Digital Text

A blog can be similar to a digital news paper, in the sense that each day there can be different articles to read, past articles can be archived on the site, articles are dated so that readers know exactly when the posting happened, and it is not only a site for personal information. A Wiki can be thought of as more of an encyclopedia. People can access the history of changes that have been made on the Wiki, each time a page is created, an archived version of the page is also saved, and you can view who made the changes to the Wiki.

When a novice technological learner is working on a computer, the fewer the clicks the individual needs to make the better. Something that has far fewer clicks will likely be ingrained as a skill of the learner as opposed to something that has many clicks. Clicks matter!

Some browsers work better with blogs than others do. For example, Firefox and Google Chrome work well with blogs, and browsers like Internet Explorer are not as intuitive and sufficient for blogs.

The site: WordPress is, in my opinion, a far better site than Blogger. You can read others' blogs, favorite them to come back to, reblog them on your page, and search for a variety of blogs as well as post for yourself. It is more of a social media site; however, I think the benefits are great. I would consider using this in my classroom for students who want to research some of the mathematical concepts we are learning about that other people have posted information for.

Google Sites is a site that allows you to create your own website. You have the ability to add in a variety of different characteristics other than text, although I do not think it is the most intuitive and visually appealing site for a finished product. I would be more apt to use Weebly because its use is simplistic and aesthetically applealing. I would not use Google Sites, however, I would use Weebly in my classroom to either create my own website for them, or have them create an informational website for me about the content we are learning.

K12 Online Conference is a very cool site used by educators to communicate about new fronts made in the technological frontier. They stress the ultimate goal is that teachers are going to need to become more familliar with technology to better accommodate for their students--and they have it correct. I would certaily use this when I am a teacher because I always want to be up to date with the newest and most effective technology.

Show and Tell

A digital portfolio is a great resource for students to put together their information into a polished and accessible document. There are two really good, and free, sources that will allow you to create and upload a digital portfolio. They are Wikispaces and Google Sites. Most importantly, both sites are free, and students can use their one-to-one laptop ratio to work on their portfolios when they have time. I could have students continuously creating artifacts that will go into their portfolio throughout the term. At the end I could have them synthesize it into something that they could keep with them forever. It would be such a great way of showing all of their knowledge.

I learned that Facebook has the option to create a teacher page that can be used educationally. This would be a very powerful tool for students who are now living in the digital world and most all have a Facebook. The only problem is that there will be some students who do not have a Facebook, and I will need to make other accommodations for them which would be no problem. I could definitely see myself creating a teacher page on Facebook when I am a teacher to post assignments, articles, cool pictures, and videos. We know that students are going to be using it at home, so we might as well try and reach them where we know they will be.

Hosting a Digital Open House at least once a year is a great way to have students show not only their parents what they have completed, but the community and their peers. If the entire school gets a good understanding of the importance of technology in the classroom and how students can create a portfolio, students can really show all that they have accomplished. I will consider proposing this to my school that I work for because it really would be a great opportunity for the school to open their doors to the students' family, friends, as well as the community to view the progress of the students. Also, it will mean a lot to the students to show off what they have learned for the year and take it with them for later years.

Images

I learned that for PowerPoint presentations I should rely heavily on images rather than text. I should have a good understanding of the information--enough so that I can just look at a picture and know what I wanted to discuss on the slide. This goes along with teacher preparedness. This will be useful in my classroom because it will make presentations come alive if I am not reading off of the slide, or have too many words on it.

When putting images into presentations, to keep them proportional, press on the control button before grabbing the corner of the image. This will keep the dimensions of the image relative to when it gets re-sized. This is important because it will prevent the image from becoming distorted, thus keeping it more crisp and not pixelated. I could use this in my future classroom because when I make presentations and have graphics such as graphs or real life application pictures, I will want them to be as crisp and clear as possible, so this useful hint will assist with that.

It is crucial to always save the image's URL that you save, specifically the website that it came from. This is important so you can access the image at a later date, as well as the fact that you will need it for any work cited page or bibliography. Simply using the Google Image link will not do. It is essential to get the website that it actually came from! I will use this in my future classroom because my students will need to cite any pictures that they use for my projects, and I will need to do the same.

