Thing 14

After exploring Gliffy and bubbl.us, I would choose Gliffy for the ease of use. The flow chart makes more sense to me than the mind map. I don't have the experience using the mind map that I do with the flow chart so this might be based on my comfort level. Flow charts are a quick and easy way to visually represent a process. I chose to create a flow chart on Gliffy outlining the process used for assigning a note taker to students who cannot take notes for themselves. This will be used during training of our office student assistants in the fall.

Thing 13

The applications are great tools and the accessibility is my number one favorite. I started developing my own wiki with Zoho and also used Zoho writer to post my first document on my blog. When I was writing the document, I had fun with the fonts, smileys, and comments. It wasn't until I viewed it on my blog that I really became excited. The 3D look of the document is amazing. It looks as if it is moving or flowing on the page. I am looking forward to using Zoho writer in a collaborative project.

Myfirstzoho

This is my first Zoho writer page. This week I've experienced many firsts.
First.....blog
    first....mashup
           first.....online class
All these firsts are exciting but can be overwhelming at times. Learning to manage and organize the new learning is a challenge!

Going Paperless

This is an extra post that I'm very excited about. While reading the textbook, Integrating Technology, I found the chapter on going paperless when writing a research report. I used the steps in chapter five to create my first paperless report for my other class, EDUC 5613. It was a terrific learning experience and now I have my outline and folders for research ready for the next paper.

Thing 12

Google: More than meets the eye
Google Calendar
I created a calendar and shared it for public viewing. One feature I like is the accessibility from anywhere I have internet access. I'd like to create a private calendar so that I know all my activities and appointments using the web.



Google Alerts
For my scrapbooking ideas, I created an alert. I will use the tools on managing alerts and look forward to new ideas.

One educational use is the calendar. Students could post assignments and school events.

Thing 11

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
The methods I tried which worked best for me were Google blog Search and Topix.net
*Which Search tool was the easiest for you?
Google Blog Search was the most user friendly. The links were clear and the RSS feed was easy to find.
*Which was more confusing?
Technorati was the most confusing. More time would be needed for me to use this fluently.
*What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
I found a "most popular" feed on Topix.net and various travel feeds as well as news sites. I am still looking for my scrapbooking feed.

*What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? I found more feeds on the Google directory.

Thing 10

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
This is a wonderful tool for everyone with a hectic schedule. The work of finding current and relevant news and information is done for you. I have used RSS on my yahoo blog and it's always convenient to view all my interests on one page

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
In my professional capacity, building a reader site with relevant feeds would be very beneficial. Staying abreast of the laws and court findings is essential.

How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
Using a reader to create professional development resources would be one way to use the RSS. Having students create a blog for a particular subject or project and linking the RSS for the subject matter could provide research resources.

Thing 9

I created a smiley face using a smiley generator. Instant messaging has been one of my favorite means of communication so it was fun to create my own custom smiley.

Another image I created was a magazine cover. This was also fun and easy to create. I tried to create scrapbook pages also, but the image wouldn't load. This is a project for further learning.

Image generators will certainly be useful in my personal life. Professionally I can see them as a useful too. When I was in the classroom, one of my lessons used comic strips for writing. Using technology to produce the comic strips seems to be a positive motivator.

Thing 8

In your post, talk about some ways Flickr and/or Flickr mashups could be used in your future classroom or personal life. What are your feelings about sharing photos online?
Personally I will use mashups to create pages for my digital scrapbook. This tool can be used in the classroom to create digital story telling presentations. Sharing photos online is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends from anywhere in the world. Permissions must be used to protect the privacy of those in the photos.

Thing 7

Flickr
Will you use Flickr for classroom, library or personal photos, or in some other way? How?
I plan to use Flickr for my family photos and to create a digital scrapbook. Scrapbooking is one of my favorite hobbies and digital versions often take less time to create.
Have you ever used another photo hosting service besides Flickr? Which one? How do the two compare? Flickr is the only photo hosting site I've used.
How do you feel about having your photos in a public place (note that you can mark your photos private too) -- any concerns? As long as you set the permissions correctly, Flickr is a relatively safe site. I would not post family photos for everyone to see.

