tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36747139845392696522024-03-19T03:55:20.303-07:00Learning 23 ThingsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-36727974292897614432009-04-09T09:38:00.001-07:002009-04-09T09:38:57.308-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMcfrLYDm2U&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMcfrLYDm2U&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-8640853363878410962009-04-09T09:37:00.000-07:002009-04-09T09:38:26.774-07:00<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMcfrLYDm2U&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMcfrLYDm2U&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-72061465744734623772008-09-22T09:43:00.001-07:002008-09-22T09:58:42.981-07:00We need to do more than ventDoug Johnson recently had <a href="http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/9/20/ventings-just-one-piece.html">some good advice</a> for teachers and librarians frustrated by their district's filtering policies. While it is good to vent about your frustrations, there are some actions that can be taken to change things.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-46684644477717407702008-03-14T11:50:00.001-07:002008-03-14T11:50:11.271-07:00testI am testing Zoho Writer. It is an online word processor.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">I am testing Zoho Writer. It is an online word processor.<br><br></span><font size="5"><span style="font-family: georgia,times new roman,times,serif;">I am testing Zoho Writer. It is an online word processor.<br><br></span></font><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">I am testing Zoho Writer. It is an online word processor.<br><br><img alt="cool" src="/wo/images/smiley-cool.gif" border="0"><br></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-39018657571039140862007-09-10T14:05:00.000-07:002007-09-10T14:13:14.808-07:00Thing #23 - SummaryThis has been quite a journey! I loved creating the avatar and learning about all the fun widgets that I could add to the sidebar of my blog to personalize it. I also learned some new uses for del.icio.us. Other favorite tools were the online office applications, wikis, and Flickr.<br /><br />I loved the self-paced aspect of the course, but feel that participants should be given more time than 9 weeks. Of course, it could be done in 9 weeks, but in order to really explore all the tools, more time is needed.<br /><br />Overall, it has been a great experience and I have learned a lot.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-4608724876299456802007-09-10T13:54:00.000-07:002007-09-10T14:02:51.311-07:00Week 9 - Thing #22 Free eBooks and audio booksI've known about <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg</a> for a long time. It's been around since 1971, before most of us had ever even heard of the Internet. I did not, however, know that there were so many other sites from which you can download free ebooks. The thing I was most interested in, though, was the audio books that are available. <a href="http://librivox.org/">LibriVox </a>would be extremely useful for students who are struggling to read those classics from the high school reading list. Understanding <a href="http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=shakespeare&status=all&action=Search">Shakespeare </a>is often dependent on hearing the words, so this would be a great resource for those English classes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-50643759091743699822007-09-10T12:45:00.000-07:002008-12-12T17:48:07.617-08:00Week 9 - Thing #21 Podcasting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1tKXaiiy-5F7WxrnYTrBiGqbU02S6dI45nbq-jYFEVSr90_T75uX2qrn-B-7KofTpSDVAUGSqoVyIgE2ByIOvOaeJ9wTTnYa_0k7Mynz8kWXRKvTTyNxodRVJUwCa1cvVG_Fbl8LFz8/s1600-h/13479623_7c99a8dfce_t.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1tKXaiiy-5F7WxrnYTrBiGqbU02S6dI45nbq-jYFEVSr90_T75uX2qrn-B-7KofTpSDVAUGSqoVyIgE2ByIOvOaeJ9wTTnYa_0k7Mynz8kWXRKvTTyNxodRVJUwCa1cvVG_Fbl8LFz8/s320/13479623_7c99a8dfce_t.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108674608524439090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I have used iTunes to locate podcasts before, but I was unaware that there were other podcasting search tools. The best of the ones we looked at, in my opinion, were <a>Yahoo Podcasts</a><br />and the <a href="http://www.epnweb.org/">Educational Podcast Network</a> (EPN). <a href="http://www.podcast.net/">Podcast.net</a> seemed slow and I had trouble loading several of the titles that I clicked on. I'm not very patient during the discovery process, so if I didn't hear something pretty quickly I was on to another link. I didn't like <a href="http://podcastalley.com/">Podcastalley.com</a> for educational purposes because some of the "featured podcasts" on the home page were not appropriate for student use, so I don't know that I would introduce it to students.