L'l Bit of This & That

Thing 11.5 - Evaluation

2009-07-23T15:34:00.003-05:00

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I would have to say Facebook was my favorite discovery and one that I will use personally. I have known about it for a long time, but just didn't investigate before this. I also think that making screencasts will be useful in my teaching. To explain how to do things on the computer once, rather than doing it personally over and over!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

Like I mentioned before this class forced me to investigate Facebook. It will be something that I continue to use. I probably need to go and discovery My Space on my own. It seems that my students prefer that social networking site over Facebook, so I need to get familiar with it. I also needed to learn more about the I Touch since we are due to have a set of them in the near future. There is so much that students can do with them!

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

The screencast programs were something I had never heard of before and I know will be useful to me in the future.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Each thing in this second part of Library 2.0 Tools take more time to investigate and create.

I think we should be given more credit! Also on the Microblogging Things, My Space should be investigated along with Facebook and Twitter. But all in all I had a good time and learned about many tools that I probably wouldn't have delved to on my own.

Thing #11 - Digital Citizenship

2009-07-23T15:11:00.003-05:00

1. All student should be required to sign an AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) before using school computers. This should spell out exactly when they are allowed to use computers, for what reason, what they can or cannot do while on the computer and also copyright infringement &/or plagarism. I feel that this doesn't really happen. Students are forced to sign one, but they are not necessarily explained well enough to them. Also consquences should be addressed.
2. I feel we have a responsibility of keeping our students safe. If elementary or middle school students are allowed to access such sites as My Space or Facebook, they could be circumventing parental rules. They could be possiblity be opening themselves up to online predators. So a lesson about online safetly is crucial!
3. Credibility of data is also something that doesn't seem to be taught to students. They are not able to tell the difference between a credible site and one that isn't.
4. We also need to make sure students understand copyright. Many students copy and paste, thus infringing upon copyright all the time. They are under the false misunderstanding that because it is posted on the internet it is available to anyone that wants it! Especially using pictures from Google!
5. I also feel that students should understand that using a computer at school is a privilege, not a necessity. If district or class guidelines are not followed, then the student needs to have definite consequences. It is not really any different than any discipline issue in the classroom. Although teachers seem on the whole not able to know how to handle such computer misuses! Certainly losing the computer privilege is a just consequence!

Thing #10 Virtual Worlds

2009-07-20T15:38:00.002-05:00

What to say....this is sure something to experience. I felt so newbie once I arrived. I couldn't figure out how to get into the orientation - you needed access. I found several people who were very helpful, but never could get into the orientation! I was able to teleport to the country - saw stables with horses and then flew to the ocean. I was on Australia where there were supposed to be beaches, but couldn't find them...
I kept trying to change my appearance, but it sure is complicated!
The whole thing is quite complicated. You can spend hours here. I will keep popping into to discover more when I can.
I had heard that developers have created virtual worlds that you can discover. Go to distance lands or back in history. What a great, unique concept! I don't exactly like to read history books, but love to learn about history through historical novels. This is somewhat of the same idea. You can be a part of the time period and learn by being there. I know this would be of great interest to students.
I would be interested to see what the Teen World is like.
Thanks for making me experience this.

Thing #9 Slideshare

2009-07-20T11:56:00.002-05:00

Well it looks simple enough. You can easily upload, embed and search for other slide presentations of interest.
Having a presentation on Slideshare enables more people to access it. You don't have to worry about compatabilities. Also, once posted on Slideshare you can easily embed the presentation in wikis, blogs, etc.
I'm not sure of the exact benefit it would have with students. Although we know that anything that is on the web seems to be of more interest to students so that might be a plus. Also the compatability issue of their home computer being able to view the presentation could be a problem, so viewing on Slideshare would eliminate that.

Thing # 8 Screencast

2009-07-20T11:48:00.002-05:00

I chose to do my screen cast on Screencast-o-Matic. I wanted to use a program that didn't require downloading onto my computer. I was able to create a screencast pretty easily, however I had a few errors and confusion on my part in downloading it to my computer. I also would go back to preview it and sometimes it wasn't there! I was scared I had lost the whole thing, but in the end it is downloaded to my computer and also on the Screencast-o-Matic site for sharing. (I doubt anyone would be interested though because it is very specific to SBISD libraries!

