Thing #17

I have actually used Delicious before while searching for sites that have information about my different interests in my everyday life, but I never thought to use it for the classroom!  I think that it could be a great tool for classes.  You could create an account for the class to have access to and link to sites that are part of the lesson plan and curriculum.  Students can search the tags to do further research of their own and find more information and sites to share with the class.  I think that teachers can definitely take advantage of social bookmarking to make searching for useful sites for the classroom much easier.

Thing #16

For my start page I chose Google and iGoogle because I already have a Google account.  I liked that you could customize what you wanted on the page, like weather and YouTube.  Online calendars are useful because you can keep up with tasks and events.  Online to do lists would just be too much work for me.  If I think of something that I need to do I would not take the time to go on the Internet and type it up on a to do list.  For me personally, it would be easier to write something down in a notebook or a piece of paper.  I would recommend any of these tools to anyone looking to increase productivity.  I would personally, probably not uses these tools in my daily life because I can be old fashioned, and I use a wall calendar and notebooks to keep track of things.  

Thing #15

Wikis are a really good idea.However, I think it only works if people use them correctly and professionally.  You can create a web page with any kind of information you want, and then you can have people or groups edit your ideas, or add more relevant information.  However, you want to make sure that people who are editing your data are doing so with the correct information, and that they are also not deleting your work and replacing it with something that has nothing to do with what you have previously created.  I think that a wiki could be used in the classroom with good results.  A class wiki can be made to further class discussion and students could add more information and their own ideas.

Thing #14

Flow charts and mind maps are really useful.  If you have a series of ideas that stem from one another, then this is a wonderful way to organize your thoughts.  I used MindMeister for my mind map and Flowchart.com for my flow chart.  It took me a while to get used to using each program, but I thought that they were interesting to use.  I chose MindMeister because I liked the way it was set up and I thought it was easier to use than Bubbl.us.  I chose Flowchart for the same reason.  Even though I had to wait for the email, it was easier than Gliffy, because with Gliffy, I could not figure out how to alter the template and I was just confused.  However, that is just my personal opinion.  These tools are great for those who are organized and want to keep track of their ideas. 

Thing #13

I though that Zoho Writer was interesting.  It was set up a lot like Microsoft Word and I thought that it was pretty simple to use.  You can share with other users or groups on the site or send it through email.  I did not like Google Docs as much as I did Zoho.  I do not like to use Google that often, I prefer other search engines, or its applications.  I thought that Zoho was more appealing, to me at least, because the way it was set up was similar to something that was familiar to me.  However, students could collaborate with Google Docs because if you set up a group, they can access the document and make changes and work together on projects or to continue class discussion outside of the classroom.