One more thing!

    Overall, I think this project had good intentions for its participants. Coming away from this experience, I've done a lot of things using Web 2.0 tools that I probably would not have done without this class. There were some useful tips offered in the 23Things. For example, the online calendar and Delicious site are useful programs for everyday life. The Zoho program was another thing I'm glad I learned about. However, I feel like some of the Things were a little unnecessary. The social networking and YouTube activities were really a waste of time. Pretty much everyone with a computer has already visited these sites. So I feel like these activities could have been left off the Things list. But overall, this was a good way for me to become more Internet-savvy and learn about useful programs to use in my future classroom.

Thing #23

On the 23 Things homepage, there is a note at the bottom of the page which states that this project was based loosely on the 43 Things project. This gives credit to the original project and shows that it was modified. Now that I know about the Creative Commons, I can use the proper copyright laws in my future classroom. I'm sure that I will be showing videos and other sources from the Internet to my students, so I have to be sure to get permission for these types of projects. Without the knowledge of the copyright laws, it is easy to make the mistake of "stealing" information. But when you know the right way to share and use others' information it is easy to do!

Thing #17

    The "tagging" system is a good way to organize information on the internet. By using these keywords to identify webpages, it makes it easier to search for sites. One of the pages I bookmarked using Delicious was TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. This was a very interesting site filled with stories from people around the world. Some of the tags for this site included education, global issues, and creativity. I couldn't really think of a specific use for this tool in the classroom, other than making it easier and faster for teachers to find sites to use in lessons.

Thing #16

    I chose to use Netvibes for my homepage. The theme for my dashboard was social networks. I chose this because besides schoolwork, social networking is really all I do on the computer. It has all your networking sites right there in one place, making it very easy to stay connected. I probably won't make it my permanent homepage simply because when I do log on to do homework, I will be tempted to visit my social networking sites if they are the first thing I see.
    The online calendar can be useful for staying organized and remembering important events. With all your important dates and times all in one place, it is easier to stay on task and keep track of things in your busy schedule. With an online calendar, you can easily make changes to any events when needed. I would personally use the calendar to remember due dates for school and my work schedule. The online to-do lists were also helpful. The "Remember the milk" site was great because you could sync it with your online calendar. They have apps for iPads, iPhones, Androids, and you can even use it with Siri. I would definitely recommend the Remember the Milk app for anyone with a busy schedule.

Thing #15

    The wiki is a good way for many different people to work together on one project. It was pretty simple to add my own changes into the APSU 23 things sandbox. The only negative about the wiki idea is people can go in and change your work. So you could come back to the page two days later and your ideas could be completely altered in the wiki.
    A wiki can definitely be used in the classroom. It can be a creative way for the students to come together and work on one common goal. A weekly newsletter could be published on your school wiki and an assignment would be to add an interesting article to the newsletter. It's interesting that anyone with access to the wiki can share their ideas on the page.

Thing #14

   I liked using Gliffy for creating flowcharts. It was easy to use and had many tools available. You could drag the different shapes for constructing your flowchart from the library located on the side of the page. As long as you have some general sense of a flowchart and how it works, you should have no problem using Gliffy.
   I decided to use Bubbl.us to construct a mind map. There wasn't much explanation given on how to construct the map, but once I figured it out it wasn't that difficult. I think the program offered a great solution on organizing your thoughts in a creative way.
   Before completing this "thing" I wasn't sure about the difference between the flowchart and mind map. Once I used the different programs it became apparent what their different uses were. The flowcharts are used for sequential processes or events/actions that lead to other things (sort of like if this happens, then do that.) The mind map is more of a personal organizational tool used to put your thoughts down on paper but in a way that is easy to follow. A mind map is similar to an outline. Depending on your purpose or project, both flowcharts and mind maps are good ways to organize information.

Thing #13

   I found Zoho to be an interesting way of managing documents. It had a lot of useful features in familiar programs that I would have never thought of. For example, all the editor options that were available in the word document. It was cool that you could add contextual comments, and even enable more than one editor on the same document. The numerous custom styles were also pretty handy. One familiar asset of the Zoho program was the mail merge option, which we had a lesson on in class earlier in the semester. There were also many other useful programs within Zoho, such as the "Secure file sharing" and "Task management."
      I had some fun creating a drawing using the Google Docs. Similar to the activity we did in class, I made part of a classroom. I actually prefered using the Zoho program. It provided more detailed explanations of the things it offered. Both the Google Docs and Zoho offer pretty much the same things, but Zoho was more user-friendly.
Link to my drawing:

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1mGcBHFVDIdXA0lnVCqDVCmqfofHjxOfhKhXHElz2wd4/edit