Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Photostory
I created a lovely photostory on Arabians, but after three attempts, it failed to upload. I have it in my videos and on my desktop!
Audio manipulation
Success and no success
I learned how to use the laptop microphone and to control the sound. I learned to use Audacity and to record. I attempted to enter Incompetech to download some music, but had no success. I located itunes and looked at it. I will look at it some more. I have not posted to the audio sandbox wiki because I cannot succeed in producing anything to upload.
As with thing #10 this will probably be continued.
I learned how to use the laptop microphone and to control the sound. I learned to use Audacity and to record. I attempted to enter Incompetech to download some music, but had no success. I located itunes and looked at it. I will look at it some more. I have not posted to the audio sandbox wiki because I cannot succeed in producing anything to upload.
As with thing #10 this will probably be continued.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Thing # 19, or inquiring minds want to know ...
For this thing, I chose Yahoo Answers. I think it is special for several reasons. It is a wide open forum for anything. It can satisfy people's curiosity on just about any subject. And, anonymity can always help. We always state that there is no stupid question. Unfortunately, there are stupid questions. We are all too polite to say so, groaning silently. Forums such as Yahoo Answers or Ask Jeeves and others allow people to ask questions without fear of embarrassment. People can ask the stupid questions privately, and then form a basis for asking more informed questions that increase their knowledge base for any number of subjects.
I can see this tool being useful to my population, whose English speaking and writing skills leave a lot to be desired. Students can use this tool at their own pace, not feeling pressured to peform quickly and well. They can use it in private, not leaving them open to feeling embarrassed. Hispanic children can be timid and not likely to speak up. I can see Yahoo Answers giving them a lot of satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment in pursuing learning on their own, and making their own choices and building confidence in their ability to go out and get some knowledge.
I can see this tool being useful to my population, whose English speaking and writing skills leave a lot to be desired. Students can use this tool at their own pace, not feeling pressured to peform quickly and well. They can use it in private, not leaving them open to feeling embarrassed. Hispanic children can be timid and not likely to speak up. I can see Yahoo Answers giving them a lot of satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment in pursuing learning on their own, and making their own choices and building confidence in their ability to go out and get some knowledge.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thing #21, or how to overcome technical difficulties
This did not begin well. After spending several hours and two unsuccessful attempts to download Photostory with my dial-up connection (even with Windows XP), I had to abandon that and go through a back door somehow. At home, we owned a copy of Microsoft Plus, which included an older version of photostory which worked better on my ten-year-old Dell. For the photostory, I chose pictures of pets and farm animals and a couple of surprises. Photostory is great: quick, friendly and easy to use. Hope everyone can hear the music.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thing # 18
Open Office: years ago while employed in special libraries in the business sector, I learned IBM displaywriter, one of the first word processing programs. There was a fair amount of complication and a lot of button and function pushing. Then I was introduced to Professionalwrite, which was designed for busy professionals who did not want to learn to use the cumbersome displaywriter. What a difference. You could literally be up and running with Professionalwrite within five minutes. Not so with displaywriter.
Open Office seems to be running along these concepts. There are a lot of plusses: it claims itself to be compatible with other programs. It is easy to learn (always a HUGE bonus), it comes in many languages (I am not sure how Microsoft Office measures up in this respect.)
Plus, it is free. While it may always be true that we get what we pay for, who would not be tempted to ditch Microsoft Office and go with something free?
I liked their sales pitch: digital inclusion - making software of the highest quality available to all, regardless of income. My clientele certainly can’t afford Microsoft Office Suite.
Google Docs: as always, I am prepared to be impressed by anything sponsored by Google. The overall appearance is clean, straightforward and uncluttered. I always appreciate that. Looking at the upload function for a new document, it looks pretty easy and seamless, including the ability to upload PDF files. Within the same word processing window, you can research in Google. I always must minimize a Word document if I need to go out and find something while in the middle of composing.
“Google Docs Offline will give you access to your documents when there is no internet connection.”
Wow!
Also, nice templates are available.
I’m impressed, as I knew I would be.
Could these two choices completely replace Microsoft Office? Probably. Will they? Probably not. Microsoft Office has far too strong a stranglehold on the market. Who could conceive of being without them? I see these choices as exactly that: choices that can be used in addition to and alongside of Microsoft Office, and by those who don’t have the couple of hundred dollars it takes these days to buy it.
