Thing #23

Hallelujah! I finally made it through the whole 23! I have learned an incredible amount about technology along the way. My husband has been impressed with some of my creations. I'm sure he's tired of getting called to the computer to see what the latest is though. I feel like I have a wealth of information that I never had before. Not to mention that I don't feel so technology challenged as I did before. Granted, I have a whole lot more to learn, and I struggled with several things. Some I never did feel comfortable with like Rollyo. Even though I loved creating my photostory, I ran into a lot of frustration getting my video to embed. My favorites along the way were photostory3, LibraryThing, Web 2.0 Awards List, Teacher Tube, wikis, Del.icio.us, Comic Strip Generator, and Custom Sign Generator. This program is wonderful. It can be overwhelming at times though and very frustrating for someone who is not comfortable with the ins and outs of navigating the computer. I definitely grew as a person and as a life-long learner. I would recommend 23 Things to others very easily. In fact, I spoke to our technology liaison at my school and recommended that it could be something that our teachers could be shown.

One sentence to recommend this: Twenty-three things empowers you as an educator!

Thing #22 Nings

I visited all three Nings and liked Ning for Teachers and Teacher Librarian Ning the most. Reading one post in Teacher Librarian on 21st century libraries, I stumbled upon a neat blog from 11 and 12 years in Auckland, New Zealand. (http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=71175AlmightyBloggers). I also found a librarian song sung by Joe Uverges for the Colorado Association of Libraries Conference in 2006. It was interesting people who've joined on the Frappr map. In the forum areas, you can get feedback for lessons, problems you're having in the classroom, ideas to convince educators to come on board with 2.0, etc. Some of the videos I accessed were good, while others were a waste of time. How to use it? Communication and ideas first come to mind. Possibly can use it with students and finding out about students in other parts of the world. It will take more thought on the matter.

Thing #21 Vidcast, Podcasting

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this thing. I used Photostory 3. Although I didn't have a microphone to do a narration, I loved picking out music to accompany my pictures. I really had to limit myself on the amount of pictures I chose. Once I saw the end result, I realized that the photographer who took pictures of one of my daughters used this with music as a way for me to see all the pictures in video rather than just showing me the pictures. When I consider the possiblities for school use, it can be used for reports, parent night, or a myriad of other class projects. Because my family has visited so many National Parks and Monuments, toured various facilities, and had a variety of experiences, I could make videos of places to show my students. Usually I tell them stories and show pictures, but this is a very exciting option. Uploading the video took a lot longer than I thought it would. However, it was worth the wait. I'm anxious to show this to my girls. I'll also want to share this by email with their grandparents. This was one of the highlights of 23 Things for me

Thing #20

I was introduced to YouTube by my daughters. They directed me to see some things that their friends had posted. I also viewed a fantastic play posted about a year ago at one of their football games. I had a hard time finding a video that I liked, but selected one that would be useful. Where I ran into difficulty, was only embedding the video I wanted. I kept getting others attached somehow. Even now, I hope that it works right. I can see how this would be valuable to excite students about learning and even make one of a classroom. The one I found, Crazy Professors Reading Game, is a great one.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards List

Ok, I love this one! So many great sites and the rankings provided extra info I paid attention to. I saw some of the ones that we had already visited like flickr and Picasa. I was particularly interested in realtravel.com because my husband and I love to travel and this one provided travel advice, a travel guide, and a trip planner. I had visited craiglist before and checked out Oodle too (online classifieds). One Sentence had some very touching true stories and some that were hilarious. DonorsChoose.org was super because it was an arena for teachers advertising for donations for particular projects that people could donate to. I added a school countdown from springwidgets to my blog. This looks a lot like a countdown our librarian has provided for our school-wide Drop Every Thing And Read time we have on the first Friday of the month. So, I could use Web 2.0 personally as well as professionally. It's a great shopping site for websites.

Thing #18 Online Productivity Tools

Well, since so many people had complained about the length of time it took to download Open Office, I went to Google Docs first. Liked all that I found. Then I went to download Open Office. Decided to go outside and check out the garden for awhile and came back in. I can see its advantages especially for students who may not have access to some programming. I'm so used to Microsoft Office. I'll keep these in mind for future reference. Since so many had problems with download time, that seems to be the major complaint.

Thing #17 Sandbox

Fun! I was fascinated with the PB wiki tour. Plugins are way cool. Really liked video and calendar plugins. PB wikitips will be added to my del.icio.us for future reference. I know that I will use wikis for collaboration on projects, sharing book reviews, and possibly for journal quickwrites (sandbox idea) to prompts. It will be a fun way to get students to write without wasting paper. Conservation idea! More creative ideas are floating around in my head, but I need to think about them a little more.