I think that the one I just created will be great to use with my new 6th grade students. It is a lesson that I would normally have to do four times in real-life and now I can just bring up the screencast and push play. How easy! This is great for those lessons that you find yourself doing over and over again during various times of the day. I definitely will be using this tool in the future!

Thing # 7 - Video Resources

2009-07-13T16:41:00.007-05:00

I did a search on Dewey Decimal and found this fun, campy video. I could see showing this during library orientation for fun!

I also have had favorable results in showing book trailers to students. I showed them some at the end of last year and for everyone I showed there was at least one person that asked if I had the book and could they check it out! Here is one I like...it is for the book, The Hunger Games and it was found on SchoolTube. It is another site for educators to find videos!

I watched the Fair Use video and find it all so confusing! I even taught a copyright class and still don't really know what is appropriate and what is not! The guidelines are very vague.

Thing #6 I Touch Apps

2009-07-13T15:06:00.004-05:00

This one was EASY! I have had an I Touch for the library since this past spring. I wanted to go ahead and get one to play and experience it. I was loaning it out to students at the end of the last school year just to see what they liked to do with it. Of course what they wanted to do it play games, but don't they have valuable skills associated with them???
Here are some of the educational apps I have downloaded that I think have potential for core classes to use in centers.

Dictionary - great because it also gives pronunciation of word
Hangman - can choose levels of difficulty and also themes for the words
USA Factbook - has info on all sorts of US facts and questions you on state capitals & locations
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - I forked over some cash to upgrade from the "lite" version,
Love Art - takes you through the National Gallery of Art; beautiful pictures
TCT Lite - a periodic table website

Also I need to purchase a voice recorded so kids can do podcasts. I hear there is a Thumb Tack that will work for about $13. I also want to see what I need to do to get my ITouch to Skype. There is something tricky with the microphone. Target used to sell something that would work inexpensively, but it doesn't appear to be available anymore. There other alternatives are more in the $30 range...

I love the I Touch! It does have many possibilities! I do wish it took pictures - that would make it more useful.

Thing #5 - Microblogging

2009-07-13T13:03:00.002-05:00

Boy you sure can spend a lot of time setting these profiles up. I created both a Facebook and Tweeter account. Found some friends on both. Asked them to join and one of my nieces wrote on my wall in Facebook. Still need to investigate further.
I had a nephew and niece on Twitter, so I am following them. I posted a tweet. Mine sure will be boring!

My Twitter site if you want to follow or my Facebook if you are interested in being my friend.

As far as how these could be used in an educational setting...
Well for one thing, I can hardly keep the high school students off the My Space site. They love this social networking. This is where they "play" and hang out, so why not have a presence where they are? With Tweeter, I don't know. I guess if they were following you, you could send out reminders about things.

Thing #4 Video Hosting

2009-07-13T11:35:00.006-05:00

Here is a video I created using Animoto of the 2009-2010 Lone Star books. My middle school will be doing a reading incentive program based on these books, so I can use it to promote the books.

I was able to send it directly to YouTube via Animoto. That was easy! However, there is a window of time before it can be viewed publically. I tried to search for it immediately after uploading, but couldn't find it in the search field by title. One of the help features says there is a time delay. I'll have to look for it tomorrow.
Also the same thing with TeacherTube. It says 24 hr window. I had to download the video to my computer and then upload to TeacherTube, but it was very easy and uncomplicated.
I may need to tweek the video to use it with my middle school students when I promote the reading incentive program, but it is mostly done. Yeah!!
I love Animoto. I need to see if I can continue with my educator upgrade to full videos...

Thing #3 - Skype

2009-07-03T10:07:00.003-05:00

I am already familiar with the Mac version - IChat. I bought an I Mac this spring and have tried it out on several occasions. When the libraries get the new Mac laptops, we will be able to utilize this chat feature. Nothing to download - comes preinstalled along with the webcab.