Open Office seems to be running along these concepts. There are a lot of plusses: it claims itself to be compatible with other programs. It is easy to learn (always a HUGE bonus), it comes in many languages (I am not sure how Microsoft Office measures up in this respect.)
Plus, it is free. While it may always be true that we get what we pay for, who would not be tempted to ditch Microsoft Office and go with something free?
I liked their sales pitch: digital inclusion - making software of the highest quality available to all, regardless of income. My clientele certainly can’t afford Microsoft Office Suite.
Google Docs: as always, I am prepared to be impressed by anything sponsored by Google. The overall appearance is clean, straightforward and uncluttered. I always appreciate that. Looking at the upload function for a new document, it looks pretty easy and seamless, including the ability to upload PDF files. Within the same word processing window, you can research in Google. I always must minimize a Word document if I need to go out and find something while in the middle of composing.
“Google Docs Offline will give you access to your documents when there is no internet connection.”
Wow!
Also, nice templates are available.
I’m impressed, as I knew I would be.
Could these two choices completely replace Microsoft Office? Probably. Will they? Probably not. Microsoft Office has far too strong a stranglehold on the market. Who could conceive of being without them? I see these choices as exactly that: choices that can be used in addition to and alongside of Microsoft Office, and by those who don’t have the couple of hundred dollars it takes these days to buy it.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thing # 17
I don't think I got as much as I should have out of Rollyo. It took me a while to get a vague understanding of what I was doing. I went into Rollyo, registered, and created several search rolls because I did not realize that the first one I created had actually worked. Basing it on my interest in real estate and the hope of someday owing a vacation home or investment properties, my search roll involved websites on south and east texas real estate sites that specialize in rural property. My search rolls are registered in Rollyo.
http://rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=419827
http://rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=419827
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thing # 16
Wikis in the school library can be a valuable collaborative tool. With teachers, wikis covering the TEKS can be created and shared among teams, and with the librarian so that when students visit the library, they can use the technology to continue their learning in a “seamless” environment. Collaboration can be accomplished without the need for face to face (and time-consuming) meetings. All educators are hard pressed to carve out time for their necessary meetings. Wikis offer a way to accomplish the work of a team meeting without having a team meeting and sharing that work on an ad hoc basis.
Sounds good to me.
In my summer work here at Spring Woods, a history teacher walked in to schedule some library computer time so his students could work on the Great Depression. Jan B., who was doing the first session, had already prepared a wiki on the Great Depression. It was sitting there ready and waiting to go. Result: Library Services looks good and with the program. Teacher has less work to prepare a lesson. Students learn.
In my library, I will use wikis for TAKS science. I am in regular communication with the 5th grade science teacher about her needs and we have our work cut out for us this year covering landforms, all the cycles, and the scientific method. We are already bombarding them with Discovery Education, and adding wikis to the formula should pull us along even further.
Sounds good to me.
In my summer work here at Spring Woods, a history teacher walked in to schedule some library computer time so his students could work on the Great Depression. Jan B., who was doing the first session, had already prepared a wiki on the Great Depression. It was sitting there ready and waiting to go. Result: Library Services looks good and with the program. Teacher has less work to prepare a lesson. Students learn.
In my library, I will use wikis for TAKS science. I am in regular communication with the 5th grade science teacher about her needs and we have our work cut out for us this year covering landforms, all the cycles, and the scientific method. We are already bombarding them with Discovery Education, and adding wikis to the formula should pull us along even further.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thing # 15
Embracing constant change in technology … is this true or what? I do find myself feeling a bit of frustration in doing and mastering all these activities and knowing that it will all be outdated in a year or so …
Reworking library services to meet the needs of users in their space … I know there are bunches of libraries out who cry for users. I do not. I am overwhelmed with them, but I am still striving to rework the library to prepare them as best as I can for technology.
Away from the icebergs … the title sounded intriguing, so I chose it. Rick Anderson begins by questioning the need for print collections. I have heard this line of reasoning for over 30 years. Yes, we are moving towards a cyber environment, but I don’t think we can toss the books for at least 50-100 years. The clientele at my school don’t even have computers in every home, and if they do, they can’t afford an internet connection. Food stamps just don’t pay for that. Talking about a totally cyber environment for them is laughable.
