Thing 8

     

Flickr and Flickr Mashups would be great tools to use in the classroom! Flickr is an excellent source for visual aids of all kinds, and a mashup such as Spell With Flickr could be used in creating fun & innovative classroom decor (see above). The use of these sites should not, in my opinion, be extended to posting photographs of students online. Doing so would present multiple opportunities for a child to become endangered, and as educators, we cannot put ourselves in a position to be held liable for such endangerment, or (more importantly) allow our students to be put in harm's way. However, posting of personal photos outside of one's profession should be done with one's own discretion.

Thing 12

For this learning activity, I chose to use Google Translator and set up several Google Alerts, as these were the two Google tools that captured my attention the most. I am very interested in the workings of different languages, and am enthralled with the concept of  RSS feeds and other methods of bringing the content of the Internet straight to my computer, so naturally these seemed like the tools for me.

For my Google Alerts, I have signed up to receive news postings regarding the Tennessee Volunteers (my favorite SEC football team), New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and funding for education, once a day via email. I have also signed up for alerts on blog posts about high-stakes testing; as a future educator it will be helpful for me to stay familiar with the latest pros and cons of controversial topics in education, and I plan to sign up for alerts on more topics of a similar nature soon.
http://www.google.com/alerts/manage?hl=en&gl=us&eh=KnAJvRgIaJZK9pXp6D6joFMBfa8

Using the Google Translate tool, I translated the song that was stuck in my head (Kenney Chesney's "Seven Days a Thousand Times") into my favorite language to hear, write in, and speak (other than English), French! When I pressed the "translate" button the results were instant; impressive!
http://translate.google.com/#

Thing 11

The method that I found best for finding feeds was to type a topic into Google Blogs and peruse the results that came up, much as one would do when conducting a normal Google search of web content. Indeed, Google Blogs was the search tool I found the easiest to use; more confusing were the Technorati and Syndic8 sites. During completion of this learning activity I subscribed to two feeds, School Library Learning 2.0 and 2CoolTools, a feed about useful electronic resources for teachers. For other ways of locating news feeds, I access Google Reader and type a keyword or website name into the search bar and choose from the results (similar to Google Blogs). I also find the Topix website to be of interest because its feeds are local to the Clarksville area.

Thing 10

Thing 10 is my favorite technological innovation covered in class thus far! The thing I like most about Really Simple Syndication sites is the basic concept behind their use; the short video on the 23 Things Site summed this up perfectly! Simply “switching the arrows” to bring all the information to you so that you don’t have to seek out each site’s updates individually is pure genius. It’s also much simpler than I imagined even as I was reading the brief description of Thing 10 on 23 Things’ main page.

This tool is ideal for use in one’s personal life or teaching career because it brings all the online tools that you frequent to one site that is easily and quickly accessible. Time-saving tools like this are crucial to anyone who finds themselves the victim of a hectic schedule from time to time.

Teachers can use RSS readers to keep track of educational websites and blogs that they follow for use in their classrooms; being able to quickly and efficiently access new class materials on a daily basis will help them to better serve their students.

Thing 9

Using the online generators was fun! One of the sites given was a tad more difficult to use than the others, but after some general "playing around" with the tools it was fairly easy to figure out. All the images I made involved nothing more complex than typing a few words of my choice, followed by a single click of a button; the picture on the site changed to include my words, right before my eyes!
These generators would be great tools for making instructional signs to be displayed throughout an elementary school building, (modeled after road signs, which appeared to be a popular theme on all the sites) indicating that students should keep their volume to a minimum, walk rather than run, focus/concentrate, etc. They could also be used to create name signs for each student, to be placed on his or her cubby, desk, chair, and so forth.

The sites I used were
http://www.customsigngenerator.com/ and
http://www.imagechef.com/

Thing 7

When thinking of  keywords to search on Flickr, for reasons unbeknownst to me I arrived at the word "Disaster"; surely this would yield some interesting results! When I typed the word into the search box and hit enter, a multitude of pictures came up within seconds. Among them were images that I would not have associated with the word "Disaster"; for instance, a chocolate cake, a beautiful red rose, and a stained glass window depicting Jesus! After perusing through some of the pictures I chose the one of a "Disaster" drill by the Phillipine Coast Guard. In the photo, two members of the PCG prepare to jump from the sides of a moving helicopter into the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the drill was to see how well the Guard would perform in the event of a "supertyphoon".

Using Flickr was very simple and self-explanatory. I had never accessed the site before, but had no trouble at all learning to use it.  will probably use it  frequently in the future, if nothing else for entertainment purposes!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/currentnews/3502036304/   
The photographer is Aaron Favila (Associated Press)
(I apologize, but I was unable to obtain a correct "image URL" for adding the picture to this post; I have opted, instead, for a link)