<br /><br />Using <a href="http://podcasts.yahoo.com/">Yahoo Podcasts</a> I was able to find several interesting podcasts on children's and young adult literature:<br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://childrensbookradio.com/">Childrensbookradio</a> is described as a podcast and children's book directory dedicated to sharing children's books. Its intended audience is parents, teachers and children.</li><li><a href="http://bookvoyages.blogspot.com/">Book Voyages</a> is a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school librarian.</li><li><a href="http://kayray.org/category/audiobooks/">Kara's Free Audiobooks</a> - I thought this was a really great idea for a podcast. Kara reads aloud from classic public-domain children's literature, and podcasts the stories for your delight and amusement!</li><li><a href="http://yabookcast.libsyn.com/">YA Bookcast</a> reviews the latest and best young adult titles.</li></ul>Subscribing to these podcasts with Google Reader was pretty easy, but you do have to have a little knowledge in order to do it. Yahoo Podcasts displays a subscribe button very prominently, but it directs you to login to a Yahoo account. For Bloglines or Google Reader, you have to look for the RSS feed link.<br /><br />Probably the most useful podcast I found was <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/connectlearning/">David Warlick's Connect Learning</a>, which I located via the EPN site. This is one that I might actually listen to on a frequent basis. Other beneficial podcasts are the ones produced by <a href="http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/">SirsiDynix </a>on all sorts of cutting edge technology. These are great and useful as well. The problem is finding the time to listen!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Image citation:<br />Tanglao, Roland. "Wanna Podcast?" <span style="font-style: italic;">Roland's Photostream</span>. 10 Sep 2007. 11 May 2005 <http: com="" photos="" roland="" 13479623="">.</http:></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-69047147030671786442007-09-06T16:40:00.000-07:002007-09-06T16:45:49.055-07:00Week 9 - Thing #20I'm in the home stretch! Three more things to go!<br /><br />YouTube is such a huge cultural phenomenon. My teenage niece and nephew would rather watch videos on YouTube than watch something on TV. They visit the site daily and watch everything from scenes of their favorite shows to their school choir performances to those dumb comedy videos.<br /><br />Pretty much every event that is videotaped winds up on YouTube eventually, and I found a clip of the ALA award winning book cart drill team from Cy-Fair ISD. Here they are for your viewing pleasure...<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pqU6D50QVtM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pqU6D50QVtM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-31402596146805709902007-08-30T10:31:00.000-07:002007-08-30T10:33:34.268-07:00Thing #18 continued...The publishing was really easy! All I had to do was choose my blogging service, enter my username and password, and Zoho went out and found my blog. Now, posting to edublogs might be a different story!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-87149649205939022622007-08-30T10:28:00.001-07:002007-08-30T10:31:12.212-07:00Week 8 - Thing #18Zoho Writer appears to be a very easy to use word processing program. I can see that having access to your files online would be very convenient as long as you have internet access. It seems to have all the bells and whistles that Word has. I do wonder, though, what the space limitations are. I haven't explored enough to find that out, but I'm guessing that if you want more server space, you have to upgrade to a paid account. that seems to be the way most of these storage sites work. (Well, there's one thing that Word does that Zoho doesn't - automatically correct a lowercase letter at the beginning of a sentence!) Now I'm going to try and publish this to my blog. I'll let you know how it goes! <img src="http://www.blogger.com/wo/images/smiley-wink.gif" alt="wink" border="0" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-14758734443373116072007-08-29T15:29:00.000-07:002007-08-29T15:47:36.328-07:00Week 8 - Thing #19<a href="http://www.librarything.com/">LibraryThing</a><br /><br />LibraryThing lets you catalog the books in your library, then lets you share your library with others. It's a neat way to network and communicate with the people who have the same books that you do. I've been on LibraryThing at some time in the past because I already had an <a href="http://www.librarything.com/catalog/mwoodard">account </a>set up, but I had no books in my library. It was very easy to add titles and very addicting - looking at the things other people had and LibraryThing's <a href="http://www.librarything.com/suggest">suggestions </a>based on what I own. As for the popularity of my books, it ran the gamut. I have a copy of The DaVinci Code, the same as 16,000 other people, but I also had one book that wasn't shared with anyone else. Several of my books were mentioned in discussions - one in a discussion about the worst books ever that was pretty interesting. It just goes to show that everyone definitely has different tastes in reading material.