“No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist. However, it can be equally disastrous when a profession fails to acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change in the marketplace it serves. At this point in time, our profession is far closer to the latter type of disaster than it is to the former.”
This is the gist of it, but why does he think we are failing to acknowledge? Every librarian I know is racing to keep up with their market. It was interesting to learn from the Wikipedia article that Library 2.0 descends from Business 2.0. Educators would do well to model more of their practices on the business world. We differ in that education is not truly a market driven field. We always have our clients and always will, but we can still employ the business world's goal setting and evaluation strategies to the world of education. The school is not going to fold if administrators use bad practices, and we always have the opportunity to regroup and try again. Our “stock” is only symbolic.
Reworking library services to meet the needs of users in their space … I know there are bunches of libraries out who cry for users. I do not. I am overwhelmed with them, but I am still striving to rework the library to prepare them as best as I can for technology.
Away from the icebergs … the title sounded intriguing, so I chose it. Rick Anderson begins by questioning the need for print collections. I have heard this line of reasoning for over 30 years. Yes, we are moving towards a cyber environment, but I don’t think we can toss the books for at least 50-100 years. The clientele at my school don’t even have computers in every home, and if they do, they can’t afford an internet connection. Food stamps just don’t pay for that. Talking about a totally cyber environment for them is laughable.
“No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist. However, it can be equally disastrous when a profession fails to acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change in the marketplace it serves. At this point in time, our profession is far closer to the latter type of disaster than it is to the former.”
This is the gist of it, but why does he think we are failing to acknowledge? Every librarian I know is racing to keep up with their market. It was interesting to learn from the Wikipedia article that Library 2.0 descends from Business 2.0. Educators would do well to model more of their practices on the business world. We differ in that education is not truly a market driven field. We always have our clients and always will, but we can still employ the business world's goal setting and evaluation strategies to the world of education. The school is not going to fold if administrators use bad practices, and we always have the opportunity to regroup and try again. Our “stock” is only symbolic.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Thing #10 update
Using Big Huge Labs map generator, I made a map of some of my travels. After numerous attempts to add it to a blog, I failed. I tried using both URL and saving it as a picture on the desktop. Neither worked, even after several attempts. I followed all the same steps used in adding other images, so I really don't understand what is wrong. Rather than dwell too long on that, I will try some other images and try to add them to this post. It worked last week. Perhaps it will work in the future.
The saga continues. Today I tried to made a high school ID badge. My first choice of image was a chimpanzee. Alas, it was not a JPG image and was not acceptable. My next choice of image was a close-up of our arrogant little reject rescue cat from Austin, Migo. I made sure this was JPG. Again, no success. I am not going to give up on this. It has to work somehow.
I have discovered that even though the picture delivers to me as a JPG, when I save it to "my pictures", the extension changes from JPG to something else. I do not know why this is. To circumvent it, I just saved it straight to the desktop. I succeeded in transforming into a warholed picture. It was not exactly the quality I wanted. Migo's picture definitely needed to be cropped to look better and has too much background stuff, but it worked. It successfully uploaded to the blog, but I chose not to include it.
Success at last. After discovering how to get around the little JPG problem, I easily succeeded in making Migo's badge and uploading it:
Thing # 20 Teachertube imbedded
TeacherTube offers this hilarious, entertaining and short vignette on the six wives of Henry VIII, great for piquing interest in Tudor history. It starts out with Homer Simpson as one of those bad parodies of Henry singing "I'm Henry the 8th I am, Henry the 8th I am ...," and then before the students realize what's happening, they are getting an overview of his six wives, his reasons for marrying them, and their fates.
Over and over again, the value of videos in teaching concepts in a more painless manner cannot be overemphasized.
Not bad.
Over and over again, the value of videos in teaching concepts in a more painless manner cannot be overemphasized.
Not bad.
Thing # 14 Technorati
When I saw the name Technorati again, I was a little hesitant because I was not that impressed with it when I encountered it in a previous thing. I will need to approach it with an open mind. It reminds me of AOL. I don't always care for sites that look like they were designed for people with short attention spans.
When I did the search for school library learning 2.0, the blog section produced many more quality and relevant results. I found 19 blogs on July 17, all pretty much on target.