However, for a PC, I guess this is the alternative. I downloaded it onto my PC laptop and also my I Touch. I thought maybe I could chat to myself, but it doesn't seem to allow that. I am not sure how I will use it on the I touch, but I am still looking into that.

I did have some trouble at first getting it to work. I had to go into my Tools/Connections and apply the setting to use Skype for an internet call. Some of you may also have had problems with this...

I went in and added a few contacts from my Yahoo contacts list and also searched for some others. But, unfortunately nobody was online. So I have yet to make an actual call.

I can see this being used in an educational setting in a variety of ways. For one thing, you could monitor a meeting or classroom from another location. If you couldn't make the afternoon faculty meeting, you could tune into a monitor in the classroom and virtually attend. I could see this also happening with kids from home. To make it extra good, you would need to include a webcab for the computer.

Video conferencing is also a possibility. You could tune into to other people in other locations and interact with them.

Personally, I see the internet call as being a way around land lines and also cellular minutes. I am anxious to see exactly how good the quality of sound really it once I find someone to "talk" to.

By the way, I am "talleris" if you want to give me a call!

Thing 2 - Online Generators 2

2009-06-29T17:07:00.010-05:00

Wordle - This is a fun easy program. We had an intructor come in and show teachers how to make "word walls" - this is something similar but instead of having pertinent vocabulary on the walls of the classroom, they could be printed out, made into posters, etc. You could use this for vocabulary for all areas.
Or you could have students made their own!
I made a Wordle based on this blog - you can view it at http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/975863/My_11.5_Things_Blog_Wordle

Voki - I love this site! It is so fun to create a character and add voice. I haven't hooked up a mike yet, but it would be even better to record your own voice rather than using the text feature that I did below. I am not sure what relevance it has in education, but it is fun!

I haven't ever heard of Bookr before. A digital storybook. I can see students using these at the beginning of the new school year to introduce themselves to their teacher or class. They could use their own pics in Flickr! However, I couldn't figure out how to do that. I have pics posted in Flickr, but when I tried to search for images under my name it said they couldn't find any. Do any of you all know the trick? I wish you could import your own pics and not rely on Flickr.
I made this example of how one might look. Since I couldn't access my own pics in Flickr, I just used others.

Thing #1 Registration & Reflection on Video

2009-06-29T16:41:00.002-05:00

We have a lot of work to do! If this is the student, teacher, and classroom of the future then our school/district/state had better get moving!

I am not sure I am a supporter of this type of learning in every classroom. Just like anything else, you need some variety. Not all students will be able to learn like this and we want to meet the needs of all students.

Student - I can see a student loving this type of classroom - using technology, social connections, self-creativity, etc. to learn. The main drawback I can see is that it will take quite a bit of student effort and initiative. For some, this won't be a problem, but not all are self-starters or are highly motivated. (Working at an at-risk school is certainly where many of these type students are!) I, too, am not what I would call creative and could see myself having trouble in this type of learning environment. The teacher would need to be highly trained to enable this type of classroom setting.

Teacher - We as teachers or librarians would need MUCH training - how to set up a classroom such as this, how to guide students along, how to find proper social connections for the content, and more that I cannot even fathom. Where would this training come from?
The old fashioned teacher would have to be totally transformed - and I don't know if this is possible. Districts need to be recruiting teachers based on criteria that would be conducive to this type of classroom.

Technology Needs - This would take quite a bit of technology for each classroom. Best of all would be laptops for each student. There would be much money needed for districts to evolve into this type of classroom. I don't see it happening in the next five years.

Daniel's 4th period Spanish classes

2009-04-14T10:34:00.010-05:00

You are going to be creating a trading card from Big Huge Labs.
My demo:

Online Resources for Biographical Information:

Library Resources Page between the yellow lines...

ABC Clio American History or World History

*Encyclopedia Britannica and Enciclopedia Juvenil

Library Resources page below the yellow lines.