<br /><br />I also experimented with the LT widget and added it to the sidebar of this blog. I also tried to add it to my blog over at Edublogs, but was unsuccessful there. After exploring the FAQs, I found that they don't allow javascript widgets in their sidebars because apparently those open the site up to hackers. That was disappointing. I like how the widget shows random selections from my library in the sidebar over there. I did, however find a LibraryThing badge for my edublogs blog that will link people to my LibraryThing library.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-7631520675510677602007-08-29T09:54:00.000-07:002007-08-29T09:58:32.521-07:00Week 7 - Thing #17I didn't have to do too much playing in the wiki sandbox, because a lot of my summer was spent using <a href="http://pbwiki.com">pbwiki </a>to create a wiki for our <a href="http://mesquitelibrarypolicies.pbwiki.com">library policies and procedures</a>. We chose a wiki for this purpose because of the ease in adding new information and editing existing information. It really is easy to use and allows everyone to give input.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-29627929969598445302007-08-16T19:18:00.000-07:002007-08-16T19:29:05.776-07:00WIkis - Week 7 Thing #16Wikis are great collaborative tools and I loved looking at all the different ways people are using them. My two favorites were the <a href="http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library">Book Lovers wiki</a> and the Albany County Library Staff <a href="http://albystaff.pbwiki.com/">wiki</a> where all the staff were able to share tips and tricks for performing the tasks that they do everyday.<br /><br />I've been creating our own wiki this summer for the <a href="http://mesquitelibrarypolicies.pbwiki.com">MISD Library Policies and Procedures.</a><br /><br />It's been so easy and a lot of fun. It is going to be so easy to make changes and much more efficient than updating Word documents, turning them into PDFs and uploading them to DocuShare.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-66214683775005333592007-08-16T16:55:00.000-07:002007-08-16T17:41:03.262-07:00Week 6 Thing #15Of all the posts on Web 2.0, "<a href="http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm">Away from the Icebergs</a>" most closely reflected my own views and philosophy of what libraries need to do to be relevant in the future.<br /><br />In his very perceptive article Rick Anderson writes:<br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning.</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><br />While I don't think we need to abandon the teaching of research skills altogether, I do think that it's important for us to work at eliminating the barriers to locating the information by creating intuitive user interfaces that use natural language instead of "librarian-ese." As Anderson says, it's hard to reach every patron personally, and many of our students and their parents are using our resources at home where there isn't a friendly librarian on hand to help them know where to look. If we can successfully create these intuitive online library environments, our lessons can focus less on location of information and more on the critical thinking skills of using information.<br /><br />Lastly, Anderson urges librarians to "acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change" that we are seeing in our society today. Earlier this month the National School Board Association released a <a href="http://www.nsba.org/site/doc.asp?TRACKID=&VID=2&CID=90&DID=41336">study</a> about teenagers and their online behaviors. One finding was that <strong></strong><blockquote><strong>students</strong> report that they are <strong>spending</strong> almost as much time using social networking services and Web sites as they spend watching television. Among teens who use social networking sites, that amounts to <strong>about 9 hours a week online</strong>, compared to <strong>10 hours a week watching television.</strong></blockquote><strong></strong>If we don't adapt and change the ways that we relate to these young people, we become irrelevant to their world and left in the dust. The opportunity to be an integral part of our students' online lives is there - are we willing to take it?