Week 9, Thing 22, Ebooks and Audio Ebooks

World Ebook Fair is an interesting site to play around with. Though I had used the Guttenberg Project in the past I had not used this site that incorporates Guttenberg along with so much else. If only the average high school student were more interested in the classics! I did have trouble locating much in the line of children's classics, for example the E.B. White books. They must not be public domain yet.

I listened to the schoollibrary.com video and it looks like a site that fits the description of making information available so that we can have buildingless schools. I then went to "Ebooks About Everything" and searched for Obama and found 42 titles. So there is already a great deal of information out there in ebook format.

Librivox is a great site to send students who want an Audiobook of a required classic when our library copy is already checked out. It was easy to search and, on my fast connection at home, the first chapter of Bleak House only took a minute to download and the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice only about 6 seconds. Some titles had more than one version so that if the listener didn't like a voice or accent, there were other options. The hits also gave a connection to the ebook on Guttenberg and referenced one or more wikipedia pages on authors, time periods, etc. I know I will refer students to this site. Unfortunately many of them probably do not have fast internet at home, and I know this would be unbelievably tedious on dialup connection. This is also the site where I made an RSS to a podcast so I should become very familiar with it in the future.

I had considered purchasing ebooks for school so had researched audible.com at that time. They have a nice, current collection and the prices are pretty reasonable. I checked for the Twilight series and they had the entire collection at around $40 each, not too steep for a massively popular title.

I don't do a lot with ebooks myself because I prefer to read with a book in hand. However, I am on the verge of ordering a Kindle so travel is lighter with such strict weight limits now. I do want to set myself up with whatever device I need or add-ons to my computer that allow me to use these online free audio-ebooks when I am on a driving trip!

Chapter 9, New Schools

I am so completely in agreement with this chapter. The sad thing is that the book is copyrighted 2007 and we still aren't even close to accomplishing the goals of School 2.0. Our students know how to use the tools, but we need to get the faculty up to their level and figure out how to implement the tools and completely alter teaching as we know it today. Some teachers and librarians, myself included, dabble in some of the Web 2.0 tools but more as a special interest or novelty and not as a crucial teaching tool or methodology.

It is so exciting to think that we already have the tools and potential to make offsite education a reality. Considering the cost of maintaining school buildings and providing student transportation, it is mind boggling to think of what uses all that money could be put in a School 2.0 world. It could probably bring the student body up to a level playing field technologically so that a remote school could work. We see the possibility and potential in the way the Raven About Web 2.0 is taught.

I appreciate the section that discisses the five elements of the video game experience that can have direct application to successful learning. I have a sort of snobbish disregard for video games as somewhat useless and as detractors from more worthwhile pursuits. This section made me look at my attitude a bit more critically. The education world could probably take pointers from the video game world and gain greater buy-in from our students. It is apparent that what we are doing in schools now is not stimulating students to invest the proper amount of time and energy in their education. We need to get on their level and not expect them to perform in our world that has so little bearing on the rest of their lives.

Week 9, Thing 21

Sometimes I felt like I was struggling through a maze in this exercise. I think I may have downloaded software I didn't even need, but that is no problem. I ended up using my Itunes and subscribed to three podcasts, one of which I added an RSS feed onto GoogleReader.

I tried to watch the Yahoo: What is a APodcast video but the link was a dead one. I then just went on to the Educational Podcast Directory and looked around a bit. I tried the Instructional Technology link but didn't find anything there to interest me. I then went under English Language Arts and found a fun one called Librivix, which is an audiobooks subscription. I subscribed to it and listened to part of one reading of a story in a beautiful British voice! This is the one to which I added an RSS feed on GoogleReader.

I then moved over to Podcast Alley and searched for book reviews--the list was heavy on comic book reviews. I tried a few of their top podcasts and subscribed to a couple that I may or may not keep--I just wanted to practice the subscribing. I did find a Twilight podcast that would be very interesting to a number of students at NPHS. The last two entries in it were a comparison of the movie and the book of Twilight and a preview of the New Moon movie. I will have to point that out to one particular student that we in the NPHS library call Amy Twilight because of her serious obsession with the series.

The whole podcast world is fascinating, if a person just had more time to listen to them! I think podcasts would a nice addition to my library wiki--another thing to explore in my days that are already to full at school.

