Thing #12

Google's and iGoogle translate website are the best. Having the quick access to items for making a blog site or homepage for teaching is priceless when a teacher wants tech to be accessible and simple for classroom enhancement.

The gadgets are very useful. The intuitiveness of how to navigate around and put into practice the site is what one would expect from any Google creation. Feeds from iGoogle, such as the "news" RSS feeds, and others like geography and finance are a full measure of awesmeness for a social studies teacher. Using www.google.com/ig I am able to log in using the same email and password I hadset up for the class blogger account and associated gadgets.  

Above is a snip of the added gadget, "Leadership Quote of the Day," to my iGoogle page.
The screenshot was copied from: http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/111144257485755267205/leadership3.png

Thing #11

In my wildest dreams (or perhaps nightmares) did I ever consider there being so many choices for so many different feeds, readers, blogs, mashups, pinups, pileups, dialups, ...wow! It truly makes one's head spin. However, I believe that when all of these different information sharing tools catch on in the main stream, the easiest to use will be the standard-bearer of the RSSs. Technorati and Topix were too busy and I really did not like the aesthetics of the sites and the confusion it promoted. Although Topix was the better of the two, I believe I will stay with the Google Reader that is incredibly intuitive for the user. After all, how much easier can it be than to simply type in a word and it will immediately show results and allow one to subscribe with one click. Search no longer for a format reader, Google Reader is the ticket!

Google Reader icons were procured from: http://aux2.iconpedia.net/uploads/4267480351366915913.png

Thing #10

I follow several blogs with Google Reader. I follow History, Caitlin's Way, Erica Peredez, Erica Tucker, and Teacher in Training. The Reader allows me to search the blogs for the specific information I am interested in without the need to read the entire blog to find the subject of interest. Basically, this is a nifty time-saving device that can seriously cut down on the hunt, so to speak. The one-stop shopping capability of the RSS makes this a fundamental tool for anybody's online kit or bag of tricks. Moreover, plugging into a teachers style network will pay off in the sharing of information at light speed. Imagine having an RSS feed from the school website, favorite blogs, current items from a particular research field. I have said it before and I will say it again, "Imagine the possibilities!"

Feed Icon copied from:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Feed-icon.svg/128px-Feed-icon.svg.png

Thing #9

GOOD LUCK TEAM!!!!

 

 

 

I found that Image Chef was a simple and useful tool to produce vast amounts of visuals that could potentially be useful in a classroom, in the hallway, or perhaps even a gymnasium door or transferred to a banner for a larger audience. This particular image was produced in mere seconds because of the simplicity of the site layout. Once on the site, the viewer is immediately cued into the possibilities of the image makers and helpful templates and categorical layouts makes the site interesting and fun. Teachers might find the image generator as a way to liven up handouts or even the bland walls of a classroom. Additionally, students might be taught how to create their own images for use during group projects, art projects, or math products. With the thousands of current images and the ones that are continually being generated daily, the usefulness of this tool is only limited by the users imagination.