Delicious and other fun Social networking Sites

     The premise of saving bookmarks on one computer and being able to access those bookmarks on another computer was an "aha" moment.  What a wonderful idea.  I am always bookmarking on either my laptop at school or my home computer intriguing sites that I might be able to use for my classes.  It never fails...I remember this site that I found and it always seems to be on the other computer.  I anxiously signed up for the account, followed the directions.  Added the toolbar to my home computer and began tagging my favorite sites and some that I had forgotten about.  The tags are an awesome idea that really help to find a site that you have not visited in awhile.  I have already figured out some key words to help me remember what the sites are about and was able to use it this week to find some sources on worms that I had forgotten about.  
     Now if I could only find a site that I found several months ago from a teacher who sets up at home labs for his students each year. I will keep looking.  Who knows someone else might have bookmarked it already.  I thought it was a great idea at the time.  Ugh, I wished I had known about tags then.  Finally, an app that I can really use, then major disappointment...I cannot access my Yahoo account at school.....what a bummer.  So much for that idea.  For me that is a major disadvantage.  Any way around it?    Guess I will have to check with our tech gurus.  

A Thing called Mashups

The video was interesting to watch...I just realized that I have been using a "mashup" for quite a while now.  Every time my daughter decides its time to move, between using craigslist and other realty sites, I have become very familiar with the little map icons used by the sellers.  I never thought that they actually have a name....once again who thinks up these names?  Do they get a royalty every time it is used?  I did try my hand at several of the Flickr sites, including making a movie poster for my daughter from our great trip to San Francisco and the island of Alcatraz.  She got a big kick out of it!
I can see using a type of Mashup with the 8th grade multigenre project with their graphs and tables that are required for their presentation.  Yahoo has a program called pipes that allows one to make a specific mashup, when I get more time I plan to see if I can make my own pipe!

Flickr, What a site!

What an amazing source of photos for friends and others to look at and use.  After taking the tour of Flickr, I practiced uploading some pictures from last summer into an album.  Wow, how easy!  As I travel on this journey called Web 2.0, the names never cease to amaze me.  Who ever thought up Nings? or LinkedIn? or Blogging?  And how did the word google become a verb?  How the language of the internet has changed our vocabulary.

After viewing the many different aspects of Flickr I would like my students to find out all it has to offer.  After reading a blog about the common mistakes of PowerPoint, I can't wait for my students to try and use actual photos for their engineering competition presentations for the judges. What a great way to add some individual  creativity to what has become a very boring way to present information.  Tomorrow its on to "mashups???" 

one cubic foot

Check out this site to see how many organisms you can find in one cubic foot 

This is a site that one of my colleagues sent me.  I had forgotten, or maybe it was just residing in the background of my mind, all of the wonderful information that the National Geographical Society has to offer.  Whether you are a science teacher, or a social studies teacher it has a plethora of information to share and use by students or teachers. 

Thing 7 & 8 revisited

After spending time developing my netvibe page, I realized that I look forward to learning new things and what they can do, but feel somewhat overwhelmed as to how to use them to be a  more effective educator.    I am amazed at the amount of information that is available at your fingertips.  You can get feeds from various newspapers from around the country not to mention the world.  I did sign up for the New York Times Science edition feed, which I miss.  I used to have a subscription for the class and enjoyed the articles to share within the class, now having it on a daily basis I can once again use them.

I think that having my students blog about ideas might prove to be a good way of assessing their understanding of various concepts presented in class.  My concern would be the student's ability to have access to a computer.  I suppose though that is not the problem it used to be in the past.

Thing 7 & 8

Well after spending most of the evening setting up my netvibes pages and checking out blogs, I suddenly realize that it is almost midnight. I will have to end for tonight but promise to add more tomorrow. 

Thing 6

Over the weekend I discovered a Ning  called "The Flat Classroom."  What a fascinating grouping of people.  Teachers and students alike.  All posting various questions, having to do with everything from the use of uploading, downloading, internet use etc.  Students and teachers alike use the site.  I have a page on it and have put one posting on it as well as answering some surveys.  Check it out at http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com/profile/DebbyPeters.  Now if I can just remember all of my new log-ins and passwords I will be ok!