Wylio is a great resource to use when looking for images that are free to use and share. This saves some time instead of going to Google Images, going to the advanced search, and then selecting the search stipulation: "Free to use and share." With Wylio, I can just use the search box to find images immediately that I can use. I do not like the fact that they want you to agree to Wylio having access to your email, and that you need to be signed in to Google to use it.

Gimp is an awesome photo editing tool that I wish I would have discovered earlier! It is basically Photoshop, but free. It is going to take a little while to get acclimated with, although it is 10x better than the standard Paint that comes on Windows. I cannot wait to start working with more pictures and fiddling around with them.

Final Fires Reflection

Fires in the Classroom is a good resource for teachers because it gives students' perspectives of what teachers do and what they like. Especially for our practicum class, who are still in the developing process, it is helpful because we have not necessarily had a lot of opportunities to experience different encounters with students. Hearing from the students in the book is beneficial so we can start putting things together.

I feel like I have remained relatively consistent with my feelings throughout the course. After reading my blog posts, I still feel confident with what I wrote down. I am still learning and reflecting about things that I can do in my classroom. Making the classroom management kit will help me to continue my growth in classroom techniques.

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

I am a firm believer that math should relate to the real world and that students should never ask when they will use it. Students need to get out of their seats and see how this math will be used!

To get students interested in math I will use a lot of real life exercises and try my best to get them outside. If they can visualize how something works and then bring it back to the classroom it will be so much more powerful than me presenting it on the board. I also want to connect my lessons to their other classes. My senior year of high school I was amazed how all of my classes related, and it was so cool; it made me more interested in learning the material.

Chapter 9: When Things go Wrong

As a future educator, reading this quote makes me want to do a little something for each and every student. "Students who don't feel noticed at school have a powerful temptation to stop going, especially if they think they can manage to pass their courses anyway" (pg. 165).

We need to make school seem interesting and important for students. We can do this by trying to relate to each student. By giving positive reinforcement to the student who rarely does something correct, it can give them motivation to do better, and give them a reason to stay in school. Keeping school interesting is important for some students who are on the verge of skipping. Reading this quote really reminds me of "Freedom Writers" and how Ms. Gruwell changed the culture of the classroom and made students interested in school.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers who are still Learning English

On page 154, I disagree, for the most part, with the comment, " Don't worry about a noisy classroom--we need to talk!" This is acceptable sometimes, and other times inappropriate. It can be distracting to certain students while at the same time be productive to others--it is a tough situation to manage.

For teenagers who are still learning English they are going to want to talk a lot to their peers. There are sometimes when it is acceptable, although having a noisy classroom can be very distracting depending on the situation. If it is during a lesson, I do not want a noisy classroom. It is acceptable to have some students whispering as long as it is relevant to the lesson. Other times, such as class work time, may be an acceptable time to have a "noisy classroom" depending on what they are talking about and that it isn't bothering people.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

I strongly agree with the the section in this chapter titled, "Don't stick to textbooks." Some teachers stick directly to the textbook, while others try and diversify the instruction and use different topics.

I want to be the teacher that does very little with the textbooks. As a student I was not a big fan of textbooks, because 1. they were a pain to carry around, and 2. they were intimidating. I had a hard time looking at the text from a math book and making something from it. I will probably only use my math textbook to get math problems from it. Using different ideas from outside the textbook are good for students because they won't think it's the typical nonsense from the book.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

I agree with Hilary who talked about wanting to do her hobbies. On page 100 she said, "I felt like school was keeping me from learning. I wanted to read books I chose and do my own art, but you didn't have time." This is something that is a big challenge that us teachers need to try and work with.

Every future student I will teach will have hobbies that they love to do. I need to find a way to incorporate their hobbies into the content. In Hilary's case, she probably didn't have any teachers that were willing to work with her art and reading hobbies. I feel like I could somehow make it work for her to use art and reading in my math class. It might not be easy to do, but I would definitely try it if it meant that she would get more from my class.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

I agree with the statement by Mahogany on page 92: "I like being able to do different activities because we all learn different." This follows a lot of what we have been talking about and have been reading in Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner.

This is so important in the classroom because, to me, it doesn't make any sense to present information to students who are strictly visual learners in the form of audio. If we do this to students we are basically setting them up for failure. It is our job as teachers to accommodate for students (to a certain extent). The most common situation I see is when a student is a kinesthetic learner but they are not given the opportunity to learn in that form. They are instructed to stay in their seats and stay still.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

Chapter four referred to pushing students equally and trying to get them all to succeed. This excerpt, on page 66 states: "Call on students equally in class. Push everybody to improve, and acknowledge signs of improvement right away."