The posts section produced only three posts, but all relevant.
A general search of the blog directory produced 274 results, but that was your typical internet search with a lot of jumbled up results that had some of your search terms here or there, but was not really relevant to the need.
Popular blogs, searches and tags again reminds me of AOL, very populist.
Technorati can be of assistance to educators in two ways: by providing LOTS of tags and ideas for tags (after you sift through everything), and general browsing for information or enlightenment, though I find the amount of tabs to go through a bit time consuming.
The value of tagging information is, without question, invaluable. I think we are going to see a lot of inconsistency in the tags, but this is inevitable. In the end, though, the sheer volume of tags will hopefully cover any inadequacies and we will reach the bottom line: people will find the ideas, tags, and information that they are looking for.
When I did the search for school library learning 2.0, the blog section produced many more quality and relevant results. I found 19 blogs on July 17, all pretty much on target.
The posts section produced only three posts, but all relevant.
A general search of the blog directory produced 274 results, but that was your typical internet search with a lot of jumbled up results that had some of your search terms here or there, but was not really relevant to the need.
Popular blogs, searches and tags again reminds me of AOL, very populist.
Technorati can be of assistance to educators in two ways: by providing LOTS of tags and ideas for tags (after you sift through everything), and general browsing for information or enlightenment, though I find the amount of tabs to go through a bit time consuming.
The value of tagging information is, without question, invaluable. I think we are going to see a lot of inconsistency in the tags, but this is inevitable. In the end, though, the sheer volume of tags will hopefully cover any inadequacies and we will reach the bottom line: people will find the ideas, tags, and information that they are looking for.
Thing # 22 Nings
Wow! Nings require little technical skill. This will make it attractive to hesitant users.
I love the teacher librarian ning. It is like a constantly moving and updating professional journal, but a professional journal on multiple levels. It is so well laid out. First, you have the different groups you can join. The latest activity is right in front of you. It is an extremely large site, but so well organized that it is not that intimidating.
I can see myself returning to this one over and over again for several purposes: just browsing on what is new: books, videos, topics of discussion, and using it for inspiration for lesson plans and ideas on library programs.
Just saw a bunch of OUR people on the Texas school librarians Ning. So impressive.
I love the teacher librarian ning. It is like a constantly moving and updating professional journal, but a professional journal on multiple levels. It is so well laid out. First, you have the different groups you can join. The latest activity is right in front of you. It is an extremely large site, but so well organized that it is not that intimidating.
I can see myself returning to this one over and over again for several purposes: just browsing on what is new: books, videos, topics of discussion, and using it for inspiration for lesson plans and ideas on library programs.
Just saw a bunch of OUR people on the Texas school librarians Ning. So impressive.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Thing # 23
1. My favorite activity was Big Huge Labs. After reading other bloggers' comments, this seemed to be a trend of picking that as the favorite. The site is just so much fun and the activities that are offered just make you want to play endlessly with them. If it is that much fun for an adult, think of the fun that students will have. I also enjoyed the "exploratory" expeditions such as in Thing # 18 (looking at Google Docs). It was fun to see these choices for the first time and then use higher learning skills to evaluate, compare and contrast.
2. I enjoy learning and exploring new things. One of my strongest personal interests is in Tudor history, and I was so pleased to discover and explore blogs that cover just this.
3. An unexpected outcome was learning how complex some of the image and picture generators could be. I consider myself fairly savvy in technical skills and matters, but I was challenged and had to retry many times with several of these programs.
4. To improve this program, I would recommend that you shorten it, or offer choices over which things to actually complete. Though all of the modules are valuable, it seems that a lot of people become overwhelmed and/or lost after slogging through the first 5-6 of them. Perhaps breaking it down into groups of ten would make finishing more attainable by shortening the distance to the goal post. Perhaps you should consider giving participants choices over what they want to complete, such as choose 12 out of the 23 things. There were definitely some, such as Technorati, that were just not my bag. I would have much rather invested my learning time in Big Huge Labs or Google Docs. I didn't get much out of Rollyo either. There's just too much material. When reading others' blogs, you see a pattern of frustration with getting certain things to work and then get uploaded to the blog in the correct manner. Many participants just stated that they tried and tried with certain programs, and just could not get them to perform.
