Diigo vs Delicious

Well, I am not sure I am totally sold on one or the other. I really like the idea of all my bookmarks being on the web so that I can access them anywhere.....and when the IS guy's comes and updates my computer and forget to save my bookmarks, I would have a back-up. :)

I tried starting with delicious and was pretty sure I had an account with them before. Apparently, I did but have no idea as to what my log-in or password was. So, I tried logging in with my Google account, which it said was an option...well I never had success with that option either. So I created a new account.

With Diigo I was creating a new account. Getting started was easy but I did have some trouble. I would create a bookmark before I set-up a list and then I would run into problems trying to add it into the list. I guess I kind of started off backwards.

I know it sounds old school but I really do like clicking on  Favorites and just getting a quick list of bookmarks in folders. I like the look of just a clean list. Neither one of these really like that. They are a little more cluttered than I like. However, if I had too choose I think I like Diigo a little better. I do plan on adding more bookmarks, especially the ones I don't want to loose but use infrequently.

Second Life...NO, Say it isn't so!

Ha, ha, can you tell I am not a fan of Second Life.

I had the wonderful experience of Second Life last fall in another class and my fondness or it, or lack thereof, has not changed.

I just don't get it. But I must admit I have never been a fan of games, etc where you have to create a figure and role play. Heck, I don't even real life role play during training because I don't like it there either.

I tried talking to one person in Second Life, only find out they were as clueless as me :)

The one thing that helped me with Second Life was going to places I was familiar with in real life, ie: St. Louis Arch, MU J School, etc.  It was cool to see how realistic some places looked.

When thinking about how I could use this in training, I struggle. I know I could post notes or slides that folks could walk through and view or maybe some valuable links but it is a stretch. I am just not sure how I would use Second Life in the training that I do. Maybe I just need help thinking outside the box.

Here I am at Selmo:

Technology in the Classroom--phones, netbooks, apps, etc

Let's start with....I don't have a smart phone and my 5th grade daughter thinks we are insane because we won't let her get a cell phone. Keep in mind where we live we don't have cell signal (welcome to country life).

And ironically, the same day we received this assignment a letter came home from the school saying that cell phones were banned and they were going to start enforcing it. Apparently, students were hiding them in their socks and up their sleeves and texting each other. I resisted e-mailing this assignment to the principal but I must admit I gave it serious thought :)

I can see where smart phones could be used in the classroom and I personally, did use the web on my phone just yesterday when I couldn't remember where in Liberty my daughter's dance competition was being held. (That is going to cost me)

Our school did invest in netbooks just this year and the one teacher is going great bonkers on using Google Apps. The kid's are loving it! They are collaborating on projects and I think it is great to her my daughter say, "All I need to do is "Share" my document with Mrs. Hall and I am done with my homework."

With that being said...we had someone give my daughter a netbook for Christmas and like myself they are a little clueless as to what to look for when it comes to hardware. It was a bust, you can't do anything with it. She can't look at her google e-mail or do homework etc. I think the only thing you could do is look at Facebook....which she is mad because she doesn't have an account with them either :) She is 10.

So, I do think using technology is great in the classroom and there are many options with cell phones, netbooks, kindles, nooks, etc. It is critical that you make sure you can get service and have quality hardware. Otherwise, it is just going to leave the students frustrated.

Apps that either my daughter has used or I think would be fun:

Google Doc
Zoho Challenge
Survey Monkey
Fluent News Reader--haven't used but looks cool for a History or Current Events class.

Moodle vs Blackboard

Well, I am kind of bummed. I was really hoping that I would love Moodle and that it would just be like second nature learning how to use it, but alas I was wrong.

Moodle was just a little more cumbersome than Blackboard. I was really having to think about the set-up and digging around to find where to put things. Trying to add a survey or questions was difficult or confusing for me. It could be that if I gave it more time that it would become easier. I do plan on playing with it some more because the price just can't be beat, FREE

Blackboard was super easy and user friendly. Although in hindsight I have to wonder if it is just because I have been taking online classes for the last year. Just a year ago I was clueless about Blackboard and now I can't imagine not taking classes online. The convenience factor that BB allows is just too good to pass up.

If I was to use Moodle, I think the first class would take me sometime sketching out how I wanted everything but I sure it would be easier after that. I have been asked to consider developing a curr to use online with some 4-H volunteers and I thought Moodle would be a good venue, however, after this week I will need to do a little more playing around before diving in.

Camtasia vs Camstudio

Well, this one was an easy win hands down! Camtasia has so much more to offer and it pretty user friendly. I did struggle  briefly at first but I think it was because I just wasn't focused on what I was doing. After re-focusing it was much easier. When I set it up initially to automatically zoom in....it didn't . So, I did have to put in all my own zooms, etc but it was easy enough to do. I thought the zooms were very smooth and worked well.

Although, I did not have any trouble with Camstudio I do think it is limited...however hard to beat the price...FREE.

In the long run if this is something that I would want to use a lot it would make sense to invest in Camtasia.

E-books

E-books is not something I am terribly familiar with. Of course I have heard of the Kindles and Nooks, etc but I do not own one...as of yet :) I think it is a really interesting concept that many schools both higher ed and high schools are looking at switching from textbooks to e-books.

However, what has intrigued me the most is an article I found on the trends for publishing e-books.
I have always dreamed of publishing a book one day...not sure why, I am not a great writer by any means. I have tons of ideas of things I would like to write about...no idea where to start and the idea of trying to find a publisher, etc is just too daunting.

Maybe the e-books will open the door to writer's that only dreamed of being published, the library may become much larger in the future...now to figure out a pen name :)

Braineos

Braineos is a website that was recommend by a fellow student (thanks Rachel!)and was one that I wrote down as needing to check-out. It is a website where you can make your own flash cards.

It was an interesting website and some of the things I liked about it were you could easily make your own flashcards or use some of the ones that had been saved to the site. My daughter had just finished learning the European countries and their capitals and those flashcards were already on line...should have looked at this site last week :) Making my own flashcards were quick and easy. I liked the fact that it gave you several different options for playing with them ie: flip, reverse flip, multi-guess and a video game.

I did see two down sides. The first being that I never found a way to print the flashcards. I don't know that this is critical but I should would be nice to use them when you aren't near a computer. The second is that you were limited in the number of characters you could type. For many flashcards it wouldn't be a problem. I tried making my daughter some flashcards for her Awana verses and did not have enough room to type the entire verse.

I do think this is a nice little program for simple memorization of math, capitals or definitions. The student could make their own flashcards to help with the memorization and then use them to play the games.