THING 11

Library and Reference: I explored the ELM databases mobile site and did some searching in Alt. Health. I found this to be very easy to find quality information on a topic of interest. I also tried to go to the find you library link and I get a 404 error every time. This is a tremendous tool to use in the classroom where students might be using mobile devices instead of having a computer lab, etc. There is no reason for them not to be able to find credible sources through these tools. Personally, I can use it to look up anything without sifting through the mountains of hits that you get in a general search engine. I also installed the Mackin Via app and can log in to our school's resources. This could be very helpful for students on a bus, or on a trip that would like to find a book to read on the go.

THING 10

I installed both snap chat and instagram on my mobile device. I am currently following my facebook friends but have declined to follow all of my contacts. I could see this being useful in a professional setting by sharing photos of school/group activities with parents and staff. What a great way to promote your activities. As far as personally, I don't know that I have photos that I want to share with the world. I do not use my mobile device for most of my photos. I like to use the qualities available with a DSLR. I do not share many of these photos. I'm not sure why, but it is something that I could try. I'm a little hesitant to allow snap chat access to all of my contacts. I would never want to accidentally send some of my contacts a photo. I was looking for a way to only add specific contacts, but I haven't found a way without giving access to my entire list. There has to be a way, but I need to explore further. For now, I'll be using instagram.

THING 9

Photo Editors: Color Splurge I tried this on my android phone and found it to have some nice features such as adding text to the photos. I did not find a crop feature or a feature to add background color to the text which was what I was looking for. I will try it some more in case I missed it. One photo tool I use is Perfectly Clear. It is more of a photo enhancer than an editor, but it certainly does improve your photos. It will take a photo that is extremely dark and adjust the lighting and contrast to improve the image. There is also a beautify feature that does wonders for skin tones. It also has a way of enhancing the eyes in a portrait that is amazing. There is a fee to it,maybe $2.99 but occasionally you can find it free.

THING 8

Social Media: I've been using facebook for several years, and I enjoy keeping up with family, friends and colleagues. Different facebook pages could be created for different organizations you are part of or in a school setting, it could be used for a class, club, etc. The important part of using this for school use, would be to check district policies and to strictly monitor the content on the page. I don't feel compelled to fully participate in all forms of social media, but there are good reasons to have accounts and to stay connected. For example at conferences, many presenters will post information or have attendees tweet different comments from different sessions. I have also found it beneficial to follow some of the leaders in my field to try to keep up with new trends, etc. One very important part of social media and our work environment is to keep personal information and business information completely separate.

THING 7

I downloaded the Pinterest app to my android phone and was somewhat disappointed that even though I logged in with my regular Pinterest information, none of that data came through to my device. I have some boards that I created using Pinterest on my computer with the very same login and nothing shows up. They did ask for access to my information and I agreed when putting this on my phone, but still not sure why the information doesn't show up as everything in 1 account. If you know of a trick for this, please let me know. I'm going to log out of my computer and phone, and then restart things to see if that corrects any problems.

THING 6

I installed sign now and quick office on my android phone. I was able to create a signature which was much easier on my phone using my finger to draw than on my computer using the mouse to draw my signature. With Quick Office, I created a document, then opened sign now and uploaded the document and added my signature. This is a very nice feature. I can tell you how many times, I have printed documents, signed them, scanned them and either emailed or faxed them back. Especially having the option of doing this on the go is amazing. I noticed on Sign Now that you can have others sign as well which is good if you have a document that requires witnesses, etc. I don't think I'll ever go over the free monthly limit for sign now.

THING 5

Remember the Milk: I installed this on my android phone and entered a few tasks. I had previously tried this on my ipad and thought it would be useful, but never really got back to it much. I still think it would be useful. But then I tried SpringPad which has a task reminder,just like remember the milk, but it has much much more. I can save things to look at later of save all kinds of information and have my task reminder. After looking at both of these, I'm going to stick with SpringPad. There is no sense in having to do tasks in different locations, because I will forget to check both places. :-)

THING 4

I set up my flipboard account on my android phone. In the past, when I was looking up news highlights, I would use my computer and go to aol's daily stories or else go to CNN's site. With flipboard on my phone, I've added several topics of interest to my personal magazine and I actually enjoy reading news stories this way. I'm able to select some of my interests such as photography, etc. and get some daily information about these as well as motivational sites that can help with many different things.

THING 3

Using utilities on my android phone I use Google on my phone, but hadn't installed the app before. I also tried the qr code reader with some codes that I created for school and used with ipads. I still am not 100% comfortable with using my phone for everything. I don't particularly like the small view, but I'm assuming that is just comfort level and the more I use it, the more comfortable I'll be. The google searching app is a little more user friendly that just going to the internet and going to Google, so that is a plus. I also took the time to organize all of the apps on my phone to make them more accessible. This way I also found out which apps I have for specific tasks.