Thing #16

   It is really surprising that even with my technology background, I am a newcomer to Facebook. I started using it about a year ago, just a little before we started our cohort. I do like the possibility to stay in touch with people that sometimes you have even forgotten about, I do not like the way some people let their lives be driven by it but as usual I think that everybody has a right to do as they please.

  By making this blog I found a lot of new applications for things I've been using regularly. The ones that changed my views the most were the ones I saw in my classmates' blogs! this is not surprising since they would be looking at things that I won't think about and viceversa.

  I think Dr. Wilson needs to take into account that most people these days are already using some of the tools and maybe needs to change some of them. For instance, we all had already put together a group of the cohort in Facebook, so it was not a new experience for most of us.

  I really hope that we keep the blog and continue to check everybody's and comment on them although I know it's not practical to think so, we are just too full of other things to do. It has been a pleasant experience to know your digital selves.

  Thanks everybody.

Thing #15.5

   As with most of the other tools, I have been using twitter for a while mostly to follow newspeople from Mexico but I have never made the jump to tweet or even less to try to have a following. It is a very good idea to limit the size of the comments people can make because that keeps the conversation multiple sided. Twitter is one of those things that when you see it the first time (before it was famous) you think "What would people use this for?" and don't give a penny for it but when you least expect it, it's the next wave in communication. My twitter name is @fbarocio, hello world!

Thing #15

   Being from a different country, Skype has been a part of our life since we arrived. We use it all the time to communicate with our friends and relatives back in Mexico. Been able to see them at the same time is awesome, my wife's sister had a baby 2 months ago and she sees him all the time and is aware of every minor change he has had since he was born thanks to Skype. The baby even recognizes her voice already. Technology is indeed a bleesing.
   Talking about the classroom, the obvious use of Skype for me is to find students in Mexico learning English and hook them up with my own students learning Spanish. The experiences both groups can get are very interesting!

Thing #14

I found a lot of interesting Podcasts but the thing that called my attention was a directory of language-learning ones. You can find the most common languages with lessons spoken by natives and you can use those to practice your learning. I posted a link to the French one because that's the one I personally would like to use, but the uses of the one for Spanish in my classroom are endless.

Thing #13

This is something I never thought I'd do. I've mentioned before that I hate publishing personal videos or photos online, so it never crossed my mind uploading videos to YouTube. Of course, now that I have, it's obvious that I needn't worry about it, I can upload videos that are NOT personal. What I did was: I took a video that I had from my trip to the Niagara Falls and using movie maker I edited out the personal parts, I posted what was left after that. Enjoy the might of water falling...

Thing #12

   I have used YouTube for a long time now, mostly for personal recreation. I go in to look for music videos of my favorite artists and to look at funny videos. Now for this activity I went to take a look at YouTube from a different perspective and I liked it.
   I've heard several people complaining about the amount of "garbage" you can find there but I think that YouTube is just like any other human activity, there are lots of things worth your time and some things that you do not want to look at it. But guess what, you don't have to look at them if you don't want to! So, there is no point complaining about things you don't have to watch.
  I think the good points of YouTube far outweight any bad (which I really think there aren't any that you HAVE to experience), and to heat up the discussion I chose to add a completely stupid video, the kind that I love to watch because I think laughing is a crucial part of life (Especially when you learn to laugh at yourself).
  Please take a look at Spiderman at a children's party...

Thing #11

   I would never have thought that I would find something like this listed in the Web 2.0 tools page; I found this incredible science fiction universe; Galaxiki, where you can find a map of the galaxy and "buy" a solar system in which you can create your own civilization. You can write stories about what happens there and how they achieved intelligence. There are literally more than a hundred thousand million stars to choose from. Thousands of stars are already bought with stories of their own where you can just enjoy the imagination of their owners. It is a complete universe ready to be colonized!