Thing #16 Wikis

Wiki! Wiki! or Fast! I can say that is how this school year has been going. I thought I'd heard that term before (probably in Elvis' Blue Hawaii), but didn't associate it with technology. Actually I had heard of Wikis before, mostly because of Wikipedia and our technology liaison showing our school the one he'd created for us. I enjoyed "Wikis in Plain English" again despite seeing in class. It reminded me that wikis are instrumental in coordinating and organizing info. Two wikis I enjoyed were Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki and Library Bloggers Wiki. The first was chockful of info including Dr. Gail Dickison's tips on weeding (15 min./week-1 shelf/week), conferences, programming, seelling your library, selection/maintenance, etc. The second on Pedabloggy was really interesting. One section that I explored led me to Holly Room's Trout Song done to the tune of "Splish Splash" that kindergarteners had learned while studying trout from eggs to release.
All in all, I found a lot of helpful and interesting information in the wikis I visited. They are good for someone like me who is limited in knowledge of HTML or other markup language. One of the cons listed for them (vandalism) was noted in a wiki that said due to recent vandalism, contributors are required to list an email before allowed into the site. Teachers/librarians who are control freaks probably wouldn't handle wikis well. I lked one particular idea of annotating a catalog (classroom books even) with a wiki to post reviews. The other ideas given in conjunction with lesson provided food for thought.

Thing #15

Let me start by commenting on the video "A Vision of Students Today". Many of the comments made by the students I have from my daughters (three of which are in college). All familiar is the one of spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks that are not utilized. I also compared "doodling" in my day in the classroom to them accessing facebook in class while a lecture occurred. I have even seen a teacher do this doing a guest presentation at the Berry Center in Cy Fair ISD. I thought Michael Stephens' article "Into a New World of Librarianship" was very insightful. A library is a place to find, gather and meet user's needs. I also approve of the idea to be careful of techno worship. With the wave of technology today and our students who learn technology skills that I was totally unaware of when I was in high school and even college, a librarian is fortunate to have Library 2.0. It is unbelievable how much I have learned already that I didn't have an inkling about before.

Thing #14 Technorati

Very interesting! I plugged into Library 2.0 as suggested and was fascinated by some of the stories. Technorati is another way to get organized-something I constantly need help in. I also found some blogs that I might like to follow. I was curious about what everyone else is interested in and puzzled at the list of the top items. Some I could understand, but one in particular had me scratching my head (pee?) I like the idea of searching blogs for some shared info or advice. Again, I see this as another resource to add to many others that I have duscovered.

Thing #13 Tagging and Del.icio.us

This one I almost gave up on because of getting a message repeatedly about Internal Error-somethings terribly wrong, blah, blah, blah! Finally I was able to save some of my favorite sites. Notably, UHCL and Library2Play since I'm accessing them so much. However, I searched for a few others for school (national parks-no success, poetry-great success). Since I'm teaching a poetry unit now, I was happy to find some other sites that others had tagged. This would be great for school and the library when I need to find sites tagged by others as well as accessing my own. Overall, this is a great time-saver!! Something I desperately need since it can cut some of my frustration down. The message thing I mentioned at the top is a pain in the neck. I even shut down my computer and restarted it to see if that would help. The process was still hit and miss.

Thing #12 Rollyo

I must confess that as wonderful as this thing is, I grew quite frustrated with it. I really didn't understand some of the ins and outs to it so it took quite a while longer to work with it than I anticipated. I'm still not exactly sure that I did things right. I don't know if it's because of their instructions or because I'm technology impaired sometimes. However, I am hoping that I can get the link on here correctly.

http://www.rollyo.com/share.html

Thing #11 LibraryThing

This is a super way to keep track of my books. Right now I have no way of keeping a record of the books in my classroom. I just trust that I have all the books I've bought over the years. Students ask if they can take them home to read and I trust that they have brought them back. This would enable me to keep a list and set up a better check out system. I'd like to set up one of these at home for all the books I have had to buy my daughters for their classes so that when we get yet another list of books needed for the year, I know what I've already bought without going to look on the shelves. Some times we have been in the bookstore and I can't remember if we already have a copy of something. I visited several groups (What Are You Reading Now?, A Stupid Game to Play, to name a couple.) It was interesting to see what people are reading. I got tickled about some advice to book stores. I liked the easy way to find book titles. I got stuck a couple of times trying to remember how to spell an author's name. I really liked this thing!
I'm going to try to add my book list to my blog. Hope it works.

Thing #10 Fun, Fun, Fun

First of all, this one is the most fun I have had in a while! So much to choose from. I wanted to see everything before making a decision, but got so excited about what I could do that I started making stuff anyway. I can see why the instructions mentioned being tasteful as some of the images were less than that. However, there were many of them that would be suitable for school. Before I go any further with my talking I want to post what I made.






Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com



Yay! It worked. I used Comic Strip Generator and Custom Sign Generator (magnets) for my funnies. They appealed to me the most, although I will use Trading Card too. I kind of like the idea of students generating ideas for certain images as table groups or using it for a contest with the winners getting the posters or magnets. This could even be tied in to a book fair idea.

