Thing #13, Collaborating with online Docs

Test Document on Zoho     
I made a test document with Zoho; not exactly a professional document but I was trying out several functions. It was very easy, because it is similar to Microsoft Word. I was able to create a free account that linked with my Google account, which makes it conveniently accessible and one less password to remember.    The site allows for sharing URLs, html codes, and being able to email documents  to other people. You can allow different IP addresses or create groups to work on a project together. This could be a great function when collaborating with teachers or when students have group projects and they can't all be together at once.  I had never heard of online programs like this before, but this seems to be a great tool for at home learning or collaboration.

Image Created with Google Docs     
I made an image with Google Docs. I was able to upload my own photo and than change things about the image. Again Google Docs was very easy to use and similar to the Microsoft programs. Trying to learn a bunch of different programs and their functions can be very difficult. The ease that I was able to make the image and navigate through the site was wonderful. Students could definitely collaborate on more than just simple word documents with Google docs. You can create word documents, images, forms, and presentations. That all function well and are easy to navigate. This is a great way to collaborate for students of all ages, old and young.

I prefer Google Docs because there is more than just word documents and like other Google items it is easy to navigate. I'm quite partial to using Google already and with having a Google email account it makes set up quite simple. The fact that a student or teacher would only need one site to collaborate on numerous kinds of documents is wonderful. I believe Zoho is a good site, just not a great site.

Thing #12, Who doesn't like Google?

I have always liked Google. I know there are other search engines, but I enjoy the familiarity I have with Google. I am nothing if not constant when I like something I generally stick with it. I couldn't even try to count how many times a week I Google something, whether it's answers to questions during a discussion, locations of places, or new recipes Google is my way of finding out the information I need. I have used Google Translate in the past to decipher what was on a website or a friend had posted on a social networking site. It's simple to use, has lots of languages to choose from, and helps you translate from any language on the list to another language. I've seen sites that only have a very limited selection of languages and some are only specified to go from English to one other language or vice-verse. Also, with Google Translate you can download a browser that automatically translates sites for you.This would be great when doing research if necessary.
Google Calender let's you share your schedule with family, friends, or even with students and their parents. This would be a great tool to use in the classroom that would send reminders about homework, projects, tests, or event going on in the classroom. You can send email, computer, or mobile reminders and alerts. You can color code events, make guest lists, and send invites. You can make certain events public and others private, so you only share the information you want to be seen by others. You can set up events to repeat themselves on specific days and when to either have the event stop happening or to go on continuously. Allows you to set a place and description for the event. This would be great for letting parents know where a field trip was going and what the intended lesson is for that field trip. You can print out the calender schedule as well.
My Google Calender

Thing #11, RSS Search Tools

I explored the RSS feeds on the sites suggested and the only one that I like was Google Blog Search. It was easy to navigate, find what I was looking for, and add it to my RSS newsfeed on Google Reader. The other sites weren't exactly confusing but they seemed to be geared towards certain viewpoints. When looking for sites or information it bothers me when a site appears blatantly biased. I like things to be as simple as possible, the Google Blog Search and Google Reader are navigated easily. I found a couple technology feeds, student feeds, and teacher feeds that I think will be helpful for myself to use during school, in my personal life, and when a become a teacher. I found some interesting articles and blogs; most of which I didn't find as something I would want to keep up with.
As much as technology is a great tool that I know will have to be be able to use and be creative with. But I don't want to be trying to follow too many blogs, news sites, or anything else on the internet that will keep me in front of a computer for hours at a time on top of homework or lesson plans that I will have to do.

Thing #10, RSS feeds

I had never heard of RSS or newsreaders and certainly didn't know what they did. After exploring how easy Google Reader is I like everything about the service. I choose Google Reader because it is attached to my email  and this blog. Having one site to locate all of the information is a great way to stay organized and stay on top of what is happening. The ability to organize the newsfeeds in personal and professional files through the newsreaders will be a great tool for me, especially as I get further along in my professional career.
Any teacher can use an RSS feed to keep a collection of any information or sites that they want to use to help prepare or use in a lesson plan. These RSS feeds are the same as keeping binders of information without all the bulk and can be accessed by any computer anywhere you go. Not having to worry whether you remembered everything will be another great way to take some of the stress away from teachers. I don't like the idea of having a public Google Reader page, there maybe sites that people would judge me for having a bias one way or another as a teacher.
A few of the sites I choose to follow with my RSS Reader:
Social Studies and History Teacher's Blog 
Clarksville Civil War Roundtable 
An Urban Teacher's Education
I Want To Teach Forever

Cool Cat Teacher

Thing #9, Using Image Generators

This was created using Comic Strip Generator; there were hundreds of photos to choose from and you could choose your fonts, colors, and text size. Instead of making up what I was going to have Albert Einstein say I used one of my favorite Einstein quotes. Creating this comic strip was fairly easy and being able to save it to use either here in my blog or elsewhere is a nice feature.
 