Week 9, Thing 20, TeacherTube

This was not the first time for me on TeacherTube. During one building inservice where staff chose one of six possible sessions, I manned a workshop on various online video resources including TeacherTube, Discovery Video, etc. One objection to TeacherTube is that it loads slowly. I find it more palatable if I start it downloading and then pause it until it is done buffering. When it is done I then play the video in its entirety. I really can't stand when it shows 30 seconds at a time and then stops to buffer the next 30 seconds.

A lot of the videos are truly amateurish, which is also true on YouTube. There is a great deal of variation in quality. If one perseveres, there is good stuff on TeacherTube. A lot of what is there would be a hard sell to students who usually are looking for something more entertaining and flashy.

I searched for "librarians" and found one that was entertaining called "What Do Librarians Look Like?" High school students are being asked that question and the answers are amazingly clueless--much of it involving glasses, old, gray hair in buns, and shhhh. I can hardly believe that image is still at the forefront--I don't think that is happening in our District HS libraries.

There is a lot of information on Web 2.0 that might be worth checking out. I found a couple of neat Twitter sites as I am interested in learning more about that since much of the political world is using it.

I attached a cute video where first graders are asking President Obama questions. One of my searches was "Obama" because I am a great fan and this was one of the few that was original and not just his inauguration or some other event.

On YouTube I really enjoyed the Library Dominos clip--actually there were several, but my favorite was the one where the books are falling down in lines running around the shelves. However Conan has been removed so that one remains a mystery to me. I have used YouTube to listen to political speeches that I missed, but find that most of them are done in sound bites of five minutes or less. I have now turned to MSNBC online for the full speech in one video.

YouTube is really fun to play with--I wish it was available at school, because it is a great way to show something when trying to explain an unknown to a student. Just as an aside: there is a YouTube video of my son-in-law playing the saz, entitled "Abbas playing the Azerbaijani saz.

Week 8, Thing 19.1, Alaska's Diginal Pipeline

I use the Alaskan databases all the time at school. It is one of the items I cover in my freshman library orientation and I also cover it in more detail with my orientation with sophomores as they begin their big research paper for their English classes. The majority of kids are sold on it after seeing how quickly they can find verifiable information compared to Google searches.

I determined to try something I had not done, so I looked into creating journal alerts and search alerts and opened and saved the tedious instructions on each. The second thing I did was watch the Flash movie on the coming Ebscohost 2.0 interface. However, it sounded like it was to have been implemented in 2008. I went on to the Digital Pipeline and discovered that it was indeed the interface used now.

At school I teach the students to go on the the databases through our District web program called FILE' under the resources tab. On there I always taught them to use the Student Research Center because it was supposedly designed for high school curriculums. Last year during the school year it was not using the Ebscohost 2.0 interface. I logged on to the databases in this manner and discovered that Student Research Center still does not use the Ebscohost 2.0 interface, whether I went onto it from FILE' or from the Digital Pipeline link on SLED. From now on I will teach students the Digital Pipeline way because the Ebscohost 2.0 interface is so much more powerful.

My information gleaned on placing journal or search alerts from the Ebsco Support link from the Raven About Web 2.0 page is now obsolete as the alerts are so easy to place from the Ebscohost 2.0 interface--just a click away.

I then went in and started a folder for myself, something I had never done before. It was easy and it is one click to put an article in the folder from Ebscohost 2.0. Can see it as useful when I am doing research that I can't complete in one session. I can add to the folder and sort later for the cream of the crop.

I am a huge fan of Ebscohost and am very grateful to the Legislature for providing it free of charge. I know I would not be able to afford it in my Library and cannot imagine living without it. We have a big automotive department at NPHS so I also point that database out in my freshman orientation.

Chapter 7 of textbook.

This chapter covered a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of school librarians. In a perfect world we would have no filters on computer systems so students would have access to all the wonderful tools and toys and information available on the net. However, in the perfect world none of these online tools would be abused either--not by the students or the segment of the world preying on the students.

Until I read this chapter, I was not aware that districts receiving various federal funding were subject to the CIPA requirements. I think I will be a bit more patient with the filtering of the net now that I am aware of that. I have always understood the reasoning for filters but when helping students do research on some topics it is really frustrating to see official sites that would have the best information for them blocked. My tendency has been to blame the shortsightedness of the District administration, but now I know that the impetus comes from higher up than the District.