Beverly Hills meets Star Wars

Beverly Hills meets Star Wars
Originally uploaded by steele magnolia 2009

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Thing 6

Writeboard
What did you like or dislike about the tool? I am excited about this tool because my other class, EDUC 5613, requires that we collaborate in an interactive mode to write our next paper. I definitely want to utilize this new tool.
What were the site’s useful features?
Writeboard has a tutorial and example pages which provided a new user like myself, a user friendly experience. There are a blue million features and I will look forward to all the fun and useful tools.
Could you see any applications for its use in a school or library setting?
As I stated, this is an excellent tool for collaborative projects. I plan to use this in the future when teaching APSU 1000.
http://www.writeboard.com/

Thing 5

What does "School 2.0" mean to you?
Developing interactive learning communities using blogs, learning with the web as an information resource, and digital storytelling are foundations of 2.0 learning in David Jakes article. In a global society School 2.0 utilizes the connectivity of the web in order to share learning and build upon present learning. John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler in Minds on Fire point out social learning is based upon active, passion based learning which develops naturally into life long learning beyond traditional education. This means a new perspective of education beyond the traditional model of which I am a product. Changing the delivery of education and being open to innovative technologies will be important to remain current in education.

What does it mean for schools of the future?
Schools of the future will require fully funded technology budgets in order to keep pace with the global society and economy. Our society must place a higher value on funding education and use the best available resources in order to supply every school, student, teacher, and administrator with the tools necessary for competing in such a global marketplace.

Thing 4

UPDATE
Getting feedback on your posts is ultimately what a blog is about. Sharing information and opinions in an open forum can be thought provoking and lead to in depth discovery. Through the blogging process the blogger's personality and values emerges. Blogs provide a communication tool valuable in today's world as we all have some many activities including school and work. Building an online community of like minded individuals or even of opposing views is a result and asynchronous communication is becoming the way to stay in touch.

Cool Cat Teacher makes a good point of sharing some about yourself in each comment. It's important for others to know who is making the post and also adds to the community building when bloggers do so. Problogger also adds that asking questions may increase the number of viewers who comment on your blog. If only ten percent of the viewers comment you can also roughly gauge the amount of hits to your blog. I think both of these are important in engaging viewers to comment and build a community. When we can make connections by posting a bit of ourselves in our comments then we can sustain the blogging community of which we are a part.

I commented on the following blogs for this class: Hilary, Angela, Jamie, Mr. P, and Stephen. I started following them the first week of class as part of this Thing. I like that feature because I can check on updates without having to go to each individual website and can see the highlights and choose the ones of interest to me. I chose these because I liked a particular design or idea each of them used. The other two blogs were TeacherPop and a country music blog I found on Technorati's directory. I posted on TeacherPop as an assignment and the country music blog for my interest in music and singing, especially country.

Mainly I commented on the Web 2.0 tools each of my classmates used and responded to the posts. I enjoyed getting to know them better and using new ideas or tools I hadn't used.

Thing 3

An idea from Edublog Insights that I would like to use in my office is a blog about grants. We are currently seeking grants for assistive technology, programs for students with disabilities in higher education, and capacity building grants. Blogging is a great way for all of our staff to post information no matter where we are or what time we want to post. We would also obtain information from others who view our blog.

Thing 2

How did you decide on your posting name and the name of your blog?
Since my last name is Taylor, it was not too much of a stretch to borrow the golf products name and add my zip code. I use this name for another email account. The first time I used "taylormade" was when I designed the birth announcements when my son was born.
What was your experience in creating the blog? Was it hard for you or easy? Why?
The blog was not difficult to create. It was fairly easy and I am excited to develop my family blog so we can all stay in touch. I plan to also teach my son to create his own. The main reason it was not difficult for me to create would be that I work with different types of software programs on a daily basis and also I have created a blog within yahoo.
How does your avatar reflect your personality? Did you create an avatar that looks like your real self or someone totally different? Why?
My avatar doesn't resemble me as much as the one I have on yahoo. This one was created in fun and I wanted to see what the new features of this site would produce.

Thing 1

Lifelong learning:

The easiest habit for me is number two; accept responsibility for your own learning as an investment for your future. This is easy for me because I always think of learning new things as an investment and can visualize the return on investment. The hardest habit is 7 and 1/2 because I often do not take time to play after learning a new skill. As a single mother with many responsibilities, my play time is often pushed aside. It is up to me to make more time to play as the rewards of playing often become evident in tasks from other areas of life.

Learning Web 2.0 tools will allow me to communicate with students about the events and happenings of my office at APSU. Setting up the blog was not difficult and adding gadgets was fun.