Thing #1 - Keyboard Shortcuts and Delicious

The Jing capture of my word document is above.  I used shortcuts to right-align, center-align, underline, italicize, 1.5 line spacing and single-line spacing. It's interesting that the italicize shortcut worked here!

When doing a lot of Word document processing, the shortcuts save time and energy because your hands never leave the keyboard. A second benefit would be that you would see the formatted docment as you type, rather than formatting the document after you are done typing - which is my usual way of getting things done.

Finally - while I probably do not do enough Word documents to get good at a lot of shortcuts, I have used the "Windows E" shortcut three times since it was mentioned!

Delicious (used keyboard shortcut!)

My Delicious address is: http://www.delicious.com/robertjkoch

I found that my searches gave me sites that are relavent to my subject area - versus having to wade through a standard Google-type search where you have to look at a lot of different sites to find useful material.

Also, organizing my educational sites in one place will make it easier to find the sites I need and easier to share them with my fellow teachers.

Thing 00 - Second Post - Blogs!

A good blog contains information worth sharing - topical, important, personal, etc. It should be written with a target audience in mind. Good blogs are well-written, concise, organized and current.

A blog could provide students with suggestions, tips, study points -- anything that could enhance the lesson and provide multiple exposures to the material (important in math). A blog would enhance my existing web presence well beyond my faculty picture by providing an interactive resource for students to obtain additional information, to exchange information and to provide feedback to me: what they understand, where they need additional help.

Blogs are obviously an easy way to publish (just hit the "Publish" button!).  However, simply publishing isn't everything: as a blogger, you need to attract readers -- otherwise, it's pointless.

21 Things - Getting Started (Finally)

Some new experiences - like setting up and updating a blog - are part of what I expect to get out of the "21 Things" course. Along with that, I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I have an Epson BrightLink projector and use it for 90% of my class presentations/lessons.  This is the first year that I have had access to interactive presentation capabilities and I am on a steep learning curve, but see the need for additional skills to enable me to further enhance my lessons.

Also, perhaps some "different" ways to contact students and perhaps push material to them...