Thing #23

Really was impressed with Creative Commons. I want to share it with others. Would really like to put together a similar type lesson. All the library resources that I found. Learning how to work with my blog – adding video really helped me. Atomic Learning…all of the similar sites – really enjoy self-paced learning. The sites and blogs that we were introduced to will help me keep pace with the technology that I need to be using with our students. I am a life-long learner – enjoy learning new things. Now know that I've been given the tools to make the learning easier and more meaningful. As soon as my blog graduates I will re purpose it for the library. Have had one in the past but never really knew how to use it effectively - now I do. I considered myself fairly knowledgeable about all things technological. Was surprised by how much I did not know. The program was more time consuming than I imagined it would be, but (and I mean this sincerely) I learned so much more than I ever expected. Being taught how to do something and then having to put it into practice on our blog, Flckr, Photostory – great. The format worked for me. On the right hand side of the page I would have liked Rules Sheet to have been a link to a sheet that listed dates, how to graduate, and other info in a brief bulleted format. I definitely would participate in another 23 Things. Because I have family that lives out of town it is often hard to schedule staff development in the summer. It’s great to learn at your own pace, in your own place, and be part of a meaningful learning experience. Unexpected is the one word I would use to describe my experience – exceeds expectations, the phrase. Highly recommended, two thumbs up are others. Thanks.

Thing #22

My favorite of the Nings was the Texas School Librarian Ning. I think Nings are special because they get like minded people together who are passionate about something – profession, hobby, etc. They love sharing the best of their knowledge. In their collaboration they grow, inspire, and encourage others to do likewise. Just browsing the Nings I found two videos that I can use to help my students. Here's one http://txschoollibrarians.ning.com/video/789171:Video:954

I would like to use a Ning for a Reading Circle. Have invited students talk about what they’ve been reading – critique books and recommend them. Have students vote on favorite all time books (funniest, scariest, etc.) and post the results for all to see in our library. At school teams, departments, subject areas (district), grade levels, and classrooms could effectively use Nings.

Thing #21

And what a thing this was, whew! I have used Photostory before but only added narration once. I really need to work on this. Getting the pictures in went fine; I added too many though. Won't make that mistake again. Looking back I should have used fewer pictures and scanned some of the pictures from the book to give students a real 'feel' for it. This was very time consuming. I will be able to work faster and more efficiently once I get more practice with syncing the audio with the video. I should have typed in my script in the space provided but read from a printed page instead. I've been using Animoto lately to make book promos for the broadcast system. I like it, but I don't think the free version of Animoto offers the narration feature. I will use Photostory more often thanks to this lesson. I'm going to put together some lessons for the library and share what I've learned with our teachers.

Thing #20

Had a great deal of trouble accessing TeacherTube. Finally got into searching videos and had a ball. I love this stuff. They have everything you can imagine pertaining to a library, from a clip of Mr. Bean in a library to some pretty good lessons. They vary widely in quality and content. Some have great content but the sound quality or picture quality is poor. I saved several that I will weed through later when I have more time to use in my library lessons. Found others that I think our teachers will use. I would never have thought that YouTube would be such a good resource for the classroom. The more specific your search the better, but you still have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince. There are so many videos to go through on every topic, and many that look promising at first, aren't and vice versa. But I think it's worth the effort. I want to make some videos of my own but there's no sense in reinventing the wheel. We are fighting for kids' attention, and we need tools just like this one for our 21st century learners. The video that I embedded is a Dewey Decimal rap. It's hilarious, and the kids will love it. A great way to begin and end our lesson.

Thing #19

I chose to explore Writeboard. It’s a collaborative writing and word processing tool. A document can be shared with a select audience, and they can work together adding, editing, and commenting on that document. The unique feature is that all former versions of the document can be seen. All editions are listed with the time they were made; a dot (by its size) indicates whether the edit was extensive or not. Items deleted from the version of a document are greyed out and struck through making it easy to see where changes were made. This is the feature that sets it apart from a wiki. Documents can be exported, and print can be copied into a document. Email addresses of those who will share the document are added, and they are sent an email with the web address of the document and the password needed for access. An RSS feed can be set up and alerts sent when someone makes changes.

This would be great for student work. Students could work in groups to produce a paper, and teachers could see who made changes and when. Or the whole class could participate in a project. It would be a great tool for planning school events, working together on lesson plans or schedules, and last but not least committee meetings. The only drawback I saw was that codes needed to be used for italics, bold, numbering columns, etc. There’s a formatting guide that can easily be seen when editing, and if some find that too complicated they can just leave out the formatting.

Thing #18

Decided to try OpenOffice because I've already done some work with Google Docs. The download took longer than expected. Some advantages: it's free and the updates are free, looks very similar to MS Office, if you use MS Office on a regular basis it shouldn't take long to learn the in and outs of the program, liked the different templates it had for its presentations, you can go to file and then export your documents to a pdf file (one of my favorite features - no muss no fuss), under file, new, you can choose a new word, database, presentation, spreadsheet, etc. document (don't have to leave Word to go to Draw or any of the other applications), and you can open MS Office documents with this program.