<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-537226969066555522007-08-14T06:14:00.000-07:002007-08-15T16:23:45.221-07:00Week 6 Thing #14 - TechnoratiI stayed up way too late last night exploring <a href="http://technorati.com/" rel="tag">tagging</a> and Technorati and I have to say it kind of confuses me. I understand that you can use it to search for blogs that you might be interested in reading, and that it is a way for others to find your blog, but I'm still not sure how the tagging works. For example, if I wanted to put <a href="http://technorati.com/">Technorati </a>tags on this blog post, I'm not quite sure how to do it. I did go in and "claim" both of my blogs. I also looked to see who had linked to my blog and found that I had been tagged by another blogger by for a meme back in December and I had no idea. How can I know who has linked to my blog? Am I supposed to be checking <a href="http://technorati.com/">Technorati </a>all the time to see if anyone has linked to me? Lots and lots of questions...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-53385085010440428162007-08-13T14:09:00.000-07:002007-08-13T14:46:10.718-07:00Week 6 - Things #12 and #13Rollyo was sort of interesting. I can see its usefulness if you find yourself going to the same web sites over and over. The searchroll I created was for <a href="http://rollyo.com/mwoodard/new_york_theater/">New York Theater</a>, since musical theater is one of my interests.<br /><br />I've had a <a href="http://del.icio.us/">Del.icio.us</a> account for quite awhile now and have been using it to access my bookmarks from wherever I am, but hadn't really thought about the social aspect of the site until now. I think it would be a great tool to use for creating reading lists and pathfinders or keeping up with web sites located for research. Students working on collaborative projects could easily share sources with each other.<br /><br />This is kind of off topic, but a great resource that I have discovered through this program is the <a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/">Common Craft </a>production company and their great online videos that explain new technologies in "plain English." A great example is "<a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english">Wikis in Plain English</a>."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-15184063528097435952007-07-23T08:23:00.000-07:002007-07-23T08:24:45.450-07:00Out and AboutI'm vacationing from 23 things for a while. See ya next week!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-34443690416562131742007-07-17T08:41:00.001-07:002007-07-17T09:13:12.770-07:00Week 5 Thing #11 - Best of Web 2.0As I browsed the list of award-winning Web 2.0 sites, I saw several names that were familiar and many that were not. I was surprised that Del.iciou.us was listed as a social tagging site, rather than a bookmarking site and I wondered what the difference is. That's an exploration for another day, though.<br /><br />Since I'm getting ready to go on vacation, I decided to check out <a href="http://www.yelp.com/dallas">Yelp </a>the #1 choice for City Guides and Reviews. I looked at several reviews of restaurants and hotels in Nashville, where we will be stopping overnight on our way to the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. I guess it's the librarian in me that is trained to look for authoritative information, but I really don't care for these types of sites. How do I know these people who are posting aren't complete nuts? Why should I take their advice? Unless I spent enough time on Yelp to get to know the people posting and who to trust, I can't see myself using it very much.<br /><br />I was also surprised to see WetPaint as the #1 hosted wiki provider. I'd only heard of it recently and am a <a href="http://mesquitelibrarypolicies.pbwiki.com/">pbwiki user myself</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-37522304107031359432007-07-17T08:05:00.001-07:002008-12-12T17:48:08.143-08:00Week 5 Thing #10 - Image generators<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAata9qZ3KqLD4-4bpVTLgY3D0sgBn4fQSZ6gvp16ziRIPW9Qc6PI-W8jAEQ0tDj8dEGyuZve9yMb0HgTfurjiB1FNJ2tZKCHjskArXvmLO6ZtHoHCSsqPJiuwGBXe3_AaKdqAeofSHxY/s1600-h/avatar.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAata9qZ3KqLD4-4bpVTLgY3D0sgBn4fQSZ6gvp16ziRIPW9Qc6PI-W8jAEQ0tDj8dEGyuZve9yMb0HgTfurjiB1FNJ2tZKCHjskArXvmLO6ZtHoHCSsqPJiuwGBXe3_AaKdqAeofSHxY/s320/avatar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088183986142799666" border="0" /></a><br />Had lots of fun with the image generators. Once again, another thing that you could get lost in! There are hundreds of different signs that you could use.