I completely agree with this statement, as we should not only push the advances students. Many times teachers look past the students who are not doing so well because they think they don't have a shot. I want to be the teacher that is going to push each student to their own individual maximum. Some students will be more inclined to learn than others but that does not mean we should only focus on the ones who really want to learn a lot.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

One of the parts of chapter three that jumped out at me dealt with not calling on students who aren't paying attention. They suggested that if a student isn't paying attention, you shouldn't call on him because it will make them feel bad and stop paying attention even more. 

I do not agree with this because I believe if a student isn't paying attention in class they should be called out on it. I have used this technique in the classroom already and have found it useful. If a student is talking I will call on them and tell them to walk me through the example problem on the board. This should condition them to know if they don't want to be called on they should pay attention and not talk. 

Inspiration

The original idea for this concept map is to figure out a new way to manage late work. I would use this in my classroom because it can give students an example of how they can work around a problem, such as late homework, in their own life. The only modification I would suggest making for the students is to personalize it for their own life. This is only if they have a problem with late homework assignments. This model would be substitution because students are using this model to help find a better way to manage their time so they they do not have any more late homework.

The original idea for the second concept map is how to prepare a proper presentation. Both of these concept maps are on the same web page next to each other about 2/3 of the way down. I would use this in my classroom during the time before I present students with their first presentation project. In their first lesson is a Nearpod presentation, so this would be a great opportunity to introduce the map. I would not make any modifications to the map, as it is nicely constructed the way it is. Lastly this represents modification on the SAMR model because it is explaining how to make a presentation reach the type II capabilities.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

I don't necessarily agree that teachers should not choose favorites in the classroom. I do agree, however, that teachers should never SHOW that they have favorites in the classroom. This is important in keeping students' trust and respect.

It is important that we do not single out students who we like, who we don't like, or who we don't have any particular feelings for. As teachers we need to keep ALL of this information in our heads. That doesn't mean that we can't go to other teachers and say one students is doing exceptionally well, or say a student is giving me a hard time; what can I do to fix this. We need to keep things professional, as it can make students uncomfortable and put them in awkward situations with their peers.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

I agreed with the paragraph on page four that talked about giving students a questionnaire. It suggested that we give students a questionnaire on the first day to find out a little bit about each student. Having the teacher know a little bit about each students can be very beneficial to their learning if it is done correctly.

This makes so much sense to me. When I think about having students in my future classroom I think about how I can best accommodate for all of their needs. Why not ask them! It is the simplest solution to a problem that seems so complex. While it might seem very hard to make it possible for every student to learn in their preferred way, we can certainly try.

Video Thoughts

1. It is important to use short video clips. This will keep students' interest rather than showing very long and drawn out films. By showing short clips, at a maximum length of 15 minutes, and preferably around 5 minutes, we will keep them engaged and provide for better class discussions. I know when I was in class and we took a whole class to watch a documentary I was one of the first ones to fall asleep. Keeping the videos to shorter segments will prevent this from happening.

2. Screencasting is something new to me, and is an extremely interesting tool. I would love to utilize this when I am a teacher because I can have students view screencasts for homework if I was not able to cover everything in class. This allows them to go at their own pace for learning, thus, allowing them to get the most out of it. What is also nice about this tool is that you do not need to download any software, and it can quickly be published online. It is also iOS compatible, so students can use their Apple devices to view the screencasts.

3. YouTube, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube are great resources to use in the classroom. Obviously, I have heard of YouTube, although I have not heard of the other two. Both provide a multitude of video options for teachers to search as well as use in lessons. After watching some videos, there is really an endless amount of teaching videos available to us.

4. Pre-question videos are a important to propose before a video. Students will be more attentive during the video if they have something specific they need to look for. An easy way to do this would be to divide the class into sections and assign different questions or aspects of the video to different groups. After the video, discussion time can really bring the concepts of the video into fruition.

It would be soooooooooooo easy to incorporate video in our unit for Dr. Grace's class. I have already set up some "hooks" that involve using video. For example my hook for my day on exponential functions will be a video of a roller coaster and how it goes very slow at first and then explodes in quickness to the bottom. My hope is that this will catch students attention, and hook them for the rest of class.

