Thing 12

Google is pretty amazing.  I actually have had some experience with some of the tools Google offers.  I love my igoogle page.  It is my homepage for Internet Explorer.  I have everything arranged the way I want it, with my Google claendar and the news at top of the page so I don't have to scroll down for this information.  I also have added the National Geographic Photo of the day because I love the photographs in the magazines, but I no longer subscribe.  I wasn't sure how to make my igoogle page public, so I took a screenshot and have included it here. 

The other Google tool I chose to include is the Google calendar.  I have never really kept a calendar, as mentioned in a previous post.  Well, thanks to the 23 things, I have started to attempt to keep an accurate calendar.  As you'll notice, I've actually entered events and because it's on my igoogle page - I even check it regularly.  Didn't really want to make my calendar public so I took a screenshot and included it too.

I think that both of these tools could be used in the classroom.  The igoogle page could act as a hub for websites and gadgets that the teacher and students use regularly.  Google calendar enables both teacher and students to create and share their calendars with others.  Calaendars can be synced (somehow, I'm still figuring that out) and it's really easy to copy an event from one calendar to another.  I would include a link to my creations - but you must be signed in as me to access my igoogle page and Google calendar.

Thing 11

And I thought the search engine on the google reader site was great, Technorati is even better.  I like how you can type in a topic and get instant results.  Topix is a lot like Technorati but the results tend to come from news websites that featured an article or blog response that contains the topic searched.  These websites cover a vast number of topics and are not always as specialized, or focused, on the one area of interest.  Familiarity made the Google blog search very comfortable to use.  The appearance and search tools are like all of the other Google search tools - familiar and easy to manipulate.  I think that Topix was the most confusing for me.  I didn't like the way the results were displayed.  I did find some useful sites dedicated to everything from preschool arts and crafts to solutions for problems with Toyota trucks.  What was a little weird was the feed for a blog The most unusual thing I saw was a forum comment written by a mother written by a mother who was upset because her kindergarten daughter brought home vocabulary words.  One was the word gun and it was accompanied by a picture of a burglar carrying a gun. Weird!  I would prefer a picture of a cop carrying a gun.  I was surprised to find hundreds of results when I Googled "blog search engines."  I had no idea that it would be so easy to find blogs that focus on my interests.

Thing 10

Ok, this is what I've been talking about!  Something that makes this technology easier is exactly my cup of tea.  I have little time on the computer that isn't dedicated to work, school, or paying bills.  Anything that saves time is a plus.  I really like the RSS feeds and readers.  Culminating all of the blogs and websites that I frequent often onto one page is magnificent.  The red subscribe button that acts as asearch engine for blogs is useful for the classroom as well as for personal use.  I'm not sure how many blogs are part of the search, but for every topic I entered, a plethora of blogs and websites were available.  I think that teachers can take advantage of the opportunity to view all blogs and sites the follow on one page which saves time.  Teachers who require students to create and post blogs can view all of them at on the same page.  I didn't think there were five + blogs that I would even be interested in - well, interested enought to go to each one and check it - but having them all together makes it simple enough for even me to want to do it!

Thing 9

The custom image generators are a blast.  The number of websites dedicated to this is amazing.  You can create just about anything your heart desires.  I did not upload any of my own photographs to manipulate but saw the different ways that look like lots of fun.  Some of the cartoon makers made me think about the greeting cards with the old, vintage photos and a really snide comment on the inside.  I'm going to have to do that with some old family photos and one of the generators.  Can't wait!



I first visited Image Chef Image http://www.fansigngenerator.com/  and created this star.  Although it's not exactly what I was picturing, it's close enough.  I though it might work well as sign for the star student each week in my classroom.  I'll keep looking and maybe I'll find another star that I like better.

http://www.fansigngenerator.com  was my next stop on this journey to image generators.  There were many templates which to choose, but a caption popped into my head when I saw this one.

Although I do not believe I will be using this exact picture in class, the fan sign generator  could be used to make signs for the classroom or library.