Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Thing 22 - Nings

Maybe I am on technology overload and everyone just needs to find their own niche. I found Nings to be very similar to wikis and blogs which today seem to be easier for my mind to grasp. I think for students who are open to more technology and ways to communicate with others Nings would be good. I do like the idea of trying to tie them into educational formats, but then again that could be done with Blogs or Wikis. As an elementary librarian I really see Nings being used more in the middle to upper grades. I can see myself exposing Nings to fellow teachers and students and let them run with it if they chose to. I think as librarians it is our job to expose students and teachers to many different formats. Just like books of different genres and we all have our favorites technology is the same way. But just because we don't care for a certain format doesn't mean we shouldn't try it and even share it. Who knows, maybe it is like your taste buds and some technology can be an acquired taste!

Thing 21 Podcasts and Vidcasts







I have heard about photostory and had never used it. NOW I am so excited and my mind is racing with all the things I can do with it. I'm also thinking about how the students will enjoy using this for book report and or various projects. Photostory is very user friendly even for the novice!




I have a friend who lives in California who went and took pictures of all the Michael Jackson tributes after he died. I asked if I could share these photos with everyone and of course the answer was yes. I hope that everyone will enjoy this.

I have tried for 2 hours to post my photostory. I keep getting a message that I've listed below. The only customer support I have found is to post a question which I have done. I think my brain is fried today so I am going to move on and try this tomorrow. I am going to go ahead and post this to keep things in order and will come back and edit...hopefully getting my photostory uploaded! Aarrrrggg

Sorry, there was an error uploading your video. Please contact support and include the following information:
Blog Id:2378420211455348434Video Id:edeb014a0828e5f3

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Thing 20



Of course, I am familiar with Youtube. I think this is every teens favorite site! I know at the elementary level we are not able to access Youtbube. I heard of Teachertube this springs but hadn't looked until today. Constitution Day is a subject that is wanted one day a year. I have a few books that of course teachers have to share. I have used United Streaming in the past but Teachertube will be a great resource to use.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I had to go to something fun first....music! Of the listed music sites I liked Last the best. I liked the free downloads and videos to watch. I have a friend who owns a radio station and I asked him his view on the sites listed...Last and Pandora. He told m that most station owners are not big fans of these sites since they prefer for people to be going to their websites and use the streaming.



I became familar with Urban Spoon this spring. My group at TLA didn't want to eat anywhere we could eat back home. One of the librarians was familiar with Urban Spoon and it was fun. I was in LA this summer and also had fun using Urban Spoon . I think Urban Spoon is a great source for people traveling as well as for those who like to try new foods and or restuarants



I was interested in self publishing and checked out Lulu. My mother self published a geneology book my grandmother had written before she died. This book is a family treasure. I would like to take the stories from my mother and other family members to publish for my family. The cost is not absorbadent being $500 to about $1,500. Obviously this cost would be prohibative in most school settings.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Thing 18 - Online Productivity

I started using Google Docs this last school year. I go to multiple campuses and work with another librarian. I like that we can not only share but collaborate on a project. Using Google Docs is great resource when you travel from computer to computer and work with different people on a regular basis like I do as a traveling librarian. Sometimes we have had difficulties getting google documents to print the way that they preview, but overall I really like using it. In fact getting other teachers to use Google Docs is something I am planning on encouraging this year.



I was not familiar with Open Office but found it exciting. I think there are many students and adults who could benefit from this free resource. There are many that do not have the resources to purchase microsoft office. I like the templates that are readily available with Open Office. This will be a benficial site to share with many to be able to use wherever they are....work or home! I'm sure there are probably some drawbacks to Open Office although I have not played with it enough to find them. But as with any software or freeware there are pros and cons.

Thing 17 - Rollyo

I like the idea of creating you own search engine. I was more familiar with Delicious so in the beginning I was lost. I enjoyed watching the video of how to use Rollyo. It was very helpful! After watching the video it was very simple for me to go in and create. I realized that being on different campuses I could have search engines for each campus since I am always doing something different. This is something I will play around with more. I think I can see me becoming a Rollyo user!
http://rollyo.com/index.html

Thing 16 - Wikis

Wikis - oh how my group of librarians have tried to get this going! We have been so overwhelmed with many more campuses than librarians it just hasn't happened! I like the community wiki. A community wiki would be a great way for a campus to communicate with the librarian about what they have going on in the classroom and to work on collaboration. I also like the idea of a group of librarians being able to use a wiki to share information about books as well as lessons. I would personally love to have a wiki to share with my multiple campuses to use for research lessons. Wikis will help me be able present and share information with not only fellow librarians but also with teachers, students and the principal.