Biography.com

Harcourt Multimedia Biographies

Online Resources for Photos:

Time/Life photos on Google

photos from between the yellow lines on the Library Resources Page

Mrs. Wainerdi's 4th period

2009-02-04T14:19:00.009-06:00

Here is an example of a different media platoform you might consider other than PowerPoint!

Photostory - A program on most school computers. Upload pictures, add voice and music to create something similar to Powerpoint.

Where to get pictures?

Flikr Creative Commons is one of the best places to gather photos that are free and copyright friendly so long as you give credit.
Pictures contained in the portion of databases on the Library Resources Page that are between the yellow line are also copyright friendly.
Your own photos!

Where to get music?

Use Freeplay Music for free, copyright legal, mp3 downloads. Please give credit to the site.

Need additional research data?

Try Teen Health and Wellness on the Library Resources Page.

Secondary Librarian's Workshop

2008-08-19T09:13:00.021-05:00

Table 1 - Image Manipulation

Importing from Discovery Education

Importing from Flikr Creative Commons

by suneko

Irfan View - Problem: I have students that print directly from an Irfan View pic. The print default it to an A4 size paper - not letter size. The printer will not print and causes a backload of print jobs until you physically tell it to print. You can change the default print paramaters, but it will not stay permanent. This is a major problem in managing printing in the library!!!! Help!

Powerpoint: I uploaded these two Powerpoint slides to Slide Share first. Then used the embedding configuration. However, it doesn't seem to be loading properly.

Cauliflower

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Image Generators :

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Also ImageChef.com - Custom newspaper headlines.

Table 2 - Audio Manipulation
Using Incompetech
Sonatina in C Minor

Table 3 - Photostory

I feel very comfortable using Photostory. I created a project with the Lone Star books back in 23 Things. It included their jackets along with a summary recorded by me for each slide. Very easy to use - will be great with students!

Table 4 - Video

Thing 23 - Summarize

2008-07-16T14:04:00.003-05:00

Let's see...what were my favorites? I think Google documents is a winner. It will be great for sharing and editing documents online. I also think for keeping track of bookmarks, that Del.icio.us will be an asset for students and staff members alike. I also really like the Librarian's Nings that are online. They are super in communicating with librarians around the nation. I joined a couple of the groups and look forward to discussions.
On the fun side, I liked Image Chef and some of the other online generators for making cute odds and ends. The students will have fun with this site! In keeping up with news, the RSS feeds were a good lesson. Now the information will come to me rather than me going to it. I absolutely fell in love with the virtual bookshelf from Shelfari. I ran across this in another of the Library2Play's blog and of course had to have my own. (See it at the bottom of my blog!)
My main problem with all of this is in me being able to remember it all. I may need a refresher course at some time!

As far as how this exercise has helped my lifelong learning skills... I think I would have to say it has given me a little electrical stimulus to get me excited about all the cool 2.0 tools available to everyone. I was amazed and certainly got quite excited about some of them.

I cannot say that there was anything too surprising in this mission. I guess my biggest surprise is in how many people blog. That is something that doesn't interest me much, but obviously it does to many people around the world. I enjoy a limited time on a computer and would have to prioritize the blogs and alerts I subscribe to or feel way overwhelmed.

I think this would be a difficult endeavor during the school year. I am glad I was able to do it during the summer. It is quite time consuming. Maybe make the "class" shorter...

I would definitely like to participate in another online class such as this. I hope the district will offer more online classes.

A word or sentence to describe this activity? Hummmm. An eye-opening experience into cool and useful Web 2.0 tools. Something like that...

That's all folks! Guess I need to go comment on your sites. Good luck and have fun.

Thing 22

2008-07-10T14:13:00.004-05:00

Ning's are way too cool! I didn't know these exist. I really liked the two that are related to libraries - especially Texas School Librarian Ning! It is nice to have a site that is particular to your interests. I joined one of the groups and look forward to participating in future discussions. It does look like it is rather new - there aren't very many members. If you are a Texas School Librarian, then I encourage you to join so we can have a better communication base.