This is from Image Chef, which is another good site to create fun images for a classroom or Power Point presentation. I liked how many different types of images there were to choose from, some of which were even animated. This was a very easily navigable site and making the image was as simple as choosing and typing what I wanted it to say. I liked that I was able to copy the HTML code and upload it into this blog.
Some of the other sites charged for their services or contained images that were very inappropriate to have for anyone under 18 years old, it was a little disturbing and surprising to come across. Of course, there were others that could be appropriate to use in the classroom and didn't charge. There are a lot of different ways a teacher could use any of these image generators. These are fun ways to get students involved in making signs to put up in the classroom or use in projects. It could be an assignment on a specific person in history and creating one of these with a quote from them, similar to what I did with Einstein.

Thing #8, Easy Flickr Mashups are not all easy

Sunset mashup, a photo by Shanna827 on Flickr.

This was made with Mosaic Maker (Big Huge Labs) using photos I had uploaded to Flickr. I linked the two accounts and was able to load this image onto Flickr when I was finished so i could easily add it to this blog. This site also has other Mashup ideas like making a digital or actual jigsaw puzzle out of any photo you upload or have on Flickr. 

Another Fun site was Spell with Flickr. On this site you can chose any word that you would like to be spelled out, the site uses images from Flickr to spell out any word. If you don't like the letter images you can click on whichever letter and change it before posting it or saving it to Flickr. This could be a fun site to use in a classroom to make Power Points more eye catching for the students. Some of the other apps were difficult to use; some were designed only for use with an iPhone or Mac computer and cost money to use. I still am apprehensive about using any of my personal photos on sites such as these because it is the internet and everything can be found even if made private. I would also have to explore Flickr and the applications that could be used with it to see how it could be implemented in a classroom setting.

Thing #7, Uploading photos with Flickr and Blogger uploader

Campus, a photo by Shanna827 on Flickr.

I took this picture during the Spring because I think the Austin Peay campus is beautiful when the plants begin to bloom, mixed with the brick buildings, black benches, and old timey light poles. I uploaded this image to Flickr, which was extremely easy. Although, trying to do anything other than uploading is a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I know that there are tutorials that go over everything that the site does, but even the tutorials are hard to follow. The site offers so much that you can do with your photos; how to catalog, tag, and share photos with friends, family,or the world. I don't think I will use Flickr for personal use; I already have a Facebook and I don't see a need to post the same pictures in more than one place for more people to be able to go through. Flickr could possibly be used in a classroom by creating a group of photos that pertained to current lesson plans, with additional information for the students. It could also be used for classroom photos of projects that the students have done; it would be important to make sure that no pictures of students were posted because that could start legal issues with using images of minors without parental consent. As a teacher, it is always better to be safe than sorry. 

This picture I took a couple of weeks ago leaving Catalina Island, California at sunset. I uploaded it by using the add a picture function on Blogger. It was a much easier process no tutorials to read or setups to do; just browse for the photo that I wanted and was done. I'm most certainly a person who likes things to be as simple as possible if I'm going to be the one using it. It's exciting how much sites like Flickr can do and how useful they can be to people who are well versed in such application. I have used a photo sharing website before; I used Photobucket, but not for my personal photos just for random photos I found on the site through it's search. It has been four or five years since I used Photobucket and I'm sure that if I tried to use it now I would find it as complicated as Flickr is to me. All websites change their functions and the look of their sites and if you don't try to keep up, you get quickly left behind. 

Thing #6, Web 2.0 tools

www.amazon.com

As someone who have struggled staying up to date with technology I was completely against shopping online. I have always enjoyed going to a store and being able to pick out what I wanted and have it in my hands right away and if that store didn't have what I wanted than I guess I didn't need it. Several months ago my favorite in town bookstore closed; the only other one in town had horrible customer service and an awful collection that was always disorganized. I'm an avid reader stuck with no where to get new books, so I had to face my aversion to buying online and try it out or start driving over an hour to the next nearest bookstore, which I seriously considered. I  chose to try out Amazon; lots of people I knew used it so I figured maybe it wasn't too bad. Amazon is a great online shopping tool that I highly recommend to people. It is easily navigable and has nearly everything someone could want. I've bought school books, just for fun books, movies, and gifts. There are still somethings I can't find on there or that I still prefer to go to a store to buy; but it has definitely become an indispensable tool in my shopping experience.
On Amazon, you can easily set up your account to make purchases or create wishlists of items that you want. It is a very easily navigable site, geared to even the most out of date users. There are thousands of items with free or reduced shipping; you can select how quickly you want your items to get to you. Items range in price from as low as $0.01 and up; used items are categorized by how used the item is, this can be helpful if you're concerned about more than just price. Most people don't want a book that has missing pages or broken binding, but some people don't care. You can purchase so many different kinds of items clothing, food, electronics, music, movies and more. The search bar is Amazon's most useful tool, you can type in whatever you are looking for and narrow that search by selecting the department the item you're looking for is under. In a school setting teachers or administrators could use Amazon to get new books or tools for the class rooms.

I chose to talk about Amazon because I was familiar with this site, but there are so many more sites that this class is having me utilize that will be helpful throughout my education and when I begin teaching. Sites like Diigo, Google Earth, or Hulu could be used to enhance lesson plans or be used in a library to help students with homework assignments.

Thing #5, School 2.0 are we ready?

I'm well aware that the internet is an integral part of children's lives today. The generations that we will be teaching are not going to know what it's like to not have all the information they could ever want at the tip of their fingers or what it's like to not have instant communication with everyone that they know. Times are changing faster than I could have ever imagined. Everyday the idea of Web 2.0 is becoming more and more prevalent. I get that the world wide web itself has not changed but how it is being used had changed so significantly that it can be difficult to keep up. As a future teacher, it is important for myself and all teachers to stay up to date with what is going on. How many of us had teachers when we were younger that we considered old and out of touch with the "now" that we would ignore their ideas? If teachers want to stay relevant to students we have to keep up with what is going on and even try to stay ahead.
My generation is the one that is caught almost in between worlds. We did not grow up with everyone having cell phones and computers, but the older we got the more people we knew began getting all of the new technologies. We remember how rare it was for someone to have a cellphone at school. I remember being one of the few friends with a cellphone, than suddenly I was behind the times because my phone didn't come with texting. With as fast as new ideas and technologies come out it is easy for anyone who isn't paying attention to fall behind what is going on now.
Who knows what kind of new technology will be out or will come out when I start teaching. Technology changes so quickly and can be helpful or detrimental to our cause as teachers. Children are use to having everything happen quickly, having all the information they could need practically just a click away, and with all the stuff they are bombarded with through TV, the internet, and their phones it can be very hard to keep their attention to what is truly important their education.
Schools will have to do their best to keep up with the latest technology and how to use it. More pressure will be placed on teachers to be able to utilize whatever new technology is brought in. School 2.0 and what it will mean for us is going to vary depending on where, what, and who we are teaching. It is clear to me that this is not something that can be avoided. Schools will not be able to hold off on trying to stay up to date or they will lose their ability to keep students interested. I know a big problem is always financing for new technology, but this isn't something that can be avoided. New technology can and will be a great asset for teachers and schools to stay in the know of the current generation. Schools may not be ready for all the new stuff that is being thrown at them. Yet, we can't avoid it.

Thing#4, Are comments just polite or essential to blogging?

Comments are important to the individual blogger and the blogosphere overall. Without comments than all blogs are is a public diary of ones thoughts and ideas. Comments can reinforce why a person chooses to write a blog, give the blogger new ideas, creative criticism, and much more. The sense of community that is created through blogging and comments reenforces peoples need for conversation and debate. Even if the comments agree with the blog post, than the blogger can feel like others understand them or that they have positively affected other people with their writing. Criticism of a blog posts allows room for growth and even if the blogger doesn't change their opinion, it is always good to be aware of both sides of an issue or idea. Being well informed is the greatest asset anyone can have.
I really enjoyed reading about the "Darth Commenter" in the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I have read several friends blogs and they almost always have at least one mean person who is extremely critical of everything. I agree with what she was saying, there is always someone who will be derogatory and sometimes vicious in their responses to people's posts. I also liked that she was warning new bloggers to be aware of these kinds of people and to not get discouraged. This kind of reassuring advice to new bloggers is kind of her and emphasizes the sense of community that bloggers should try to embody.
In the Blue Skunk Blog, Your Comments?, he also discusses how important it is to be nice to bloggers and how important it is to comment. His honesty in why most people blog I believe is accurate, that most people truly want some kind of response that what they are saying is being read. As well as that there should be an etiquette that is followed when commenting. So many people hide behind their computer screen and think that gives them a right to say anything they want regardless of anyone else's feelings. I believe that people should follow the same idea I was taught in Kindergarten, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Even if you disagree with what someone has said you can still be nice about the way you present your disagreement to them.

The blogs that I commented on from my group:
Kaytlyn Wright Thing #7
Sydney Saunders Thing #3
Charles Irwin Thing #1
Olivia Voie Thing #10
Jon Phillips Thing #2 

Other blogs that I commented on:
Pinterest Boards for US History 
Colonial Williamsburg 
  

 

Thing #3, Practical during school and future classroom

After this class is over, the blog can be used while I'm continuing with my education to log my thoughts, ideas, and websites that could be of help in the future. Being able to blog and have all of my ideas in one place will allow me to continue to have access to the resources that I learn about on my journey through school. This is very important to have all my ideas and ideas that have been given to me during my classes in one easily accessible spot. I learn so much, so quickly, and sometimes ahead of when I need the information that it will likely calm my nerves to have it all easily organized in one place. As a future teacher, being able to reflect on what I do and don't like about the organization of my classes will help me to identify how I want to structure my future lesson plans.
Having a blog already set up when I begin teaching will provide a place for future employers to get to know me a little more than just my resume and interview. This could help me get a job by seeing my organizational skills and my ideas for teaching. I believe a blog could be helpful while I'm teaching to keep parents and students up to date on what is going on in the classroom. Also to allow the parents to see the dedication that I have to not only teaching but their students. Parents entrust their children, whom they love and care for, to teachers and they want to know that their children matter to their teachers just as they matter to them. Having an open form of communication between parents of my students will hopefully help in getting all students to achieve their full potential.

Thing #2, Creating a Blog

I'm not sure which was more nerve racking about creating my blog, the name of it or my domain name. I wanted something catchy as the title, while being representative of me. I liked the play on words of "On My Way to History, Teaching" I had to add my last name so the blog could be easily identified with me. I wanted the domain name to be some easily remembered and that I could use later if I wanted to continue the blog after this class is over.

Once I got past picking my domain name and title, the rest of creating my blog was fun. I liked being able to pick my background, color scheme, and layout of the blog. I didn't go crazy with the layout, choosing to stay simple so the blog is easy to navigate. I'm excited about my background choice of books, I love to read and am a stickler for actual books instead of e-readers. I think being able to set up the blog to reflect me makes this less like homework and more personal. Having the opportunity to be professional in what feels like a personal space should be a good experience for me, because when I become a teacher I will need to be professional in and out of my classroom. 

My avatar was fairly simple to make. I think that my avatar reflects what I look like pretty well. Other than, I hardly ever where my hair down and only where glasses half the time, I prefer contacts. I choose to have my avatar wear glasses because I was wearing my glasses when I made the avatar and I prefer the way my hair looks down. I thought about making an avatar that didn't resemble me, but felt like that would defeat the purpose of the blog. 

I'm still a little apprehensive about this blog and having to reflect my thoughts and feelings into the open world wide web. Although, I think this will be a good experience for me and will keep me on my toes.  

Thing #1, Learning Habits

This is my first blog. It feels a little strange to be creating it for a college course, but maybe it is something I could use through the rest of school and when I begin teaching. I'm sure that I will learn more throughout this process.
The 7 1/2 habits for life long learning are simple in the way that they are listed. If I don't think about myself and the struggles that I have with learning than they appear straight forward and easy. But beginning to look at them as things that I must do to be successful in school makes some of them more difficult. I'm not a very big fan of technology and have always had difficulty using most new technologies. Whenever I've had a problem with technology I always had a friend to call who could fix it for me. Since moving to Tennessee, I no longer have anyone who can solve my technology problems and have been learning little by little about technology. It's a slow process for me, but I know that I can't give up and that I must do what I can to become more proficient in all the up and coming technology. The other habit for lifelong learning that gives me an unsettled feeling is creating my own learning toolbox. How am I supposed to know what I will need; what is supposed to be in a learning toolbox; is there anyone who can tell me; is it one more thing that I will have to keep track of; or have I already started creating a learning toolbox and I wasn't even aware? This shakes my confidence in myself, but I hold onto the accomplishments that I have made and know that I can push through anything.
I like to set short-term and long-term goals for myself with school; it allows me to keep in focus what all of my hard work is for. My goals coincide with the responsibility I take for my schooling and the confidence I have in myself. I've learned so much from my college experiences and know that to get where I want to be in life I needed to realize that I must be responsible for my decisions and not accept defeat. All problems have a solution, they might be difficult to find but perseverance can get me through whatever comes my way.
I think that I will keep the list of 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits as a simple reminder on how to keep my focus and to have fun at my work as well.