Thing #16

I chose to play with the Pageflakes start page. It had some useful sections already like weather, facebook and some youtube videos. It was super easy to take off the things I didn't want there. However, I really don't see myself using something like this. I usually don't get on Facebook much, but when I do, I want to look at the whole thing, not just a snip-it. Same goes for the weather. I'd rather go to a real weather site. I don't feel inconvenienced at all by having to type a few words and press enter a few times to go where I want to. I can wait the extra 10 seconds and not have clutter on my start page.

I made a to-do-list at Ta da list. I really don't think it's that useful because I have to be online to do it. If I think of something quick, I put it in my phone. Otherwise, I write actual notes to myself.

An online calendar would be just as useless to me for the same reasons. I have a school email account that updates my school calendar with pertinent information. I use my phone calendar for other things. Kiko no longer exists, Backpack you have to pay to use. I looked around the Yahoo Calendar site, but like I said, I have no use for it.

Sorry to be so negative, these tools just aren't for me. I suppose if someone liked putting their reminders online instead of having them at their desk whenever they need them, I would tell them about these sites. But I have no use for them.

Thing #15

I went into the sandbox wiki and commented on how I like to use Google documents. The two things seem to have some similarities. I like being able to work with others online on the same project. I think it's interesting that wiki's can be public and anyone can contribute. I'm not sure I would trust everyone, and i would probably constantly monitor wikis that I was a part of to ensure that everything was appropriate.

It would be possible to use this in a class setting, where students can submit information on an assignment. However, I think Google docs can accomplish the same things.

Thing #14

The two places I went to were Bubbl.us and Gliffy.

The first picture is of the Bubbl site. I enjoyed the ease of creating new bubbles to type in on the site. You press enter, it gives you a new subcategory. It seemed very straightforward and worked the way I thought it should.

The Gliffy site let you hand pick different shapes, which I suppose could be a plus to some people. However, this slowed the process down some. The symbols on both sites seemed to make sense with what they went to and I was able to navigate through making my diagrams pretty easily.

They really seemed like they could do the same things, so I don't understand calling one a flowchart and one a mind map.

This could be used in discussing relationships of different instruments. Categorizing different pieces of music, or even the life of a composer.

(10 points if you know what a didgeridoo is)

Thing #13

A close friend of mine and I do a lot of shows together. When we practice we write some things down and forget other things... A little while back we started using Google documents to create set lists, and keep track of different songs that each other would suggest. It was also great to write in chord progressions of songs that we may do differently than other people. I would use Zoho in the same way. This is a tentative set list for a show in Atlanta in a couple of weeks with my wife's cousin.

Zoho's features are very similar and have a lot of capabilities of a regular word document. I could see someone writing papers in it. However, I use a laptop and connect to multiple printers. And most importantly, this is my last semester, and I don't ever plan on writing another paper in my life... :)

Thing #12

I decided to look around Google Calendar. I mostly use my Blackjack phone to keep up with everything in my personal schedule...

However, I do see applications of this in other areas. My wife's family is very big. They have reunions and gatherings and spend a good deal of time together. I think this would work very well for them to have a place were people can post birthday's and the party's that go with them, trips, graduations, and other special announcements.

As an educator, I would chose to use this as a means to keep parents informed of concert dates and things of that nature. It would be an excellent place to post information about after school rehearsals for the musical or play that we were doing.

I like the communal properties of this tool, and how it can be accessed from any online computer.

Thing #11

I like Google Blog Search the best. I'm used to their format and feel comfortable navigating through their pages. Everything was categorized and I was able to find blogs that dealt with entertainment or politics as my own preferences led me to do.

I didn't enjoy the Topix page as much. It seemed very cluttered and I couldn't see my way through it very easily. There were all sorts of key words, but I couldn't find how they went together and what category they would belong in.

I think there's some good information out there on technology. I'm very interested in what's going to happen with the iphone and AT&T. However, that's usually a topic for one blog entry, not an entire site.

I found some linkings for RSS feeds on msn.com that I linked myself to. That's usually the site I go to see what's happening in the world. I like how it has a few article topics posted under varying subjects that I can see and click on easily.

For me, I don't think RSS is very useful. I don't make time to sit and read articles all the time, even if they are topics I'm interested in. I gain a lot of my real world knowledge from listening to NPR whenever I'm in the car. If I had time to sit on the computer and read all day, I would use it to do something else.

Just bein honest here...

Thing #10

I'm using Google Reader as my RSS. I kind of set it up already without even knowing I had. I like the ease of use. I'm a google fan. I've used them as my email and search engine of choice for a while now. I understand how to word things to make google find what I want it to.

I think it's a great idea to have the news come to you. I like to read the money articles on msn.com, however, they re-post articles sometimes and I don't like having to sift thru them. On the flip side, I like going out on the internet to find new things. I think this tool kind of makes you go the other way and stay in your little hole and wait for stuff to come to you. Some of my favorite articles are ones that I didn't plan on reading, but they caught my eye. Articles that I never would have seen because I didn't know to look for them.

I do see benifits for teachers like the senario mentioned of students updating and the instructor wanting to be notified of when they have, instead of having to search them all. A teacher could also create a class reader and subscribe them to readings that the teacher requires for them. In a way, their assignments would come to them.

Overall, I think this tool has specific pros and cons.