Thing 16

• Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?

For my start page, I chose iGoogle. (I must confess, the main reason it initially appealed to me was the pink background shown in the example picture; pink is my favorite color!) I was astounded by how quickly my own, personal start page generated---it literally took seconds for me to select a theme and page features and click the "create" button, and voila! There it was. :) I settled on the "European Beaches" background because I like to have a calming, serene picture to glance at every now and then. I will probably make this my homepage, it's complete with celebrity news, online games, NPR updates, and even a joke of the day!

• How can the online calendars be useful to you?

Online calendars could be useful in helping me keep track of school assignment deadlines, special occasions like family birthdays and anniversaries, or my personal fitness regime of running & various weight training and yoga classes.

• What about the to-do lists—helpful, too much work…?

I chose to create a to-do list at "Ta-Da"; the name made it sound really fun, but I actually found it quite plain. This is not a bad thing, though, because the site's simplicity definitely caters to the convenience of having a to-do list on your computer.

• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?

I think my "Ta-Da" account will certainly be put to much use from now on! I'm constantly making these little "lists", and not having to keep up with hard copies of them will make life just a little bit easier. :) I would reccomend this site and iGoogle to others. I also looked at the About.com article on the Top 10 online productivity sites. Some of the sites featured that I found interesting were Google desktop and Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The latter would probably be useful in Instructional Technology!