Books and more

Image generators- belated!!

2009-01-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

While I remember, I will write about the image generators and then try and put one up. The one I found most useful was the trading cards: my book club students are going to make their own cards after we discuss Satch and Me, a Golden Sower nominee about time travel and baseball.

My personal favorite is the keyboard; it's a great place to take out my tech frustrations. I have created keys that say things like sell or I quit. Pictured here is one of my husband's idea : oops!!

Anyone can have fun like this by going to the following site:

http://www.glassgiant.com/custom_keyboard/?l1=Game&size=large

More Flickr Fun- an oversight

2009-01-29T10:03:00.001-08:00

Wow, I think I had so much fun playing the extras on Flickr that I forgot to write about it. I made a READING sign for my book club at school and I loved the color pickr (and are we going to learn to drop the "er" in the future thanks to these sites??)

I honestly have not thought of a use for the color match - but it was so much fun to look through that I really didn't care.

Some of the Flickr stuff is blocked at my school which is really too bad as I think the kids would love to use it. I know it is the price we pay to keep kids safe but I would rather we teach kids to be responsible rather than be the police for them.

Twitter

2009-01-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

I have been on Twitter numerous times just to give it a chance and I really am not that fond of it. I enjoyed reading the 6 word stories and actually liked two of them - kind of a haiku format!!!

But to keep track of others and to keep up with info....Twitter is not the answer for me. The other day, an email informed me I could Twitter the Village Pointe plaza and so I have signed up to be a follower of the shopping center - and now that shopping center is following me. Seems a bit existential.

I also heard about the man who has his washing machine twitter him when the wash is done - now that is PRACTICAL!!

I don't feel like I have that much to share with anyone. I will keep going back as something may finally catch me about Twitter's use - but for now, I give it a thumbs down.

the 23 things

2009-01-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

This was a great way to learn, use and practice at my own rate; my biggest concern is that the NLC blog will disappear and I will lose its resources and directions. If this is learning in the 21st century, I am all for it.

It is hard to say what I liked the best; there's just too much. I am already using some of the skills such as blogging (who would have thought I would), wikis and the 2.0 tools.

Thank you so much for developing the lessons, giving the extra tutorials and just the right moments, and answering questions along the way.

Podcasting and podcasts

2009-01-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

I always like seeing a topic in the 23 things that has some familiarity to it!! Then I feel I do a better job in my explorations. I decided to try the directories and found I liked Podcast.com and PodcastDirectory.com because they were laid out in a way that was easy for me to use - I could definitely get to things I wanted to quickly. I plan to use some of the online story podcasts I found- my teachers have been asking for books on tape and while we have some, these podcasts may fill the gap.

I have made digital "podcasts" with my students using Garage band and found them to be a fantastic way to engage students. If I had more time, we would do ongoing podcasts but because they were "one-time" projects that I wanted parents to be able to see and hear, I played with the software so that all of our podcasts ended up on one page as entries and I blew away the "subscribe now" buttons before I posted them. The kids did an awesome job with their research and project creation.

I think it would be great to use podcasts so that students could review books for others; I may try to find a way to do that soon. Before I launch something like that, I want to make sure I have more ideas about management and time commitment in place.

Personally, I have found that podcasts are great for me when I miss an episode of a radio show I listen to, but I find that subscribing, unless it is for a show that is 5 minutes or less in length, is not worth it for me as I rarely go back and listen to missed episodes. Great for road trips though!!

YOU Tube

2009-01-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

I have been on You Tube before and have not been that excited about it. I just felt it was too overwhelming and I did not want to spend time looking at it. Today I looked at it as to what it could teach me and found this great video about crochet; okay, this is not the most intense learning experience but since I continue to fail at it, I am thrilled that I found something like this. That made me think of other ways I could use you tube for skills needed to uncover information, use computers, etc. It's something to keep in mind for my visual learners.

Another good site for movies for little kids is http://www.totlol.com/video.php

WEB 2.0 for Nebraska Learns

2009-01-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

I liked the way this site was set up by categories: it made it a little easier to use than the go to web 2.0 site I have used before.

I spent way too much time in the craft session and in Zillow, it was a trip down memory lane looking at old houses around the country. It's a bit spooky seeing all the web cam shots from Google - somebody is always taking our picture!

Practice 1-1-09

2009-01-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

Zoho and Google Docs

♥♥♥♥ I love Google docs and zoho looks good, too. Google docs has been a great place for me to save those one or two files that I have needed countless times and did not want to plug in my flash drive to access them. I use them for reminders and for when I have a list of info I want to remember all in one place. I think the hardest part for me to wrap my head around is the fact that they all link together. When I master that, I think I will be more efficient.

Wikis

2009-01-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of wikis: this summer I created one for my school and have 3 or 4 people on my staff using it. Until now, I have been the webmaster which works fine for school and community information. But now we wanted a place to post our documents and sites for a literacy program and that meant all of the info people wanted on the web also HAD to come through me - ugh!! I am too democratic and can get too busy for that. The wiki was the answer. I hope to continue to introduce more of my staff to the wiki and make it a truly dynamic and user-driven product.

Slideshare

2008-12-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

Boosting Creativity

I liked this slideshare power point well enough to post it to my blog. The problem with really great power points is that they are and should be bullets/shorthand for the discussion or "lecture" that goes with the slides.....so many great ideas and background info are missing from the slides I watched. Unlike many others in Nebraska Learns, I did not find myself infatuated with all I saw. I might return now and again just to see what was out there. Some of the Social Media predictions were quite the downers!!

