There's More to Technology Than Google and MySpace!

I have always considered myself to be a "decent" computer, internet, multimedia user, and when I registered for this course, I figured that it would be relatively similar to what I always do at home. When I thought of "integrating technology in the classroom," I naively thought of PowerPoint, email, and YouTube videos. This course has showed me just how "un-techy savvy" I am. Thanks to this course, I am a just a tiny bit more knowledgeable about what it truly means to incorporate in the classroom.

MOODLE

I Love the Moodle! In toher classes, we keep in touch with each other via email and forwards to the entire class. However, the MOODLE tool is so efficient and effective in that it provides direct contact to the teacher, and to every one else in the class individually. It is almost like a giant bulletin board of upcoming events and assignments, an email service, a discussion board, a blog center, and a multimedia presentation maker at the same time. I am so impressed with its capabilities and am seriously considering using it for my future teaching career. 5/5

Firefox

Again, I have learned that I don't know have as much about multimedia and internet services as I thought. I am part of the large popuilation of people who are disappointed with Internet Explorer yet still use it. I have heard of Firefox and its faster, more reliable services, but never took the whole 2 minutes to see for myself how much improved it is. Thanks to Firefox, I will never use Internet Explorer again; it's not worth wasting my time and frustration :) Because Firefox has proved so useful, I also looked for other web browsers and found that Opera is extremely efficient as well. Very fast, I love the speed dial feature, and it's pretty. 5/5

del.icio.us

Delicious is an awesme tool for keeping track of research, of favorite websites and videos, and it saves space in my "My Documents" file. When doing research, I usually save whole pages to my computer and then waste time looking and sorting through them later on. With Delicious, I can access the site on the spot by looking at the description of it and the date I saved it. I have used it a lot this semester for research in other classes as well. It's great. However, because I am not used to using it (first time user), I had a hard time learning its other features (bundles and such). It's fine now. 4/5

Google Suites

As much as I have used google for email, for researching projects, and looking up pictures for presentations, I had no idea that it could do more than that. I enjoy blogging, and Google's blogger feature allows for a lot of creativity (links, videos, pictures, etc) and it's very easy to use. My favorite Google Suite, however, is Google Groups. I'm used to networking through myspace, email, and msn messenger, but none of them allow changes to occur in real time. I really appreciate its ability for users to input new information, pose questions to other members, and edit work without waiting for a replied email. 5/5

Isleuth

I have started using Isleuth's seach engine instead of Google and Yahoo because even though there are not as many hits, they are very relevant to the searches I make. In addition to relevance, I have also found articles and websites in Isleuth that do not show up in Google, which then give its users an upper hand in terms of "new information." 4/5

Synthasite

I am a "ready-made" kind of person, in terms of creating websites, simply because I am not familiar with the technicalities. Synthasite is a website-builder that makes web building easy, colorful, and fun. I have used it for a few assignments, and found it to be very efficient. It does not load as quickly as other web-builders, but it allows for so many other application that make up for it. 4/5

Authorstream

I really like using Authorstream because it nakes it so eas to upload videos into an online presentation without the hassle of encoding and embedding URLs, etc. In many presentations, I have a separate window open for videos because it was too much of a hassle for me to include it in the original presentation. However, Authorstream allows me to put it directly to websites, other online presentations, without any hassle. 5/5

Webs

This is another website builder, and while it is does not have as many applications as Synthasite (inclusing discussion groups, widgets, etc., it is very easy to use, has colorful and professional templates, and allows music to play while another is going through the website. 4/5