Wiki thing 15!!

Oh Wiki! I am glad that now I finally know how to describe a wiki, and what it actually means. I have heard of wikipedia before, but most of the time it is in a negative light. This activity has shown me many postive aspects of having wikis and how they can be useful in the classroom. I had a blast adding things to the Apsu 23 Things Sandbox page, and just enjoyed being able to play around with different aspects of the web.
I think that wikis could be useful in the classroom. I could set up a wiki that had links for the parents to follow, and that also allowed them to add links to other tools and information that they though might be useful in the classroom. It would be a creative way to get the parents involved.

Thing 14! Yay!

I love the process of brainstorming! I find it a time to just relax with no pressure and think of any ideas for a project or subject that I can think of. I have realized that for me it is easier to do the brainstorming process with visuals because it helps me make my ideas flow easier. Another benefit for doing this process is that it makes life easier when you move through the next phases of the project. In essence, it helps you stay organized and keep everything in order. This is a huge plus for me, because I tend to get side tracked sometimes.
I created an account for both Bubbl.us and for Flowchart.com . Honestly, I loved both sites! They were both completely user friendly, and neither one of them cost anything. In my opinion they are both pretty much the same thing, the only difference I feel is how they are presented. I am actually in the process of writing a ten page paper for another class this semester and I am using these sites to help me organize my thoughts as to how my ideas connect. So far, it has been extremely helpful.
As for future use in the classroom, I will most certainly be letting my students know about helpful tools like this. If they are good at brainstorming the rest will follow. I could use this to show them helpful example as well. All in all, a great experience on Thing 14!

Thing 13 :)

Back to blogging I go! Wow first off when comparing the two resources, I hands down prefer Google Docs to Zoho. Although Zoho seemed to have more applications to offer, many of them were not free and they also were not user friendly. It took me way too long just to simply follow the dierections given in our 23 things instructions, so by the time I finished that part of the assignment I was mentally exhausted and done. Google Docs will be a great collaboration tool to use for students when they do classroom group projects, because it allows them to all work on the same document without having to be together at the same time. So they can collaborate at different times from different places. It is a really neat tool to use. I made this to show the different subjects that are in the standard I choose for my project.