5. I would not want to do this again very soon. This has been a journey and a lot of learning curve activity. One thought that runs continuously through my head is that all of these activities are cool and good to know, but they will be outdated and replaced by far more sophisticated and new versions probably within a year or so.
6. The agony and the ecstasy
2. I enjoy learning and exploring new things. One of my strongest personal interests is in Tudor history, and I was so pleased to discover and explore blogs that cover just this.
3. An unexpected outcome was learning how complex some of the image and picture generators could be. I consider myself fairly savvy in technical skills and matters, but I was challenged and had to retry many times with several of these programs.
4. To improve this program, I would recommend that you shorten it, or offer choices over which things to actually complete. Though all of the modules are valuable, it seems that a lot of people become overwhelmed and/or lost after slogging through the first 5-6 of them. Perhaps breaking it down into groups of ten would make finishing more attainable by shortening the distance to the goal post. Perhaps you should consider giving participants choices over what they want to complete, such as choose 12 out of the 23 things. There were definitely some, such as Technorati, that were just not my bag. I would have much rather invested my learning time in Big Huge Labs or Google Docs. I didn't get much out of Rollyo either. There's just too much material. When reading others' blogs, you see a pattern of frustration with getting certain things to work and then get uploaded to the blog in the correct manner. Many participants just stated that they tried and tried with certain programs, and just could not get them to perform.
5. I would not want to do this again very soon. This has been a journey and a lot of learning curve activity. One thought that runs continuously through my head is that all of these activities are cool and good to know, but they will be outdated and replaced by far more sophisticated and new versions probably within a year or so.
6. The agony and the ecstasy
Thing #13 del.icio.us
After reviewing all these social networking bookmark services, there are two concepts which jump out. One concept is peer driven bookmarking, and the other is previewed websites.
Del.icio.us is far more than just an easy way to create bookmarks, though it certainly lends itself to this use and is obviously used heavily for this purpose. There is nothing wrong with this. But there is far more to it than this for the clever user. What is attractive to students and teachers is the "peer driven" concept of del.icio.us. Both can walk in the steps of other users and get quickly to sites of interest or importance. Student users who bookmark well and efficiently are forging new learning territory for their peers. For example, a good student bookmarker who locates and shares websites on the Civil War has helped countless other students more easily reach critical information for their learning and school work. The same holds true for teachers. If Texas teachers hone in on sites valuable for covering the TEKS and share those sites in del.icio.us, they save legwork.
The videos and tutorials make the point that practice makes more perfect. Everyone probably is a little sloppy at first, and must learn through experience. There is a definite learning curve to climb, but the results are worth it.
The second concept from Ma.gnolia is the idea of previewed websites. This dovetails easily into peer driven bookmarking. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of material available on any given interest, personal or academic. As an experienced educator, I still get boggled sometimes on how much is out there and must be sifted through. We've all attended meetings where cool websites are shared and demonstrated, and have seen lists of appropriate websites for various lessons and TEKS.
Social bookmarking takes all of this up a couple of levels by providing quick and easy recommendations that are easily shared.
One last point: freely chosen tags ... this is a recurring theme, a kind of progressive keyword indexing system. This can produce a lot of gems and useful tags.
Del.icio.us is far more than just an easy way to create bookmarks, though it certainly lends itself to this use and is obviously used heavily for this purpose. There is nothing wrong with this. But there is far more to it than this for the clever user. What is attractive to students and teachers is the "peer driven" concept of del.icio.us. Both can walk in the steps of other users and get quickly to sites of interest or importance. Student users who bookmark well and efficiently are forging new learning territory for their peers. For example, a good student bookmarker who locates and shares websites on the Civil War has helped countless other students more easily reach critical information for their learning and school work. The same holds true for teachers. If Texas teachers hone in on sites valuable for covering the TEKS and share those sites in del.icio.us, they save legwork.
The videos and tutorials make the point that practice makes more perfect. Everyone probably is a little sloppy at first, and must learn through experience. There is a definite learning curve to climb, but the results are worth it.
The second concept from Ma.gnolia is the idea of previewed websites. This dovetails easily into peer driven bookmarking. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of material available on any given interest, personal or academic. As an experienced educator, I still get boggled sometimes on how much is out there and must be sifted through. We've all attended meetings where cool websites are shared and demonstrated, and have seen lists of appropriate websites for various lessons and TEKS.