<br /><br />The first link I visited was the <a href="http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/">Generator Blog</a>. The first posting there was for a <a href="http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html">Simpsons Avatar Generato</a>r, which I , of course, had to visit. Here are the results of my play on this site...<br /><br />Next I Googled "image generators" and got 2,070,000 hits. The first one was the <a href="http://www.customsigngenerator.com/">Sign Generator Collection</a>, which listed hundreds of possible signs that you can create with your own text. Here's my first attempt...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9PZ_Njc_SNkHJFZbgLQ1y8RbWoSIn8WrcoX7zswUDSlbpDVHXXyexGA3i4AHzNKiiUhSoIPIZJ0MIFbvfRlTgj-xcWFFV3fo6Ouc5RnE-Lm0foBLaeaBLTtqTDvyiUgS7pFSTxJXzdU/s1600-h/church-sign_www-txt2pic-com.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA9PZ_Njc_SNkHJFZbgLQ1y8RbWoSIn8WrcoX7zswUDSlbpDVHXXyexGA3i4AHzNKiiUhSoIPIZJ0MIFbvfRlTgj-xcWFFV3fo6Ouc5RnE-Lm0foBLaeaBLTtqTDvyiUgS7pFSTxJXzdU/s320/church-sign_www-txt2pic-com.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088184879495997250" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Last week, DS and I attended a videoconference and one of the presenters used these generated images in her PowerPoint presentation. There was a different image for each page and she used them to title her slides. I thought it was a very clever use of this new technology.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-57033307190081560842007-07-10T13:31:00.000-07:002007-07-10T13:54:16.852-07:00Thing #9I already have many library and technology blogs that I read as I mentioned in my last post. Some of my favorites are:<br /><br />Doug Johnson's <a href="http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/">BlueSkunk Blog</a><br />Diane Chen's <a href="http://deepthinking.blogsome.com/">Deep Thinking</a><br />David Warlick's <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/">2 Cents Worth</a><br /><br />One I just discovered during this exploration time was <a href="http://libraryblogs.suprglu.com/">School Library Blogs on Suprglu</a>. From the About section:<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">A selection of blogs by and for school librarians as noted on LM_NET and other sources. This list was compiled by Christopher Harris from </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://schoolof.info/infomancy">Infomancy</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> as a way to showcase school librarians who are blogging. An additional selection of more general education and instructional technology blogs can be found at </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://schoolblogs.suprglu.com/">http://schoolblogs.suprglu.com</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>As for the search tools, <a href="http://technorati.com/">Technorati </a>was the one I had heard the most about, even though I had never really used it before. It seemed to work pretty well, but I'm still confused about how a site earns its "authority" rating. I'm sure if I took time to go into the Help and read, it would tell me, though.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.feedster.com/">Feedster </a>was a little confusing to me; <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/?tab=mb">Google Blog Search</a> seemed pretty thorough. I loved <a href="http://www.blogpulse.com/conversation">Blog Pulse</a> and how you could track conversations.<br /><br />One new app that I learned about in my blog reading for this exercise is <a href="http://twitter.com/home">Twitter</a>, which is a web site where you post what you are doing at any particular time. All of the bloggers that attended NECC came back all a-twitter about it. (Pardon the pun - couldn't help it...)<br />I'm not really sure why, although David Warlick did have some neat application ideas for it. His suggestion was that students could read silently for 15 minutes, then post something to Twitter about where they are in their reading at that particular moment in time. Of course, others can see and respond to the posts since this IS another social networking site. Anyway, time will tell if it will have any use in the classroom or not.<br /><br />That's it for now. I've spent way too much time "playing" this week!<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-24991536324154665722007-07-10T07:13:00.000-07:002007-07-10T10:45:12.880-07:00Week 4 - Thing #8I'm ahead on thing #8 because with Bloglines I've already been there and done that! I created a Bloglines account a couple of years ago and I try to read library and technology blogs on a somewhat regular basis. Recently I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader - it works well also and allows you to "star" blog posts that you want to save and go back to later.