I think this Ning will be better than the ListServe I currently subscribe to. I haven't even been checking it lately because it seems that most of the e-mail generated is not of any use or interest to me. I just seem to check all and delete all the time! In the Nings you can select groups that have common interests.

I took a look at Ning for Teachers, but not for very long. The whole page was too cluttered and confusing to even draw me in to look for a group that might be interesting. They need to change its appearance.

I like the fact these teacher/librarian nings are separate from Facebook and MySpace which our students are using. I don't want to run into any of them while socially interacting on the web!
Thank you for showing us Nings!

Thing 21

2008-07-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

I think podcasts/vidcasts could be wonderfully beneficial. What if you can't make it to a meeting? I would like to see various school district's meetings recorded and placed on a server where you could access them. I can also see his for lectures. Why not record them and have them available later to students who either missed it or just needs to revisit the content a second time? Seems good to me!
I experimented with PhotoStory. I made up a book review of the current Lone Star Award books. I will be able to use this next year. I can link to my web site or whatever for students to find out more about the books on the list. It is probably a little longer than most - it contains 19 book reviews... Let me know what you think!!

Thing 20

2008-07-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

I began with looking for book trailers on YouTube . I had seen some in another blog and thought I would see if I could find any of interest. It would be a different method of getting kids excited about reading. Here is the one on Airman. Ioin Colfer's latest book that I just loved! (more so than his Artemis Fowl books...) I thought it was short and sweet. Some of the ones I looked at were way too long. One to two minutes is about the right length. It is too bad our school district blocks this site.

I had trouble with the TeacherTube videos. They were impossible to watch as they kept buffering every 5 seconds. I am using a wireless connection, so maybe that is the problem. I wouldn't want to use this site if this is a frequent occurence! Did any of you all have difficulty with the videos as well?
I did find a couple that looked promising, but like I said I couldn't finish them. One was a librarian along with teachers talking about how Literature Circles work. It was long - about 30 minutes. Another I looked at was a library tour. Sort of like a virtual tour of a library...

Thing 19

2008-07-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I am still amazed at what all we are finding on the web in this journey! Some of these award winners we have already discovered in our lessons! Some I was already familiar with, such as Geni and Craigslist. Our family has quite a geneology outlined in Geni. It is a fun site if you haven't already discovered it. Of course many people use Craigslist to look for items locally to buy or sell.

I first went to some of the book sites other than Library Thing. One of them that deals in used books, Biblio got my attention right away. I was trying to find an old, out of print geneology book of my family. I was not able to find it, but it did look like a promising site if you are looking for rare or out of print books.

I then went to a music site, Last. I have been using an I pod when I go to the gym, so I thought I would check it out to see if they had audio downloads. What I found was quite interesting and I think will be beneficial to the Theatre Arts teacher at my school. She always assigns a Performing Artist project and the students have a hard time finding appropriate information and videos of their chosen artist. Here you can search for an artist and find out all sorts of interesting information about them - including all albums they have made, listen to their songs, biographical information with pictures and what I liked best YouTube videos of them performing their songs. It will link you to sites (of course) where you can buy their music if that suits your fancy.

Thing 18

2008-07-04T15:18:00.000-05:00

I explored Google Docs. I was able to copy and paste from an existing Excel spreadsheet into one in Google Docs easily. The whole creation of a spreadsheet was very easy! Here is the link to my Summer Reading 08 shared spreadsheet.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pfxzv2pm_FXH2s4seWJ9xWA

I can see several reasons that could make this advantageous over Microsoft Office. Of course the main reason being the sharing aspect. Being able to make a document "shareable" and then "editable" is super! Their tour gave many reasons for sharing rather than e-mailing a document. I will have to give some thought on how I might utilize this online document creator.
Another reason could be cost. Microsoft Office is quite expensive to for the regular public to buy. Maybe this could be used rather than forking out a lot of cash for the Microsoft product.

A disadvantage to using an online document creator would be that they are not as comprehensive as Office. Office has so many options and features. There is no way that these online document sites could compete.

