Skip to main content

iGoogle, do you?

Image
By
iGoogle (formerly Google Personalized Homepage and Google IG), a service of Google, is a customizable start page similar to My Yahoo! and Windows Live Personalized Experience. You can login from www.google.com or www.google.com/ig using your Google account. Its features include the capability to add web feeds and Google Gadgets.

I started using iGoogle about a year ago but only changed my theme to make it pretty. Recently I started to add web feeds from various blogs to keep updated on different technology. I added Larry Ferlazzo's blog which is for teaching ESL, ELL students but it provides great Web sites and technology for classroom integration. He has a best Web sites of the year post that is great for finding a variety of learning tools. I also added Mashable and various gadgets for news feeds, photos of around the world (places I hope to see one day), and weather. It's a nice way for me to get a snapshot of what's happening without going out to search for information. Gmail is my primary personal e-mail account so it's easy enough for me to view my iGoogle page but if you don't use a gmail account, it may not be as useful to have to login to the site to see the information. Anyhow check it out and let me know what you think :)

Comments

Clinton said…
Mahalo for sharing Christy! What a convenient way to see all your information at once. It's almost a necessity these days if you are going to monitor many blogs, news feeds, etc. I can see a portal system like this being useful with our students/participants. They could get all their important customized information without every needing to login to the LMS. Mahalo.
December 11, 2008 at 8:39 AM
Komarey said…
Thanks Christy for sharing. I use gmail for managing my personal emails and google calendar too. I've started applying this application by customizing my page and have subscribed to the same blog. I look forward to getting some information from others institutions that are online as well. Like Clinton said, it would be a great way for all of our students to get all their information all at once. That way we can ensure they have a working google account too.
December 11, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey Christy,
Yes, thanks for sharing. I have to say that I haven't had the time to play around with the gadgets yet but, it does sound useful. I did check out the "best of blog" that was suggested, so many resources! I can see this information being useful for our CBOCE/OITI teachers. I will definitely be returning to play somemore, soon. :)
December 11, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geotagging

By
A "wouldn't it be nice" idea that's been around a while is the ability to tag a map with images that are linked to more information about the site. Kelly C suggested it as a way for students to share knowledge about a cultural/historic site or the geographic area they live in with classmates. (right, no addresses!) There are now cameras and even storage media that embed latitude and longitude into images as they are shot. But you don't need fancy new toys to do this. I tried Flickr's geotagging map and it's fun and supereasy. Want to try it? Log in to Flickr http://www.flickr.com Sign in as " techedine " password " wist101 " yea, corny. Click the " You " tab then the " Your Photostream > Map " or Organize > Your Map links. Click the Satellite link in the upper right. Cool view! (you may need Google Satellite downloaded). Images along the bottom of the screen with colored dots have already been droppe
6 comments
Read more

Zoho Creator

By
I thought I’d share this web application I came across in my quest to find a relatively simple app to help us manage our mentoring data in the DL Orientation. Our specific needs were that it be a free online database, password protected, had the capability of rapid form development without too much programming knowledge and was easy for the end user to use. The application that met these requirements was Zoho Creator ( http://www.zohocreator.com/ ) a part of a suite of online applications including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, wikis, organizers and more. What’s great about Zoho Creator is that they have an online repository of applications already developed that you can download to your account and use for free. Initially, I tried some of these applications, but it was overkill for our needs. Zoho Creator can do a lot if you know programming and they have a pay model where it allows you more flexibility and features. I think Zoho Creator would be a useful tool for both
6 comments
Read more

Avatar Chat

By
Aloha all, Here's my o wau topic for this week. We all know the power of the Avatar and their popularity with our learners from our A`o Makua courses and I know we have discussed ways to incorporate them into our `Ike Hawai`i classes as well. Well, I can't take credit for finding this resource. Our resident Avatar expert a.k.a. Christy told me to check it out because Avatars can now chat. So please join me in finding out what other engaging and motivating feats these amazing characters can do to help us provide meaningful learning experiences for all our students. You can read about OddCast and their AvatarSpace or go to their Web site and test out some of these features. I'm hoping that this may provide us with a motivating way to get students, in both programs, to participate in some cooperative learning and sharing. Let me know what you think and if you feel this would be a valuable application to use. Mahalo - look forward to reading your responses! Kelly
5 comments
Read more