Week 6, Thing 13

Del.icio.us is a fabulous way to keep track of bookmarks and to sort them out. That in itself makes it helpful to researchers who are doing lots of browsing to gather information but aren't ready to focus on just a couple of sites. I really like that you can access this from any computer. That will make it very useful for kiddos who use a different computer in the lab, in the library and even in the classroom. I had an account this spring and forgot about it. I've started up another one and added the buttons to my page. I will use it as I find things I want to save. I enjoyed the video we watched. I'd like to learn how to make those little vidoes to have at school.

I also read Chapter 1. What struck me the most was the mismatch between how and what we teach in school and what skills our students will need as adults. Our system was based on the factory model of creating carbon copy students who all master a specific content. The book The Cheater by Michael Lazer is starting out to be pretty interesting. The main guy organizing the cheating gives an interesting description of why they think cheating is justified. He claims that the system is set up to sort out the ones who can and the ones who can't and nothing more. He knows he's not one of the ones who can excel so he doesn't want to put the effort into doing the work just to pass. He's rather use his energy elsewhere. They use some web 2.0 tools for their cheating, so in fact, they're futhering their eduction - just not what the system has been designed to do. I'm not very far into the book, but so far I like it. Lots to think about.

Week 5/Thing 12

Martina Henke showed us Voice Thread at Hanshew last spring. I believe that a social studies class at Begich did a fabulous project with the book Fever. I used the browse tool but couldn't find it. They each had to say something about the book, but I can't remember much more than that. I am guessing they kept it private or pulled it after the project was complete. It's a fabulous tool and I can't wait to get some family members on board. You could put up a travel photo and gets comments from your family. It would be fun to put up a mystery photo on your library wiki and have kids guess what it is. (Like in some of those science magazines where they have a close up of something...) OR you could put in a paragragh from a book and have kids try and guess what the book it.... I do believe this one could be fun. Plus, the learning curve was quick.

Week 5, Thing 11

I went directly to the "short list" and was delighted to see some familiar sites. We use Pandora for music all the time. It allows to pick artists and create a playlist. It will add similar artists to your playlist. You can create multiple lists and save them. It's free. ASD blocks it.

I went to Mango lanugages because we're planning a trip to Mexico and don't speak much Spanish. There is a free level and that provides a number of basic lessons. They were pretty user friendly, although not extremely engaging. If you purchase the program it is pricey. $65 month. Ouch. I think I'd check around for other programs to purchase that might be more fun.

I looked at several others that offered some promise. Revolution Health looked a lot like the Mayo Clinic website. It was engaging and had lots of information on current issues. It takes health in the news to deeper levels. This one is worth bookmarking at school.

I'll bookmark the list and check back to it as needs arise. It's pretty impressive.

I joined the Ning Library 2.0 and then subscribed to it for my RSS. I also played the travel game and did very poorly. I guess I need to get out more!

Thing 10 (Part B)

OK - this was fun. I did it on Image Chef

Comments on online image generators. I could spend hours messing around. Wouldn't it be fun to set up a page of links to image generators and lets students mess around with them! Once again, I found all the ads to be annoying, but I realize you don't really get anything for free!

Thing 10 (part A)

My creation
Originally uploaded by Lesemans

OK - that was pretty simple - this is a mosaic of our construction project for the last 2 summers.

This was done with the Big Huge Labs site.

I'll play more another day.

Thing 9

Looking for blogs....

I tried Bloglines search tool and found it easy to use. I typed in "gaming in libraries" and got back lots of information and a good blog to follow called hcplc = Lib2.0. I added it to my feeds on bloglines.

I also looked at the edublogs award winning blogs and school library blogs. I found both interesting, but time consuming and not as fruitful.

Next I looked at Blogdigger and Technorati - I wasn't as successful with either as I was with the simple searching with Bloglines search tool. Blog Pulse looked and sounded neat - but I didn't really see why I'd want to map out the conversations/links at the moment. I think if I saw it in action it might make more sense.

overall comments - yikes - information overload, librarians like to write, write, write and some of these sites are pretty commercial and have lots of junk (ads) on them. I did notice certain blogs did pop up more such as Joyce Valenza's and
The Shifted Librarian - those are worth adding. I don't see me spending hours reading lots of blogs, but I hope to be able to check back to a few to keep up with specific topics.

Thing 8

http://www.bloglines.com/public/libraryhiker

That's the public portion of my Blogline account. I played around with both Blogline and Google Reader. I liked the set up on Google Reader better BUT every time I do something new on Google (add a feature) my computer runs slower and slower. Linda Criddle (the presenter on Internet Safety) said that Google collects a ton of information on you when you use Google services. I am thinking there might be a connection between my slow computer and the amount of information they are gathering. For now, I'll use Bloglines.

I have never heard of RSS. I've seen the little symbol but have never even wondered what it was for. It is beyond cool. It's useful and efficient. I will use it at school to keep up with library stuff, at home to keep up with disabilites stuff and who knows what else. I like the idea of including a bit of humor each day also. I was shocked how easy it is to subscribe to news sites.

I loved the little video (RSS in Plain English). I think it was simple and very easy to understand. I want to go back and watch the one on wikkis.