Audio

My response to the first part of the blog using a web 2.0 tool: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1620679-chapter-3-wes-fryer

Audioboo: It just so happens that I used Audioboo for the first part of this assignment as my first web 2.0 recording/editing tool. I made an account and found out that it was very easy to use. It is very strait forward and helps you to record or upload audio files with no problem. This would be a neat tool to use in the classroom if students recorded themselves talking and posted it for me hear at home or when I needed to.

Cinchcast: Cinchcast allows you to create events and share them with an unlimited amount of people. You can do this from anywhere on any device as long as you can reach the website. After watching the informational video, I learned you can do audio conferencing, streaming, and slide sharing with simple touches of buttons.

Ipadio: This applications allows you to record and publish a podcast at anytime and upload it or share it. Using this tool is a great way to publish something quick if you need some of your students to listen to it when they are at home. Ipadio also gives you the option to publish it on the web as an informational podcast for whatever reason, you could do that as well. 

Wes Fryer on Copyright and Fair Use

In this chapter I learned that it is important for my students and me to give proper credit information that is not "homegrown". Homegrown means the work that you have was created personally and was basically not taken from anyone else--meaning if it was your friend's and he gave you permission to use it, that would be homegrown. Giving proper credit does not mean that we say we got this image from Google Images. It means that you give credit to the website you got the picture or information from. This is nearly synonymous with saying in a bibliography, "I got this information in the school library." You would need to write which book you got if from, the author, etc... in whatever format the teacher requests. This is not an easy concept to grasp, however, a very important one.

I will handle the protection of intellectual property in my future classroom by not accepting work that does not comply with the necessary standards. Similar to Dr. Theresa's, "Deal-breakers," students will only receive partial credit for work until they follow the proper guidelines. I was never told about this in high school, and I feel like it would have been good for all teachers to know this. If they did know this, it would have been nice for them to share this with us. We were always told we needed to make a bibliography to give credit to resources we used. Well, why do we need to do that? I always just assumed that it was something that we needed to because teachers told us to. It is similar to saying, this is a math problem, and this is the answer. The critical question that are missing are why? and how?

Copyright and Fair Use

This comic is about teaching people what they need to do if they ever use copyrighted material. It capitalizes on the fact that other people's work is their own, it is their property, and they have the right to do with it what they want. They provided many examples to show people that these situations do happen and they are important to look out for.

I learned "Clearing Rights" is the process of finding the rights holder, and getting permission to or paying to use material. Sometimes companies will demand an exuberant amount of many money for the use of their work. Many people who originally use other people's work will take individual parts out because of the amount of money others request. If, however, you would like to use works published before 1923 or produced by the federal government, you are welcome to do so because they are clearly in the public domain.

I am very surprised about the information that I am learning. I have never thought of this before, and we have all used pictures in presentations that we should not have used. It seems very over the top of a company to demand so much, although because they own it, I suppose we must do what they request. I would imagine that many of the pictures I've used in the past and the references I've made are in violation of many copyright laws. I should probably start paying more attention to the people's products that I am using. The use of the comic to present the information was better than reading it in paragraph format. This made it easier and more enjoyable to read.

In my classroom I will make this clear to students, and make sure that they give credit properly and where credit is due. A failure to do so will result in a loss of points and they will need to take it off any internet sights they have posted it to. As a teacher, I will always site all information in my presentations that I got from other places not created by myself. This will give appropriate credit and also show my students that it is important to do it. I want to make sure I lead by example.


Center for the Study of Public Domain

Web 2.0 Educator

I read some of Vicki Davis' blogs about education and technology. Personally I found it more interesting to read other peoples' blog posts than to read chapters from the book. Through my reading, I found that although Vicki uses technology in the classroom, she does not think it is necessary in every situation. I would happen to agree with her in certain scenarios. For example, she talked about how one teacher she knew about was being demoted from the AP level course because she wasn't using technology in the class. This was in spite of the fact the teacher had nearly a 50% pass rate on the AP subject she taught--quite impressive. If a teacher can prove that they are still getting stupendous results without the use of technology, then why should they be forced to use it?

