Thing 3 Google Search

I  love Google Search.  I had heard of Google Search, but I really did not see the need. I am able to find anything I need on the old Yahoo or Google. I decided to give the app a try. Last Thursday,(22nd) was a huge storm day. I played all morning asking for information on the road conditions. It was very interesting to see the different results depending on the way the question was asked.

I love the cards. I basically have three calendars  (crazy) . One calendar is a google calendar shared with my daughter so she can check my availability for babysitting. Another, is a pen and paper one to have when I am somewhere and I am asked to babysit or  to sub. The third calendar is the calendar on my iPad that appears when I check notifications. Obviously, the three are not always up to date. So after a little configuring I was able to merge my two digital calendars. Since I do not carry my iPad with me everywhere I will still need two, but having one digital  calendar shared with my daughter and quickly available is great.

The photo card accessed the Picasa site that I used years ago. I had forgotten about it. I am not sure what I would use it for at this time. I have photos on Flickr, my iPad and computer, so I do not need another place.

I did have fun exploring all of the resources. I can see the advantage of using Google Search especially if I am not sure of the correct spelling of my search subject.:).

Thing 2 or I Never Knew

This was fun and a little embarrassing. I have had my iPad for over a year and I have really done very little exploring. I use it for email, the internet and reading books. I have paid very little attention to all of the other features. It was helpful to watch the video on the OS 7 update.

 On occasion I would accidentally pull up a gray area from the bottom of the screen, as well as from the top of the screen, I would quickly exit. I now realize that the control panel from the bottom is a real time saver and I am thrilled that I can control the brightness of the screen. The top section is a notification center. I added a weather app and entered info on the calendar and now I can quickly see my appointments and local weather.

I had no idea I could simply double click the home button and move from one app to another. While these tips are simple time savers they are fun. The best tip I learned was how to take a screen shot. I had more than once wished that I could but never bothered to investigate how. I know I have under utilized my iPad and I am eager to learn more.

23 Mobile Things

I  am really excited to start this new learning adventure. I loved 23 Things on a Stick and I learned so much. I have an iPad and while I love it and use it to read books and email, I know I could use it for so much more. I rarely take pictures and while I play solitaire occasionally I know nothing about gaming other fun uses.  This will be a wonderful challenge.

How Time Flies

I had good intentions but the year flew by. Sound familiar? The hard part of blogging is taking the time to post and making the commitment to post on a regular basis. Once people are accustom reading your blog and depending on your blog for information you have trust and responsibility issues.

This is for the birds.

Thing 46 WebJunction Minnesota

Webjunction is a great resource. I was pleased with the classes offered and that they were self paced. I plan to complete the class Reaching Relunctant Readers soon. The class is appropriate for my needs and the price is right.

Thing 45 Cloud Computing

I think Cloud computer is the answer to many common data management problems. I have often had to try to retrieve lost information after computers have crashed. I encourage teachers and students to make back ups (not just save) when ever they have more data entered than what they want to reenter. In other words, stuff happens. Online back ups answers the broken, lost or stolen hardware problem.
I teach my student about googledocs. It works great for assignments that they want to work on both at home and school. So many times I have compatibility problems when the student bring in work from their home computer software.
I do have reservations about Web OS, space can be limited and what if the server decides to charge after all of your documents are online. I hate to sound paranoid but all of my family pictures could be held hostage:)