I hope we can come up with some method of letting students do some of the social networking on school computers. There are a lot of projects that this would enhance. I also realize that their are a lot of bad people out there that we like to protect our students from. However, most of these kids are on these sites at home and many on their cell phones, so they view us as so antiquated at school when they can't use any of the sites and tools there. Surely there has to be a happy medium. I think districts are going to have to do something, because it is getting harder and harder to justify the inability for students to use something like Flickr or Twitter in school.

The copyright issue is huge and one I deal with on a daily basis. Kids really do think that because "it" is on the net that it is available for downloading or copying. They also view information as true because it is on the net. What copyright means and what things are legal to use or download and what are not are tough topics to get students to believe and comply with when they research. Equally important is the ability to evaluate websites for pertinence and expertise of opinion. These topics need to be dealt with as regulary as reading and math, beginning in the elementary grades.

Week 8, Thing 19, Library Thing

For some reason my text didn't show up with my LibraryThing widget so I will do it again. I was already a member of LibraryThing, having joined in the fall of 2007 and then never adding to my original five books. I am also a member of Shelfari and Goodreads, both at the invitation of friends. Those two I have managed to keep up a little better. I really like what I see now that I have explored LibraryThing more. The discussions could be a lot of fun. It was interesting to see the statistics on my book listings. Not a surprise that The Kite Runner had 21,885 members and 754 discussions and that The Life of Pi 18,082 members, but I was amazed to find that Losing Julia only had 163 members and The Book Thief only 8070. It is interesting when books I considered good, and in the case of The Book Thief, great, don't show up that way statistically. I look forward to viewing other students book shelves via LibraryThing.

Week 8, Thing 19, My Widget

Week 8, Thing 18 Summary

It was definitely easier to figure out how to publish to blog on ZohoWriter, but now that I know how on GoogleDocs, it won't be a problem. I liked the image insertion on GoogleDocs better--it was easier to play around with the editing. However, they both are so similar to any word processing, particularly Word in my case, that it is amazing. I am also going to use the spreadsheet because I keep my ongoing bookorder on one and it would be so easy to add books from home then. I am quite excited about this and can't imagine why I waited so long to use it. The very next document I need to do will be on one of these programs.

Week 8, Thing 18B, Googledocs

Week 8, Thing 18B, Googledocs 

 Well, Zohowriter worked so I will give Googledocs a try.  I tried to play around with imbedding my picture within wraparound text in Zoho and could tell I needed to spend more time to find out how to do that.  I will see if I can do it with GoogleWriter.  Will look for something to insert and see how the two programs compare in ease of doint a insert.  When inserting this photo, if I chose left aligned I had the option to wrap around text.  If I chose center aligned, I did not get that option.  Am also trying the header option on this one.  Now I will try to publish.

 

 

Zohotest

Week 8, Thing 18, Online Productivity Tools - Zoho Writer

This is so cool because using an online document program was on my agenda for the summer. We have some teachers and students at NPHS that are using GoogleDocs and there are some features that are different so sometimes I have to work at answering questions for students on printing, saving, inserting, previewing, etc. I was determined that come fall I would be an expert and here I am getting started. Because GoogleDocs is used and I don't know anyone using ZohoWriter, I am going to try posting from both to compare them. I dolled this up with some extras just to play with them, including inserting a picture.

I am inserting a header to see if it works as the title of my blog entry. Here goes.

Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, Chapter 1

I feel like I am blundering ahead blindly without really following all the directions. I went back and read the Syllabus more carefully and discovered that I am to blog on the textbook readings, also. I read chapter 1 before I even started the lessons, so I will cover my tracks and blog my thoughts on it before I continue.

We are definitely in a different world today than we were when I was in high school and things are changing at such a rapid rate that it is dizzying (if that is a word). The strange thing to me is that in a world where information is so available and kids are so wired, most of them are not very well informed on what is going on around the world. Kids are obviously using technology for things other than news and politics. I suspect that the social aspect of the web is where most of the action is for the millenium generation. Almost a hundred percent of students in high school now carry cell phones and text whenever they think they aren't being observed. Most also have Ipods, although Iphones are rapidly replacing the latter. With the Iphones they can surf the web, text, visit Facebook, and email, as well as talk on the phone.