Social bookmarking takes all of this up a couple of levels by providing quick and easy recommendations that are easily shared.
One last point: freely chosen tags ... this is a recurring theme, a kind of progressive keyword indexing system. This can produce a lot of gems and useful tags.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thing # 12
After reading the Edublogger etiquette, I agreed with the point that never responding to your reader's comments is seen as "elitist." The first reader I will respond to is Grendel, who has been making pleasant comments about my posts. I will search out others for commenting as well.
The Blue skunk blog discusses "trolls." This is a new one for me, so had to look it up and found out that it is someone who participates in various online activities with the purpose of baiting and throwing out controversial material. We see a lot of this, especially in chatrooms. I read "Dear Abby" online most every day and sometimes scan the reader's comments. Sometimes they get into fisticuffs over their opinions of Abby's responses, and the problems of the letter writers themselves. Anonymity can bring out the worst in people sometimes. Being anonymous and saying nasty things to other people gives them a power they do not have in their everyday lives.
As a child, I owned a lovely set of Breyer model horses. These have been made for years and are incredibly beautifully made. The older ones are collectors items now. There is a blog: http://board.horsechannel.com/Topic240522-4-1.aspx where people discuss horses, and Breyer horses as well.
Flipping houses: there is a blog for this too: http://flippinghouses.blogspot.com/. The TV shows on cable for this are entertaining to me. Our poor neighbor, who sells RV products for his living, has seen his business go south with the price of gasoline. He is looking into flipping houses. I wish him luck and will watch his progress with interest. He has already started with the house next door to us ...
The Blue skunk blog discusses "trolls." This is a new one for me, so had to look it up and found out that it is someone who participates in various online activities with the purpose of baiting and throwing out controversial material. We see a lot of this, especially in chatrooms. I read "Dear Abby" online most every day and sometimes scan the reader's comments. Sometimes they get into fisticuffs over their opinions of Abby's responses, and the problems of the letter writers themselves. Anonymity can bring out the worst in people sometimes. Being anonymous and saying nasty things to other people gives them a power they do not have in their everyday lives.
As a child, I owned a lovely set of Breyer model horses. These have been made for years and are incredibly beautifully made. The older ones are collectors items now. There is a blog: http://board.horsechannel.com/Topic240522-4-1.aspx where people discuss horses, and Breyer horses as well.
Flipping houses: there is a blog for this too: http://flippinghouses.blogspot.com/. The TV shows on cable for this are entertaining to me. Our poor neighbor, who sells RV products for his living, has seen his business go south with the price of gasoline. He is looking into flipping houses. I wish him luck and will watch his progress with interest. He has already started with the house next door to us ...
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thing # 11
I enjoyed messing with this cataloging tool. It is quick and easy, user friendly, and non-librarians should be able to use and understand it for their various purposes.
It is almost like the combination of a vendor, Amazon.com and a cataloging database.
It would prove useful for personal collections and libraries, or small libraries. A person could use it as a "want to own or purchase" list as they collect titles and reviews on books which interest them.
It would have been nice to see the full MARC record more readily. You have to dig a little to get to it, not that many people really want to see that stuff ...
I chose three titles from LC and two from Amazon. While in Amazon, I did discover that my favorite fiction author has a new title out that I have not heard of.
The "tags to add" feature would serve especially well for specialized and/or private libraries.
It is almost like the combination of a vendor, Amazon.com and a cataloging database.
It would prove useful for personal collections and libraries, or small libraries. A person could use it as a "want to own or purchase" list as they collect titles and reviews on books which interest them.
It would have been nice to see the full MARC record more readily. You have to dig a little to get to it, not that many people really want to see that stuff ...
I chose three titles from LC and two from Amazon. While in Amazon, I did discover that my favorite fiction author has a new title out that I have not heard of.
The "tags to add" feature would serve especially well for specialized and/or private libraries.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thing # 10
Being a map lover, and a Google map user, I was immediately drawn to Big Huge Labs mapmaker and did a map of my world travels, mainly Europe.