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/
http://www.customsigngenerator.com/

Thing #9

I'll admit that this is not necessilarly one of my favorite things.I found School Library Blogs on Suprglu very insightful and giggled when I went to Library2Play on Google BlogSearch and read Mean Old Library Lady's comments on Rollyo. I also liked topix. I did not care for syndic8. I found it confusing. Feedster I could probably use, but it is definitely for adults rather than elementary students. Probably I would check Library Blogs the most often since it has comments by other librarians and would be very helpful to me.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds & Readers

Well I created my reader through Google as recommended. Because I want to stay abreast of library information, I subscribed to several library blogs including A Library By Any Other Name and Library Philosopher. Because of my interest in cooking, I subscribed to a bundle on food which directed me to some great recipes. Also my children keep directing me to YouTube for viewing, so (on a lark) I subscribed to a fun bundle which included the latest YouTube postings. Personally I like RSS and newsreaders because they will give me instant access to information that would be intersting as well as helping me professionally.
On a professional note, I can't imagine trying to run a library without the vital information I have run across in the various library blogs. Of course Library By Any Other Name gave me some wonderful information. I laughed when I saw a picture of myself and my class on the blog! Library Philosopher included a Web Filtering Recommendation that I found useful. I think libraries can use RSS to help teachers access some great sites like Kathy Schrock's Kaffeklatsch (her suggestion of Alltop.com was insightful). News connections to various news sources would be beneficial to students as well.

Thing #7 Google Tools

Wow! So much to choose from. We already have Google Earth on our home computer, so I've seen the possibilities with it. Students would love to see places they are studying. Google Notebook would be great for report writing. I could have used this when I was doing my last report for Dr. Claes' class. It would have been so handy instead of all the notes I was hauling around with me. When I chsecked out the Google Advance Search (Texas Heroes), I found many people who perform in schools. It reminded me that we had a guy who performed as William B. Travis in our school a few years ago. That is something to keep in mind when offering programming ideas to PTO. Google Calendar would be great to stay organized. I thought of using it personally when planning a vacation trip with my parents and sister's family. Students and parents could use it to keep up with assignments and due dates including benchmark tests/other tests. I've decided to use Picassa and iGoogle. I had a little difficulty with Picassa only because of some file management on our computer. Because my husband wanted Picassa too, I set it up so that he could access it. I chose pictures of one of our favorite camping places in Texas-Inks Lake State Park. Here is the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/robjr31/20080323InksLake.

Thing #6 Mashups and 3rd Party Site

Very intriguing! Mappr, Trading Card, Captioner, and Jigsaw were some of my favorites. When I accessed Favorite Surfer (pictures) I couldn't believe it when I chose a random person and he had pictures of Alaska to view. (Background info for my amazement at coincidence: my daughter will cycle from Austin to Anchorage this summer for Sensecorp Texas4000 for Cancer so I have Alaska on the brain lately!) His name is David Cartier and he drives a tour bus in Alaska. I loved FD Toys'Trading Card Maker. I could see using this in the library for teachers and students to access for various projects. Since I teach fourth grade social studies and we study U.S. states/capitals, I thought it would be neat for students to make reports with this. Additionally, I thought of trading cards with characters from a book with character analysis on them. A possible GT project would entail students making up a game with trading cards. Two other sites that I liked were Mappr (seemed best for Geography) and Captioner. The thought I had with Captioner was to get students to create stories into books much like comic books. Jigsaw and Mosaic Maker were neat, but I would want them for personal use rather than educational use. I'll have to try a trading card when I get home. I'm visiting family now and want to get some input on some photos from my daughter.

Thnig #5 Flickr

Wow! Some of the pics I found on Flickr were amazing. I signed up for an account, but didn't try to download any pics yet. I can see how this online photo management could work for libraries. Think of the possiblities for students to see/share. It would make it more real to them.

thng 4 Registering

I have emailed my blog name. Hopefully I did it all right. I'm curious to see when I show up on the list. Then, and only then, will I feel like I'm in the "IN" crowd.

Thing 3

OK,OK,OK. Finally I'm here. I changed my blog name four times before I was satisfied. I enjoyed creating my avator. It was fun to try out different looks before I made a decision. I tend to shop for clothes in much the same way. I did get hung up with the directions to copy/paste the avatar on my blog though. Took me a while to get it all worked out, but finally I was successful. I have checked out quite a few other blogs. Everyone seems to be cranking right along. Now that I've reached this point, I am eager to move on. I'll certainly make some comments now that I've "gotten my blog together".

Thng 2

After viewing the video on 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners, I realized that I really am a LLL considering a few of the activities I do besides going to required workshops like gardening (discussing and selecting new plants), camping (researching new places to go, tours to take, etc.), reading (what's the latest?). I especially related to the phrase "It's never too late for learning." Since I had my own internal conversation about my age being a factor on deciding to go back to school, I believe that item #4 (confidence in myself as a competent , effective learner) is probably the hardest. I reminded myself of the phrase in my classroom (begun the first year I taught): Think Positively, Act Postitively, Be Successful! Attitude truly is "I will, I can, I do. " Item #6 about using technology to my advantage is close to #4 in that I'm a little apprehensive about the ins and outs of all the techno stuff that is a mystery to me. The easiest is most likely item 7 and 1/2 because I have no problem with being curious and enjoying the fun in learning along the way. I had to rethink lifelong learning beyond the formal structure after watching the video. Turning kids on to the "learning for life" idea inspires me!

Thng 2

Thing 1

Well Thing 1 was a snap. I'm anxious to navigate through Thing 2 and get to making my Blog!

Thing 1