Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Thing #23

My favorite exercises in working with Library2Play have been Photostory, setting up a blog, playing with Flickr, LibraryThing booklists, and exploring YouTube and TeacherTube. It made me think about things I could use in my classroom and for personal use. It will help me set some of my goals as well. Nothing really surprised me in this experience, but I have a ton of take-a-ways. I will be using the blog in my class this year as well as Flickr mashups and mosaics, and trading card maker. I have already started planning things for the class. I would not try to fix much of any thing. I would love to participate in another one of your discovery programs, if it was something I wanted to discover. My experience in a word, AWESOME!!! Thanks for all the information.

Thing #22

Nings look to be similar to blogs, except they are for a specific idea, item, train of thought. You join a ning just like you would blogs. I am a member of facebook, myspace, and reunion.com and I do like being able to talk to people from anywhere. The difference with Ning is that it is for a certain common likeness. I looked a teacherlingo. I liked how teachers offered their lesson plans that could help others. I found two immediately that I would like to use next year. Nings are beneficial at collaborating with others in your field.

Thing #21

Since I do not have any recording equipment, I decided to do a Photostory. It was very simple to put together, once I decided on the photos and sound I wanted to put into it. I think I will be using this product many more times after this.

Thing #20

I found this video on YouTube called The Librarian Song. Although comical, very much what librarians should be about.



Here is a video from TeacherTube called anamanics The Nations of the World.



Using videos in the classroom to get a point across to students is wonderful. Students today are very visual when it comes to learning.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Thing #19

When I looked at the Web 2.0 award list, I found several that I am going to use next year in my class. There are so many to choose from. I liked the geneology site: myheritage. It was very easy to put together and students could use it to work on historical information of their own. I will definately be using LibraryThing for my class as well as Flickr and YouTube sometimes. There are so many tools to use that go along with all these sites.

Thing #18

I joined google docs. I like that I am already a member of google, so I am not having to join something new. I also like how google docs is very easy to work. I didn't have a problem uploading already made docs to it as well as make docs from scratch. I also like how you can share with others your docs.

Thing #17

I agree with someone else's post about Rollyo. We have looked at so many things and joined so many sites, I don't think I can keep them straight in my head. I have posted the Rollyo link to my blog, but I'm not sure if I did things correctly. I really hope I can use some of the Things we are working on, but I know I will not be using all of them, at least not right away.

Thing #16

I have been working on the 23 Things for my masters class. It have been alittle overwhelming. There is so much information to look at and to work through. I have really enjoyed working on some of the Things such as LibaryThing, Flickr, and wikis. For me, wikis would be a good way to share information about a book we are studying.

Thing #15

Library 2.0 is the new way to use a library. I can remember having to search through the card catalog or microfilm or microfiche to get information. It was very time consuming. Whether you are going to do research on a topic or if you are just wanting more information about something, the library 2.0 is the fastest and most up-to-date way to get information. The best way to use Library 2.0 is the bibliographic services. According to OCLC newsletter, broaden relevance ranking, adopting web features, and streamlining metadata creations will benefit the library.

Thing #14

There are 357 different blog posts in the directory for school library learning 2.0. If you look at blog tags there are only 21. It narrows the items down considerably. Technorati could help me bring my searches down to a reasonable amount of site to look through instead of hundreds or thousands of sites. I really like del.ici.ous and Flickr tools. I think I will be using these two sites quite often. Tagging is one of the best things that has happened to the internet.

Thing #13

I really would have liked to have social bookmarks over the years. I have been in several districts were I have saved to my favorites, only to leave and not have the sites anymore. I really like del.ici.ous. I joined before this assignment and keep adding to it.
I think it is really neat to be able to share the sites. I have found several sites from others and put them in my bookmarks. This would be very beneficial to have for research. You can you the tags to narrow down searches and find more pertinent information.

Thing #12

I think a point in 10 Ways to Increase Comment Numbers that is good is to interact with comments left on your blog. This really opens the line of communication and makes you new friends. Another good point is not be condescending. You never know how someone is going to take what you are writing and misinterpret it. Never put anyone down on a blog for the whole world to see. It just isn’t right.
I found two blogs not on the Library2Play list that drew my attention. One because it is a blog for the Astros, the other is a blog on Jane Austen's world.

Thing #11

I really like LibraryThing. It was very easy to use. I found myself putting all kinds of books in my list. I liked to group area as well. I found a couple of groups I might join later.

Thing #10




I played with the comic strip generator and happy face generator. They were lots of fun to play with. I tried to make a magazine cover, but was having problems uploading my photos. For the title, I used the happy face generator and chose the strawberry swirl.

Thing #9

I found it fairly easy to manuver through the blogs and news feeds. Using blogline was the easiest. Having the search option tools to narrow your search really makes it easier to find better sites. I usually use google or yahoo since I am registered on those sites. I get so much information sometimes, it is overwhelming. I am going to start using blogline. Technorati had so much on there, I went cross-eyed. It made my head hurt and I couldn't stay there long.
I really liked the How to Create your Circle of Wise blog. It really was helpful in making blog and news feed decisions.

Thing #8

I am not on to read the news. I listen to it mainly when I am getting ready in the mornings. The RSS and newsreaders are really easy to get the information for those who want it. I do use one RSS all the time. I have the Astros/MLB RSS scrolling on my internet window.

Libraries can use this for having students look at current events faster.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Thing #7

I played around with igoogle, google earth, and google calendar. I really liked the igoogle web maker. Google calendar is really neat. You can allow other people to view and add to your calendar if you allow them.

Thing #6


I like the mosaics and postcard items. They were lots of fun to put together. I think I might use the trading cards for working with characters in the stories my students read this year.

Thing #5



I will be teaching A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this year. This will be a great image to use.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougbhill/