Thing 21 Almost there I think.....

Animoto is a creative and entertaining tool. I enjoyed making my 30 second video of 10 photos, my  theme was set for a celebration. Animoto is easy to use and link with a facebook account to retrieve the photos you want to use. Signup was free all you need is a valid email, once you are finished with your video you can publish it to a blog, facebook, twitter, and email. Animoto is a great tool for special occasions, projects, and links to social networking!

My link is below...check it out!




http://animoto.com/play/JfUSR1gAfhsLnYv1YYjd2g

Thing 20 Youtube

I utilize YouTube just as much as I Google, on a daily basis. YouTube, and Teacher Tube is a great resource and informational tool. I filter and lookup videos on the tube that are related to my interests with hobbies, tutorials, and knowledge based videos. YouTube is great for entertainment and educational purposes. This video is a timeline of technology over many years, its remarkable to see the progress technology has made in our lives. No matter 5, 10, or 100 years as technology grows teaching is enhanced.

Thing 19 Social World

The social media is another world that allows you to follow your interests. After exploring Web 2.0 and all the media sites available for educators, it encouraged me to join so I can stay updated on the latest technology, trainings, conferences, and discussions. I also enjoy Pinterest to get and share ideas for my hobbies and its a great teacher tool. Its important to stay involved with social networks and be a leader creating your own blog to share your experiences. You can be a follower learn new things and be a leader teaching new things to others.

Thing 18 Twitter

This was my first experience with Twitter, I was uneasy about creating an account because I am partial to Facebook. When I created my Twitter it prompted me to add follow specific interests of mine, so I added education news, teacher pages, and children pages this was a blend to stay updated with my profession. Twitter allows you to set up lists and add certain people. This would be a great tool for the classroom with students to engage in discussions and for the work place to update on sales. Twitter can relate to any real life social experience and expands our communication for both personal and business usage.

In addition the logo is really cute!
Find me @CandiceRivera2
 

Thing 17 Delicious

I am familiar with social networking and tagging pictures mainly from Facebook. I've never ventured out to any other social networking sites. All these tools support other sites and they have much more to offer! I created an account with delicious and I will never use my favorites on my toolbar again, this site allows you to bookmark and search the most related websites from a tag. You can access this account from any computer unlike the favorites on the toolbar. After I joined Delicious, I searched educational technology and a link associated with it was Technology Integration Matrix. Some of the tags were: technology, web 2.0, and other education resources. There were not any comments but a good amount of tags. This website really allows others to scaffold your ideas, another collaboration tool that would be useful teaching!

Thing 16 Symbaloo

Being organized is a necessity of being productive. I created a free account with Symbaloo, this site offers all your business/personal needs in one location on the world wide web. Organization saves time, reduces stress, and allows the person to work efficiently. Symbaloo makes it simple to add important sites to one page and the user can drag/drop items to organize them in a way that is convenient and practical. Symbaloo acts as a virtual desktop that can be accessed anywhere.

Thing 15 Wikis

The only wiki I ever heard of was Wikipedia so learning more about what wiki's have to offer was interesting. Wiki's are compared to newspapers as the content is updated daily and can be changed from any source. That would explain the reason we cant use Wikipedia for research papers because the content could be based off opinion instead of fact! In addition anybody can add anything to the page, in the past teachers have always told us not to use Wikipedia as a source for research. But when referring to a wiki space this is a great tool if used for other reasons. I think wiki's would be a link for open communication in a classroom to connect students, teachers, and parents with entries on daily events. The wiki automatically time stamps activity so there would be a footprint left of the people that changed and added content. Teachers and parents could filter through the wiki space to keep connected on daily activities, lesson plans, upcoming events, and anything else important in the class.

Thing 14 Mindmaps, Flowcharts

I created a Mind map of my Unit Plan due. Mind mapping helps gather and organize information needed to complete the assignment. It works like brainstorming, a rough draft to help organize information into a tree pattern. Its a great way to visualize the parts of an assignment broken down into pieces. You can see both the small and bigger picture with mind maps. The flow chart serves the same purpose. Below is an example of my mind map I created as a checklist to verify I have everything included in my assignment.

 

Thing 13

Google drive offers everything Microsoft Office has the only difference is its FREE. We all like free things especially when its applications for spreadsheets (excel), documents (word), presentations (PowerPoint), drawing, and so much more. Google drive offers it all in one place, store your information and share it with the world! Google drive is a great tool to collaborate with parents, students, coworkers, and family. It opens a link to communication on a new level by sharing files both the creator and the viewer can make changes and collaborate at the same time. The only cons this product has is the privacy and it does not integrate with the actual Microsoft office bundle. So if you are strictly using Google docs for collaboration within the program then it has so much potential otherwise a preference for office may arise. I tried Zoho and its a copy of Google drive, when it comes to preference I will always go with Google just because of the branding name.

Thing 12 Google

I love Google as a search engine but discovering Google has so much more to offer with alerts I subscribed to daily alerts related to News/Education and Books/New York Bestsellers. I also played around with Google Translate its a great link to communication in the classroom with ESL learners. The Google calendar can be a great way to notify parents with any important dates for homework, tests, meetings, etc. Google is mainly known as a search engine but it offers so much more a link to communication with blogs, email, and download applications with Earth. Google is a verb an action word that can create and do so many things beyond searching! 

Thing 11

RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and its beneficial to the user if you search the same websites multiple times a day and if you want to follow blogs to keep updated. I enjoyed searching Technorati, its user friendly because it condenses the material search to related information. I searched through many education blogs, I added health and children to my search and I was intrigued. These tools to blogs and saving them to RSS feeds provides information overload on any topic you want to read about. The link between health and children focused on Too much TV and other alternatives to encourage children to be active.

Thing 10 Rss Reader

RSS reader is a way to organize your favorite informational tools and choose automatic updates. Its a newsfeed to keep you posted about current events, news, and interests. On my feedly I added all 5 of the recommended sites. In addition, I added a 6th site for Education Weekly. I see myself in the future utilizing this tool and adding many more sites to read and enjoy. This site can be used for professional, and personal interests with all your favorite things in one place.

Thing 9 Online Generator

http://www.bodyswitcher.com/

I created an astronaut with my face. Starting a lesson with this picture would engage students and make it a personal experience. They could journal a story along with the picture presented.

http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/

Posting this announcement on the smart board would be a great greeting to the student on their birthday.

Thing 8 Flickr FUN

Flickr is a fun tool, I created a puzzle of my cat. Puzzles can be made of any image, and this can be used when teaching any subject. If you are studying Social Studies/maps, Math/numbers, Reading/spelling, Science/animals. Spell with flickr is great for spelling words or to highlight key terms. There are so many options with flickr, it takes a picture and transforms it into a learning, and social experience.
          

Thing 7 Flickr

 

A picture says a thousand words! This sunset picture was taken over the summer while camping at the lake. If I were to describe this picture, the colors and intensity of the light is just enough to calm the soul and the sun is an inspirational fire in the sky. I'm not a professional photographer but I was able to capture a beautiful moment in time. Exploring Flickr I discovered millions of photos from all over the world. My favorites were the photos shared of nature and animals. I will consider using Flickr in the future for personal and business usage. Its a great tool to store all your special moments for FREE and the option to share public or private. Personal use I would create a private group for my family and friends to share personal pictures; vacations, holidays, and other special moments. Business use as a teacher I could collect pictures on certain topics/subjects for lessons because a visual opens your eyes to imagine and think.