Library 2.0

2008-12-30T18:00:00.000-08:00

In each of the articles I read, one thing keeps jumping out at me; it is the idea that we have to change the SYSTEMS in order to make them as easy as possible for our users to interact with. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as being able to reach and teach all of our users - it just can't be done. Instead, we need to set things up so that our users can be successful when they interact and access information. That sounds like a great goal but, honestly, I need a lot more time, thought, advice and information in order for me to do this successfully at the elementary level. If anyone out there has any ideas, feel free to jump in.

And my early frustration with this reminds me of the view of the one librarian in these articles; that we would move from Library 1.0 where librarians were the keeper of information to Library 4.0 where LIBRARIANS would be in demand - at least those who could sift through and make easily understandable this vast world of new ever-changing information. Sounds like a good goal.

Delicious

2008-11-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Delicious was another site I had used during my summer class at Doane and while I liked it, I had not been back to it since June. I had forgotten how much fun it was as well as how useful it could be. I like the new look of the site and found it easier to use than it was this summer. It is one of the few places where I really enjoy the social aspect of the we.

The tagging is an awesome feature and I added the Holdrege Library bookmarks page to my network as it is outstanding. Each time I see the "clouds" of tags, I fall in love with them all over again and wonder why I don't use them more. I may find a way to add them to a page for my school.

Library Thing

2008-11-22T17:03:00.001-08:00

Well, it's the end of a long week; my book fair went well considering the economy, but my brain is exhausted. Still I wanted to make sure I was caught up and so played on Library Thing. While I liked the access and easy ability to make lists, I don't know that I want to use it a lot. I have other tools that serve me almost as well.
I know I should try to put a widget on this page for it but for now I am just going to add the link: http://www.librarything.com/

Thoughts on Technology

2008-11-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

Technology: I can't live without it, yet I feel like I am running to stay up on it. I realize I have been a computer user for 15 years - where does the time go? I thought I was really on top of things and I still do many things well. But I have to say, the WEB 2.0 stuff has really been an uphill curve. It is a different mindset. My life already seems full and as to this new social aspect of the web, well, I can barely keep up.

I do love it, though. My son and I just practiced using the google chats as we talked with each other on our cell phones. We just tried out some new things and laughed as we went. I adore the features of Flickr and as I was talking with my son, I was busy uploading photos so I could make prints as a going away gift for a friend. My son was also trying to help me with the features of Facebook that I can't seem to get around.

Upon reflection, I know I am pretty good at these things; there is just so much to do and so little time!! I want to know how everyone else keeps up!!

I really thinkSunday evening is NOT a good time to blog. This is 2 Sundays in a row that I feel tired and frustrated....by tomorrow, I will be rejuvenated and ready to try new things.

I LOVE this week of just catching up. I am looking forward to retrying some of the activities we have done the last few weeks.

FlickR

2008-11-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

I have been on Flickr once or twice before and find that I have to set a timer in order not to lose an entire evening just looking at photos. I found a neat one today at http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnson7/3009885557/: I am trying to upload it now.

Okay, I give up: I tried the automatic upload a few times and that failed so I went with the tried and true download to my desktop and upload from there.

Anyway....I loved the contrast of the flaming leaf and snow. The weather turned so cold and grey today that I needed the reminder of how beautfiul winter can be.

Back to the subject of FlickR, I am not sure I want to upload all my photos to a site, but I realize I should add tags to my photos in iPhoto and on our home computer.

While taking the FlickR tour, I found that it was connected to Picnik...my students have LOVED that site and I have a lot of fun with it, too.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

2008-11-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes sequels don't live up to the original book but this is NOT the case. In just a few pages, i was plunged back into the timeless world of the Penderwick sisters and their everyday exploits that the author makes seems so lively. This time, the girls' father is being pushed to enter the world of dating and they want to foil any chance of having a stepmother. While somewhat predictable (at least to an adult), the book is charming, entertaining and a great way to while away a few hours. The kids in my media center will love it!

Google's Instant Messaging

2008-11-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

I realize I forgot to add my comments about Instant messaging; I liked the Google widget for this; it was much clearer to me than the old AOL messenger account that I once had. I loved that you could see that the other people were typing so you could just sit and wait. I have to admit though that I am impatient; I would much prefer to call someone on the phone rather than IM. The idea of using it for reference questions and customer service functions is fantastic though. In my media center tho??? No, not yet

RSS feeds

2008-11-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am exhausted after looking at RSS feeds and trying to add them to my blogline accounts. I don't know why I found this so difficult. This summer I had a taste of this with Google and I think there is an easier way to do it than what I was trying this evening. I will try again tomorrow but feel so overwhelmed by it. Maybe it just needs to sink in.

Twenty three things

2008-10-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

I have let too much time go between the first time I set this up and now so I thought it was best to start again. One of my goals for this class is to have a better understanding of RSS feeds and how to use them. My ipod is not the center of my life and I think if I knew more about the feeds, I would be a better user of them and my ipod.

Starting now

2008-10-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is certainly a stab in the dark. Who knows what this will look like when it is posted. I wonder how others are doing. I think kids might have a much easier time plunging into this than a non-native of the digital land.