personalizing the internet

Today in class we talked about ways to personalize the internet, and I absolutely love igoogle. There are so many different gadgets, games, and ways to get organized! Also, the google reader and google alert is another great way to get up-to-date information about subscriptions or even searches you are looking for.

This would be a great tool to have in the classroom. I think a really beneficial way to use it in the classroom is for research projects, or if the class is collectively working on something. If you are working with younger kids and possibly getting a class pet such as chicks, fish, or even hamsters, the whole class could type in the animal into a search in reader or alert to get new information about it. We could also organize the various projects by separating all of our subscriptions into folders using google reader. We could even have a blog or website where we post information about the class pet and post new updates based on the information we obtain from our alerts or reader. That way if a student misses class, they will still be able to get the information that we talked about on that specific subject.

In the upper elementary levels, we could use these personalization tools for similar topics of research projects or something we decide as a class we want to learn more about (maybe outside academics, such as healthy lifestyles, etc.). We could define our search to subscribe to certain websites or blogs to get more information, or create an alert when something new comes in on that topic. It could turn into something really fun and just helpful for the students to learn.

I really enjoyed todays class in learning new ways to use the internet and various ways to get organized. iGoogle is my favorite and I love all the different applications. I'm not sure how much I would use the google reader/alert. The alert would be really useful when looking for a teaching job. That way you get the job posting right away and don't have to search various websites all day!