Thing #14

I have been using Google as my primary search engine and web tool for many years. Before my MacBook, I used Google Calendar to keep track of my overly hectic schedule and kept it up on my desktop pretty much all the time. I no longer use it as I have the iCalendar on my MacBook which does pretty much the same thing. I also use Google Alerts for news and it is a quick way to get "breaking" news. However, there are now more useful ways to get the news alerts now that I have set up RSS feeds, I have not really been using Google Alerts.

I am not really sure how these various Google tools will be applicable to my math class. I do think that it would be useful for students to learn how to use these tools in a basic computer class. Our MacBooks are so powerful, that we often forget that most students continue to use PCs at home and the web albums are something that most computers don't come pre loaded with...

Thing #13

This is probably one of the coolest things that I've learned so far. I have about 5 million things bookmarked and often have NO IDEA what any of it is after a couple of week. I have "cussed" my computer a few times about all of the random stuff that I have and usually have to click on the links about a million times to find the one that I am looking for. What a very useful tool! It never occurred to me that a tool like this existed. Hmmmm, perhaps I should have thought of this myself a while ago! Now I just need to go into all of my 5 million bookmarks and get them tagged!

Diigo's highlighting and sticky notes are GREAT. When I research things, I find myself taking screen shots of them and then having to figure out a way to use what I found and not only that, but figuring out where I accidentally put it on my computer. Now, I have a way of organizing what I find and having it quite literally right at my fingertips.

Thing #12

I like Rollyo, however I am not sure how I would incorporate it into my math class. I am teaching statistics next year and there will be times that my students need to search the web for "useful" information. I plan to work on this tool more and create a search roll to help them narrow down their results. Many times they don't know where to start to find the correct and useful information. Certainly it could be used to help make the process faster and their searching more efficient. This step alone can take up more class time than I want it too! However, I teach seniors and I do feel that it is important that they learn how to find the best information and what is and is not useful. I don't want to "baby" them too much so that they don't have the ability to do this on their own....

Thing #11

I commented on Jane's, Chandler's, Kathleens, and Mr, T's blog. Like Kathleen, I tend to be a "lurker." I belong to a few different sites and often enjoy reading the blogs and the comments. I find that many times people seem to comment just for the sake of commenting. Or they are just trying to be annoying and start problems. This is frustrating as a reader. However, it can be very interesting when a comment takes a blog into an entirely new, unexpected direction.

It can be disappointing when I post a blog on my personal (not school) blog and it is about something that I find fascinating, but no one else seems to!

Thing #10

I love putting stuff like this on my tests. It will be useful to see if I can find an image generator to post images of different math things that are common in the "real world!" I really like to use images of common thing during the conics unit so that my students can see how conics are all over the place. I would definitely use this to help my students generate images that they can use to calculate the equations of the conics using the math software available to us. Yet another way to use the cows to engage my students in "real world" applications of math.

Thing #9

I went through several of the different blog search sites and found that there is a big difference in quality and quantity of information that was available. The speed that was available from various sites was an issue for me. I am at my family's lake house and have to use a dial-up server and Feedster does not like the slow speed of dial up at all and times out repeatedly. Technorati was okay but the results were very narrow and limited in number. By far my favorite site to use was Google Blog Search, although I often got hits that seemed to have nothing to do with what I was searching.

I searched Advanced Algebra and came up with a huge network of teachers that are having some of the same issues in their classrooms that I am having and it was interesting to see some of the different solutions that they have come up with to keep seniors motivated and moving forward in a college level math class. In the future, I will probably limit my searching to Google Blog, it is more intuitive than the others that I tried out.

Thing #8

I think that the rss feed idea is excellent. I am constantly typing in addresses and going from site to site trying to get my new information. Then, I waste time going to the site just to find out that nothing has changed at all and that there is nothing new going on. This will definitely stream-line the things that I do on the internet on a regular basis and save me time. I can be more aware of things going on in a quick and efficient fashion. I am wondering if I can put an RSS feed on my teacher wiki so that I know when a student or someone else has posted something immediately. This would be nice. I would not have to go check constantly.