Signing Off

This is Samantha on the last day of Social Media. This class has been so much fun! We went on a wild tour of web tools, and it has been enjoyable yet I have learned a lot. I didn't really know what to expect because this was a brand new class. However, I learned things that I never would have stumbled across by myself, like imagechef or glogster. Keeping tabs on what we learned is so much easier thanks to Social Bookmarking. I plan on using most of the sites we learned about in school and in the rest of my life, especially with programs like google (and all it's wonderful products) and symbaloo (my favorite bookmarking site). Although the class was enjoyable, I think it could be improved by not allowing as much time to explore, because people got off topic and no one was doing what they were supposed to. Thanks for teaching me Mrs. James. I loved Social Media and will continue to apply the knowledge that I have learned throughout the rest of my life, remembering always the fun times we've had.

<3 Samantha

Internet Safety

Click on here to see a bigger version of Sarah and I's Internet Safety for Kids Final!

Toodledo

Today I explored Toodledo.  It is an online to-do list.  It could come in very handy if you didn't have any other way to coordinate.  I added all of my finals in there to be sure that I know when they are and that I study!

JibJab

Today I explored JibJab.  On JibJab, you can upload pictures to animated videos. In this video, you upload pictures to "Elf Yourself" and your friends.

Kerpoof

Today we explored Kerpoof.  Kerpoof is a website for children or young adults to play on without the threat of something bad happening.  I find Kerpoof very enjoyable though.  On the website, you can make movies, spell pictures, make cards, draw, or tell a story.

With "Spell a Picture", you choose a background and then spell words to go in that background.

With "Make a Movie", you can choose a theme and then literally animate the scene.  It is sort of like using a flash player.

Using "Make a Card", you can design a card from the templates that they have on there.

"Make a Drawing" and "Make a Picture" are basically the same thing, except on Make a Picture, you drag and drop objects whereas on Make a Drawing, you can draw whatever you want.

"Tell a Story" was one of my favorite things on this website.  I wrote a pirate themed story.

Kerpoof is like a gaming website, because you earn coins for using the site and then can buy things at the store.  You can also make avatars if you create an account.  Here is my avatar...

Nota

Today we explored Nota.  Nota is an interactive collaborative website that lets you work with up to 50 different people on one page.  Tommy, Sarah, Ryan and I made this sweet picture.

 

Comix

Today we explored Comix.  Comix is an interactive website that allows you to make a comic strip online.  It is easy to navigate and use.  Because I'm not very funny, I just made a guy do a cartwheel in my comic strip that I designed.

If you look really closely, you can see that I also hid a little penguin in every slide.  In the first one he's in the tree, in the second one, he's below the tree, and in the third one, he is on the hill.

Imagination Cubed

Today we explored Imagination Cubed.  Imagination Cubed is a doodle website designed by GE.  It is a neat tool, but it is really slow on our computers.  Especially when you're doodling with a friend.  Despite that fact, Sarah and I drew a pretty cool picture of the night sky.

If you look closely, you can see Sarah's marker at the bottom of the page.

Survey!

Firefox AddOns

Today we explored Firefox Add-ons. Firefox add-ons allow you to further personalize your Firefox browser beyond personas.  Add-ons can be anything from the weather...

...to a game that lets you destroy the website you are on...

...to colorful tabs that make using them easier!

Most of the Firefox Add-ons make Firefox easier to use or more enjoyable.  They are totally free -- you don't even need to make an account.  Firefox has a ton of categories to choose from, like appearances, games, shopping, and blogging.  To add an add-on, just click on the one you want and follow the directions!

Favicons

Today we explored Favicons.  Favicons (short for favorite icons) are the little icons that appear next to the URL on some websites.  For example, Blogger always has the orange box with the white B.  But now, whenever someone visits my blog, they will see a cute little penguin as my favicon!  This is cool because it allows you to personalize your blog even further from just backgrounds. 

 

This is what my favicon looks like in its original state.  As a favicon though,  it looks like this...

To change your favicon, try these neat links...

...Favicons R Us
...FreeFavicon.com
...Iconlet.com

...favicon.cc

...Favicon Generator (Blogger Buster)
...FaviconGenerator.com
...HTML-Kit favicon generator
 

BeFunky

Today I explored BeFunky.  BeFunky is a picture editing website that is amazingly awesome.  I love tinkering with pictures, so I really liked this site.  However, there aren't very many options to do to your pictures unless you upgrade to plus.  I enjoyed looking around though.  It is fairly user friendly though.  This is a picture I made.  I chose Jacob Black because I have a cardboard cutout of him.

Blog Backgrounds

Today we changed our blog's background.  Mrs. James told us of a way to change the background on our blogs to something other than what blogger offers.  To do this, you just visit a site like cutest blog on the block.  Once you find a background that suits your style, all you have to do is copy the html code and put it on blogger as a gadget to get the background that you want!  Right now, my  background is a girly daisy background called Happy Daisy. 

 

There are many different sites that allow you to change your background.  These sites include...

...HOT bliggity

...Shabby Blogs
...Simply Blog It Backgrounds

Domains

Today we learned about domains.  A domain is an internet address that you've purchased.  On blogger, you can purchase a domain name for just $10 a year.  I searched for a few domain names, and there were some that were available and some that weren't.

 

BlogThis!

Today we learned how to use BlogThis!  BlogThis! is an add-on that allows you to blog from any website on the internet.  To do this, all you have to do is click on the BlogThis link and then start blogging!  To learn more about BlogThis!, visit google's website on it, at http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41469.  This is an example of someone using BlogThis!...

E-Mail Post

I am sending this post from my email account!

BibMe

Today we explored BibMe.  BibMe is a website that basically cites your sources for you, like for a research paper.  BibMe is easy to use and user friendly.  It is hard to remember how to cite each different source, but BibMe makes it easy.  You just enter the name of a book, magazine, journal, film, website or newspaper and hit the cite button.  If BibMe recognizes the source, then it will automatically cite it for you!  However, my Comp Teacher just told us today that these website aren't always completely accurate.  If you use an online formatting cite, make sure you check over the information to ensure that it is in the correct format (MLA, APA).

BibMe is not the only bibliography making website though.  Here are some other ones!

• EasyBib
• Citation Machine
• WriteCite (for APA Formatting)

Blogging from A Cell Phone

Today we posted a blog from our cell phone.  In today's society, not everyone has time to sit down at a computer and blog.  Blogger is making it easier for busy people to keep up with their blog by allowing them to text Blogger (256447) a blog post.  To do this, follow these simple instructions to blog from your cell phone!

• First send an SMS with the word 'REGISTER' to BLOGGR (256447).
• We'll reply with the address of your new mobile blog, plus a claim code.
• Post to your new mobile blog, or use the claim code to link your phone to a different blog.
• To opt out of receiving SMS messages to your phone, text STOP to BLOGGR (256447)
• To get help from your mobile device, text HELP to BLOGGR (256447)
• To unlink your device from Blogger, text UNREGISTER to BLOGGR (256447).
• Sending text messages to BLOGGR (256447) is currently available for US phone numbers only.

*to set up a blog from your phone, you will need a computer to start off with*

Firefox Personas

Today we explored and added a Firefox Persona to our Firefox.  Firefox Personas is just another way to customize your internet.  On Firefox Personas, they have over 4,980 pages of different ways to customize the "toolbar" part of your Firefox browser (the part with the address bar).  However, despite the pretty look, some personas make the tabs and buttons hard to read, like the one I had with flowers. 

However, I recently switched my Firefox Persona to one that is autumn themed due to the seas on that we are in now.  This one is easier to read.  

I'm posting this blog from my cell phone!