3/28/08

Thing #8

I took a look at all the suggested sites except the database examples. They just sat there and didn't go to the pages so I gave up. I will let our probationary teachers who will be losing their jobs know about the state site-that looked like a cool thing. I loved the picture making sites. Check out the cube below. I need to get some more pictures. I tried to load it on to our school website and it worked like a charm. I didn't like that it listed the name right below the cube but it was cool to see the cube. I may use it in the future on our home page. I also liked the online slideshow. I'll recommend that to staff and students in the future. I liked the last one the best. It seemed the strongest. I found the picture website very easy to make the cube. Fun one.

3/25/08

Thing #7

*Read through the email productivity hints and didn't really pick up anything different I could do.
*Didn't realize so much had changed with IM. I'd had it set up years ago with AOL and used to IM neices, etc. but haven't done it for ages. There are so many more features now. Couldn't get the two How it Works videos to work and didn't have time to search for them. Did watch the YouTube librarians IM video. I can see this totally at the high school or college level.
*Text messaging. Watched the video. Hard to hear them. I've disabled this on my cell phone because of the expense. I understand it and may enable it when the kids are older but it's a luxury now. Probably won't use it at school.
*I've participated in web conferences in the past through work. It's pretty amazing technology. I tried to schedule something this year for a classroom teacher but the place we were going to work with was booked up for the year. Try again next year! No time to go back to view a webinar that is schedule but I get it.
*Twitter looks cute. So much fun stuff out there . . . so little time:-)

3/15/08

Thing #6

Created an account at toondoo. Check out the results below. Wow, that is fun! I could spend hours choosing just the right things. I could totally see using this to create a poster or image for the website. Last year sixth graders hand created cartoons. This would be so much more fun for them. I'll have to try out the license plate one sometime, too. That would be great in a high school setting especially.

Thing #5

Okay I tried to get Splasher to work but gave up. It brought up the postcard photo but then I'd need to click on a link and it would bring me to Flickr to see the photo. It's like it wasn't bringing it in to Splasher. Looked at the clock one but didn't see where you could upload photos. Also looked at big huge labs but nothing looked possible or fun to post to blog. So ended up using spell with flickr. Results are below. That is a fun one. I may use that on our site some day. It would be fun to print a poster of some word, too. I need to figure out how to do this to Costo's $9.99 posters! I love to read month or something similar.

Thing #4

I've used online photo companies before to send photos for developing so was familiar with the process. Uploaded a library photo and created tags. After watching the video I totally plan to use this for personal use. What a great way to archive and share your photos. I'm not sure how I would use it for the library. I have the ability to write to our school website so would probably stick with that.

3/4/08

Thing #3

Loved the Lee video. I've seen them before for other topics. What a fun job! Anyways . . . set up a Google Reader account and subscribed to one blog using the copy and paste method. I looked at some of the other suggested ones but nothing looked appropriate right now. So instead over the next week or two I'll add a few as I run across others that look interesting.

I understand better why one would want to use RSS. I understood before watching the video how they worked, etc. but Lee is so clear and simple in his instruction that it's more obvious now why I should set one up.

The things that still puzzle me are it's still one more thing to check - I need to go to the Reader site/link to see what's been added. And I thought you were able to filter the feeds so you could limit the information coming in but I don't see the ability to do this anywhere.

3/2/08

Thing #2

Just watched the video. I agreed with him on so much. While I understand much of the 23 things I've never actually done all of them so learning about them by experiencing and doing them I'll be better able to work with my peers and others because I'll have the actual experience under my belt. As he mentioned, I too am struggling to find time to do the things. I don't have 15 minutes a day to work on this (or exercise either!) but am trying to sneak in about 30 minutes a week. Hopefully I can do more over spring break. My professional responsibilities and young children take priority.

I read the blyberg article and didn't relate to it too much. Seemed to focus more on public libraries. I didn't realize, though, that there was such a controversy about L2.

Also read the article. I agree fully with the opening paragraphs statements about trust the need to feel supported by those above you. Sooo true in any organization! The rest of the article was interesting but again focused more on public libraries or secondary school libraries. But, I could always set up a blog, etc. in my elementary library for students to use. Something to think about.

2/26/08

Thing # 1

Okay, here we go. Created the initial blog last week, named it, and added an image. Read through the emailed guidelines (that I printed out!) over the weekend to catch up on what I need to do. Sat down last night to begin updating blog and couldn't find my Google log-in information. Remembered it was at school. Logged in tonight and went through all the blog settings and think it's set up for others to post, etc. Now I can't find the printed email information. So, will look for it tomorrow. Hopefully the kids didn't use it for coloring paper:-) So, here's my first posting! Yeah!