Thing # 12

Well, this one is off to a rocky start. I was intrigued by the Mixbook.com site, but alas....it was not working well for me. The book just kept saying it was loading. I posted it to my delicious account and I will try it again later. It could just be a byproduct of my computer being cantankerous lately.

You can't keep a good woman down, so the next program I am delving into is the TimeGlider Application. This one is VERY time consuming, but I can see great applications for it in history class, or even when doing biographical reports in class. The students can make a timeline of a person's life or historical eras, and link images and video to the timelines. Good stuff, but I see logistical problems since the students wouldn't have enough time to use the program effectively. Maybe it could be done in groups to break it down. Another issue I ran into is that the program doesn't recognize man of my pictures. I made sure they were the right extension, and tried several different work arounds, but alas...I got tired of trying to make it do what I wanted. Here is a timeline I created with a few pictures (nothing fancy). I had to do a link because it doesn't embed well on the blog. http://timeglider.com/app/viewer.php?uid=line_6a882fe8272068572df212c55e95de79


Next on the try it out list was Ta-da List. I am all about making lists and using them to monitor my progress and efficiency. I get such a sense of accomplishment when I am able to mark an item off my list. This one is similar to the iGoogle gadget and many smart phones have to-do lists applications as well. Still, the program lets you email the list or share it with others, so it is a useful tool. Here is my Ta-da To-do list for tomorrow :) http://sknight.tadalist.com/lists/3a18b303f8d5356005f31c3b8032959f

I also like the Wordle program. I have used it to create word clouds to post on my website. I also introduced it to our teachers in order to have students evaluate their writing in an interesting format. The students can copy their essays and paste them into the program for it to create a word cloud. The larger the word, the more times it was used in the essay. This is a neat way to display work that doesn't traditionally lend itself to display such as essays. I created a the following word cloud from the words in my blog using http://www.wordle.net/