior! I am doing a presentation on dialogue journals and literacy letters. Wikis will be perfect for this. While, I will show the "old-fashioned way" with paper and ideas and suggestions, I am now going to really promote utilizing a wiki. We want students to talk/write to each other about their reading from book clubs and other things. This will be a much better way to get that kind of interaction going. I believe students will engage more in this format. Plus, as a teacher it will be so much easier to read and check on what they are writing without lugging tons of journals home. While I am focusing on language arts, obviously this can be used to enhance dialogue in social studies and science as well. Plus there are multiple other uses for wikis.
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