Thing 13

Today, I was asked to use Zoho writer and Google Docs and compare them to see which one I liked more. To be honest, I couldn't pick. They both performed well and there didn't seem to be any real difference between the two other than their abilities to share. Because Google his its fingers in practically everything, It is able to be shared through more mediums. Zoho, however, appears able to only be shared wish other Zoho users.  So, I suppose if I HAD to choose which one I like more, I would have to go with Google Docs just because it can be shared to a wider audience with less hassle.

Either one is great for collaborative work. I say "is" because, while I only have about as much experience with Zoho as could fill a thimble, the overall set up is the same as Google Docs. So, I would think that would be just as effective as  Google Docs as collaborative work. Last semester, I had to do a PBL project in a group. Because we all lived so far apart and had such different class schedules, Google Docs came in very handy. We were always able to access it from wherever we were and meet our deadlines that we set for ourselves. Without Google Docs, we would have had to try to fabricate more time in the day to dedicate to our group work or run the chance of things getting lost in e-mail and not being able to get our points across which would have caused an insurmountable communication barrier.

Thing 12

I have to say that I have found the last few things VERY easy, and, I am really kicking myself right now for not having done all of this sooner. I think, though, that all of this is coming so easy because I already had a Google account, and, I'm always logged in to it. So, all I do is click the link, and, that's it.

 Being a language major, I must say that Google translate is an amazing resource. There are some things that it can't do, though. The biggest one is understand context. A lot of times you can type something in and it spits something back at you that it might as well have not even translated. In other words, it helps to have some kind of general understanding of the language itself before you even open it up. One example of this is that I have a friend that was a Latin major. Granted, that is a dead language, but, one would think that Google translate wouldn't care one way or another if it was dead or alive and kicking. Well,... not so much. She said that Google translate is terrible at translating Latin. From my own experience, it's not all that great at translating English into any language. In order for it to be right, the order of the English that is typed has to be the same as the sentence structure you are translating to. It has gotten a lot better over the last year or so with French. But, it still doesn't do too well with Spanish. As far as Latin goes, my friend is no longer in school, so, there is no follow up to that one. The problem with using Google translate as an educational tool is that it can make you kind of lazy if you aren't careful. It's really easy to fall into that kind of trap with something that easy to use. I don't use it as much now as I used to just because all it does is give me a word. It doesn't help me remember that word or how to use it. Plus, in the case of Spanish and Latin, it often comes out wrong. Granted, that is mostly due to operator error, but, another thing it doesn't always do is explain how to fix what's wrong or why it is wrong in the first place. I will say, however, for someone just needing to know a word or short phrase, Google translate est très bien!

I set up an alert for the Green Bay Packers draft news. I love my Packers. I do my best to keep up with their draft picks, but, some years, I get too caught up in more important things to remember to check in on them. Thanks to Google alerts, I will now be able to keep tack of who they are leaning toward picking up which will help paint the picture of what they might be able to do next year. As far as the benefits to education that Google alerts brings to the table, it can help teachers stay up to date with current trends in education and areas related to education. Just as an experiment, I set up an alert for education. The first site that came up was an article about how the senate GOP's education bill has faced a lot of hardship as of late because of cost concerns and thoughts that education has undergone a lot of changes too recently to be making any more just yet. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it's more for the teacher than it is the student. But, what benefits the teacher usually benefits the student too. 

Thing 11

Well, it turns out that Cool Cat Teacher agrees with me on a couple things: 1. just because someone subscribes to a million websites, it doesn't mean that they are well informed, and, 2. we tend to teach others what they should be learning rather than how to learn. The second part is neither here nor there. But, it's something I have been talking about for the last year or so ever since I finished my Associate's Degree and began looking forward to my time at APSU. The first point, however, is more recent for me. Like... within the last 24 hours. 

So far, the best search tool I have used for this assignment is Google blogs. The other search engines didn't even come close to what I was looking for, but, none were as bad as Topix.net. When I searched something in Google blogs, there was something there that was what I wanted to read. Topix.net, though, would search my key words and itself. It was like Google searched the world and Topix searched its bedroom. It could be that I'm just more used to Google. I hear people say all the time that Bing is a better search engine than Google, but, I just don't see it. I know bad engines. Back when I first started using the internet, I used Yahoo! for everything. Then I saw the light that is Google. But, I digress. 

Thanks to Google blogs, I found several pretty good political blogs. My favorite one is more along the lines of European current events through CNN. I read an article about how some Swiss investment banks are saying that if the salary cap is not raised on their executives, it could drive them to take their business overseas to Asia or New York where there are no caps to speak of which would cripple the European economy now rather than steadily raising the cap over the next several years (because when people give in to the requests of those who claim to have a bargaining chip, that's what happens) and crippling it later. Again, I digress. 

During my "travels", I searched for "french culture" and came across a blog begging the question, "Why are French people so rude?" He says that he went to France and noticed that the their manners were like those of animals and that the men could pass for "queers." My first reaction to this blog was "No wonder they were rude to you. You are judgmental. That's what happens to judgmental people in France! They get treated as if they shouldn't be there!" But, I held my tongue. 

My opinion still remains the same as it was in Thing 10; these are great tools for us as future educators. But, we have to be very selective about, not only the information we find and use, but also, the search engines we approve for use while our students do research. Students are highly impressionable at any age. The last thing we need is for them to come across something bashing other cultures for being a little different from us and carrying that home to their parents or, worse yet, on into their own lives. It's things like that that lead to a life of ignorance and bigotry. If that doesn't speak to my point about teaching students how to learn, I don't know what does. 

Thing 10

RSS, you know, that little orange button that you see every now and then that makes you think "huh? what about my wifi?" really is pretty cool. It turns out that it isn't what I thought it was. I thought it was just like a compatibility thing or some kind of trademark or copyrighting thing. Not only is it not that, but, IT'S ACTUALLY USEFUL! Thanks to RSS, it's now possible to have information come to me instead of having to go look for it. Also, I already had a Gmail and Google plus account, so, my account was already there for me to use.

Just yesterday, I got into a debate with someone (via Facebook of all the ridiculous places) about guns, gun laws, and their global impact. The only good thing about having debates online is the fact that you can cite your sources a lot better than you can in an impromptu face to face debate. In a debate such as that one, I wanted the most up to date facts that I could get my eyes on. The newest numbers I could find were from 2011. Most of the time, that's a good time frame, but, in a debate like that, I wanted numbers from last week! If I had known about how useful RSS is and had been using it to follow current trends on those kinds of things, I may have been able to have a source that was more up to date. As far as teaching goes, RSS wiill help me stay abreast of the current trends in effective educational strategies and  pop culture. In thing nine, I talked about helping to relate a foreign language to a student's life by way of their interests. I used Bart Simpson as an example, but, times change. It will help having a child roughly the same age as my students, but, if his angst is anything like mine was, I'll only see him at dinner time.

I do think, however, that RSS is useful to a fault. Yes, the information that is being received is about as up to date as possible. But, the information is all totally subjective and biased according to what the reader WANTS to read. So, at the very least, the information needs to be researched a little bit at first to make sure it's really what it claims to be and not just some guy sitting at his computer in his dads basement making stuff up based off of Dragon Ball Z Abridged videos and something he read off of a Cheetos bag. I've heard plenty of stuff that sounded like that may have been the origins of a "factual argument." So, don't tell me that those kinds of things don't exist. Overall, I think it's a great new resource for anyone that is hungry for information and wants to know more about knowing more.