I also played with and enjoyed the comic strip generator. Results appear above, with link below.
http://buy4cheap.brinkster.net/signs/comic-strip/creator.asp?title=CHANGE+THIS+TITLE%21&text=I+assure+you+..+everything+you+have+heard+about+me+is+untrue%21%21&tag=July+9%2C+2008&fontsize=11&font=comic&color=black&move=-1&move2=&cartoon=mouse-hunt-exterminator&time=1434&cartoons.x=77&cartoons.y=12
I was also interested in Kid-Friendly image generator, but had problems uploading an image into a poster. I did not succeed. I want to revisit this and learn it so as to share with the kids at school.
These image generators could be used in art classes or classroom centers. They could enhance projects, especially in middle and high school.
I could not resist including this image I succeeded in adding to the blog. I am working summer school at a high school right now and it so reminds me of the darlings ....
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thing # 9
As I was sifting through the preliminaries for this one, I was struck by one blogger's comments that most bloggers fall into one of two categories: egotists or conversationalists. I have certainly encountered both kinds on this journey.
Blogline seemed to be the easiest method of finding feeds with its ability to search only feeds if you wish. It featured several other specialized and handy options in addition to "just feeds."
Google wins again with the easiest search tool: Google blogsearch. It's just friendly and reliable. There's a reason Google is up near the top and stays there. I will have to check out the price of its stock.
Technorati, to me, was the most confusing:
- too much debris on the home page
-reminded me of a too crowded web page, not a good search tool.
Will probably never return to that one.
There's much to be said for simplicity that gets the job done. I think most users appreciate that too.
Combining most useful feeds and most unusual would be Syndic8. I found it to be extremely well organized. It has a feed tagging system that allows users to add their own tags to a feed, highly useful for sharing and organizing.
I also liked Kary Boan's flipchart repository. Anything that saves teachers time and makes them more efficient rates high in my opinion.
Blogline seemed to be the easiest method of finding feeds with its ability to search only feeds if you wish. It featured several other specialized and handy options in addition to "just feeds."
Google wins again with the easiest search tool: Google blogsearch. It's just friendly and reliable. There's a reason Google is up near the top and stays there. I will have to check out the price of its stock.
Technorati, to me, was the most confusing:
- too much debris on the home page
-reminded me of a too crowded web page, not a good search tool.
Will probably never return to that one.
There's much to be said for simplicity that gets the job done. I think most users appreciate that too.
Combining most useful feeds and most unusual would be Syndic8. I found it to be extremely well organized. It has a feed tagging system that allows users to add their own tags to a feed, highly useful for sharing and organizing.
I also liked Kary Boan's flipchart repository. Anything that saves teachers time and makes them more efficient rates high in my opinion.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Thing #8
RSS was interesting. What I liked was its handiness and ease of use. It lends itself to being customized to everyone's interests and/or needs. Google has made it easy and quick to set up, important for people in a hurry (such as educators).
I can see teachers using RSS feeds to stay up to date on new ideas in websites they use to teach and develop their lesson plans.
I will further be pursuing some of my own personal interests in a couple of blogs I added to my Google Reader site. One of those blogs brings together people who have an interest in Tudor history. People post questions (some of them bizarre, but all interesting) about the various Tudors, and they are answered. Another blog I added was the Happy pet blog.
Librarians using RSS can collaborate with teachers with the goal of students setting up their own feeds on current projects or ongoing subjects of study such as history or science, or just purely personal interest (astronomy, origami ...). Feeds can be an efficient way of teaching research and encouraging students to pursue their interests, both personal and academic.
I can see teachers using RSS feeds to stay up to date on new ideas in websites they use to teach and develop their lesson plans.
I will further be pursuing some of my own personal interests in a couple of blogs I added to my Google Reader site. One of those blogs brings together people who have an interest in Tudor history. People post questions (some of them bizarre, but all interesting) about the various Tudors, and they are answered. Another blog I added was the Happy pet blog.
Librarians using RSS can collaborate with teachers with the goal of students setting up their own feeds on current projects or ongoing subjects of study such as history or science, or just purely personal interest (astronomy, origami ...). Feeds can be an efficient way of teaching research and encouraging students to pursue their interests, both personal and academic.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thing # 7
Of all the "things" I have looked at so far, this is the one I have enjoyed the most. I am a big Google fan and was pleased to have all these dimensions added onto the site. I will definitely be returning to use most if not all of them.
I created a Google alert on the city of San Antonio where I grew up. I will be most interested to receive news about goings-on there.
