Thing 17

I love this site!  I have never had any experience with a website like this.  I think it maybe a new addiction of mine.  I think it is a great idea to be able to access your bookmarks from any computer.  I know I have been in places where I used a computer that was not mine and I needed one of my bookmarks and didn't have it.  This site is very easy to use and it's nice that you can find book marks about educational sites and artistic sites.  I think this would be good for teachers to use among each other to share resources.  Also a teacher could work from home and add sites that her students can use in the classroom. This is a very cool site...I will use it all the time.

Thing 16

I chose iGoogle as my start up page to try out.  It was interesting and I can see how it would be beneficial but I did not change it to my homepage.  I have had MSN as my homepage for what seems like forever and I just can't make myself change it when a website asks me to.  I use hotmail and our apsu email can be accessed through MSN, so that is the main reason I keep it as my homepage. 

I can see how the calendars can be helpful also but I love my planner made from paper way too much to go digital.  I feel slightly the same about the to-do lists.  I make list after list to keep up with the million directions my life takes.  I have post-its everywhere at home.  I also have my iphone that has a digital note pad app.  I use it a lot.  I think that is the most helpful one for me since I have my phone with me all the time I can just jot my note down on that app.

I may use some of these once I am teaching.  I can see how they all could be helpful but I'm not sure if I will still be stuck in my ways of using actual paper and pencil...maybe it's the artist in me??

Thing 15

I created a post in the APSU 23 things sandbox wiki.  I have used Wikipedia before and often but I never really understood how information was added.  So, I learned a lot from this exercise.  I chose to talk about Thing #7 which was Flickr.  I really enjoyed Flickr since I love to take photographs.  As an art teacher I would use a wiki account to communicate with parents about what is happening in the art room.  I think it is a great way to keep them informed and pass information around.

 

Bath Abbey, England

Photo by Melanie Perry

Thing 14

This was made at www.gliffy.com

I chose this website because I like the graphics and the site was easy to use.  I chose to chart the Primary and Secondary colors.  I do with that I could change the color space that overlaps.  This would make the chart more effective. 

 Bubble.us

This chart is about the art process.  It is a chart showing the logical steps an artist should take when making an art project of any type.  It shows planning and the different steps involved.  I think I could use this tool to make a chart similar to this one just to blow up and hang in the classroom.  It would be there to remind students not to skip a step when working through a project.

Thing 13

I have never heard of Zoho before. I wish I had learned about it a little sooner. I have a Mac desktop at home and did not until recently have Microsoft Office for it. I couldn't figure out a way to type papers on my Mac. If I had known about Zoho I think it would have been helpful for me and would have saved me some money. I think Zoho would be great my for my future students if they were in a similar situation as me or maybe they have an ipad. It seems like a great tool.

I think my students would be able to use either of these sites if they were doing a group project. They would be able to access each others work from home without needing to meet outside of class.

I prefer Google Docs. I like that you are able to draw and use word type documents too. As a future art teacher this would also be a good place to let students who finish their work early, go to play with drawing pictures using the computer.

Thing 12

I used igoogle for the first time ever. It is similar to other sites so it seemed familiar to me. You could customize this site to your specifications, which was cool. You could choose which information feeds you wanted to appear on your homepage. I chose art as one of mine and found out that they have an artist of the day. I think this would be a good homepage to have on the classrooms in my art classroom. I could require the students to research the artist of the day if they use the computer that day. A quick 5 minutes assignment that makes them aware of modern artists that are working today.

This piece of artwork is by Alice X. Zhang. She was the artist of the day today.

I also made a Picasa account. This was very similar to flickr but it is already linked to my google+ account. I have noticed that any google account that you open automatically attaches to your other google accounts. So all your information is very easily accessed. This is just another photo sharing website. Students can share there own photo assignments and research other photography being done today.

This is one of my photos. It was taken at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, TN Summer 2011

Thing 11

I found the easiest route to use was Google Blog Search. I use Google already for just about everything I ever need to know. So when I clicked on the link and it took me to a page that looked like Google, I knew exactly what to do. I think Technorati would be my least favorite. I couldn't easily find where to find blogs. I just kept seeing Adele articles. I did enjoy looking through the Edu Blog Award Winners. There were so many categories and I think I will go back and look through them more. I found a few different art teacher blogs that I like.I started following them both and added them to my Google Reader page.