Thing 15 - Library 2.0

I love my profession! Education is constantly changing, but I believe that librarians are some of the few that acutally embrace change and are ready to accept and learn new things. We don't like being in the dark ages we love continually learning and sharing all the new experiences with others, be it teachers, students or parents. I loved it when I read that Librarian 2.0 listens! We listen to the teachers and the students. We understand how to incorporate what is going on in the classroom to learning that will be relevant to students. We also understand that playing around with new technology is the best way to learn it. So many times others don't want to allow that "play" time. But that time to just play with something new and allow ourselves and others to mess up and try again until we get it! We celebrate those attempts that may be looked as failures by others because we know those unsuccessful attempts will turn into success after enough time is given to keep at that new concept / technology. Teachers are much more fearful of those unsuccessful attempts at newer technology than students. It is that fear that keeps many teachers from branching out and making learning relevant to today's students. The only way to become proficient with the ever changing and new technology is to play! So as Librarian 2.0 we get to reach our hand out to teachers and let them know it is alright to not be successful the first few times they try something. Students aren't afraid to try and part of our job is to bring the teacher and student together in their learning and making it relevant to them and to this generation it is with technology!

Thing 14 - Technorati

What a great way to find specific blogs on specific subjects. I liked being able to narrow the search by using tags. This advanced search was very helpful. I found the date and time reference of current post a wonderful asset. This would be helpful and a time saver when looking for newer and relevant posts on a topic.



I wasn't surprised that I didn't follow many of the popular blogs. I always liked the "hole in the wall" type stores and restaurants and I guess blogs are the same way! I couldn't resist and had to search MJ (Michael Jackson). Yes, there were an overload of blogs! There were a little over 141,000 blogs on Michael. I have to admit it was fun! Something I would not have done during the school year! But it is fun to learn about things on a personal / fun level! I will be more likely to remember.

#13 - Tagging

Over the years of having multiple campuses I have simply saved websites to the network at school so I could access them on my different campuses. I became familiar with Delicious a couple of years ago. This last school year I really took a look at this site and realized how helpful this could be to me and also save huge amounts of time. With three campuses last year I didn't even have time to "play" with this site. I am planning on moving everything over to Delicious here in the next few weeks.

I can see where having an account for students / schools to use would be helpful for research or lessons. This is a great way to organize that would save time for me as a librarian, but also for students and teachers! Tagging reminds me of a card catalog for websites!

When I went to Magnolia it was under construction and I couldn't play with it. The Furl came up diigo and that was interesting. However other than Delicious I found Digg to be the most user friendly and the easiest to use. Digg is a tagging site that I can see recommending and sharing with professionals and students.

Thing 12 - Commenting

I really enjoy reading varioius blogs. I find it heps me to broaden my views. However, like many, I am a lurker. I hesitate leaving comments. I think this is because I feel my comments won't be useful or enjoyable to anyone.l I know if I will try to leave short and relevant comments I might actually create a dialogue...wouldn't that be fun!



I have a friend in California who is an avid blogger. He is also an author ready to bloom! I think blogging helps him in his writing. I follower his blog and find it interesting on what he chooses to write about..just about everything from politics, architecture and sports. Even though I have known this friend for years and feel comfortable commenting...I don't. As I continue to follow his blog, I am going to force myself to leave comments and see what happens. I will keep them short and relevant.



I also have a video blog that I follow of a musician/singer. This is quite fun! If you have never heard of Imogene Heap...you need to follow her!
http://vodpod.com/watch/876748-imogen-heap

#11 - LibraryThing

This site is awesome and I will be using it. I like the ability to be able to keep a list of books going and be able to access it from my phone when I am at a bookstore! The ability to join an online book club with those that share your interests could be fun! Everyone in your club can share at their convenience! This site will be good to find information on new boks and authors. Readers are given a wonderful opportunity to share comments on the message boards with those that share their interests. This site provides something for all avid readers of all ages!

Thing 10 - Online Image Generator


My kids and I had fun tonight with the comic strip generator. As you can see from what I created above, I had some fun! I liked that this was free and you didn't have to register to use any of these images that you were going to post. I also like ImageChef.com. I think teachers and students will use this. There are many things students and teachers can use fron online image generators to be creative and have fun. Who says students can't have fun with learning. Poetry is always popular in the spring after TAKS. I can see students and teachers being open to using poetry images.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Thing 9 - Blog Search

I didn't really find Edublogs very helpful because it seemed to be just a voting on blogs that individuals find useful. Bloglines was intersting to look at, but there were WAY too many results. Although I enjoyed looking through them, I can't imagine having the time during the school year to actually find that much time to browse. If I had the time I think it would take too long to sort through to find something specific to use at school. I can see using this site as a recommendation to those professionals that simply have the time (no children) to just browse and enjoy browsing., I found the Technorati was easy to use and was easy to self direct myself through. This is a blog search I can actually see my using and recommending to my friends and fellow professionals.
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