I would say use these for simple, straight-forward documents that you would like to be able to share.

Thing 17

2008-07-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

Dr. B has a Rollyo on the SBISD Library Resources Page, but I never knew exactly what it was or what to use it for. I am learning all sorts of new things.... I reinvestigated and found that it is a way to search for videos. I found an interesting TeacherTube video on a couple's visit to San Francisco. We just got back from there, so I was curious what they did while on their trip. They did some of the same things we did, of course - touristy things that all do when they go to S. F.

I created a customized Rollyo for searching for books. To be honest, I don't know if I will ever use it, but it was fun and interesting to create. Here is the link:
http://rollyo.com/talleris/ll_bit_books/
I included Amazon.com, Scholastic, a discount online book source, BookCloseouts and the public library I use. I tried a several searches and got hits with all but the public library. I am not sure why not. Did anyone else put in the URL for a public library and get positive results? Mine just says Sorry, no items found; check your spelling, etc..

Thing 16

2008-07-04T12:47:00.000-05:00

Wikis are not new to me. I took a class last summer and created one. The free wiki site I used wasn't very user friendly, however. I don't even remember its name! So needless to say I didn't continue to use it.
The idea I had was to promote the Lone Star books. I am going to do an reading incentive program with them this upcoming school year. I would like to make a page for each book with the book's jacket picture and review. I would then have the students post their reviews on the books. I think many of the students would like to do this.
This time I will do a little more research and find a site that is easier to use. The PBWiki site looks interesting. I didn't know you could add calendars, etc. so easily to a wiki. I might give them a try!

Thing 15

2008-07-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Library 2.0 is here folks. I believe we are on our way to 3.0. I like the analogy of our profession as librarians to a boat - we are quickly moving up river, like it or not!

The concept of the user having to "go" to a place (library) is rapidly becoming obsolete. The internet is a tool for us to share information. Why have to go to another physical place, when we have it right at our fingertips in our own home? I am all for "sharing" information - especially libraries sharing databases, catalogs, etc. However, to accomplish this businesses and/or libraries need to get rid of the "mine" attitude and see the greater good in information "for all."

Also, the idea that we need to make information easier to find or navigate rings true too. As stated, the ratio of librarians to patrons is small, therefore, we need to have the information be "user friendly" when patrons search.

Thing 14

2008-06-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

Wow! I cannot believe how large the blogosphere is! I still am in awe of how much time people spend on the web. It actually is a little scary. The internet can be viewed as a blessing or a curse. There is so much information out there at your fingertips - that is the plus side. The negative side - I believe it is replacing face-to-face interactions. Something to ponder, anyway.

Technorati is a great site for searching for blogs or posts. It is easy to use. I did join, but my e-mail server is down, so I could not retrieve the confirmation e-mail required to finalize the membership. When I can, I plan to add my blog and see what happens. In my searching, I did come across another SBISD blog. What a coincidence!

Thing 13

2008-06-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

I did most of my social bookmarking research in del.icio.us . I set up an account, but I had a heck of a time installing the buttons. I had to do it four times before I could get it right. The trick was to not Run the program, but to Save it first. For some reason, the file couldn't be found in the Temp. Folder for the run option.
I added a few bookmarks to my account using the buttons and tags. It was super easy.
I can see this being quite useful if you move locations a lot and use multiple computers. This is what our students do at school, so it certainly would be beneficial to them.
Since I use mostly one computer, I don't know if I will utilize this social bookmarking account much. Maybe, I will just have to play with it a little. It does make it easy with the buttons on the toolbar...
Oh, and I did like the feature in Furl to make a bookmark private. So, in looking in the settings menu I see where you can make that an option in del.icio.us as well. Maybe there are some sites you don't want to share for some reason...