I started creating a homepage on Igoogle, but without much success. Much of the problem came from the fact that I am using a dial-up connection. Also, I chose humor as one of my tabs/categories and the choices offered under that tab were rather crude, so I quickly lost interest in that.
I did some searches under Google scholar, but missed having the "instant access" to something that interested me.
Being a Google map fan, I went with much interest to Google earth and was thrilled to see that galaxies can be explored. My 4th and 5th graders are gonna love this.
I can see Google docs being highly useful for the kids at my school with poor spelling and composition skills.
I created a Google alert on the city of San Antonio where I grew up. I will be most interested to receive news about goings-on there.
I started creating a homepage on Igoogle, but without much success. Much of the problem came from the fact that I am using a dial-up connection. Also, I chose humor as one of my tabs/categories and the choices offered under that tab were rather crude, so I quickly lost interest in that.
I did some searches under Google scholar, but missed having the "instant access" to something that interested me.
Being a Google map fan, I went with much interest to Google earth and was thrilled to see that galaxies can be explored. My 4th and 5th graders are gonna love this.
I can see Google docs being highly useful for the kids at my school with poor spelling and composition skills.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Thing # 6
I approached Mappr with a lot of zeal since I browse a lot in google maps, but was a bit disappointed. It seemed weak and somewhat random. The idea is great, but much more extensive indexing and control is needed before it might really be viable. I do like the idea of a GPS device on cameras that give exact location, but how feasible would this be? A recent and fascinating addition to google maps is the street view option now available. I can spend hours there ...
The mosaic maker is interesting and attractive. At my elementary school, I could see kinder students using it to make images of farm animals in their farm unit, or homes in their homes and communities unit ...
By far the most interesting to me is all that is offered in Big Huge Labs. Here, the possibilities are limitless, from elementary up to high school. I especially liked the magazine cover maker. I can just see that being used in a fifth grade class when they are studying their American history. How much more interesting to make a magazine cover of George Washington or John Adams than a poster. It allows the students to get far more creative with their projects. This site is a great training ground for students interested in entering the field of graphic design. Art and photography students in high school and college have limitless possibilities in this site. If I were still an art student, the first thing I would go for would be the Warholizer.
The mosaic maker is interesting and attractive. At my elementary school, I could see kinder students using it to make images of farm animals in their farm unit, or homes in their homes and communities unit ...
By far the most interesting to me is all that is offered in Big Huge Labs. Here, the possibilities are limitless, from elementary up to high school. I especially liked the magazine cover maker. I can just see that being used in a fifth grade class when they are studying their American history. How much more interesting to make a magazine cover of George Washington or John Adams than a poster. It allows the students to get far more creative with their projects. This site is a great training ground for students interested in entering the field of graphic design. Art and photography students in high school and college have limitless possibilities in this site. If I were still an art student, the first thing I would go for would be the Warholizer.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thing #5
When the instruction said to choose an image available that is related to curriculum, I immediately thought of science TAKS. We rather bombed our 5th grade science TAKS this year and I need to get involved in boosting those scores next year. The kids have a lot of problems understanding the various cycles: rock, water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, so I uploaded a picture of the nitrogen cycle. I plan to use Discovery Learning/United Streaming a lot more to get more of the concepts into their heads.
I was already familiar with Flickr and its tags. I have been enjoying the hundreds of photos published by the niece of my college roommate. She chronicles her own immediately family, and her extended family which includes photos of my old roommate and her grown children. Since I have not seen her children in over 25 years, I have enjoyed keeping up with them via Flickr. I can go into her photostream and just view the latest, or use a tag search and hone in on exactly what I want to see. She does an excellent job of tagging her photos so that they are readily accessible. She also includes an extensive collection of old family photos that include my roommate's grandmother whom I visited with many times and who lived quite close to my childhood home in San Antonio.
It is interesting that the tags are just plain old fashioned keyword indexing.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thing #3
Will have to retry the avatar. I assume I have to register into Yahoo, and attempted to do so five to six time with no luck. Will now register my blog.
Covey habits
The easiest habit for me to follow is a tie between win/win and seek first to understand. I am empathetic to people and listen well. The hardest habit for me to follow is begin with the end in mind. I tend to bog down in details, especially when a task is large.
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