Online Storage and Productivity Tools

Post No. 1

I think the online storage sites provide a good back up storage system. Personally, I would not want to give up my thumb drive. I like the idea of having the thumb drive as my main storage, and the online storage sites as a back up storage tool. It may come to the point that schools will have students and employees use an online storage site such as Yahoo Briefcase or Google Docs. We all know that storage space in the school network is an issue. These online storage sites would be a good way to help alleviate that issue. Students posting documents to these online storage sites would be more difficult to monitor, but would probably not be a major concern.

Post No. 2

I liked all of the online storage sites, but Google Docs was probably the easiest to use. It was a very user friendly site. All of these sites would be useful. It is just a matter of getting used to them. They would be superior to the storage tools in Office 2003 or 2007 because they allow you to do more with the documents you are storing. I would have no problem giving up Microsoft Office for one of these tools, since I think using the online storage sites would be easy to learn. Schools and businesses could benefit greatly from getting rid of the installed versions of the tools, and using the online storage sites, since network storage space is always an issue. If the cost of the installed productivity tools was under $150 or $100, I would still choose to use the free tools over the installed tools.

Stats

I created an account with www.statcounter.com. I had no problem adding it to my blog. I did not explore www.sitemeter.com, but I will check that out. I check my counter on my blog, and then go into the site and see how many first time visitors and how many returning visitors I have. Maybe there is no real educational value in this, but it is just fun to see how many people are visiting my site.

View My Stats

Maps

I created a map in both www.clustermaps.com and www.frappr.com. I added both maps to my blog. I did not run into any major problems with either site. I know I need to spend more time exploring these sites (especially frappr.com), so I am planning on doing that. I think it is really interesting to see where people are from that might be visiting my site.

Skype

I installed Skype on my computer, created a Skype account, and made the test call. I know a couple of people who have Skype, so I will be Skyping them soon!! Maybe I can broaden my list of Skype contacts in the near future to include someone in another country. Skype could definitely be used in the classroom, as kind of a “phone pal” type project. The video aspect would make it that much more fun (and educational) for the kids. I wouldn’t have any major concerns about using Skype in the classroom.

Twitter

I created my Twitter account about 10 days ago. As of December 27th, I am following 32 people and I have 14 followers. I was out of town over Christmas for a few days and didn’t have access to a computer during that time, so I wasn’t able to be on Twitter every day. When I got back home I got right back into it again. I think it is fun, and I try go into the site every day. Some of the people I am following have thousands of followers. Amazing!

I don’t see much value in Twitter in an educational setting. I am sure there are ways it could be used in a classroom setting, but I’m not sure what those ways would be. If I had to describe Twitter to my family, I would just say it is a simple, fun tool to use if you just want an answer to the question, “What are you doing?”

Discussion Forums

When I got into this assignment, I searched for discussion forums on diabetes, exercise, nutrition, baseball, and a few individual celebrities. I found out there are discussion forums on just about any subject you want to search for. I also found out there is a huge number of sites you can come up with, so it is best to try to narrow down your subject as much as you can. One of the concerns about discussion forums might be the ability to find a forum on exactly what the student is looking for since it is sometimes hard to get the topic narrowed down. A discussion forum could be valuable in the classroom because there is probably an answer or idea out there regarding any question that a student might have about a subject. I think the positive aspects to discussion forums would outweight the negative aspects in a classroom. Different perceptions and ideas from different people are great learning tools for students.

Digg and Yahoo Buzz

I created an account on both Digg and Yahoo Buzz. I went into both of these sites on a regular basis, read articles, and left comments. I liked both of these sites, but if I had to pick one that I liked best it would be Yahoo Buzz. Yahoo Buzz seemed to be a little more user friendly, but Digg was also pretty good. I will continue to go into both of these site. I like to read the new articles, and I like to read the comments and leave my own comments.

If students were using this in the classroom, I am sure they would be interested in reading some of the comments and seeing how many viewpoints there can be on one article. The comments would definitely have to be screened. Digg has a setting to hide profanity, and I would assume that Yahoo Buzz has something similar. I think there would be good social implications to Digg and/or Yahoo Buzz just because of all of the different responses and interpretations there can be to one thing.

Digg – DUGG. Yahoo Buzz – BUZZED.

Animoto.com

I really like Animoto.com. This website is the most user friendly site that I have been into so far. Creating this video was really simple and took very little time. It actually worked the first time I tried it!!

Bison Ranch Video

This video was just a short one, but the full length videos with the music would be fun and something different to try.

This is another tool in the classroom that students could take an assignment and make something entertaining out of it. These kids love technology, and this is just another option for them to use.

I wouldn’t have any major concerns about using Animoto in the classroom.

SlideShare

I created this PowerPoint and then posted it on Slideshare.net. I have also embedded it in my blog. Students could go to the SlideShare site and view all different types of PowerPoint presentations if they needed to get some ideas for their own presentation they might have to put together. I think the SlideShare presentations are okay without audio, but would probably hold the viewer’s attention more with audio.

An interesting project might be to divide students up into groups and have each group pick a topic they are interested in. Then each group could search for presentations on SlideShare about their particular topic, and compare their results.

As is usually the case with the internet, monitoring for appropriate content is always needed.

Slide.com

The slide.com assignment was difficult because I had trouble with the site. I tried the skin flix tool, but the only code I could get was for the slide show. I was never able to make any skin flix. I did make a slide show of the Mannix tv show.

I also made another slide show of my son, John. I liked the special effects that I could use with my pictures. If students were making a slide show for some project, there’s lots of room for creativity.

I will come back into slide.com and try the skin flix again. I would have to say I prefer flickr tools for image editing and image storage just because I had trouble with the slide.com site.