Thing 12

2008-06-25T15:52:00.000-05:00

I think most of the sites about commenting are common sense. We need to make sure that we don't do commenting in a hurry. Take time to reflect on your comment and be sure to re-read it several times before posting. Also, I think it important to be kind in your comment, especially if you are disagreeing or criticizing. This may be the hardest of all!
I found several blogs worthly of commenting on. When I got out of the "23 Things" community, it was rather hard to choose a blog to read. I tend to look at those with blog names that are intriguing. One with the title, Gargoyles in the Library, got my attention. I am not sure if I commented on that one, but it made me look. Marketing is an integral part of blogging - the catchier the title, the more likely someone will take a look.

Thing 11

2008-06-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

I spent about an hour discovering Library Thing. I guess I am not much into social networking. I looked at some of the groups and even joined one - Read YA Lit, but it didn't make much sense to me. Unless I am mistaken, the posts are in reverse order. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the most current post. Also, this particular group is supposed to be a monthly book discussion, but I could figure out what books they were reading and when. Oh well... Maybe there just isn't that much action in this particular group.

I did create a personal library and rated the books I added. Adding books was super easy. These were books I just finished reading, so I was interested in their reviews. I am not sure I would ever use Library Thing. Maybe if I was looking for recommendations for good reading. But even at that, I don't know if I would use this site. I'd rather look at library journals or check out the blogs of those that have given me good book recommendations in the past.

I am getting the feeling more and more as 23 Things progresses that people spend WAY too much time on the computer!

Thing 10

2008-06-23T17:16:00.000-05:00

This was similar to Thing #6. I had already created a Trading Card and visited some of the sites mentioned. So, I stayed clear of those and went to ones I did not discover on #9.

Image Chef was my favorite. It was very simple to use. This is the football jersey I created there. Notice the color - orange! They didn't have the burnt orange shade available. It looks like I am a Tennessee fan!

Another creation of mine was the magazine cover from Custom Sign Generator. At first I had a lot of difficulty figuring out how to upload my photo. But I finally snapped and put a student from my school on the magazine cover of Millionaires magazine. Isnt' he precious?

Here again this can be sooo time consuming! I can see students absolutely loving seeing themselves on a magazine cover or inserting them into various scenes. Great fun!

Thing 9

2008-06-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

From a practical standpoint, I cannot see how anybody would use these searches for blogs and be very successful with the amount of time it takes. You could spend hours and hours looking for blogs on various subjects. But then the blog needs to have certain criteria for it to be useful as noted in the Cool aCat Teacher video. There is definitely an overabundance of blogs on the internet and most of them are not high quality.

Of those blog search engines that I perused, Google Blog Search was my favorite. It seemed the easiest to navigate. My least favorite was Syndic8.com. The site was boring and plain. I was disappointed that the librarian search Suprglu was not working. I will have to investigate it later.

I think the best way to find useful blogs is "word of mouth" or I guess those words don't really apply here. I usually will look at what other bloggers that I think highly of have in their blogroll. I have found almost all of the blogs I subscribe to from others.

Thing 8

2008-06-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

I created a Google Reader page with about 7 feeds. I then linked Google Reader with my iGoogle page so I don't have to go to two places to view all my up to the minute news. This is too cool!
Yahoo pretty much has this same feature that I have been using for a couple of years. I created a My Yahoo page that has RSS feeds to blogs and news of interest. This seems more comprehensive than Yahoo, however. I will use both for a while and see which I prefer.

As far as RSS feeds go in general, they are great. The information comes to you rather than vice versa saving you valuable time. It keeps you current on most any topic. As a librarian, I believe we need to know a little bit about everything. This will help us in that endeavor. I am also going to keep my eye out for the RSS symbol when I visit new web sites.

I also want to comment on the videos from CommonCraft. They are precise and to the point, but most importantly they are fun to watch. They make me laugh! The hand signals and tossing the cards out of the way are stupidly entertaining. Such low technology to advertise high technology...

Thing 7

2008-06-18T15:55:00.000-05:00

Wow! What fun tools Google has! I was familiar with a few already, but found some I had not ever taken the time to explore. Some of the tools I see as useful, and some not so.