<br /><br />In my experience, blogs are becoming the new place to go for "professional" reading. Instead of having to wait for the next <span style="font-style: italic;">School Library Journal</span> or other professional journal to be delivered to your mailbox, you can find out what the movers and shakers in the profession are thinking about on a daily basis. I'm always amazed at the quality of thought put into these blog posts.<br /><br />Of course, there are also"fun" blogs I like to keep up with - and these folks are just as passionate as the professional bloggers!- like Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch, the Unclutterer, and Stage Notes (Broadway theater blog.).<br /><br />As for sharing blogs, Google Reader does not allow you to share your blogroll. but it does give you a public page on which to share individual items. Here's mine:<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16266143818895262220">http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16266143818895262220</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-78097520597905398202007-06-25T14:24:00.001-07:002007-06-25T14:27:39.615-07:00More Thing #6!<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/624568950/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1056/624568950_f143638e3c_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br /><span style="margin-top: 0px;font-size:0;" ><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/624568950/">Banjo and Brownie - mosiac!</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mimiw/">mwoodard</a></span> <p>Here's one more sample of my play for this afternoon - a mosaic of my dogs!<br /><br />I could see kids using this to illustrate concepts they are learning. They could create a photo set of related photos, then create a mosaic with one click of the mouse.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-6737219198054423852007-06-25T14:21:00.001-07:002007-06-25T14:26:37.303-07:00Week 3- Thing #6 Flickr tools & mashups<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/624568940/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1350/624568940_9fda6ac6db_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br /><span style="margin-top: 0px;font-size:0;" ><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/624568940/">Brownie's Trading Card</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mimiw/">mwoodard</a></span> <p>It was a lot of fun playing with the Flickr mashups. Here is a trading card that I made for my dog - I wasn't feeling creative enough to come up with one for myself. I also played around a little bit with the Yahoo Trip Maker. It allows you to create a trip with maps, hotels, things to do, restaurants, etc., then load your Flickr pictures to it after you take your trip. That was kind of cool.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-41300232345175268002007-06-25T11:24:00.001-07:002007-06-25T11:24:18.658-07:00Week 3- Thing #5<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/299685468/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/299685468_a8d117648b_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/299685468/">Characters from the Great Fuzz Frenzy by Stevens and Crummel</a> <br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mimiw/">mwoodard</a></span><br clear="all" /><p>Wow - You could spend all day just looking at the photos in Flickr. I already had a Flickr account and had uploaded some personal and work stuff. This is one of my pictures from last year's Children's Book Week. I was exploring how to create a collection, and add photos to someone else's group. This photo is now part of the 365 Days of Libraries group. Members of this group are supposed to upload 365 pictures of their libraries within a year of joining the group.<br /><br />I was fascinated with all of the different pictures that can be found here. The photos categorized as "interesting" really were!<br /><br />I haven't even gotten to the Flickr toys yet. More later...</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3674713984539269652.post-71391824802649560572007-05-29T14:58:00.000-07:002007-05-29T15:05:51.070-07:00Week 2 - Thing #3I loved creating my avatar! I've seen other people's avatars and wondered how they created them. Now I know! Entering the HTML code was much easier in Blogger than it was in Edublogs, where my other <a href="http://memw.edublogs.org">blog </a>is hosted. It took awhile to figure out how to do that. I wonder what other ways there are to create avatars. I noticed that Yahoo will let you save up to 12 - I may have to go back and create an alter-ego!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1