Thing 17: Tagging and Social Bookmarking with Delicious

After viewing the short introductory video, I headed over to Delicious and created an account. Immediately I was looking at Featured Stacks. After searching in "educational technology," I came upon stacks at the top and links below that promised some ties to my search. The second largest link was from a website titled "howstuffworks.com." It is important to mention after opening my account that I did as the video had requested and placed a link in my toolbar marked "save on delicious." So, I went to howstuffworks.com and then clicked save on delicious, and a box popped up allowing me to make tags for my save. The tags are a great way to not only save links, but to re-find those links as vast additions of websites are added in the future. This is a great tool in any classroom, and would definitely help elementary teachers in that they could tag by different subject area as well as "homework help," "test preparation," and so on. Also, a teacher can access and save websites from the comfort of their home and be able to access their tagged links at work the next day from a different computer. Also, others can see my tags, so if a fellow teacher wants to see what websites I may be using in our are of curriculum, it's as easy as finding me on Delicious. It's easy to use and convenient, and as I've stated before, convenience is key.

Thing 16: Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools

To start, I created a homepage that I was unfamiliar with. I chose Pageflakes. This is also why it appealed to me. I wanted a challenge. I was not disappointed. In actuality, it was a pretty incredible process. Being slightly familiar with iGoogle, I was expecting basics, such as the weather and possibly a calendar, but there was much more. First, I personalized the weather section. Next, I decided to be creative and attempt to tie my previously made Google calendar (from this class) to the generic calendar on the homepage, and it worked! At this point I was pretty excited, but I digress. I tied my e-mail, my facebook, and my twitter to the homepage. Alerts would just pop up without me having to have these different links open. There was even a news box and flickr box for local news and photos. Simply put, I'm sold. This covers my social network (Facebook, Twitter, Email), my local news, events, weather, and my own personal calendar from google! Not only will I use Pageflakes in the future, I will be asking my boss if I can incorporate it at the office (minus the social networking, of course).

The online calendars are an area we've touched already in our 23 things. I am in love with my Google personalized calendar and am still currently using it. I was excited to find that it even rolled over onto my iPhone, and to this day I don't know how! I was literally marking my phone calendar one day and saw that my events saved on Google were now there, so I can only assume my calendar on the iPhone was always the Google calendar, and I simply wasn't aware. This calendar has been incredibly useful because, since it is online, it can be accessed anywhere. Even on my phone. There are also nifty calendars that you can find at 
http://www.icalshare.com/ that offer options as neat as a personalized Nashville Zoo calendar.

As far as to-do lists, Pageflakes also offered one of these. I was sad that I could not tie an outside url to it like I had been able to for the calendar. I already have a great to-do list account also learned of from this course from remember the milk. I like my to-do list, however I find it just as easy to mark events on my calendar and set reminders. Then to find my calendar now personalized on a homepage is as easy as snapping my fingers. Plus, those same reminders pop up on my iPhone like a text message. I imagine everyone will have their own preferences for what they like. I'm learning that applications and formats that are usable in different ways are the most beneficial, and probably are more so in a classroom setting. A calendar accessible from any computer and also a mobile phone sells itself, especially when it's free, easy to use, and sends reminders. Others may prefer a to-do list. I may use Remember the Milk after this course, but until it is transferable to my new homepage, it may not be as convenient for me, and when someone is busy, it simply comes down to convenience.

Thing 15: What in the World is Wiki?

Ironically, this is my first class in my college career that has asked me to do anything on Wiki. I also happen to agree with Dr. Wall that Wiki can be a great tool for researching and learning, however I understand the huge implications of inaccurate information. This is where Wiki can be problematic. I did enjoy uploading my Thing 8 on to the 23 things wiki wall for everyone to enjoy. It's not so much my photography session I'm sharing so much as the map of where they were taken. Someone in Clarksville may want to know where that nifty mid-century style train is located that I am leaning against. Certain things are not found every day.

To go further, on Wiki I can even create a new wikispaces like the link that Dr. Wall had as an example in Thing 15. There could be a wikispaces specifically for downtown Clarksville, and part of the "Things To Do" area could show the nifty red train on tenth street.

When used wisely, Wiki is a great tool. It can be fun, it can be helpful, and it can even be edited and personalized. The important key with any wiki usage is simply to make sure the information is accurate. 

Thing 14 - Go With the Flow

For thing 14, I created a Flowchart account and played with mindmaps on mindmeister.com.  Frankly, I found Flowchart relatively simple to understand with its choices of basic layouts that could be used, altered, or recreated, whereas I found mindmeister.com to be difficult. For the mind maps on mindmeister, I had to create from scratch. Also, flowcharts were more concrete, where mind maps were relatively abstract. In this I mean that there were solid connection in both cases, but a flowchart used straight arrows, block shapes, and even a grid to keep everything looking professional. A mind map on mindmeister was bubbly and random. Mindmeister would be a fun tool for a random connection of thoughts, however for a straight play-by-play of events, such as a timeline or a family tree, the flowchart seems to be the more realistic choice. Although a sample was not requested, I included the fun I had on Flowchart.com differentiating solar and lunar eclipses.