Thing 21

Make your own slide show at Animoto.

Creating a video using Animoto was fun.  I really wanted to do more with the video, but unfortunately,  I am a penniless college student who can not afford to pay for a membership with Animoto. 
I chose to create a video that shows some of the works of art I saw in the Picasso to Warhol exhibit in the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.  I could not include all the images I wanted to use without paying to use Animoto, so I just included some of the main ones I remembered by the artists most people will have heard of before.  I included images of work by Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Bearden, Johns, and Warhol.

Thing 20

  Well, I finished my explorations of Youtube for today.  I immediately knew what kind of video I wanted to use, but finding a decent one was difficult.  I chose this one because it starts off with the basics, and she takes you through the process of drawing a portrait.  Her finished product did not look as bad as some of the others either.  It's actually pretty good.  There was a fantastic portrait of Johnny Depp, but that's not what I was looking for.
  Youtube could be very useful for a school's library website, but only if they made links to particular videos and kept the students away from youtube as a whole.  It is full of things that are quite inappropriate for school.  It is also full of things that, while not inappropriate, are still quite useless.

Thing 19

  Thanks to the friend I mentioned in Thing 18, and my affiliation with a student organization, I am a member of an online community.  I joined APSU's student NAEA organization online the same day I joined Facebook.
  Overall, social networks are not extremely appealing to me.  Since I joined Facebook earlier this year, I have wasted far too much time on it, so I really don't have much interest in social networks.  It has helped me keep up with some things because I can always ask a friend, but a phone call would accomplish the same thing.
  I liked the forums I saw on some of the sites.  If I ever form an opinion I think needs to be shared with everyone, I might just hop right over to a forum and share away.  They can be really helpful if I have a question that someone else in the group can answer, but I don't always trust other people's opinions.  They might be wrong.

Thing 18

  I am now grateful to a friend who recently convinced me to join Facebook.
Educators should be familiar with social networking so they can keep up with what is going on in the community; with their friends or maybe even their students.  Facebook isn't much different than I had always assumed it would be.  There are lots of people who post too many unnecessary things I simply don't care about, but it can be useful too.  I primarily use it to communicate with other art ed. students; especially regarding upcoming events in the art department.  I like that I can use Facebook to communicate directly to a friend or to everyone if I feel I have something exceedingly important to say.  I usually don't have anything that important to say though.  I did not like that other people can post things on my page by "sharing" it with me.  Most of the things they have share are things I have liked, though, and it does give me the ability to "hide" things other people put on my page.  That's cool.  I suppose it would be pretty cool if an art class could create its own Facebook page and use it to share artwork they created with everyone.

Thing 17

  This was interesting.  I can see how this could  helpful in a classroom.  Having sites you might use for a class demonstration bookmarked can help you find them later if you forgot what they are called.  Plus, the ability to access them anywhere is great if your computer is not attached to you.  Since I rarely use the same computer two days in a row, this is awesome!
  Teachers can look up new websites in the comfort of their homes and bookmark them, then they will still have access to them on their school computer using sites like delicious.

Thing 16

  I chose to create a start page with iGoogle.  I liked the look of it more than Netvibe, and it took Page Flakes too long to load.  I liked how easy they made it to instantly create and customize a unique start page with iGoogle.  Any time something on the Internet is easy for me, I am happy with it.
  As to how online calendars can be useful for me...they can't unless I am somewhere other than home.  Since I live in the middle of the woods, a regular calendar made of paper is the easiest to use, but if I did have Internet access, I would definitely use an online calendar to help keep track of events.  However, I actually preferred the to-do lists.  I chose Remember the Milk for mine.  Jott looked more professional, but the others practically begged me to sign up for them.  Remember the Milk looked the easiest, and the name is a little funny...you know not really funny, but slightly humorous.  There is also something appealing about a to-do list that is password protected so no one else will be adding to it for me.
  I really liked the start page, and the to-do list can help me keep up with assignments for school.  I would recommend either to anyone who cared to ask about them...as long as they don't need my help with them.

Thing 14

For Thing # 14, I explored bubbl.us and gliffy.  Bubbl.us is a mind map creation site, and gliffy is a flowchart site.  I checked out one of gliffy's example flowcharts.  Unfortunately, the options were "who stole my lunch" or "Lady Gaga adoption process."  I think they intended to be funny with them, but I did not find them amusing.  I did, however, like the website, and I felt it would be useful if I needed to make a flowchart.  I preferred bubbl.us's mind maps to gliffy's flowcharts though.  Bubbl.us was easier to use and more fun.