Thing #12

For this "thing" I decided to explore Google Alerts and Google Translate. For Google Alerts you just type in key words or phrases for what you want alerts on. For mine, I chose to look up the last place I lived, which was Bamberg, Germany. So, now I'm getting alerts once a day about what is going on in Bamberg. This is just something I did to keep up with some personal things and people who still live in Germany. I can also look at how much Bamberg has changed since I left in 2009. For Google Translate, it was really easy to explore because it is something I use everyday just for the fun of it. All you do is type in something in a language you know, and translate it into something you want to know. So, I wrote in English, "Hello, my name is Danielle Witter" and I then translated it to Korean. I may not be able to read it but it said, "안녕하세요, 제 이름은 다니엘 Witter입니다" The only thing I can recognize is my last name, but it was still pretty fun to mess around with. Some of the educational uses would be with Google Translate. If you were reading something in a book and it was in a different language, you could go to Google Translate to figure out what the book is trying to say.

Thing #11

I found that Technorati was the easiest to use. It gave a variety of ways to find different feeds There were feeds for women, technology, business, entertainment, lifestyle, sports, politics, videos and social media. You can also find the top 100 feeds, the most recent tags, and you can look at feeds of different people. There was also a Google Blog Search that I didn't really find useful unless you know what blog you are looking for. You could possibly search by using keywords, but then you might not know what blog to look for. The one that was more confusing was Topix, I didn't really know what to do on the site, and after looking at it for a few minutes it was still so overwhelming I couldn't figure it out. On Technorati I found that the feed on women was helpful, because it had a lot of interesting stuff on it. Other than that I just tried using the RSS reader, which was okay, but slightly confusing.

Thing #10

I don't like RSS and newsreaders at all. I can see how it could be beneficial to a teacher because they can easily look up something that they need to find, but I personally think it is complicated and time consuming. It may not take the teachers a long time to find what they are looking for, but for me, it would probably be a lot easier by just going to Google to look up what I need to find.

Thing #9

For my first 'creation' I made a little best friends smiley comic on Comic Strip Generator for my specific smiley comic, but the there is a list of all different kinds of smiley comic strips here. I just put  "To Infinity and Beyond", from Toy Story, as a little saying that friends could say to describe their friendship.

The next little creation would be a little more useful in the classroom. It's a quote that teaches children that what you think, you will become. If they want to be a doctor, then just that simple saying can push them to become what they want to be. I created that sign here, but if you don't want to use the sign you can go to Happy Face Generator to choose something else.

Thing #8

Domo Kun Puzzle

I created a Domo Kun puzzle by using the Big Huge Labs mashup and then just for fun, I used the Spell with Flickr mashup to write Domo's name. A few ways that the Flickr and the Flickr mashups are beneficial are the use of them in the classroom. With the puzzle mashup you could create your own puzzle of what you want your students to work on. Plus, it can go along with what they are learning in class. Posting photos online can be really fun, you would just have to be aware of who would be looking at your photos, so you have to watch what you are posting.

Thing #7

Harajuku Mini Backpack

Domo Kun

My photos, as you can probably tell, are very random. The first is a picture of a Harajuku Mini brand backpack that I just got and decided to take a picture of it because it is very colorful. The second is part of my Domo Kun collection. I have many more Domo related items, but these are the only ones that are on display.

My Flickr experience was relatively easy, because I have some experience in upload and sharing photos, but from a different website. I would probably use Flickr for the classroom and personal use. In the classroom I could post pictures of classroom activities that we are doing, and I could also use it to document any field trips we take as a class. And for personal use, I would use it to post pictures to share with my family and friends. Just like I stated before, I have used other photo sharing websites. I use to use Photobucket a lot in high school, but grew out of it. I don't really think that Photobucket and Flickr can even be compared. I like Flickr a lot more than Photobucket. And I don't really know how I feel about my pictures being out there for the public to see, it's a bit scary but I'm sure it will be okay. 

Thing #6

From the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees I chose to write this post on the Amazon Web 2.0 Award nominee. There's nothing that I dislike about Amazon, because I use Amazon so frequently that I have fallen in love with it. Amazon is very useful because, just as the website said, it has great prices on books and other supplies that you may need for the classroom. Since you do have to pay for the items on Amazon, it wouldn't be very useful to students except to look up and compare prices on an item that they might want. Unless they have their parents permission, or have their parents buy them something off of Amazon, it would be used for browsing.

Thing #5

From the perspectives that I read, I found them very interesting. Since I had never even heard about Web 2.0 until I came into the class, it was very interesting and insightful to find out more about Web 2.0 It was even more interesting knowing/ finding out that a lot of the social networks and other websites I get on are Web 2.0 tools!

As a future teacher who has practically grown up around technology, I think Web 2.0 is a really important tool. Since it is a combination of home, school, and community, the learning never stops. What better way to keep kids in-tune with their education than to have a community and a home life that are there all the time to help?! Web 2.0 is going to be an amazing and essential tool for everyday life in the, probably near, future.