Okay, here's a goofy Voice Thread using one of my previous pictures. Since our library is closed over the summer, these have become my "Web 2.0 photo library" for practice. I was surprised to see how easy this was. I did view all the tutorials a number of times though. Also can see that the mic is always an issue. On one of the tutorials I could barely hear one of the comments made to a picture. My only mic is built in to one of our laptops, so this is me "super-projecting" right into the mic. Hope everyone can hear it and that it works right.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Week #5 Thing #11
I reviewed a number of the sites listed on the Web 2.0 award winners. I notice YouTube is a number one and as I posted previously I use one of them to get tunes for preschool songs for library lessons. Other reflections (not library related): My son rebuilt a new motorcycle and sold his old bike this summer. He lives off Craigslist (what's a newspaper classified?) Also my dad's "retirement job" is traveling around the western U.S. researching his family so I spent time both on My Heritage and Geni. He's a computer geek, so I'll need to see if he's making use of any of these sites. It appears that they have the capacity for stories and scans of property records and the like. He's more interested in detail than "making a tall, tall tree."
I joined Ning Library 2.0 and added the widget to this Blog.
I played with the "Travel IQ" site listed. Thanks a lot, now I'll never get off the computer :-). I love geography. I'll show this to kids. I'm regularly stunned by how many people have no idea what continent a country is in, let alone how to find a city there.
I joined Ning Library 2.0 and added the widget to this Blog.
I played with the "Travel IQ" site listed. Thanks a lot, now I'll never get off the computer :-). I love geography. I'll show this to kids. I'm regularly stunned by how many people have no idea what continent a country is in, let alone how to find a city there.
Week #5 Thing #10
I played a little in the Image Chef site. It was really easy because I just needed to create the image and then drag it to the desktop to use it. I think the tricky part of Web 2.0 is like anything you learn, it sticks when you practice, practice, practice. I'm trying to go back in to some of the things in the lessons and re-do them so I remember all the steps on my own.
I think a good story starter these days would be to discuss what books they would like to see made into a movie; it takes nothing to get the kids started! There are a number of image generators in Image Chef that relate to the movies. Don't let the kids stop by just coming up with names. Sit and go through the book. When novels are converted to movies, things are left out. What parts would you leave out and why? What are the best scenes that would need to be included? Are there characters that would be left out? Discuss which parts of the book would be expressed visually and in dialog between characters. How would you create the characters; animation, CGI, live?
Or go at it in the opposite direction: have them pick a picture book they'd like to see as a movie and have them "flesh out" what they'd include. How do they make it a full movie? What elements would they like to see added and do they enhance the story? A classic example of course is the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch that Stole Christmas.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Week #4 Thing #9
Still struggling with the way to make RSS feeds valuable for me.
*** What I'd like it to work for, but it doesn't seem to: The sites I check routinely are password protected - anything new I wonder each day? This includes email and the private Facebook account that only my daughter and I use that she drops pictures from Spain in. Obviously these don't seem to be available and probably for obvious reasons. An RSS feed does not consolidate that for me.
*** What works the best: Obviously some sites are really good about set up. The Newsminer is good. I like the sites that give you a basic blue headline and some detail and a brief description, then you can go to the article. Some like the Shifted Librarian which I like seems to just dump the entire thing in there in whatever format. Not as good for scanning.
*** What I'd like to work, we'll see: I've set up my Blogger and my Wiki. What I really need to know is if someone posts a comment (in the former) or discussion (in the latter.) My Wiki is supposed to send an RSS for discussion. I did a test discussion, nothing yet. We'll see if it checks it. When I set up Blogger it showed me all the messages I posted, but didn't even indicate if there were comments to the messages. Anyone have an idea of how to set that up? I'm I missing a "switch" here in Blogger? I know what I post, I need to know if there are comments.
*** What doesn't work as well: I currently have a bookmark for an online English language Spanish "newspaper" so that I can keep up with the news where my daughter is living. I have it bookmarked to the Basque Country news and when I click on it it takes me directly there. I got excited because there was that little RSS feed symbol. But when I added it what I get is a nice list - great format - of the news of all of Spain. I don't know all the place names so it's really better just to check the bookmarked location. The feed is too general.