Let's take Google Alerts. It is a feature of Google that I am currently using. I am a HUGE Longhorn fan and I have the Google Alerts set up to alert me on news of the Longhorn sports and also of Vince Young. Obviously, these are just personal alerts, but I could see these as being useful as a librarian or teacher. You could certainly keep your eye on current events, politics, etc.
The other feature I chose to blog about was iGoogle. I would compare it to my Yahoo homepage, only more powerful. A great way - here again- to keep tabs on current events, policitics, etc. Sort of like having your own personalized newspaper. I may end up changing my computer homepage to iGoogle. I need to tweak it a bit. Right now it has too much information.

I am not sure this link will work since it is customized for me, but we can try. I moved some of the articles around and created some new pages.

Thing 6

2008-06-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

The whole mashup things is confusing. Too many fancy words explaining it all that I don't understand.. Thank goodness there are actual examples. That helped in the understanding - somehwhat! I visited one site that compared items on four different online shopping sites. That looked useful in a personal way.

The Flickr mashups were interesting. I didn't create a Librarian Trading Card because I really didn't see how I would use it. However, I did created a Lone Star Award Book Trading Card. I used the book Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. Included the photo, along with the summary at the bottom. I don't really like the way the photo uploaded into the card. I'll have to work on that.

I am going to be doing a Lone Star reading incentive program this upcoming year and maybe I could make them into trading cards. The kids after they read the book, could get a trading card. They would trade them in for prizes and rewards. Just a thought!

Another feature I liked was Captioner. I used a photo of some of the students at my school browsing books at the SBISD annual book exhibit. I don't know how I could use this, but it was fun!

Thing 5

2008-06-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

Exploring Flickr was easy. I was already familiar with it. I set up a vacation picture album on it this past year as a way to share pictures with family. It works great. I did have some family members have difficulty creating an account and viewing the pictures if they weren't already members...I had to field several calls for help.

I was however, not familiar with the Creative Commons aspect of the site. I am still somewhat confused about all the different copyright categories. I don't see me using photos or pictures from Flickr anyway.

But here is one that I thought was interesting. I might use this somewhere. According to the rules I need to give credit to Paul Keleher for this photo.

Thing 4

2008-06-16T15:00:00.001-05:00

Well I sent all the necessary information in to get me registered. Hopefully I will receive a welcome e-mail that tells me I have done everything up until this point correctly. So far so good.
I have completed four things in about 1 1/2 hours on my first day. At least I got started. I am going to try to do at least one thing a day until I finish!

Thing 3

2008-06-16T14:40:00.001-05:00

For those of you who remember CB radios...L'l Bit was my "handle!" I have always been petite, so it just fits. And of course, the blog will have a little bit of "this and that" as well.
Creating the avatar was easy. I already have done it for my personal Yahoo mail account anyway. I just imported it into the blog. I love the beach and in my bag are books to read while relaxing my time away. There are sooo many choices, that I do see how people could get bogged down in this particular stage and spend way too much time deciding on the perfect look for your avatar..

Thing 2

2008-06-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

I don't usually give too much thought to the concept of life-long learning. I see two reasons for learning.
1. You need to for your vocation. (Which is why I am doing this!)
2. You want to because you like it.

My weakness in the 71/2 habits are Viewing Problems as Challenges and Setting Goals. Unfortunately, it seems that challenges arise at inopportune times, thus not giving one ample time to fully learn or enjoy the learning process. Also, I don't tend to set goals. I begin things without really knowing what I want out of them.
My strengths would be Having Confidence and Using Techology to Your Advantage. Once I begin the project, I almost always have the confidence and commitment to finish. I also don't shy away from technology. So long as the technology is functioning properly, it most always eases jobs and makes it exciting along the way.

Thing 1

2008-06-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

I am thrilled that SBISD Library Services created this online learning opportunity for librarians and educators. I am looking forward to learning many new technology skills and applications along the journey. I have two goals in mind. 1. I hope to be able to support the teachers at my campus in their endeavors to incorporate technology into the curriculum at the completion of the class 2. I hope to learn some "cool" technology that I can use on a personal level.
I didn't feel I had the time to devote to this journey during the school year. I am now in the right state of mind to begin as summer as officially begun for me! Yeah!