Disadvantages: worst of all I saved some documents and MS Office would not open them(so I'm concluding that OpenOffice would need to be installed on any computer where these files would be used, majority of people use MS Office-sharing documents would be difficult, I thought that it was a bit slower than MS Office, help feature not as easy to use as that of MS Office (was trying to add a background in draw and never found the help I needed), and it's not as slick and polished.

I do think it is amazing that this is freeware - powerful, so much like MS Office, and it's free! Can you imagine the possiblities if more people were using it?

Thing #17

Rollyo was easy to use and we'll use it in the library to make searching more efficient for our students. Anything that will help them get to the information they need faster without wasting precious time trying to wade through irrelevant info. My searchroll will be used to help students get started with their science projects. Some have direct information about putting together a project and others have videos and other information that will help students choose a topic.
http://rollyo.com/oneda/science_project/

I was so impressed with the video by Bruce Goodner. I want to get a video lesson put together before school starts. The Common Craft site and Bruce - great examples of what we should be doing. Lessons like these would definitely get the attention of your audience, and they could be shared.

Thing #16

Need more practice with wikis. I think I would find them most helpful with committees I serve on. This would be a great way to collaborate without having a face to face meeting. Invariably half the members can't make it for one reason or another. Everyone could contribute and perhaps, feel like stakeholders in any decisions that are made. Students could be asked to list one or two of their best web sources before a research project begins. Students could vote on their five favorites. This should really spark interest for the assignment. There are also lots of potential teachable moments here. Why is one source more appropriate for the task than another, is the info current, etc.? I worry about the few mavericks who would delete all the info and replace it goodness knows what.

Thing #15

I agreed with Into a New World of Librarianship. Libraries must be atuned to user access, needs, and wants. They must build connections with their user community through useful and meaningful websites, blogs, instant messaging, MySpace, etc. Students spend a great deal of time emailing, instant messageing....We need to take our services to the places they frequent or be left behind. Our collections must reflect the needs of our patrons. I recently spent precious budget money on DVDs for our Science teachers instead of books. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. They are checked our constantly - rarely on the shelves. Our students tell me what they like and want but I want more feedback. In the process of building a new website that I hope will address this. I'm really fired up about this...hope I'm able to follow through successfully.

Thing #14

In my keyword search for School Library Learning 2.0 I found videos and blog entries that were geared toward education. I watched a video; it explained how blogs and tags can be used to build a network of ready collaborators, willing partners, and relationships to provide information and support for any endeavor - personal or professional. To me the keyword helped me find the information faster than the directory search. I had to wade through more technical blogs to find the educational blogs. I need to squash my attention deficit tendencies everything is interesting to me. Technorati has it all from the dancing wedding to what other librarians are doing this year. Another interesting tidbit, one of the most popular searches cheat code blogs. The boys at our school find those fascinating as well. Now also hearing some of the same blogs mentioned over and over - Boing Boing, of course.

I like tagging; it's just new to me. Can't believe I haven't been using it. Prefer Delicious over Technorati. Seems to be very powerful - has links to links.

Thing #13

Glad I was reintroduced to Delicious. I'm always saving URLs to My Favorites, building folders, and then forgetting about them. This is a tool that I will use and pass on to others. I can give my sites their own quirky tags and increase my chances of finding them, using them, and sharing them on a regular basis. It definitely has great potential as a research tool. We (teachers and I) can find sites for our kids on the topics they intend to research and them to a Delicious account. More time spent researching and less time off task. Our faculty will see the benefit immediately. Teachers can save lesson plan sites, tutorial sites, etc.

Speaking of which when I clicked on tutorials I found a site - XtraNormal - Text-To-Movie. It's a 3-D animation site that's easy to use and I can't wait to use it for my classes and the broadcast system. I spent an hour on it. The word awesome is overused but I have to say it - IT WAS AWESOME.................. And even better there other sites that do similar things - the potential for the classroom endless.......... Attention grabber!!!

Thing #12

I have been a bit shy about commenting but now realize the importance of it for building and maintaining a successful blog. I read through a discussion about replying to every comment on a blog - some seem to think it might be too controlling and that it might be stifling the free flow of meaningful dialog; others disagreed. I think replying to comments (or maybe to a group of comments)regularly is essential. Making those who comment feel welcome and important to the discussion is just good blog etiquette and part of building up a following.

I liked the idea of setting rules for comments on your blog. The etiquette - common sense in many ways - sharing, discussing, debating - done in a way to promote the sharing of information. Appreciated the bit about the Darth Vaders of bloging who like to rain on every one's parade. Without some warning with my first nasty comment I might have just given up and called it quits.

Students could use blogs to find others who have similar interests and feel connected. This is a really big deal; kids want and need to be heard. I really want to get something together for our school library.