I did run through the various search tools. Reminded me a bit of Google. Lots of stuff to weed through. A search of "library" on one RSS feed search site got me a Blog about on how someone on Top Chef made food that tasted like "library" paste - okay, so that one caught my attention since I like Top Chef. And of course like any tech resource I got a few "site no longer available" and "insufficient rights" hits.
Anyway. I've got it up and running and I think the best bet is to try to consciously look for good RSS sites as I go. I'm on the computer regularly, but not really looking at feeds. Maybe we could have one Inservice where we can each bring one concise site with good RSS feed that deals only with the library, public schools, and technology as it pertains to the library.
*** What I'd like it to work for, but it doesn't seem to: The sites I check routinely are password protected - anything new I wonder each day? This includes email and the private Facebook account that only my daughter and I use that she drops pictures from Spain in. Obviously these don't seem to be available and probably for obvious reasons. An RSS feed does not consolidate that for me.
*** What works the best: Obviously some sites are really good about set up. The Newsminer is good. I like the sites that give you a basic blue headline and some detail and a brief description, then you can go to the article. Some like the Shifted Librarian which I like seems to just dump the entire thing in there in whatever format. Not as good for scanning.
*** What I'd like to work, we'll see: I've set up my Blogger and my Wiki. What I really need to know is if someone posts a comment (in the former) or discussion (in the latter.) My Wiki is supposed to send an RSS for discussion. I did a test discussion, nothing yet. We'll see if it checks it. When I set up Blogger it showed me all the messages I posted, but didn't even indicate if there were comments to the messages. Anyone have an idea of how to set that up? I'm I missing a "switch" here in Blogger? I know what I post, I need to know if there are comments.
*** What doesn't work as well: I currently have a bookmark for an online English language Spanish "newspaper" so that I can keep up with the news where my daughter is living. I have it bookmarked to the Basque Country news and when I click on it it takes me directly there. I got excited because there was that little RSS feed symbol. But when I added it what I get is a nice list - great format - of the news of all of Spain. I don't know all the place names so it's really better just to check the bookmarked location. The feed is too general.
I did run through the various search tools. Reminded me a bit of Google. Lots of stuff to weed through. A search of "library" on one RSS feed search site got me a Blog about on how someone on Top Chef made food that tasted like "library" paste - okay, so that one caught my attention since I like Top Chef. And of course like any tech resource I got a few "site no longer available" and "insufficient rights" hits.
Anyway. I've got it up and running and I think the best bet is to try to consciously look for good RSS sites as I go. I'm on the computer regularly, but not really looking at feeds. Maybe we could have one Inservice where we can each bring one concise site with good RSS feed that deals only with the library, public schools, and technology as it pertains to the library.
Week #4 Thing #8
I set up my RSS feeds using Bloglines. What I discovered is that I actually had set up Bloglines previously and never used it. Oops.
I added a San Jose News Feed Blog as required. Added a Reader’s Club new review feed (it however said it had issues with the feed, but "there was nothing for me to do - they were working on it.") Added Unshelved (which for some reason has a particularly political cartoon on it right now that doesn't specifically relate to the library.)
Went through the resources (many links do link back to the same "CommonCrafts" video, which is a good one.)
I'm trying to figure out how to really make this resource useful. I know Ann at Tanana loves RSS. I guess I find it hard to find things I really want to look at like this - and talk about information overload. Even the first Blog I uploaded from San Jose looked like a reasonable librarian Blog, then further down the site she's blogging about some surgery she had. The idea that I would make my site public so I could share some stranger's surgery with other strangers. I don't know, it's kind of mindb"l"oggling.
More on what I added in Thing #9 next.
I added a San Jose News Feed Blog as required. Added a Reader’s Club new review feed (it however said it had issues with the feed, but "there was nothing for me to do - they were working on it.") Added Unshelved (which for some reason has a particularly political cartoon on it right now that doesn't specifically relate to the library.)