Students are way ahead of adults, staff included, in their comfort with technology of this type. They have grown up with it and are as easy with it as we are with newspapers and TV. Schools are not up there with them. At NPHS students are not allowed to visit social networking sites, email except for school business, use cell phones, connect their personal laptops to the internet, or use instant messaging. That is supposed to be true in all the schools in the District, but I don't know if all enforce the code. Some teachers have gotten permission to use online chat to connect their students to other classes or cultures--for instance the Spanish teacher has her more advanced classes talking Spanish to a class in Argentina. Several of the teachers have class blogs and the District has enabled their site to be opened in school, thought the filter disallows other social networking sites.

I agree with the authors that the three skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are not adequate measures of successful education in the 21st century. Things like global awareness, information gathering and manipulation, and just plain technology savvy are fast becoming the primary items that we as schools are going to have to ensure our students have when they graduate. Our exit exams and other measures of fitness for graduation have to be replaced with something more emcompassing and rigorous.

As I mentioned earlier, students are very comfortable with the use of the various technologies, but don't really know the wisest uses. They are very clumsy information seekers; they lack skills in searching the Web, know very little about website evaluation, and think that cutting and pasting is how you use information instead of synthesizing it into their ideas and words. These are all things that need to be taught in regular classrooms and not just as library orientation blurbs. They are complex and necessary skills that they will need throughout their lifetimes.

It is an exciting time to be in education and I just hope we, as teachers and librarians, can rise to the occasion so that we don't leave a generation groping for skills that we should have been able to impart.

Week 7, Thing 17, Sandbox Wiki

This was a fun and informative assignment. I got several really good ideas from the posting. I did not make a posting myself, because I haven't come up with something exciting and new. Ideas for my NPHS library wiki I gleaned include:
VoiceThread book review connection on my NPHS wiki--I actually thought of that during our VoiceThread assignment, and was reminded of it on this wiki.
Every four years (new student body) I do a Guess-the-Baby contest where I have staff submit baby pictures. The idea of having staff design an avatar and submit it instead of a photo sounds like a really fun alternative!
Creating a blog for a contest where I would post questions and students could submit answers--I could use trivia around topics such as Banned Books, authors, book titles, and any number of seasonal subjects.
I always do a big Banned Books week display. I loved the idea for students to design Banned Books trading cards using Flickr toys. I may just put that into play this fall.

There is unlimited room for creativity and fun. I wish there were enough hours in a day to do it all justice.

Week 7, Thing 16, Wikis

The one thing that stands out in my sampling of wikis is that, though the format of the wikis does not change drastically, the content is wide open. It seems that many wikis must never get off the ground--some were last updated 2-3 years ago and some had no comments at all.

The Library Bloggers Wiki was fun because there were so many Wikis listed. I went into the School Libraries section and explored several school library wikis and there was quite a bit of variety. Some were much more vital and active than others. Some looked like they might have been created with good intent or as part of a class or project and then left to die. It challenged me to make my library wiki better and more active. I definitely need a blog --I think I will start with a book discussion one restricted to our school at first. I'll see if I can actually stimulate enough NPHS students to participate to make it interesting. If not, I will expand to the District and, if necessary, to the world.

I liked the idea of the wiki for special events like the conference one. In the last AkLA conference hosted by Fairbanks, we had a website but I like the idea of a Wiki that includes some more interactive areas, like a blog of general questions and/or special topics. Maybe some discussion of what attendees would like for entertainment and tours. Or a place to answer questions that people might have if they were unfamiliar with particulars regarding Fairbanks. Also a place that attendees can connect with acquaintances from other places in Alaska who may be attending. Endless possibilities.

I was so taken with the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki that I joined it. It is so full of information and possibilities that I hope I have a suitable amount of time to spend on it and that I can contribute something useful to it. Seems like a person could get an answer to any question here and information on any topic for which questions arise.

Week 6, Thing 15, Librarian 2.0

I read all of the prespectives as they just kind of flowed from one to the other. Rick Anderson resonated with me because I really can't bear the idea of the demise of the library as a beloved depository of all kinds of wonderful material and information. I have so many fond memories of visits to our formal Carnegie library as a child growing up in the Midwest.