I enjoyed reading her blog about her cats and their tussles they have. She made the point that, like her one cat in particular, there will be a student that is always looking to start something. Altercations of any type is something that we don't want to have to deal with; however, many times it is inevitable. It is how we deal with the situation that makes the difference. We should never lose our cool with other students, coworkers, or parents in front of students. It is not professional, and these discussions should take place in private and taken care of professionally.

I enjoyed reading Vicki's blogs, and will probably revisit them in the future. I agreed with many of the blogs I read and believe that she has a positive outlook on the profession with a strong grasp on what needs to be done to help students the best.

SAMR Model

TPACK, or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, is the resultant when you combine technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. It is a basis for teachers to understand and describe pedagogically in a technology savvy learning environment. SAMR, or Substitution Augmentation Modification and Redefinition, provides an example of how computer technology could impact learning.

• Redefinition: An example of technology usage that would fit under this category would be a computer because you can do everything on a computer and things you were never able to do in the past. 
• Augmentation: I would say that a blog would be a good example of this because it is similar to writing your own material and keeping a journal of it, although now you can publish it on the internet free of charge for people to see. It is not a transformation, but simply a sharing tool and an enhancement.
• Augmentation: I believe that Prezi is an example of this because, similar to a poster, you can still present your information, however, it is in digital form in an aesthetically pleasing format. It keeps the audience engaged, but it is not a transformation of a presentation, simply an enhancement.
• Substitution: A slideshow would be an example of substitution for me because it is a technology but it does not allow for any functional change.
• Modification: I think being able to take video on a device is an example of modification because it is a total transformation of capturing life, but it can only take video.

TPCK and SAMR: Models for Enhancing Technology Integration

My MEL Experiences

• Student/teacher relationship: My senior year of high school was one of my favorite years because it was the year I was able to connect with all of my teachers. I was able to have awesome relationships with them that still last today. They all had a great sense of humor, and they showed me that that is a great characteristic to have in a classroom as a teacher.
• Hands-on: Also in my senior year, my AP Biology teacher, Miss. Tripp, had us walk to her house (approx. a mile away) to do a scavenger hunt in her yard. We needed to find a variety of things that were course related and we had a great time doing it. This was a great way to get out of the classroom and away from the textbook to keep students engaged.
• Learning Styles: In my Physics class our teacher had us construct a egg casing that would hold and egg and protect it from being dropped at two stories. We had certain specifications to follow, however, the rest was up to us. This was a great way for students of all intelligences to create a casing the way they wanted to so they would be learn from the experience.
• Connections: This was probably the coolest thing about my senior year: most all of my classes related to one another. My Anatomy & Physiology class related to Biology, Biology to Statistics, Statistics to Calculus and Psychology, and Calculus to Physics. It really was amazing and is very cool to look back on. 
• Context: In AP Statistics we were instructed to design a survey to present to class. We got a list of all of the students in our grade, randomly selected 10% of them, and asked them all to participate in the survey. We could create any survey we wanted, and it was a great representation of how the class related to the real world.

Learning Style Inventory Results

I think the results from my learning styles quiz were fairly accurate. I would say that I am social, although, I would say personally that I am more physical than anything. It isn't surprising, however, that social and physical were my two highest scores. I love math, and am majoring in math, so that would probably explain why my logical score was the 3rd highest. It makes sense that my two lowest scores are both verbal and aural because words are not really my favorite thing.I would have probably expected a higher score in the visual category because that is how I think I learn the best: visually rather than aurally or verbally. All in all it seems like the scores were reasonable and made sense. 

Credit: learning-styles-online.com

Google Earth

I learned in Google Earth that you can record a video and make a tour out of it. This is a very neat tool because you can upload it to YouTube and other social networks. It would be cool to use it to map out some of the places I have been in my life and put it together into one video.

Next I learned that you can go see the sky, the moon, the earth, and mars. I took a peak at mars and saw that they had polar caps on the northern side of the planet. This is probably old news, but because they have that, that means there's water, and a chance for life! It is neat because in the past you've just heard about things like that, but with this you can actually go to see it for yourself... Superficially.

I also learned that there is an application on the toolbar that allows you to see where the sun is hitting on the earth. As of 9:18 p.m. EST, the U.S. as well as Africa and most of Europe is not seeing sunlight, whereas most of the Asian countries are. These tools are awesome; I really wish someone would have shown me them before now.

