Thing 16

We rely on Google Docs for a lot of things at school already so I feel it is pretty useful. I like that we all can log-in and input our data and share. I have also used Zoho (an online document service) before Google perfected their sharing tools. It really is beneficial to have access to all the tools and documents whenever you are away from your main computer. Most students have their own email and know how to log in, I just would worry about the students that do not have access to the internet.

Thing 15

I was shocked that I had 750+ feeds in my Google Reader. Honestly, I am not going to ever have time to go through those. I unsubscribed to a few of the news feeds and hopefully that will make it more manageable. I tried to subscribe to the Free Press and it wouldn't let me, but I am fine with that. I added the tag subscription to my delicious account and I really hope it doesn't do what the Reader just did because that was overwhelming!

Thing 14

I love social bookmarking and wish I would've been using it a long time ago! Every time my home laptop crashes I have to spend so much time re-finding all my favorite sites. This would be great for sharing with our colleagues and students too! I really like the easy button to add the websites, that makes it very convenient!

Thing 13

Social bookmarking is an excellent idea considering we use several different computers. Tagging is a good way to organize your resources and it is useful for others as well. The only downfall to tagging is that someones idea of a particular word/tag may different than your own.

Thing 12

I enjoy the gadgets, had several on my blog already. Some are great just for information, or others, like the voki, can be educational and encourage interaction.

I think social communities are great for networking or keeping in touch with family and old friends. For students I think it makes them less social in real life if all they do is interact online.

Thing 11

Commenting on a blog is fine as long as you have something to add to the discussion. I took several online classes when I was in Grad school and we were required to respond to posts. I always tried to be one of the firsts to reply because usually it became repetitive after the first few posts. I have had students respond to questions on my blog before and although it gave some a "voice", it usually was the same couple students that gave thoughtful responses.

Thing 10

I love Schoolhouse Rock and it does make my students laugh at first at the "old" video, but they always end up singing it! I have a YouTube down loader for videos that I want to have on my computer, which is nice for all the reasons that I mentioned in the previous post.