Thing 14 - LibraryThing

I like the idea of LibraryThing and have been looking for just this kind of tool. I have an English teacher who has a list of book recommendations for her students. We want to be able to list these books, and give the kids the ability to write comments about the books. LibraryThing seems to do just that, but I don't want so much clutter... I just want a simple site that allows only my students access. Any ideas?

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

I used iGoogle for my start page, and customized it. I liked some of the gadgets - the most helpful being the weather and date and time gadget. I would like to be able to place links on the page, so I could get my booksmarks from Delicious, but I couldn't figure out how to d that.

I also worked for awhile on Don't Forget the Milk. I guess I still do most of my "listing" in my head. I don't write things down. I have all kinds of sticky notes on my computer at work. Unless I see my "jobs" right in front of me, it doesn't help me to make a list, plus, I had hard time figuring out a easy way to add tasks and due dates. I don't think I wil use this tool again.

I think I spent about 2 minutes in my chair at work today. I wrote a few important emails, and even at that, I had them half-done and got interrupted, and finished them later. I guess I should get my life more organized... and maybe using lists would help, but I would need to find the time to write the list out! I blame it on the fact that I never used an organizer growing up. :) I am too "by the seat of my pants", and have trouble sitting down!

Thing 12 - Do You Digg?

If I were a news-fanatic, I would LOVE these sites! All the most popular articles delivered right to your account! You could spend lots of time finding out lots of info about everything imaginable. You could sit in your chair ALL day just reading about topics that people think are important. This could range from the topics I found on Digg... Is Your Gas Pump Ripping You Off? to The Top 10 Essential Places To Have Sex . Now, I did find a good article about Useful Tools for Teachers... but now, I can't find it again, because the website is continuously changing. Hmm... I wonder if "they" keep track of the sites you've been to.... for example, if I clicked on The Top 10 Essential Places to Have Sex, and then contiued to read and recommend similar articles, would someone know? I get a little paranoid sometimes that Big Brother is watching. We are always asked for an ID and password, but really, how secure is that?

How much news do we really need to know? Does it matter to our lives? Do I care that someone caught a fish bigger than the "Barbie rod and reel" that they were using to reel it in? Is it worth my time to read all about it?

So in response to the blog prompt: "Do these tools seem to be a productivity enhancer or a productivity detractor?" I found the answer right on the Reddit intro page:

read
user-submitted links, it's more fun than being productive
What? Yep... more FUN than PRODUCTIVE.

Thing 11 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

I tagged all of my blog posts, and found it very convenient in Blogger, because as soon as I started typing, a list popped up of tags I have already used. This didn't happen in Delicious. I played around a bit and looked at other people's bookmarks. I found some very useful bookmarks and added them to my account. I think this would be very helpful to the high school kids that are doing research papers. I need to spend more time figuring out if there is a way to share bookmarks without having each student create a Delicious account.

It seems to me, that there must be some way that I can keep all of my accounts in one place... instead of creating ALL these accounts in each location. I am on my second page of usernames and passwords in my notebook. I can't imagine trying to remember all of them!

Thing 10 - Wikis

I love watching those Common Craft videos! It makes learning something SO much easier than trying to figure things out by reading oodles of info! I edited the 23 Things Wiki. It was very easy to do. The one use that I can think of right away is a Wiki used for an "online" bookclub. I have "Book Picks" each month, and if I dedicated a Wiki to it, the kids could write comments/reaction to the books. I did not sign up for a wiki, so I'm not sure if I could monitor the comments. I wouldn't want this to become a place for kids to bash school, for example.

Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

I have played with Google Docs for awhile, and am not sure if I prefer that, or Zoho writer. I like the idea of having teachers edit student documents right online using the comment tool. I will introduce this to the English teachers to see if they are willing to try it out. I opened two accounts, so I could see if the chatting feature worked, but didn't have much luck. I could see both of my "identities'" comments on one account, but not on the other. I'm not sure if that could be because I was on one computer. I will try to work on this with another staff member to see if we can get it to work.

The one concern that I have, is the seemingly easy ability to have someone else write your document for you. Not sure how to address this. Of course, kids can cheat any number of ways - not on the internet, so maybe my concern is unfounded.

I would like to see students using one of these programs for their papers, instead of using a word processing program at home, emailing it to themselves, and then printing it at school, since I have to unblock their email site each time they want to get their documents.

Thing 8 - Share Your Creations

As I don't own a digital camera, I am at a distinct disadvantage with all of these pic exercises. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out why my mosaic wasn't working. Finally, I tried "re-permissioning" the pics on Flickr to "public". That worked. I didn't figure out how to animate the photos though... maybe I needed to use another tool.

I think this could be handy for the students doing the yearbook. We have a class on media influences and the students might find this a unique addition to enhance their assignments.

On a personal note, I am struggling to find motivation to do these Things, as each one is really about 10, and it is getting quite overwhelming. But... I will try to forge ahead!