Thing #11

Found adding the books to my collection a breeze. Enjoyed browsing the books of others who share the same interests. I checked out the YA, Mystery, and Librarian groups. I can see using it to find new mysteries to read. Want to find some new authors and this would be the ideal way. Also, finding out what YA readers are truly interested in could prove helpful for book selection in the library. The librarians group also seems to be extremely helpful - good go to group if I have a question.

This would also be a great way to keep track of the books I have read so that I don't duplicate. Enclosing picture of book cover - just read this Evanovich - a laugh riot as usual.

Thing #10

Just returning to my blog after many days of intense vacationing. Several days ago I tried out most of the graphic sites. Looked at them again and Image Chef is still my favorite. It's attractive, easy to use and I know our students and faculty would love it. My favorites were the birthday cake, football & baseball jersey, and poetry blender. Many of the applications could be used to publish student work and others as recognition and rewards or just to peak student interest for specific assignments.

The videos in Image Chef were great I'm trying to attach my favorite. Magazine covers and Map Maker from Big Huge Labs were also good. Imagine the possibilities in a Social Studies classroom. Happy Face Generator was one of my least favorites - just didn't like the layout - tons of tiny words jammed on a page - bad grade for ease of use.

It's been several days since I've been able to work on my blog. My avatar has disappeared. Will work of that.

Thing #9

Topix was a favorite - liked the immediate access to latest news that allowed you to choose your source. Wading through the blogs is cumbersome. Any tool that can make some sense of the multitude is helpful. The School Blogs on Suprglue and Edublogs were easy to use, and I'll use them as I set up my own. Syndic8 - didn't find it helpful or easy to use. Technorati was a favorite - easy to use, comprehensive, attractive - spent too much time there on pictures and videos. Found the lists of top blogs helpful.


Cool Cat Teacher was helpful will examine her blogroll more carefully to find blogs that will be most useful to me at work. I really need to weed and limit the number of blogs I follow if not I'll get bogged down with the overload and won't use them at all. I want information that is presented clearly and concisely. Not to sound harsh but I don't have time to wade though poetry and jokes - a little bit of that goes a long way. TechCrunch might be helpful to me, and I may follow Boing Boing for a while to find out why it's at the top of so many lists. I spent time on podcasts - I really think educators should make and use them.

Thing #8

I was truly impressed with RSS feeds and aggregators and spent way too much time on this 'thing' because I'm eager to use them and share this with others(my husband first when I get home). This will definitely make my life easier at home and work. Information will now come to me: this will save me hours of time each week. Our whole faculty (administrators as well) will also appreciate the efficiency of RSS feeds. They can stay abreast of professional journals, educational resources, etc. without wasting time. They will also enjoy the fact that it can be used as a 'research assistant.' My Bloglines account http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs is a mix of professional and personal sites that interest me. It will change as I use it often and learn more.

Thing #7

I set up my IGoogle page. I now have pet turtles to watch while I search. Don't forget to check out the labs under More Google Products - new Google experiments you can try and rate. Planning to share the the Google Docs with our teachers - found several things they'll be able to use, flash cards etc. Have used Google Earth - students can see the places they're discussing in class. Atomic Learning - love it because I enjoy self-paced learning. Will share with our faculty. They can use free aspects. Google - you could spend hours - an adventure in itself. Will try to connect with others from BISD with iChat.

Thing #6

The possibilities are endless for use of the mashups in our library as rewards and incentives. They could be used to promote books. Magazine Cover - a student's picture (or teacher's) on the cover with quotes, and bits of info about them. Publish over the broadcast system or in the library hallway windows. They'll love it. Mosaic Maker could be used the same way. Even if there is cost involved I think it would be worth it. Also, downloaded Picasa. The frames were also nice. This is supposed to be a picture of my granddog but I did not bring the correct USB cord for my camera. This photo is from Flickr and a good likeness.

Thing #5

I have used Flickr but wasn't familiar or had forgotten about Creative Commons. Definitely didn't know or understand tags or groups. I'll feel more comfortable now using this resource. Nice info. Chose this picture because I'm spending time at the beach and will upload some photos of my own.

Thing #4

Registered my blog late last night. Woke up to my welcome e-mail this morning. Whew... Great feeling of relief and accomplishment. Really appreciated the prompt reply to my registration. Out of time and on vacation but don't want to miss this opportunity. Enjoying the process thus far:)

Thing #3

Created the blog. All the links are helpful, clear, and straightforward. I've never used an avitar. It wouldn't show in the preview window. When it did the export was simple enough. Left out the background. Will take care of that later. I'm treating myself to a bath and a snack as soon as I register my blog. Yeah........................

Thing #2

I have taken some online courses and enjoyed the format of the 71/2 Habits of Highly Sucessful Lifelong Learners. The easiest for me is using technology. I love it, and it comes easily to me. The most difficult - I don't play enough.

Thing #1

This looks complicated. I'm late getting started but the more I get into it the more fun I'm having. Love the self-paced aspect of it.