However, I also value what the internet has brought to the information world, made even more exciting and interactive with Web 2.0 tools. I realize that the Milleniums are wired differently than my generation and don't feel that same nostalgia for library 1.0. In order to serve the information needs of this generation and gen X and Y, libraries have to become much more than collections. Dr. Wendy Schultz put it in perspective--things will continue to change and each phase will just be incorporated into and expanded by the next phase. Library 3.0 sounds pretty wild though. I wonder how soon to expect it--will I be retired by then?

My challenge is to figure out how to expand my library--how to become much more a library 2.0. My wiki is a start, but there is so much more that I can do with it to make it interactive and vital. Can I make it a place that is usable from IPhones and homes, making it unnecessary for students to have to wait until we are open in the morning to access needed information. Hopefully I can move seamlessly into the Library 2.0 world.

Week 6, Thing 14

I have to admit that I cannot warm up to Technorati. There is way too much information and very little of it of any interest or help to me. Everyone wants to be part of the action and the result in the blogworld is just like the internet--lots of junk mixed in with the gems. It is definitely better to search limiting to tags instead of the entire post. The hits I got then were fewer and more pertinent. I don't particularly like using the Blog Directory, either, but it is better than just a general blogosphere search. I will not be a frequent visitor to this tool. I really like the idea of the RSS feed, but will use Google Blog Search to find blogs to put on Google Reader and not Technorati.

I generally think that tags are useful and can help cut to the chase when looking for items. It does seem, however, that some folk use tags too liberally in order to get hit in more searches. Some of the sites just don't really have much more that a mention of the word I searched so were not helpful. If everyone would tag with just the really major topics it would certainly help. But overall, taging makes it better--like subject headings in a library catalog search.

Week 6, Thing 13, Del.icio.us

I have been interested in setting up a Del.icio.us account for some time, but it was just one of those things I kept putting off. It was always frustrating to me to not have the same bookmarks on various computers. So today I set up a page for myself, tagged most of the bookmarks, and even added a couple more bookmarks. I also changed the name of a couple of my tags once I got going. I think I am going to really like it. I am going to work on fine tuning it so it is of optimum value. It will make it so much easier if I want to help a student when I am on the floor--I won't have to go back to my desk to use my computer to find a site that I know will answer a question or help a student research with more speed and success.

I think Del.icio.us would make an awesome research tool for students at school. I need to explore and see if there is a way I can set one up that could be accessed by students that would contain info on searching, evaluating websites, citing sources, and all kinds of helpful stuff. Thanks for making this one of the tools in this class.

Week 5, Thing 12, VoiceThread

I already had a Voice Thread account because we had a staff development on the use of it last fall. I went on to VoiceThread and listened to the how-to tutorial and explored some of the other tutorials. A browse search for Darth Tater did not net me anything. I did locate the VoiceThread that our art teacher did with her class--"100 people" will locate it. I saw a couple of good ideas for me to use in the library, maybe in conjunction with an English class. One was a poetry share with original poems by students. Another would be students reading a children's book that they had written. Our Spanish class does a children's book project that would probably work nicely on VoiceThread. I myself, as librarian, would love to do a Book Talk VoiceThread where students talk up their favorite books. It could be made available off my Wiki for other students to watch to get ideas for a book to read. May have to give that one a whirl this year.

Week 5, Thing 11, Award Winning Applications and NING

This was also fun. I explored a cooking site and a book site, both passions of mine. I tried IMCooked and watched several videos. I was looking for nonstandard recipes and found one on stuffed grape leaves that would have been helpful to have had access to the first time I made them! It was fun but didn't really engage me enough to stay there. I next tried books and went to Biblio.com, which will be helpful at work. I have often looked for books that are out of print or a used copy of a book when I didn't want to pay full price. Amazon.com is good for that most of the time and I have also used Powells.com. Biblio.com surpasses them both though. They cover bookstores in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Europe. They include textbooks, used books, out of print books, and rare books. Prices were low ($2 for some of the used books but went as high as $225,000 for a Hemingway book. The site also included forums on book repairs, book identification, and evaluations. A really nifty and easy to use site.

The Ning I ended up joining was KnitPicks, as knitting is another passion. I looked at several different knitting Nings, but this one really looks great. There are videos, chatrooms, podcasts, and all kinds of stuff. It has a large membership and a staff listed, including pictures, so I can even get help from an individual. I think I will have fun with this site, but it will not be of any use at work.

Week 5, Thing 10,Online Image Generators

This was a really fun assignment and I can see all kinds of potential for motivational stuff and ways to make newsletters more fun and to liven up wikis. I will definitely use these in the future.

I made this on FDtoys - motivator using a snapshot of my grandson at his third birthday party. He is really into trains and had just received the conductor cap/bandanna/whistle. So, why not a reading train!

http://bighugelabs.com/

Image Chef was really easy to use. I liked the mosaic using Read for a motivational poster for the library. Reading is my "thing" so it is appropriate.

http://www.imagechef.com/

Week 4, Thing 9, Useful Blogs and Feeds

I found this almost a bit frustrating because I searched so much and found so little that was useful. I will discuss each tool that I used briefly. All my searches were for YA literature or young adult literature.
Bloglines Searchtool: Posts search would only be useful if I was looking for comments on a specific book. Feeds search only found a total of 4 sites and one was a pay to subscribe EBSCO site. The only useful one was on middle school books.
School Library Blogs was interesting and I subscribed to it.
Syndic8 was slow and the format wasn't friendly.
Technorati was easy to use and I like the arrangement, but in the time I spent there I had nothing to show. Lots of useless stuff.
Blogdigger.com was a broken link. I even tried a google search for blogdigger.com and came to the same deadend.
Topix.net was interesting--I like that it automatically came up to local news. The ads and appearance of the page bothered me.
Google Blog Search was my favorite. I located one helpful blog that was linked to a website so subscribed to that. I think this is the searcher I will be inclined to use.
BlogPulse only found one applicable hit when I searched CSLA 2.0.
I don't see myself getting involved in a lot of blogs as I think the time involved would not reap the benefits I might find in other avenues. I will try to find more sites to prove that statement false.

Week 4, Thing 8, RSS Feeds.

I made a GoogleReader account and subscribed to seven newsfeeds. Four were from class suggestions (Anchorage Daily News, Readers Club, Unshelved, and Books from the San Jose Mercury newsfeed). I also added two news sources I love in my own life (MSNBC and BBC News) and a YA Literature one (ALAN Online--Assembly of Literature for Addolescents). I searched for a good library one but the ALA newsfeed has not been updated since March 2008 and an AkLA one I found was only about the Kodiak conference in March. I plan to continue to look for good ones in this arena and more good YA literature reviews and articles. I will use the reviews as aids in formulating my book orders, and I am always looking for new ideas for exciting programming or ideas for my high school library.

Week 3, Thing 7, Anything Technology Related

I want to rave about Skype, the free computer communication tool. I mentioned that I used it in an earlier blog but didn't say just exactly how wonderful it is when you have grandchildren living across the ocean. My daughter and I talk a couple of times a week using Skype video and the difference between those conversations and the rare occasions we just speak on the phone is monumental. My grandkids are only 18 months and 3 years old and a phone conversation is not usually very effective. They listen but don't respond very well. But when we talk on Skype and they can see me the conversations are lively and very interesting. They bring toys to share, books for me to read, food for me to taste, and sing and dance for me. I got to see first steps and first teeth. And they know me when we get together so there is no fear or strangeness to get over. Skype video has truly revolutionized communication. I have also played with Skype at school a bit doing conference calling (the video does not work when there are more than two participants).

Week3, Thing6, Flicker Mashups and 3rd Party Sites.

This was fun! I played with Montager which constructs mosaics from Flickr pictures. The database was huge. When I typed in daisies thousands of possibilities came up. It showed a small picture of a daisy and then the mosaic was of that picture. Then I could click on any of the tiny images in the mosaic and it would bring up a mosaic of that image. The possibilites were endless and varied and beautiful.

From there I went to FlickrTools and explored the many possibilities including mosaic maker (I like mosaics) and the jigsaw maker, but I spent the bulk of my time on FX, which transforms photos with special effect like sepia, negative, swirl. I turned my granddaughter into a monster with implode. FX could be used so nicely in making an album by turning some pictures into sepia or black and white. There was also a portrait effect, which made the photo into a painting. It was all really fun and I know I will use it in the future.