Went through the resources (many links do link back to the same "CommonCrafts" video, which is a good one.)
I'm trying to figure out how to really make this resource useful. I know Ann at Tanana loves RSS. I guess I find it hard to find things I really want to look at like this - and talk about information overload. Even the first Blog I uploaded from San Jose looked like a reasonable librarian Blog, then further down the site she's blogging about some surgery she had. The idea that I would make my site public so I could share some stranger's surgery with other strangers. I don't know, it's kind of mindb"l"oggling.
More on what I added in Thing #9 next.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Week #3 Thing #7
My technology "thing" is LibraryThing.
It is a good way to keep track of your books, it's better than a file box and easier to sort through. Of course like anything, you have to make a plan to enter books in. It's free under 200 books, so obviously I'll have to pay a yearly fee to really get full use out of it. I decided to enter chapter books and only the picture books that I use for lessons, rather than every picture book I've read. It shows the book cover, which is really helpful to me visually. There are places for comments and tags. I'm tagging my books by grade level and use the tag "puppet" to remind myself that there is puppet tie in or "song" to remind me of a song tie in.
You can enter the books by ISBN, so actually I had two that needed to be returned to the library. My husband was on the computer - I handed them to him this morning and all he had to do was open a new window, log in, enter the ISBN, select a book cover that looked like the book in his hand and log out. Later when I go to my profile and see books without comments I can flesh them out. I do still have an older Excel spreadsheet of books to enter in. And yes, you can make it private.
Library Thing
Okay, while we're at it. I have four preschool classes each week. Here's a YouTube subscriber I've found to find the tunes to those preschool songs that I need to sing and motion to each week. By the time I've practiced them all weekend my family is ready to reenact "Lemmings to the Sea..."
Cullensabc's Videos
YouTube is such a mixed bag. You can find some very valuable stuff - but even at home when I'm looking at fun, funky humor content (non-kid) it seems to be over-run with horrible comments language-wise. Sure you can flag awful stuff, but has anyone seen a filter that makes it safe for kids to check out?
Oh, and my comment on another blog was a far more serious post regarding young people using the internet on "Library Hikers" site.
It is a good way to keep track of your books, it's better than a file box and easier to sort through. Of course like anything, you have to make a plan to enter books in. It's free under 200 books, so obviously I'll have to pay a yearly fee to really get full use out of it. I decided to enter chapter books and only the picture books that I use for lessons, rather than every picture book I've read. It shows the book cover, which is really helpful to me visually. There are places for comments and tags. I'm tagging my books by grade level and use the tag "puppet" to remind myself that there is puppet tie in or "song" to remind me of a song tie in.
You can enter the books by ISBN, so actually I had two that needed to be returned to the library. My husband was on the computer - I handed them to him this morning and all he had to do was open a new window, log in, enter the ISBN, select a book cover that looked like the book in his hand and log out. Later when I go to my profile and see books without comments I can flesh them out. I do still have an older Excel spreadsheet of books to enter in. And yes, you can make it private.
Library Thing
Okay, while we're at it. I have four preschool classes each week. Here's a YouTube subscriber I've found to find the tunes to those preschool songs that I need to sing and motion to each week. By the time I've practiced them all weekend my family is ready to reenact "Lemmings to the Sea..."
Cullensabc's Videos
YouTube is such a mixed bag. You can find some very valuable stuff - but even at home when I'm looking at fun, funky humor content (non-kid) it seems to be over-run with horrible comments language-wise. Sure you can flag awful stuff, but has anyone seen a filter that makes it safe for kids to check out?
Oh, and my comment on another blog was a far more serious post regarding young people using the internet on "Library Hikers" site.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Week #3 Thing #6
Who doesn't enjoy playing with all the different things you can do with photos!? These are some really silly sites. I've created the following "work of art" using probably three different API's combined with a twist of my unusual sense of humor...
