Thing #13: Google Drive

For Thing #13, I have seen the video, explored Google Drive applications, did some creating with the applications, and made a post using Google docs about what I found out. You will find a link below that has my Google document. Click it to read more about my adventures in Google Drive. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEoda6oozPNnjXB-MghfT8CVykAiTAz8ER2WAsA3phw/pub


I created a form in Google Drive that I can use personally. Check out the link.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cLc6y8vHCouAHJTIRIcU2cRAUkxeCCKecGxxGCEtmnQ/edit?usp=sharing

One way I can see myself using Google Drive in my future classroom is by having my students compose some Spanish sentences using Google docs and share them on our class bog or site. Students can then review the work of two other students and made suggestions for improvement. This will be great way for students to reinforce the grammar points with each other.

I checked out the other web-based application, Zoho and I was not very impressed. Sorry folks. Once I looked at Google Drive, got used to its format, and everything it has to offer, I could not be convinced. I felt it had much more business based needs. I am sure if I wanted to think outside of the box and really try to make it work I could. But, if Google Drive will give me 15 GB of free storage and Zoho was offering 5GB of  the  same, my money's on Google Drive. Case closed.  

Thing # 12: There Is More to Google Than Meets the Eye

I have Google's search engine and Scholar countless of times, but I have not tried its Translate tool. Typically, I am pretty wary of translating websites because they tend to translate word for word and completely miss the context of the original text. Translating is not easy when there can be underlying meanings to what is written. To try it out, I thought it would be funny to have APSU's 23 Things website translated into Spanish. Like I said, I have not used this tool before today, so I was curious as to how the process would work. It was easy. All I had to do was copy the website address and paste it into the left text box. Then, I had to indicate which language the original text was. After that, on the right side of the window I selected the language I wanted it to be translated into. The last thing I had to do was click the blue translate button and wait a few seconds for the results. Surprisingly, Google Translate did a pretty good job in its translation.  I found only a few minor grammatical errors after scanning the first page of the site. The overall context was still there and it was easy to read. I will use this tool again. I will have to say that in teaching Spanish, I am wary of my students using translating sites because they will come to rely on them too much when composing sentences and not try to figure it out for themselves. I'll have to think about this some more. I do not want to completely avoid the pink elephant in the room.

The other Google tool I explored was Google Books. I love to read and am looking for some new books to read for leisure. I explored the site and found some books I was interested in that were samples. I added those to my library. I am excited about trying out sample books. I have never read one before. I did have problems once I selected some books to find out more about them. For some reason, the site kept loading for more than four minutes. I got impatient and went back to my search. This happened for more than four or five books. I'll look for those books some other time. It would be a good to use Google Books in my classroom if my students had a Nexus tablet so they could access Google Books in class. I know someone that has a Nexus tablet and I found out about this possibility from them.

Thing 11: Subscribe to fun......

I did some more searching for RSS feeds using the four suggested sites. I did not have much success using Technorati because it seemed to be hard to get an array of choices for feeds that I was interested in. Not only that, but Technorati was confusing to navigate due to its rating and authority codes.  I had better luck with Google Blog Search and Blog Search Engine.  I found some RSS feeds about genealogy, a Spanish website that taught Spanish, a site/feed that offered teaching methods for foreign languages from a Texas university. These are all, or will be, useful when I have my own Spanish class one day. I did come across an unusual feed. I had no idea that there were RSS feeds for TV shows. What an ingenuous way to keep up with your favorite shows! As for the last question, I did end up looking up RSS feeds using Feedly too. I wanted to see if the RSS feed results for the topics I was searching for had similar number of results. It turned out that it varied upon topic.   

Thing # 10: RSS Feeds

RSS brings new meaning to the phrase having information at your fingertips or, in this case, in your email inbox.  I will definitely save a lot of my time when surfing the web to get to the sites that interest me by having them send new information to me. I can see myself using this technology in my personal life and for my classroom.
For this activity I selected feeds on cooking, education technology, teaching Spanish, personal insights, and travel. My thought on how teachers can use RSS feeds is not original. They can simply use it to keep up with professional websites or blogs where they are in contact with other teachers. But, for some reason I keep coming up with a question in my head.  How is RSS feeds different from subscribing to a site and you receive new information in your inbox anyway? Maybe I am just confusing myself by reading about RSS feeds longer than I need to. What do you think?

Thing# 9: Online Image Generator

These online image generators are fun once you find ones that open as they should. It is kind of dangerous exploring them because you tend to lose track of time. As you can tell, I created these by using the Image Chef generator. I wanted to come up with something I could use in my future classroom.


This first image was made with the Word Mosaic within the Image Chef generator.  I spent some time trying to come up with different messages with different symbols. It took a while because the messages I came up with were too long and make it difficult to read. The final product reflects a how a student will get a gold star from me if they work hard. http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/  
 

 
This next image came from the Fun Templates in Image Chef. Once I saw the floppy disk, the message came to me automatically. I thought it was funny. You have to remember that I will be a seventh grade Spanish teacher. There will be drama and bad attitudes coming into the classroom all day long. I think this will be good to post right by the entrance to the classroom so they can mentally prepare for class. Then again, the whole message may be a lost cause because my future students will have no idea what a floppy disk is. Oh well, I got a kick out of it.    http://www.imagechef.com/c/br8a/Fun

  

  

 

I think I would use image generators in my classroom as a way to provide encouraging messages, reminders of upcoming things, or to transition from one activity to another. 







 



Thing # 8: More Flickr Fun!!!





 

 

 

To complete Thing #8 we had to check out the other Flickr applications, create at least one mash-up, copy our masterpiece onto our blog, and comment on whether we would use Flickr mash-ups

 

Here are two of my Flickr mash-up masterpieces. The first one was created using a family picture we took at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa about four years ago.  I used Big Huge Labs to  make it. I was very surprised at how easy the process was. Coming from a technology klutz, that is saying a lot. I think next time I will use the Mosaic Maker to really accentuate the scenic photos. I thought it was fun way to visualize our family photo. The next image was made using the Puzzles mash-up. It was picture of one of my son's Lego creations that he made some time ago. I showed my son the final product and he was so happy to have it in puzzle form. I think we will be using this mash-up for other photos too. 

 

I did check out some of the other Flickr mash-ups to see if I would use them for my future classroom. I think I might use the Mosaic Maker for my Spanish classes by having them create a photoset from Flickr of places or people from various Spanish speaking countries. I thought I would use the Flickr Color Pickr for a brief color lesson for my students, but changed my mind. I came to this decision after I looked a few colors and I came across some photos in Flickr that would not be appropriate for school use. I will have to find another avenue to do so.