Week 3, Thing 5, Explore Flickr.

Exploring Flickr was a lot of fun. It is an amazing site with all kinds of possibilities for a photographer. I loaded a few of my pictures on, but marked them private only. At this point I just wanted to play and practive. I then looked for an interesting picture of my town and uploaded that to my blog. Thus, Santa is now a part of my blog. The process up uploading was so easy. Once I have my blog registered with Flickr it is a click away.

If I wasn't already using Facebook to share photoes with my two kids, one who is traveling all over the world and one living in Denmark who has my only two grandkids, I would suggest we do photos on Flickr. When I think of how difficult and clunky it was to share information and pictures with my mother thirty-five years ago compared to the options we have now, it makes me wish so much that the technologies had developed earlier. There are almost too many options now--it's hard to know what is best and when it all gets to be too much. I use Skype, Facebook, and email with my daughter and don't know if there is something better and more exciting out there that I am missing or if I have it fairly well covered. I do know that technology has made it possible for my grandkids to know me and be comfortable with me even though we can get together physically only twice a year.

I have viewed photo albums in Picasa that others have shared with me, but have not made an album myself. Photograhy is not a passion or even a remote interest of mine, so I guess the incentive is not there.

This is my neighbor!

North Pole!
Originally uploaded by tricky ™

Believe it or not, I live only about four blocks away from this famous personage and his house at North Pole, Alaska. North Pole is the town of year round Christmas with candy cane light poles, decorated trees in Wendy's, and street names like Santa Claus Lane and St. Nick's Drive. It all looks rather bazaar during the weeks of 24 hour daylight, but really is kind of fun in the winter.

Week 2, Thing 4,

My blog is registered and I am on a roll. Think I will move on to Week 3 and see what happens.

Week 2, Thing 3, Setting up my Blog.

Setting up the blog was easier than I anticipated. With templates and all, Blogger is incredibly easy to use. I think I spent the most time designing my avatar--in fact, I know that took the longest! I had a nifty one of me in jeans with a rake standing in a garden in front of a cottage. Then I looked again at the directions and saw that I was supposed to be in a library setting. The new one is much more boring than the first one because when I was gardening the rake moved. I hope to play with the blog in the future to make it more unique and interesting, but for now I think I will just forge on with my lessons. I can see that this is a good forum for exchanging information and think it could be a useful tool for book discussions and for librarians and educators to gain new insights and ideas from colleagues. I look forward to reading the blogs of other students in this class.

Week 1, Thing 2, Pointer from Lifelong Learners

I sort of enjoyed the Powerpoint on Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, but felt a little bit like I was in a slow learner class. The pace was really slow and the information basic and often elementary.

I think the item I find the easiest to observe is item 6, Use Technology to Your Advantage. Working in a high school library in a school that strives to be technologically on top of things, I am almost always scrambling to learn more in order to answer student questions or suggest ways they can improve projects. I have several sites (for example Atomic Learning and Noodletools) that I regularly use for information. When Atomic Learning fails me, I search the net for a tutorial that might have the desired information.

The hardest factor for me is item 3, View Problems as Challenges. When I am really busy, which is most days at school, and a problem comes up I very often view it as a nuisance and time-sapper and just want it to go away. If I would instead pause and think, "I am about to learn something that will make life easier for me and for my students," it would make my day more pleasant. I will strive to face my inevitable technological problelms with a new attitude this year!

Week 1, Thing 1, Raven About Web 2.0 Class

I am in a bit of a panic at this point. Due to many factors including company and a building project, I am really late getting started on my classwork. After looking over the blog and learning that I have 23 things to do before August 10, I don't know if I should drag up right now or give it a whirl. I went back and reviewed the registration info and see that I can take an incomplete and finish it up within the year so think I will give it a whirl. After all, I already have my avatar completed so I wouldn't want to waste it. I can tell after reading the first chapter in the book that there is a lot for me to learn in this class. I have a wiki at school but have to admit that one of my assistants has done most of the work in constructing it and keeping it updated. It is time for me to add items to it, like a book discussion forum, so hope I come away from this class able to do all I desire to make it truly an interesting site.