Math teachers could do some really cool stuff with Google Earth. Some of the things that came to mind right off that bat was calculating the distance between planets using comparisons and then checking to see how close the calculation was. Another cool thing to do would be using the person to set themselves down in the middle of a city with any skyscraper, and try to calculate the height of the building by just using the resources around and perhaps some prior knowledge. I think when I become a teacher I might have to do some of this stuff as a lesson. It is very neat!

Maine Memory Network

In looking through this website I was amazed at the kind of things that have been kept on record for the past hundreds of years. I searched my town and found a picture of the railroad tracks that used to run along side the river. It was from the 1800s! I also looked at a lesson plan called "Create your own Colony." This was a very neat idea of a teacher using this website. Students answered some key questions as to what they might see or hear standing at the mouth of the Kennebec River hundreds of years ago. I also read an article about how students were using this website for educations uses at Skowhegan Area Middle School. They were looking at records of people they had learned about in class as well as looking at pictures and enlarging them to see detail--very cool stuff.

There probably isn't a whole lot I could use this website for in my classroom as a math teacher. If I used it for anything I might have my students look up math history or math records in the state of Maine if applicable. I also might have students envision themselves living in a time back a few hundred years ago, getting research from the website, and doing math problems with the technology that they had back them. It might be a bit of a stretch, however, it is a twist and might keep students interested.

Wes Fryer Chapter 1

Why?

I think this chapter, which is probably a good representation about what the rest of the book will be like, was very demanding about the use of technology. I felt like the main passage was telling me that if I don't use technology or media, my students won't learn. Learning is not dependent on using technology, as I have learned from Dr. Grace's class, because we learn the best when our multiple intelligences are activated by a lesson. Yes, sometimes technology is the appropriate mode of teaching, although, other times it is not necessary in my opinion.

I disagree with this quote: "...Educators today MUST embrace uses of media for learning." Above is my reasoning for disagreeing with this statement.

I agree with the statement: "The mere use of technology does not constitute or guarantee good teaching." Just because a teacher integrates technology into the classroom doesn't mean they are explaining it or using it to it's proper abilities.

I agree with the statement: "We need to embrace differentiated forms of student assessment to better understand and reflect student knowledge and skills." This statement goes in very well with the book Multiple Intelligences. In my classroom, students will not solely be assessed on how well they can circle in dots on a piece of paper but rather how they apply their knowledge to the real world.

iPad Personalization

When I started personalizing my iPad I didn't realize I would get so sucked into it-- next thing I knew I was using it for, well, too much time. Once you download an app you can't just leave it there, you need to try it, and once you start doing that for a substantial amount of apps, the time flies by. I certainly have been getting distracted with it, although, it is also useful for me as an educational device. My last blog post was typed up and posted with the iPad, and I have used it to teach myself a song on the Ukulele (and I have never played one before).

Many of the things that I have learned from my iPad have actually come in class when some of my classmates show me something cool or mention something and I ask more about it. I have an iPod Touch 5th generation, and although it is significantly smaller, they both basically work the same way. There are some minor differences that you can see between the both of them. Just today, in fact, I learned from a classmate that you can lock the screen to either landscape or portrait. 

I think that if iPads were to be in schools they should not be available for every kid, but simply available to check out from the library. Because most schools already have laptops for every student, I don't think it is necessary to add these in addition, or to substitute them in. The fact that they have apps is just one more thing that can distract a kid from his/her education while in school; the laptops are bad enough as it is because of the things they can do on them. I do not question the fact that they can be very educational; however, in my opinion there is no need for every student to have them. 

Apps for a Personal Passion

After reviewing all five of the apps I downloaded, I learned that there were some apps that I previously thought were my favorite that are no longer my favorite. Between comparing and contrasting the apps, I've found some apps share some characteristics, while some are vastly different. Some apps, in fact, I was able to tell were not going to be that great just because of the picture of the app they had as the cover. The category of the apps I downloaded was sports scores. Some of the characteristics I enjoyed were an easy view of all the teams playing for the specific sport, an easy view of the players and their stats, an easy view of the scoring plays, and simplicity of use. I will probably end up keeping two of the five apps I downloaded, including deleting one of the apps I previously thought was my favorite. This goes to show that there are many possibilities and with a little research you can find better apps you didn't know were out there.