Thing 4: Online Productivity Tools

When looking at thing 4 I decided to focus in on the first Blog Prompt:
Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?

I strongly believe that I-google is the way to go in the world of customized home pages. It has made my life so much easier and I get done with routine tasks (like checking email and blogs) so much faster. It truly is a productivity tool. I started one in MILI last year and I can honestly say I use it every day!

I played around with some of the other tools mentioned in the directions for this "thing" but I feel the google products work very well for me. I am a big fan of google calendar and use that as my assignment calendar on my teacher web page. One tool that I thought was interesting was tinyurl.com There are certainly times that a web site has an unbearably long url and this tool helps to shorten it up. Might be nice for when I send websites to colleagues that I think might be of interest. However, I know myself well enough to realize I will probably forget all about this site...

One thing that I NEVER forget is my Igoogle page. MILI participants will hear about hundreds of tools/strategies/sites. I would strongly suggest that a customized home page is something everyone tries and sticks with for future use!