Troubles at the Kitty Reading Group
I think that kids will love using most of these sites. I think given the appeal of the graphic novels creating their own comic strip would be lots of fun. 15 years ago when I volunteered in the "computer lab" the kids were supposed to be learning keyboarding. During their limited time they had in the lab the challenge was to get them to type something ... Leave the font alone! It will be important in using these sites that the lesson plan involves plenty of planning on the kids part before they hit the computer or it will become a giant time suck. And, (tee-hee), that should be reserved for the adults.
Troubles at the Kitty Reading Group
I think that kids will love using most of these sites. I think given the appeal of the graphic novels creating their own comic strip would be lots of fun. 15 years ago when I volunteered in the "computer lab" the kids were supposed to be learning keyboarding. During their limited time they had in the lab the challenge was to get them to type something ... Leave the font alone! It will be important in using these sites that the lesson plan involves plenty of planning on the kids part before they hit the computer or it will become a giant time suck. And, (tee-hee), that should be reserved for the adults.
Week #3 Thing #5
Our Charter Member, The Ladd Leopard, devours a book.
Flickr is an interesting site. My daughter attempted to use a similar site (Photobucket) while she is in Spain this year. She said that it was just too slow to upload. As a result she and I just log in to a private Facebook account using the same email and login. Boy you just plug the camera in and it uploads everything - zip, zip, zip. Our connection is very fast, yet the three pictures I took for this assignment took forever using the upload option they provide. (And her fam's connection in Spain is very slow.) Obviously the quality of the pics on Flickr are fabulous. It seems like it is more for the photographers who take 40 pictures, then download the best 3; rather than amateurs who take 40 pictures and quickly download the bunch off the camera before flying out to the next adventure. Obviously the size limit of the free account attests to that. Tempted to try some of the other upload tools available, but downloading stuff to our computer sometimes makes our Anti-Virus software cranky. We'll see.
Was having trouble publicly viewing my pics using tags even though they were set as "public." The FAQ's didn't do the trick. Ending up going in and changing everything to "private," going out, then going back and resetting to "public." That seemed to do the trick.
I like the FlickrStorm. The 3 part TeacherTube video really explains the practical applications for the kiddos.
Flickr is an interesting site. My daughter attempted to use a similar site (Photobucket) while she is in Spain this year. She said that it was just too slow to upload. As a result she and I just log in to a private Facebook account using the same email and login. Boy you just plug the camera in and it uploads everything - zip, zip, zip. Our connection is very fast, yet the three pictures I took for this assignment took forever using the upload option they provide. (And her fam's connection in Spain is very slow.) Obviously the quality of the pics on Flickr are fabulous. It seems like it is more for the photographers who take 40 pictures, then download the best 3; rather than amateurs who take 40 pictures and quickly download the bunch off the camera before flying out to the next adventure. Obviously the size limit of the free account attests to that. Tempted to try some of the other upload tools available, but downloading stuff to our computer sometimes makes our Anti-Virus software cranky. We'll see.
Was having trouble publicly viewing my pics using tags even though they were set as "public." The FAQ's didn't do the trick. Ending up going in and changing everything to "private," going out, then going back and resetting to "public." That seemed to do the trick.
I like the FlickrStorm. The 3 part TeacherTube video really explains the practical applications for the kiddos.
Week #2 Thing #4
Sent off my Blog Address and got confirmation that I'm in. I'll try not to subject y'all to 12,000 word blogs ha! Sure enough, I refresh the Raven About page and there I am!
Week #2 Thing #3
Okay, well obviously I mastered the Blog thing. Now I'm going back and getting caught up on each week and thing. First some of my thoughts on blogs ... they have wonderful value. Look how we're using them for this class.
On the negative side I think some people get really carried away; John Doe's 12,000 word blog on "why to paint walls white" is a hypothetically example. When I've run into those I find myself shaking my head. Why would they think the world cares? I'm going to really monitor myself so I don't follow suit, because I can see how it could snowball.
Another important thing right from the get-go is the risks of "stream of consciousness" blogging. In my former job there was a national search on for a high level executive. Someone stumbled on her Blog and it was the most popular attachment to every email. Fortunately she hadn't said anything really awful or dangerous in her blog, but it just made her look kind of goofy and unprofessional. I try to hammer that home to my young adult children and their friends regularly. And clicking a little box that makes it "private" is not good enough security from the hackers of the world.
