Monday, February 25, 2008

Thing #17 Wiki Sandbox

I played with this about four hours today and I did learn a lot. I know how to create wikis and I understand how to use them. I still need to learn how to add animated images into the wiki but that will have to be another day. The sandbox that created is cool it simply says 'finish Thing 23 now' and I am enjoying it on my desk top here at home.
I watched wet paint video and that is a great concept. I enjoy cats and that would be something fun to talk about with other cat lovers.

Thing #16 Wikis

How do you spell collabration? WIKIS

This is an awesome way for a group to organize a party, shower or even a lesson. I really liked the video clip showing how easy wikis are to use for collabration. This might even take the place of meetings how about that! Thinking back to all the planning meetings that I have gone to for school, church or social events wow this could have saved so much time and lots of trees. One thing that I worked on at church before moving to Houston was our 100 year church history anniversary. We were always meeting to check off what had been taken care and a wiki could have been a lot quicker way to manage all of the planning.

I used Wikipedia with students and they like it. I am not sure that they really understand what all they can do with it but that will come.

I did look at most of the wiki blogs and saw lots of interesting things happening. The book lover wiki gave me some thought on developing a book club wiki with junior high students. I spent time looking at the library designed wikis and wow there is lots of information out there. I looked at atomic learning pb wiki workshop because I love atomic learning. I think it is one of the best tools that we have to offer in our school district.

Thing #14 Technorati

Okay I have set the Technorati account and claimed my blog!
I watched the Technorati video and I get it. This is like the old conference calls people use to make, connecting people to people. I like what was said about regular people having conversations about what is interesting to them and not what CNN says is interesting to hear about.
I like searching using tags because that narrows down the information to what you are interested in checking out.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Thing #13 Del.icio.us

I was so excited to see my del.icio.us button on my computer. Wow this is a great way to organize receipes and keep up with them.
My husband and I have colleced cookbooks for years and I will am so excited for him to use this instead of printing out receipes and having them all over this place.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thing #15 Library 2.0

I read 3 Library 2.0 articles and wow could not help but think back to my first years as a librarian and the job that we were trained to do. The days of the patron signing their name to check out a book, teaching how to use periodicals for research, checking out filmstrips and dukanes to teachers are just a memory. I remember doing inventory using my selflist drawers.
I think I like the computer age better. Students being able to check out books using computers and sometimes scanning their own has made the student more independent. Also, they love computers and getting to do research has been wonderful for them. I know that there are bad things out there for students to get into but with supervision we can guide them away from them.
I read the article 'On the way to the library experience of the future'. It did a great job of describing what our libraries will look like in the future.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Thing # 11 Library Thing

My Shelfari!
I like this one and see how it will work keeping up with all of my books. I love books and buy a lot of them for my own personal use. Sometimes I buy them, read them and then lose them in my bookcases. I have always intended to organize them and now maybe library thing will be just the way for me to do just that. Also, I like to share my books and maybe bloggers can see what I have and just ask!

Okay the video is hummmm good. I just need to get a pink hard hat and a cup of coffee and I will be right back..........

Monday, February 18, 2008

Thing #10 Play around with image generator



I found this butterfly from Free Clip art. This is a great way to make lessons much more attactive. I have always like to use clip art on worksheets, information bulletins, etc. I played with the suggested online generators Comic Strip, Custom Sign, Image Chef, Happy Face and Trading Card Maker.

My favorite was Custom Sign Generator and I have it on my desk top at home cause I could not get the thing into my post. I am still working on that and will have to get bact to you...

Thing #9 Library-related blogs

I did read many different blogs. I seem to get interested in what the blogger has to say and get involved with there thoughts I forget what I am looking for to begin with. I really would like to meet some of these people but know that will never happen so will just be content to communiate via blogs.
I especially liked what Cool Cat Teacher had to say about herself.
I could not open a few of the sites for some reason. Google Blog Search was very easy to read and navigate around. I looked at the rest of them and then they all begin to look alike. Atomic Learning has great videos on RSS.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds and Readers

Okay I have set up my account, now here I go!!!
I have gone back and looked at this plus added 5 different feeds on my google account. I want to add it to my post but have not been able to do so yet.
I like the concept behind RSS.
Many times students have to write papers and have problems deciding on topics, especially the older student. Sport issues are always popular topics that they like to choose from. Subscribing to sports will give plenty of information to deal with plus being able to check off the articles read or favored.
RSS is a great tool to use to organized favorite reads about people or topics.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Thing #7 Google Tools

I love Google Calendar! I always have lots of calendars around me and it looks like there will be more.
OMG (oh my gosh) the google notebook is the answer to making research fun! I have always enjoyed finding information but could not always remember where I got it or where I saw it since the internet has taken over my life. Now, this notebook will help me organize all this information. I think students will enjoy using this for their projects because they do not usually like to do research but enjoy the computer and by using google notebook they will love it.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Thing #6 Mashups and 3rd party sites

I love the beautiful bright colors from Flickr. I see them being used to teach texture. I have spend time using magazine pictures to teach texture and boy this is a lot easier, faster and fun.
I can see how mashups could really work helping students understand more about geography and understanding facts about a particular region or state. An example would be putting the symbols on the states, adding economic facts, weather info, etc.
I have spend some time with mosaic maker, calendar maker and trading cards. I like the calendar the most and want to do something with that one in the future.