Thing 12 :) Google is more than just searching?!

Wow, I had no idea that Google was an official verb in the dictionary! Well I can see why now. Google has so much to offer on top of being the number one search engine. I was amazed at all the unique tools that it offered to it's users. I used the Google alerts as my first choice. It is a tool that sends you alerts about whatever you type into a search bar for it to find information on. For example I did Vanderbilt basketball, because I am a huge Vandy fan! With this alert system set up, once a week they will email me all of the top news stories that talk about Vanderbilt's basketball team. The second option I chose was to use iGoogle. I loved the fact that I could make my homepage so adorable and have it set to bring up things that interest me. These two options are something that everyone should try, and could be useful in the classroom. The alerts I could use as an educator to keep me up to date on things going on in our community, or even on new legislation that is being passed for education. As for using iGoogle, I could use it to have my homepage set on the classroom computers, so that I know what the students will see every time they open up the web. All of the tools that Google offers are useful, and I look forward to exploring them further.