Okay, off the soapbox. Setting up the Blog was easy and fun. I've set up a Wiki before and found the process similar. The availability of templates makes the process user-friendly. The instructions that you provided in Raven About for inserting the Avatar were great. It went right in the first time and I didn't have to click around, trial and error, to figure it out. There are still some things I want to change and can see myself continuing to play and adjust. I want to put some time into thinking about applications for our school.
On the negative side I think some people get really carried away; John Doe's 12,000 word blog on "why to paint walls white" is a hypothetically example. When I've run into those I find myself shaking my head. Why would they think the world cares? I'm going to really monitor myself so I don't follow suit, because I can see how it could snowball.
Another important thing right from the get-go is the risks of "stream of consciousness" blogging. In my former job there was a national search on for a high level executive. Someone stumbled on her Blog and it was the most popular attachment to every email. Fortunately she hadn't said anything really awful or dangerous in her blog, but it just made her look kind of goofy and unprofessional. I try to hammer that home to my young adult children and their friends regularly. And clicking a little box that makes it "private" is not good enough security from the hackers of the world.
Okay, off the soapbox. Setting up the Blog was easy and fun. I've set up a Wiki before and found the process similar. The availability of templates makes the process user-friendly. The instructions that you provided in Raven About for inserting the Avatar were great. It went right in the first time and I didn't have to click around, trial and error, to figure it out. There are still some things I want to change and can see myself continuing to play and adjust. I want to put some time into thinking about applications for our school.
Week #1 Thing #2
I think of the 7.5 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners the easiest step for me is Habit number 4; Have Confidence in Yourself as a Competent, Effective Learner. The skill that is the most difficult for me to achieve is Habit number 3; View problems as challenges.
I have confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I feel that I can jump in and get up to speed on any topic. I am not afraid of trying things on the Internet and learning as I go. I know I can be a resource. The internet is the present and it is the future. My children are 18 and 21 and very internet savvy. I use them as resources. But they are surprised by how I can bring information on internet use and safety to the table. The world is changing. I regularly tell kids, "don't post anything you don't want your grandmother to read." I graduated from college in 1985, and then jumped back in 20 years later to take a Children's Literature Course from BYU and found continued learning a pleasure. I have entered new occupations at times when friends have been in their same job for decades. I enjoy learning and improving the process as I go. I can approach any challenge with a "can do" attitude. My goal later in retirement is to write a children's book based on my great grandmother's challenges in
I think my most challenging habit of the Highly Successful Lifelong Learners is to view problems as challenges. I'm a very organized person and don't find great pleasure in things going awry. I do become grumpy when the computer crashes or websites are down. On the plus side, I tend to handle things pretty well in a state of chaos. But it definitely isn't my favorite mode of operation. I depend on my email and get tense when it doesn't come up. Still I can survive in the case of computer crash and quickly come up with alternative plans. One of my problems is that I am definitely more capable on PC's than on Mac's. It's hard to instruct on an Apple when I don't know the correct hot keys and simple instructions. I hope this will be remedied as my principal wants to give me her Mac after the roll over at our school so I can become proficient in this area.
I think my ability as a confident, effective learner is a plus in instructing the next generation. I will need to continue to view problems as challenges in the future. I am looking forward to this class and becoming more proficient in this important area of library and information technology.
Week #1 Thing #1
I'm looking forward to working my way through this course. These instructions seem really clear. It's nice to be able to open them in a separate window and make sure that I'm on track. I really like the idea of online learning. If I'm on a roll I can sit up all night in my pajamas and work ahead. Unfortunately, if I get on a roll good luck stopping me to do anything else. I get in to a good book in much the same way!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Very First Post
Hurray! I set up my first Blog. The hardest part was deciding on a name. Finally I settled on that old favorite (Dewey) and an older favorite (Shakespeare) to determine my location in the card catalog of internet blogging. Ha!
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