Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thing 7

Again, I've found another tool that I really find useful. I've always heard of the RSS feed, but I never knew how to actually use the feature (hadn't heard of Google Reader before). I find it extremely easy to use; I also like that when I go to subscribe to a particular site, I get information about how many posts there are per week. For example, I almost subscribed to the NPR site until I found out I would receive about 220 posts / week.

I know this tool will be extremely helpful to me professionally. I have such a hard time keeping track of all the blogs that I want to read. This will help me keep organized, and because I won't feel so overwhelmed, I'll actually read them.

I can see using this in the classroom, but in a limited way. It would probably be most helpful if students are researching a current topic for a long period of time. I could also see this working in an elective class. For example, creative writing students could subscribe to writing blogs or to websites that have content about writing contests.

Thing 6

My weebly site is bridgetwilmot.weebly.com.

I found this tool extremely easy. I built the structure of the site in under five minutes. My only critique is that the website itself was slow sometimes.

I have built a lot of websites before (some even from scratch using html and xhtml), so I find this to be an extremely helpful tool. I could see myself using this as a class assignment. For example, students could present their research in a web format. Like Stiel's site, I also could create a page for my students with an assignment and many resources.

I probably won't use this test site for now, but I have many ideas about how to use it in the future, especially in the classroom.

Thing 5

I love Twitter. I just signed up for it, and I can already tell that I am going to use it all the time.

My Twitter name is bridgetwilmot. I am following the ALA, YALSA, and Mary Fons (a local Chicago writer).

Professionally, I see this as a fantastic resource to keep current on what's going on in my field. Logging on to Twitter and checking my account is so much easier than reading journals, visiting websites, etc.

In the future, I am sure I will use this in class. A few ideas might be creative writing posts, or taking a famous character (like Holden Caulfield) and tweeting as he would (although some may say he would never bother to use Twitter in the first place...).

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Thing 4

I really like the idea of Google Docs. I could see this working well for student groups. However, it does make me nervous that everyone has the same power to edit. I could see someone accidentally deleting some important information.

While Google Calendar is a cool idea, I don't really see myself using it personally or in the classroom. I like the trusty old hand calendars, and I feel that Skyward is effective as a calendar for the students.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Thing 3

My delicious name is bridget_wilmot.

I actually already have a fully stocked delicious account, although I decided to start a more professional one for this project. Delicious is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools; I use it all of the time to categorize my favorite sites.

I think it would be extremely beneficial for students, especially as they are doing research. However, I haven't used it yet in my classes because I find it too cumbersome to tag sites without having the icon on the toolbar. I know it's just a small detail, but...

Friday, December 4, 2009

Thing 2

I am following these teacher's blogs: Alicia, Doreen, Dan, Jill, and Larry.

I have used the following tags so far: Education, Tim Magnum (the speaker in the video), and Personal.